Her Darkness: The Succubus Chronicles - [Closed for Amazonkass29]

[Halcyon638]

Detective Noah Wright already had a gut feeling the night was going to be a long one before the phone even rang, interrupting his dinner of takeout Thai food. “Shit,” he muttered to himself after speaking to the patrolman on the other side. He rose from his desk wearily, his limbs feeling heavy with fatigue. Why was he bothering with jogging and exercising if he was going to feel like Hell all the time as a result?

It didn’t matter now. He had to get his ass to Boland Circle where Blake Callison had just managed to get himself beaten to a bloody pulp. Noah adjusted the rearview mirror, which seemed to shift of its own accord regularly. There was no pad Thai in the stubble that darkened his firm jaw, which was good. There were slight circles under his mahogany eyes, which was not-so-good, and he’d let his dark chocolate-colored hair get a bit too long again, or at least a bit too long by cop standards. Kendall had always told him she preferred it longer, but she either didn’t understand the colossal mound of shit he’d get heaped on him by his coworkers, or didn’t care. Knowing his ex, the latter was probably the case.

Noah wasn’t exactly broken up by the fact that Blake Callison had been, in the words of the patrolman, “beaten to a fucking pudding.” The 42-year-old man had a healthy rap sheet that included charges of domestic battery and intent to sell narcotics—H and synthetic opioids, not a few joints for someone looking to enhance their viewing of Blade Runner. Callison had proven useful as a confidential informant, though, first brought into the fold by Noah’s partner who has out on family medical leave tending to a sick wife. He ran a modest club in Boland Circle called The Marsh, and had been instrumental in locking up a few medium-level associates of local gangster Barrett “Bear” Habermann, though no one was willing to turn against the bastard and testify yet.

Over the last few weeks, Noah had been hearing rumors about an alleged shipment coming to town that was tied to Habermann. Most of the rumors said it was heroin, some said weapons, while others…there were other rumors that Noah’s partner would have laughed off had he still been working this case with him. Two years ago, when he first moved to the city, Noah would have done the same. However, in those two years, he had seen some things—things that defied expectations certainly, but in other cases, defied belief. He had never been religious or given any credence to any mystical nonsense (coming from a family of cops had made him place a premium on what could be proven), but in the last six months or so...things had changed.

In any case, having a confidential informant confined to a hospital bed for maybe a month or two meant Noah was well and truly fucked for the time being. His only hope was maybe he could squeeze some information out of the sole witness Officer Soyinka had told him about to find out if Bear Habermann had anything to do with Callison’s impromptu reconstructive surgery.

Officer Soyinka met him at the scene, the alleyway behind The Marsh. The slightly pudgy Nigerian-British patrolman recited the facts to him with the bored tone of someone giving their phone number to an insurance agent as the lights from his patrol car lit up the alley in lurid hues. The witness was a woman in her early thirties—worked in the museum near the university, not the type of woman one would expect to be spending time with human waste like Callison. There was CCTV footage of her and him talking in the club, him seemingly getting angry at one point, and then footage of the two of them entering the alley, though nothing of the beating itself. When Soyinka and his partner arrived on the scene, they found the woman covered in blood walking away from his battered form in a daze, though she seemed uninjured herself.

“Thanks,” Noah told Soyinka, taking a look at the patrolman’s initial notes. “Let me have a talk with her.” The man nodded. “And say ‘hi’ to your sister for me, would you?” Grinning, Soyinka flipped Noah the middle finger and walked away. Noah stepped toward where the witness was talking with Soyinka’s partner. He saw a trail of small blood spatters leading to where the woman currently stood, her back to Noah.

“Hi,” he said. The woman turned toward him now. He could see the blood staining her clothing, hands, arms, legs, and even just above her collarbone. Her eyes were wide, as if still partly in shock. “I’m Detective Wright. I understand you’ve already answered some of our questions but I just had a few details I wanted to go over to make sure I have everything straight, Ms…” He struggled to recall the woman’s last name. The headlights of one of the cop cars nearby turned on, fully illuminating her for the first time.

 

[amazonkass29]

Anna was beautiful. Even as an unassuming looking woman, there was something about the purposeful plainness to her that still made her turn heads. She dressed for her body, but she acted as if she was unaware of it, or it’s uses for anything other than to carry around her consciousness.

This was all an act, something that Anna prided herself on the fact that no one had ever seen through. Even as she walked with easy steps down dark deserted streets, nothing about her screamed unease. Any other person who dared to step into this part of town was safely indoors. Strange things happened on darkened streets in Boland Circle, even if no one wanted to talk about it. That’s exactly why Anna was there, to find out just who was behind these strange happenings. Sure there were the usual problems, drugs and prostitution but too many people could swear to seeing things that weren’t of this world.

When posed with the question of belief, Anna always gave a noncommittal answer. Did she believe in all the ghoul and vampire stories she heard? No, especially when half of them sounded made up, and Anna would know.

Tonight’s goal wasn’t to unmask some supernatural foe though. No, Anna had her eyes set on much tamer prey. Having lived in this city for quite some years, Anna had seen it change. Had seen the insidious hands of drug dealers and pimps close in a tight fist to control the flow of money in and out of the city. It only took one string of overdoses to turn her attention to the blight on her city.

To her credit, it hadn’t taken Anna long to find out just who was one of the more prolific dealers in the area. She had shaken down some of his runners and had found out he ran a club. That’s why her night had begun here, on the dark streets.

Sounds had spilled into the night and caught Anna’s attention. She turned then and headed towards the origin, a graceful hand reaching up and loosening the tie that held her chestnut hair in a tight, professional bun. The pair of red rimmed glasses she wore, for fashionability, were slipped from her face and Anna undid a few buttons on the striped collared shirt she wore. She needed to look slightly lost but still appetizing. She shook her hair out and pulled some of it forward, it fell to almost below her breasts.

