Inner Fire (Sexy Non-Erotic Free Fantasy), Page 2

something. Long ago he'd been beaten into submission. The imp knew his place. The fact that he was speaking up even in this subtle way, with mere tones, meant that the book had to be something special.

  Aree had taken the book while keeping her eyes on the imp, but then she had turned her gaze towards the cover of it. Her fingers moved over its surface, as if wondering about the secrets that lay within the book. When she opened the cover of the old tome though, the words inside made no sense. The writing was in elegant scrawl that resembled the Demonic tongue she knew, but it was far too elaborate for her to truly comprehend. The swirls here and there were off and the words that resulted were very confusing. Snarling back at the imp, she snapped her fingers and dismissed him, ignoring his pleas of apology given even as he turned to vapor and was no longer on the same plane as she.

  So the book was powerful, was it? She looked through all the pages that she could, trying to see something that her elven eyes would recognize, to no avail. But the imp had recognized the book's power. Could these words mean something to a demon, then? She spoke demonic but couldn't read it. Who did she know that would be able to help her?

  Aree could have waited until she went back to the city she called home. The masters there would have words for her, information about the book that she could only get from them. But Aree wasn't known for having patience when it came to a mystery. Standing up, she had summoned forth yet another of her demons, and had stood waiting until the air before her warmed and shimmered, signaling the arrival of the one she had called.

  With her eyes in her book, and her mind on the fact that this had to be a really powerful item, she had forgotten her state of undress. When she heard the whistle of her succubus, though, Aree's mind was drawn immediately back to the present.

  "Well well well," the sultry female demon said softly, striding slowly towards Aree on cloven hooves. "It seems I've finally made you succumb to my charms. Ready when you are, babe. So who's going to be on top? You or me?"

  The succubus was reaching out a hand, almost touching Aree's hip, before the elven warlock slapped the demon's long nails away and growled spell words to put the other girl in her place. Hissing, the demoness clutched at the collar at her neck, one that was attuned to Aree's voice and was now choking the succubus back into obedience.

  "Okay okay!" the scantily clad succubus had squeaked. "You win! You can be on top!"

  Aree snarled but let the spell around the collar relax. "I have a book…" she began.

  Panting and trying to catch her breath, the succubus had smiled at that. "You don't need a book. I know everything ever written into any book about what we can do, so toss that thing away and…hey…wait a minute…"

  Aree had been about to cast the same spell again, and maybe let it last longer this time, to teach her vixen of a demon a good long lesson. But now the demoness's eyes were on the book in Aree's hands, growing wider and wider.

  "I bet…you don't even know what you have there…do you, sweet cheeks…"

  "Well," Aree said, lifting her chin slightly. "It is…an unusual tome, isn't it…"

  "It's a codex," the succubus said with a laugh that was anything but jovial and nothing if not mocking of Aree's ignorance. The elf pushed her anger aside though and waited for the demoness to calm herself.

  "You have a codex to something very powerful. That is, if you're willing to…go all the way…"

  Aree noted the lick of the succubus' tongue over her lips and scowled. The creature was always trying to have her way with Aree - or with anything on two legs, if there wasn't a fight at hand. The demoness was an incredible enchantress on the field of battle, but off the field, Aree dare not leave her wandering around very long. She was best kept to the other planes rather than following after Aree. She could be so very crude and embarrassing in polite company.

  "Tell me more," Aree said insistently, grabbing the succubus by the upper arm and giving her a shake.

  "Hey careful now! I don't know much about it! Let me look at it!" The succubus put out her hands but all Aree did was show her a few of the pages from a distance. She didn't know this book's power and the last thing she wanted was to put that power into the hands of a demoness, collared or not.

  "Tell me where it came from!" Aree said, shaking the creature again.

  "It's from some old race that's dead! I don't know more than that! Stop shaking me, for the love of the Nine Hells!"

