Night Marks (14 page)

Before long, I am pulling up in front of my beloved place of business. Yes, beloved is probably too strong of a word, but being my own boss happens to make me giddy.

When we enter the building, we find Sebastian and Alex in deep conversation looking over a book lying on my desk. I know they both realize I have arrived, but they don't bother to acknowledge me.

Marcus and Smitty are lounging in my waiting area. They both nod when I wave before I draw my attention back to the men in my office.

At odd times, I am stricken by the fact that these two gorgeous guys are mine for the taking. We haven’t really discussed intercourse amongst us, other than the fact that supposedly in January it will be happening, but there are times I look at Sebastian, in particular, that I just want to jump on him and ride him like a stallion.

I have thought about it enough the vision is very clear in my mind and I start to get swept into the scene again.

Candles surround my bed, my beautiful purple comforter crumpled, half on the bed and half off, Sebastian lying in the middle in a black satin bathrobe waiting to be unwrapped like a present. And this is a present I just cannot wait to open.

A throat clears and I look over at Alex. Whoops.

“Yeah, not a sight I really want to see there, Babe. If you switched out the partner, we may be in business, but until then, try to keep your thoughts PG.”

“Sorry. He wasn’t naked yet, so you won’t have to wash your eyes out with soap,” I say sheepishly and glance over at Sebby who has a knowing grin on his face.

“I don’t mind at all if your thoughts take that turn. Just tell him to tune it out and you can describe to me in detail what you were thinking.”

“Sadly for you, that ain’t happening. So, what are you guys looking at anyway?” I ask walking towards them to get a peek.

“We were just trying to agree on which glyphs would work best against this particular reaper demon,” Alex answers.

I look around and don’t see any sign that they have started marking up my space. I know they haven’t had long, but I expected to see some progress.

“We aren’t out to wreck your décor,” Alex says. “The ink isn’t visible without black light, but it is there.”

He switches on a light I didn’t see sitting on my desk, at the same time Jake flips off the overhead.

Sure enough, another glance at the walls has them covered in symbols that I would assume no one under probably a thousand knows what they say. They are actually really pretty. Maybe I will start working by black light instead of candlelight.

“Would any of the symbols help me if they were on my body?” I ask. I know Sebby said a charm wouldn’t work anymore, but maybe a tattoo could do something.

“The only thing that would help your person is if you somehow figured out a way to separate your soul from your body. The mark is ingrained to your soul. Our only offense right now is to put a defense around places you are at the most. Even with all this,” Sebastian says waving his arm at the writing on the walls, “he can still locate where you are. He just cannot come in to get you.”

“Do you have any good soul separating spells handy?” I ask casually. I am not planning on really separating with my soul anytime soon.

“He would have to be trying to drag you to Hell, before I would even attempt to use one. Soul separation is extremely dangerous. The chances of reconnecting them are almost zero. You would be a walking zombie with no connections or emotions. Any bonds you had with people like me and Alex would be severed,” he explains. “As long as I knew he wasn’t going to permanently harm you, I don’t think I could bring myself to do the incantation for the separating.” The last bit he adds softly in a forlorn tone.

“Well, at least we know there is that option if things ever come to that. Let’s hope that he understands no means no and lets it drop.” I look around at all the symbols again. “I thought you said this would take a week to get all protected like. I cannot see it taking much longer with all this already done.”

“These are just basic protecting glyphs. There is still a chance your demon could break through them. We need to find ones more specific for reapers. Since they are already triggered for soul finding, they are harder to ward against. The book we are studying here breaks down specific spells that will work against different legions”

“So, what is the discussion about? Do you know which legion he belongs to?”

“He commands about a half dozen of them according to the information we can find about him. The problem lies in the fact that he is a tricky devil and formed his legions so protection against more than one of them cancels out any of the others.”

That would be my luck. Not only do I attract a stinking demon, but my demon, as he is being called, is a smart S.O.B. 

“Okay, so we will have to just see how well the walls can hold. We can all do some research and hit up contacts to see if there is any more information available that may help us,” I suggest.

“That is probably what we are going to have to do,” Alex says. “This book is informative, but I would doubt if there is any one spot that holds everything there is to know about demonkind.”

“Sounds like we have some work ahead of us.”

“We do. You even more than the rest of us, now that you have taken on a student,” Alex says.

“Yeah. She reminded me so much of myself, and no one should have to go through what she did. I couldn’t help but offer to take her under my wing. From what I have seen, it isn’t going to be easy to turn her into someone that can readily handle herself in combat, but I am up for the challenge.”

“That's good. Just don't set your expectations too high, love. You being as good as you are is a fluke and chances are another female won't be able to do a tenth of the things you can do. Add that to the fact that she is young and probably has little to no initial training, you are going to have a tough time. I predict your patience is going to wear thin quickly causing massive headaches for the rest of us,” Sebastian says.

“I think the lessons are more for her to try to feel like she is taking control of her life. I highly doubt she would ever get to the level that I would want to see in a battle. Light sparring is about my upper level of expectation.”

“As long as she doesn't get the notion that she could be one of your guards. If you ran into trouble, you would all be too busy worrying about her to fight the bad guys,” Alex says.

“I sincerely hope she doesn't get that thought in her head. I will knock it out of there if she does. I think my main lesson will be how to break free of a captor so she can run away. Hopefully, being as small as she is will give her an advantage in the speed category.”

“You will probably have to test her scores in all categories before you can come up with an educated decision on her training,” Sebastian says.

“I need my gym for that and we will not be meeting there right away, so I will start with the basics and then decide when I can run her through the tests,” I supply.

