Club Nexus (Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective) Page 7

  She gave my hand a light squeeze, face upturned. I wanted to pull her to me, but I never had the chance.

  Puck, like a cat with nine lives, sprung to his feet and pounced on Jinx from behind. We’d made a terrible mistake; the trickster was not dead, only wounded. I should have reached out with my demon magic and searched his body for a soul, but I hadn’t been paying attention—and now the trickster was armed.

  He’d pulled the ice pick from his chest and had retrieved the jeweled dagger from the Unseelie faerie’s lifeless hand. The amputated arm carrying the blade had been tossed aside by the vampire and I hadn’t spared it a second thought.

  If harm came to Jinx, it would be my fault for not being more thorough. Lucifer knows, I should have checked Puck’s body for signs of life, but I’d been too distracted by my own desire. I’d given the trickster the perfect opportunity for revenge.

  Ivy and Torn had apparently come to the same conclusion.

  With painful clarity I took in the details of the situation. Ivy’s face paled and her skin began to glow. Her hair lifted to dance around her head with unspent magical energy, but the wisp princess hadn’t yet learned how to direct the powers she’d inherited from her faerie father.

  She was, however, skilled at slicing, dicing, and bashing things over the head.

  Throwing knives slid from wrist sheaths to hit her palms, but at that angle, she’d be more likely to hit Jinx than Puck. She started to strafe to the side, but she’d never be fast enough, wisp powers or no.

  Torn twisted in a flanking maneuver—a fierce shadow with speed to rival a cheetah—but he too had been far across the room. The cat sidhe’s attack would never land in time. There was only one person who could possibly save Jinx, and that person was me.

  Jinx’s eyes went wide as Puck grabbed at her hair and yanked her head back, baring her throat. The jeweled hilt of a dagger flashed in the wisp light and I knew with certainty that Puck intended to slit her throat. My mouth went dry, but I pushed away physiological distractions. Fear had no claim on me.

  I was a demon.

  Fire burned within my veins, building to a fever pitch, but I held it firmly with my will. I could not risk harming Jinx with jets of flame. No, I would have to be precise, methodical in the execution of my attack.

  In a microsecond, I determined the most salient course of action. As Puck’s blade came arcing toward Jinx’s neck, my fingers still entwined with hers, I yanked her forward out of Puck’s grasp. I winced at the sound of hair tearing from flesh and hoped that Jinx would forgive me later—if there was a later.

  Never in all the centuries of my existence have I worried so for what the future may bring. Funny how one person could turn everything on its head.

  Puck was still holding a chunk of Jinx’s hair and swung his blade downward as I flung Jinx toward Torn with a flick of my wrist. The two went down with a sickening thud. When this was all over, Jinx would likely have bruises and a possible concussion to add to the bloody patch on her scalp, but my priority was saving her life. I had to hope that her friends would have the wherewithal to administer first aid. I couldn’t yet risk a glance to check on her health.

  I had a faerie to kill.

  With Jinx out of harm’s reach, I let down the rigid mental barriers I kept between myself and Hell. This time ley line power was not enough. I had to insure that Puck would not live through this night. I would not make the mistake of underestimating the trickster again. As the mental fortifications crumbled, the screams of the damned flooded my mind. I pushed aside the echoes of torment and reached for the power that was my birthright.

  Tapping into such power was not without consequence. Horns erupted from my head, ripping painfully through my scalp, and leathery wings tore through my back and clothing, ruining a perfectly good waistcoat. My cloven hooves sent up sparks where they met the basement’s stone floor and I looked down at Puck with glowing eyes.

  This all happened in less than a second, but the smirk had fallen from Puck’s face and fear was growing behind his widening eyes. I didn’t dare glance at the others in the room. I hoped that Jinx would not judge me based on my unfortunate physical transformation. This was not at all what I’d had in mind when I’d pictured our first date.

  And hopefully, her friends wouldn’t take it upon themselves to do a little demon hunting. The psychic detective and I had an arrangement that benefited us both, but she’d never been confronted with this form. Ivy had been raised as a human, and had human blood in her veins, and humans have an instinctual dislike for Hellspawn.

