Hellion Page 3

  His reply came thirty seconds later. On my way.

  Stuffing my phone back into the clutch, I grabbed the folded karambit I carried when I went clubbing. My dresses didn’t leave any room for concealed weapons, but I’d seen enough in my life to know I’d have to be an idiot to go out unarmed.

  The curved silver blade was only three inches long, but I could do damage with that. Gripping it in one hand, I placed myself between the unconscious woman and the stall. I wanted to know what that thing in the toilet was, but my main priority was to protect the human until backup arrived.

  Water splashed again, followed by a scraping sound. Before I could register that the thing was trying to climb out of the toilet, I heard a wet plop on the tile floor.

  An ominous silence filled the room. I didn’t breathe.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement, and I jerked my head to the right in time to see a black tentacle appear under the neighboring stall door.

  I barely had time to react before the creature came flying at me. I sidestepped the attack, and the thing crashed hard into the mirror, sending glass raining down on the vanity.

  A shapeless black glob landed in one of the sinks. I raised my knife and took a step toward the vanity. At the same time, the restroom door started to open. I shouted a warning as the creature launched from the sink toward the door.

  My arm moved without conscious thought, and my knife sailed across the room. The blade struck the creature and pinned it to the wall, inches from Mason’s startled face. Impaled on the blade, the thing thrashed violently and went still as smoke poured from its body.

  Mason hurried into the room and shut the door, his eyes never leaving the creature. “What the hell is that?”

  “No idea, but my guess is it’s a demon.”

  He scanned the room, taking in the damage. “Where did it come from?”

  I pointed to the woman on the floor. “It came out of her.”

  His eyes went wide. “Shit. Is she dead?”

  “She was alive last I checked, but God knows what that thing did to her.” I studied the demon that had stopped moving, but I couldn’t make out a shape. It was a blob with tentacles. I saw a curved black claw on the end of one tentacle.

  Someone banged on the door, and Mason put his hand against it to prevent them from coming in. He looked at me. “I called for backup, but we won’t be able to keep people out of here for long.”

  His meaning was clear. We had to get rid of the demon before the humans saw it. It was too big to flush, and I had a feeling Raoul was going to want to see this one. I could stuff it in the garbage, but what if it wasn’t dead and it attacked someone else? Or one of the humans found it?

  I grimaced when I realized there was only one place I could hide the thing so we could get it out of here. I dumped my phone and cash from my clutch and carried it over to the door. Grasping the handle of my knife, I yanked it out of the wall and dropped the demon into the purse. I had to use paper towels to get all the tentacles inside because no way was I touching that thing if I could help it. It was a tight squeeze, but I managed to squish the demon into the clutch.

  Once the demon was safely tucked away, I handed my knife to Mason, and he put it in his pocket. Then I motioned for him to stop blocking the door.

  A bouncer in a black club T-shirt was the first one to enter the room, and he came up short at the sight before him. “What’s going on in here?” he demanded, no doubt wondering why Mason was in the women’s restroom.

  I put one hand to my chest and pointed to the unconscious woman with the other. “She was throwing up, and then she went into convulsions and broke the mirror.”

  Moving past Mason, the bouncer crouched to check on the woman. “What is this black stuff? And what is that god-awful smell?”

  “I think a toilet backed up,” I said innocently. I hoped he didn’t push the matter because I had no good answer for him.

  He stood and spoke into a wireless radio attached to his ear. “Call nine-one-one. We have a possible OD.”

  More club staff poured into the room, and I motioned to Mason that we should leave. We slipped past the crowd outside the restroom and exited by the club’s rear door. Before I left, I looked back and found the man I’d danced with. He was still where I’d left him and looking at his watch. I felt a stab of disappointment as I turned away and followed Mason outside.

  Raoul and Brock were the first to arrive, and they met up with us in the parking lot of the building next to Suave. I gave them a rundown of what had happened in the restroom, and Mason added the part where he’d come in.

  By the time we’d finished recounting our story, a white van pulled in and Jon’s team got out. I used to share a safehouse with them when I first came to Los Angeles, so we knew each other well.

  Jon, a big blond Norwegian whom I’d nicknamed Thor, grinned at me. “Why am I not surprised to see you? Causing trouble again?”

  “Just saving the world. Same old, same old.” I waved at the van. “You have a cleanup kit in there?”

  “Yah, what do you need?” he said.

  I held up my clutch. “Something to store this thing in.”

  He eyed the purse. “What is it?”

  “Dead demon. At least, I think it’s dead.”

  That got everyone’s attention, and they came closer as Jon reached into the van and lifted out a large bin. From the bin, he took a thick plastic bag, which he held up to me. I walked over to him and unclasped my purse, dumping the demon into the bag. Jon immediately sealed it and placed it inside a silver mesh sack as an extra precaution. If the demon was playing possum, it would not be able to break free of its confinement.

  Raoul took the bag from Jon, turning it over in his hands and staring at the demon for a long moment. “This came out of the woman?”

  “Yes.” I waited for him to say something else, but he just continued to study the demon.

  “Do you know what it is?” Mason asked him.

  Raoul wore a puzzled expression when he looked at us. “It looks like a Hurra demon, but that’s not possible.”

