Raised in Fire (Fire and Ice Trilogy 2)

“Why haven’t I heard about that?” I asked, aghast.

“News coverage has been minimal. Many are blaming the occult. The effect lasted about two weeks. After that, the people who’d committed the crimes came out of their trance. Many of them were already incarcerated, but they had no idea what had happened, let alone what part they had played in it. Vlad’s people checked it out and determined the demon responsible wasn’t one they knew.”

I shifted. “I thought you said there were a bunch of demons?”

“Dimensional demons,” Callie said quietly. “Humans turned into demons by one powerful demon.”

Dizzy moaned and shook his head. “I hope not.”

“Did you not just hear the vampire?” Callie asked Dizzy. “He all but described them.”

“Honey, don’t be rude. Call him a man.”

“But he’s not a man. He’s a vampire. Why shouldn’t I call him what he is?”

“Fast-forward to the point, please,” I said, rubbing my temples.

“A fifth-level demon sheds power as it moves through the world in its chosen form. That power alters humans in the demon’s image.” Callie poured herself a finger of whiskey. “An experienced demon can prevent this, if it so chooses. Depending on the type of demon, the effect can make humans more villainous, lustful, deceitful, or even more loving. I once heard of a whole town that erupted in orgies. This demon, clearly, is swirling around our classic definition of evil.”

“I honestly didn’t know there were good demons,” I mumbled.

Callie took a sip before replying. “People like to glorify the negative aspects of themselves in demon form. Demons are the scapegoats. But let’s be honest, a great many of them are very bad creatures.”

“Besides,” Dizzy said, “they tend to make weak-willed people do uncharacteristic things. Forcing your will on others is never a good thing.”

“Burn!” I pointed at Darius.

He looked at me quizzically.

“You know, because of the forcing your will on others thing. Namely me… Never mind. You’re slow.”

“It is not my inability to understand that is the problem,” he said. “It is your inability to tell a joke.”

“No…” That’s all I had. A one-word rebuttal. “So what does that Northern California demon have to do with me?”

“Hopefully nothing,” Darius said. “Demons that strong, ones that can’t control the power they shed, rarely come up to the surface. And if they do, they usually don’t last long. Nothing brings magical people together faster than a demon threatening their way of life. I am hoping this particular creature went back down without any further issues.

“My worry is this: the mage we captured a couple months ago learned of you through an ingested demon. The demon was the one that recognized your power. If just once, upon banishing the demon, the mage forgot to bind it to keep her secrets, the demon could’ve communicated about you. I want to stay vigilant in the event that the information fell on opportunistic ears. Our worst-case scenario is that the powerful demon came to the surface as a byproduct of that situation.”

Cold washed through my body. “I’m sure any demons that know about me would also know where I live.”

“One would think. Still, it is wise to keep our eyes and ears open.” I felt his thumb rub against my neck supportively. Everyone was quiet for a moment.

Dizzy shrugged, looking at the leftover food. “There’s nothing we can do right now. We might as well enjoy the flight.”

“It was probably just a demon up for a joy ride.” Callie turned her mouth into a duck bill and nodded. “That’s probably all there is to it.”

I truly hoped so.

Chapter Twelve

“Is this room to your satisfaction?” Darius asked, standing just inside the large hotel room he’d booked for me.

We’d gotten the same treatment leaving the private jet as we’d had traveling to it. Darius had called ahead to make sure Dizzy and Callie had accommodations, and now we were all checking in and getting comfortable before the next thing.

I had no idea what the next thing was. I realized I should probably figure that out in the next hour.

The curtains had been left open, revealing a yawning blackness beyond. I knew from the walk to the room (there had been no formal check-in, simply Darius stating his name and waiting for the staff to run around like chickens with their heads cut off) that one side of the hotel overlooked the water. I seemed to recall overhearing it was a bay, but I had no idea which one. I hadn’t studied a map en route to our final destination. It seemed, however, that I would get to stare at the bay from the large windows of my room when I had nothing better to do.

“Looks great,” I said, looking over the leather chairs that formed a triangle with a cold fireplace in a hearth of stone. “It’s big.” A modern desk sat against the wall with lit candles on its surface.

Actually, upon closer inspection, they were lights made to flicker like candles. Which made sense. Open fire posed a hazard. I knew from experience.

“Through here…” Darius crossed the room gracefully. “You can easily reach me.”

He unlocked a deadbolt to a nondescript door that blended in with the wall. It led to the room next door—or so I realized when he used his magic to unlock the other side and pushed the door open.

“But this is a suite, right?” I gestured around me. “I didn’t realize suites connected with other suites. That’s kind of a weird feature. Super-rich people give their kids matching suites?”

Darius had already moved on with his examination. He stood in the threshold of my bathroom, which had a brick-red wall and a trendy sort of brown stone design that resembled my new bathroom at home. “That wall color is hideous.”

“It’s just a hotel, Darius.”

“This is the vampire wing, designed with our special needs in mind. One of my children owns this establishment. I helped him get it off the ground. He keeps up the rooms to change with the times, but he has badly missed the mark on this. It is gaudy. I will speak with him about it.”

I shrugged. If he wanted to waste his time, I’d get a drink at the bar while he made his complaint.

“Your room is commonly reserved for humans attending to their vampires.” Darius looked me over expectantly.

“I’m not attending to anyone. But I sure hope room service attends to me.”

“There is a young alpha shifter of a sub-pack in this town who has drawn Roger’s eye.” Roger was the head shifter of the pack that helped police supernatural activity in the Brink. “This alpha leads a pack to exterminate new vampires.” Darius’s lip curled aggressively. “I am on official business, focused on the issues concerning you, so I will not kill him and his whole pack, though they have killed one of my children in this area.”

“Do you have children all over the world?”

“Yes. Hence my need of a private jet,” he said, speaking slowly as though to an imbecile.

“Right. How stupid of me to ask.”

“Yes.” He paused. “The shifters might be sniffing around, getting under our feet.”

“I have no reason to deal with them—I’m here on human police business. Besides, the only shifters I have a problem with are from the New Orleans pack.”

“Reagan, you are rarely dimwitted. I’d prefer you didn’t make a habit of it now.”

I furrowed my brow at him, a silent rebuttal to his being an ass.

“They so seldom deal with elders that they might assume I can’t control myself, and therefore, will watch and report,” he went on. “I have to follow magical law to the letter to avoid an altercation.”

“Darius, honestly, I was up all day, and now I’ve nearly been up all night. I’m human, remember? I need sleep. So could you please get to the point? And following the rules is not it, because you did that just fine when we worked together on the last case.”

“Do you not remember my need for blood when we stayed at my house in the French Quarter?”