Black Spark (Dark Magic Enforcer Book 1) (24 page)

The door closed behind her, although I didn't see her do it, or even notice as she moved into the hallway and I took a few steps back to maintain some distance.

"That would be... nice." I felt the sickness replaced with numbness, then a warmth that crept up from my crotch. My veins felt like liquid honey, sweet and delicious.

She smiled again, more charming than an angel, but as she took in the destruction at the entrance to the library there was a flash of anger before the divine creature turned her attention, her love, back to me.

My mind began to empty, all thoughts drifting away. Fluffy clouds, meaningless. I wanted her to own me, to be with this perfect creature for eternity. Nothing else mattered.

This was what I wanted, what I'd been searching for my entire pathetic life.

She would love me. She would care for me. She would soothe me when I cried in the dark.

She was an angel and I would be the luckiest man on earth.

I smiled. She smiled back.

Those eyes. Those pale, infinite green eyes.

I was in love. I was loved right back.

I was lost.

Almost.

Meeting the Armenian

Her eyes were beyond deep and beautiful, they offered the world. All there was. Pure beyond compare and what every man searched for, longed for, ached for and wept over. This was the answer to everything.

Every lonely hour, every desperate act of need, every foolish comment and action, every misdeed and dark thought, all was forgiven. All would be made better if she became the only one I loved.

I looked into her eyes, and fought.

Something changed as she saw the battle rage inside me, and anger rose. Real anger, deep and terrible, as infinite as her kind, and utterly without mercy.

Dark magic reared up once more, my body still thrumming like a well-tuned guitar, every muscle, every fiber of my being taut and primed even though the sickness was unbearable as the honey turned sour and the sugar turned to acrid bile.

My body battled against the deception the only way it knew how. It let the sickness and the magic turn the nectar to poison. Now I was truly lost, despondent and alone—she was the only one that could save me.

I refused anyway. Better to be nothing than to be hers.

My manly resolve vanished for a moment, and I felt my body and mind collapse as all around me turned dark and terrible—a warning, her punishment if I refused to accept her gracious offer.

My humanity, something I hadn't even realized I was close to losing, saved me. I thought of Kate and how she would be alone. And of Grandma and how she needed me to watch over her as she was to go on a date with a mortuary technician seer. I thought of Intus and of Rikka, and even Dancer. How was his nub of a finger?

"No," I managed to moan.

"No? You do not say no to Ankine Luisi. Nobody says no to the Armenian." She reached for me with pale and slender fingers as delicate and pure as a sprite's spirit, so beautiful my heart ached and everything in the world felt ugly in comparison. And I rejected it.

With my hands still locked up as claws, I batted her away, felt the impossible surge of hunger, longing, lust and passion pass between us. Promises of wild abandon and naked delights no Regular man could refuse. But the dark magic took over and I was so sick, so deep into the Hidden world, that her lies, her deception, her perversion of all that was pure and right in the world hit me like a flash of my own lost humanity.

I forced my mind to prise open my bent fingers, the severe cramp tearing at flesh and ligaments as the grip loosened, and I stared my fate in the eye defiantly as the angel's face twisted and spasmed, revealing a truth that would cause more innocent men to lose their minds.

Knowing I was almost lost forever, and with nothing to lose, I slammed my half open palm hard against my open mouth with such force my head whipped back. Locked fingers as hard as a troll's punch gouged deep lines across my cheeks and nose, and a tooth cracked as I took in the handful of troll dust still trapped in my contorted hand.

I swallowed.

To say it was dry would be like saying I was happy to become Ankine Luisi's next lover.

The succubus took a step back, confused, horrified, and afraid. Her beauty was gone. She was a plain woman in a nice yellow dress as I felt the dust burn my insides like the fires of hell.

"Oi, you can't do that. Are you off your rocker?" The faery scowled at me, magical motes of dust gleaming silver and gold all around her as she pinged into existence and wagged a finger right in my ripped and bleeding face.

"I know," I said, seriously in need of water. I felt the troll dust sink down my throat like the rock it was, and felt troll essence, ancient and immutable, battle against my ordinary self, changing me.

