Imp Forsaken (Imp Book 5) (16 page)

“Well, that’s gratitude for you.” Dar grinned and yanked my hair, raking a claw against my bare stomach.

“Ow! Cut it out, Dar! Don’t damage me; I can’t fix myself right now.” I didn’t tell him that I was beginning to fear I’d never recover any significant conversion skills, that I’d be trapped in fragile human flesh with no way to quickly repair any injuries.

“Sorry, sorry!” He backed away, paws upraised. “Wyatt told me you’d been seriously damaged, but you know how these humans exaggerate everything. Can’t even break one of their bones without them screaming and crying like they’re dying or something.”

Wyatt. Longing hit me like a fist. “You spoke with Wyatt? Does he know I’m okay?”

Before Dar could answer, the door burst open, and nearly forty demons of all shapes and sizes poured into the room, all talking at once and trying to lay a paw or claw on me. Dar shooed them off, acting as a bodyguard. Aside from the top few, household members were supposed to remain a respectable distance back with eyes lowered, but relief over my obvious survival overcame all social niceties. They had to have been worried—a household without a master was vulnerable, and I’m sure they all thought I was dead after hearing from Wyatt.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I lied, waving my hands for silence. “I just need a few moments with Dar, and to contact my human household, then I need to have a meeting with all of you.”

“Can I stay? I’m so glad to see you alive and in one piece, Ni-ni.” Leethu’s pheromones slid over my skin in a caress, raising goose bumps and causing other physical reactions south of my waistband. She’d added tiny gold scales over the skin of her human face and body. They shimmered in the light; beautiful accessories on the stunning succubus. Leethu might not be the easiest houseguest, but I trusted her and would be a fool not to utilize her extensive knowledge of the elven kingdoms as well as her shrewd mind.

“Yes. Leethu and Dar. Everyone else go get ready for a big party tonight.”

There were cheers and the crowd raced out, empting the room as quickly as they had filled it.

“Ni-ni, can you fix your injuries? Wyatt said you were damaged and may have not recovered all your abilities yet.”

I looked about, to make sure we were alone and couldn’t be overhead. “Not really. Right now I can fix myself, but it takes a few days at the very least. I can’t hold more than a tiny store of energy, and I can’t convert matter in any significant amount.”

Leethu sucked in a breath. Both she and Dar looked at me in horror. If this got out, I’d be killed by any random demon who felt like it. My status would drop so far that no weregeld would need to be paid for my murder. My household would likewise be on the open market; either snatched up as lesser members of other’s groups, or killed themselves.

“What will he do?” Leethu murmured to Dar.

“He can’t find out.” Dar murmured back

“Who is ‘he’?” I demanded. “Who can’t find out?”

I knew no one should know of this, that it was dangerous if a head of a household was basically powerless, but they seemed to feel there was a particular threat from someone. They jumped in guilty surprise but ignored my questions.

“Surely you’ll recover. It’s only been a few months, and you’ve managed this human form. That requires skill.” Leethu ran a finger down my arm to illustrate, and I shivered at her touch, even with all my painful blisters.

I hesitated. “Maybe. I’m not giving up hope. I didn’t create this form, though. When I first arrived, all I could manage was some kind of weird pond scum and a lizard. I stayed that way pretty much until a sorcerer performed a spell on me. I’ve been this way ever since.”

“Well, pond scum is something. Can you go back and forth between that form and the one you have now?”

“I’m afraid to try. What if I can’t change back?” Suddenly I was eager to be alone, where my failure would be my own and not the cause of fear and worry to my household.

“If a sorcerer can get you to change into a form that comes from one of your Owned beings, it means you still have that ability somewhere,” Dar assured me. “They just facilitated it. It’s there. Just give it time.”

“I don’t have time. I need to take out Feille right now. He’s got a weapon that can bring all of Hel under his thumb—demons included.”

Leethu and Dar exchanged worried glances.

“Mal, you can’t go after him right now. You’ve got a commitment you need to uphold.”

I stared at them as I searched my brain, trying to determine what the fuck they were talking about.

“Ahriman,” Dar prompted. “He showed up a few weeks back with your contract. You’re his now for the next millennium. We’re all his.”