  I was filled with an immeasurable amount of raw power, but this form was vulnerable on the mortal plane. If Ivy stabbed me in the back now, I would die a true death.

  At least I’d had that kiss. A demon could die happy with the memory of that kiss fresh on his lips.

  Speaking of dying, Puck was still alive. I’d reached out absently and held him in my grasp. Now I held his gaze and shook my head.

  “I warned you before, trickster,” I said. “I told you not to mess with those whom I care about. You were a fool not to heed my warning.”

  The souls of the damned filled my head and I pushed their anguished cries down through my veins and out through my hands—and into Puck. The faerie screamed, his face contorted, mouth open wide as the damned devoured him from within. Flames dotted his skin, charred holes forming blackened craters. In a matter of seconds, the hungry souls had added one more to their number. The physical body of Puck crumbled to ash and the souls of the damned disappeared into the stone floor, returning to Hell.

  I stumbled and gripped my head, closing my eyes against the spinning room. My fingers met the warm, smooth surface of my horns and I sighed. It was time to resume what I’d come to think of as my proper form—the form Jinx might someday come to love.

  There had been that kiss, after all.

  Jinx had finally shown her feelings for me, but I wasn’t doing our newfound relationship any good by remaining winged, horned, and cloven hoofed. With a deep breath, I focused my will and began to rebuild the walls around the ember of Hell that resided in every demon. After a few minutes, but what felt like an eternity, I opened my eyes.

  My clothing was torn, and I’d lost a shoe, but my body had returned to normal. I was Jinx’s dashing suitor once again, and it was time for our heartfelt reunion. I turned toward Ivy and Torn where they hovered around Jinx’s body crumpled body.

  “Is she…?” I asked.

  I reached out with my magic and could feel the warmth of Jinx’s soul. She had not left us, not yet.

  “She’s alive,” Torn said, brushing a stray hair from Jinx’s pale face. “She’s surprisingly feisty for a human.”

  The cat sidhe lord looked down on Jinx with such open curiosity that I had to stuff my hands inside my pockets to keep from strangling him. If Torn had any sense of self preservation, he’d keep his distance from Jinx. Curiosity killed the cat, and all that.

  “Head wound,” Ivy said. “We’re taking her to The Emporium. I want Kaye to have a look at her injuries.”

  Madame Kaye was not a fan of demons, and she was a powerful witch. Her occult shop would be heavily warded. They were taking Jinx somewhere that I couldn’t follow. That left me with a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach that I wasn’t quite ready to define.

  “Then let me be of assistance,” I said, moving forward. “Allow me…”

  Ivy held up a gloved hand and shook her head.

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she said. “Torn and I can take it from here. Plus, Kaye would sooner trap you in a circle, or blast you back to Hell, than let you cross her threshold.”

  “Yes, of course,” I said, letting my arms hang at my sides. “You seem to have the matter well in hand.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek as Torn lifted Jinx into his arms. It was all I could do not to throttle the man. It should have been my chest that Jinx slumbered against, not the bone and fur laced leather vest of the unscrupulous
cat sidhe.

  “We do,” she said, gesturing at the corpse littered floor. “Why don’t you take care of this mess and help deliver the human bodies somewhere the authorities can find them. We may not be able to explain what really happened here, but the families of the dead deserve to know that their loved ones are gone.”

  I’d just been relegated to the cleanup crew. How very unnerving.

  “Miss Granger?” I asked. Ivy looked over her shoulder, brow raised. “Take good care of her.”

  “That’s the idea,” she said.

  Ivy walked out of the basement, leaving me to the unpleasant task of informing club security about Puck’s nefarious little side business.

  Three days later, I entered the offices of Private Eye. I’d kept busy after that night at Club Nexus. I devoted myself to my work, closing a complex legal case and reaping enough souls to fill my annual quota, but worry over Jinx consumed me. I’d tried to be patient, to wait for her to call for me, but after the third day of pacing the streets of Harborsmouth, I’d had enough. I had to see her with my own eyes.

