Dark Descent (Codex Blair Book 3) Read online

  He barely had time to hit the floor, not having a spell ready.

  He'd wanted me to use it. Well screw him, I'd used it.

  I shook my arm out, breathing in and out harshly as I forced the fire back into the mark. I managed it, just barely.

  "There. I kept it under control." My words were icy as I threw them at the pair of immortals. "Happy?"

  Mal looked up at me from his position on the floor, a grin splitting his mouth wide. "Very."

  I swore at him. What an idiot.

  "What do you say we take her for a test drive?" Mal directed his words at Raven as he rolled onto his back and then jumped to his feet. "She got it under control for once. I'd like to see how she does in a crowd."

  Anxiety skittered down my spine. That hadn't been my intention. I didn't want to leave the safe confines of the compound.

  Raven looked at Mal and then at me, thoughtful. "Hmm." They mused. "Yes, I think it would be quite interesting to see what happens. You will accompany her. I have some things I need to look into."

  Mal nodded and looked back at me to reveal his own devilish grin. "Let's party."

  2

  Tension was building within me as I walked through the doors of Serenity; I felt like a rubber band that was about to snap. The last time I'd been here, I'd been taken captive by a group of blood thirsty vampires that had more or less gone insane. I still didn't know what had happened there, the vampires had been unwilling to speak, and had pushed the situation to a point where I'd had to kill them just to survive.

  Part of me regretted that.

  What if they hadn't been operating under their own minds? What if they had been compelled to fight...It was a distressing thought, that I had put down a creature that hadn't been in control of itself.

  It didn't change the fact that I almost jumped out of my skin with every brush of a stranger's shoulder against my sleeve. Unlike the last time I'd been here, I was fully clothed, wearing a black long sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans. I didn't have my thigh holsters on, but I did have my wind chain, shield rings, and the cuff was firmly in place on top of the demon's brand. In each boot, hidden by the legs of my jeans, my wands were safely stowed. My hair was up in a high pony tail, curling around my shoulders in light wisps.

  In another time and place I might have looked like a regular girl.

  In reality, I looked every bit the hunter that I was.

  It didn't take long to see that everyone else was aware of it as well, they moved out of my way soon after. Tense glances were being thrown at me here and there. I couldn't hear them over the din of fast-paced music, but I could see numerous sets of lips moving as they whispered and pointed at me.

  "I told you to change," Mal said, wrapping an arm around my waist. I tensed, immediately placing my hand on his to push him away. "Shh, love, you need to at least blend a bit. I'm a known entity here, my presence is all that's keeping them from ripping your throat out and tossing you on the street."

  "Not too different from how it ended last time," I remarked with a shrug, but I let his arm be. I didn't like it, didn't like giving him access to such proximity when I knew what he was like around me. It was hard to tell if all his flirtations were real or if it was just him being a demon; I liked to chalk it up to him being a demon. Made it easier to sleep at night.

  I glanced at him in time to see his eyes darken at my remark. Mal had seen the after effects of my night at Serenity, after I'd been taken to the vampire's house. Tied up with spelled chains that had torn into my skin and burned my flesh. The outfit I'd worn that night had been one Mal had picked out, a revealing number that had made it all too easy for the chains to bite into me. I doubted he blamed himself for any of that, but I knew that the memory would not be a good one for him.

  He'd been very upset that night.

  "I won't let anything happen to you." His voice was low, only for me to hear, and I tried not to shiver at the intimate tone in his voice.

  "I don't need you to protect me, Mal. I can take care of myself." I hadn't been armed that night, and I'd been well and truly exhausted. It hadn't been a fair fight, and the vampires had picked it for just that reason. They knew I could take them if I wanted to, they had seen me at full power not long before they had attacked, and they had planned their moment for when I would be weakest. When I wouldn't have any of my gear with me.

  I had everything I needed tonight, though maybe a stake or two would have made me feel a little more comfortable coming back to Serenity. There was no reason to be more nervous about vampires than the other monsters that liked to come here, but history had a way of playing with logic.

  I had a very rational wariness of vampires.

  It was then that a peppy blonde got in my face, bright blue eyes flashing in anger.

  "You shouldn't be here," she said, practically spitting venom. "You don't belong."

  I blinked as I adjusted to the knowledge that someone was actually telling me to get lost, sparing a look at Mal before I looked back at her and straightened my shoulders.

  "I go where I want," I said. My own tone was firm and brooked no argument, the kind of tone I would have expected from Aidan but hadn't known I was capable of pulling off. I guess the amount of shit I'd gone through had changed me. Go figure.

  I watched the light flare down in her eyes a bit, and she seemed uncertain of the fight she'd picked, indecision flickering over her face.

  "You're not one of us," she said, but the venom was gone for her voice now.

  I arched an eyebrow.

  "Listen—" Mal started to speak, but I waved a hand to cut him off.

  "And what exactly is that supposed to mean? You're what, some kind of monster that doesn't fit in with the nicer crowd of magical creatures? Guess what, sweetie, I'm not the nice guy. I'm what goes bump in the night. For you. Boo." I smiled at her, arching an eyebrow to finish the look.

