0.5-The Asylum Interviews: Bronx: An Asylum Tales Short Story (7 page)

“Despite the oddness of our arrangement, I am assuming that you will keep my secret,” I said as she became quiet again.

Aemilia’s frown wiped away the last bit of pleasure on her face. “I keep the secrets that I’m given. It doesn’t matter how I acquire them. I hope you enjoy my tears.”

“They’re going to help someone who is in a lot of trouble right now. Thank you from both of us, and I’m sorry about what happened.”

She shrugged, trying to brush off my concern as if it weren’t important, but she was no longer meeting my gaze. “It was a long time ago.”

I frowned. It should never have happened to such young girls, and some part of me was terrified that her father had never been punished. “Is there . . . something . . . I can do?”

Her head popped up, surprise on her face. “Are you offering to kill him?”

“No!” I quickly said, nearly shouting before I could get my voice under control again. “I don’t do that. It’s why I left the Towers. I don’t kill.” I paused for a second, scratching my chin in thought. “But I do know one spell that would make his dick shrivel up and fall off.”

Aemilia chuckled, shaking her head. “Thank you for the offer, but you’re about fifteen years too late. He already died of a heart attack.”

“Sorry.”

“I appreciate the offer. I hope I see you again, Gage Powell. You’ve been . . . entertaining.” Her smile grew as she spoke the last word, sending a shiver down my spine. All remnants of the little girl were gone and I knew what I was looking at now wasn’t human any longer.

With a little salute, I turned on heel and marched out of the room, leaving the door open so her flunkies could return to her side. I had had enough and I prayed that I would never need to visit the Virgins again. Besides, she already had my best secret and I didn’t plan on doing anything that would surpass it—my sanity couldn’t take much more.

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN

W
hen we left the Vestal Virgins’ secret hacienda, I thought I could finally see the light at the end of this tunnel. The drive back to Low Town was quiet, with no appearances from Gideon. I was hoping that the protective spells blanketing the home of the Virgins helped to hide the tiny spell I had been forced to use on Aemilia. I didn’t like breaking my promise to the warlock, mostly because it would mean my ass if he found out, but I had no choice.

From here, everything was downhill. Either Bronx or I would tattoo Parker. Then he could return to his life and deal with Jill. But the second we pulled into the empty lot behind the parlor, I realized that I was wrong. Really, really wrong.

Jill stood on the wooden stairs, looking as if she was coming down from the second floor. She paused as the headlights of my car flashed over her as I parked the SUV, raising her hand to shield her eyes against the bright light.

“Shit,” I muttered as I saw her rush down the remaining stairs as she recognized my car.

“Who is it?” Bronx inquired. He had asked nothing about my dealings with Aemilia and had remained relatively quiet on the trip back to Low Town, giving me time to think—the one thing that I didn’t need.

I shoved the gear shifter into park and quickly turned off the car. “Jill. Parker’s girlfriend.” This couldn’t be good.

We both got out of the car. Jill came to a quick halt when her eyes fell on Bronx’s large form, but she regained her step when her gaze locked on me as I came around the front. She rushed over and threw her arms around my neck in a fierce hug that had me taking a step backward to regain my balance.

“Gage!” she cried in relief.

“What’s up, Jill? What are you doing here?”

She pulled away so that I could look into her dark brown eyes. “I’m looking for Parker. He left this afternoon and never came home. I’ve tried calling him but he won’t answer. His car is parked in front of the shop but he’s not here. Was he upstairs?”

I paused, licking my lips as my eyes darted over to Bronx for a heartbeat. I didn’t think there was any harm in telling her. We had what we needed to help Parker and he was going to have to tell her everything anyway. “Yes, he came over this afternoon and was staying upstairs.”

She gasped, her eyes widening in fear. “I think the warlocks took him.” Tears choked her voice, but it was her words that sent a spear of terror through me.

I grabbed her arms and held her in front of me so that I could look her clearly in the eye. “What? Why do you think that?”

“The apartment is a mess. The door is broken and there are all these symbols everywhere. Magic symbols, I think.”

