Demons & Hellholes_A Grimmer Legacy novel Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twentyone

  Chapter Twentytwo

  Chapter Twentythree

  Epilogue

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  © 2017 by Eleanor Rousseau

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights reserved under copyright above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise) without proper written permission of the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, media, brands, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademark owners of the various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication of these trademarks is associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Demons & Hellholes

  Grimmer Legacy Series: Book One

  By Eleanor Rousseau

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twentyone

  Chapter Twentytwo

  Chapter Twentythree

  Epilogue

  Note from the author

  Facebook Page: Eleanor Rousseau | Twitter: @EllaRousseau | Facebook Group: Heroes and Hellraisers book club

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  Chapter One

  I was pinned down by a werewolf, a hairy abomination caught in the crossroads between man and beast. They weren’t all like this but Mr. Jenkins was a few bones short of a graveyard and his instability as a human had followed him into Lycanthropy, creating exciting and lethal new problems. Most stable shifters had two forms, animal and human, but this guy was stuck somewhere between the two.

  Hot, putrid breath fanned my cheek as drool dropped down onto the shoulder of my jacket. My muscles ached and various open wounds burned. I had to pull something out of my hat and I had to do it soon or I’d be doggy chow.

  I was about to perform some brilliant feat in order to save myself when the werewolf’s brains were suddenly splattered all over the wall. My breath caught in my throat as it’s full weight landed on me and I fought back my immediate instinct to panic. I breathed in the coppery scent of blood and almost gagged in revulsion.

  “Oh great,” I said with as much sarcasm as I could and shoved the heavy carcass off my body.

  “Quit fooling around, Kia,” said an annoyingly familiar voice.

  “What do you want, Jay?” I asked, staying down in order to give my exhausted muscles time to recover.

  “Besides to save your ass? You have a real assignment,” he told me as if taking on a fully grown werewolf wasn’t a real assignment. For him, I suppose such a thing was only a trivial matter. He stepped closer and raised an eyebrow down at me.

  “Just tell me what it is.”

  He held out pictures of two individuals.

  “Handsome,” I murmured as I sat up to take them from him. The first was more obviously good looking with blond hair, deep blue eyes and a jawline that could cut glass. However, it was the second who caught my attention.

  The photo of the first man looked like an id photo for a license but the second one was a photo taken by a security camera so the quality wasn’t great. Both his hair and eyes were a brown so dark they could have been black, his jaw was square and I could just make out a faint scar across his cheek. Looking at him everything in my subconscious screamed ‘danger’. His eyes were hard and cold with an aura of darkness practically clung to him.

  “Don’t be fooled, they’re the bad guys and they’re after something we want. The Axitross.”

  My eyes widened, the Axitross was a legendary artifact with untold power. In my line of work, it paid to know about any such magical objects but reports on the Axitross had always been frustratingly vague. All we knew was that it was very powerful and a lot of people wanted it.

  “Why me?” I asked because despite my efforts I was one of the weaker members of our little team. It fact I was literally the weakest.

  “Because blondie’s a Fey,” he said.

  The Fey, sometimes also called Fae, or even Fairies, were a race of supernaturals that had immigrated to earth from another realm. I always viewed them as the opposite of Demons, although they were by no means angels. The Fey were typically incredibly beautiful and most of them fed on the emotional energy of others. This could be anything from the sexual energy produced by humans to the fear energy when they’re afraid.

  “Ohh.” That made sense. I didn’t have any flashy magic but I was gifted with an immunity to Fey magic. Most of the others were less susceptible to Fey magic than humans but I was the only one truly unaffected.

  “What about tall, dark and deadly?” I pushed myself unsteadily to my feet.

  “He’s a Demon Blood.”

  I blinked, huh? “And they’re working together?” I asked doubtfully.

  “Surprised the hell outta me too. You’ve got this.”

  Well, that sure was encouraging. “You think I can take on both a Fey and a Demon Blood?” Clearly, he was insane. Demon Bloods, otherwise know as Daemons, were half demon, half human and most were very powerful.

  He shook his head, “I think you can fool a Fey and a Demon Blood. You go up against them, blondie uses his glamour on you, you resist for just long enough to make it seem believable before you ‘succumb’. Chances are they’ll know about us and after they have you under their spell they’ll try and use you to get the Axitross. You go along with it until they have it and then you switch it with a fake and get the hell out of dodge.”

  I bit my lip, “Fey resistance wasn’t the only reason you chose me,” I observed.

  “I know you’re a fan of undercover, and the others can’t act to save their life.”

  “Well, I think I’m up for the job.” Excitement was already building in my chest. I enjoyed fighting as much as the next sociopath but I preferred a quieter approach, like poisoning them in their sleep. “But how will they know I’m one of us, I’m not exactly the most recognizable Grimmer.”

