Deliverance (Knights of Black Swan Book 12) Read online

  He tilted his chin up and scrutinized her until she began to feel uncomfortable. “I can see I made a mistake missing out on your childhood, but I just turned the fire down because you look a little warm."

  “Well. That should make up for it then,” she said sarcastically. “How did I get here?"

  "You don't know?"

  "No."

  "Were you looking for me?"

  "Of course not." As soon as the denial left her lips she knew a retraction was in order. “Well, in a manner of speaking. I was looking for her abductor.” She waved toward Katrina.

  The demon glanced at his captive. "You were looking for her?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, there you go. Now that you're here, what can I do for you?"

  "Let the woman go."

  "What is it to you?"

  "My job."

  "What is it to you?" As if someone had pressed replay, he asked it again in the exact same way without missing a beat. Litha didn't respond. "If you will not tell the truth, we have nothing else to discuss."

  "She is someone's everything."

  "I'm aware. That’s why she’s here. How does that involve you?"

  "It's important to the one that I love."

  "Ah.” He paused and looked away for a moment before saying, “And how badly do you want this?" She didn't answer. "You're not going to cry, are you?"

  Litha was insulted. "No. I'm not going to cry. I don't cry. I stopped crying when I stopped getting skinned knees."

  "Hmmm. It's just as well I missed the young times then. I don't like crying."

  "What's your proposition?"

  He smiled. "That's my girl. What I have in mind is a win, win. If you agree to stay with me, I will return the woman. Then I will tell you what you need to know about your demon side, about manipulating fire, about your heritage, about riding the passes."

  "Riding the passes?"

  "It's how you came here from Loti Dimension." She looked puzzled so he clarified. "The dimension the Terr... humans think of as the only reality." He rolled his eyes as if to say, 'How stupid can they be?'

  "For how long?"

  "How long have humans been clueless? Since they were single cell organisms that crawled from the muck. Although that's secondhand information. I'm not quite that old."

  "No. How. Long. Me. Stay. With. You?” She made hand signals like she was trying to communicate with someone who spoke a different language.

  "That is so precious! You're acting out because I abandoned you, aren't you?" He smirked. "Well, you need to stay long enough for us to get past the juvenile snits." He crossed his muscular arms in front of his muscular chest and considered that. "A year."

  "A day."

  "A season."

  "Till Beltane."

  "Done. Doesn't really matter. I could stretch time and pack a year into a week."

  "That's cheating."

  He laughed. "What did you expect? Dad's a demon."

  "I heard that was just bad press."

  "Clever girl. And rightly said because public sentiment could have gone either way. It's a P.R. matter that we've never cared to correct because it's more trouble than it's worth. And really. Why should we care what Terr... humans think of us?" Then, as if he was enjoying a private joke, he laughed. "But wait until you find out how far the Nephilim will go to get their way."

  "Angels?"

  "They prefer we use their own language to describe them. But why should we care what they prefer? By and large, what have they ever done for us? I say fuck 'em. Angels it is!"

  "Has anyone ever suggested that you might be mentally disturbed?"

  "Have some respect. I'm your father."

  She ignored that. "Have you hurt the woman?"

  "Certainly not." He sounded offended. "My beef is not with her. She's a tool."

  "I assume you mean that in the conventional way? Not in the slang sense?" He looked blank. "Never mind. If I stay with you, your, um, ‘beef’ will be considered satisfied." After thinking better of it, she appended the demand. "That means the debt will be voided by you."

  "No new conditions. The deal is already struck."

  "I'm half demon. I don't have to keep my word, do I?"

  Deliverance threw his head back and laughed with his whole essence. It was mesmerizing. "You learn fast."

  "Well?"

  "Very well. My revenge against the lover will be satisfied if you voluntarily stay until midnight, Beltane Eve."

  "And how can I be sure I can trust you to honor your agreement? Dad."

  "If we make a pact of fire, it can't be undone without dire consequences to the breaching party."

