A Demon in Dallas (8 page)

The man was incredibly tall, more so than Connor, and he had a large, muscular frame. He exuded strength and power.

“Good evening,” he said politely, finally breaking the silence. “Or should that be good morning?”

I snorted. “Either way, that’s pretty damn civil of you considering you just threw a dead alpha onto our hood.”

He shrugged. “I wanted to get your attention.”

“And it didn’t occur to you to just say hello?”

He let out a low chuckle and inclined his head. “I like you.”

Connor growled again. I rolled my eyes and slapped his chest with the back of my hand. “Can it, Connor.” Turning back to the stranger, I asked, “Would you care to enlighten us as to why you felt the need to get our attention? Oh, and while you’re at it, you can tell us why Alpha Moore is in his present condition?”

“What business did you have with Charles tonight?” he countered.

I shook my head. “Nuh-uh, I asked first.”

“Oh, for Christ-sake, this is getting us nowhere,” Connor fumed. “How about you tell us who you are and why you killed Charles or I’ll kill you.”

The man raised an amused eyebrow. “Your boyfriend hasn’t developed the art of polite conversation, has he?”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said rather too quickly. Connor growled again. It was becoming annoying.

“Really?” the man grinned at me salaciously. “That’s good to know.”

“Can I just kill him and get it over with?” Connor pleaded.

I had to admit that I shared Connor’s frustration. He was right, this was getting us nowhere. The man might be prepared to talk to us if we were to give him something first.

“We came to ask for Alpha Moore’s help in locating a demon,” I admitted. “I don’t suppose that’s something you can help us with.”

“And what demon would that be?” he asked cautiously, his gaze flicking from Connor to me.

“Barbatos.”

His black eyes narrowed. “How interesting. Barbatos was the cause of Charles’ untimely end.” He cast a quick glance to the trees beside us then took a step closer. “You have ten seconds to tell me what you want with the demon before you both meet with the same fate.”

There was too much to relate in such a short time and I had no doubt this man could make good on his promise. He appeared to have the entire pack at his disposal. The woods around us were teeming with wolves and they were closing in so I said simply, “I want to kill him.”

The wolf stared at us for another moment before closing the distance. Connor growled out a warning and tried to stand in front of me, but I elbowed him aside. The wolf chuckled. Ignoring Connor, he thrust out his hand.

“I’m Oliver Phelps, the new alpha wolf here in Dallas. I think you and I need to have a little chat.”

Throwing his head back, he howled at the moon. The sound caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand to attention. When I turned to Connor, he too was rubbing his neck and shifting awkwardly from foot to foot—the wolf in him wanting to answer the call.

One by one, the wolves that had been hiding in the woods emerged. Well over a dozen showed themselves, but I could tell there were more that were still hanging back.

“Shall we?” Oliver asked, holding out his arm.

This time, Connor succeeded in pushing me behind him. The move caught me off guard and I was too shocked to protest.

“Let’s get one thing straight before we go anywhere with you,” Connor bit out. “I’m alpha of the
Austin
pack and this is my mate. She’s off limits, understand?”

My breath left me in a whoosh. Had Connor really just said that?
Mate
? Oliver nodded his acquiescence, but his smile was wry, indulgent.

“Whatever you say,
Alpha
.”

When Connor turned and met my gaze, there was no trace of humour in his smile. “Guess I should have maybe told you that first, huh?”

I nodded numbly. “No kidding.”

* * * *

Alpha Phelps paced restlessly around the large den inside Charles’ ranch. The three of us were alone in the room, but Oliver wasn’t taking any chances. There were at least two wolves posted on guard duty outside the door and probably triple that amount just outside the house. My head was still spinning from Connor’s revelation, although I hadn’t had the time to process the information since we’d ploughed straight into our story as soon as we’d entered the den.

“Why would an angel ask you to locate a demon?” Oliver asked, his eyebrows raised in query. “They don’t usually involve any other supes in their battles. Angels are incredibly secretive.”

“You haven’t met Malaki. He’ll do just about anything to get what he wants—including blackmail.”