I felt as if someone had squeezed my head in a vise. I’d forgotten all about the breeding contract, the one I’d signed when Dar had brought Nyalla over from Hel. Crap, I had no time for this now. How could I delay it, or get out of it entirely? Ahriman would hardly want me in my current condition.

“Actually, Ni-ni, we were very grateful,” Leethu said. “If he hadn’t put us under his protection, many would have died. Dar would have been fine, he’s run his own household before, and I always have offers, but the others….”

She was right—over two months with rumors of my death flying about. I thought about Baphomet’s household, of Raim’s, of all the Lows I’d taken under my wing. I’d signed the contract, and Ahriman had already begun making good on his end of the deal. I had no recourse now, and this wasn’t a demon I could possibly defy.

“Why would he press forward on the contract with me missing and presumed dead?” I asked, my heart feeling like a lead weight in my chest. It was one thing being owned by an angel, but something completely different being owned by Ahriman. Dread of my future with the ancient demon wasn’t anywhere near the sick feeling I got when I contemplated what Gregory would think. I hoped he never found out. I hoped that I could somehow keep all this from him.

Dar tilted his head, looking at me with curiosity. “He’s the one who found you, who got me the elf buttons and sent me in to do the rescue.”

I shook my head, trying to clear the grim visions of my future with the demon. He’d offered me a good deal, including a considerable amount of freedom and added status for my household. He’d protected them when they were vulnerable. I needed to just get through the next thousand years and complete my contract. It shouldn’t be so terrible. So why was I feeling like I was on a short march to the guillotine?

“I need to take out Feille and help stabilize the southern elven kingdoms,” I recited woodenly. Maybe I could ask Ahriman for permission to do this. He should approve of an elf assassination, and if I worded the other request well, perhaps he’d allow it too.

“You’re in no shape to be taking out anybody right now,” Dar said, his tone unusually gentle. “Lie low, so no one knows how bad you are, and let the elves take out their own garbage.”

“Not when the garbage is about ready to spill all over our lands,” I argued, rubbing my face with my hands. “This is important. I can’t sit back and recuperate while he drains demons and enslaves us all.”

Again those glances, as if they thought I was a crazy invalid they needed to humor.

“Ni-ni, I know you want to kill him, but just wait a bit, until you’re stronger. Concentrate on regaining your abilities so you can fulfill the contract with Ahriman, and leave all this to someone else.”

The pair of them were pissing me off.

“I might not recover,” I shouted. “I’d rather go down fighting, trying to do something, than live the rest of my life helpless, trying to cover it up to keep my household safe.”

“You have time. Feille is not going accomplish this in a few months,” Dar urged. “Mal, I know you. This is not the end. You’ll recover and be the same badass little imp you were before. Don’t run off on a suicide mission right now. We need you. Your household needs you.”

He reached out to grab my arm, and with a movement that was purely muscle memory, I zapped him with a shot of energy. It was a disciplinary burst, as I’d do for a naughty household member, or a friend that had gotten out of line.

Dar jumped back—not because the tiny zap hurt, but because it was completely unexpected in someone as broken as I. I stared at my arm, my heart leaping with hope at the sudden appearance of tis ability. Not that this development would help much, unless Feille had a really bad heart and a faulty pacemaker. Wondering, I pulled energy from the air around me and tried to hold on. It was like trying to capture oil in cupped hands. The energy slid around, escaping my grasp and pouring back into the air, but in the end I did have a more than I’d been able to hold since my injury. It was better than nothing.

“See?” Dar puffed out his chest as if he’d performed a miracle. “We just need to get you pissed off and you’ll be good as new. Talk to Ahriman, recuperate then go after the elf guy later. Easy.”

I doubted it would be easy, but perhaps there was some truth in what Dar said. Taullian said two weeks, which wouldn’t give me much time to recover enough to begin my contract terms with Ahriman, let alone be in fighting shape. When I acted instinctively in anger, I made more progress than when I fussed over my injured areas and obsessively tried to use them. Maybe there were new pathways forming and I just hadn’t made the proper connections yet.

“All right,” I acquiesced. “Let me call Wyatt first, assure him I’m okay. Then I’ll go speak to Ahriman and discuss the timing on the terms and conditions of our contract.”

