Elven Blood (Imp Book 3) (21 page)

“You were right. Within the timeframe allotted, there were twelve–thousand–four–hundred–and–forty–two female live births within our geographic parameters. Deaths would be easier. Fifty eight female infants less than one year of age died in the hundred mile radius of Leesburg in that particular year.”

“Mmmm.” I was feeling like I wanted to take this conversation upstairs into my bedroom, but I resisted. “Over twelve thousand, huh? That’s going to take forever for us to weed through. Damn.”

Wyatt’s hands crept up under my shirt and deftly unhooked my bra. “Joseph Barakel is a rather unusual name. I’ve got two individuals with that name currently living in the area we’re targeting. I need to check back at the time of the baby exchange though, but I’m sure I’ll only find a couple of people. I think that’s going to be our best bet.”

I peeled off my t–shirt and tossed my bra to the floor, giving Wyatt better access. “Good idea. I can interrogate any Joseph Barakel in the area at the time of the changeling swap, even if he’s moved out of the area. That’s probably our best way to find this hybrid.”

Wyatt’s fingers were exquisite torture on my breasts. “So, I did good?”

“Oh yes,” I affirmed, breathless. “So good.”

Screw Leethu. Well, not literally. Wyatt and I made love on the dining room table then headed to my bedroom for a long morning nap. Leethu remained discretely behind doors, although her presence was clearly felt. Twice during our nap, Wyatt rolled me over for sex, and at least one of those times I’m pretty sure he wasn’t even awake.

15

A
fter our nap, I’d woken to Candy texting me back to let me know she had no idea what a cryogenically frozen human smelled like, but that Gregory’s explanation seemed valid. Well, that was a bust. I guess Gregory wasn’t hiding something after all. I was kind of disappointed, but it was just as well. I had enough to do as it was. Starting with this list of over twelve thousand baby names.

Wyatt and I had relaxed all through the afternoon and evening while I recovered from the Ruling Council meeting after which we headed out to The Eastside Tavern for dinner. After we returned, Leethu got pushy with her pheromones. I’d brought her back some nachos and entertained her as non–sexually as I could while Wyatt returned to his demon–proof home for the night. Before he’d left, he printed out the huge list of names and locations for the baby births, and the details on the two Joseph Barakels.

The pile of paper was daunting. There had to be some way to whittle this down. I picked up the shorter list and looked at the information on the two Josephs. My best chance to find this hybrid, dead or alive, sometime in the next century, lay with one of these two people, hopefully. If this was a dead end, I was screwed.

There was a pop and Gregory stood before me. I hadn’t expected him and was annoyed he’d just appear in my living room without any notice. I’d hoped to press Leethu into some kind of chaperone service whenever he was around, assuming he’d be too busy thinking murderous thoughts at her to try and put the moves on me. Leethu was upstairs, though, still sleeping probably.

“Hey. What’s up?” I asked.

He had a kind, gentle look on his face that was far more alarming than either his murderous, angry one or his intense, sexy one. Why was he looking at me that way?

“You’ve missed the deadline.”

I searched my memory. Oh fuck. That stupid kill report, whatever its number was.

“I’ve really had my hands full and haven’t had a spare moment. Can I get another twenty–four–hour extension?”

“No.”

“But it’s not like I even know where to get a two–nine–four report! I searched the Internet. You guys really need to have it on pdf so I can download it. Get me the form and I’ll sit down right now and do it. It shouldn’t take me long.

“Four–nine–five. It’s two–hundred pages long. And the answer is no.”

“I’m supposed to join Wyatt’s sister tomorrow afternoon for a lunch. I promise I’ll do it right afterwards.” Not that I really wanted to meet Wyatt’s sister.

“No.”

Crap. I didn’t have time for this bullshit. How long had that snotty jerk said? One rotation cycle? Was that solar, lunar, or what? As much as I was looking forward to being ‘naked and restrained’ I really had stuff I needed to do.

“A rotation cycle in Aaru is about thirty six Earth hours,” he told me, his voice soft and kind. He was scaring the piss out of me. “I’ll oversee your punishment personally, and I’ll let that worthless human toy of yours know, so he can make excuses for your absence at lunch, and any other engagement you have on your schedule.”