Anna tried her best to hike up the long pencil skirt that hugged her hips but the navy blue fabric had very little give, and she knew it would be a failure to try and hitch it up further. The change to her appearance was complete by the time Anna opened the heavy door to the Marsh. Two burly bouncers, one smoking a cigarette, eyed her as she entered.

With nothing but cool disinterest on her face, Anna strode to the bar and leaned against it. When the bartender, a haggard looking man in what looked to be his mid-fifties turned his attention on her, Anna slid a hundred pound note onto the marred bartop. “A pint of cider and when you’re done, I need to see the manager.” The man blinked at her and Anna merely stared back at him, something in her gaze turning icy enough for the man to look away.
“Right, he’ll be round here somewhere,” the barman drawled as he placed a dirty pint glass filled with cider before her and slid the money from the counter into his pocket. Anna made a show of sipping on the cider as the bartender seemed to search the milling crowd from where he stood. Finally, his eyes widened and he raised an arm to beckon someone to the bar. Anna didn’t turn around as a man came closer and leaned himself against the bar top less than a foot away from her.

“Boss, this lady wants to talk to you.” And Anna knew the bribe had paid off. She waited for Blake Callinson to turn and take her in before she even wasted her time taking her attention away from her drink. Without meeting his eyes, Anna shook her head. “You know, I’ve been hearing some things on the street, that you’re the one who sold those bogus oxys mixed with fent?”

Blake snorted and made a show of looking Anna up and down, “You’re not one of my usual customers, but yeah I have the real good stuff. Almost gone, people been gobbling them up since it were in the papers about the deaths…” A pang of guilt went through Anna, she should have come to this hell hole sooner, maybe she could have saved more people. She knew he wasn’t lying, the best claim to fame a dealer could have was such strong stuff it killed the user.

“And how much money would it take,” Anna asked, her dark brown eyes finally meeting Blake’s watery blue ones, “For you to no longer sell those pills and any other drug you have that kills people?” There was no emotion in her voice and Blake looked at her puzzled, “Ya gotta be nuts, love, ain’t no amount of money…” He shook his head at her incredulously. Anna snorted and nodded her head,

“I had a feeling you would say that, well in that case,” Anna continued in a bored tone, “I’m going to have to let the authorities know about the back room you have here stuffed with trafficked girls. I know they’ve been easy on you, but I’m pretty sure any deal you have with them will be null and void if they find out.”

He had yelled and Anna had ignored him and walked right past him to the door. She knew he would follow her, she knew exactly what kind of man Blake Callinson was, and she was going to enjoy giving him just what he deserved.

She wouldn’t drain him, didn’t want that kind of taint on her tonight, and by the time she realized the alley had cameras and angled herself just so, she knew she would beat this cretin to within an inch of his life.

And now it put her in this predicament as the not unhandsome detective came over to take up her questioning. She played the part of a dazed good Samaritan tonight. “Campbell, Anna Campbell...I was coming out of the club and just found that poor man there, I tried to do rescue breathing until your lot showed up…” She added a concerned edge to her voice. Anna was crafty, she knew the man would see the blood splattered over her, and she made sure to account for that in her story. A slightly shaking hand moved to lift her hair to one side of her shoulder, casually hiding a purple bruise now blooming on her throat. She’d let Blake get one good one in, but he’d been all fists and fury. Once Anna realized that, beating him had been easy. “If we could wrap this up...I need to be getting home…”

 

[Halcyon638]

As the headlight from a police car lit up the alley, Noah got his first good look at the witness. He had to blink a few times to register the sight in front of him. She was gorgeous, with eyes the color of dark honey and revealed no sign of fatigue despite the hour, and despite the distressed expression she wore on her lovely lips. He suddenly felt exposed in a way he only felt when encountering a particularly attractive woman unexpectedly, self-conscious about his unkempt appearance and his tired eyes. “Apologies--I won’t keep you long, Ms. Campbell,” Noah said.

His eyes followed the bloodstains on her clothing, scanning them with the cold, analytical eye of a detective, but not failing to notice the swell of her chest in her striped-collared shirt. Christ, get a hold of yourself, he told himself. She’s already had a shit night. Doesn’t need some cop leering at her in a dank alleyway. Perhaps the only thing that made him feel slightly less terrible about himself was the fact that she seemed to be in her early thirties, so at least he wasn’t mooning over some girl fresh out of uni.

Having been thrown by her appearance, Noah attempted to rearrange the jumbled puzzle pieces he intended to assemble into some sort of coherent interview. It suddenly occurred to him that Soyinka must not have asked her about the seeming confrontation between her and Callison caught on CCTV. That poor man there, she’d said, as if she’d never seen him before. His eyes traced her forearm to a ring of some sort on her left hand.

Maybe she’d led the man into a trap where her brute of a boyfriend was waiting for him? It was odd that there only blood trail seemed to between her and the vic, with no trails leading out of the alley. Something here didn’t add up. He felt a rush of adrenaline he felt when the obvious answer seemed to fray at the edges when you began to tug at it. There was something more here, and he knew it.

“Did you and Mr. Callison have some sort of argument tonight?” he said, shifting slightly from the reassuring apologetic tone he’d used initially to something still warm enough but non-committal.

 

[amazonkass29]

Shit

She'd forgotten about their little conversation in the club. She'd been too busy feeling out the man before her. She could almost smell the scent of the emotions he was giving off, and when he resisted his baser urges by only slightly leering at her, Anna knew she had to come up with something convincing. She lowered her eyes and took a step closer to the detective. He would smell her perfume now, a floral scent mixed with something altogether intoxicating.
"He said some things to me at the bar, something like he'd like to knock me up ten ways from Tuesday." She forced a bit of an embarrassed blush to her cheeks as she looked at the ground, "I might have told him just what kind of man he was, and he didn't like that. I was walking away from the club when I heard some sort of commotion and when I came back I found him here. I.." she paused and met his eyes, "I didn't tell the other officer, because I know what it looks like. We were arguing and now he's in hospital..." but she motioned to herself, as if to bring his attention back to her somewhat slight frame.

