“Leraje is quite a piece of work,” explained Kain. “Did you think we’d give you someone easy to deal with? Even though it was your first training session, it would have been a shame if we chose a lesser demon.”
“Are you serious?” Sophie couldn’t believe her ears. “He had complete control over me. In a matter of minutes, he managed to turn me into an obedient puppy!”
“And you fought him. You figured out his trick and broke free,” said Alexi. “You were incredible! Few cambions are able to resist Leraje and his power. He’s smart and sneaky… you’ve no idea how many young cambions fall into his trap even after dozens of training sessions.”
Sophie looked at him reluctantly. She really didn’t feel like she had done that well in the glass cell. She could still feel the overwhelming sensation of being controlled, of being at the mercy of a creature who could have asked anything from her. Anything. And she would have gladly provided. She remembered the demon’s black, unmoving eyes and a violent shudder shook her whole body. Kain reached out to rub her bare arms. She was still dressed in her black tank top and tight jeans. They had only taken off her boots before laying her in bed.
“I feel like crap,” she said.
“You’re a bit shaken, but that’s normal,” Alexi reassured her. “You need a good night’s rest.”
“Will it always be like this?”
“No.” Kain tucked a brown strand of hair behind her small ear. “Every demon has his or her own strategy. Some of them are subtle, like in Leraje’s case, others are more direct. You can handle them all, trust me.”
She sighed. Right then, all she wanted was to stay as far away from demons as possible.
“This was just the beginning,” said Alexi. “You’ll train a lot in the following weeks, and we’ll help you learn how to hold back when you attack. You’re a very powerful cambion, Sophie. It seems that our private sessions managed to unleash something we didn’t know was there. It’s great that you can render a high demon unconscious in such a short time, but knocking yourself out in the process is not ideal. We’ll work on that.”
Sophie took a deep breath and released it slowly, steadily.
“Okay…”
She had never thought her own powers would come to terrify her.
?
The next couple of weeks were harsh. Training session after training session… Another Marquis, a Count, a couple of Earls… Each demon had his own strategy, his own plan of attack. Sophie had to keep her mind open, her senses sharp, and her instinct close.
On her third session, she learned a gut feeling could save her life. On her fourth session, she almost knocked herself unconscious again. The scorching burn of her demon sigil was too much to handle sometimes. She would double back and dig her fingernails into the soft skin of her stomach at the end of the training sessions, cursing the stupid tattoo that tormented her so much. However, she pushed on. She didn’t want to disappoint her mentors.
Kain Svjetlo and Alexi Volkov, the two Lure legends, wouldn’t talk about anything else but her, their genius apprentice. Soon, the entire Academy whispered her name in awe, senior and junior cambions asking themselves if she was, indeed, more powerful than her mentors themselves.
After her fifth training session, Sophie started going to Erah’s office once a week. Not because this whole thing had become too overwhelming for her. Not at all.
CHAPTER FOUR
The second they stepped into Lilith’s office, Kain and Alexi knew something was terribly wrong. When Hebe had told them about the meeting an hour ago, they both thought the headmistress wanted to ask them about Sophie and her training sessions. They hadn’t even considered the possibility of a case. They had never worked together, so why would the Pantheon pair them now? But the presence of Ke-sar and Nyame in the office said it all: it was about a case. A serious case. Crazy Nyame only got involved when old, almost ancient demons resurfaced. Otherwise, her job was to make sure there was no shortage of baby cambions in the world. There was nothing she liked more than to seduce mortal men, and she was pretty damn good at it. Sex kept her paranoia and psycho tendencies at bay.
“Kain, Alexi… sit down.” The headmistress threw them an annoyed look. They could have moved their asses faster and got to Meridies half an hour ago. Were her two best soldiers growing soft, or did they just enjoy pissing her off?
They took the empty seats at her desk. Ke-sar barely nodded his head in their direction, and Nyame gave Kain a lascivious smile. Kain smiled back. No, he had no intention to ever hook up with the succubus. She did have beautiful, round curves, which he happened to appreciate in a woman, but her olive skin and dark purple hair didn’t do it for him. He hated everything that was artificial, and he honestly didn’t understand why some of the incubi and succubi went for the artificial look. They could change their appearance as they pleased, so why the bad choices? Also, Nyame was too dangerous even for him.
“I’m sorry,” started Alexi. “Hebe didn’t mention this was about a case.” He eyed the files on the desk, and Lilith pushed them towards him and Kain.
The headmistress sighed and chose not to comment on it. There was no point in wasting even more time. “Casimir D’Argyle, Ke’let demon. The Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine.”
Kain leaned over the file and his brows furrowed in concentration. “Ke’let?” He read through the first page, too impatient to pay attention to the details. He’d get them later. “Man, that sucks.”
Ke-sar smiled. He knew Kain wasn’t taking the situation lightly and that he was playing it cool to annoy Lilith who, in all fairness, was a bit of a drama queen.
“I thought there were no Ke’let demons left,” said Alexi. His voice was low and well-measured. “Didn’t Lure crush them 500 years ago?”
“Apparently, D’Argyle was sneaky enough to escape and go into hiding,” said Ke-sar. “Even now, we discovered him by mistake.”
“These Ke’let bitches are hard to track down,” intervened Nyame. Her high-pitched voice made Alexi groan. “Their magic is powerful and ancient, and they play a lot with hypnosis. Oh, how they like to confuse their victims…”
“If you read the files carefully,” Lilith looked at Kain and stressed the last word, “you’ll see that Casimir D’Argyle has a comfy little nest up in the mountains, and ‘recruits’ his victims from the nearby villages. He is calculated, however, and aside from the fact that he has these villages under a nasty spell, he makes sure he doesn’t abuse his power so as to raise suspicion. He only kidnaps young men and women once a year, when he organizes this fancy party for his friends. Demons from all over the world gather at his mansion for a couple of days, and when the party is over they each go on their merry way, leaving a trail of bodies behind.”