Dark Descent (Codex Blair Book 3) Read online

  Mal tapped a finger on my shoulder and I turned to see his mouth moving.

  "What?" I couldn't hear my own voice, though, so I realised that wasn't going to do a lot of good.

  I glared at him for a good moment or two while he just smirked at me with an eyebrow raised.

  I lowered my shields just enough to allow him into the bubble of space, but keeping it up behind him so that no one else would be able to get in.

  What?

  I asked you what we're looking for.

  I sighed. That's hard. There's no one here we can ask about the man who died, we already tried that. What I want to find is a succubus. Or an incubus. I'm not picky, but I want to talk to one, even if it isn't the one we're looking for.

  His eyebrows jumped to his hairline again, and he blinked a few times; surprised. There was another shade of emotion there, though, something close to anger, yet not quite. I frowned, trying to figure it out.

  What? I prodded him mentally. What's the look about?

  You want to talk to another demon.

  Oh, don't be ridiculous. This is so not the time for another one of your pissing contests.

  It is not a pissing contest! He glared at me.

  My lips twitched, torn between snarling, and laughing, I did neither. Mal had this ridiculous idea about me and other demons, it was the one thing he got jealous about. For all his flirtations, he'd never said a word about being disappointed that I was sleeping with Shawn. But he'd got a whiff of demon on me once, and boy did I get an earful about it afterwards. I still maintained the fact that I hadn't been around demons that night, but I suppose he would know better than I what a demon smelled like.

  Come on, let's get into the crowd and see if we can find one. I tilted my head towards the crowd, one eyebrow raised, as I waited for him to acquiesce.

  It took a moment, but finally he nodded, and we walked into the crowd.

  I was instantly reminded of how much I didn't want to be there. My senses, temporarily distracted by the conversation with Mal, were in overload. I could barely get my thoughts to focus; I felt like I was just a moment or two away from drowning.

  And then I felt a hand brush against mine, and the sensations abruptly disappeared. The emotional and sensual overload was gone, there was only peace to be found.

  I could breathe again.

  I allowed myself a moment for my eyes to flutter closed as I basked in the glory of just being able to breathe. When I opened them again I immediately looked to Mal, assuming that he had done something, but found that he was snarling at something behind me.

  I snatched my hand away from whatever had been holding it, whirling around, to find a man standing there.

  My breath slammed from my lungs. He was painfully beautiful, the kind that you couldn't look away from even if you desperately wanted to. He had pale blonde hair, a few strands of which hung over his forehead, and beautiful icy blue eyes that captivated my own. He was tall, taller than me though maybe not taller than Mal, and his body was that of an Adonis.

  It hurt to look at him.

  Or was it the hurt of all those sensations rushing back onto me? I couldn't tell the difference.

  His eyebrows knit together at the same time as his perfect lips turned down in a frown, and he reached out to take my hand again. At once, the pain abated.

  My jaw dropped at the realisation that he was the one giving me the peace to stand in the crowd. I wanted to take my hand from his because no one touched me without my consent, but I didn't want the pain to come back.

  It was a hard decision to make, but I pulled my hand away all the same.

  "How did you do that?"

  "You were in pain, kochanie. I merely wanted to help," he said. I wasn't sure how I was hearing him so well, considering the noise of the crowd and how low his voice was, but it wasn't my highest priority just then.

  "You didn't answer my question," I said, eyes narrowing into a glare.

  His lips spread into a smile that somehow made my knees weak. Why did he have such an effect on me?

  And then I heard Mal's snarl somewhere behind me, and his arm came down in front of me like an iron band as he stepped forward.

  "Back off," he said, practically growling at the man.

  "What's going on?" I frowned, darting my eyes between the two men.

  Their eyes met in a clash of blue and gold, neither of them answering me. I had the intense feeling that I was watching two men measure their dicks just then.

