Succubi Are Forever (12 page)

“I told you, I love him.”

She shook her head. “I am in your shoes, sister. I know there are only two emotions when one refers to their master. And only one is love. Hate can be a strong companion as well.”

“I don’t hate him,” I said softly. I crawled over the bed to where he slept, his face so peaceful. My fingers brushed over his cheek and I resettled in the bed, pulling his head into my lap. “He’s everything to me.”

She gave me a pitying look and picked up a dagger and began to sharpen it. “And that is why you are doomed to heartache.”

“I don’t think—”

Sophie grew instantly alert, her gaze swiveling to the door.

My protest died in my throat and I stood up slowly. “What is it?”

She put a finger to her lips and moved to the door of the motel room. As I watched, she jerked the door open and reached out, grabbing someone and pulling them inside the room.

The woman tumbled in, all dark braids and unnaturally blue eyes. She rolled on her feet and hissed in response to Sophie’s narrow-eyed gaze, brandishing a pair of thin daggers. “Sister,” she spat. “Or shall I call you ‘traitor’?”

“A tail?” Sophie asked, unconcerned. She shut the door behind her and ran a hand down the shades, ensuring they were shut. “You, Nefer? So Phryne begins the great chase after all?”

“Begins?” Nefer said, backing up against the wall with a mirthless laugh. “We are already two steps ahead of all of you.”

What? How was that possible? “Wait—”

“She bluffs,” Sophie said in a cool voice and sprang at Nefer.

As I watched, the two women locked arms. Nefer tried to stab at Sophie, only to have her wrist captured. Sophie gave a short, jerking motion and I heard the snap of bones. Nefer screamed and fell back, clutching at her hand.

Sophie moved in, grasped Nefer by the jaw, and quickly broke her neck with an efficient snap.

Bile rushed into my mouth as the other woman dropped to the ground. “Sophie, what the fuck?”

The other succubus turned to look back at me, raising one eyebrow. “You wished to question her first?”

“No! You can’t go around just snapping people’s necks.”

The other woman’s expression became indulgent. “I am an assassin. That is what I do. She was in the way. I stopped her.” She brushed off her hands as if done with a messy issue. “Do not worry. She will return soon enough, and by the time she wakes up to warn Phryne, we will be long gone from this area. Unless you would rather warn your enemy and give away your presence?”

I scowled. “I hate you sometimes.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I wasn’t thanking you.”

“No, but you should have.” She waved a hand at Nefer’s fallen body. “Now, come, we should move her into the closet and hope the cleaning crew doesn’t find her after we leave.”

~*~

We pulled up to the Mesa Verde park entrance just as the sun was setting. The cliffs were high in the distance, bleached tan dotted with green scrub trees. At the front of the park entrance, two tollbooths sat side by side, but only one lane was functional. I pulled the car up to the booth and held out my money.

The park ranger held up his hand, refusing my money with a smile. “Park’s closing in five minutes.”

I gritted my teeth and forced a smile. “We’re with Mrs. Brighton’s team.”

He peered into the car at our motley assortment. Zane, in sunglasses and leather duster. Sophie, covered with henna tattoos and weapons, her arms bare thanks to a tank top, her dreads piled high, her eyes shining unnaturally blue. Remy, scrawling notes in her notebook as she leaned on Ethan, who was easily the biggest man anyone had ever seen.

“’Sup,” Ethan said in greeting.

Remy giggled.

I sighed and ran a hand down my face. “Look, we just need to go in for a bit, okay? We’ve got something to drop off and then we’ll turn right back around.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, park rules—”

I waved a hand casually. “I know, I know. Just give me a brochure, I guess.”

When he reached out to hand me the pamphlet, I grabbed his hand. At the contact of my skin to his, I slammed my succubus powers through him. He shut down, his eyes rolling back, and collapsed, falling partially out of the booth. I peered in the rearview mirror to see if anyone else was nearby and threw the car into park.

“So much for subtlety,” Sophie murmured.

“We don’t have time to waste,” I said, opening my car door and stepping over the fallen guard. “Besides,” I said, tugging on the man and dragging him back inside the booth so no one would see him. “You wanna talk about subtlety? How about you strap thirty less of those daggers to your waist? Nothing screams subtlety quite like a six-foot-tall tattooed woman covered in weapons.”

