Divine Fraud Read online

  “Look, agent, I don’t remember anything, so I don’t think I can help you.”

  Pain burst from my shoulder blade. A large dart was struck into my back. How the hell did they do that? I could solve that later. Now, I had a choice. I could tear out the dart before I got too much venom into me and fight my way out of this. In the process, I would have to incapacitate, most likely kill, the agent in front of me. Then, I would get my guns from the car, which I would use to kill anyone else coming for me.

  But I didn’t want to kill them. And so I went for the second option. I didn’t use my aether and let the venom flow into me. The intoxication spread fast. Three seconds later, I collapsed to the ground and lost control of my muscles.

  The agent grabbed me. A black van pulled in by the walkway, perfectly synchronized. The agent dragged me inside, where another man awaited. There, they gave me an injection in my neck. That knocked me out.

  I woke up sitting in a chair, my head spinning. The chair wasn’t standard though. The entire construction was made of steel and covered my entire back. Two steel shackles held each of my hands My legs, waist, and forehead shared the same fate. Everything was made of an aether-disrupting metal, so I didn’t even feel my power.

  Okay, I may have underestimated them. Cold sweat covered my back and my breathing sped up. I wasn’t used to being powerless. I sat in a small room with white walls, a wooden desk in front of me and a chair at the other side. A mirror covered most of the wall in front of me. In it, I saw myself... mostly. The image of me in the mirror had black eyes and a crown of horns sprouting from its head. The image in the mirror glared down at me.

  No matter how many times this had happened, it still creeped the hell out of me.

  Lucifer woke up and apparently decided to start making my life worse. I missed that about as much as a diarrhea. The image in the mirror moved, bending slightly to give me a condescending look. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Lucifer asked, his voice ringing in my head. It was exactly the same as mine, which annoyed me to no ends.

  How about you fuck off back to being dormant? I thought, knowing he would hear it as me talking to him.

  He scoffed. ‘Pathetic. You would never have gotten into this mess if you had acted sane.’

  And by sane, you mean if I killed the agents straight.

  ‘They attacked first, so it wouldn’t even count as a murder.’

  But the witnesses would. The only way to escape them was to use magic, after which I would have to clean up, which meant killing everything that had seen me use magic in public. And that would be murder, upon which Lucifer and I would merge, becoming one. There were two problems with that. First, I refused to murder. Out of all the principles I used to have, this was the last remaining one. I refused to give it up. And second, I had no idea who would I become after our merge. I could remain myself; I could become a blend of our personalities or I could effectively cease to exist with his consciousness pushing out mine. I didn’t know and wouldn’t risk it for anything. Fuck off.

  The door opened and the image in the mirror turned to normal. The agent I met earlier entered, dressed in a different shirt while holding a coffee mug. For how long was I out?

  Not too long. My body tended to neutralize toxins at an inhuman speed—stuff like dentist anesthetics didn’t work on me at all, unfortunately—but they may have increased the dose for me not to wake up.

  He took the seat opposite of me, took a sip from the mug and eyed me without saying anything. Was he trying to unnerve me?

  I raised my eyebrow in this direction. “Thanks for checking my coffee for poison. I will allow you to give it to me now.”

  His eyes widened in surprise and his mouth opened. No words came out though.

  Yeah, he was new, and I was not behaving like they had taught him in the agent school. Fully intentionally, since the trick to dealing with newbies was to get them off the script they were used to. “Guess it’s not good enough to serve to a guest,” I said. “So, how about you bring me some tea instead?”

  “Mr. Johnson,” he said as he recomposed. “I believe you are misunderstanding the severity of your situation.”

  “Look, you watched that abbey for a while, right? You must have noticed with whom I’ve been reconstructing it.”

  “The nun? What about her?”

  “She will notice my car’s there and I’m not.” I dropped my tone lower and steadied it into the most threatening intonation from my repertoire. “And when she does, she will find me, and she will kill you.”

