Dark Descent (Codex Blair Book 3) Page 5

  "You need to focus, Blair," Mal said, firing off a blast of dark energy straight at my head.

  I pulled both hands up above my head just in time. "Aegis!" I got the spell out on a gasp of air and felt the attack hammer at my shield.

  Was it just me, or was Mal more aggressive this time?

  "What's up with you?" I asked as I bounced to my feet. "You're not usually so much of an arsehole." I lifted a hand and brought it down in a sweeping arc directed at his chest. "Incendium," I muttered the word, blasting out fire even as I jogged to the side to avoid his next attack.

  Dark energy shot past my head, a narrow miss that singed some of the hair I'd bound up in a ponytail. The pungent smell filtered through my nose.

  "You need to get your game up. You're going up against demons this time, and I don't think you have what it takes."

  "I fight you! I've fought you for six months now, and you haven't hit me any more than I've hit you." I leapt up and spun, managing to connect my foot with his chin and sent us crashing to the ground.

  "I'm not actually trying to kill you." He grunted, rubbing his chin with one hand.

  I blinked, my jaw dropping open. "What?"

  It may sound odd that the revelation that the person I was fighting wasn't outright trying to kill me. Mal should be giving his all. I know I had been. If he had been keeping something back all this time, it meant I was nowhere near as good as I thought I was.

  He gave me a dark look. "I'm not saying I'm intentionally holding anything back, Blair. But you can't deny that there's an ingrained response to avoid killing someone you care about. I just so happen to be aware of it."

  I scowled at him. "Well get over it and try to kill me. I don't want to end up demon chow."

  He stood and offered me his hand, pulling me to my feet.

  "This is a bit of a waste of time right now, I'm afraid," he said. "You're not going to be fighting a succubus like this, not at first anyway. You need to be able to identify them."

  "And how do you suggest I learn how to do that? Do you have one stashed somewhere that I can practice on?"

  He half snorted, half laughed. "I wish, that would certainly come in handy, in more ways than one."

  "Gross." I glared at him. "Don't...don't do that."

  "Hm..." He was ignoring me now, pacing a few steps away and tapping a finger against his mouth. "No, that's very difficult..."

  "What is?"

  "Well, we could simulate an environment where you could interact with an illusion of a succubus, no harm would come to any bystanders, and you would be able to practice. Keep in mind, it won't be quite the real thing. Not as good, but it could help." He turned towards me, crossing his arms over his chest and lifting an eyebrow as if daring me to say it was a horrid idea.

  Far from it, I thought it was excellent.

  "That could work. How would we do it?"

  "A dreamscape, what else?"

  I balked at that, taking an involuntary step back. The dreamscape of the moors that I had pulled together, six months ago, had been one thing—a thing I had been very much in control of. I had controlled that entire world, I could have kicked him out of it at any moment. But what he was asking was for me to voluntarily place myself in a world that he controlled, a world where he would be creating monsters to trick me, and call me crazy but I just could not bring myself to like that idea.

  It's not like you can die in a dreamscape, Blair. I told myself, trying to be reassuring, but I wasn't even sure that was true. He'd said it would safe as far as not harming any bystanders, and that was obviously because he would be creating fake inhabitants of the world, but it didn't mean anything about my own safety...

  "Blair," he said, taking a step towards me. "I'm not going to hurt you. Don't you trust me by now?"

  "Not as far as I can throw you," I said without missing a beat. That was the damned truth; I wasn't fool enough to trust a demon, let alone a Fallen. Fallen were as bad as Fae. Almost. They had turned their backs on their homeland and taken the big dive to Earth. They were the original tricksters of Judaic lore.

  He smirked at that, though. "Good. Come on, then, keep your wits about you. You said you wanted me to try and kill you."

  I had to learn to hold my tongue.

  8

  The world swirled around me for a moment, a dizzying sensation that dropped my stomach out from inside of me and left me slightly nauseous. I felt my legs buckle slightly, and gripped my side to steady myself.

  I was in a club that looked suspiciously like Serenity. A song with a deep, throbbing base was playing in the background, and bodies writhed together around me in what some might call a dance but to me looked a lot closer to vertical fornication. I didn’t know where to look and I was damn sure I wasn’t going to be touching anything.

  Mal's mind. I shook my head. He’s such a bloke.

  Oh, Gods, Mal's mind. The thought sprung to my mind and I glanced down to find myself wearing a tight red dress with a plunging neckline and kitten heels; my platinum blonde hair was visible in my peripheral vision, curled and loose.

  I scowled up at the roof of the club, not knowing where Mal was but hoping that he could feel my distaste. I hated dressing up, but I was at the very least thankful that he hadn't put me in the same clothes I'd worn the last time I'd been dressed up at a club.

  That would have been a nasty shock to my system.

  Without knowing what else to do, I waded into the crowd. A small growl formed in my throat when multiple bodies brushed against mine; I hated having my personal space invaded.

  I fought the urge to run for a balcony, anywhere with open and fresh air that would take away this claustrophobic feeling of the crowd closing in on me, but I had a feeling that Mal hadn't built any of those into his little dreamscape. The whole point of this was throwing me into a crowd and playing 'Spot the Succubus.'

