Club Nexus (Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective) (7 page)

Hell help any faerie run through with cold iron.  The Fair Folk
may be immortal, but they are not immune to a painful death.  I grinned and
walked jauntily past the ogre, into a dark passage and onto an extravagantly
wrought spiral staircase where I began my descent into the abyss of otherworldly
delights.

From my aerial vantage, I took in the appalling number of
fae housed beneath one cavernous roof.  Though I rarely grace the establishment
with my presence—my last trip below must have been years ago—not much had
changed since my earlier visit to the raucous nightclub.  Immortals are not
fond of change.

Unnatural music wove through the air like dancing phantasms,
reaching its spectral fingers into dark places better left untouched.  I gritted
my teeth and stifled the urge to tap my boots to the discordant rhythm.  I
searched the room for the woman I’d followed here, an unfamiliar sense of
foreboding filling my chest.

It had been centuries since a human had piqued my interest,
longer still since anyone had stirred feelings of lust and longing, but there
was something unquestionably magnetic about the woman my eyes now frantically
sought.

Jinx had entered Club Nexus with her friend, and business
partner, Ivy Granger.  Granger was a dangerous enough companion, but Jinx’s
decision to enter the fae nightclub was nearly suicidal.  Faeries and vampires
both enjoy the diversion of a winsome human and Jinx was an absolute vision of
beauty.

Lucifer’s pointy pitchfork, what is wrong with the woman?

I gripped my walking stick in a stranglehold until my eyes
fell on Jinx and her psychic detective friend seated at the bar.  I hurriedly
made my way down the stairs, slowing only as I crossed the dance floor.  I
licked my lips, shivering in anticipation.

I’d come here to ensure the woman’s safety, but now that she
was within reach, I was overcome with the need to feel her touch—even if I’d
have to settle for a crossbow bolt through the chest.  One gloved hand drifted
to my side where I’d recently received the sharp end of a letter opener.  Jinx
was nothing if not feisty.

I sauntered to the bar, smiling when Jinx caught my hungry
gaze.  For a startled moment her face was an open book and her expression
mirrored my own.  Desire smoldered in her eyes as she absently stroked the
crossbow at her shoulder.

“Hello, sweetheart,” I said, slipping an arm around her
shoulders.  “Buy you a drink?”

My words were cut off abruptly by a knife at my throat.  Ivy
had gone from ordering drinks to threatening violence.  From Jinx it would have
been enticing, but coming from her glowing friend, the gesture was maddeningly
annoying.

There was a minor altercation with club security for
engaging in violent behavior—behavior that threatened bloodshed without having
first filed the appropriate paperwork (yawn)—but eventually I extricated myself
from Ivy’s blade, slipping my arm from Jinx’s shoulders with a look that
promised a rematch later in the evening.  Our business was not complete, but,
for now, I was content to watch from the sidelines.  The prudent course of
action was to wait for Ivy to calm down and for club security to lose interest.

Not a problem.  I could be very, very patient.

I sauntered away from the bar and settled in to wait.  Unfortunately,
my patience was rewarded by the appearance of Puck.  I cursed under my breath,
hands twitching along the catch that would release my sword from its wooden sheath. 
Whatever that trickster wanted with Jinx, it couldn’t be good.  I pushed my way
through the crowd, hoping to catch their conversation.

I stopped mid-stride, head snapping back as if slapped by an
invisible hand, as Jinx led the angelic looking faerie onto the dance floor. 
If the reverse had been true, I’d have sliced Puck’s hand off—and to Hell with
the consequences—but Jinx was acting as the aggressor.  I hoped she lived long
enough to regret the dubious decision.

I briefly closed my eyes and had to look away when Puck’s
hands settled on Jinx’s full hips.  I never thought I’d envy the trickster, but
at the moment I’d pay handsomely to trade places with the predatory scoundrel. 
I paced restlessly, gathering the courage to continue my observations.

When I looked back, Jinx and Puck were leaving the dance
floor, heading back toward the bar.  I followed at a careful distance, not
wanting to alert Puck to my presence.

I tried not to focus on Puck’s hand resting possessively
around Jinx’s waist.  I didn’t wish to see any additional displays of affection
from my rival, but I had come to ensure Jinx’s safety and that was a duty I
would carry out, no matter how vexing the task.