  Aree stopped but for good measure, she slapped the demoness across the face, hard, sending her to the ground. Every once in awhile it was a good idea to make sure that her demons understood her power over them, emotionally and physically as well as ethereally. The collar at the succubus' neck might give Aree control of the demon's will, make her want to obey very badly, but it was important that the wench also know that Aree harbored no feelings of care towards her. Demons had been responsible for oh so many lives being lost in several wars that had torn Aree's world apart. She would not want any of her demons thinking she favoured them as more than the tools they were.

  The demoness looked up at Aree with a feigned look of hurt, then disappeared at the snap of Aree's fingers, dismissed once more to the void. Instead, she summoned something else that would try to prey on her emotions much less.

  The demon that she had used to beat down the creature of stone appeared where the succubus had been. It was a male creature but that was merely a guess most warlocks made by the gritty masculine sound of the void demon's voice. The amorphous shape could have become anything with dangerous and deadly accuracy, given the chance. The bejeweled shackles on his wrists prevented that from happening, thank the gods. He, like all Aree's demons, was under her utter control. And he hated it.

  The void demon looked Aree's naked form over and grumbled, turning the blazing pinpoints of his eyes away and waiting to be addressed. Aree shook the book at him and stood in front of him, making sure his face, or where his face should be, was turned towards the book's open pages.

  "This," she quipped loudly, running out of patience. "What is this!"

  The void demon had looked the pages over, unblinking. Then he had turned away. Breathing hard with ill kept rage, Aree had waited for him to respond. At last, taking his own sweet time of it, the void demon spoke.

  "It is written in an ancient language," he began, drawing each word out carefully. Aree had to admit that his gravelly voice would have been handsome had he the proper shape and soul of an elf. She shook her head and forced herself to pay attention to his words and not how he spoke them.

  "It contains the spellcrafting of a portal…a gateway to another world," the demon continued, seeming to read the page and then look away. "But that world no longer exists…"

  "What happened to it?" Aree asked insistently.

  "It was destroyed. Made example of by a more powerful race than those that occupied it, once upon a time. It was a great war and the example served to remind all of who was the most powerful…"

  Aree had sighed and sat down on the warm grass, still forgetting she was quite naked. The void demon wouldn't react to her nudity anyway, his kind were beyond all emotions but ire, hate, dislike and annoyance. She peered into the pages of the book but still couldn't make sense of it.

  "It does not matter what the book contains," the void demon said, hovering tall over her shoulder, looming even.

  "Why? Why doesn't it matter?" Aree said, turning her head to look up into her demon's visage.

  "An elven warlock could not open such a portal."

  They stared at each other, Aree defying him with her eyes, and the demon staring at her blankly.

  "Return me to my plane," he said at last, his voice monotone except for that constant hint of annoyance, like someone disturbed from a well earned sleep.

  She snapped her fingers and he was gone, and Aree was left alone next to the river and the waterfall, the strange and unusual tome in her hands. There had to be more to the story, hadn't there? Would the demons lie to her? Did the world that the gate in the boo
k led to actually exist or had it truly been destroyed? How could she find out?

  It had taken time for the elven warlock to convince herself to go home. Eventually, Aree had come to where she was now. Her parents weren't expecting her so she had wisely sent a messenger to their house to let her know she was in the city. Her mother was incredibly anal about such things, hating it when Areesal stopped by unexpected and there was no place made up for her at the table, no guest room ready to receive her. Her family were almost nobility, almost, and her mother worked hard to keep up appearances. Even if it was only their wayward warlock daughter, Aree's mother still wanted to follow as much protocol as she could. That left Aree time to do the other things she had to do.

  Ordering herself a glass of cheap wine, she scoffed it down and ordered another. The barwench behind the counter snickered softly and quietly whispered in Aree's direction that the rooms in the inn above included a bath in their fee, but Aree waved her away. With what she had to do next, she may as well wait before getting clean. There was dirty business yet to be had.

  Finishing the second cup of wine as quickly as the first, she stood up and wiped the back of her gloved hand across her mouth, her other hand clutching the satchel she wore over one shoulder and against the opposite hip. As soon as she rose from her chair, she began to feel that warm lightheaded