  It seemed an obvious enough game to me; at some point or other someone was going to pop up and ask me to dance, and that could be the succubus. Unless that wasn't going to happen at any point in the world and the succubus was going to be feeding from someone while I twiddled my thumbs.

  With a frustrated groan, I kept moving forward, keeping my eyes open as I floated through the crowd. There were so many half-naked bodies pressed together it was almost impossible to see what was going on, not to mention it was almost embarrassing to look at them. I didn't want to see anything like that going on if it was going to happen.

  A hand caressed my cheek, drawing my attention to the side and bringing a snarl to my lips. I felt it die there as soon as I took in the form of the woman standing, smiling at me.

  "Hello," she said, a bright smile decorating ruby red lips. Long black hair cascaded down to her waist, framing the porcelain skin of her face. She looked like Snow White, and she was absolutely breath-taking. Her dress was long, with a slit that ran up to mid-thigh. Obvious, but it did its job of drawing the eye just fine.

  I found that my breath had caught in my throat, and I shook my head just a bit to clear my thoughts and bring me back to the present.

  Succubus.

  It had to be.

  "What's a girl like you doing here?"

  My eyebrows jumped up. "Really, we're going with that pick-up line? Genius," I said.

  Her lips turned down in a frown. "What are you talking about?"

  Confusion spread through my mind and I took a step back. Well, hadn't it been obvious? That was the most basic pick up line out there, why had she questioned my response?

  Just then a scream broke out for far away, and I whirled around in time to see a path clear as a creature devoured the soul of a man.

  The people in the club disappeared, the lights came on, and Mal stood in front of me.

  "You let yourself get distracted."

  "But she was..."

  "A beautiful woman, yes, and she hit on you, yes, but perhaps you should have been relying on your other senses."

  Duh. Hadn't Raven given me that same speech t
wo years ago, when I'd been trying to find the ritual location back at Tower Hill? To use my senses and listen for the ebb and flow of magic in the area?

  I was such an idiot, I'd been so keen to out-think Mal, I hadn't been thinking about the behaviour of a succubus at all.

  "Sorry," I muttered, going to shove my hands in my pockets and then grimacing when my hands slid down against the silk of my dress.

  "Let's try it again," he said, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye, replaced by the music, the crowd, and dim lighting once again.

  I pulled in an exasperated breath, pushing my way through the crush while trying not to touch. I lowered my mental shields, listening for the presence of another magical creature.

  It turned out to be a lot harder than I would have thought, because the entire crowd was magic. Knowing Mal, he would have configured the succubus in the crowd to be just a smidge more than the others, to replicate reality. I just had to sort through all the noise.

  I had walked all the way through the crowd and was out the other side and still hadn't figured anything out. I knew that the clock was ticking, any moment now the scream was going to come and then the lights would come on and Mal would be chastising me.

  "So crowded, isn't it?" A girl wearing a black shirt and pants leaned against the wall, glaring out at the crowd. "My brother dragged me here; I'd be home in my pyjamas if I had any say in the matter."

  I knew that this was another trick from Mal, but I couldn't figure out the point of it. Just another distraction?

  "Have you seen anything weird?" I couldn't help but rely on my old natural tricks. Ask the people around and see what they would say.

  I had failed the last test because I'd been so focussed on trying to figure out what Mal was up to that I hadn't paid any attention to the details in this world; would playing along get me there?

  I walked closer to the girl.

  She shrugged. "I haven't seen anything weird, but I guess I haven't been paying the most attention. Want a smoke?" She had pulled a pack out of her pants pocket and was offering me a cigarette.

  "Are we allowed to smoke in here?" I asked, brow furrowed. I wanted one, but I also didn't want to waste any time...

  "Who cares?" She laughed. "You're obviously looking for someone. Might have a better view from here than if you got lost in that crowd."

  She had a point.

  I stationed myself beside her and reached for the cigarette.

  And then she slammed me into the wall, her elbow jamming into my windpipe. The cigarette pack vanished from her hands and she was clenching my jaw with her free hand, forcing my mouth open, and I saw a void open within her mouth.

  The world began to go soft, I couldn't focus, I didn't know what was happening...

  The lights came on. The girl was nowhere to be seen.

  I collapsed to the floor, dragging in air. I knew that it was fake now, but it had been a terrifying experience for a moment there, and I felt the panic washing over me in waves.

  Mal's legs came into my line of vision and I could hear him clapping, though the sound was too far away for what my eyes were telling me.

  I forced myself to focus.

  "What did you do wrong that time?" Mal asked, his voice stern.

  I glared up at him, wanting to scream at him that he wasn't being helpful at all, but I knew that he was just trying to get me ready. I sucked. I knew it but that wasn't his fault.

  "I was pulled in by a kindred spirit who gained a small amount of trust and distracted me from my true goal." I ground my teeth as I spoke, hating him speaking to me like he would a child, hating having to report my failings.

  "Yes. You were too focussed on the idea that the succubus would appear as a sex icon; you need to let that go. It's a shapeshifter, it can look any way it wants, and it can get inside of your head without tripping any of your fancy alarms and figure out what will get you to open up. You dropped your shields and let it in."

