The heavy fabric of the curtains reeked of the incense and perfumes that Lillian filled her pleasure space with. It was cloying and I had to pinch my nose shut to force back the urge to sneeze. The cold metal of the letter opener was in my other hand and I could only hope that she wouldn’t notice it was missing.
Through a gap in the curtains, I watched as Lillian swept into the room, her face twisted with disgust. She paused at the door long enough to pass an instruction to the guard before she slammed it shut and stormed over to her desk.
She took a seat and switched on the computer, settling back in the leather office chair while the machine awoke. With a few taps of the keys her password was entered, and she leaned forwards, elbows on the desk as she brought up the video conference software.
My breath caught as a new window opened on the screen and a darkly seductive face peered out at Lillian. Raven-black hair was swept to the side as she tilted her head, dabbing at the blood on her lip.
“Beloved,” Lillian breathed. “What happened to your face?”
Delilah didn’t immediately respond, though her brows drew down in annoyance. I had often wondered how much of her affection for the succubus was play acting and how much was real. Often she would be dismissive or cruel, and then suddenly turn it about to become the doting lover.
Her mood was mercurial and her cruelty often without bounds. So it was entirely possible that the whole relationship was a game that she was playing, for nothing more than her own amusement.
“Mother,” Delilah said, spitting the word. “She chastised me! In front of the coven elders.”
That brought a smile to my face. While Father ignored us children, Mother took it upon herself to ensure we knew discipline and she was a firm believer in, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child.’
“There’s been a delay.” Lillian leaned in nervously. “It’s going to have to be later than expected.”
“Why?”
“Some of the guests had a … stomach mishap.” Her disgust was plain in her voice. “I’ve had to send everyone out to the garden while I have every member of staff cleaning up the guests and the mess they made.”
“Sounds atrocious.” Delilah pursed her lips. “Have you introduced them at least?”
“Yes, they hit it off well enough that it only required a light use of my powers to push them closer.”
“Good. The other boy knows what to do?”
“He does,” Lillian assured my sister. “He is being paid more than enough.”
It sounded very much like Delilah was making a play against another member of the coven. That was a risky move since it had the potential to weaken the coven for her gain. Father wasn’t one for micromanaging the coven, but he would step down hard on anything that could weaken them.
Considering Delilah’s purported reason for killing me, it rankled more than a little that she was doing the exact same thing. It enraged me.
She had killed me and sent me to a place of torment that brought pain and suffering beyond anything that I could have possibly ever imagined. I awoke most nights in a cold sweat at least once, from the nightmares and the memories of that place.
The anger that I felt for that, the rage and the fury at what she had done to me! It was almost more than I could bear and if she had been in the office instead of Lillian I would have attacked her then and there.
“Just ensure the body is found in the park. They are known to hunt there so it will be easy to pin the blame on-“
She cut off as I swept aside the curtain. It was too much, listening to her plot and scheme for the death of a cousin. Making moves against the coven when she had so berated me for doing the same before she slipped the knife between my ribs.
My arm rose and fell without my even thinking of it and I clamped a hand over Lillian’s mouth as the silver letter opener sank deep into her neck. Blood, hot and slick, coated my hand as Delilah’s eyes went round, her face showing first shock and then fury.
“Hello, Delilah,” I said. “Been a while.”
I pulled free the letter opener and stabbed down with it again, plunging it into her chest and then out, repeating the motion as she struggled in my arms, panic robbing her of rational thought. I stabbed her again, and again, and again, venting all my rage on her.
Finally, she stopped moving and I released my hold on her, fixing my gaze on the webcam as I imagined I looked my sister square in the eye.
“I’m coming for you next.”
“Who are you?” Delilah demanded.
“You’ll know soon enough, Dearest Delilah. So very soon.”
With that I cancelled the video call and closed the window. I turned back to look at Lillian, slumped in her chair with blood pooling beneath her.
Fuck.
I’d screwed up massively. There was no way I could explain what had just happened to Becca and the guards would tear me apart if they discovered me anywhere near the body.
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I left the letter opener buried in her breast and pushed back through the curtains and into the small en suite bathroom she kept for freshening up. It was bare bones, but there was a mirror, a sink, soap, water and towels.
For the next few minutes I scrubbed at my skin, washing away as much of the blood as I could. I then inspected every bit of exposed flesh in search for more evidence of what had just happened. There was little I could do for the dress, that was spattered with blood. All I could do was hope that with low lights and the burgundy of the dress, it would pass cursory inspection.
Once cleaned up, I went back out into the office. There was little I could do for the mess there, so instead I ignored it and focused on finding what I wanted and getting out. The finding was the easy part, there were dozens of books on the shelves around the room and my biggest problem would be limiting how many I could take.
I found a leather-bound volume about the size of my hand that contained mid-level spells and charms, with notes handwritten in the margins in Delilah’s handwriting. It amused me to know that she would be furious to find it gone. She had likely left it along with most of the others should she need it when spending time with her lover.
As hard as it was to creep across the floor in high heels, I managed to make it to the door without too much noise and I slipped it open a crack, moving slowly and praying to the Divines that it wouldn’t creak.
It didn’t.
There was no guard standing outside the door and I breathed a sigh of relief as I recalled Lillian saying she’d ordered all of the staff to help clean the place up.