At the bar, Puck proceeded to fix a drink for Jinx and I
expelled a pained breath as I watched the white powder dissolve in her glass. 
This was too much to bear.  The trickster was trying to drug the woman I’d come
here to protect.  I launched myself forward, ready to knock the glass from
Jinx’s hand, but I never had the chance.

Before I could reach the bar, Ivy toasted Jinx and Puck,
knocking the drugged beverage to the floor.  Moments later, Ivy swayed
drunkenly on her stool and tumbled to join the puddle of alcohol and shattered
glass.

What the Hellfire was going on?

I wasn’t sure what Ivy was up to—had she also caught a
glimpse of Puck’s attempt to drug Jinx?—but I knew the detective well enough to
guess that her drunkenness was a ruse.  Jinx’s friend was more uptight than a
Puritan in a bordello.  She’d never willingly drink enough alcohol to lose
control, certainly not here in a club filled with immortals carrying millennia
of potential nightmare visions.

I tugged at my gloves, a slow smile replacing my earlier
scowl.  I may not know what game Ivy was playing at, but I did enjoy the
temporary result.  Puck was frowning, his hands opening and closing at his
sides as if he’d like to wring the wisp princess’ neck.  Well, we’ve all felt
that way at some time or other, but at the moment I was quite pleased with the
woman’s performance.  Anything that angered the trickster was splendid in my
book.

As I watched, Puck left Jinx’s side, stalking away from the
bar and toward a vampire who stood waiting at the edge of the dance floor.  I
followed at a discreet distance, humming and twirling my walking stick to the
music, the very image of blithe ignorance.  He passed a key and a small bag
containing a white, powdery substance to the vampire and kept moving.

Puck continued on toward a door at the back of the bar.  He
looked furtively to his left and right, slid a key of his own from his pants’
pocket, and unlocked the door.  With one last glance around the room, the
faerie slipped inside.

My curiosity was piqued.  The trickster’s behavior was
interesting, indeed.  Puck may have pulled the wool over Jinx’s eyes, but I
knew what he was capable of.  If he was sneaking off into the back rooms
instead of fawning over a pretty woman, no matter how annoying her friend, he
must be up to something particularly despicable.  Perhaps if I could catch him
in an act of heinous trickery, I could convince Jinx to keep her distance from
the cretin.

At the edge of the dance floor, my walking stick caught on
an imaginary bump in the floor and I stumbled forward into the arms of the
vampire I’d witnessed make the recent transaction with Puck.  I brushed off the
vampire as if ridding him of demon germs, patting him down and retrieving his
key in the process, and muttered an effusive apology.

The man raised a hand as if to push me away, but froze when
I allowed a flicker of flame into my eyes.  There was one thing that all
vampires fear and that is fire, immolation being a very real threat to the
perpetually dehydrated undead.  Satisfactorily humbled, the vampire accepted my
apology and I continued on my way, nonchalantly following Puck’s trail across
the room.

I approached the door he’d entered, aware that Jinx remained
with Ivy at the opposite end of the bar.  With her best friend watching her
back and Sir Torn, one of Ivy’s new allies, nearby, I felt confident leaving
Jinx in the club while I pursued Goodfellow.

Distracted by thoughts of Jinx, I nearly didn’t notice that
I was not the only one in pursuit of Puck.  I pulled up short just in time,
slipping between a pair of lounging succubi seconds before a vampire in cowboy
boots strode to the door with his own key.  As the vampire unlocked the door, a
tall, beautiful faerie who’d been tending bar rushed to his side.  Her arms
were laden with soiled towels and she kept her eyes downcast, but I could tell
she was highborn fae.

I wondered how Puck had managed to ensnare the royal faerie
into the lowly position of bartender.  Knowing Puck, it involved foul trickery. 
Even knowing the trickster’s abilities, it was still surprising that he’d
maneuvered himself into the position of running the club’s bar.  It was,
judging from the transactions I’d witnessed so far, a profitable deal for
Puck.  If he didn’t have designs on Jinx, I might even have admired the
faerie’s enterprising tenacity.

I waited patiently for the vampire and Unseelie faerie to
disappear into the back rooms before extricating myself from the succubi.

“Ladies,” I said with a nod.

