Perpetual Prey Read online

  The young woman looked at her curiously. “I think I know you.”

  Elsinor inclined her head. “We have met at your parents’ home. You have grown up well, Benny.”

  Benny’s eyes went wide, and she got to her feet, walking around the table and hugging Elsinor. “You were missed at my bonding ceremony, but your eyes tell the tale. I am glad you remember as much as you do. Are you going to see my parents?”

  “Yes. They are holding something for me, and I need to prove to them that I have taken a mate and am sticking to it.”

  Benny grinned. “That is their primary concern now. Oh, my father has regained his human-seeming.”

  “Yes, the heavy hand of the demon lord is no longer on you, though it still courses through your veins.”

  “You can see all that, Aunty?”

  “I can. And so much more. There is a wave coming soon. I will warn those who know me before it comes.”

  “Thank you, Aunty. I will let my parents know you are coming.”

  “Thank you, dearest. We are on the way. Good choices of your mates by the way. All strong lines who have strong ties to magic.”

  Benny grinned. “And amazing shoulders and abs.”

  “That doesn’t hurt.”

  With a wink, she turned to the bemused Al who had watched their conversation. He held out his arms, and she walked into them, letting him sweep her up in an embrace before his wings flexed wide, and on the downstroke, his magic pushed them upward.

  They were on their way to get the weapon that she had hidden for eons. The Gangers were the most recent caretakers. El was pretty sure they didn’t know it.

  Chapter Eight

  She leaned her head against his shoulder as they flew toward the Ganger house. The moment that Al saw the property, she felt him tense.

  “What the hell are they keeping in there?” His voice indicated his awareness of the heavy wards they were approaching.

  “Demon energy. The Ganger family contains quite a bit of it.”

  “Demons?”

  “Just one or two in residence right now. Harcourt... I don’t know if you ever met him.”

  Al slowed and lowered their altitude until he landed on the gravelled drive. “I did. He was a studious man. Very handsome.”

  “Yeah. That kinda changed for a few decades. He is an incubus and was fixed in that form for a while. You may have seen the articles in the news.”

  “I recall the Gangers being involved in a wrongful enchantment case.”

  She settled on her feet and straightened her skirts. The lights were still on in the home, so she felt a little less self-conscious about knocking on their door so late in the evening.

  They walked up to the door, and she used the antique knocker. It was shaped like a goblin, and she used the nose to knock.

  A smiling woman opened the door, and she paused when she looked at Elsinor’s face. “It has happened again?”

  “Yes, Lenora, it has happened again. This time, things are a little different, and I would like to find the book in your library that you are holding for me.”

  The woman looked at her and the companion behind her with keen intelligence. It was what Lenora and Harcourt had in common, they were both exceptionally smart.

  “Of course. I am guessing that this matter is urgent?”

  “It is. I want to catch him before he settles underground for the next few decades. Right now, he has eyes on me, and he is unsettled. I need to keep him that way.”

  Lenora opened the door with a smile. “Too bad Benny isn’t here. She knows all about you.”

  “Well, since she called to warn you that we were coming, you know I ran into her. You are as poker-faced as ever, Lenora.”

  The woman smiled slightly. “We are never sure who comes back to us, so we always proceed with caution.”

  “Understandable. You remember Algethan?”

  “I do. Congratulations for still having him after all these changes.”

  The path to the library was familiar. “Thank you. We are approaching our five hundredth anniversary since our first meeting. All the years of on and off have kept things fresh, as the current parlance says.”

  Lenora was startled into a giggle. “Yes, that is common parlance. Or contemporary speech.”

  “Thank you. I have been studying hard.”

  Lenora knocked on the library door, and when a murmur came from inside, she opened it, and Harcourt was silhouetted against the light behind him in his human form.

  “Harcourt, when did you lose the scales?”

  He tore his gaze away from the scroll he was reading, and he looked at her and then smiled. “Elsinor. My second love.”

  He walked over to her and hugged her, lifting her off her feet. She dodged his kiss and simply waited.

  Al reached over her shoulders and grabbed Harcourt’s arms. “Inappropriate, Mage Ganger.”

  Harcourt let her go. “Ah, Algethan. I didn’t see you there.”

  The low grumble from her companion indicated skepticism.

  El smiled. “Good to see you too, Harcourt. Now, I need the book you were holding for me.”

  “Really? You said you might not ever be ready for that.”

  “I am as ready as I need to be, and if you do not offer me the book, I will find it.” She smiled brightly.

  Harcourt held up his hands. “I have it. I have it.”

  They watched as he walked to a work table, and while they looked on, he moved all the items off the table, turned green and began to rip the lid off. Once Al knew what was going on, he lent his strength to the effort.

  The top of the library table came off, and Harcourt reached into what had seemed to be a solid piece, and he removed the book in question. “Here you are, Elsinor.”

  “Thank you, Harcourt.” Her palms were sweating, and her heart was pounding. It wasn’t the first time that this book had been in her hands, but it was the first time that she was using it with full knowledge of the contents.