This was pure Hidden magic I'd consumed. A crime, an unjustifiable act that was always punished. What I did was taboo. A Law, inviolate, and it hardened me. Not my body, or my mind, but my emotions, turning me into not quite troll, not quite human.

"What do you think you are—"

The faery stopped Ankine Luisi with a whispery wave of her tiny hand, Ankine's words frozen as the faery turned back to me crossly, arms folded across her tight green dress and an ample cleavage. "Did you just eat a troll? You did, didn't you? I can see it on your lips, you foul man. Ugh, why are you all so horrid?" She tutted, an actual tut, and pointed at Ankine Luisi. "And what is
that
doing here? You know succubi are dangerous. Who let it loose? Who let it stay? It isn't supposed to be here."

I remained silent, unsure if she'd finished her tirade or not, not knowing if I could utter a word anyway. One thing you do not do, ever, is interrupt a faery. They are short to temper, not often keen on humans, take their work extremely seriously, beautiful, curvaceous, sexy as hell—in a strictly hands-off kind of way—and utterly cold and ruthless in their punishment. Their wings hurt too—they can rip a man's face to shreds faster than you can say, "Where's my skin gone? And why is my chin on the floor?"

"Excuse me? Do you think you could speak a little quieter? It's giving me a headache." Teppo was sat on the stairs, looking worse than a decades-old zombie without formaldehyde. I was amazed he could speak at all.

"Who's the corpse?" asked the faery, nodding in his direction. Beautiful, long and wavy blond hair sprinkled magic dust a wizard would sell his soul to bottle as she moved her adorable head. I struggled to stop obsessing over her ears—how could an earlobe be so perfect? I wanted to nibble it and lick it. Fae really do bring out mixed emotions in a guy.

"Victim." I managed to say through gritty aftertaste of troll.

"Right," said the faery, nodding.

Something was familiar about her, but I was loath to say anything, just in case I was wrong. The troll dust was gaining momentum, stopping me from feeling much, from caring. That would have been great if it was just me and Ankine Luisi, but it meant I could easily say the wrong thing in front of the faery and then it would be goodbye, Black Spark, hello, Dead Spark.

"Would you mind, now that you're here?" I pointed at my throat. The dust was coalescing, forming a hard lump as the troll essence fought to become part of the whole again.

I felt myself fade, harden like the rock inside of me, emotions stripped away, taking me to a cold place. To become troll. Abomination.

"Sure, no problem," she said brightly. A tiny sword appeared in her hand and she drew her arm back with an expert swing, ready to slice my throat.

"Whoa! No, I meant, get the dust out!"

"Oh, right. Oops." The sword vanished and she did a little spinning action with her hand, the air sparkling, sending shivers up and down my spine like the caress of a lover in the middle of the night.

My chest felt like my ribs were being ratcheted open and I couldn't breathe. I gasped for air and I'm sure my head ballooned to twice its normal size. I was a cannon, and a heavy troll cannonball was forcing its way up through a constricted esophagus way too small for such a dedicated lump of immortal rock.

A cough built and built, my throat felt like it would rip apart, and my whole neck extended grossly. I gasped for air as my obscene ingestion, a ball the size of an apple, exploded out of my wide-open mouth, arced high above my head, almost hitting the faery, then dropped to the carpet with a dull thud.

The black ball began to roll toward the already solidifying pile of dust and rock, but I put my foot on it, hoping it would give me some time. The troll would be back to being whole soon enough—no harm done to it. One thing I knew for sure though—I didn't want to be around when it came to its, albeit limited, senses.

I felt better instantly. "Thanks."

"Pleasure. Now, about your punishment."

The Truth About Fae

"Punishment, come on," I croaked and whined like a baby. "I only ate the troll dust so you'd come. I knew it was the only way out the moment I realized what the succubus had made Teppo do."

"What's a Teppo. Is it food?" She looked around with tiny wide eyes the color of love.

Fae adore food, they can't get enough of the human kind. The only problem is they find it hard to get to our world unless there is a serious magical disruption and they come to sort it out. "No, it's him, the guy on the stairs. The succubus has him and he's pretty far gone."