The succubi, one raven haired, the other blonde, pouted and
stretched catlike, showing off their various assets, but I wasn’t interested. 
Succubi are a dime a dozen in Hell, but a stubborn, beautiful, kind-hearted, yet
somewhat violent human woman like Jinx?  She was a rare gem indeed.

Leaving two sets of pouty lips behind, I stalked toward the
end of the bar.  Reaching the door to the back rooms, I slipped the burgled key
from my pocket and attempted to fit it into the lock.  Had I been mistaken
about the key?  I raised my brow at the difficult lock and leaned closer to see
what could be the trouble.  At closer inspection, I could see that the doorknob
was frosted over and the lock was filled with ice.

Damn and blast, that Unseelie bartender must have used her
ice magic to seal the door.  I gritted my teeth at the delay and tugged the
glove from my right hand.  Using a miniscule amount of magic, a small flame
formed from my index finger.  I’d used the technique previously as a parlor
trick, but the flame was just as effective at melting the ice within the lock
as it had been lighting cigars.  I tucked the glove into the pocket of my
waistcoat and let myself inside.

I moved quickly through the storeroom located immediately
behind the locked door and moved stealthily down a flight of stairs to a series
of chambers below.  Crates and racks of wine were soon replaced by beverages of
a very different vintage.

The lower level reeked of death and I reached out with my
magic, scouring the cellars for any sign of Puck.  The trickster wasn’t hard to
find.  Indeed, my search was more fruitful than I’d hoped.  I’d found the
leverage I needed to keep Jinx from the faerie.  I should have been delighted,
but instead I found myself flushing hot with unspent anger.

I’d witnessed many horrors inflicted within the various
levels of Hell.  In fact, there was a time that I’d participated
wholeheartedly.  But my passion for inflicting pain and fear had burned out
many centuries ago.  Now, as I sensed the suffering perpetrated in the
adjoining rooms, I had the urge to be sick.  I brought a handkerchief to my
face, recoiling at the stench of blood, excrement, and offal.

With the details plucked from my magical surveillance, and
my observations from the adjoining club, Puck’s newest business enterprise
became immediately clear.  He’d used his position running the nightclub to gain
access to the storage rooms and cellars and had converted this space into a
vile den of iniquity.  He’d created a bordello for vampires and other depraved creatures
whose tastes ran toward tormenting their prey before they feasted.

I was somewhat surprised to find that I was appalled by the
very idea.  Perhaps it was the knowledge that Jinx was not so very different
from the humans who lay drugged, tortured, bleeding, or dead in the rooms beyond.

In fact, Puck had tried to drug Jinx this very night.

That mistake would lead to the trickster’s downfall; Puck
was going to pay dearly.  I gripped my walking stick in a white knuckled fist,
my ungloved hand leaving scorch marks on the polished wood.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of
burnt wood and blood, and turned my attention to the energy of the ley lines
that converged all around me.  Club Nexus was located at a magical nexus point
where powerful ley lines intersected, a fact I now found fortuitous.

I reached out and plucked at the humming threads
close-at-hand and smiled.  These would do nicely.  I latched onto two ley lines
with my will and gasped as the energy jolted into my body.  The experience was
akin to biting down on a live wire while climaxing; it was not something a corporeal
body, even that of a demon, was meant to withstand for any length of time.  I
drew in a considerable dose of power and, with a panting sigh, let go of the
line.

I opened my eyes, unsurprised to see flickers of crimson
flame dance along my fingers and up and down my sword cane.  I’d drawn heavily
on the ley lines, becoming a conduit of immense power.  Now that power needed a
place to go.

My hand tightened on the cane and I welcomed the heat rising
within me.  Puck had chosen the wrong mortal woman to snare in his tangled
web.  I lifted my chin high, thrust out my chest, and strode into the room
beyond.

The room was dimly lit, but I could see that the vampire had
continued on into an adjoining room where, judging by the screams and
whimpering, he was enjoying himself immensely.  I shifted my focus to the one
man who remained in the room.  The vampire, and those like him, would be dealt
with, but first, I would devote myself to protecting Jinx by learning the
complete nature of Puck’s filthy game.  I grinned, and a lick of fire and the
hum of barely contained energy danced along my lips.