Read Online Succubus Lost (Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency, #2) by Tiffany Allee - Free Book Online
Authors: Tiffany Allee
Tags: Someone is kidnapping and incinerating otherworlders beyond recognition, and detective Marisol Whitman, a succubus, races to find the murderer before he claims another victim. But her pursuit is derailed when her responsible younger sister vanishes. Marisol suspects foul play and enlists support from an unlikely source: an agent from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency, Valerio Costa.
When the trail pointing to everyone from vampires to witches dries up, Agent Costa admits to knowing more than he’s shared. Marisol’s sister’s kidnapper harnesses more magic than she can imagine—and they’re running out of time. To find her sister before her powers are drained and twisted beyond recognition, Marisol must connect the dots between cases and put her trust in Costa, a salamander who may burn her before she can solve either case.
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That was more difficult—now that I knew what they felt like under my hands.
“She’d been altered.”
“Excuse me?”
“Magically.” He took a deep breath. “Basically, someone figured out how to reverse the normal succubus process. Instead of being able to pull power into herself from the person she was sleeping with, she was able to give it. And—”
“And?” There was more? Wasn’t this bad enough? I could barely get my mind around the implications.
“They removed the…baggage that usually comes along with bonding with a succubus.”
“Baggage? You mean the emotional connection, the feelings.” My shock twisted, and suddenly I could barely breathe, I was so angry. “They made them into fucking human batteries, that’s what you’re saying? Human batteries to be raped and used and sucked dry?” The sympathy that flashed in his eyes was too much. “And you knew this. You knew this and didn’t tell me. What the hell, Costa?”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t think it would help, and I didn’t want to distract you from the case. We still have time to find her. We will find Elaine before they do this to her.”
I opened my mouth, to yell or to cry, I wasn’t sure which. But his words stopped me. “What do you mean?” My voice was thick with emotion, and I couldn’t seem to get a grip on it. I had to. Had to force it down, keep focused. Had to find Elaine.
“The process—the change, it takes weeks. Weeks where the succubus can’t be moved and is held in the same city she was taken from. I think she’s still here, Marisol.”
“You found this out from the succubus you saved?”
“Yes. She recognized the area she was held in, an old warehouse in her hometown—St. Louis. She knew she hadn’t been moved because it sounded like her home, smelled like it. She grew up not far from where they held her.”
“You were able to track down the warehouse?” I shifted in my seat. Yes. This was good. Evidence I could concentrate on, use it to focus.
“Yes, we found it.” He frowned. “But it didn’t actually lead us anywhere. The warehouse was owned by a large company and just rented out under the table for cash.” I pressed on my temples. Something wasn’t right about this. Companies didn’t do that, did they? “Was there anything fishy about the company?”
“Only that it was owned by your very own local Magister.”
The headache just starting in my temples pulsed harder. “We should talk to someone at his company.”
“I’ve been working on setting that up, but it’s a long shot, since it was rented under the table. The Magister probably never even knew about it. But it can’t hurt to try to get his records.”
Great. Yet another thing he hadn’t deigned to mention.
And getting the Magister’s business records? Fat chance.
“So how was she changed? Witchcraft?”
“That’s what we figure.”
“To pull something like that off…I mean, that’s complex magic, Costa.”
He pushed up from the bed and stalked across the room to the small mini-fridge in the corner. “I know.” He grabbed a paper sack from the top of the fridge and tossed the bag, revealing a small bottle of whiskey. Quirking his eyebrow, he held it up. An offer.
I shook my head and he shrugged. Grabbing a plastic hotel-provided cup, he said, “It either has to be a Covenant witch behind this, or one of the stronger underground anti-Covenant groups.” He poured a couple of shots into the plastic cup, sans ice. “At this point, I’m not sure which would be worse.” He downed the whiskey in one quick motion.
My stomach dropped. A witch strong enough, clever enough, to twist an otherworlder’s powers. Not only strong enough, but willing to do so for money. Dangerous didn’t begin to describe such a person.
“Right now, we’re operating under the official assumption that this is the work of an underground group, perhaps led by an excommunicated Covenant member.
It’s more
“She’d been altered.”
“Excuse me?”
“Magically.” He took a deep breath. “Basically, someone figured out how to reverse the normal succubus process. Instead of being able to pull power into herself from the person she was sleeping with, she was able to give it. And—”
“And?” There was more? Wasn’t this bad enough? I could barely get my mind around the implications.
“They removed the…baggage that usually comes along with bonding with a succubus.”
“Baggage? You mean the emotional connection, the feelings.” My shock twisted, and suddenly I could barely breathe, I was so angry. “They made them into fucking human batteries, that’s what you’re saying? Human batteries to be raped and used and sucked dry?” The sympathy that flashed in his eyes was too much. “And you knew this. You knew this and didn’t tell me. What the hell, Costa?”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t think it would help, and I didn’t want to distract you from the case. We still have time to find her. We will find Elaine before they do this to her.”
I opened my mouth, to yell or to cry, I wasn’t sure which. But his words stopped me. “What do you mean?” My voice was thick with emotion, and I couldn’t seem to get a grip on it. I had to. Had to force it down, keep focused. Had to find Elaine.
“The process—the change, it takes weeks. Weeks where the succubus can’t be moved and is held in the same city she was taken from. I think she’s still here, Marisol.”
“You found this out from the succubus you saved?”
“Yes. She recognized the area she was held in, an old warehouse in her hometown—St. Louis. She knew she hadn’t been moved because it sounded like her home, smelled like it. She grew up not far from where they held her.”
“You were able to track down the warehouse?” I shifted in my seat. Yes. This was good. Evidence I could concentrate on, use it to focus.
“Yes, we found it.” He frowned. “But it didn’t actually lead us anywhere. The warehouse was owned by a large company and just rented out under the table for cash.” I pressed on my temples. Something wasn’t right about this. Companies didn’t do that, did they? “Was there anything fishy about the company?”
“Only that it was owned by your very own local Magister.”
The headache just starting in my temples pulsed harder. “We should talk to someone at his company.”
“I’ve been working on setting that up, but it’s a long shot, since it was rented under the table. The Magister probably never even knew about it. But it can’t hurt to try to get his records.”
Great. Yet another thing he hadn’t deigned to mention.
And getting the Magister’s business records? Fat chance.
“So how was she changed? Witchcraft?”
“That’s what we figure.”
“To pull something like that off…I mean, that’s complex magic, Costa.”
He pushed up from the bed and stalked across the room to the small mini-fridge in the corner. “I know.” He grabbed a paper sack from the top of the fridge and tossed the bag, revealing a small bottle of whiskey. Quirking his eyebrow, he held it up. An offer.
I shook my head and he shrugged. Grabbing a plastic hotel-provided cup, he said, “It either has to be a Covenant witch behind this, or one of the stronger underground anti-Covenant groups.” He poured a couple of shots into the plastic cup, sans ice. “At this point, I’m not sure which would be worse.” He downed the whiskey in one quick motion.
My stomach dropped. A witch strong enough, clever enough, to twist an otherworlder’s powers. Not only strong enough, but willing to do so for money. Dangerous didn’t begin to describe such a person.
“Right now, we’re operating under the official assumption that this is the work of an underground group, perhaps led by an excommunicated Covenant member.
It’s more
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