"But I'm sure if that were the case, I'd be the one in that bed, and not him." Anna sighed as if the weight of the world were on her shoulders and stepped back. She almost felt bad lying to this guy. He seemed decent enough, and from the feel of him, this wasn't where he wanted to be right now. She waited a beat before she spoke again, "I don't like that club, there were all sorts of young looking girls being brought to the back...I only came out for a drink, not all this bollocks."

If she was going to have to manipulate this detective to get herself out of trouble, she was going to at least give him a win for the night. Anna knew they would find frightened young women from different countries all stuffed into a tiny room, with horrible living conditions.

Anna hoped, besides it being a good deed, it would keep the light off of her as a suspect.

 

[Halcyon638]

As Anna Campbell took a step closer to him, Noah felt suffused with nervous energy. The flowery scent of her perfume, though not too strong, seemed to longer both in his nose and on the tip of his tongue. As she began to give her account in her quavering but mellifluous tone, he had an almost overpowering urge to reassure her—to put a hand on her, not anything too forward, but just a steadying hand on the gentle curve of her shoulder.

The sound of a car door slamming shook the detective out of his reverie. What is wrong with me? It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been around a beautiful woman before—for all her faults (and he had more than his fair share, too), Kendall had been a knockout—though it had been a while since his last hookup, and there had only been two since the divorce. With her museum job, too, and her stylish clothing, this woman gave off a sophisticated, perhaps moneyed vibe that had never been a good fit with him. It had partly been Kendall’s desire to move up in the world and not have some underachieving Birmingham beat cop dragging her down that had inspired him to apply for a detective position, and then, a few years later, apply for promotion to lieutenant, before what some might have called his moral code and others less charitably would have called his knack for “shitting where he eats” threw that possibility out the window and led to him scrambling to find a job in this city at a 10 percent pay cut.

Still, knowing he was a bad fit with a woman hadn’t slowed Noah down before, though he liked to think he’d learned something from his still raw emotional scars. As he listened to the witness’s story, he felt guilty for having been lost in his own troubles a moment ago. That guilt soon turned to barely contained rage as she referred to the possible illegal activity going on in Callison’s club.

That piece of shit, Noah thought. If Callison was engaged in trafficking while all the while Noah and his partner thought he was just a petty dealer and were using him as an informant, whoever he’d just encountered in the alleyway might have let him off easy. They had to search the club and he was going to have a talk with that rancid meatsack of a man as soon as he could learn to communicate through a wired jaw.

“Thank you, Ms.,” Noah said, producing his business card as he prepared to storm the club single-handedly if needed. “If you, uh, think of something,” he told her distractedly. There were still parts of this that didn’t add up—the lack of a blood trail out of the alley, for one—but he could worry about putting those pieces together once any exploited women inside the club were safe and once he’d had a chance to wring as much information out of Callison as possible. “Sorry for your troubles.” A sudden pang of regret hit Noah, as he had the feeling she wouldn’t be calling him, and this would be the last time their paths would cross.

 

[amazonkass29]

Anna watched the ripple of emotions going through Noah as the information that she'd so carefully handed to him, set in. She tried to keep the shock from her face at his palpable rage when he realized there were women inside and in danger. It shocked her because of all the cops she'd ever encountered, most of their first thoughts went to the paperwork or how late they were going to be out.

But Noah was different, and as Anna took the card from him she brushed her finger along his knuckle. "I'll be sure to call detective." She assured him before Anna turned and left the detective to his rescue. As her heels clicked on the pavement, Anna knew she wouldn't go out hunting tonight. She got far enough from the scene before she made a sharp left down an alley.

A restrained sigh escaped her lips as Anna let her back hit cold brick. She needed to go home, but part of her wanted to watch what unfolded when Detective Wright found all those women stuffed into the back room. It was partly her good deed after all...

With less restraint, Anna let a hiss escape her lips as she felt a familiar searing heat rise from the soles of her feet and spiral up her legs. Pale hands gripped at the stone behind her as she felt the burn come to a head between her legs and slide up her backside before disappearing.

With a huff, Anna pulled at the hem of her skirt and the fabric gave way. She lost so many skirts that way, it had almost lured her into wearing pants. Almost. Some habits died hard it seemed. With a shake of her head, Anna could see the raven glint to her hair in the faint light shining from the streetlight at the end of the alley. She kicked off her shoes before turning and leaping into the air. Her hands caught the edge of the tall building before her, and soon Anna was running barefoot along the rooftops. Aerials and discarded toys littered her path, but within moments she had pushed herself into the shadow of an abandoned block of flats, with the perfect vantage point of the front door of the club.

 

[Halcyon638]

"I'll be sure to call, detective." The sincerity in the words caught Noah off-guard. He wanted to say something more, but he could feel another part of him pulling him in the direction of the club, his sense of duty and outrage subsuming whatever lingering emotions the woman’s words evoked in him.

Noah strode down the alleyway toward the front of the club. Before he turned the corner completely, he took a quick glance back, but Anna Campbell was gone.

The detective made his way to the entrance, flashing his badge to the bouncer and giving the man “I fucking dare you to try to stop me” look, then barging in. It was a seedily lit club and played dance music that even Noah, who hadn’t exactly had his pulse on the day’s music for a while now, could tell had gone out of style about six years ago. A few patrons gaped at him as he all but charged through the club toward its backrooms, nearly knocking over a middle-aged finance type who was bringing a drink to a pale, gaunt, if pretty young woman who looked to be half his age and had a glazed, faraway look to her eyes.

“Watch it, you cunt!” the man yelled at Noah who was already several strides past him, luckily for the finance-type.

Sure enough, in one of the back hallways there stood an even more hulking man with an impossibly wide chest. “Get the fuck out of the way,” Noah said, flashing his badge again.

“Got a search warrant, mate?”