  “I never thought you would ask for that. What is in it?”

  She closed her fingers over the smooth surface of the book, and she sighed as part of her was reunited with an old friend. “The end of the world or the beginning. It depends on your point of view.”

  “It doesn’t open.” Lenora smiled and took up a position next to her husband.

  “It will, when the time is right, and when I am done with it, it will have a new guardian. At that point, I might even tell you what it is.” The hum of power was beginning inside the book.

  Lenora chuckled. “He has attempted to break into it at least once every six months for the last forty years. It has defied him.”

  “Of course, it did. It doesn’t belong to him.” Elsinor chuckled and sighed deeply once again. “It feels good to have it back.”

  Algethan murmured, “Is it a key?”

  She grinned and gave him a smile over her shoulder. “It is the lock. I am the key.”

  Harcourt sat up. “Can we offer you some tea? I would love a chance to catch up with you.”

  She shrugged. “There isn’t much to catch up on. I haven’t had much of my memory restored, but I did have enough to remember you two without prompting. Congratulations on shedding the demonic appearance.”

  Harcourt bowed. “It has come with certain restrictions, but my daughter has won the freedom of our line from the influence of our demon king. He no longer has a say in our appearances or our lives.”

  “That sounds like an excellent story. Will you share it?”

  Lenora inclined her head. “I will get some tea.”

  They sat around a library table and drank tea long into the night. The spells that Benny had used were ancient, and she had exploited every technicality of the demon world.

  Harcourt smiled charmingly. “Now, will you share a story of your own past?”

  “I don’t remember much, but I can tell you about my waking this time.”

>   Lenora nodded. “Please. Where were you found?”

  Al spoke. “She was found in a field, her abdomen gaping open and her eyes gouged out, as she always is. This time, she was found, and her abdominal cavity had closed, and her heart had begun to beat by the time the ambulance arrived to haul her body off. Her lungs sprouted on the drive to the hospital, and when she was airlifted to a larger facility, they ran every scan in the book and made up a few. I have never seen an MRI with organs regrowing before. It was fascinating, and I might put it up on the big screen for the holidays.”

  El sipped her tea and tried not to blush. Al had already done a thorough exploration of her body. The fact that he had seen beneath her skin just added to his catalogue of intimacies.

  Lenora smiled. “I am glad to see that you sorted that out. The last time we saw you, you had had an altercation with him.”

  “When did I last see you?”

  “Twenty years or so ago. Benny was tiny.” Lenora nibbled at a cookie.

  “She is all grown now. She is part of the quartet?” El sipped at her tea.

  Lenora paused. “Yes. How did you know?”

  “As I mentioned earlier, I did see her this evening with her team. The taco truck is an excellent place to see and be seen.” El chuckled.

  Harcourt shrugged. “Benny was born with demon blood. Her three bound mates are definitely suited to her temperament.”

  “They seemed to be. Good solid lines as well.”

  Lenora raised her brows. “Even the vampire?”

  “He is a Given vampire. His allegiance is to a good man. Possibly my oldest acquaintance who is still living.”

  Harcourt chuckled. “You know the mayor of Redbird City?”

  “I knew him. I haven’t seen him for a very long time.” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, a long time in the human sense. I did give my niece his name as a name. More or less.”

  Al frowned. “I thought her name was Mathers.”

  “That is the informal name. Her name is Jericho Matthias Mathers. I wanted to keep his name in play in case she ever needed it as proof of her link to me.” She smiled. “It is the same reason that you are on her legal birth record. If anything happens to me, she has legal protection and advocates.”

  Lenora sighed. “You know she is older than I am and plenty old enough to make her own way in the world.”

  El smiled. “I know it, now, but I forget about it every fifty years or so for some reason.”

  Lenora blinked and blushed. “Oh. Right.”

  Harcourt reached out and squeezed his wife’s hand. “We understand it. We are going to be at Benny’s beck and call until she stops calling. There is nothing wrong with wanting to take care of your own.”

  “Thank you for holding this book. I try not to leave it too long in one place. It tends to have strange effects on people.”

  Harcourt grinned. “Our family has held it for three hundred years.”

  “I know. Six hundred is the utmost limit. The amount of educational fixation is extreme at that point.” She patted the book.

  Harcourt looked at it. “But what is it? I can’t feel anything coming from it.”

  “Of course not. It isn’t open.” She smiled. “Once this is over, and it is on to its next caretaker, I will tell you what your family has been holding.”

  He sighed in a gust. “That is a horrible tease.”

  She checked the time and lifted the book into her arms. “It is. Al, can you give me a lift back to base?”

  “Of course.” He stood, and his wings widened in a slight threat display toward Harcourt.

  Lenora and Harcourt saw them out. The frustration on his face was evident. She sighed and turned back to them pulling him down and whispering quickly into his ear. He straightened and stared at her with wide eyes.

