Good Intentions 3: Personal Demons (18 page)

He shrugged. “That’s fair. She’s totally got me on that one.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” called Jin from the center of the tables, with Kate at his side. “We should get down to business here, if everyone could join us?” Most everyone was already seated. His comment was plainly for the witches.

“On our way,” answered Molly.

Sierra tugged Alex’s sleeve as he moved to follow the witches. “Wait a second, you don’t need to be right next to them,” she hissed. “What the fuck is going on?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Oh,
now
you want to hang out and talk.”

* * *

“Lady in black wins again,” said the dealer.

“Ugh. Seriously? Again?” groaned Jason.

“We could adjourn to the bar, if my point has been made,” Lorelei replied sweetly.

“She didn’t win
every
hand,” noted Taylor.

“No. You have caught me. I am not a mathematical genius, nor can I manipulate probability. It seems I have my limits.”

Taylor laughed. Lorelei’s winning streak didn’t bother her. Ultimately, she was happy to be out with friends and away from her own problems. In this crowd, even the loss of one hand after another kept her entertained. Lorelei financed the whole trip, anyway. “I’m okay with moving to the bar. You’ve punished us enough.”

“Not remotely,” Lorelei said with a smile. “You mocked my sex life. In unison, no less.”

“Hey now, we were mockin’ Alex with that, too,” Wade pointed out.

“Ah. I see this matter is not yet settled.”

“Good goin’, Wade,” said Drew.

“You made a gross generalization of my relationship and my priorities,” said Lorelei. “You make it sound as if I base everything around my own personal pleasures.”

“And what would be wrong with that?” spoke up a new voice from behind them.

Taylor saw the other woman’s eyes widen and her breath catch before everyone turned to face him. In a reminder of the first time she ever saw Lorelei, Taylor’s mind almost ground to a halt at the sight of the newcomer. He put every sharp-dressed man in the casino to shame, and maybe every other man she’d ever met, too. Like Lorelei, he radiated an intense, confident sexuality without even trying. Taylor knew there was a fit, toned, flawless body under those nice clothes.

The music and the ambient noise of the casino quieted, or at least seemed to in Taylor’s mind. Her senses focused in on him. She felt her breath deepen and her heartbeat pick up. Mere seconds had passed, and she had only just laid eyes on this man, yet already she felt aroused—and fearful.

She glanced to the others. The guys seemed similarly struck by the man’s appearance, though probably not in all the same ways. Each of them stepped off their stools. Lorelei came to her feet, too, no longer laughing or smiling. She didn’t think she’d ever see Lorelei at a loss for words. Thankfully, at least one of the guys snapped out of it quickly enough.

“Table’s kind of crowded,” said Drew. “Sorry.”

The man’s eyes never came off the woman at the center of the group. “Oh, I didn’t come to join the game. I only hoped to speak with Lorelei. We go a long way back, don’t we?”

“Yes,” answered Lorelei with a hint of heavy breath.

“So who are you?” asked Jason.

“Of course, how rude of me. I apologize.” His smile no longer touched his eyes. “Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my—”

Drew and Wade stepped in front of Lorelei before he could finish. Jason put his hand around the neck of the champagne bottle Lorelei had bought for the table.

“Y’all might wanna reconsider that answer,” said Wade. “Last dude who quoted that song at us wound up havin’ a real bad night.”

“Worst he ever had,” added Drew.

“You don’t say?” asked the stranger.

“Folks, is there a problem?” the dealer spoke up behind them.

“No,” said Lorelei, raising one hand behind her. “There will be no trouble here.”

Taylor wasn’t so sure. She was of half a mind to tell the dealer to call security, or maybe the police, if only to throw a wrench into whatever was happening. The thought of bringing more attention to this rather than less seemed appealing, as if it might dilute the effect of his eerie, magnetic presence. Despite all the people in every direction, this scene felt all too isolated. All the customers and staff were too engrossed in their own pursuits to care what was happening here unless it came to a fight.

“So how ‘bout we try it again,” said Drew. “Who are you?”

“This is Sammael,” answered Lorelei. “We have known each other for a very long time.”

Taylor noted the drop in Lorelei’s voice. She didn’t think anything could shake the demon’s composure.

“I’ve been trying to find you for weeks,” said Sammael. “Your old home office has been in pure chaos since you last checked in. No one knew where to find you.”

“Tell me, Sammael: did you seek me out before that chaos? Or because of it?”

He winced, but also smiled. “Oh, you know I have missed you for ages, Lorelei. Yet I had no idea where to begin looking for you…until I found Lydia. She’s in quite the state these days. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“I might.”

“No, truly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so upset or so full of…” He paused. Only then did he give Lorelei’s friends a good look. “So much anger there. So much anger. Bitterness. Venom. Something about a taser?”