  He was unfazed. Too bad, especially since I wasn’t lying. Perhaps if he had been more senior, he would have realized the threat for the warning it was. He shook his head. “Threats as pathetic as this won’t do you any good. So, how about you tell me what you know about the last year’s nightmare plague?”

  They have somehow connected me to last year’s events and wanted answers. He shouldn’t have told me that and should have asked concrete questions about specific days to keep me guessing. I felt genuinely bad for him. He was ten years too early to play this game. “Since you haven’t introduced yourself, I will call you Agent Snoopy, okay?” I asked rhetorically. “My head doesn’t hurt enough for you to have transported me outside of New York. What I’m guessing happened is that you bagged me, brought me here, secured the place, took a shower, made yourself a coffee and came into this room. I would say it’s been about an hour and a half since I lost consciousness. That means it’s about thirty minutes after sunset, so if you want to survive this, you have about half an hour to let me go.”

  He smirked. “Wrong. It’s been over six hours. Now, how about you tell me about what happened in the Mt. Prospect Park on September 25, last year? We saw on public cameras that you entered the area before the blackout happened, so you must have seen something related to the park’s destruction.”

  Why didn’t people believe me? Anyway, he didn’t seem to lie about the time. In which case, there was little I could do for him. My heart sank. I turned my eyes to the mirror behind him, saying “Vivian, how about you stop playing with your food and let the poor sods be?”

  Silence. The agent sighed. “Look, Mr. Johnson, if you get convicted for being involved in the nightmare plague, you will receive a lethal injection. Would you start taking this more seriously?”

  Was that supposed to impress me? Because it’s been less than six hours since the last time someone tried to kill me—yes, Milhamber’s shockwave would have killed a normal human—and frankly speaking, I’ve become a touch insensitive to threats like these.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but saw the agent sat frozen in place, his mouth half-open, beads of sweat rolling down his face.

  Vivian just had to be dramatic, didn’t she?

  The door opened and clicking of heels filled the room. Vivian entered, graciously weaving her slender body. She wore killer heels, satin black dress and golden jewelry embedded with sapphires, which matched her shining blue eyes. With her midnight hair and crimson lips, she was beyond beautiful. Which wasn’t particularly surprising since she has spent roughly five thousand years crafting her body to perfection with magic.

  The agent remained frozen like a statue.

  “Vivian, thanks, but how about you don’t kill him?” I asked, my tone urgent.

  She smiled. “Where would be the fun in that?” Her voice was low and melodic like a requiem. She stepped to the agent and gently bent his head backward, revealing the throat. A flick of her finger made him rise, the chair falling to the ground with a clang. She turned him and, in my full view, two long fangs slid out of her upper gums. In a lazy move, she buried them into the agent’s throat. He couldn’t even scream as she kept him frozen with her magic.

  Not a drop of blood spilled out. After about half a minute, she withdrew her fangs and let the agent’s corpse crumble to the ground. “That was refreshing.” She grabbed the table and threw it aside, smashing it into the wall. “Now, what do I do with you?”

  She had
to be a murderous bitch, didn’t she? Then again, one didn’t become the devil’s number one assassin by letting people live. And judging by the lack of harness, her punishment was postponed. I still glared at her. “How about you let me go and we pretend this never happened?” Things between me and Vivian were already weird enough. On the one hand, she helped me a lot in the past, especially when I truly needed help. On the other hand, she murdered my mother and made me thank her for doing it. Objectively speaking, that helped me as well, but our relationship was still rather complicated.

  “Tempting… but no.” She approached me, put one leg above my hip, the other one too and then sat into my lap, pressing her burning hot body against mine, gazing down at me. I could feel her steam-hot breath on my forehead and hell knew that made my blood sizzle. Now, Vivian was also hot in the literal meaning as her body temperature was usually around one hundred seventy degrees Fahrenheit. “You are so much more fun like this.”

  I tried to struggle against the shackles, but the chair still held.