  "You said I should be listening with my other senses!" I protested.

  "You should know how to do that without opening yourself up for an attack!" He shouted at me and I cringed, lifting an arm reflexively to defend against an attack.

  Mal shouting at me like that brought back all kinds of awful memories about the foster homes I'd grown up in, the parents who had beaten me until they'd broken my spirit. Everyone loves to talk about how they managed to shut down and not let it affect them; I say bullshit! The deprivation of love at such a young age had done a number on me, the constant conditioning to expect abuse even more.

  I breathed in through my nose, fighting back the memories and pushing them away inch by inch. I could do this. I could fight them back and focus on the here and now. This wasn't going to help me with the fight against Mal.

  Mal. Demon. Fallen. Trainer.

  I focussed on his shoes first, black leather that shone in the light, letting the visual reminder of a physical item ground me. This might be a fake world, but Mal was real and he was a part of the present; the world that I now lived in. The past was over and done with.

  Panic attacks had no place in this world.

  Mal crouched in front of me, concern writ across his face.

  "What's wrong?" His face had something on it I hadn’t seen before from him. Pity.

  That only made it worse. I cannot stand pity.

  I shook my head, clenching my jaw tight and resisted the urge to bring my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. I was not a child in need of comfort.

  "I'm fine," I said through gritted teeth. "Just give me a second."

  His head tilted, eyebrows knit together, and I could tell that he wanted to say something, but he didn't open his mouth.

  Good. I didn't want to hear any of his sympathetic crap. I just wanted the moment I needed to pull myself together.

  I breathed in again, through my nose and out my mouth, forcing the feelings away and into a dark corner of my mind. They could wait until tonight—no matter what, I always had nightmares, either about my foster homes, or about any of the hundreds of monsters I'd killed over the past two years. Something always came to haunt me no matter what, every night.

  That was why I stayed up so late training, putting off the inevitable.

  "I'm fine," I said again. I forced myself to stand, bracing my hands on the wall behind me. "Let's run it again."

  "Blair..." He started to speak, but whatever he was going to say died on his lips when he saw the fierce determination in my eyes.

  "No, Mal, no. We're not taking a minute, we're not chatting about whatever the fuck you want to talk about. Let's run it again." I clenched my fists, daring him to disagree with me.

  "OK." He sighed, dragging a hand through his hair, messing it up a bit. "Let's run it again."

  9

  I scratched against the worn wooden pew I was sitting in; churches made me nervous. I'd rather not be here, but a letter had shown up on my doorstep that morning inviting me to a forum for the magical community. It was the first one I'd been invited to, but apparently, it was a regular thing from the tone of the letter.

  I wondered how they'd found out about me to send the invitation, but considering everything I'd been up to I supposed it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. Once you took into account the fact that I'd met Lillai—a shopkeeper with deep ties to the community—two years ago, it was a little odd that no one had said a word to me yet.

  People were milling about around me, the incessant buzz of incoherent conversation filling the room. I didn't want to be here, and if I wanted to, I could leave, but I'd made the decision to come here to warn them about the succubus on the loose. I didn't know if any of them were aware of what was going on, and it would be cruel to let it go unannounced now that an opportunity had presented itself.

  I should have made more of an effort to reach out sooner.

  I'm antisocial, so sue me.

  "OK, everyone, let's take our seats and get ready," Lillai said from the front of the
church. She stood in the box normally reserved for a preacher, which led me to believe that she was going to oversee the whole thing. Was that why I hadn't been invited sooner? I had the sense that she disliked me when we'd met.

  The people began to take their seats, though no one sat beside me. Apparently, even in magical communities I was an outcast; nothing new for me. I had always been on the outside of things, never knowing how to connect with people, always saying or doing the wrong things.

  I used to be a lot more comfortable with that fact than I was now; making a few friends had spoiled me. I even had Fred constantly under foot, with information given at every opportunity, and his own weird friendship. I’d become used to it now, and I’d taken to the idea that I would get along with other members of the community because of how easily I'd taken to Aidan.

  But Aidan hadn't been the type to get along with others either, and in fact had been a loner. Had he even been involved with the community?

  Lillai cleared her throat again, tapping a finger against the podium as she waited for everyone to settle down.

  "All right, let's get to our first order of business," she said, shuffling some papers as she prepared to speak.

  It was then that I began to wonder how long this thing was going to go on, and when it would be OK to bring up the information that I had. A warning of potential attacks was important, especially because the succubus was acting outside of the norm. But no one knew what I had to say—the whole point of me being there—so if I interrupted I knew it wasn't going to go over well.

  I just didn't want to be there any longer than was necessary. I wanted to get this over with as quickly as was possible.

  Did I mention that I hate churches?

  "As you all know, the Winter Solstice is coming up and..."

  I tuned her voice out, not paying attention to the meeting. I was a little curious, but not enough to pay any real attention. I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in the pew, staring up at the church ceiling above.

  What the hell am I going to say to them? I thought to myself, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Hey, how's it going, there's a blood thirsty succubus out there that seems to have gone completely bonkers and might suck your soul out. How about that match last night though?