  I looked from Raoul to the demon. “Are they not usually found in North America?”

  He frowned. “They aren’t found anywhere on Earth because they were eradicated three centuries ago.”

  “Whoa.” Mason’s eyes rounded, and I’m sure his shocked expression mirrored mine.

  Raoul rubbed his chin. “We need to get it back to the lab for identification before we report this.”

  “And if you’re right about what it is?” I asked him.

  His eyes met mine. “Then we have a serious problem.”

  Chapter 2

  “Any word yet?” I sank down on one of the visitor chairs in Raoul’s office. Mason took the other chair.

  Raoul looked up from his laptop. “Should hear something soon.”

  Once we had gotten back to the command center, we’d taken the demon to the medical ward that had been set up in the old guesthouse. At any given time, there could be up to two dozen warriors in southern California, so the powers that be had seen the need for a full-time medical staff at the house. We had two healers who also ran a small lab in the ward. The lab wasn’t as sophisticated as one you’d find at a stronghold, but it worked in a pinch. Like now. Instead of having to send the demon to the nearest stronghold for identification, the healers could run a genetic test in our very own lab.

  I tapped my fingers on the arms of my chair. “While we’re waiting, can you tell us what a Hurra demon is? Must be bad for us to kill them all off.” I decided not to point out that we’d obviously failed in that endeavor.

  Raoul leaned back in his chair. “A Hurra demon is a parasitic middle demon. Outside of the demon dimension, it can only survive inside a human host.”

  “Like a Vamhir demon,” I said.

  “Or a Mori,” Mason added.

  Raoul nodded. “Closer to a Vamhir demon. A Hurra demon takes control of the host, and it feeds off the flesh of other humans. But unlike a vampire, the host body will deteriorate and die within a year of infection, so the demon has to find a new host.”

  I made a face. “A demon zombie. Nice.”

  Raoul nodded. “It’s actually where some of the zombie lore started. Fortunately for us, the Hurra can’t reproduce outside of their dimension, which made it easier to wipe them out.”

  So how did this one get here? I wondered. Demons couldn’t just pass from their dimension to ours. About two millennia ago, something happened to create a hole in the barrier between Earth and the demon dimension, and thousands of demons escaped to our world. According to our legends, angels fixed the breach and created the Mohiri to hunt the more dangerous demons, like vampires. But by then, the demons had started multiplying and there was no way to get them all.

  The only way a demon could cross the barrier now was by a summoning ritual performed by magic wielders such as warlocks and shamans. Only upper demons could be summoned, and only in non-corporeal form. Physical matter could not pass through the barrier.

  The demon I’d bagged tonight had definitely been in solid form. If it was in fact a Hurra demon, then we obviously hadn’t killed them all off.

  I voiced my thoughts and Raoul nodded gravely. “Good question. Maybe I’m wrong.”

  “You’re not wrong,” said a voice from the doorway.

  I looked over my shoulder at the red-haired healer standing there. George, who usually wore a pleasant smile, was as serious as I’d ever seen him.

  He stepped into the office. “Leslie and I ran a DNA sample against the database and found a match. It’s a Hurra demon. We’re sending it off to the lab at Valstrom for further analysis.”

  Raoul nodded and reached for his phone. “I need to notify the Council immediately
.”

  “Wait.” I held up a hand to stop him. “I don’t understand. If a Hurra demon stays in a host until it’s worn out, why did that girl throw up this one? She looked pretty healthy…except for the whole puking thing.”

  “I think I know the answer to that,” George said. “I spoke to one of my contacts at Cedars where they took the girl. He said she had lupus. I don’t know how she came in contact with the demon, but I believe her body rejected it.”

  “She didn’t make it?” I asked.

  George shook his head. “She died in the ambulance.”

  I slumped in my chair. That poor girl. What a horrible way to go.

  “Jordan,” Raoul said almost apologetically. “I know it’s been a crazy night, but the Council is going to want a thorough account of what happened at the club. Can you write up the report while I make this call?”

  I sighed and pushed up out of the chair. “Yeah. I’ll get on it right away.”

  “I’ll help,” Mason said, following me.

  I shot him a grateful smile as we left the office and entered the main control room. We pulled up chairs to an available workstation, and I opened a blank report.

  “What do you think the Council will do?” Mason asked in a low voice.

  “I have no idea,” I admitted. “But we probably won’t like it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I turned to look at him. “A demon they tried to wipe out hundreds of years ago suddenly popped up in a nightclub in L.A. Mark my words. In twenty-four hours, this place will be taken over by one of the Council’s special investigative teams.”

  “And that’s a bad thing?”

  I huffed softly. “Mason, the Council interferes in my life enough as it is. The last thing I want is them stepping in and telling me how to do my job.”

  He bumped me with his shoulder. “I don’t know. It might be fun to watch someone try to tell you what to do.”

  A smile tugged at my lips as I focused on the report again. They can try.

  * * *

  I was wrong. The Council didn’t send someone in twenty-four hours. Their people showed up less than eight hours after Raoul made his call. They hadn’t even reacted this fast when they found out we had an active Lilin in Los Angeles, which made me suspect there was more going on here than the discovery of a supposedly extinct demon.