Personally? Oh shit. Naked and restrained with this angel personally “punishing” me was going to be an exercise in self–control. And I’d never had any use for that particular virtue. Or any virtue.

“This is really a bad time,” I protested. “See this stack of papers? I need to wade through this as soon as possible so I can get that demon, Haagenti off my back. Things got really ugly when I was over in Hel, and he now has a kill order out on me with a huge bounty.”

“So
deal
with it,” Gregory ground out. “And I don’t mean with a bunch of papers either. Get yourself through the gate and face him.”

“Just give me an extension on this nine–four–two form and I’ll hot–foot it right over to Hel and face him.”

“So you’re saying if I give you an extension, you’ll go right now?”

“Absolutely,” I lied.

“Then I will transport us right now to the gate, and throw you through it myself,” he said softly.

Fuck. Haagenti had demons guarding that gate, and he had a death sentence on my head. Naked and restrained was looking like the better option.

“Uh, I just have a few quick things to do first. Maybe I’ll meet you there? In an hour or two? You can wait for me.”

Gregory sighed and shook his head in disappointment. “Then punishment it is, little cockroach.”

Reaching over, he pulled me to his chest and gated me into the nothingness of Aaru. I’d been there before, sneaking in through the wild gate in Sharpsburg to leave random little gifts for Gregory. I never managed to get used to the feeling though. My whole body itched, like a wool sweater that really needed to come off. None of my human senses worked. Everything was white, silence stretching on forever. Gregory stood before me, the only corporeal thing beside myself in the place.

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” I said grimly. “Do you want me to strip, or are you supposed to do it?” Part of me hoped it was him. Part of me hoped it wasn’t.

“I’ll restrain you first,” he told me.

I wondered for a moment how he was going to manage removing my clothes with me hog–tied on the floor, or whatever passed for a floor in Aaru. Maybe he was going to rip them off. Heat stirred in me at the thought. He’d never indicated any interest in physical sex with me, but I still had my fantasies.

My fantasies took a detour when he reached into me and coated my stash of raw energy with the slippery, silicone stuff angels used to keep us from using it. He’d done this before when we’d first met and were both trying to kill each other. I’d still been able to grab little bits of energy here and there, and the effect had left when he’d stopped touching me, so I was surprised when he released me and the feeling remained. I prodded the boundaries, but this time they were tight. Evidently ‘restrained’ didn’t involve ropes or chains. I could look forward to the next thirty–six hours having no access to my raw energy. I’d be defenseless, unable to convert my flesh and fix any injuries. The thought made me nervous, but I was in Aaru, and I was the Iblis. I should be safe. Right?

I looked down at my clothes with a disturbing premonition. If ‘restrained’ hadn’t meant what I thought, I wondered what ‘naked’ meant.

“Dissolve,” Gregory said.

My physical form disappeared and I panicked. Complete and total panic. Without a physical form to house ourselves in, we die. We break apart, and drift out into the universe. The instant of our formation, we are gifted a shape from our parent, and we spend our first hundred years there until we develop the skill to Own and convert into other physical beings. This wasn’t just naked; it was death.

I thrashed about, trying in vain to grab enough of the slippery raw energy to create anything. Anything. An insect, an amoeba, a single–cell bacteria. The slippery coating blocked my every attempt. It was like drowning, like suffocating while frantically trying to take a breath with lungs that no longer worked. I was going to die.

“Hush. You’re not going to die.” I felt the soothing blue along with his soft words. I wasn’t sure he’d intended to put out the lovely blue that had always calmed us demons as children. I’d always fought against it when he’d done it in the past. I didn’t fight it now.

“There.” His tone changed and became mocking, challenging. “Take your punishment with some dignity. You are the Iblis, after all.”

I felt him leave and the panic returned. There was nothing to hold me together. I was defenseless, I couldn’t protect myself or repair myself if I was attacked. I was going to die, dissolve into nothingness. I yanked on the red purple within me and commanded the angel to appear. Summoned him. Begged him. Evidently the binding between us didn’t work in Aaru because I remained alone. Finally the panic overwhelmed me and I just suffered in crippling anxiety and fear. It was like going insane. I couldn’t track the passage of time and when I finally felt his presence again I was confused. He removed the thick wall blocking my raw energy.