  She blanched, taking a step back. She knew who and what I was, even if she didn't know my name.

  I took a step closer to her, inhaling as I spread my awareness out of my own personal space to take in her own, to learn what she was.

  It took a moment, but there it was. Of course. Vampire.

  Oh, she knew what I was, all right. Every vampire knew what I was now.

  "Blair," Mal hissed, letting go of my waist to grasp my elbow and drag me a few steps away.

  I whipped my head around to glare at him. "What? This is what you wanted, isn't it? You wanted to see how I would do in a group, but you're not going to learn a whole lot if I'm just getting along with everyone. I'm just speeding the process up." I smiled tightly at him, not sure why I was feeling so combative.

  Was it the mark? I doubted it. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that I was feeling very used, like I had no say in what was happening. Technically, I'd agreed to come to Serenity tonight, but it hadn't been my idea and it certainly hadn't been something I'd wanted to do.

  He frowned. "I don't want you picking fights for no reason, no. I wanted to see if you could keep your head on your shoulders when you're around things that make you want to fight. So, you're kind of doing the wrong thing."

  I shrugged, though I glanced away as a shameful flush highlighted my cheeks. I was being a jerk.

  The blonde vampire had taken a few steps back and was looking uncertain as to whether she should disappear.

  I sighed. "Just go. I'm not going to eat you."

  I wanted to laugh at the irony of that. Me, telling a vampire I wasn't going to eat them. It was meant metaphorically, but it hadn't been so long ago when vampires were threatening to eat me, and I had promised death to all of them. At least I'd managed to get some of the thralls out of the house unscathed. Things hadn't gone so well for the ones who had attacked full force alongside the vampires.

  "Nicely done," Mal said with a disappointed shake of his head.

  I bit my lip, lifting my shoulders slightly. "Sorry. Do over?"

  "I don't think you get a do over with letting the
entire club know that you're the bogey man."

  "Hey, careful, you might offend someone. What if there's a real bogey man?" I grinned at him.

  He laughed and I felt some of the tension ease from within me.

  "Somehow I doubt it. I think I would have heard about it at some point in the last millennia or two."

  Sometimes I forgot how old Mal was, but he managed to remind me just as it eased out of my mind and I thought of him as a regular guy.

  "Should we dance?" he said, offering me his hand.

  I hesitated, darting my eyes down to his hand and then back up at him. I didn't think that was a good idea, it might encourage all kinds of bad behaviour in him. He was already as flirtatious as a demon could possibly be, I didn't want to encourage him.

  I shook my head, my pony tail bobbing from side to side. "I don't think so. Bad idea." I said, and I knew my caution was evident in my tone.

  He rolled his eyes. "Come on, Blair, I cross my heart not to make a move on you. We'll leave room for the bible." He winked as he drew a cross on his chest.

  I laughed at that, nodding. "OK. I'd love to have an actual bible to hold you to that, I can only imagine how you'd react to that."

  He made a big show out of scowling at me, though the expression lifted when I placed my hand in his. We walked out to the dance floor together, faced one another, and began to move to the music. There was plenty of space between the two of us, almost enough to fit another dance partner if someone had wanted to squeeze in, but we still made the dance look as fluid as possible.

  I was acutely aware of every other body in the crowd, each one that bumped against me had me fighting the urge to throw them into a wall and make sure they never touched me again. It was possible to forget the tension inside of me when I was talking to Mal, but now that it was just the dance available to distract me, it wasn't doing as good a job. I clenched my jaw, feeling the urge mount within me, and I knew that I was failing Mal's test. He wanted to see if I could keep myself under control in a situation that lent itself to losing control, and I could tell that I wasn't ready for this test.

  Not yet.

  I shouldn't be here.

  "Blair?" A man's voice came from behind me, not so close that I wanted to shove him away, but enough that I whirled about to face the speaker.

  Geoff. The owner of Serenity, and a werewolf. I had kept his secret thus far, hadn't even told Raven or Mal about him. To be fair, there had been a lot on my mind lately, with all the training Mal and Raven had put me through, and my usual duties keeping the streets clean.

  "Hey," I said with a tight smile. "Long time."

  "You're telling me. I kind of thought I'd hear from you sooner, but I guess you've been busy." His eyes darted behind me to take in Mal's appearance, and I managed not to roll my eyes. Men were so typical. Of course, I'd been busy with Mal, he'd been training me, but that wasn't the ‘busy’ Geoff meant, I was sure. I could understand where he'd gotten the idea, though; Mal was a gorgeous man, now wearing a loose fitted crimson shirt and black slacks, his black hair slicked back with a curl or two hanging loose about his forehead, and nine times out of ten he had a lazy smirk on his face that seemed to imply how much more he knew than whoever might be paying attention. It was easy to think that anyone who was with him was...well, with him.

  But I wasn't, and I didn't appreciate him adding me to that statistic.

  "Someone has to keep the streets clean," I said in voice that left no doubt what I'd been up to.

  His eyes snapped back to me, a little wide, and he nodded his head. "Who's your friend?" He didn't sound very happy.

  I gestured behind me as I spoke. "This is Mal—"

  Mal interrupted, stepping forward so that he was beside me. "Nice to see you again, Geoffy."