What I’ve got is a witness who says there is some seriously foul shit going on in this place and enough probable cause for me to search every inch of this place with an electron-fucking microscope, mate, is what Noah would have said if he’d taken a moment to catch his breath instead of grabbing the substantially larger man by his shirt-collar and slamming him against the very door he was trying shield. It also might have occurred to him that it was good practice to alert Officer Soyinka and his partner to the fact that there were possible criminal activities occurring inside in order to have some actual backup rather than going in alone, but Noah wasn’t in a patient mood tonight.

The bouncer responded with a crushing punch that struck Noah with a glancing blow to the side of his head above his ear, sending him reeling backward a few paces. Behind the man, the door was now open and Noah could make out a darkened room. The bouncer advanced on him.

Noah reached down and pulled out his taser. At any other time, he might have taken a bit of delight in seeing the large figure’s eyes widen at the realization he was about to be in intense, debilitating anguish, but the detective was too focused on his goal.

As the heavyset man went crashing down, Noah barged into the room and found the light switch. It looked to be a nondescript storage room for items including cocktail ingredients, extra glassware, and bathroom cleaning supplies. However, as he scanned the room, he detected a faint, flickering light coming from a crack in the floor.

There was a panel set into the concrete. Noah slowly pulled it back and grabbed his flashlight, only to see that the staircase leading down was illuminated. What the hell is this? He half expected to see a candlestick on the wall that he could pull to reveal a hidden passage.

As he approached the bottom of the stairs, he saw two columns of six young women—the oldest couldn’t have been more than 21. They stood rigidly, arms locked at their sides, faces with a feverish sheen to them, all of them dressed in revealing clothing and standing to either side of some bizarre wax symbol about four feet in diameter. It wasn’t a pentagram or anything immediately recognizable to Noah, but it did look...occult in nature.

A shadowy male figure stood between the two columns of women, chanting in a language that Noah didn’t recognize in the slightest. One of the young women had the top of her hand extended into the circle. The male figure looked to be dressed in a black suit, though in the dancing candlelight, his skin looked greyish mixed with tinges of red and purple. As the man chanted, he lowered some strange kind of metal implement shaped vaguely like a small iron toward the woman’s outstretched hand.

“Stop!” Noah brandished his baton and rushed toward the figure and the women. To his horror, he saw that at least some of them had also had their hands branded in this way, and he could smell the powerful odor of the young woman’s burning flesh as the metal met her skin. The shadowy figure turned towards him.

Noah heard a guttural, inhuman hiss, and then the sound of the metal implement clattering heavily to the concrete ground. Before he knew what was happening, the male rushed at him, his face somehow still cloaked into darkness despite his moving closer to a nearby table covered in candles, two burning orbs of reddish-purple where his eyes should be trained on the detective.
Noah felt the impact of the figure’s charge break against his body like a tidal wave against a rocky shore. As he attempted to regain the wind that had been knocked out of him, he saw the women still standing still as statues. “Stay…here,” he said, rising to his feet and hearing heavy footsteps on the staircase above. How had he gained that much ground on him already?

“You’ll be safe.” Noah took off up the stairs, then sprinted out of the storage room into the hallway where the crumpled bouncer lay. A nearby window he hadn’t noticed upon entering the hallway was smashed out. Determined to follow, Noah bounded through it, opening up a nasty gash on his right wrist from a shard of glass that remained in the frame.

 

[amazonkass29]

Anna had been watching and listening with enhanced senses. Her mind could almost paint a picture as it pieced together the noises she heard. A look of concerned surprise lit across her features as the electric sounds of a taser being used, met her sensitive ears. It seemed Detective Wright had found the room she had mentioned. What Anna had not been anticipating was the metallic tang of magic hitting her tongue. Her eyes widened. Had she just sent this poor mortal man to his death? There must have been some wards around the room, Anna hadn't scented any magic when she had been inside the club.

Torn, Anna leaned out from her perch. She couldn't risk exposing herself with so many cops loitering about, to go to Noah's rescue. With baited breath she waited, until the sound of glass shattering brought her attention to a different part of the building. A black cloaked figure ran a few steps after landing, before seeming to just melt into shadow.

Anna nearly wretched from the stench of dark magic, her senses remembering something she dearly wished to forget. Pushing down the feeling, Anna watched in a mixture of horror and relief as Noah followed the shadow person's path out the window.

Something bigger was going on inside that club, and Anna had placed Noah right in the middle of it. Cursing herself, Anna waited to make sure he stood and looked around bewildered before she slunk back into the shadows. She needed to get home, it was well past midnight and she had to be up for her seven a.m. train. She wanted to stick around, and see the woman led to safety. But, Anna knew Detective Wright would take care of them. She made a mental note to call him later that week under the pretense of more information. Truth was, she wanted to pick his brain about what he'd seen in that room.

 

[Halcyon638]

Where the hell had the man—if that was the right word for it—gone? Blood streaming down his right wrist, Noah saw no sign of the individual he’d been pursuing. Damn it. It wasn’t the first time he’d experienced something bizarre in this city, and he’d heard his share of accounts of odd happenings from witnesses—men and women who could seemingly disappear into the shadows of a dead-end alley, killers seemingly hypnotized into carrying out brutal murders, bodies found with wounds that couldn’t be explained by pathologists—but this was the closest encounter he’d personally had with anything this inexplicable.

The peal of a fire alarm split the night air. Noah vaulted back in through the broken window. When he made it inside, he found Officer Soyinka and his partner carrying the women who had been standing in the darkened, strange room, up the stairs. The room in which they were being branded was engulfed in flame. Noah himself grabbed one dark-haired woman and pulled at the arm of another. “Come on!” She somehow seemed shaken out of her stupor and made her way, albeit slowly, up the staircase behind Noah and another woman.

They managed to evacuate all the women except for one, who suffered some painful but not fatal burns to her legs. The rest of The Marsh had emptied out, its patrons scurrying away like insects under a rock pried from the dirt.

Noah caught his breath, resting his arms and face against the window and top of his car. He found himself left with too many questions to even process in his exhausted state. The investigation would have to wait until the next day.