Sophie said nothing.

“That’s what I thought,” I muttered, and pressed my fingers to the guard’s forehead again, pushing through his mind. Past dreams, past consciousness, looking for stored memories. Aha. Using his stolen memories, I flipped the appropriate switch that activated the gate-bar. It crawled into the air slowly in response. I tapped the guard to wake him up (since I didn’t need him anymore), slid back into the driver’s seat, put the car into drive, and sped down the road.

Zane looked over at me, impressed. “You’re very much a woman of action tonight, Princess.”

“I want that halo,” I told him. “I can feel it’s here. Can’t you?”

He nodded quietly, his face strained with tension. He could feel it, too.

We traveled over the winding park roads and as we drove, I chewed on my lip, looking for landmarks. A few minutes into our drive, I found our goal. A small archaeological dig had been roped off on the far side of the road, a couple of tents set up in the distance. Bingo. I pulled up to the dig site and parked the car. The majority of the tents were small, individual dome tents, several of them with a light on inside. One larger tent stood slightly apart from the rest, big enough for several people. That would be the tent we were looking for. Nearby, floodlights were hooked to a generator over what looked like a pit of rock, and at the sight of it, my stomach gave an odd wobble that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. As we all piled out of the car, I heard Ethan ask, “What is this place?”

Remy pulled out her map and squinted at it, turning it in the dim light as Ethan helpfully clicked on a flashlight. “We’re close to the Luminary House, Mesa Verde,” she said helpfully. “Sounds boring.”

“Mesa Verde?” Zane inquired, glancing over at me. “How are you sure it’s here? How did you know this place out of all of them?”

“It’s a city of rock,” I murmured. I stared up at the canyon walls, feeling the thrum of something decidedly supernatural—and strong—in the area. The cliffs were dark with the light of the setting sun gone, and the area at our feet, brushy. The oppressive heat of the day had disappeared, the night breeze soothing and cool. “You can’t see it, but on the side of this cliff, there’s a city. Just like it says in the Scythian writing. And in that city, there are sun symbols. A circle surrounded by flames. I’ve seen that before. That’s how I knew.”

“That’s where it’ll be, then,” Zane said, coming to my side. His hand went to my lower back, a soft touch. A reminder of support. “It’s amazing that you knew to think of this place.”

Well, not
so
amazing. I turned and gave him a hesitant smile. “Just let me lead tonight, okay?”

He quirked an eyebrow in my direction, then reached for a cigarette and lit it, shielding it from the breeze. He dragged on it for a moment, then studied the tents, the fabric backlit by lanterns within. I could hear the faint sounds of chatter in the distance—no doubt they were trying to make out who would come here after dark, and why we hadn’t approached yet. Camping here on-site seemed bizarre, but I looked at the floodlights, and the generator, and wasn’t surprised. They didn’t want to leave the dig site, so they stayed. Uncomfortable, but sensible for a workaholic, I supposed.

“Is this going to be a problem?” Zane asked me quietly. I noticed Sophie’s hand at her sword, ever at the ready to defend.

“Not in the way you think,” I said wryly. “Like I said, let me lead. This won’t be fun.”

He nodded. The others looked at me expectantly.

I sighed. “You guys stay here until I give the word.” I headed through the brush, toward the scattering of tents.

I could hear people moving around inside the smaller tents, the soft murmuring of conversations. About fifty feet away, floodlights shone on the sunken dig site, where someone still crouched, hard at work despite the fact that it was dark outside and getting late.

I knew who that would be. Steeling my shoulders, I turned and strode forward, crossing the brush to stand at the edge of the pit. Then I squatted at the side and looked down. “Hey, Mom.”

Suzanne Brighton squinted up at the light, then turned back to the piece of pottery that she was delicately brushing out of the sandy soil. “I’m busy. Who’s there?”

I sighed. “It’s your daughter. Who else would call you Mom?”

“Jackie, honey, it’s good to see you, but I’m very busy—”

I rolled my eyes. “I know. I’d have called but there wasn’t time. Can you just come out and say hello?”

She paused, sighed, and then pulled herself away as if greatly peeved. She climbed up a small wooden ladder, grumbling under her breath. When she got to my side, I held my arms out for a hug.