"Not really worth bothering with then, is he? Shall I, you know?" The sword appeared again and she swished back and forth with some practice swings, almost slicing the nose off Ankine Luisi.

"No, no, no. I want to make him better. Look at him, she's practically drained him of everything. He's a shell."

"Not my problem, is it? I don't mess about with stuff like that, I just make sure nothing happens that's against the Law. And you broke the rules." She stared at me sternly, the sword gone, replaced with a tiny finger waggling in front of my face.

I caught a glimpse of earlobe again and gulped. Man, those ears! "I said I was sorry." I was whining, and I knew it, but you really don't want to get on the wrong side of a faery.

Of all the magical creatures there are, and all the things that can happen to you by being involved in the Empty, fae are the most terrifying by far. Forget Ankine Luisi, forget vampires and all the rest, fae are what terrify most of us.

They are truly magical, the essence of magic, in fact. Immortal, impossible to understand, and utterly without remorse or forgiveness when it comes to breaking the Law. There are certain things you don't do, unwritten laws that our kind must all abide by no matter who we are or how powerful we think we may be.

You can be thousands of years old but to a faery that's a blink of a tiny, perfect eye. They have seen it all, know it all, and have made it their duty to ensure that the world of magic exists forever. Which means they enforce the Law that allows it all to continue. And one of those Laws is that you do not, ever, take on the essence of another magical and pure creature. Which is what trolls are, and which is what I had just done out of desperation.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry. It's all I ever hear. You humans are the worst. Always interfering, always messing up. I wish you'd never got access to the Empty. It's not yours, it's ours." She thumped her chest. It jiggled. I gulped and tried not to stare. "Magic belongs to magic creatures, not humans." Fae also like to rant. They have schools for it, and they take their lessons seriously.

"Hey, it's not our fault. We found it and it's part of us now. You know as well as I do that every human has magic inside of them. And if that—"

"That doesn't mean you are magical, it just means you have it inside, to make you alive at all. It doesn't mean you can go around eating trolls and asking me to kill succubus, or heal fools that let themselves get glamored. You lot are so needy."

"He doesn't exactly just look glamored, he looks like a skeleton. She's sucked the life out of him." I pointed at poor Teppo, still sat on the stairs, mostly oblivious, watching from behind a screen of incomprehension. He was fading, and fast. With Ankine Luisi still frozen and out of action I guess he wasn't linked to her and the full force of her draining of his essence was now in effect.

"That's his problem. His fault." The faery flew over to him and flitted about his bowed head, circling him faster and faster, then was back by my face in a flash.

I glanced at Ankine Luisi nervously, wondering if the spell on her would last. Then at the troll now halfway back to being what it was. Already the legs were complete, and as I watched, the dust moved faster, floating up and layering itself across the midsection, building the troll back to whole once more.

It would not be happy when it regained sentience and movement.

"Don't worry about her. She won't seduce you unless I let her loose. So weak, you lot. Especially you men. Only one thing on your mind." I'm sure she stuck her chest out and stroked her ear on purpose. She gave me a sly look, a hint of a wink.

"What about the victim?"

"I looked into his mind. You didn't tell me he's a wizard," she accused.

"You didn't ask."

"Don't you be cheeky to me or I'll turn you into something nasty. And as for him, well, it's tough. He should have known better, and besides, it's not my place to interfere with the natural ways of things."

"Wait, you can't leave him like that. She took him over, drained him, and she's been using him, collecting books. Books I never even knew existed. Books nobody should have, especially not a succubus."

"Like I said. Tough. Books are stupid, and humans are stupid. She's a succubus, what did you expect her to do?"

"Can I kill her, then? While she's like this?" I was feeling great, too great. Fae take away all the hurt, the pain, the sickening after-effects of magic use, but the comedown is brutal—I'm still not sure which is worse.

"Are you off your rocker!" The faery got real close, right up to my eye. Magic dust scatted and fell onto my nose.

I tried not to peek down her dress, and had to grab my own hand to stop myself tickling her ear. She almost poked me in the eye, and I felt real nervous about those wings so close to my only way of seeing.