Jason coughed. The others didn’t move.

“What do you want, Sammael?” asked Lorelei.

“A private conversation.” Again, he looked around, though this time he didn’t seem to look directly at her companions so much as near them, and then around the broad, active casino floor. “It’s a topic I think best kept between us, although I suppose we could talk about it here. I don’t see any chaperones with your friends, or really many chaperones at all.” His eyes came back to hers. “I suppose there’s nothing here to stop me.”

“Them words don’t sound as friendly or as harmless as you might think,” observed Wade.

“No?”

“Think you know what he means, dude,” said Drew.

“Oh, don’t be silly. I mean Lorelei no harm. It’s the last thing on my mind.”

“My friends, please,” spoke up Lorelei. She put one hand on Drew’s shoulder and touched Wade’s back with the other. “He is not here to hurt me. I think…I think it best if we step away.” Lorelei’s gentle hands urged her friends to move apart so she could slip through between them.

“Lorelei?” asked Taylor.

She looked back to the younger woman, her eyes full of apology. “I must go with him,” she said. “You must remember why we came.
Please remain here
.”

Though the group exchanged nervous, doubting glances, no one moved to stop her. Sammael gestured with one hand to indicate their path. Together they walked off into the casino floor.

Taylor followed a few steps, but the pair disappeared into their surroundings within seconds. She spun back to face the others in disbelief. “Okay, why did we let her go like that?”

“Cuz she asked us to?” Wade replied, though the answer didn’t seem to make sense to him as it came out of his mouth.

“Yeah, but that ain’t no reason to let her,” said Drew. He started walking, his head high as to look around for his friend.

The others quickly followed. “Damn it, what the hell’s wrong with us?” fumed Wade.

“You felt it, too?” asked Taylor.

“Felt what?”

“Like you could just melt for that guy the same way you could melt for Lorelei?”

“Hell, no,” said Wade. “Dude had my attention, but it ain’t like I felt funny
that
way.”

“And what the hell was he talkin’ about with chaperones?” Drew wondered out loud. He stopped amid another row of slot machines, standing up on his toes to look around. “What does that even mean?”

“I think he means angels,” explained Jason. He trailed the group with his eyes partly on his cell phone. “Like maybe guardian angels. He can probably see ‘em all the time.”

“Why do you think that?” asked Taylor.

Jason held up his phone. “Because it turns out ‘Sammael’ gets a few hits on Google. And they’re fuckin’ scary.”

Alex barely kept track of the meeting until the shouting started.

Kate and Jin began with introductions and “thanks for coming” stuff that meant little to him. As long as everyone made nice, he figured he could worry about the dangerous stuff. He sat slightly behind Molly and Onyx, frequently looking to the spinning wheel and empty signal indicators on his phone. None of it looked good for his texted warnings to Lorelei and his friends. Unfortunately, the cordial atmosphere didn’t last long.

“Cut to the chase, Oakwood,” someone snarled, snatching Alex’s attention away from his phone. He glanced around until he identified the speaker. Leon sat at the front of the Light’s spot across the room, his seat turned to face Kate and Jin at the front and center of the circle of tables. Most of the guy’s features were obscured by a camouflage ball cap, mirrored aviator glasses, and a big mustache under a sneering nose. “This meeting should involve twice as many Practitioners. Would you have brought us together if the Brotherhood of Apollo hadn’t vanished? Would you have invited them?”

“We’ve made no secret of that issue, Leon,” Jin assured him. “No one could overlook their absence. Obviously we called this meeting because of the Brotherhood’s disappearance.”

“Which gives you the chance for a power-grab before they return,” Hypatia interrupted.

“Let’s make this ugly right from the start, huh?” muttered Molly as Kate deflected that and other accusations.

“Gotta deal with the elephant out of the room,” Onyx replied.

“Which one?” asked Molly.

“How ugly could it get?” Alex asked quietly. He looked from one table to the next. Most of the attendees didn’t keep their hands visible, which he didn’t take for a good sign given the tense voices and uncomfortable faces. Nobody seemed particularly relaxed at all…except Evelyn, who whispered something in Leon’s ear with a slight grin and a gleam in her eye.

“Why don’t we deal with the issue of the Brotherhood first?” asked a woman at another table. Alex noted a lot of hemp clothing and dreadlocks on the mostly pale faces at her table and figured that’s where the smell of patchouli came from. Apparently the “Evergreeners” were one of the “Believer” circles he’d been told about. “We came to establish a neutral ground, but how legitimate is that without the agreement of the largest circle in the area?”

“Unless there’s something you want to tell us?” spoke up Archimedes. “Some reason why you chose
now
to have this meeting?”

