Daniel flew off in a huff.
Rachel took another long pull off her bottle. “Fuckin’ prude,” she grunted.
* * *
“The truth is that this area is lousy with supernaturals,” said the suited man with the perfectly trimmed white goatee. “Werewolves in the rural areas. Plenty of legitimately haunted sites. At least half a dozen different Practices within the city alone…my group works to bring some organization to that, but I’m sure you know how occultists can be. And of course there are all the vampires,” he added with a roll of his eyes. The gentleman sat back in his plush chair, putting on airs of comfort and security. Behind that great oaken desk, with a bodyguard at either side-one of them small and serene, the other stocky and solemn-he probably felt quite secure indeed.
Being a sorcerer, Stefan likely knew warding magicks. If he did not, surely an associate did. Otherwise he’d be on his knees by now, sniffing at Lydia’s hand and begging for her affections.
She sat directly across from him in the sorcerer’s office overlooking Elliott Bay. To an untrained, unfamiliar eye, the room would seem to be a predictable yet tasteful executive’s office. Lydia, however, sensed the wards and spotted the telltale signs of superstitious protections from spirits and spells, all of them applied with knowledge and understanding.
He was protected from her most potent abilities. That sort of wrinkle made dealing with his kind frustrating…but he was still a man. Lydia didn’t miss his occasional glance toward the cleavage revealed by her emerald jacket and the long, shapely legs that came out from under her short matching silk skirt. Nor was he indifferent to her smile.
“I imagine it gets a bit tiresome,” she conceded. “In most cities it isn’t so hard for everyone to avoid one another.”
“No, indeed it normally isn’t,” Stefan nodded. “This city is deceptively small, though. It’s oddly crowded. We tend to bump into one another before long. Though I confess, one such as yourself is quite the exceptional encounter.”
“One such as I,” Lydia smiled with some amusement. “I thought the Brotherhood of Apollo considered an ‘encounter’ with ‘one such as I’ to be both a rite of passage and a test of willpower. A summoning and a night’s pleasure to test one’s emotional fortitude, isn’t it? The strong master their desires, the weak fall to the temptations of demonic flesh?”
Stefan conceded the point. “I won’t deny what is plainly known to the both of us.”
“Girls talk when they get home from a night out. How many such ‘exceptional encounters’ have you had, Stefan?” Lydia teased.
“A few,” he answered evenly.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret, since you’ve been so cordial and kind. There are playthings from the Pit, and then there are succubae. The differences are unforgettable.”
“I’ll take that under consideration,” he nodded after considering her words. “It’s a shame that you couldn’t come to me first with your concerns. I don’t say that to criticize, mind you. Lady Anastacia’s faction is, admittedly, the most prominent in the city.”
“I understand she is bringing the rest of the natives to heel?”
“We’ve worked out some arrangements,” Stefan shrugged. “Of late she works to establish a more formalized governance reaching beyond the vampires, yes. Naturally I hesitate to concede anything too soon. Your appearance throws a wild card in all of this.”
Lydia’s smile tightened. “I will honor my deal with the corpses should they fulfill my requirements, but I offered no exclusivity. I care not how your local power struggles play out. Provide what I seek and you, too, will hold my favor.”
Her offer held plenty of layers. Stefan was erudite enough to catch them all. “This young man you seek is not one of the Practitioners we have identified,” he began. “Nor can I speak directly to the activities of the woman you seek, but after some consultations we have reason to believe that she is likely a succubus like yourself.” Stefan smiled at Lydia’s arched eyebrow. “We haven’t shared that suspicion with Lady Anastacia’s people yet. Still, I don’t think I reveal too much when I concede that our knowledge regarding your kind is rather limited…
“…except for one specialist, but he has recently perished.”
Lydia inclined her head attentively. “Go on.”
“The Brotherhood of Apollo knows better than to plumb too deeply in our dealings with the Pit. One local Brother, though, obsessed over such things. He believed those summonings and conjurations for pleasure you mentioned could lead to great power. He sought to create a ritual to establish a permanent hold after a summoning, and requested support and funding for research. Our council decided to indulge him up to a point out of intellectual curiosity. It eventually became clear that this Brother had let his lusts get the better of him. We had to let him go.
“He left with a typical megalomaniac’s rant. He would continue on, he would show us all. This was nearly three years ago. We kept a subtle eye on him, of course. From time to time we saw evidence that he continued his research.
“He died last week in a sudden conflagration. We had no direct observation on hand, but there were spirits of the restless dead in the vicinity. The area was thoroughly warded, and thus they could only observe from afar. A few of them described a young man in the immediate area moments before this former Brother’s death.”
Lydia said nothing, encouraging Stefan to continue with a nod. “We investigated, but only mildly. It seemed obvious that this former Brother had summoned something beyond his control and paid the natural price for overreaching. But then we received word of your search from Lady Anastacia. A curiously ordinary young man matching the one described by the spirits, a woman whom we now suspect is a succubus like yourself…”
“Would you be willing to tell me all the details?” Lydia asked.
“I would,” Stefan said, “and I would be willing to work with you further on resolving your concerns.”
“What would you want in exchange?”
“A few things. First, a pact of non-aggression between the Brotherhood and whatever demonic faction you may represent. Secondly, we wish to know what happened to our fallen former Brother, how far he had gotten in his work and where he went wrong. I realize this might seem presumptuous, given what he possibly attempted. I won’t deny that if he was truly onto something we will likely pursue it. However, I would be more than willing to take steps to reassure you that any such knowledge would not be used against you.”
Lydia’s smile became genuinely appreciative. “I was about to laugh, but your caveats and concessions are intriguing. And amusing. I would not be interested in helping you learn how to summon me.”
“Of course,” Stefan nodded. “But I believe we could come to an understanding. These are dangerous waters. We have no wish to make enemies.”
“Indeed not. Your offer interests me. Stefan, I realize that this room bears numerous wards, but in order to pursue your proposal further I require a brief consultation with an associate. The telephone simply won’t do. Would it be possible to open one of these windows?”
Stefan considered it. “I suppose a momentary breach would not be so great a concession,” he mused. He nodded to the bodyguard on his left, who tugged the latches open and pushed on the glass. Cold, damp air blew in.
Nothing happened immediately. Stefan waited patiently for whatever little homunculus or other servitor might come flying through the window.
A huge, taloned, bone-white hand-if one could call it that-slapped down on the pane of glass above the open window, startling the mortal men. The hand was attached to a similarly bone-white arm that descended from above. Another reached down past it, gripping the window.
What followed was a monstrosity the likes of which Stefan and his bodyguards had never seen. It swiftly crawled along the glass, clinging to the windows like a spider as it descended. Twice the mass of a man yet spread out into long, bony limbs, the thing twisted and wrenched itself under the open window, shoving it further open to make room for its oblong, stretched-out white head. Four glaring red eyes gazed out at Stefan and Lydia from the front of its strange, horned skull. Its arms and then shoulders followed, one and then the other, before it finally pulled itself through the window.