Cursed: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 1) (10 page)

“You got held up by an Ent? One of those walking tree monsters from Lord of the Rings?” I asked, hardly able to stop the words from spilling out of my mouth. It seemed ridiculous to think one of them had mugged a vampire at knife point. What was next, a unicorn drug dealer?

“More or less. Let me tell you right now, you don’t want to find yourself anywhere near an Ent. Those books and stories talk a good game, putting them out was real good PR on behalf of the elves and their buddies, but you don’t want to mess with any of those woodsy creatures. If you see an Ent, you do like the rest of us do. You drop your wallet and run.” He glanced toward my black arm. “Even if you do have that.”

“Speaking of which,” I paused trying to figure out my words. “You said that Sera was taken by Vassago’s Cursed. I’ve never even heard that name before.” It was a little weird because as I said the name Vassago a spurt of rage that had nothing to do with Sera’s abduction sprang up inside me.

“You probably wouldn’t have heard of him even if you could remember your past. Vassago is a demon prince. He rules something like twenty-four realms of Hell.” The vampire gripped the steering wheel a little tighter and stared straight ahead for a long moment.

“Twenty-four realms? How many realms of Hell are there?” I swallowed hard. Hopefully, I didn’t have to traverse across all of them to find Sera. I might not have that much time.

“Only Lucifer could tell you for certain, but there’s way more than you’d think. See, Lucifer got bored with that whole ‘King of Hell’ thing eons ago. He’s content to sit back on his burning throne and do whatever it is he wants to do and let his minions run the place. Vassago is one of those minions. Thankfully, he doesn’t come to Earth much himself nor does he empower Cursed very often. When he does, they tend to be bad asses over and above their magic. The fact that your demon seems to get riled up every time I mention the name, and yes, I noticed the way your face tightens when I say it, is worrisome.”

“Why? Shouldn’t that mean I can win?” I asked as a bad feeling crept down my spine. Vassago was some kind of mega demon, and the thought of him made me think of a petulant child needing to be smacked around. No, it was worse than that. It was like thinking of an impudent ant daring to bite me. Who the hell had I contracted with?

“It may or may not.” The vampire shrugged. “I’m inclined to think that in the short term you might be able to beat that other Cursed. That’s good for us since I’m pretty sure his plans for Sera aren’t something we’d want to celebrate with cake and pie. However, it makes me worry about associating with you, especially since I have no idea who the hell you are.”

“So why are you really taking me to see Ricky?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t going to bring down more trouble on Jack. Even if he was a vampire, I still sort of liked him. I guess I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. “And don’t give me that crap about making them pay for your bar.”

“I like Sera. She’s like the daughter I never wanted.” He shot me a wry smile that revealed a flash of fang. It was weird because I sort of got the feeling he approved of me, and while I wasn’t sure why, that made me strangely happy.

“Why does the cult want her?” I asked, trying to decide how long they’d known each other. Something told me it was a while.

“Who knows? I try to stay out of supernatural politics. Normal politics aren’t fun and people have the attention span of gnats. Most entities I know count time in millennia. They’re like elephants who never forget
and
never forgive.” Jack smacked his steering wheel with his fingers, banging out a sad tune I didn’t quite recognize. “Besides, Ricky should get put down a notch or two. I think you can do that.”

“Why is that? For all I know, I’m some two bit hustler in over my head.” Even as I said the words, I got the feeling it wasn’t quite true. I may have been in over my head, but something told me the demon I’d contracted with wouldn’t have done it if I was some nobody. At least, I hoped that was the case. If it wasn’t, well, I was probably going to be dead within the hour.

“Oh, I have no doubt of that. You’re definitely in over your head, but that doesn’t make your demon any less territorial,” Jack said, turning onto a narrow street lined with office buildings. “It’s what I’m counting on.”

“My demon has territory?” That sort of made sense. Hadn’t Jack said Vassago was the prince of like twenty-four realms?

“Not in the way you’re thinking about it. See, most demons are like those Siamese fighting fish.” Jack’s eyes went distant as he spoke like he was remembering a particularly disturbing memory.