The interviews with the women proved to be of little help. It was the same old story—hailing from Eastern Europe or North Africa, they’d been offered well-paying jobs that would allow them to begin new lives, only to find themselves in a waking nightmare—but while recalling Blake Callison’s role in the horror, they had no recollections of the strange figure that had disfigured their hands or of the ceremony itself. Noah examined the photos of the strange symbols on their hands but his endless internet research got him nowhere.

When the detective made it to the hospital to interview Callison, the battered club owner continued to insist that he and he alone had run the trafficking operation, despite the fact that Noah kept threatening him with the sure-to-be endless length of the prison stay in front of him. When asked about the bizarre figure in the club’s basement, Callison had told him merely that he’d hired some muscle to help keep things under control, and laughed off Noah’s suggestion that there was anything “inhuman” about the figure as “Some real Harry Potter shit.” Finally, he maintained that he’d had the piss beaten out of him by some thug hired by some rival crook.

“Right,” Noah said, eyes pinpointing an ugly-looking reddish-purple welt under the left side of Callison’s jaw. There was a mark there, and as he stole a closer look, he realized what it was. It matched the shape and size of the ring that Campbell woman had been wearing a few nights past. That can’t be possible, he thought, remembering the lovely woman’s enticing but not imposing frame. Then again, it would explain the lack of blood leading out of the alley, and wouldn’t have been the first time that night someone had seemingly defied his expectations of a human being's capabilities.

He would have to have another conversation with Anna Campbell, Noah realized. A mere minute or two before he was about to make the call, though, his cell began to ring. It was an unknown caller.

 

[amazonkass29]

"Ms. Campbell, thank you." Squeaked the thin framed man standing before her. He looked like a stereotypical Frenchman. His black hair was slicked back and a too thin mustache dusted his upper lip. Which at the moment was quivering in excitement. Anna forced an attractive blush to her cheeks as she bowed her head in return to his thanks. A piece of parchment she'd been working on was finally complete, and now Mr. Delumie could finally put it into a display.

Anna had found her love for restoration many years ago. It helped, she mused, that she had seen some of the items in their heyday, and knew what they originally looked like. The parchment in question was a beautifully illuminated script depicting the story of Dante, complete with writhing succubi and demons scattered along the margins of the text. It was the last piece needed to complete an exhibit that Anna herself had helped curate.

"We will announce the opening for next week, we couldn't have done this without you, Ms. Campbell." He was so excited, Anna could almost taste it on the tip of her tongue. She sent him a warm smile before stepping away. She knew what would happen if Mr. Delumie got more excited, he would start babbling and inevitably invite Anna for a drink to celebrate. Anna would politely refuse, citing some personal research. She preferred not to feed from people she knew. It made it more personal, and she knew from personal experience, that someone not too strong of will would end up following her around like a puppy.

As she sat on the train that afternoon, a business card fell out of her purse as she was taking a seat. A smile came to her lips as she looked at Detective Wright's business card. When she finally arrived at her station, Anna stepped out and dialed the number on the card.

"Detective Wright? This is Anna Campbell, I was wondering if you had time to meet? I'm going to be at the cafe across from King's Court station for the next hour if you're in the area?" A small cafe faced the entrance to the train station and Anna knew she could sit there and people watch until the Detective arrived.

When he agreed, Anna couldn't help the smile that came to her perfectly painted lips. She was dressed in a similar fashion to how'd she originally met Noah. A perfectly tailored shirt, this time in a soft cream color, hugged her upper half before disappearing into a light pink pencil skirt. She thanked whoever once again that this style had never gone out of fashion. Anna knew she owned at least a hundred different outfits that all were along the same lines, but she enjoyed the way they hugged her curves while making her feel feminine.

The only problem was they were useless to fight in. She had other things she could wear depending on if she had enough notice, that were much better suited.

Anna crossed the street and order a hot tea at the cafe. When Noah would arrive, true to her word she would be sitting outside, with a disinterested air about her. In fact, she was watching every single person who walked by, behind darkly colored sunglasses.

Without a thought, Anna scanned the mortals milling about for any hint of shame or anger. She saw most of the normal stuff, people pissed about a missed train or something going on in their love life. But she had found many interesting people this way. Idly, she wondered if Noah's demeanor would be different. It would surprise her if he put the pieces together, that she was the one who'd beat the living daylights out of Callinson. But Anna wasn't worried about being arrested, she was more interested to find out what Noah had seen inside that back room.

 

[Halcyon638]

Noah hung up the phone. Had he detected a hint of enthusiasm in Anna’s tone? He pulled his car over into a small parking lot and took a look at himself in the rearview mirror again. He’d managed to get some sleep the night before, and had a proper shave, though his dark hair was again a bit on the rumpled side.

Noah straightened the collar of his light blue button-down shirt and adjusted his navy blue tie. Thinking it looked a little uptight, he then adjusted the tie a little more.

Hold up, he thought. Why are you getting this worked up about interviewing a lead? This was his job, for fuck’s sakes, not a Saturday night lounging around some pub trying to get lucky.

It was true that he found himself attracted to Anna and had been thinking about her for the last few days now, hoping she might ring him up like some kind of love-starved teen waiting by the phone, but he had to treat her as a potential suspect now because of that damned ring and the other circumstantial evidence he’d gathered. Though if absolutely destroying a horrible pile of excrement like Callinson was her only crime…

As Noah drove to their meeting place, he realized it wasn’t just her elegant features that attracted him, but the very fact that there was something more to her…something mysterious, perhaps dark. It was out of character for him, considering his ex-wife had been a chipper blonde set on becoming a TV presenter who seemed to be flashing a smile in every picture they’d taken together. Right up until the end, he thought.