  She grabbed my nape and pressed her lips against mine. My mind blanked. When my senses returned, I was furiously chasing her searing tongue inside my mouth. There was no drug as intoxicating as her.

  ‘Would you stop making out with that corpse?’ Lucifer shouted into my mind.

  Oh, I would if I could. I didn’t share his sentiment, but Vivian was also the most lethal drug.

  She bit my lip, tearing it apart and slid down to my neck. She moved her hands by my body and started opening the buttons of my shirt.

  I used the opportunity and raised my lips to her ear. “What would Lucielle say if she found out the first thing you did after being let out of the harness was killing four FBSI agents?”

  She froze. The reason she had been repairing the abbey was that she went a bit too wild killing government agents last year. Lucielle would extend the punishment for a few years if she learned of this incident. Slowly, Vivian raised her head to place it in front of mine, her breath blazing on my lips. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Try me.”

  She started closing the buttons of my shirt. “So, if I let you go, can we pretend tonight never happened?” Her voice was soft, almost pleading.

  “Of course.”

  She leaned onto me one more time and pressed some buttons on the chair. The shackles opened.

  I rose, forcing her to get off me. “I couldn’t help but notice you aren’t wearing the punishment harness.”

  “Oh, that’s because my repentance has been paused.” Her lips curled up. “And I’ve got a job for you.”

  That sounded great. Nobody paid better than the Devil. Sure, I practically died in the last big job I had done for her, but I’d do better this time. “I’m all ears.”

  “Someone stole a statuette from Her Evilness. She wants you to find it, the perpetrator, and bring them both to her, Monday morning at the latest. The reward is your usual fee.”

  It was now Thursday night, so that was in a bit over three days. There was no way I would ever pass on such a job. Plus, whoever was stupid enough to rob the Devil couldn’t be too hard to find. I mean, there were thousands less painful ways to commit suicide.

  I couldn’t help but smile. From her shoulder, I ran my hand down Vivian’s body, enjoying the silky touch of her dress and the flexible skin beneath. Seeing her shudder made my heart beat in a frenzy. “You know…” I grabbed her by the waist and pressed her against me. “I’ve missed you being like this.”

  She grabbed my hair, pulled me down and kissed me, hungrily. I allowed myself to get lost in the kiss. She raised her leg and clenched it behind my back, pushing herself against me.

  ‘I understand you are too young to have standards, but seriously, Lucas, this is disgusting,’ Lucifer said into my mind, his voice blazing with anger.

  Wasn’t she your lover back when you were a human?

  ‘That was before I learned what she was.’

  I ran my hands down her back, losing my mind in the moment. The fact that this was pissing Lucifer off made all of this ten times sweeter.

  With her free hand, Vivian grabbed my crotch, squeezed, and then slid open my zipper. She slid her slender fingers in, grabbing what counted the most. Oh, I loved that.

  But this was about enough. Without any warning, I grabbed her hand and pushed her off. As I did, she dug my nails into my skin, scratching me. “Enough fun. Let’s go work.”

  She stood with a gaping mouth, staring for a second. She blinked, bit her lip and whispered, “You’re such a bastard.”

  Enjoying the specter of her touch all over me, I sealed my pants. Since I was an out of marriage child of a fallen angel, calling me a bastard was a description rather than an insult. “I’ll go set this place on fire.”

  I left her standing in the middle of the room and walked out of the room. We were in an apartment in an otherwise abandoned house in Queens. I went to the kitchen, avoiding the corpses of the other three agents not to get my shoes dirty. I turned the valves on the stove, enjoying the hissing of gas. Afterward, I scoped the place for alcohol and poured its contents over the old, wooden furniture and walls.

  Vivian joined me soon, her hairs re-arranged while she wore a stupid smile. She loved this game between us even more than I did, at least for now.

  I took a bottle of vodka with me, opened it and stuck it in paper towels. Once outside, I breathed in the fresh air, used my lighter to put the paper on fire and threw what was effectively a Molotov’s cocktail into the window. An explosion boomed through the air and the house caught ablaze.