With an affected chuckle, Oliver said, “Show me an angel that
isn’t
conniving. He say why he wants this demon?”

“A book.” I waited a beat to gauge Oliver’s reaction, but he didn’t give any indication that he knew what I was talking about so I continued, “I don’t know any more than that. I’m just supposed to call Malaki when I’ve found it. He said he’ll tell me then where Matt is being held.”

“And when he has the book?”

I shrugged. “I imagine Malaki will vanquish Barbatos.”

Oliver’s brow lifted slightly upon hearing about the demon’s name again. Connor must have noticed it too because he leant forward in his seat and cleared his throat.

“What do you know about the demon? And the book? What’s so special about it?”

Crossing the room, Oliver took a seat at the other end of the table. He clasped his hands in front of him and gazed at each of us in turn. “It’s
the
book and it’s the reason I killed Charles.”

Frowning, I turned to see how Connor had taken the news. He looked about as confused as me. “
The
book?”

“The Book of Honorius.” His mouth lifted at the corner when he took in our blank expressions and he elaborated, “The Book of Honorius is a grimoire, an ancient text. It’s purported to contain spells used in necromancy.”

Connor frowned. “I thought the grimoire was a myth.”

“Not exactly. There are many grimoires,” Oliver explained. “But the Book of Honorius is supposedly the oldest. From what I’ve been able to find out, the book contains information on how to raise demons and, more importantly, how to raise Lucifer himself, who as you know remains trapped in the underworld. I don’t have to tell you what damage a book like that could do, particularly in the hands of a demon.”

I tried to process the information, but it didn’t add up. “I don’t get it. If the book is so important and the angels are so keen to get it back, why would they ask me to find it? I’m just a slayer. I don’t have anywhere near the power that the angels possess. Why aren’t Malaki and the rest of the angels out looking for it and this demon themselves?”

“I imagine they are,” Connor said thoughtfully. “Malaki’s probably just covering all bases.”

“Doesn’t hurt to have a hunter on his team,” Oliver added.

Connor nodded in agreement. “You do have connections to most of the packs around here, Raven.”

I turned to Connor and sighed, finally allowing myself to voice something I’d suspected, but didn’t want to believe. “It was Malaki that had Matt kidnapped by the vampires all along, wasn’t it? So that I’d help him.”

“I’d say that’s the most likely scenario,” Connor replied evenly. “It was certainly the best way he could guarantee your help.”

I couldn’t believe I’d allowed myself to fall for that damn angel’s conniving scheme. Oliver had been watching the exchange between us silently. So far, he’d got a hell of a lot of information out of us, but we’d received little in return. He’d been friendly since we arrived, overly so, but I still didn’t trust him.

“Why did you kill Charles?” I asked. “He never struck me as the type of man that would willingly join forces with a demon.”

“I thought the same thing,” Oliver replied regretfully. “I trusted Charles. He’d been like a father to me over the years and I was happy to call him my alpha, but in the last couple of months things started to change.”

“How so?”

“The first time I realised he wasn’t acting like himself was when I discovered there was a demon roaming free in our territory. I challenged him about it, naturally, several times in fact, and the answers he gave were less than satisfactory.

“At first Charles told me he’d kill the demon or at least run him out of Dallas. Weeks later, Barbatos was still hanging around and I knew I needed to take matters into my own hands. I confronted Charles and told him I’d kill Barbatos myself, but he ordered me to leave the demon alone. He said Barbatos could ‘
prove useful’.
Of course, at the time I knew nothing about the book and couldn’t understand Charles’ reasoning. He wouldn’t explain what he wanted from the demon or how he believed he could be useful to the pack.”

Connor cut a quick glance in my direction and I could tell he didn’t believe Oliver’s story any more than I did, even though he hid it under a very convincing mask of open curiosity.

“So what did you do then?” he asked.

“I called a pack meeting. I hoped some of the older members of the pack would be able to talk some sense into Charles, but he refused to discuss the matter. He said he was acting in our best interests and we needed to trust him.”