  “You can wear this.” He held up a green length of cloth with the Grimmer’s crest on.

  “Subtle,” I said, taking it from him.

  “Get home, clean yourself up. I’ll text you the d
etails.”

  On a whim, I hugged him briefly. “Thanks.”

  He smiled a little, “Anytime, lil sis. Now go, clean up, you’re a mess.”

  He was such a jerk but instead of saying anything I just hurried to my ride, trusting him to call up the cleanup crew for the corpse.

  AFTER CLEANING AND wrapping my wounds I dressed for war. I wore tight black jeans which flared at the ends, just enough to disguise ankle holsters, a plain black shirt and a loose gray hoodie with the strip of fabric tied around my upper arm. I had a sword on one hip and a gun on the other.

  “Wow, you’re decked out.” That was Maya, my roommate.

  “I’m on a mission. Might take some time, don’t wait up.” I walked to the phone and dialed. “Jay, I had a thought. If this takes longer than two days you’re going to have to come and try to rescue me. They’ll get suspicious if they think you just let one of your own slip through your fingers.”

  “I’ll send Cas, it wouldn’t seem unreasonable that you could take him in a fight and he can fake a dive convincingly. I’ve got a location on the boys, I want you to go there and act like you’re just there for the demon blood. He killed a higher up in the vampire council a while back so you can pretend you were hired by them.

  “Remember, as far as you know the Fey won’t be there. You’re young enough that he may think you’re going after him because you’re cocky or you have something to prove. Go and try to look...” He hesitated.

  “To look what?”

  He hesitated again, “...Unattractive.”

  “Huh?” What did my appearance have to do with anything?

  “One of them is a Fey, Kia, you know how the Fey are.”

  “Fey may be shallow and bad but, in case you’ve forgotten, I can manipulate anything with even a hint of a conscience. I can handle it.” Of that, I was fairly confident.

  “Just- wear ill-fitting clothes or something.”

  I smirked a little at his uncomfortable tone. “Relax, I’ve actually heard that Fey are really good between the sheets. Ta-ta now,” I hung up on the stunned silence and laughed to myself.

  Maya raised an eyebrow “You’re sleeping with a Fey?”

  I shrugged, “I’m just being open-minded. If Jay comes storming in here tell him it’s far too late to stop me.” I chuckled as I grabbed my keys.

  “Have fun,” she said.

  “You too. With whatever you’re doing.” I checked my phone to see he had already texted me the location. They were in a bar on the other side of the city. I made a point of knowing the names and locations of most dive bars in the city, whenever dealing with more shady aspects of the supernatural community it paid to know the layout of those places.

  Chapter Two

  “Can I buy you a drink?” I placed the spiked drink in front of the Demon Blood. Avon was his name, according to the file.

  He eyed me and my breath caught in my throat as all my instincts told me to run like hell. Demons could do that, make people feel fear, but Demon Blood’s were more unpredictable, typically they could but not to the same degree as full blooded demons. Clearly this guy was more powerful than most.

  “I was actually just thinking of leaving.” He was just as good looking as his picture but the looks were eclipsed by the darkness that radiated from him.

  I took a deep breath and pouted. I was the youngest of all my siblings so I’d leant to manipulate people early on. I tilted my head slightly and flashed wide, disappointed eyes at him.

  “Too bad.” I had turned the band on my arm so the crest was subtly out of sight but I got the sense he immediately knew who I was. “Maybe I could join you.” My flirtatious act was deliberately terrible and obvious if I let him believe I was a bad actor he’d never see it coming when I played him like a fiddle.

  It was a good thing I didn’t use my powers for evil.

  He smirked darkly, “Maybe you could.” Dark eyes, gleaming with intelligence, regarded me. He left the drink where it was and stepped away from the bar, walking towards the door. I followed and we made it to the parking lot before he turned to me. All pretences evaporated and his expression darkened.

  “Who sent you?” he asked, voice gravelly with anger.

  I sighed heavily, dropping my act too, and rested a hand on the hilt of my sword. “The vampire council, you really should have known better than to screw with them.”

  He raised an eyebrow, “Since when do the Grimmer’s work for the council?”

  I shrugged, “Girl's gotta eat.” I drew the sword and made a move to swing at him.

  “You don’t want to do that,” a voice purred, the soft sound of it caressing my senses and spreading awareness through me.

  I gasped as if I’d had no idea there was someone behind me. Of course, I had notice Avon subtly signal someone on his way out the bar so I’d figured this would happen. I turned suddenly.

  The Fey, Grant, smiled at me, “Hey, pretty lady.”

