The Darkening (14 page)

"I don't really know," he told her. "Anything that might tell us more about the demons holding Tain.'

Lexi looked around the desk as it occurred to her that there was no computer. No one did business these days without one, and it didn't make sense that they would carry a laptop back and forth each day. As well hidden as the office was, there would be no need. They couldn't have anticipated someone having access to an Immortal's magic key.

The more she thought about it, the more the office looked fake, like this was yet another illusion.

She took another look at the layout of the furniture in the room. The two floor-to-ceiling bookcases flanking the credenza were piled high with books of varying sizes, stacks of papers and folded newspapers, most covered with dust.

The entire left wall was one large bookcase. The shelves of it were neatly lined with leather-bound book collections, and there was little dust on these books.

"How many demons do you know who read Tolstoy?" Lexi asked.

Darius looked at her and then at the bookcase she'd been studying. He moved to stand just before the wall and raised his hands, trailing them over the shelves and books. Then she heard a click and the bookcase split in two, with the top half rising up into the ceiling while the lower half disappeared into a space that had conveniently opened in the floor.

Lexi was left looking at six small screen monitors, one larger one, a panel of dials, switches and a central keyboard.

"Nice trick," Lexi said, impressed.

"Any idea what this is-or how it works?"

Lexi pulled the desk chair over and sat down. "An idea is about all I've got. I'm guessing that each of these screens is linked to a camera and depending on where these cameras are located, this is either a security system or an entertainment system."

She ran her hand across the panel, making note of each one. When she found the power switch, she turned it on. Immediately the six smaller screens flickered to life. "Entertainment system," Lexi said when the images cleared and she found herself looking into four different private sex rooms and two views of the group sex room.

She looked around the control panel and noticed a second power switch, so she pressed it and soon saw a sequence of boot-up commands flickering across the larger screen. She'd found the computer.

"Surprise, surprise," she said derisively a minute later. "They're mostly video files stored here." She randomly selected one and played it.

An image of a private room filled the computer screen, and she watched as a male vampire and a human female walked in. It was with a kind of stunned fascination that Lexi watched the vampire undress the woman and carry her to the bed. Soon he had her beneath him on the bed and they were vigorously getting it on. There was no sound, for which Lexi was grateful. It was bad enough to watch without the accompanying animal-like, rutting noises.

"Mother Goddess," Darius swore as he stood behind Lexi and watched the screen.

Feeling extremely self-conscious, Lexi closed the video file and selected another. This one showed two same-sex couples performing. Lexi closed it and opened another. This time, she got footage from the main bar area. She was about to close it when a familiar face appeared on the screen-Mai.

Lexi quickly checked the date of the video-it was from the night before. She turned back to the video and saw that Mai was no longer alone. Lexi zoomed in on the image, hoping to get a better look at the man she was with. He seemed to be in his mid-thirties, had short blond hair and was very clean-cut, different from the type Mai usually chose. Lexi fast-forwarded the video and saw Mai and the man disappear into a back room. Thirty minutes later, they reappeared together, walked to the front door of the bar and left.

Lost in thought, Lexi let the video run. She wondered if the reason Mai wasn't answering her phone had anything to do with the blond. He'd been very attractive.

The reappearance of the man on screen caught her attention. This time, he was alone and he walked through the bar straight to the back rooms.

When he came back out, he was accompanied by a petite woman with bright pink hair. Beside her, Lexi heard Darius gasp. "That's her," he said. "That's the succubus."

The couple on the monitor seemed barely able to keep their hands off each other as they walked through the bar. When they reached the front door, they stopped to talk to the bouncer. Lexi watched the bouncer pull out a card and pen from his pocket and hand it to the man, who scribbled something down before handing both back. The bouncer in turn took the card and tacked it to the wall, next to a series of other cards tacked there.

Then the blond man walked out the door with the succubus on his arm.

Lexi let the video play, but there was nothing more to see. Closing the file, she happened to notice the time on the computer.

"It's going to be getting dark soon," she told Darius. "We don't want to be here when the vampires start waking up."

He nodded. "Let's go."

She stopped the video, closed the files and turned off both the security and computer systems. Then Darius was able to locate the mechanism to return the bookcases to their previous position and they left the office. When Lexi turned to look back at the door, it was gone, replaced once again by the hanging panel of drapes.

They walked through the club and as they reached the door, Lexi saw the board where the bouncer had tacked the card. She found the one posted in the video and took it down.

"If the succubus is as dangerous as you say, maybe we should pay this Howard Parks a visit," she suggested.

"Good idea," Darius said. "Let's go."

They left the club, taking care to lock the door behind them. As they headed down the sidewalk, Lexi pulled out her cell phone and called Mai's apartment again. There was still no answer. She tried Mai's office and cell phone in turn, with the same luck. Lexi was starting to get concerned now. This wouldn't be the first time her wood-nymph friend had gotten into trouble during an investigation.

Five years ago, Mai had infiltrated the inner circle of a major con-artist ring. But she had let herself get too involved with the thugs running the show. The only reason she was still alive was because she'd been arrested on minor charges for involvement in one of the scams before the ringleader had a chance to discover what she was up to and kill her.

Already into her next project, Mai had been too distracted to remember her court date and ended up in Lexi's in-box as the skip of the day. And they'd been friends ever since. Lexi just hoped Mai's luck was still holding out.