“Form.”

I waited for something to occur, but nothing did. I still existed as a being of spirit. Was I broken?

“No, you need to do it. Create your form, so I can take you home. Otherwise you
will
die.”

Oh. I popped into the Samantha Martin form that I’d been wearing for so long and again felt that itchy sensation. In a heartbeat we were back in my house, next to the couch. Instead of releasing me, Gregory picked me up and dumped me over the back of the sofa to sprawl naked on the cushions.

“Here.” He came around the sofa and plopped down a stack of papers on the coffee table in front of me. “Twenty–four hours.”

“You asshole,” I smacked him with a cushion to emphasize my anger. “You are all assholes. I’ve got all this shit to do. I didn’t want any of this, I didn’t agree to any of this. I was near death. My spirit self–shredding from the edges. I’m permanently damaged, I’ll never recover. It’s a wonder I can still convert.”

“You’re fine,” he puffed out, exasperated at my drama. “You were never in any danger. You’re supposed to use that time to meditate, to reconnect with the purity of a spirit existence. It should have been relaxing.”

“You’re fucking joking! I’m a demon. I don’t meditate. And we die without physical form.”

“No you don’t. You just can’t exist like that outside Aaru, so you’re not used to it.”

“I was dying. You were torturing me, allowing me to slowly die in your own realm.”

“You were
not
dying.”

“I
was
. I was dying. You abandoned me, refused to come when I summoned you. I thought you said you were compelled to come, no matter what realm we were in. Clearly you fucked that one up, because you left me there. Left me to die, alone and afraid.”

“I never left your side,” he shouted at me.

I stared at him; feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me.

“I never left you. I sent another angel to relay the message to your stupid human toy, and remained there with you throughout your whole punishment. You were never in danger. You were
not
dying.”

He looked at me, fury and something else in his gaze.

“Twenty–four hours,” he told me, pointing at the stack of papers. Then he was gone.

I stared at the report. It was huge. Two hundred pages, he’d said. But even the prospect of that daunting task couldn’t erase his words from my mind.
He’d never left my side.
A full rotation cycle, with me freaking out like a fool, and he’d never left me. I shook my head, too stunned to ponder in depth the implications of his actions. It was evening, and I had a lot to do. Starting with a call to Wyatt.

My phone was dead, since I’d been rudely yanked out of my living room a day and a half ago and not charged it. I put on a pot of coffee while it powered up. It was going to be a really long night and I needed the caffeine. It had just finished brewing when Wyatt called.

“Sam? I’m glad you’re back. Some angel showed up at my house yesterday and told me you’d been dragged off for punishment. I was worried.”

There was a strange banging noise in the background as Wyatt spoke.

“Yeah, I neglected to fill out a report and had to spend a day and a half in the angel pokey. What the hell is that noise? Are you building something?”

I heard various other noises, then another loud bang.

“Uh, it’s a demon throwing rocks at my house,” Wyatt said apologetically, like it was his fault. “Uh oh, he’s setting the shrubbery on fire. I better let you go and try and shoot him before the house goes up in flames.”

“Oh no,” I told him. “I’m pissed off and seriously need to kill something. Let me.”

It was terribly unsatisfying. One shot and the demon exploded into a shower of blood and guts. Wyatt came out and we stood for a moment, staring at the mess.

“Trip to Columbia or freezer?” he asked, nudging a largish chunk with his foot.

“I’ve got too much to do. I’m thinking of just letting Boomer clean up this one.”

Like magic, the hound was by my side, floppy ears raised forward in anticipation. I scratched along his back, rubbing the velvety brindle fur. His eyes glowed golden as he looked up at me for permission. The hellhound ate anything as long as it was dead. Didn’t matter what. Didn’t matter how decomposed.

“Wait until after we leave, then you can have him,” I told Boomer. I didn’t want to watch him eat, and I was certain Wyatt wouldn’t want to either.

“Want me to come over?” Wyatt asked hopefully. “I can cook something. We can drink wine and watch a movie.”

Oh, it sounded lovely. “I can’t. I’ve got a two hundred page report I need to do by tomorrow, or I’m going to wind up back in Aaru again.”