  I had to know that she was alright.

  I stepped through the door and felt my heart lighten when I saw Jinx standing beside her desk. She was busy talking with Ivy and a client, her back to me, but I could see that she was standing easily and without assistance. I observed her for a minute longer than necessary, savoring the moment when she’d turn and see me waiting for her.

  Would she come rushing into my arms? I imagined the smell of her hair and the feel of her skin beneath my fingers, and smiled. I shook my head at my flights of fancy. The woman was driving me mad.

  With a purposeful jingle of the door, I strode into the office. I was surprised to see that their guest was Torn, the cat sidhe lord, but I hardly paid it a thought. Ivy could keep her new ally busy. My attention was riveted on Jinx.

  Jinx turned, and with a haughty toss of her head, demanded, “What are you doing here?”

  It was not the romantic welcome I was expecting.

  “Come now, darling,” I said, spreading my hands wide. “Aren’t we beyond this charade? I know your true feelings for me, as do your friends. They witnessed the kiss we shared. There’s no sense pretending we do not care for each other.”

  Jinx rolled her eyes and walked to her desk. She opened the top drawer of her desk, lifted her crossbow to her shoulder, and shot me in the stomach.

  “Demons,” she spat, turning to Ivy. “I warned him never to call me darling.”

  I felt like I’d been punched in the gut, which, in fact, I had. The crossbow bolt burned, evidently having been doused in holy water, but I’d survive the wound. I was not, however, sure how I could endure Jinx’s disdain.

  She didn’t remember our kiss.

  I stood there pole-axed. She’d suffered a blow to the head and no longer remembered our kiss, that precious moment that had filled the last three days with such meaning. Jinx’s loss of memory hit me with a crushing might worse than the moment Puck’s blade flashed in the club’s basement. An armed opponent was something I’d prepared for over the course of my long life. But how does one take up the gauntlet against something that is already lost?

  Having Jinx’s feelings for me ripped away was like undergoing surgery without the anesthesia. But I held onto the pain, because it was all that was left of the moment we’d shared. I wasn’t willing to let her go.

  I turned to Ivy, who grimaced, but met my gaze.

  “Why did you keep the truth from her?” I asked. My body felt cold, but I resisted a shiver. “How could you?”

  “How could I not?” she whispered. She’d spoken too softly for human ears, but now raised her voice for Jinx’s benefit. “I told her all she needed to know of that night. She was attacked by Puck, but Torn and I got there in time to save her life.”

  Ivy had seen me transform in the basement into something out of nightmare. Fueled by Hellfire, I’d grown horns, wings, and cloven hoofs. It should not have changed anything. Jinx had known I was a demon when she’d kissed me. But Ivy apparently thought she was protecting her friend by concealing the truth.

  “I will not give her up,” I whispered. “And I will never forget this.”

  I spun on my heel, hand clutched to the crossbow bolt protruding from my stomach, and limped as gracefully as I could from the office and out onto the streets of Harborsmouth.

  Also by E.J. Stevens

  Spirit Guide

  Young Adult Series

  She Smells the Dead

  Spirit Storm

  Legend of Witchtrot Road

  Brush with Death

  The Pirate Curse

  Ivy Granger

  Urban Fantasy Series

  Shadow Sight

  Blood and Mistletoe

  Ghost Light

  Club Nexus

  Burning Bright (2014)

  Hunters’ Guild

  Urban Fantasy Series

  Hunting in Bruges (2014)

  Dark Poetry Collections

  From the Shadows

  Shadows of Myth and Legend

  E.J. Stevens is the author of the Spirit Guide young adult series and the bestselling Ivy Granger urban fantasy series. When E.J. isn't at her writing desk she enjoys dancing along seaside cliffs, singing in graveyards, and sleeping in faerie circles. E.J. currently resides in a magical forest on the coast of Maine where she finds daily inspiration for her writing.

  You can learn more about E.J. at http://about.me/EJStevens

  Visit E.J. on her Blog and Twitter.