  "You're not welcome here." Geoff all but growled the words.

  My eyes widened as I looked at Mal, hoping to get some kind of clarification from him. I didn't know Geoff well, but he was the owner of a damn club for ne'er do well's, it was a little surprising to see him tell someone to get out. It was the last thing I would have expected. Hell, I would have expected him to tell me to get out for making the clientele antsy, not Mal.

  "Aw, that's no way to talk. I'm not making any trouble. Isn't that your whole thing? Make everybody get along?"

  But Mal didn't sound like he wanted to get along, if anything he sounded like he was picking a fight. I wondered if that had been the idea, was this the test? Was I supposed to stand aside and let Mal do what he wanted, not lose my temper at him for being a dick, or was I supposed to stop him from fighting and prove that fighting wasn't the answer? Well, not always. My heart knew that the latter option was the only real one, but a large part of me was desperate to pass Mal's test.

  I didn't want a repeat of the evening I had the last time I was here.

  "I told you not to come here ever again," Geoff said, taking a step forward.

  Well, the time for indecision was over. I firmly planted myself between the two men, raising my hands so that Geoff's momentum carried his chest into them.

  "Stop." I locked eyes with him so that he could see how deadly serious I was, my tone as firm as the steel strength in my hands. "Don't you have something better to do than act like an alpha male dipstick?" I said, shaking my head at him, applying a small amount of emphasis to the word 'alpha.'

  He glared at me. "I'm not acting like anything, Blair. He's not welcome in my club, and I want him out of here. Now."

  "He's my friend," I said, tilting my head to the side. "Can't you just let it go for now?"

  It was at that moment that a piercing scream broke free of the crowd, bringing all movement within the club to a stuttering halt. The music played on for a moment, but cut out at last when a second scream erupted.

  I lunged into action, trying to fight my way through the crowd to the direction of the screams—more were coming, and from different voices now, amidst shouts of terror…but the crowd was not doing me any favours in letting me get by. Everyone seemed determined to stand as close to one another as possible, getting in my way every time I tried to move around them.

  Ahead of me, I could see a faint glow emitting from a spot in the crowd, and I knew that was where I needed to get to.

  "Get out of my way." I snarled as I shoved another monster to the side. No one was making room for me now, a stark contrast from the way they'd all slithered out of my way and kept a safe distance from me for the most part at the beginning of the evening. With a frustrated growl, I shook out the chain on my right hand so that it hung loose around my fingers.

  "Ventus!" I snarled, but I forced myself to focus as I unleashed the wind from the chain. It swept out, at first with much more force than I wanted, but I managed to tone it down so that it swept a path clear for me without damaging people. They were pushed to the side.

  I raced through the path I'd created before anyone had a chance to get back in and block my way again.

  There were three women standing around a body, screaming their heads off, two of them clinging to one another. There was no attacker in sight.

  I drew in a deep breath, wrapping the chain back around my fingers. I had expected to fight with someone, to have someone to beat out the tension on, but it was just me and a pair of screamers. I had to get it under control.

  It took two more breaths before the red tint abandoned my vision and I could focus on the people in front of me.

  "What happened?" I barked at the girl that looked the most coherent. The two holding one another were alternating between shrieking and sobbing still, but this one was wiping tears from her eyes.

  "I-I don't know. There was someone...or something...and they were...they were hurting him and...and...now he's dead." Her voice cracked and she started to sob again.

  None of it was useful to me. I strode towards her and gripped her arm.

  "Vis," I said, for the first time using the strength to provide comfort to someone. The strength flowed from the cuff to my hand
and then into her skin, and I felt the warmth flood her body. She gasped, staring at me with wide eyes that didn't quite comprehend what had happened.

  "Who are you?" I asked. "Did you know him?" I jerked my head at the body on the ground.

  She shook her head. "He was dancing with her." She pointed a finger at one of the girls across from us. "There was a woman, she came out of nowhere, and she grabbed him. It looked like she was kissing him, but...I think she was sucking out his soul." Her words came easier now, she was using the strength I had given her to deal with the situation.

  I had the oddest feeling of pride about that.

  "What did she look like?" I asked.

  "Um. She had red hair—"

  "No, she didn't, she was blonde!" One of the other girls piped up now, frowning fiercely at the two of us.

  "No, you're wrong, she had black hair," said the other girl in the pairing. The two looked at one another, as if not quite believing that they were giving contrasting descriptions.

  "What are you talking about? She had honey blonde hair. I saw her."

  "I saw her too, and I'm telling you, her hair was black."

  "I thought it was a man." A new voice chimed from the crowd.

  "Don't be ridiculous, of course it was a woman!" Yet another voice from the crowd.

  I could tell the situation was rapidly deteriorating. Apparently, no one was able to identify the woman that had attacked, and she was nowhere to be seen—but even if she was, by the sound of it no-one would even know?

  I groaned. This was not good.

  "Hey, what happened?" Mal asked, finally catching up to me.

  "I don't know. Apparently, we have a soul sucker who no one can identify."

  "Succubus," Mal said, his lips set in a grim line. "That has to be a succubus."