  "Dire consequences, huh," she repeated drily.

  "Yes." He looked sincere, but she suspected that sex demons were especially good at looking sincere.

  "That is if you’re telling the truth.” He did his best to look innocent. “Leaving that alone for now, what's a pact of fire?"

  "Generate fire in your hand. I'll do the same and we'll clasp hands."

  "I don't know how to do that."

  "It's just like shaking hands. I put mine out..."

  "I know how to shake hands! I don't know how to make fire!" He grinned at her. "You were being deliberately obtuse, weren't you?" She didn't know herself if that was rhetorical. “You think you have a sense of humor.”

  He wiggled his head. "You don’t appreciate my humor? Don’t worry. It’ll grow on you. You really don't know how to gather fire?"

  "I did it once. Recently. It was an accident."

  "Hmmm. I guess you're wanting me to release her soon?"

  "Yes. Naturally."

  "Well, you need to make fire so we can conclude this transaction. Let me see you try."

  Litha held up her right hand, stared at it, and imagined fire. Nothing.

  Deliverance walked over to Katrina and pinched her on the upper arm until she wailed. "How about now?"

  "What the hel?"

  "Exactly. Do it." He pinched Katrina again harder. She screamed and Litha could tell it really hurt. It made Litha so mad both hands burst into flame. Deliverance grabbed one of them with his and said, "Congratulations. You just sealed the deal." He made an air whistle sound and the fire went out. "You're now the proud owner of one damsel in distress."

  "You know, I was just starting to think I might learn to like you. But you really are evil, aren't you?"

  He scrunched his face up like he was thinking about it then sort of wiggled his head back and forth. Again. The aggravating thing was that she recognized that stupid head wiggle. She did that! And not even scrunching his face made him unattractive. That was super annoying.

  "Not really," he said while he was pulling on a long-sleeved tee shirt and tying his hair back at the nape of his neck. "I'll just drop her off where I found her and be right back."

  "I'm starved. Get me a hamburger on the way back, okay? Well done with everything including onions. No ketchup."

  "A hamburger from London?”

  “Yes. And put the woman back where you found her.”

  “Okay, but about the hamburger. I don't eat food and even I know that's a terrible idea."

  Deliverance returned a few minutes after he'd left. Litha had barely had time to look around. Not that there was much to see.

  The demon nodded toward a section of wall. She turned to see why he'd gestured toward it and part of the wall slid open to reveal a large room beyond that was quite contemporary, if not futuristic. Unlike much of contemporary style, there was plush, comfortable furniture set in a minimalist context with a white shag rug on a terrazzo floor and a glass coffee table. What caught Litha’s interest was the view of a dark blue lake with pink gravel beach. Nope. Not in Kansas anymore.

  He handed her a white paper sack wafting a heavenly aroma that smelled like hamburger and made her salivate, then gestured for her to enter the adjacent room with the hand that was holding the glass longneck of IBC root beer, also meant for her.

  Litha took a q
uick look around at the surroundings and sat down on a divan. One entire wall of the room was glass looking out at the lake which featured large bowls of fire above the water line and near the shore. One entire wall was made up of a grid of dozens of monitors simultaneously playing TV shows, movies and news. Most of them seemed to originate in her reality... the, uh, Loti Dimension. A third wall could only be described as an altar to fire and the fourth was smooth, rectangular stones, bare except for an enormous oil painting of a woman who looked a lot like Litha except for her fair skin and light brown hair.

  Deliverance slouched on the divan facing hers and tracked her every movement. Until that moment he hadn’t realized that it was strange for a demon who certainly never planned to entertain guests, to have furnished his living space with a pair of matching divans that faced each other as if inviting dialogue.

  She pointed at the monitors. "Bored much?"

  He lifted a bare shoulder. "I like to keep up." He had removed his shirt and shoes after handing over the food.

  "I thought you said no hamburgers from London."