My shoulders slumped in my relief and I pulled her into a tight hug. She had seen the symbols that I had drawn and assumed that someone from the Ivory Towers had attacked. I was still disturbed that someone had possibly come after Parker, but relieved that it was unlikely that it was a witch or warlock. If they had come, there was no saving Parker. With anyone else, we still had a chance.

“I don’t think it was anyone from the Towers,” I murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Let’s go look around upstairs and see if we can figure this out.”

Jill didn’t seem overly convinced, but she nodded, willing to play along for now. She stiffened when she noticed that Bronx was walking beside me toward the apartment. Jill had temporarily forgotten about the hulking troll in her panic to get to me. Now he was a looming shadow in the darkness, yet another potential threat to her safe life.

“It’s okay,” I said, squeezing her shoulder as I wrapped my arm around her, tucking her close against me. “Bronx is a friend. He doesn’t bite.”

Jill gave him a weak smile, but didn’t speak while Bronx gave her a polite bow of his head. We all paused at the foot of the stairs where both of my companions stared at the smudged black chalk drawing I had made earlier in the day. To my relief, I could feel no other magic in the air. I hadn’t thought a witch or warlock had grabbed Parker, but considering my past, there was always a possibility. Of course, if Gideon knew that I had broken my promise, he might have grabbed Parker as punishment.

Bronx looked at me, one eyebrow arched in question. It didn’t look good to anyone, and it was going to look it even worse when I pressed forward, but it wasn’t helping Parker to be standing at the foot of the stairs, hesitating.

“I think it’s someone just trying to scare us and cover their tracks. No one from the Ivory Towers has been here,” I declared, releasing Jill so I could start up the stairs.

“Are you sure?” she asked, still hesitating.

“Positive. Besides, if a witch or warlock has taken Parker, it’s highly unlikely the building would be standing. They hate tattoo artists.” She seemed reluctant to follow me up to the second floor despite the fact that she had already rushed up there. I could only guess that her fear of the Towers was overcoming her fear for Parker. “Look, Jill. You can stay down here. Bronx will even stay with you, if you want. I just want to take a look around and then I’ll be right back.”

I turned and pounded up the stairs. It was only a second or two later before I heard two more sets of feet following behind me. I don’t know whether common sense hit or if she was afraid of being left alone with Bronx. Regardless, she and Bronx were right behind me when I walked into the apartment, which had in fact been trashed.

The sunken couch that was against the wall was still in one piece, or as much as it had ever been, but one of the cushions was now torn and stuffing was sticking out. The coffee table had been smashed and there were several new holes in the walls. There were also only a couple small smears of what looked to be blood. I quickly walked through the rest of the apartment to find that nothing else had been disturbed, as the fight had apparently taken place in just the living room. The lack of blood and a body had me hopeful that Parker was still alive and not too badly injured. What’s more, the signs of a struggle confirmed in my mind that Gideon hadn’t taken him either. The warlock wouldn’t have given Parker a chance to struggle.

“Any ideas?” Bronx asked, drawing my attention back to him.

I sighed and shrugged. “Actually, no.”

“Gage, what’s going on? Why was he here in the first place?”

I shoved my hands in my baggy jeans, my fingers wrapping around the glass test tube of tears.
So close.
“Do you remember anything happening today that was sort of out of the ordinary?” Jill’s gentle face was blank for a moment before a bright blush stole to her cheeks and she looked away from me. Jill was no prude and she wasn’t even particularly modest when it came to Parker, but by her expression, I was willing to guess that things had gotten a little crazy. “Parker was tattooed last night and it seems that it had an unexpected effect. It appears to make people extremely horny. Parker came here to protect you while we tried to reverse what was done.”

“You tattooed him!” she shrieked, losing all her earlier embarrassment.

“Actually, I tattooed him,” Bronx volunteered, drawing her narrowed gaze to him. All her earlier fear of him was lost in a heartbeat. I appreciated Bronx’s attempts to shield me from her anger.

“We didn’t mean for this to happen,” I said.

“But why did he get the tattoo in the first place?”

“I think that’s something Parke needs to talk to you about—”

“No! Obviously there’s something going on that he’s not telling me, but you know. Tell me.”

“Jill—”

She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at me. “I thought you were my friend, Gage.”