She gave me a quick one and then wrinkled her nose at my appearance. “Something’s different.”

I waited for the inevitable outrage. I’d been transformed into a succubus since the last time she’d seen me.
Everything
looked different.

But she only tilted her head so she could squint at me through the bifocals resting on the tip of her nose, ugly chain dangling from the sides of the glasses. “Did you dye your hair?”

Lord. I’d been changed into a succubus and my mother thought I’d just dyed my hair? “Something like that,” I said. “Good to see you too, Mom. Do you have someplace private we can talk? I have something I need your opinion on.”

“If it’s the hair, it looks tarty,” my mother said, wiping her dusty hands on her jeans and heading over to one of the tents. “I thought you were trying to be a serious archaeologist? No one’s going to take you seriously if you look like a tart and not an academic.”

I gritted my teeth and followed her, glaring when Zane and the others appeared in camp.

So much for staying back until I gave the word. Now they were all going to meet my crazy mother. I winced and followed closely behind her as she entered the big tent. Inside, there was a wooden table with an attached bench, and maps and printouts were spread all over it, as well as open books, candy wrappers, notes, and pictures. My mother went to a cooler and pulled out a water bottle, twisting off the cap and drinking for a long minute before turning her baleful eye on my entourage. “Who are you all?”

“They’re my friends, Mom,” I said, then forced myself to shut up when I realized that I sounded like the whiny teenager I’d been far too long ago. I tried to see my mother through a stranger’s eyes—her brown, lined face streaked with dirt, her gray hair ragged and disheveled under the oversized straw hat. The tank top she wore with the rings of sweat under the arms, the cargo shorts and hiking boots. Mom was a mess. Always had been. She simply didn’t care how she looked because it wasn’t important, like so many other things in her life weren’t important – husband, house, and child included.

Only the work mattered. I’d been jealous of it as a bored teenager, but as an adult with the weight of the world on my shoulders, all I felt was annoyance.

Zane stepped forward and took my mother’s hand in his, leaning down to kiss the back of it. “Delighted to meet you, Mrs. Brighton. Your daughter has told me so much about you.”

Actually, I’d never mentioned her. I narrowed my eyes at Zane’s charmer act.

To her credit, my mother snorted. “Now I see why she dyed her hair like a tart,” she said acerbically, casting me a disapproving look and then gesturing at the table. “Well, sit down, all of you. Don’t just stand there like lumps.”

Well, wasn’t this fun. I crossed my arms, waiting, as the others sat at the table like dutiful children, Zane’s mouth curving into an amused smile as his gaze flicked back and forth between myself and my mother. I was glad someone was getting a kick out of this at least.

Remy pulled out her notepad and began to make notes again, and my mother gasped, dragging away the maps that Remy had put her arms on top of. “What are you doing? Are you writing a thesis? This is my discovery.” Her voice grew hard and brittle. “Jackie, I’m warning you—”

“Mom, calm down,” I began. “Trust me, it’s not a thesis.”

“I’m writing a book,” Remy said brightly to my mother. “I’m going to write a memoir and pad my bank account since I’m not working anymore.”

My mother’s brows drew together. “Not working… in archaeology?”

Zane snorted. I could have sworn Sophie’s lips twitched.

Remy wrinkled her nose. “Archaeology? Yuck, no. I’m a porn star.” At Ethan’s glare, she added, “
Former
porn star.”

Mom’s gaze swung to my hair, then back to my friends, and then her mouth thinned into a frown.

“Hey, Mom, I brought you something,” I said, pulling out the drawing I’d made of the ceiling. I had to distract her before my mother decided that we were just drawing her away from her precious dig and wasting her time. That, or I got a lecture about hanging out with the bad kids at school. I waved the paper at her. “Come check this out. I think you’ll find it interesting.”

My mother moved across the tent to my side and gave me a concerned look. “Jackie, honey,” she said in a low voice. “I’m concerned that you’re not hanging out with the right people.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I said, giving her a one-armed hug and glaring at Zane over my mother’s head. He gave me an innocent look, grinning and showing his fangs. Oh, he was getting a kick out of this. “I’m not twelve, though. I can take care of myself just fine.”

“Actually,” Sophie began.

“Hush,” I barked.

Silence fell. Then Ethan spoke. “Word to your mother.”