  "Hello?" I waved my hands between them, which only served to further upset Mal. He grasped both my wrists and pulled me closer to him, causing me to stumble. I glared up at him, but didn't do much to try and pull away.

  I didn't know what was going on, but I did know that I trusted Mal more than I trusted a stranger. If he thought there was something off with the man, then I would have to trust that.

  "I am not trying to take her from you, Brother."

  I looked up just in time to see Mal's lips pull back into a sneer.

  "Father." He informed the man.

  I blinked, trying to understand what information had just passed between the two. No one would ever confuse their father for their brother, so it wasn't likely that these words were being used literally.

  The other man was a demon. That was the only reason I could find as to why he would call Mal 'brother.'

  I turned to the other man—the demon—and saw that he had gone pale. Well, paler than he had already been.

  "I was helping," he said, but his words sounded weak.

  "She is spoken for."

  "She is standing right here!" I wrenched my hands away from Mal then, fed up with him treating me like a trophy. "And if you think for one second that you're going to get away with talking about me like that, you have another thing coming."

  The glare Mal sent me was enough to chill my bones. I had never seen him look at me like that, and I was instantly quelled.

  Sometimes I forgot he was Fallen. Sometimes I forgot what that meant, how powerful he was, how terrifying he should be to me.

  "She is spoken for," he said again, turning his gaze back to the demon.

  I didn't interrupt this time, almost afraid to speak.

  But the demon was looking at me, and there was appreciation in his eyes.

  "I can see that. As I said, I am not trying to take her from you. I doubt anyone could," he said, his words a light murmur that barely reached my ears.

  What did that mean?

  "What is it that you want?"

  "Mal?" I finally found my voice again, and the courage to interrupt their conversation. "What is he?"

  The demon quirked an eyebrow at Mal, staying quiet as if to give Mal the opportunity to introduce him.

  I watched the muscle in Mal's jaw pulse, realising that he didn't want to tell me. Well, that was ridiculous. Why wouldn't he want to tell me what kind of demon we were dealing with? I wanted to know how it was that the man had played with my emotions simply by touching me, and I didn't think it was out of line to want to know that.

  "An incubus," he said at last, grinding out the words from between clenched teeth.

  Oh. That made sense. He wouldn't want to tell me that because I was looking for one, and he didn't want me to spend any time with them.

  "Perfect!" I said, grinning at the two of them. "I was hoping to run into one of you."

  The incubus looked surprised, blinking once or twice before smiling at me. "How may I be of...service?" His words were a velvet invitation; I couldn't help the blush that spread across my cheeks.

  "N-no, that's not what I meant," I said hastily, pressing a hand against Mal's arm pre-emptively. I didn't want him to tear the incubus' head off. "I want to talk to you."

  He pouted. "There are so much nicer things that we could do than talk, kochanie."

  I didn't know what he was calling me, but I knew that I didn't like the way Mal's muscles clenched beneath his skin when the man spoke. This was going to be a difficult tight rope
to walk, but I knew I could to do it.

  "I want to talk," I said again, more firm this time.

  "Then perhaps we should do so elsewhere?" The incubus said, lifting a hand, gesturing to a corner of the club with a dark door hidden there. "Somewhere more quiet."

  I looked up at Mal, gently lifting my hand from his arm. I saw him tense, his nostrils flaring, and I thought about putting it back.

  A very difficult tight rope.

  "You're not going anywhere with him without me," he said at last.

  "I wasn't going to," I said, though I wanted to tell him that he didn't get to make decrees like that. I wanted to tease him, but I could see that now was not the time.

  "Let's go," I said, turning my attention back to the incubus.

  17

  There was another surprise waiting for us once we entered the backroom the incubus had led us to.

  My breath caught in my throat once again as I took in the woman seated there, casually sipping on a glass of champagne like she had all the time in the world. She was beautiful beyond words, a spitting image of the incubus. Her blonde hair poured past her shoulders in soft waves, and when she lifted her crystalline eyes to meet mine I thought my heart stopped. Red lips turned up into a dazzling smile, revealing pearly white teeth.