“The ones that kill each other when you put them together?” I asked, pictured the colorful fish destined to live out their lives in tiny plastic cups. I’d never seen them fight before, but I could hardly imagine it being a traumatic experience.

“Yeah, the very same. When one catches sight of another, Hell tends to break loose, figuratively speaking.” He smirked. “I’m counting on your inner demon to go ape shit on that other Cursed and save Sera. If that doesn’t happen, well, I’ll figure something out.”

“So your plan is to hope, I, the guy with no memory, can control a demon I’ve never met, to save Sera?” I asked, feeling slightly stupid because that had been my plan. Yet, as I said it, the realization of how absolutely insane it was filled me. Still, as I thought about it, I knew I needed to try. It wasn’t because I was some heroic jackass either. Deep inside me, I knew the demon who had cursed me wanted me to save Sera, if only to prove a point to Vassago. Something told me that if I succeeded, I’d collect some major brownie points with my own demon, and I was pretty sure I needed all the points I could get.

“I didn’t say it was a good plan,” Jack said, throwing the truck into park outside a nondescript office building with the type of landscape that screamed professional service that wasn’t too expensive. You know the kind, cheap colorful flowers and freshly-mowed grass. “I just said it was
a
plan. Now get out, Ricky will be on the top floor. The wolves own this building.”

Chapter 12

We’d been waiting in the lobby for about ten minutes when a short black woman in her mid-twenties wearing a conservative blue suit stepped out of the elevator and fixed Jack with a look that made me want to run for cover. It was the a look that said, “I’ve seen you naked and wasn’t impressed.” She flipped her blonde ponytail in annoyance and gestured for us to approach with one long-nailed finger while clutching a clipboard to her chest with her other hand.

“You might think that’s a dye job,” Jack said, not bothering to lower his voice as he made his way toward the elevator, a smirk painted across his lips. “But I can assure you, the carpet does match the drapes.” He glanced at me and raised his hand conspiratorially. “Werewolves can change their hair color, but she’s the only one I know who does it down there too.”

The girl’s face hardened into granite as she glanced from him to me and back again, and I suddenly had the horrible feeling I was being played for a fool. I felt like I’d stepped into a college frat party as the guest of the guy known for throwing up in the punch bowl and starting fights. I took a deep breath and shot the girl my nicest smile as I followed Jack into the tiny metal elevator.

“You shouldn’t say things like that to me, Jack. One day Ricky won’t be around, and on that day, I’ll chop off your balls,” the woman replied, stabbing a button on the elevator hard enough for me to feel sorry for the inanimate object. “I already have a special place in my purse all picked out for them.”

“Honey, you may want to get in line. If I had a nickel for every girl who wanted to chop off my balls, I’d be richer than Warren Buffett.” Jack shot her a wry grin, and I was starting to think his natural M.O. might be to piss people off. It made me wonder how long he’d been alive. Something about his face made me think he was ancient, but jackasses tended to get killed early on. I’d have to watch him closely.

She raised an eyebrow at Jack, and I swear to God, her nails grew a little longer and little sharper as she looked him up and down. She stood in one of those wide, open stances that dared him to try something. “Keep it up Jackie. I’ll bet soprano suits you.”

Jack chuckled, and the sound of it seemed to fill the tiny elevator as he turned his back completely to the woman and gave me a knowing smile. He
was
playing her. I just wished he’d let me know why. “Cursed, I’d like you to meet Loraine, Ricky’s second. She’s not powerful enough to even lick Ricky’s boots, but she
is
nice to look at. It’s probably why she hasn’t tripped and fallen on something sharp quite yet.”

Loraine stiffened like she’d been struck and fury filled her dark eyes. The smell of wet dog caught my nose as her mouth bared just a touch, reminding me of when I’d faced down the two thugs in the laundromat. Unfortunately, unlike then, I was currently enclosed in a metal coffin hurtling up who knew how many floors. A fight here would likely not end well.

“I’m sorry my friend is a jackass,” I said, pushing past Jack and offering her my hand. “I’ve only known him a few minutes actually. We’re not even really friends, more like acquaintances.”

Loraine looked at my hand like it was covered in dung, and then, with a loud sigh shook her head and painted a smile across her lips that died well before his eyes. “I’ll do my best not to hold it against you,
Cursed
.”