When he saw Anna seated at the café, a sense of relief fell over him, as if he’d possibly only imagined her and was now seeing proof she existed. As he walked toward her, Noah couldn’t help but admiring the way she looked absolutely poured into her posh clothes. He felt a slight stirring that he hadn’t experienced in a good while. Raising his eyes, he said, “Ms. Campbell? Thanks for taking time out of your day to meet with me. I’m sure you’ve got better things—museum-type things…to, uh,…be taking care of.” Well, that could have gone better.

 

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Anna watched through sunglasses as Detective Wright appeared on the path and she could feel the shift in his energy that told her he had spotted her. She lowered her sunglasses and tucked them away in her purse as Noah stepped up to the table and fumbled over greeting her.

Anna extended a hand with her palm facing down and Noah would find himself somewhat inclined to kiss the milk soft skin on the back of her hand. Once he did or didn't Anna motioned to the empty chair opposite her.

"I was just having a some tea, I had them bring an extra cup in case you wanted some." She gestured to the crisp white cup and saucer that had been set before Noah's seat.

"I want to start by apologizing, you didn't meet me under the best circumstances, I'm usually more composed." Anna let a flush come to her cheeks as she met Noah's eyes, "How is that man doing?" Anna hadn't been able to keep the sound of disgust out of her tone at referring to that loathsome toad as a man. "And did anything come out of me seeing those young girls in the back?" She asked not even trying to hide her interest.

 

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Noah watched as the gorgeous woman held out her hand. Before he even knew what he was doing, he was taking her soft hand and pressing it to his lips for a kiss. It was as though he was watching someone in a movie doing so and had no control.

He tried to read Anna’s reaction. Anna? Campbell. Anna Campbell. Get your fucking head straight, mate. “Thank you, An—Ms. Campbell,” Noah said, easing himself into the metal chair and taking a sip of the tea. “No need to apologize. It’s understandable you were shaken up. Regardless of how terrible Callinson is as a human being, I think just about anyone would be out of sorts seeing a man beaten that badly. Whoever did this wanted to send a message. Can’t say I blame them, exactly.”

The murky brown liquid singed Noah’s tongue slightly. His eyes fell upon the thick locks of Anna Campbell’s hair. The tea seemed to warm him immediately on what was already a warm summer day. “Your tip about the girls was very helpful,” he said. “In fact, it saved some lives.” He couldn’t fight the feeling she was trying to get information out of him. But why?

In any case, Noah wasn’t about to give up anything without getting something in return. He watched her hold her tea cup with casual elegance. “That’s a lovely ring you’ve got there,” Noah noted. “Family heirloom?”

 

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Anna couldn't help the thrill of glee that went through her when he kissed her hand. But as always, she hid it well. He seemed to be in a better mood and had accepted her offer of tea. When he answered her question about the girls, she knew most of them had made it out before a fire had broken out. She could feel a change in his energy as he seemed to pick up on her slightly grilling him.

When he mentioned her ring, and focused his attention on it, Anna blinked and held her hand out for him to see the ring closer. It was a beautiful piece, a dark purple gem, probably worth more than the entire cafe they were sitting in, set with beautiful silver antlers to hold the gem in place. It was large but not gaudy, and Anna gently tilted her hand so the weak sunlight could filter through it.

"A gift from a very old friend," She corrected him and let a true smile come to her lips as she thought of the being who'd gifted it to her. It would be so easy for her to fall into that wave of memories, but Anna pushed them down. "I thought to have it set into a necklace, since it does draw some attention." She could feel Noah sifting through her words to try and find something, but Anna wasn't going to let him have anything. Unless he straight up asked.

As she had watched him chase the being down the street and then run back into the building to release the exploited women, Anna had decided she was going to keep him. Not as a pet, but she would be willing to part with certain information if he would do the same for her. All she was waiting for was for him to ask the right question.

 

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“A gift from a very old friend.” Her voice had grown a bit sultrier, giving Noah an idea of exactly what type of friend and a tinge of desire chased with a quick, completely irrational jolt of jealousy at whoever this woman might have been referring to.

As Anna mentioned the possibility of a necklace, Noah pictured the glint of a fine silver necklace around her neck and the gemstone itself coming to rest snugly in her cleavage. Though her top didn’t reveal much skin, the way it accentuated her features allowed his imagination to fill in the gaps. As the image flashed in Noah’s mind, he made sure to keep his eyes raised to eye level so as not to come across as some drunken lad.

Normally he wouldn’t have to remind himself not to leer like some mouth-breathing pervert, but Anna Campbell made him feel out of sorts. Fuck, I need a wank or at least a bloody drink stronger than tea.

First, he had to do his damned job. The image of the branded, helpless women filled his thoughts again, getting him back on track. “Ms. Campbell,” Noah said, “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the whole ‘buttoned-up academic with a wild side’ routine—believe me, I do--but I’m starting to think you’re not quite being honest with me.” He sipped some more of the tea and studied the floral pattern on the cup. “And to be honest with you, I don’t think you’ll be able to explain to me convincingly how a woman of your stature beat a man of Callinson’s size so badly you left him with a mirror image of that lovely ring, any more than I’ll be able to explain to you what I saw in The Marsh’s basement. But I’d love to hear you try.”

 

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Anna couldn't help the somewhat delighted laugh that bubbled out of her at the detective's statement. So she'd left a mark on that shit stain of a man. Well, she mused, at least it gave him the grip to be able to ask her more about it. She leaned a little closer over the table and lowered her voice so no one around would overhear.

"My dear detective, I could illuminate you on so many subjects. But to answer both of your current queries..." she paused her voice still almost a purr, but Noah would be able to hear her clearly, "I am stronger than I look, and the criminal you chased into the street...well he was much more than he appeared as well."

Anna leaned back as she let her words sink in, "I think, perhaps, we didn't meet under the best of circumstances, but fate brings people together for a reason." She casually sipped her tea as if she wasn't dropping bombshells on this poor man, "But I think perhaps we can help one another. I have a particularly interesting lead about a very similar operation out of a betting shop in the warehouse district. This would also be a strictly off the books situation, until we would know it's safe for your officers."