  He snorted. "That didn't come from London. It came from a 6th Street bar in Austin. Casino el Camino." He casually threw an index finger toward the burger. "Well done with everything including onions and jalapenos."

  "Texas?"

  "Not dignifying that with an answer." He chuckled to himself, looking mischievous. "Right now I’ll bet there's some irate fool standing at the counter yelling, 'Hey. Where's my burger?'"

  "Where did you leave the woman?"

  "As agreed... " He inclined his head toward her, "...she was deposited where I took her. The lobby of the Hyde Park Hotel, London, Angland, United Queendom of Great Britannia, Loti Dimension, Gods Save The Queen." Litha opened her mouth to say something else, but he went on. "And! She was in absolutely perfect condition, sound of body and mind, at least to the limited extent of her potential."

  Litha took a bite and chewed. "Condescending. Don't you have, uh, sex with humans?"

  "Sure. Among others. I'm an Abraxas. I'm nourished by emotion. In my particular case, being a subspecies called Incubus, I can only be sustained by sexual excitement. Don't misunderstand me. I like them. But bottom line, they are food.”

  "Excuse me, but, ew. Trying to eat here."

  Deliverance looked unrepentant and amused. “Have you ever seen a biogram of a woman’s brain when she orgasms? It lights up with an array of kaleidoscope colors like she’s powering up the universe." He looked out the window toward the lake and shook his head a little. “It's amazing.”

  He turned to watch Litha eat. “I’m sure it ‘tastes’ better to me than that hamburger does to you.”

  “No way.” She chomped down on a bigger bite.

  He smiled. “Glad you like it.”

  "I get why you don't have a kitchen, but, as you can see, I do eat actual food. Are you going to fetch all my meals? I’m a grazer. That means I like to eat little meals. Often."

  He snorted. "Little meals like the third pound burger you just devoured in six minutes?”

  “I was hungry.”

  “The answer is no. You're going to earn your food."

  Litha stopped chewing. "How?"

  "You will dine anywhere you wish, eat anything you wish, anytime you wish, but you have to successfully navigate a pass to get us there."

  "Is that hard to do?"

  "Not for me." He seemed as perky as if it was all a game.

  Litha glanced at the wall where the portrait hung. "What about her? Was she food?"

  The demon's face fell and for the first time, she saw something other than variations on smugness. It might have been a flicker of guilt or remorse or any one of a hundred emotions. Maybe just plain old sadness.

  "No," he said quietly. "I loved her. I still do."

  So began a most unlikely family that would form the nucleus of a Black Swan dynasty that would play epic parts in the story of The Order’s success. But much more important were the relationships they had with each other.

  To Deliverance, Litha was the star that crowned every marvelous thing in the universe, a miracle without bounds. From the moment she’d arrived in his lair, bent on rescuing the damn damsel, he’d been putty in her hands.

  He couldn’t imagine ever feeling that way about anyone else, until the birth of Elora Rose Storm. Rosie. In his eyes, the two witch demons were goddesses, perfect in every way. Beautiful as sun reflecting on water. Smart as whips. And, because of the way the threads of DNA twisted together like lovers permanently entangled, they were more powerful than either demons or witches.

  His girls.

  CHAPTER Three THE GRILL

  If you think interviewing a granddemon sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon, you’d be wrong. Few creatures are as exasperating as the Grand Demon, himself. - Elora Rose Storm

  Rosie sat at her desk at Hunter Abbey. She was supposed to be sorting reports that would aid The Order in naming and mapping dimensions and documenting what sort of conditions would be found in each. But at some point a movement had caught her eye.

  A border collie was working hard, herding black-faced sheep for the man who’d leased the adjoining pasture for grazing. She became entranced, watching the dog run back and forth as if her life depended on keeping the sheep in a bunch so tight it would appear they were in an invisible pen.

  She felt a slight breeze that might have come from the open window if it weren’t for the fact that the rustle of paper and movement of air was behind her. Turning to see who had intruded, she wasn’t terribly surprised to see Deliverance.