  The police would rule this as a gas explosion. The inferno would scorch whatever fingerprints or bodily traces I left behind.

  With this resolved, I could go do the Devil’s bidding.

  Chapter 3

  WITH HER FERRARI, Vivian drove me to my car, from which I retrieved my hat, coat and guns. And then she took me to the John F. Kennedy Airport. I didn’t see that coming. If someone robbed Lucielle, the natural place to do that would have been her new headquarters on Wall Street.

  I’ve never actually flown anywhere abroad and started wondering if I wasn’t missing something. Maybe. Vivian parked her Ferrari in front of the private jet terminal. The building looked pretty much like the other terminals, only a touch more decorated. Four NYPD vans stood parked on the street.

  Lucielle would have never called the police. “This is much more than a theft, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “Luci cares about the statuette and nothing else.”

  Of course. Why would she answer my question, right?

  Two men guarded the entrance to the terminal. Vivian flicked her wrist and they stopped moving, standing like statues. Her magic was basically mind-control. Or, well, a part of what she could do was mind-control. There were ways to block it if one had enough aether and knew what he was doing, but a common person had no hope of defending against her spell.

  The supernatural world was hidden from the general public beneath multiple layers of the Veil. And people like Vivian were one the main reason why. There would be a global panic if the public found out she existed and that she could go to the bank and make the clerk give her all the money from any bank account. Oh, and that she was invisible to cameras and magical detection.

  We passed between the policemen and crossed the terminal. Unsurprisingly, the place was empty since it was still the middle of the night. Our target was apparently the private jet standing next to the terminal. I knew nothing about private jets, so all I could say was that the plane was white and looked expensive. A Japanese flag was drawn on its side, just above the Honuzawa Industries logo.

  What a coincidence that Yakuza moved into the town and there was a problem on their private jet the next month. This made me frown.

  Police were swarming around the jet. Yellow tape surrounded the entire area. Vivian stopped by the terminal window and pointed at the plane. “The statuette was last seen in the baggage area of that jet.”

  I stared at
her, half in disbelief. “And?”

  “And now you go find it,” she said with a satisfied smile, as if she resolved the issue.

  “Would it bother you too much to give me the full story and context, so I wouldn’t waste time figuring out what you already know?”

  Vivian laughed. “You’ve been a bad boy, so no, you get nothing.” She caught my nape and tried to pull me in for a kiss. I straightened my back, remaining out of her reach. A sudden feeling of heat filled my body. I recognized the sensation as her pushing her aether into me. I withdrew my strength from my heart and forced her out, which stopped her from using the mind-controlling spell on me.

  “Would it hurt you to set aside whatever beef you have with Lucielle and be professional about this?” I asked.

  “Oh, it definitely would.” Her expression turned sour. “She told me to get you on the case and to take you to the crime scene. I’ve done that.”

  “And your punishment is put on hold until I solve the case, so helping me do so faster is against your interests.” I filled in for her.

  “Correct. I’m also supposed to monitor your progress sometime later.” She grinned. “But you can earn more of my attention, of course.”

  “Oh, can I?” I grabbed her by the hips and lifted her up. She clenched her legs around my waist, wrapped her arms around my neck, and dove in for a kiss. This one was downright furious, searing my tongue as she blazed with heat. I allowed myself to enjoy the moment, feeling her smooth thighs through the silky dress.

  But not too much. I clenched my hands above her knees and unwrapped her legs from around me. As I pushed her down, she strengthened her hold, forcing me to bend while pushing her aether into me. Nice try. I flushed her spell out of my body with my own, caught her arms and pulled free from her grasp, detaching despite her scratching my back. She shuddered, staring at me hungrily with blazing eyes.

  “I think I can handle this myself, but thanks for the offer,” I whispered.

  She sneered. “You will so pay for this.” She licked her lips, tossed around her hair and spun. I watched her hips sway as she crossed the empty hall, her heels clicking on the ground.