  There had to be a flaw with her, but for the life of me I couldn't find it. Except that it was how identical she was to the incubus who had brought us here. It was beyond twin level of freaky.

  "She's a succubus," Mal said, his words barely a whisper in my ear.

  I forced myself to blink, focus on some other area of the room, so that she wouldn't affect me. I would need to have a talk with Mal later about his little training routines we'd run through earlier; none of them had prepared me for the effect one of them could have on a person just by existing.

  "Jakub!" The succubus stood, the blue silk of her gown rippling with the movement. She crossed the room and enveloped the incubus—Jakub—in a hug. "I thought you were never coming back to me, brother."

  Brother? For some reason, I would have thought an incubus and a succubus would be involved with one another, but it might actually make more sense that they be related.

  "Katy," Jakub said, holding his sister tight for a moment before taking a step back. "We have guests."

  "Yes, do introduce me!"

  "I can't, but I wouldn't if I could until you stop it."

  She shifted to look at us with wide eyes, a perfect picture of innocence, then back at her brother. "Whatever do you mean?"

  "You are quite literally copying me," he said, grinding his teeth together.

  She pouted, then broke out into yet another dazzling smile. "But it's so much fun to tease you!" She spun around in a circle, her skin quite literally glowing, and when she finished she looked different and yet, not at the same time. She kept the blonde hair, the icy blue eyes, the pale skin, the defined yet effeminate build. But all the details changed; the scar that had dissected the same eyebrow on both the demons was now gone from her skin, her lips quirked more to the side, and her bone structure took on a more pixie like look to it.

  She was a sister now, not a carbon copy.

  I clenched my jaw shut to keep from dropping it, allowing myself one reaction and that was to look at Mal for an explanation.

  He appeared as bored as was possible. He saw me looking up at him though, and quirked an eyebrow at me. "You knew they could shape shift. Why are you surprised?"

  Good point. I suppose nothing quite prepares you for seeing it in action, though.

  "The fuck do you actually look like?" I blurted the words out, apparently not over being surprised.

  They both turned slowly to look at me, the succubus looking quite appalled by my language, the incubus slightly amused.

  Mal nudged me with an elbow, but when I looked at him I could see his lips twitching to fight a smile.

  That was rude.

  You can be rude to demons?

  Blair.

  I stiffened when he used my name, wanting to protest but not willing to give anyone the satisfaction of hearing it. There is danger in someone knowing your name, it's why almost no one knows their True Name. A True Name can be used to control you, but your normal name can be used to call you. Mal had done it to me once, and I had done it to him. I didn't think my first name alone was enough to do it, and if you had a common enough name than even your first and last wouldn't be very useful. But still, it was the principle of the thing that mattered.

  The succubus cleared her throat, lifting her chin. "That is something you are unlikely to ever learn."

  I turned away from Mal to look at the demons again. "Why?"

  "Blair!" Mal grabbed my elbow, yanking me to look at him again. "Must you always be like this?"

  I smiled sweetly at him. "Like what?"

  I was being difficult and I knew it. But I couldn't stop myself even if I had wanted to, and a part of me wanted to remind Mal that I was a difficult and annoying person to be around. He was too fond of me most of the time, and he needed to remember that I wasn't fun.

  Katy looked at Jakub, quirking an eyebrow. "You brought them here. What was your point in doing so?"

  "She has questions, and I want to answer them."

  They stared at one another for a long moment, not saying a word, and I wondered if they were communicating telepathically. Curious as I was, I didn't dare let down my shields even to sense the vibrations in the air that would show I was right—there was no way I would let down my shields in a room full of demons. It was idiotic.

  Finally, she returned to her seat on the chaise, picking up her glass of champagne and sipping on it. Jakub sat down beside her and gestured at the chairs left in the room for us to sit.