“Sounds like a plan. I have a few more glyphs I want to try to get up tonight. Then me and Alex are going to look through a couple scrolls that we haven't got to yet and see if there is anything else we can do.”

“I am pretty tired, so I think I will head home. I want to try to run a couple searches through my database archives to see if I can find out any more about Demon Boy. I am sure it will only bring up stuff you have already seen, but I pretty much know nothing other than he is a reaper demon that doesn't like to be charmed away,” I say backing towards my office door.

“I don't want to stay out too much longer, so expect at least me to come over to say goodnight within an hour,” Alex says.

“I won't be far behind him,” Sebastian adds.

“Later,” I tell them and give a little wave before heading home with all the guards in tow.

Chapter 18

20 questions with a cryptic demon

When you are trying to find out information about a non-human the first place to check is the Collective’s giant database of spookies. I am home now and my laptop is fired up and ready to go. The task at hand is a lot easier if you are on Collective premises, but it isn’t impossible to get to from the outside.

I think the first time I hacked into the database was two years ago on one of my assassination missions. Getting in isn’t the problem really. They aren’t big on restricting access. The issue is making sure you don’t leave a trail so they know it is you. If they find you tinkering around in their system, it is a death sentence for you. I would probably be a special case, but I still don't want to be caught.

My way, and most others, of accomplishing that is a whole lot of bouncing of servers and satellites. The satellites are just to confuse them. So far, they haven’t found me and I don't plan on allowing them to now.

I start my program up and watch as the hopping begins. It takes three minutes, but I finally get the search screen of the database to load.

I type in Benjalarico, as Sebastian called him earlier. I figure just typing in Ben won’t get me very far. I know of a vampire, two wolves and a warlock that share the name, just off hand.

The search pings back only one result. Cool. I won’t have to search through a bunch of entries to find the right one.

I click on the link and up pops Ben’s life story. In this case, it is lacking on the details. Evidently, the Collective has had problems researching the guy because they only have the basics.

Name: Benjalarico

Race: Demon

Subspecies: Reaper

Summoning name: Unknown

Background: Not much is known about this particular demon. Benjalarico is an upper class reaper demon. He is a favorite of Lucifer himself and is well respected among others of his kind. He currently leads six legions of lesser reaper demons and is known to be a force to reckon with. If approaching, proceed with extreme caution.

Current location: Unknown

Aliases: Unknown

Associates: Unknown

Distinguishing features: Is able to change forms at will, so his true form is not known.

Tell me something I don’t know. That was a total bust. How anyone actually knows anything about him at all is starting to amaze me.

“It’s actually seven now,” his deep voice rumbles next to me ear. “So nice to see you are checking up on me. It’s very important these days to do thorough background checks on prospective partners. You will find I haven’t even had a speeding ticket, so no worries on that front.”

“How did you get in here?” I ask glancing over to see my guards yet again frozen in mid motion.

“Well, you were thinking awfully hard about me, so I thought maybe you wanted to see me. I am sure your friends have found that it is really tough to find a spell to keep me away from you.”

“And you say you have added a seventh level of difficulty to the task,” I retort, wondering how long it will be before Alex rushes in to try to save me.

“We are on our way. There have been some obstacles placed in the way. Try to keep him busy for a few more minutes and we should be to you,”
Alex informs me.

“He is a silly one,” Ben states. “You did mention to them I know when they call, right?”

“I am sure he knows,” I reply trying to wheel my chair back, so I can get a look at my newest annoyance.

He allows me to move and stands in front of me in the same form he wore in the Suburban. The violet eyes are still cool. I am a sucker for purple eyes. I haven’t ever met anyone that has had them, so this is a new development.

He stands probably 6’5”, but I am sitting and short, in general, so I have never been a great judge of height. He is wearing a dark purple polo shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. Normally, I believe those colors are supposed to have a calming effect. I don’t think they are working. His overall build is muscular, but not body builder or soldier level.

Sadly, he is somewhat appealing.

“So, I am guessing we have maybe five, ten at the max, minutes before they make it through my maze. If you are interested in learning more about me, go ahead and ask some questions.”

“Will you remove this mark?” I ask raising my hand to put it on display.

“No. Next question.”

“Can you be warded against, so you cannot just pop in like this?”

“Of course. It’s not information you will probably find anywhere, but it can be done. If you summon me, though, it would be negated,” he says very nonchalantly.

“Will you tell me how to do it?”

“What fun would that be?”

“I personally think it would be a lot of fun. So, nothing I can do will keep you from popping in when I am not exactly dressed for company.”

“If you find the very archaic charm meant to keep me away, it might just stop me. You will find I am a gentleman when it comes to these things, so you shouldn’t worry about me seeing your lady bits.”

“Thank you so much for reassuring me,” I say drolly. I trust him about as far as I can throw him and, I imagine with his ability to appear and disappear like it’s nothing, that isn’t very far. “Will you tell me what my third source of DNA is?”

“Now that story isn’t mine to tell. Your daddy or mommy was a very bad being. I don’t know who supplied what, but I like what it made,” he says looking me up and down.

“Both parents are missing in action so that makes it a little difficult to ask.”

“I bet if they knew about you, they would come out from their hiding places. Having control over an unknown in our society is everyone’s dream. That’s why I haven’t let it slip to even my closest associates that I have met you.”

“Good. I was hoping you would keep that under your hat. The parental units may both be missing in action, but one has told me to hideout from the other.”

“Yes, I would imagine the wolf doesn’t want the other to be able to locate you. I believe he would be your papa. The circumstances of your birth would indicate your mother is the unknown in your life.”

“You would be correct,” I tell him.