Night Howls (19 page)

Now the succubus is pushing me over the mentally stable cliff. She seems to have that effect on people.

“Calm down. You said when you first saw him he was injured. You haven't felt any pain, so she hasn't gotten to him. Let's fly over to Emerald Town now and check things out for ourselves. Then he can explain to you how you are just overreacting.”

“I like that idea. I am still dressed, so all I need to do is grab Clyde's leash and we can go. I don't even want to bother with packing clothes.”

“Good. We have a plan,” he says and helps me out of bed.

“Where is the fangy one?” Ben asks popping in unannounced as usual. He is wearing a pin striped suit. It is black with dark gray stripes and he has paired it with a royal purple neck tie. Very classy, but I don't have time to sit down and chat with him. Maybe he will have some ideas for how I can kill Candace. Demons should come equipped with the knowledge of their own destruction, right?

“He is still over in Emerald Town for the big vampire conference. He is supposed to be back tomorrow, but we are actually heading there now to meet him,” I reply. I would have thought the demon was up-to-date on all paranorm news. He would be if he bothered answering when I called for him.

“Then we don't have much time. Grab your weapons and I will flash you over there,” he replies and I now notice just how agitated he is. This cannot be good. Sebby isn't answering his phone and Ben seems to be up in arms about something. I didn't think anything could cause the demon to worry.

I start putting my weapons on and by the time I get the holster thrown over my shoulders, I say, “Take me there now.” I don't care what has alerted him to trouble. I knew something was going to happen and I am afraid my worst fears are coming true. Sebastian promised he was protected, but that bitch must have gotten to him.

“Wait just a second,” Alex says speaking up. “You cannot just go off with a demon like this. How will I know if you actually end up where he says he is taking you?” I halfway agree with him, but this is potentially all of our lives that are in danger here.

If Candace gets her way, I will be killed and no matter what she thinks, the guys will most likely go with me. Ben has already hinted that our connection strings are too strong for there to be any other kind of ending.

“We better take wolfy too then. You might need him and we don't have time for all this chatter,” Ben replies quickly grabbing both of our shoulders.

I feel the air around us shimmer, followed closely by a horrible stabbing pain to my right side. If this transfer was going to hurt, he should have warned me. We seem to have shifted somewhere else, but my side is still hurting and I collapse to the ground. That mode of transportation is not for me.

“We are too late,” I hear Ben say. I fight through the pain enough to look up and take in our new location. We are in a banquet hall that looks like it has been ransacked by a giant, or possibly a tornado. Tables are thrown everywhere and I see at least three fires burning. If it had been clothing thrown around I would have been blaming Phee.

There are vampire bodies everywhere. Some look like they are trying to stand, but others look like they are in really rough shape. What could have taken on this many vampires and actually came out the victor. I don't see it being just one lowly succubus. I don't know what they have for offensive weapons, but I doubt it is this.

“Sebastian!” I yell frantically looking for any sign of him. The pain is still constant and I have a feeling I know where it is coming from. In my first dream, there was a cut on Sebastian in the same location. Alex just reminded me about it and I am sure the Hell feeling it now.

“My queen,” I hear Marcus' voice say quietly from somewhere in the room. I run towards the sound and it takes me a few seconds, to move a table out of the way, which reveals Marcus practically shredded. The other bodies I passed looked like they were just knocked out, but Marcus went hand-to-hand with something. I really hope the other guy looks just as bad.

Marcus looks like a person with knives for fingers had a grand time rearranging his skin. I don't think it will kill him, but he has to be weak from the fight. I wonder if Sebastian thought ahead to have food available in case something like this happened. He is usually good about planning for the worst-case scenario.

“Marcus, where is Sebastian?” I ask wanting to comfort him, but afraid to touch anything.

“Gone,” Marcus replies softly not moving a muscle.

“Gone? What do you mean gone?” I say wanting to shake the information out of him. I notice that my pain isn't as sharp anymore and it has dulled, but I don't have a clear connection with Sebastian to ask him any questions. His place in my mind is still walled up. Whether it is his doing or someone else's, I do not know. Our bond is supposed to be unbreakable and I doubt Candace has even learned that part yet.

“They took him,” Marcus answers before his body relaxes into unconsciousness.

“Who did this?” I ask standing and turning towards Ben. He seemed to know what was going on and I want answers now. I am positive Candace could not have caused this destruction alone.

“I don't know. I overheard some demons talking about someone hiring disreputable beings for some big vampire hit. I figured if it was a vampire hit, your boy toy would be the most likely target. I guess I was right.”

“It is your kind that did this, you better be prepared to fix it,” I say taking my anger out on him.

“I am at your service. Let me go ask around and find out what is being said in the grapevine. I am sure news of the strike has to be on everyone’s mind.”

“You go and bring me back answers fast. I am going to have to try to make sense of what happened here and coordinate getting help for anyone injured,” I say as I look around and try to figure out where to start.

“I will be back before you know it,” Ben answers and then disappears.

“Nyx.” I hear Dante say as he stumbles to us. He doesn't look like he is in as bad of shape as Marcus, but he has been sliced and diced. “We tried to stop them, but they overpowered us and took off with Sebastian.”

“Who?” I ask wanting to put names to what I am going to kill.

“The ones that we fought and took Bastian were Kurkua. I think there were also a few Shagles based on the condition of the room.”

“Neither species is familiar to me. What exactly are they?” I am going to need to consult with the books not only on how to kill Candace, but on methods that would work on those two things as well.

“They are both lower level demons. Kurkua can turn their fingers into blades, as you probably already guessed. The Shagles can control wind and used it to subdue the rest of the vampires,” Dante informs me. Great. More demons. “I am going to go get some help for Marcus. If we are going to go after Sebastian, we are going to need all the help we can get. I will see if I can find Smitty, but he has been missing for a lot of this weekend.”

“I want Marcus up and kicking as soon as possible, so please hurry,” I say and he is off before I even finish speaking.

“Don't worry. Sebastian is the toughest son of a bitch I know,” Alex says wrapping his arms around me. “We would know if he was dead and clearly he isn't. You have seen that much and you know we have time. She doesn't want to kill him before she causes trouble between the two of you. We will find him and you will be able to torture and kill whoever caused this and the bitch behind it all.”

Oh, you had better believe someone is going to die over this, probably many someones. No one takes my Sebby and lives to tell the tale.

THE END