Still, I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I slipped out through the door and closed it firmly behind me. I couldn’t lock it, at least not without attempting another spell and I hadn’t the energy or strength for that.
So, I had to risk it. I walked down the hall as nonchalantly as I could, wrinkling my nose at the stench that seemed to fill the air of the lower floor. I looked in the living room as I passed and smirked at the number of people mopping and scrubbing at the carpets and furniture while all doors and windows stood open.
“Psst.”
I looked to my right towards the sound and smiled in relief. “Becca.”
She was half-crouched behind a potted plant and leaned against the wall so that she could see through the thick leaves of the plant. I hurried across to her.
“Thank god!” She scrunched up her nose and kept a hand pressed against her mouth. “This is foul. Please tell me you have what you need.”
“I do.”
“Good. Can we go then?” She let out a mewl of disgust. “One couple had to be chased out of the living room by the security guys. They were playing with the…”
“Yeah, no need to paint a picture.” I grabbed her hand. “Come on.”
No one stopped us as we headed for the main entrance and the same woman from earlier was standing patiently beside the door. She lifted the basket containing the phones and we quickly pulled ours out.
“Thank you,” Becca said, as I pulled her away.
The security guard outside the front door looked us up and down with a slight leer as we passed him, but he didn’t say anything. He likely knew better than to offend his employers guests.
Hell, he had likely participated in her events on more than one occasion himself.
“What happened in there?” Becca asked as I kept up the pace. “Should we order a taxi?”
“In a minute.”
I wanted to be away from the house before we stood around waiting for a taxi. Once out of the gate, I chose a direction at random and set off, dragging the complaining Becca along with me. I didn’t go far before I stopped and swore.
“Fucking shoes!” I kicked them off and stomped on in bare feet.
“Hey, those were nice!”
“Leave them,” I snapped as Becca tried to go back for them. “I’ll buy you some if you want them.”
“With what money?”
She had a point, it had all been spent already. I shrugged and held up the book. “This will help me make more.”
Becca didn’t look convinced but she allowed me to continue to pull her along without too much more complaint. Two streets away, I finally stopped and gestured for her to call the taxi. It didn’t take long to arrive, but all the while I was looking back over my shoulder as I waited for the goons to come after me.
Even once we were in the taxi, I didn’t feel safe. I directed the driver to drop us off a distance away from the hotel and walked the rest of the way.
Seeing Delilah had robbed me of my senses and I’d screwed up. Big time. Becca wouldn’t be happy that I had killed Lillian, and I would need to spin that as something that needed doing. But, worse than that, I had warned Delilah that I was coming for her and she was far beyond my capabilities right at that moment.
More than that, she had the power of the coven behind her.
I was making enemies all over the place and while it wouldn’t matter in the long run, because I would be out of this body and back into my own. I still needed to avoid dying in the short term. Which was proving ever more difficult with each new enemy.
We didn’t speak as we approached the hotel and took the elevator up to our room. Becca kept casting worried glances my way but I was too absorbed in my own worries to do much more than note her concern.
When we finally were in our hotel room, with the door safely closed behind us, I was able to relax a little. Just a tiny bit. I twisted my arm around my back, trying to reach the zip on the dress, muttering at the idiocy of the thing.
Becca finally gave in and helped me. As soon as the zip was down, I let it fall off of my shoulders to pool on the floor at my feet. It was covered in evidence and I would need to dispose of it properly in the morning. Until then, I shoved it into my bag to at least hide it from view.
“You’re acting weird,” Becca said. She didn’t need any help disrobing, much to my annoyance. “You gonna tell me what happened?”
“Lillian’s dead,” I said, matter of factly. “She caught me in her office and attacked me. I barely managed to stop her calling her security guys.”
Becca stared at me, eyes wide and mouth forming an ‘O’ shape. I looked everywhere but at her.
“It had to be done.”
“I believe you,” Becca said, pushing aside her surprise. “Christ. That’s three deaths in as many days. I’m… I’m not sure how much more of it I can take.”
“It’s hard, I know.”
“Hard! Fuck, John.” She bit down on her lip as her hands curled into tight fists. “I understand death, I’m a bloody necromancer. I am surrounded by death all the damned time and I don’t need to keep adding more of it into my life!”
She’d used my name, when always before she had called me by her friends. It was a big change and I wasn’t entirely sure that I liked what it portended.
“I’m releasing you from the oath,” she said. “In the morning you can do as you please. I can’t do this any more.”
“Becca, please.” I held out my hand towards her but she turned away and climbed into her bed. She didn’t look back as she pulled the covers over herself.
“Goodnight, John.”
I stared at her still form for several long minutes, wondering if there was anything I could say to change her mind. But I realised that perhaps it was the best. I would have Delilah on the defensive and she would be preparing herself far better than I could.
It would be a tough fight, now that she knew I was coming for her. At least, I reasoned, she didn’t know who I was…
My eyes snapped open wide and I fought the urge to scream! I had fucked up, again! If she had picked up on it, then she would know it was me coming for her.
All because I couldn’t help myself and had to mock her.
No one ever called her, Dearest Delilah, but me. And then, only when I had beaten her in some way and wanted to rub salt in the wound by letting her know it in my own smarmy way.
Like when I had just killed her lover.