Anna hoped he was picking up on the language she was using. If he wasn't, she would have to take a more direct approach. She wouldn't divulge what she was, not to him, at least not anytime soon. And as a mere mortal man, he would see her magic as just that. He didn't need to know she could fuck a man to death or suck his soul out through his lips. All he needed to know for now was that she had skills that were useful to him.

 

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As Noah heard Anna’s laugh and the façade of the “naïve young woman in the bad part of town” was wiped away completely, he felt his grip on the teacup momentarily grow shakier. The idea that there was some connection between this woman and the bizarre figure he had encountered in the club’s basement was unsettling. At the same time, though, he was still strangely drawn to her. His previous relationship had all been about shielding Kendall from the darker aspects of his work, and hiding the very real marks they left on him.

Anna seemed to be someone who dwelled in those unlit corners. “I’m always up to being illuminated,” he said with a grin, tipping his cup a smidgen as if it were a pint. He took another sip, trying to play it off as casual despite having not the slightest clue what words would emerge from her inviting lips next. “Another…operation?” He placed the cup on the table abruptly, causing it to wobble a bit precariously for a few seconds, then reached rapidly into his pocket.

He began rifling through his recent photos (including some embarrassing photos he’d taken after his sister had convinced him, in a less than sober state, to begin making a dating app profile, photos he’d somehow forgotten to erase) and pulled up the symbol burned into one of the young women’s hands. “Does this mean anything to you?” He held up the picture, trying to angle the device so as to reduce the glare of the midday sun.

 

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Anna couldn't help but be impressed as the detective seemed to take in her information without so much as really blinking. She had been right when she guessed that what had happened on Boland Circle, wasn't Noah's first foray into the supernatural side of the city. His energy shifted back and forth between excited and a little terrified.

Anna had to keep herself from licking her lips at the taste of the heightened emotion just on the tip of her tongue.

When he pulled out his phone, the symbol made Anna blink in surprise. "It's a siphoning rune, " She spoke suddenly all business as she took the phone from his hand and brought it closer to her. She zoomed in on the dark image and nodded, "Yes, this type of rune is used to siphon life force energy. Tell me, did the women you rescued look like they were, for lack of a better word, zombies? The state something like this must have put them in," Anna shook her head and handed the phone back to Noah.

"If the betting parlor is the same, we should probably get there before it gets dark. That creature you faced thrives in the shadows. If there's women there too, we need to get them out before something like it comes back for them. I just hope we're not too late."

Anna could feel his apprehension and slid a hand across the table to cover his. "I will keep you safe," her words would almost sound like a purr to him. He would feel an overwhelming sense of calm being in her presence suddenly, and it lingered long after she withdrew her hand.

 

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The logical center of Noah’s brain told him this was nonsense, that there was no way that what Anna was telling him was true. Yet everything in her tone and demeanor screamed that this was real, that the strange encounters he’d experienced in the past year and in the alleyway a few nights ago were not delusions but instead hints at another reality he could barely begin to comprehend.

Noah acknowledged the women’s zombie-like state. He felt a mixture of horror and rage at what had been done to them, if Anna was right (any doubts quickly fading). When she put her hand on his and assured him she would keep him safe, his usual macho bluster failed him. Instead, he had a sudden, powerful urge to kiss her right on the spot.

The detective rose to his feet, throwing a few pounds on the table to pay for their tea and a tip. “Come on. We can take my car.”

It was a short drive to the club, thankfully, though traffic made it somewhat of a longer commute. “I just need to know something,” Noah said. “The other women…from The Marsh. Are they going to be alright? What does it mean to—to…siphon life energy?” A melancholy fell over him as he wondered whether he had made it to Callinson’s club too late. Had he failed them?

 

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Anna kept the smile from her painted lips as Noah turned all business and they made their way to his car. Anna slipped into the passenger seat, every movement of her body exuding easy grace. If this other place was a rats nest of dark energy, she needed to keep them both calm before shit really hit the fan.

When Noah asked her about the women from Boland circle, she could feel the shift in his energy. And not for the first time, Anna was reminded why she had chosen this detective. "They should be fine, once given a chance to recover. It can take months for life force energy to replenish." She told him honestly. She didn't want to think about the fact that they had almost been too late.

Anna thought for a moment, before she continued. "Think of your soul as a well, through most of your life, that well is full. As you age, the level of the well begins to drop, until there is not enough left to keep your body going." She explained, but wasn't being condescending. "There are creatures who have learned how to live....for a very long time, by siphoning other's energy. Life force or soul energy is one of the strongest, and deadliest things one can take from another being."

They were now parked outside the betting parlor and Anna could already feel the dark energy pulsing from the place. The little bit of information she'd gotten from Callinson had been on the money.

"I want you to listen to me very carefully," Anna told him as she turned in her seat and made sure his eyes met hers. When she had his full attention, she continued, "I want you to stay behind me while we're in there, and like I said, I will keep you safe." He would feel that sense of calm again, mixed with a bit of obedience. He wouldn't dare disobey her order to stay behind her.

When they did exit the car, Anna made a bee line for the back of the building. A soft hiss escaped Anna as she felt for the power within her. Once she found it, she wrenched the back door open with a sickening crunch. She's pulled the deadbolt right through the wall, the door still on it's hinges and lock engaged.

The hallway within was dark and she turned to Noah, a finger to her lips. If they could end all of this without her having to fully unleash her abilities, it would be a good day. She didn't want to break the relationship with Noah by scaring him out of his mind.

 

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His mind still reeling from what Anna had explained to him in the car, Noah’s mind could barely process what he was seeing as he watched the woman easily tear a door open with her bare hands. What the fuck have I gotten myself into? he thought as he entered a building without even the slightest concession to police protocols. If there were young women being exploited as Anna seemed certain of, though, he couldn’t in good conscience fuck around out here while their lives were in danger.