  I pulled my gun with my free hand and pointed a weapon at each of them, moving to the side so I could keep them both in my line of sight. “Shit.”

  “You’re gonna want to put the weapons down,” said the Fey. His voice was warm and smooth like chocolate and I lowered my weapons a few inches before jerking them back up.

  “You’re a Fey!” I exclaimed, glancing between them, an expression of confusion stamped on my face. Yes, this was a very unusual turn of events. A Fey and a Demon blood, who would have guessed?

  He grinned and it was the kind of grin that could melt a girl's panties right off. Luckily I was 100% immune to his magic so my panties stayed right where they were. Still, I wasn’t totally unimpressed. He shared a look with Avon.

  “If we kill her the Grimmer’s will come after us,” murmured Avon under his breath.

  “I can think of much better things to do than kill her.” Grant began to move closer, his gaze flicking down to my breasts.

  I took a step back. “Stay away.” I took a shot but the gun was in my left hand and he dodged. He was very fast.

  He was only a few feet away when his power washed through me. My back hit the wall. “You don’t want to hurt us, you want to help us,” he said in a seductive, melodious voice.

  I made my breathing come out in small needy pants. “No, I- Mm, I want- No.” I dropped my weapons and breathed raggedly as if I were having some kind of internal struggle. I closed my eyes and let my head rest against the wall behind me.

  I shook my head and clenched my jaw.

  Then his lips lightly brush mine and my legs fell out from beneath me, I slid abruptly to the ground.

  “That took longer than expected, you’re losing your touch,” said Avon.

  “She’s a Grimmer, give me some credit.” Grant crouched before me. “Hey sweetie, you wanna come with us?”

  I nodded eagerly and accepted the hand he offered to help me up, his touch was warm and firm.

  “Are you sure she’s under?” asked Avon.

  “Yes, get her to do something if you don’t trust me.”

  Avon cleared his throat, “Strip,” he ordered.

  “Nice.” Grant's eyes swung my way as I shrugged out of my hoodie.

  I was shirtless and about to unbutton my jeans when Avon held up a hand, “That’s enough, you can put it back on.” His gaze lingered, not on my breasts but on the bandage across my hip.

  I paused, I knew for a fact Fey magic of this kind left those under it feeling horny almost constantly. “Are you sure?” I asked, picking up my clothes.

  Avon nodded and Grant grinned. “We’ve got time for that later, sweetie.”

  I dressed quickly, it was damn cold.

  “Okay, let’s go.” Avon walked over to a car after scooping up my weapons.

  Grant guided me to sit in the back with him as Avon climbed in the front. “So, what are your powers, dove?” the Fey asked.

  I pursed my lips. “I can melt metals. It’s not as impressive as what the others can do,” I confided. It wasn’t something I’d
usually say, not unless I was being forced to be completely honest.

  “I think it’s pretty cool, you got much experience melting locks?”

  I smiled and nodded, leaning closer, “You need me to melt a lock for you?” I asked, voice husky.

  He nuzzled me and kissed my neck. I moaned softly in pleasure.

  “Grant!” snapped Avon.

  “Sorry, bro, you know this turn on thing is a two-way street.” Interesting that it still worked on him when it wasn’t working for me. I pouted as he pulled back. “Yes, I would like you to melt a lock for us,” he said, resting a hand on my knee.

  “Do the Grimmer’s know about the Axitross?” asked Avon.

  I thought before answering, “Probably, they’ve got files about everything. What is an Axitross?”

  “Something we want.” Grant nuzzled my hair. I didn’t usually let anyone touch me this way but, objectively, it felt nice. His attention definitely wasn’t unpleasant, despite what he was and what he was doing I didn’t get a creepy vibe from him. And it had been a long time since I’d last had a man pay me this kind of attention. I really needed to start dating again, clearly, I was starved for affection.

  “I can help you get it,” I said eagerly.

  “I bet you can,” he murmured, nipping at my neck.

  I could stand to let him keep this up a little more, it was for the mission, after all.

  “We can’t trust her, you can’t keep a hold on her forever,” said Avon.

  “She can call the council and say she killed you, that will get them off your back until we get the Axitross, and she can open a lot of doors for us, literally and figuratively. You’ll do what we say, won't you, dove?”

  I nodded, looking at him adoringly. Yup, I was just a cute little puppy in need of a master. The feminist in me revolted against the idea but I pushed her into a tiny little box and set her aside. Men had physical force, also in this case magic, and I had psychological and emotional warfare. Really I felt like that at least put us on level footing.

  The car pulled up in the parking lot of a run down motel. “We stay here until further notice, you stay put while I get a room,” said Avon, ducking out of the car.