“Maybe
you
know somethin’ if you’re askin’ like that, mon,” said Hector, reclined in his seat near Molly’s. “Last time I saw you an’ your lady, Hypatia, you were lookin’ to join. Wanna share with the rest of the class?”

Alex glanced down at his phone and grimaced. Still no luck. Then he rolled his eyes at his own predicament.
I’m surrounded by actual, angry sorcerers and what am I worried about? The shitty cell service. I couldn’t be a better Millennial.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kate broke in with her hands raised. “As I said, everyone knows this is a concern. Everyone is affected. We had no intention of ignoring the Brotherhood’s disappearance. On the contrary, we expected this to be the first order of business.” She glanced to Molly and Onyx with a quick, wordless question.

“They’re dead,” Molly announced more out of annoyance than anything else. “They got stupid and messed with the wrong people. Don’t ask for the whole story, ‘cause we’re not interested in telling, but we saw it happen. They aren’t coming back.”

No one spoke. Alex gave up on his phone to watch everyone’s reactions. Some listened with guarded expressions. Others didn’t bother to hide their shock or disbelief. “All of them?” someone asked.

Molly shook her head. “I don’t know. We didn’t stop to take a head count and it’s not like we had their roster sheet. They had a gathering. The whole crew was supposed to be there. We got dragged along. Almost everyone we saw or met died. And here we are, no Brotherhood survivors in sight. Any survivors probably blew town. I would’ve.”

“You can’t drop a bombshell like that and then refuse to tell us the whole story!” scoffed Archimedes.

Molly scratched her eyebrow with her middle finger. “I can for you, buddy.”

“Why didn’t you take off?” asked Hector, turning in his seat to face her. “If you were there, how is it you’re here now among the living?”

“It wasn’t our fight,” said Onyx. “We were there as guests—and not entirely willing, either. A couple of them targeted us and we defended ourselves. The rest was all them.”

“I find this hard to believe,” said one Practitioner.

“Do you have any proof?” asked another.

“You’re unwilling to share any details at all?” asked one of the “Grecians,” as Alex had heard them described. He saw nothing particularly Greek about the man or his companions. They could have walked right out of a faculty meeting at his university. “Who were these ‘wrong people’ you mentioned?”

“Vampires,” said Onyx. “Mostly the local vampires. They’re gone, too. All the physical proof went up in smoke. The best I can give you is a spell that’ll share how Lord Stefan felt when he died. I can manage that much. Wish I could cast the memory out of my head.”

“It’s the truth,” added Molly. “We’re not giving you all the gory details, but it’s the truth. I’m sure somebody in here already has a spell at work to catch lies. It’s up to you whether you want to speak up or not.”

“When exactly did this happen?” asked another of the Evergreeners, a short, slight woman in thin glasses who stood to make sure she’d be noticed. “We felt our powers grow sharply in late September. No one saw the Brotherhood after that. Was it then?”

“Y’know, these questions are all well and good,” Leon spoke up over the other voices, “but if anyone’s keeping track, you’ll notice who isn’t asking questions. The Indians and the Chinamen don’t seem too shocked.”

“Aw Jesus, really?” Molly groaned.

“I wish I was shocked by your casual racism,” Jin replied. “Unfortunately it’s hardly a surprise.”

“Spare me,” said Leon. “I call ‘em like I see ‘em. The two of you led the redhead there right into tellin’ us what went down with the Brotherhood. You knew what she had to say. The only question on my mind is, did you know before you organized this whole thing?”

“Molly and Onyx told me when I invited them,” said Kate.

“And did they tell you anything more than they’re telling us? When did that happen?”

“Monday. Their news was much the same.”

“Sounds pretty convenient to me,” said Leon. “The Brotherhood disappears, your two circles get together to make a power play, and then you ‘forget’ to mention you know damn well what happened to the Brotherhood when you talk to the rest of us. Until now.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” grumbled Molly. “That’s the dumbest conspiracy theory I’ve ever—”

“That’s exactly what conspirators say when they’ve been found out!” declared one of Leon’s buddies, standing and pointing right at Molly.

Still seated behind the witches, Alex watched the room uneasily. Some Practitioners hid their feelings behind guarded expressions. Others didn’t try to conceal the tension, or in the case of a few, their outright anger. He heard more shouts and saw more pointing fingers. Everyone seemed unhappy with this turn of events.

Everyone except the demon seated beside Leon. Evelyn watched the meeting devolve with a placid smile. She winked at Alex when she caught him looking at her.

Alex fumed.
Fucking demons
.