Darius was silent for much of the ride to Howard Parks's apartment. Lexi thought they were going there to question the man about the succubus. Darius just hoped Parks was still alive. For the succubus to leave the nightclub, she must have felt very confident about her safety. The demon lord's power and influence was even greater than Darius had first thought.

When they reached the apartment building, Darius found the front door locked.

"We can't get in without the access code," Lexi told him.

He started to reach for his key, but she put out a hand to stop him. "I don't think that will work this time." Instead, she turned to the panel of buttons beside the door and ran her finger down the list of names beside each button. When she stopped, she was pointing at the name "Parks."

She pressed the button and then looked at him. "Maybe he'll let us in."

They waited for a full minute, but nothing happened. "If not"-she continued pressing the rest of the buttons-"there's a chance someone else is home and expecting company.

To Darius's surprise, he heard a slight buzzing noise followed by the sound of the front door unlocking. Lexi grabbed it before it could lock again, and the two went in. They took the elevator to the fourth floor and Darius followed Lexi down the hall.

"This is the address on the card," Lexi told him, stopping in front of one of the doors. She looked at him.

"You know that this guy might not know anything Darius nodded. "Let's see what he has to say anyway."

She knocked on the door and waited a full two minutes before knocking again. After the third time, Darius pulled out his key.

Inside, it seemed like an ordinary apartment-clean but lived in. Everything was turned off, like the owner had left for the day.

"Doesn't look like he's home," Darius said. Lexi didn't respond, and when he turned to look at her, she had a peculiar expression on her face. "Lexi?"

"I don't know," she said slowly. "Something doesn't
smell right." Without another word, she walked to the back of the apartment and disappeared into one of the three rooms.

Darius followed more slowly. He was noticing the trail of men's clothes that started in the living room and continued down the hallway. They lay in heaps, like someone had taken them off in a hurry and forgotten them. In an otherwise tidy apartment, he knew what it meant. Parks hadn't been
able
to pick up his clothes after sex with the succubus.

"Found him," Lexi hollered a second later, and Darius didn't need her to tell him Parks was dead.

In the back bedroom, he saw Lexi standing beside the bed, looking down at a very still form. "If I didn't know better, I would say he died of old age."

Moving to stand beside her, Darius looked down at the body. Howard Parks, whom he'd guessed to be thirty-four or thirty-five from his image on the video, now looked ancient. His face had aged, the skin withered. His blond hair had lost its luster and appeared gray. Even the hands, resting on
,
top of the blankets, looked frail and worn.

"I've never seen a demon do this," Lexi said softly.

"Not a demon," he corrected. `A succubus. They're a thousand times worse than the demons you're used to seeing. They don't just feed off living magic. They suck their victims dry, leaving behind this dry, withered shell. It's why the Mother Goddess destroyed them all those years ago

"All except this one," Lexi pointed out. "Yeah. All except this one."

"Damn it," Lexi suddenly swore. "I've got to get out of here." She was already heading for the door. "Wait, where are you going?"

She stopped and stared at him, for the first time truly understanding how he felt about his brother Tain. "My best friend was with this guy last night. I don't fully understand what's going on, but I'm afraid Mai is somehow mixed up in it. I've got to find her-now."

CHAPTER NINE

Lexi left Darius to further study Howard Parks's apartment and caught a cab to Mai's building.

The doorman greeted her by name as she entered, but Lexi had no time for pleasantries. She had a hard time holding still during the elevator ride. When she reached Mai's apartment on the tenth floor, she knocked and listened closely.

Knocking again, she waited. When Mai still didn't appear at the door, Lexi used the key her friend had given her.

"Mai, you home?" she hollered as she opened the door, not wanting to surprise Mai if she was in the bedroom entertaining a guest.

A quick inspection of the apartment showed that it was empty. There were signs that Mai had been there, however. The dress Lexi had seen her wearing in the video was lying on the bedroom floor beside the closet. There were dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, and an unfinished glass of soda was still on the table. The ice had long since melted, but when Lexi shook the glass, the

soda still fizzed. Mai had been there sometime in the last couple of hours, which went a long way toward easing Lexi's worries.

She walked over to the kitchen counter, looking for a notepad so she could leave Mai a message to call her. Noticing Mai's calendar lying open, she turned it toward her and read the one appointment Mai had entered for the day-and it left her feeling cold.
9:00 p.m., The Crypt, Domino Costume Party-Party room in back.

By 8:45 p.m. Lexi had turned down several offers to have sex. She was standing in the back of the Crypt, near the registration desk for the party room, so she supposed it was natural that men would assume she was looking for action.

Not for the first time since they parted that afternoon, Lexi wished Darius were at her side. As frustrating as he could be sometimes, at least he was someone she could confide in someone she could trust. They hadn't made plans to meet up again, but she figured he'd be back at the apartment when she got home.

Home is looking better and better, Lexi thought as she waited in line for the domino party. She had hoped to find Mai before it started. After running home from Mai's place to change clothes and make a quick call to Heather, she'd immediately returned to the Crypt, but she still hadn't spotted her friend.

Lexi was beginning to grow anxious. She just wanted to find Mai and get the hell out of there. The longer she stayed, the greater the chance she'd actually have to participate.