The pair of them breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“I have a message for you from your angel too,” Dar added, making a pained face at the word ‘angel’. “According to Wyatt, he has commanded ‘Eat me’.”

I choked back a laugh. How very Alice in Wonderland of him. Would I grow until my head hit the ceiling? Or perhaps the command was an erotic one. Leethu seemed to think so from her knowing smile.

“Oh Ni-ni! You have to get me an angel too. One who is not quite so scary, and perhaps doesn’t smack me against the wall like yours does to you. Hopefully, he will want me to eat him too.”

I had a vision of Leethu at a Ruling Council meeting and smirked. I’d send her after Gabriel just to watch him squirm. Considering Gregory’s command, I touched the red-purple of his spirit that networked through me like tiny roots. It had always been unresponsive, refusing to do anything beyond summon the angel to me. But now it couldn’t even do that. Did he mean I should devour it? He’d told me never to devour again, but perhaps this was an exception. Leethu and Dar watched me expectantly, but I was reluctant to attempt anything in front of them. I didn’t want them to see me devour and really didn’t want them or anyone else to know about the angel I’d stolen and kept inside myself for the last year. I trusted them, but this was something private.

“I promise I’ll find you both an angel to eat,” I said, running through likely candidates in my head. Gregory would kill me, playing matchmaker between our kind, ambushing some poor angel and subjecting them to the affections of my siblings.

The two left the room, excitedly brainstorming all the painfully delectable things they would do if they had an angel to ‘eat’, while I looked over at the huge communication mirror propped against the wall. It was three feet wide and six feet tall, with large colored stones to accommodate the bigger extremities of my first form.

My finger hovered over the milky-white stone, and I wondered what time it was. I’d had no idea in the dungeon, and hadn’t asked, or even had a moment to peek outside after I’d arrived here. It could be three in the morning for all I knew. But even if Wyatt was asleep, I knew he’d want me to call him right away. I would if our situations were reversed.

“Dar?” His voice was sleepy across the device—was he actually sleeping next to the mirror? Had he been afraid to leave it for the last three months?

“Wyatt. I’m here. I’m okay.” It was a bit of an exaggeration, but I had a feeling he’d consider my current state “okay.”

“Sam? Sam!” His voice cleared of sleep then choked with emotion. “Gregory told me you almost died, that he banished you to Hel and broke your bond to try and save you, but when we’d heard nothing from you, when even Dar didn’t know if you were alive or dead, we feared the worst.”

I felt burning in my eyes as my vision blurred. “It was a close thing, Wyatt. I won’t lie. I managed to survive, but the elves caught me and threw me in a prison for months. Dar did a jailbreak and I just arrived at my house.”

“We’ve been so worried. Are you all right? Did you fix whatever injuries you had?”

I took a deep breath, wondering how much to tell him. I didn’t want to worry him needlessly, it’s not like either he or Gregory could do much to help me right now. “I’m in my human form, but I haven’t regained the ability to change my shape or do much at all. Right now, I’m less than a Low. It’s going to take some time.”

Maybe all of eternity. And who knows if I’d ever be able to store energy so that I could fix and create physical forms outside of Hel, let alone recover any kind of defensive or fighting skills.

“Come home, Sam. We’ll take care of you until you heal. All of us.”

I wanted to. I wanted to feel his arms around me, see the girls, run with Candy in the woods, plot out my rental empire with Michelle. I wanted to see my angel. But there were things I needed to do first, and a commitment I’d made that needed to be fulfilled. Soon—if I survived, and if Ahriman kept his end of the deal, that is.

“Wyatt, did Gregory find out what happened to me? Did he tell you the elves were using their sorcerers in a pact with some angels to harvest us and divide us between them?”

He caught his breath, and I knew the angel had either not discovered what went down on Oak Island or had spared him the horrid details.

“It’s Feille, that asshole elven lord who had Diablo. He’s got a new magic fueled by demon energy and plans to take over all the elven kingdoms. He’s already conquered the southern ones. Then he plans to move against the demons and take all of Hel. He’ll chop us up, keeping some of us as batteries to fuel his magic, draining others, and sending shipments of us to a group of angels to use for breeding. I can’t leave until I stop him.”