“How did you come to find out about the book?” I probed.

Oliver sighed. “Purely by chance. I’m sure Charles would never have mentioned the book if I hadn’t learned of it myself. A couple of days ago, I got together with the pack to discuss if we should try to overthrow Charles, challenge his status as alpha. We all agreed that it would be in the best interest of the pack.

“I never would have considered doing something like that before. I’ve never had any desire to lead, but I didn’t believe that Charles was thinking clearly. How could he be when he was happy for demons to roam freely around our city? One of the pack members that came to the meeting had heard something, some gossip about the demon and what he was doing here in Dallas.”

Connor’s expression gave nothing away. “What had he heard?”

“That Barbatos had stolen a book from one of the witches in the local coven, an important book, and not only was the witch’s coven trying to locate it, but the angels wanted it back too. Rumours in the supernatural circles suggested that there were a lot of interested parties in this book—vampires, Fae, everybody would like to get their hands on it. And that made me think. Maybe Charles wanted the book too. Maybe that’s why he was happy for Barbatos to hang around the city, because Charles believed he could get his own grubby hands on the book.”

“That doesn’t sound like Charles,” I observed. “Did you question him about it?”

“Yes. Just tonight in fact. Charles and I always ran together on full moon. When I met him earlier, I told him I wanted to talk to him before we went out. I told him I knew that Barbatos had stolen the book and I believed that he wanted it and that was the reason he’d allowed the demon to stay in the city.”

“How did he respond?”

“He admitted everything. What else could he say? Charles told me what he’d learned about the book. He said he believed that we could make a lot of money from it. The witches wanted it back. The Fae would love to get their hands on it, and the angels would do just about anything to keep it away from the demons. Charles said we could offer the book to the highest bidder.”

Although Oliver’s story sounded plausible, I just wasn’t falling for it. Connor and I weren’t in a position to argue with him, however. If we challenged him, it was unlikely we’d make it out of Charles’ ranch alive.

“Where is Barbatos now?” Connor asked.

“That’s the problem,” Oliver replied. “Since he stole the book, he’s gone into hiding. We have no idea where he is.”

I frowned. “Then how are we going to find him?”

Oliver met my gaze and grinned. “There is a way to locate him. We just need to meet with the witch he stole the book from. I spoke to her right before you arrived and she confirmed that she can find Barbatos with a summoning spell.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Connor enquired. “Let’s find the demon and call Malaki to deal with him. Let him get his own damn book.”

“I will, of course, be going with you to meet with the witch,” Oliver drawled with a swish of his hand. “I’m sure you understand.”

I started to shake my head, but Oliver held out a hand to silence me. “Hear me out. I realise you don’t trust me, any more than I trust the two of you. I only have your word to corroborate the story you’ve given me, and you mine. It’s in both our interests to meet the witch together. And when the demon has been located, we’d be stronger if we apprehend him together. Plus I have my entire pack as back-up should we need them.”

I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it one little bit, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. Oliver wouldn’t tell us how to find the witch unless we agreed that he could come with us when we met with her. My only hope was that when we found the demon, we’d be able to keep the book out of Oliver’s hands. It was obvious he wanted it.

I nodded my agreement. “Fine. Make the call.”

The conversation was brief. The witch—Cassandra—agreed to meet with us at nine the next morning. Oliver wanted to hold the meeting at Charles’ ranch, but Connor and I insisted on neutral territory and, after some discussion, he reluctantly acquiesced. I checked my watch as we walked back to the car. It was nearly four. That gave us four hours to find a motel and get a few hours’ sleep before we had to get back up. Connor waited until we were in the safety of the car and on the road again before speaking his mind.

“How much of that story did you believe?”

“About as much as you.”

“Ah, nothing then.”

“Oliver wants the book. I think that Charles discovered his plan and Oliver killed him for it.”

“I think you’re right. You still think it’s a good idea to meet with this witch?”

“What else can we do? If we’re correct in thinking that Malaki had Matt kidnapped so that he could get me to help him, then he’s not going to tell us where Matt is until he gets what he wanted all along.”