  I chose a singular chair, much to Mal's obvious displeasure. I knew that he wanted to be near me, knew that he was feeling territorial, but I wasn't interested in putting up with it just thin.

  "What questions did you have, Blair?" Jakub leaned forward as he spoke.

  "I think the first, and most obvious, would be why are you interested in answering my questions?"

  He smiled, pleased that I had asked that.

  "You don't know," he said, leaning back. He and Katy shared a look before he returned his attention to me. "You have become something of a celebrity, I'm sorry to tell you. The Hunter. That's all anyone calls you—I can't put into words how pleased I am to know your name—and they say it with such trepidation. It's glorious."

  I frowned. That wasn't something I wanted to hear. I didn't want anyone to know who or what I was, I wanted to be as invisible as the air everyone breathed; necessary, but taken for granted. That was the best way to do business when your business put your life in danger. If that wasn't the way things were going...I needed to take another look at my tactics.

  "Don't worry. Not everyone knows what you look like. But the Kin talk."

  "The Kin?"

  "He's speaking of succubi and incubi," Mal said before Jakub could answer. "They refer to themselves as the Kin, because they like to separate themselves from other demons."

  I didn't have to look at him to know that he was rolling his eyes.

  Jakub shrugged. "We are different, it seems only natural that we would separate."

  "OK, well, I want to come back to that, but let's back track for a moment. What did you mean when you said the Kin talk?" I smoothed a hand along my thigh to stop myself from picking anxiously at a stray piece of string there.

  "One of the Kin saw you this summer, by the Thames. You were with three vampires, and you lit half of yourself on fire, the other half consumed in ice...I'm told it was quite the sight," Katy said. "There was no doubt when they saw that. You were The Hunter."

  My heart skittered before starting to beat a tattoo against my ribs. That had been a stupid and sloppy move, one born of desperation.

  "I'm told you did it without any of your toys." She added, leaning forward to watch me for a reaction.

  I forced m
y face into a mask of calm. I didn't know which answer would be worse—to say that I needed my foci to do it would mean that I wasn't as powerful as she was imagining me currently, and I didn't want any of them to think me weak. If they thought I was weak, then they might try to harm me. But I also didn't want them to think that I was something they needed to keep an eye on.

  Fly under the radar, you know?

  I opted for keeping the mask in place, to let her guess at the answer to her question. I was also very aware of the heat of Mal's gaze on the back of my neck—he had taken the seat nearest me, which was a just an inch or two back—and knew that he wanted the answer as well.

  Before the summer, I had been avoiding Mal. Dodging his calls—much harder to do when you're not dealing with a phone, OK. Precautions were to ensure that he couldn't conjure me wherever he wanted, but he'd found ways of leaving me notes letting me know that he wanted to see me. I hadn't answered. As such, he hadn't known what I was up to this past summer until I'd had to ask for his help in the basement of the vampires who had taken me hostage.

  To put it mildly, he had not been happy with me.

  I could feel him buzzing at the edge of my shields, knew that he had questions I didn't want to answer. We hadn't talked about the summer at all since we'd started training together; hadn't done a lot of talking at all for that matter. I didn't want to talk about it. When I wasn't dreaming about the monsters I'd killed, I was dreaming I was back in that basement with no way out. I didn't want to relive it, no matter what questions he might have.

  "Blair?" Mal's voice pulled me back from the edges of my thoughts.

  "What?" I said, my tone sharp as I glanced at him, wary.

  "Jakub asked what other questions you have," he said.

  "Oh," I said, blushing. "Well, since you and your Kin talk, have you heard anything about a succubus going off the rails?"

  Katy frowned—had I offended her by only asking about succubi? Come to think of it, why had Mal been so sure it was a succubus and not an incubus? I guess they had the same abilities, so why did it matter?

  "I have heard nothing of the sort," Jakub said. "Do you mean to say that there has been a deviation from the norm?"