“She won’t be shaking your hand, so you might as well put that away,” Jack said, reaching out and pushing my right hand down to my side. “Even if she wasn’t a germophobe, which she is even though werewolves can eat raw chicken and not have to worry about salmonella, she wouldn’t touch your demon flesh since it’s an affront to Gaia or some other stupid shit.”

“Just because no werewolf has ever gotten food poisoning does not mean we’re immune to some weird demonic pathogen. Maybe all it takes is for me to get demon AIDs is to touch his arm. Call me crazy, but I do not want to be the black swan that destroys my species.” Loraine pursed her lips, apparently choosing to ignore the Gaia crack. She opened her mouth to say more when the elevator beeped, and we lurched to a stop on a floor with no number.

The metal doors opened, revealing a room bigger than a breadbasket, but not by much. The ground was covered with soft cream colored carpet, and while one of the walls was encompassed by a huge window, the other two were paneled in redwood. It reminded me of a cabin only modern and comfortable, if a bit cozy. A sleek chrome desk sat directly in front of the elevator, taking up the majority of the room. On the wall behind it was a painting of a Nordic looking blonde wearing a wolf skin cloak standing on a snow capped cliff overlooking a forest of pine trees.

Loraine stepped out of the elevator still clutching her clipboard to her chest as though trying to hide her ample cleavage from Jack’s eyes, but all that made him do was smile lasciviously. It was the kind of gaze that made me think he probably had seen her naked, and the fallout had not been friendly. Man, I was going to be so dead.

Before I’d even made it out of the elevator, Loraine was across the tiny room, standing next to a door I hadn’t noticed before. It was the same shade as the rest of the wall so it nearly blended in with the surroundings, which I suspected was the point.

“I’d caution you to mind your tongue when speaking with the alpha, but I know you won’t bother,” Loraine said, her voice hushed and strangely reverent as she pressed her hand against the wall.

A little wooden panel slid away to reveal one of those biometric hand readers. Loraine touched it, and green light flashed from between her fingers for several seconds before the door opened, exposing a long dark tunnel. The only light from within came from a strip of white LEDs set into the cement floor.

“Please tell me we aren’t going into a dark tunnel,” I murmured as Jack shot me a look that had a frailness to it I hadn’t expected. It shook me. He’d been cocky a second ago, but now he was scared. Well, screw this.

Loraine shot me a pleased smile rimmed with wicked intentions. “Ricky is just through there—”

I cut off her words with a bullet to the face. The right side of her skull evaporated in a cloud of blood and thicker bits. Not bad for a left-handed shot. Instead of falling, she staggered backward, her remaining eye fixing on me with hate. For good measure, I fired the Beretta twice more. The two shots caught her in the center of the chest, knocking her body to the ground with a thud I couldn’t hear over the sudden ringing in my ears.

“How about you get Ricky out here before I get mad?” I barked as the crack of the gunshots faded.

I stepped up to the woman as blood gushed from her perforated chest, staining both the carpet and her blue blouse scarlet. I ground the toe of my cheap loafer into the wound. She half-gasped, half burbled a cry of pain that let me know she was still very much alive. Good, I hadn’t wanted to kill her.

Truthfully, after what I’d seen from the two low level werewolves I’d tangled with earlier, I wasn’t exactly worried about killing her. I wanted to let the wolves know I was serious. Since I could already see her bone and tissue starting to knit itself back together, I decided to kick it up a notch. If I let up for long, Loraine would be fully healed and pissed. That wouldn’t help.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jack cried, reaching out toward me, but I held up my right hand as the smell of rotten eggs filled the air. He stopped midstride and stared at me, mouth agape. “You’re going to get us both killed.”

I ignored him and turned back to the woman struggling beneath my shoe like a wounded animal. Her skull had already reformed in a way that reminded me of watching a candle melt in reverse. I’d definitely have to hurry. I sucked in a breath, filling my lungs with the coppery tang of her blood and the tattoos along my right arm blazed to life. Scarlet light pulsed along my arm as I bent down and grabbed her by the throat with my right hand, careful to keep my gun at the ready in my left. If anyone came through that hallway, I wanted to be ready.