  “All of them?”

  “It is only a minute fraction. Get reading.” She left, and he and Lenora returned to the house, the lights in the library flaring bright.

  She returned to Al, and he picked her up. “What did you tell him?”

  “I whispered a few of my names. That should keep him busy until we can finish this.”

  Al smiled, bent his knees, and pushed them into the sky. “Which names?”

  “You know. Pandora, Galatea, Prometheus, and Hypatia. I left out my time in Atlantis.”

  He looked soberly at her. “How do you have all this information?”

  “The one who granted me this life and knowledge also gave me the means to back up all my data. I don’t know what I felt at those times, but I do know what I was doing.”

  “That is new.”

  “That is what the spectral consultant was able to find, it turned on, and everywhere I have been for eons came flooding back.”

  He held her tight as they flew toward home. “You are very lucky that I like older women.”

  “Ah, darling. It could only ever be me then.” She smiled. Coming to grips with being the world’s oldest woman had been surprisingly easy. The closest males in age to her had been the vampires, but now, only Matthias remained. It was just as well. She didn’t care for his brother.

  Al flew them through the night and nearly to dawn, but they arrived at the base, and she had the book in her arms. Her plan was going to kick off as soon as she had some sleep and a shower. The time for waiting was over.

  Chapter Nine

  Al propped himself up on one arm and stared at her, the glowing glyphs under his skin lit the dark of the room. Her own cuddly night light.

  “Do you really think it will be easy to end this?”

  She finished braiding her hair. “No. I think that this action will damage my soul, but what will happen after will do something to repair it. Yes, it sounds selfish, but now that my cadre of associates has managed to pin down where I need to go and what I need to do, there is no reason to hesitate.”

  He got out of bed, and she tried not to follow the movement of his body as he walked over to her. Certain portions of him were exceptionally distracting.

  He wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear. “I want to be there to help.”

  She patted his heavily muscled forearm and leaned back against him. “You are going to take me there, and when I am done, you will help me get to a safe place while I mourn what I have done. This is not going to be a good day for me.”

  “I cannot believe that you have made an appointment for this.”

  “He wants to see me. There wasn’t much hesitation. When Amber made the appointment, he was eager to set the date and time.” She wrinkled her nose. “I wish it were not after dark, but I am guessing that he isn’t at his best in bright daylight.”

  “If he is as old as you say he is, I don’t doubt it.”

  “Oh, he is that old. I finally know who he is and what he is after, but he hasn’t been able to hold any of my loved ones hostage for the last few episodes. He can and will grab you or Jeri, so after you deliver me, I want you to grab her and fly. Brenwyn is prepping wards on the car, and Dalfurth will be driving. The others will be running tracking and monitoring from a local outpost. I don’t want anyone alone or anyone in danger.”

  Al grunted. “Why is Richard allowed to come with you?”

  “He is my bodyguard. The demon he contains can blow free and keep him from getting used as leverage.” She relaxed and enjoyed the warmth of his embrace.

  “It is a bit of an adjustment for us. You have gone from knowing nothing but what is in your files to knowing everything about us.”

  “Just the details of our first meetings and interactions afterward.” She smiled slightly. “Nothing beyond that.”

  “It is more than I ever hoped.”

  She chuckled. “I remember you rescuing me from the flames after the locals thought they had burned me to death.”

  “And I remember your brilliant lavender eyes as you regenerated in my arms.”

  She stroked his arm. “They were hunti
ng you and found me instead.”

  “And you stopped me from avenging you.”

  “I did. There was no point. I lured you into coming with me to the new continent, and you agreed.”

  “After we had been together for a century, it seemed foolish not to join you. I panicked whenever you disappeared but made it my mission to find you.”

  El chuckled. “And you found me every time.”

  “Not the time you found Jericho.”

  “No. Not until she was ten. You did find us then, and you proved that you knew me. She took more convincing.”

  He laughed. “Life has gotten easier with photography. The time before this, she and I went after you together, and we found you and used the photos to prove our relationships in a fraction of the normal time.”

  She turned in his arms. “While I love this delaying tactic, I am still going to go tonight.”

  “I know. I just wanted a moment.”

  “If this works out like I hope, we will have hundreds, if not thousands of years.”

  He grinned. “I like the sound of that.”

  “Good. If I weren’t working toward something, it would all be useless.”

  He kissed her and checked her watch. “You are going to be late.”

  She hissed and pushed him away, finishing the last of her preparations before checking her reflection. She was wearing her standard uniform of black, lace, corsets, and strapping. Her boots were practical under her black ballet skirt. The one thing she didn’t want was to lose her footing.

  Her hair was the one thing that she had deviated from. She had a thin braid that wrapped around her head to hold her hair back. The braid was barely visible, but it would serve its purpose.

  She was ready.

  Exhaling slowly, she left her quarters with Al at her back. When she reached the common area, her crew was lined up on either side of her pathway, and as she passed them, they fell in line behind her.