* * *

Lorelei trembled as she walked beside Sammael. She hid her reactions well, of course. None of the mortals in the casino saw anything unusual or concerning about her mood or her walk. Still, Lorelei felt the tremor in her limbs and her breath. Her heartbeat grew heavy. It all intensified as Sammael slipped his hand into hers. The gesture warned her that he would conceal them from the eyes of mortals and angels. It also reminded her of the enthralling effect of his touch.

She wished her reactions came only out of fear and not something else. Lorelei didn’t fight her body or her emotions. They were too useful to her now.

“These contraptions have improved since I last saw you,” Sammael said at the bank of elevators just off the casino floor. Another couple stood nearby as digital numbers counted down on a display above the doors. Sammael leaned close and whispered to them, “
Wait
.”

“They had operators back then, too,” said Lorelei. “It made the car a bit crowded.”

“Yes.” Sammael smiled. “That poor man must have been so confused when he turned around to find our clothes piled in a corner of his empty elevator car. I’ve thought of London frequently. Have you?”

“No.”

“I suppose I deserve that,” he mused. When the elevator doors opened, the mortal man and woman who’d summoned it blithely stood by as Sammael and Lorelei entered.

“Where to?” he asked as the doors closed.

“How do you know I have a room?”

“You always have a room, Lorelei.”

One eyebrow rose. “I’ve changed. Considerably.”

“Have you? Or have you merely taken advantage of opportunities as they arose, as you always have?”

Her eyes narrowed, but her lips pursed in a slight smile. She pressed the button for the second floor.

Sammael stepped closer, breathing in as if to enjoy her scent. She felt her heart beat deepen once again. His fingers brushed her hair over her shoulder and caressed her neck. “I’ve missed you,” he said. “You were never far from my thoughts, Lorelei.”

Another tremor ran through her. For so long, hearing him say her name meant so much to her, and now…

The elevator came to a halt and opened. Lorelei turned away, taking his hand before he could slide it down her side. She led him to a door not far from the elevator, pausing only to slip the key card from her pocket to open the room.

“I thought you would claim a full suite,” Sammael observed as they entered.

“Tonight wasn’t arranged far in advance, and I had no plans to stay,” said Lorelei. She stood near the door as it closed, watching Sammael move to the foot of the bed and then turn to face her. Suite or not, the bed would be more than comfortable enough. It sat there, silently inviting her, as did the man beside it. “Did you set all of this in motion to find me?”

“Would you be flattered if I said yes?”

“You would flatter me more by telling the truth.”

Sammael smiled at her answer. “The truth is complicated. The mortal silliness downstairs is someone else’s party. One of my friends got involved. She let me join in when I asked. Yet I asked entirely in the hopes of finding you.”

“Which of your friends would that be?”

“Evelyn. I don’t believe you’ve met. She belongs to Azazel. As it happens, he and I are on fairly good terms at the moment. We’ve both suffered losses in this region of late,” he added pointedly.

“Is Azazel looking for me, too?”

“Of course he is. Everyone is looking for you. Azazel doesn’t know you’re here, though. He has Evelyn here on other business. Most of the other lords don’t know how connected you are to Rachel and your mortal friend. They don’t know enough to look for you here. Lydia offered me a bit more inside information.”

“Is that how you knew I’d be here tonight?”

“Those two witches with your pet downstairs were the key. Lydia didn’t know much, but she remembered their involvement. Given how rare sorcerers are, they seemed like my best lead in my search. I knew Evelyn’s work involved sorcerers in this area, so I tagged along and here we are. I might have had an easier time finding you if Rachel hadn’t run all my own people out of town as soon as she claimed dominion.” His smile faded. “You provided more than a little aid in that. Is that the price of your sanctuary, or were your motives personal?”

Lorelei tilted her head in acknowledgment. “I don’t like to be kept waiting. Even for you.”

“It’s barely been more than a century.”

“Do you think I speak of a mere tryst?” Lorelei asked coldly. “I
waited
for you for most of my
existence
. You promised for centuries to take me from Baal. Then Belial came along and claimed me instead, and still you gave me the same lines. How long was I supposed to wait on your sweet promises?”

“You say that as if it was ever a simple thing,” said Sammael, his voice soft and apologetic. It sent a shiver down her spine. She refused to let it show, but he doubtlessly detected anyway. He knew his charms too well. “I always looked for my chance. We looked together.”

“You could have defeated them,” Lorelei replied. “Belial or Baal. Either of them. You could have defeated them and taken everything you wanted. You could have had me.”

“But at what cost, Lorelei? How well could I have defended my gains after that?” His face softened. “By the time I was ready to take on Baal, he’d lost you to another master. Then I had to start all over. I only awaited an opportunity. We have that now.”

She looked at his outstretched hands but didn’t move from her spot near the door. “Explain.”