  When I entered the control room the next morning, I found a blonde female and two dark-haired males I didn’t know sitting around the small conference table with Raoul. They stood as I approached them.

  “Jordan Shaw, this is Vivian Day, Aaron Lee, and Eugene Harris,” Raoul said. “They were sent by the Council to investigate the Hurra incident.”

  Vivian held out a hand to me. “It’s good to meet you, Jordan,” she said in an English accent. “Raoul’s told me all about you.”

  I slid my gaze to Raoul as I took her hand. “I’m not sure whether to be flattered or worried.”

  Raoul chuckled, and amusement lit up Vivian’s eyes.

  “It was all good,” she said. “Although, now I’m thinking he might have left out some things.”

  I merely smiled and turned to greet her two companions. I had a feeling I was going to like Vivian Day, but she was here on behalf of the Council. I decided not to disclose too much until I got a better feel for her.

  After the introductions had been made, we all sat and the three investigators got down to business, drilling me about last night.

  “How did the victim look when she first entered the restroom?”

  “How many strikes did it take to kill the Hurra?”

  “Would you say it moved quickly or slowly?”

  “Did you observe any other humans displaying similar symptoms?”

  I held up a hand after I’d answered half a dozen questions. “All of this is in the report I wrote up last night.”

  Vivian smiled. “We like to get a firsthand account of these things.”

  “Why did I spend over two hours working on a report when no one is going to read it?” I asked irritably, thinking of the countless hours I’d wasted doing reports since I came to Los Angeles. Did anyone even read those?

  “Reports are mainly used for research material in future jobs,” Eugene said unhelpfully. “And they allow the Council to keep track of statistical data such as how many vampire kills took place in a geographical area in one year.”

  I wanted to tell him I already knew this, but a warning look from Raoul kept me quiet. These were Council investigators, and I was going to have to play nice with them. For now. Hopefully, they’d wrap up their job here in a day or two and be on their way.

  Vivian wore an amused smile. “You remind me of Nikolas. He always hated doing reports, too.”

  “You know Nikolas?” I asked, and then I did a mental eye roll. Of course, she knew Nikolas Danshov. Who didn’t?

  Her smile grew fond. “Since we were children.”

  “Wow.” She was the first person I’d met who had known Nikolas that long, and I bet she had some stories to tell.

  “About the reports,” Eugene cut in.

  “Yes.” Vivian got back to business. “We read your report, and we appreciate the level of detail in it. But memory can be tricky, especially when it comes to situations like this. Asking the right questions might help you recall something you didn’t think of when you wrote up the report.”

  “Okay,” I conceded because what she’d said made sense.

  Over the next hour, I answered every question they asked. Eugene took notes while Aaron mostly nodded thoughtfully at every answer. Vivian did most of the talking, and I found myself appreciating the way she filtered through the details, focusing on what she clearly thought were the more important ones.

  “I think we have everything we need,” Eugene said at last. “Thank you, Jordan.”

  It sounded like a dismissal. A polite one, but a dismissal all the same, and I felt my hackles rising again.

  I looked at Vivian, who appeared to be the leader of their team. “Now that we’ve told you what we know, why don’t you tell us something?”

  Her expression was open and friendly. “What would you like to know?”

  “I get that finding a live Hurra demon is a little exciting, but there seems to be more behind your questions. This isn’t an isolated incident, is it?”

  A glance at Raoul told me he thought the same thing. Unlike him, I wasn’t content to let the Council take over without pushing for answers.

  Vivian exchanged a look with Eugene and Aaron, and then she shook her head. “We’ve had two other incidents, one in Florida a week ago and one in Alaska three days ago. The Florida one was a Hurra demon. The one in Alaska was a Geel.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath and heard Raoul do the same. A Geel was the kind of thing you’d find in your worst nightmares. It was a lower demon that attached itself to its victim’s face and laid its eggs in their throat while they were fully conscious. It took two days for the eggs to hatch, and then the offspring consumed the victim.

  Resembling large worms, Geel lived in the deserts of Africa because they could only survive in a hot, dry climate. Even if someone had captured one and taken it to Alaska, it would die within a day.

  “Was the Geel alive?” Raoul asked.

  “Yes.” Vivian clasped her hands on the table. “And it was already attached to a host when our people got there. We were able to extract it and save the human. Fortunately, we were also able to erase his memory of the attack. No one should have to live with that.”

  “Christ,” Raoul muttered.

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Time for the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. How does a desert demon end up in Alaska, of all places?”

  “That is what we are trying to find out,” Vivian replied. “The Council’s lead investigator is there now.”

  “You’re not the lead investigator?” I asked.

  “No. I was called in to assist on this one until he is free. As you can imagine, these incidents are troubling and of great concern to the Council.”

  It all made sense. No wonder the Council had jumped on this so quickly. “So, what happens now?”

  “Our next plan of action is to look into the victim…” Vivian glanced down at a notepad on the table. “Chelsea Head. We’ll check out her home and try to retrace her steps over the last few days to see if we can discover how and where she came into contact with the Hurra demon.”