He followed closely behind the mysterious woman, his hand not far from his taser. The sounds of music and drunken debauchery came through the walls but were significantly dampened, as if he was listening underwater. Noah clicked on his flashlight. Anna quickly turned and shook her head, and he clicked it off without another word. She grabbed his hand again, leading him through the darkness. Her grip was firm yet not too forceful, despite the fact that she’d displayed the capability of potentially ripping his arm out of its socket.

Soon, they were descending stairs again. How does she know where the hell she’s going? he wondered. Anna barely made a sound, a shadow streaking through the darkened spaces. Somehow, Noah managed not to trip over his feet or make too much of a racket.

After a good while traveling downward, the air grew noticeably cooler, and they found themselves at what appeared to be a metal door guarded by an imposing bearded man with arms covered in tattoos, lit only by a dim overhead light. They were far enough away from him, though, that he seemed not to notice the detective and his companion. Noah reached for both his baton and taser, the side of his head still aching from the last time he’d tangled with a bruiser seemingly twice his size.

 

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Anna walked through the darkness with a purpose. While Noah couldn't feel the dark magic coming from the direction they were heading, Anna sure could. He had tried to light their way, but she had stopped him. She didn't want to give away that they were in the building until they had no other choice.

Thankfully, Noah listened to her as they kept traveling downward. She could taste the metallic tang of the the magic, and it almost had Anna sick to her stomach. She pushed through it, forcing her mind not to dredge up ancient memories that the taste brought her. Horrible memories.

Anna shook it off as she paused in a dark corner, the bruiser clearly not noticing them. She felt Noah move for his weapons and reached her hand back to still his. She shook her head and motioned for him to stay where he was before she stalked closer to the bouncer. "Hmmm, hey there hot stuff, wanna let me in there?"

The bouncer's eyes widened in surprise as he saw Anna seemingly appear out of nowhere. "What are you doing down here?" He asked in a gruff tone as he tried to swipe for Anna, but she dodged gracefully out of the way.

"So we're doing this the hard way, alright." Anna slammed a punch into the man's middle that had him flying back against the door he was protecting. The surprise gave her enough time to bring a fast knee up under the man's chin. His head snapped back, but it wasn't enough force to break his neck. Anna made sure to reign in her power, she didn't like killing things unless she absolutely had to.

Once the large man was a shuddering pile on the floor, she beckoned for Noah to follow behind her as she opened the door with ease.

 

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“Alright, then,” Noah said, mostly to himself, as Anna ushered him past the massive man she’d just felled like a dead tree trunk. He could feel a slight electricity to the air; the hairs on his arms seemed to be standing up. As Anna opened the door, the animal instinct in him told him not to follow.

Fuck it. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d ignored his gut, and he’d somehow managed to live this long.

The room they stepped into was more of a long concrete corridor with metal doors every few feet. A buzzing, sterile overhead light was the only source of illumination. A woman’s pained cries spilled forth from one door about 5 meters ahead.

A figure emerged from the room, casually closing the door and blocking out the expressions of agony. It was the same figure from The Marsh a few nights ago—dressed in black robes of some sort, greyish skin with streaks of red and purple. His facial structure looked human, with features that reminded Noah of one of the bronzed replicas of classical statues that had been in his university’s museum, yet they were exotic somehow in a way that he couldn’t place. His eyes still gleamed with a fiery light the color of red wine.

Noah nearly raced past Anna to get at him before he again felt her firm hand, this time in the center of his chest. A broad smile appeared on the figure’s face. “Well, well. This is rather a surprise.” The detective was initially taken aback by his BBC English accent, expecting him to be using the strange, hissing language he’d been using the other night. “And, I might add, a bit of an inconvenience, I’m afraid.”

They heard the woman moan again. “Don’t trouble yourself with that. In a few moments she’ll feel nothing.” He tilted his head toward Anna now and changed his language, this time to the unrecognizable speech Noah thought he recalled from the ritual. The figure’s eyes were first aligned with the enigmatic woman’s own eyes and then leisurely drifted down her neck, chest, stomach, and legs.

 

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Anna would have been ticked off at Noah's almost constant insistence at trying to get himself killed. When they made their way into the hallway, Anna had to steady herself. The amount of dark magic pulsing from behind the doors was almost too much for her to bear. When the figure emerged from one of the rooms, Anna felt as if she were seeing a ghost.

Noah was about to go rushing past when Anna slid an easy arm out to stop him. The creatures words made Anna roll her eyes. They were always so dramatic, demons and the like. It almost made it worth it for her to try and find a gun to carry, she could shoot them mid sentence.

She was about to speak when the sound of a long dead language reached her ears.

~You are standing there as if you're going to do something, succubi?~ The demon spoke as he looked her up and down but ended up frowning. ~You are not...~ the demon's face contorted in confusion.

"Yeah, I get that quite a bit." Anna bit out as she lunged forward with another hard kick, this time, with her entire body weight she lunged with it. When she had the demon on the ground, she shot a glance to Noah and jerked her head towards the door they'd heard the moaning coming from.

 

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Noah fought his instinct to rush toward the door now, knowing that he would more likely than not just be giving Anna something else to worry about by putting his own safety at risk. She approached the closed door and glanced back at him. A few strands of her gorgeous hair were out of place now and clung to her forehead, where a bit of sweat had formed.

Anna yanked the handle of the door and gave it a good, sharp shove with her shoulder, and the door flew open. The room was eerily similar to the one Noah had seen the previous week, with an identical wax sigil across the floor, candlelight, and the lingering smell of burning flesh. There were four young women this time, one standing in the center, glassy-eyed, holding her branded hand as if were not attached to her, the way someone might hold a friend’s coat.

All the women here already bore the mark. A siphoning rune, Anna had called it. He looked in her direction. She seemed to be somewhat recoiling from the sigil on the floor, yet at the same time kept her eyes trained on it. Was that pain he saw in her expression? “Ms. Campbell,” he said, trying to get her attention. “Anna?” He faced her and reached his hands out to take hold of her left hand, while the other women stood as still as statues.