  “I didn’t hear your ringtone.”

  “Thought I’d sneak up on you,” he said. “Find out if you’re really working or daydreaming. Staring out the window.”

  She smiled. “For somebody who’s never had a job a day in his life, you sound pretty self-righteous about work ethic.”

  He shrugged, rolling his shoulders as gracefully as a mountain cat. “Not my burden to bear.”

  “I guess you’re here to collect.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “The comment about burden.”

  “Well. Since you mention it…” She rolled her eyes as he looked at his nails with pointed nonchalance. “There is an outstanding matter.”

  “It just so happens, you’ve caught me in a rare moment without a crisis. Believe me when I say that doesn’t happen often.”

  He nodded. “Hence the reason why it’s rare.”

  “Smart ass.”

  “So this is a good time.”

  “Go for it.”

  “Okay. Find the vile creature who cursed me and free me.”

  “No guarantees. But I’ll do my best. We’re going to need to start with an interview.” Deliverance nodded. “An intense interview.”

  “Meaning what? Whips? Bright lights? Barry Manilow?”

  Rosie scowled. “You don’t like Barry Manilow?”

  “Nobody likes Barry Manilow.”

  “A warehouse full of platinum records says you’re wrong.”

  “Whatever.” Deliverance threw himself into the stuffed leather chair next to Rosie’s desk. “I’m all yours.”

  She tapped a manicured pale pink fingernail on the desk, thinking. “When did you first become insatiable?”

  “Feels like I’ve always been that way.”

  “But you haven’t. To help you, I’ve got to trace this back to inception. And the starting point would be when and where you were when you first realized you couldn’t go very long without sex. By the way, what happens when you try?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never tried.” When she didn’t immediately come back with another question, he said, “Do you have a plan?”

  “Believe it or not I’ve been giving it some thought. Off and on. I did the search feature in records when I was in Edinburgh and didn’t find anything on time tracking.”

  “Time tracking?”

  “Not the be-all, end-all name for it. If it works. I
t’s more like a placeholder for whatever the real name will be when I have time to give it more thought.”

  Deliverance shook his head. “I’m lost.”

  “We’re going to experiment to see if we can use the pendant and a little witchery to track you through time.”

  The demon looked interested. “You think you can do that?”

  She wiggled her head in a gesture to indicate that it was anybody’s best guess. “No idea, but we’ve got to start somewhere. And you’ve got to tell me where to start.”

  He raised a well-shaped eyebrow as she grasped the filigree chain and pulled the necklace from under her vee necked tee shirt. She held it in her palm as she mentally coaxed an adjustment of the pendant’s capability.

  “Okay. Let’s start with what you can remember.”

  “Told you. I don’t remember.”

  “Well, that’s where you’re wrong. There’s part of you that does remember and I’m going to talk to that part.” She began swinging it back and forth by the chain. Deliverance looked down at the pendant and back up at his granddaughter. “I’m going to ask you questions, using this pendant as a pendulum. It’ll help us tag your location.”

  He smirked. “Like a lie detector.” He leaned forward, elbows on knees and clasped his hands, eyes twinkling with such a fierce light they looked like they might start fire. He was clearly excited about the possibility, however remote, of being free of the monkey on his back.

  “Exactly.” She nodded. “Do you know who cursed you?”

  “No.”

  Rosie looked down at the pendant and didn’t take her eyes away as she asked, “Do you know why you were cursed?”

  “No.”

  “When was the change?”

  “Two. Three hundred years ago.” He paused, looking surprised that he had answered. “I think.”

  The pendulum stopped dead still. “Which was it? Two or three?”

  “Between two and three.”

  The pendant began moving left to right to indicate agreement with that answer. Rosie grinned. “Excellent.” She dragged the word out like an eighties Valley girl.

  CHAPTER Four WITCH HUNT, The Malleus Maleficarum