Fuck! Why the hell did she have to pull that one out? I didn’t do well under the pressure of guilt from a female friend. Guys? Fuck it. A male friend couldn’t guilt me into shit, but I was defenseless against a close female friend.

“He was starving, Jill,” I snapped. The anger drained from her face and her arms fell slack at her sides. “You knew it and that’s why you sent him out drinking with me. You knew he wouldn’t be able to pass up feeding while we were out and you could pretend that you didn’t know anything about it. Unfortunately, the guilt, along with general starvation, was killing him. He refused to give you up or ask you to change so we agreed to try to help him. We tattooed him, hoping that we could amplify the little things so he didn’t need an orgasm to feed off of.”

“It didn’t work like we hoped,” Bronx continued when I fell silent. “Parker came here to protect you while we went to collect an ingredient we’re hoping will nullify the effects of the original tattoo.”

“I didn’t think it had gotten so bad,” Jill whispered. Her face was drawn and unshed tears glistened in her eyes. “I was hoping that after he went out with you and got full, I could jump back in and keep up with his needs.”

“I warned you this was going to happen.” The bitter words escaped me in a growl as I shoved both of my hands through my hair. “Humans can’t manage an incubus.”

“I don’t need your I-told-you-so, Gage!” she snapped.

“Sorry.” I lowered both my hands and pulled her into a hug. “You’re both my friends and I don’t want to see either of you hurt.” Jill sighed and hugged me back, laying her head on my shoulder.

“Unfortunately, this conversation isn’t getting us any closer to Parker and we’ve got just around three hours until sunrise. If I’m going to be of any help, we’ve got to do something soon.” Bronx pulled us back to the problem at hand. Giving Jill one last reassuring squeeze, I stepped back and looked around the room again, but nothing grabbed my attention. I knew a couple of spells that would reveal images of the last people to walk through the room, but I didn’t want to use them. They would definitely break Gideon’s edict, much less the self-defense-only agreement with the council. I also didn’t know how I’d explain it to my two companions.

“Oh shit!” Jill cursed. I twisted around to find her covering her mouth with both of her hands as she stared at me with wide eyes. “I think I know who might have him.”

“Who?” Bronx asked, gently laying one large hand on her small shoulder.

“This woman approached him about a month ago. She wanted him to work for her, but Parker refused. She was really pissed and we had to call the cops just to get her to leave. What if she found out about his tattoo?”

“I don’t know how she’d know, but I’m quickly learning that I don’t know half as much about incubi as I should,” I murmured.

“Who’s the woman?” Bronx asked.

“Felicia Hart. She’s a succubus,” I said to Bronx, then looked down at Jill. “Parke told me about the encounter.”

“The business?”

“Miss Holly’s Hot House.”

“Gentlemen’s club?”

I snorted. Sometimes this troll could be so damn polite and proper. “No, it’s a brothel. Felicia is owner and manager of the . . . talent. Everyone working there is either an incubus or a succubus. It’s expensive, but it’s supposed to be some of the best sex ever.”

“Gage!” Jill gasped.

“Shit! I’ve never been there. Parker told me about the place.”

Jill continued to glare at me and I glared back at her. I didn’t like the thoughts that were dancing around in that head of hers. I wanted to give her a good shake, but Bronx was kind enough to break in.

“How do we handle this?” the troll asked, breaking off the glaring contest.

“We go in there and pull him out. Jill goes home and waits for us to send him home after we’re done fixing his tattoo.”

“I’m going too!” Jill said. She held up one hand, stopping my denial in my throat. “This all started because of me. I’m going.”

I looked over at Bronx, waiting for his opinion on dragging Jill to a brothel. He shrugged his large shoulders, looking unwilling to jump into the fray. “I can watch out for her and make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”

“Fine,” I grumbled. If Bronx protected Jill, that meant that I was left to extract Parker from his captors. Not the greatest odds, but I was hoping that somewhere along the way Parker would be helping too.

Getting Parker out of the brothel wasn’t the biggest problem. First, I had to figure out a way to block the effects of Parker’s tattoo without raising too many questions. We wouldn’t be of much help if we came down with the urge to screw anything that moved when we got close to the brothel. And I had to do so without giving away that I was a former warlock in training or catching Gideon’s attention. Yeah, this was turning into just a dandy night. Fuck.