So I'm really, really *really* sorry it's taken me so long to get back to the daemon updates. I've had a large paper to write (which I haven't finished) and I've just been tapped, writing in other areas and not doing much for Daemon. I'm not sure where to go for 3 and it's a struggle, made worse by the fact that I keep editing 1. *sigh*. Still, Lucifel is probably my very favorite and I missed her.

*&*

The alarm went off at noon. As I was groggily trying to find my way to it, I heard something smack it hard. “Caninus, if you broke my alarm clock, I’ll sue your ass.”

“Mph. Go for it,” he said, burying his face back in the pillows. I laughed, having a hard time remembering that this was a vampire who I would almost certainly have to fight at some point. A vampire who may be ordered to kill me at any time, actually.

“Caninus, we need to come up with a plan for what we’re going to do about Antoinette. I’ve got three more to kill, to buy us time. After that, I refuse to try to bring any back from the dead.” I shook my head, “I’d have to kill someone else.”

“I was wondering about that,” he admitted, pulling his face away from his pillow. “Ask Foyl if he can help you. He’s your familiar, so you should be able to draw power through him or something. Or have him help you by harvesting the deaths of the other vampires. Whatever.”

I paused for a second. “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask. But…that doesn’t help us plan what to do about Antoinette.”

He rolled over again and smiled at me. “Angelus, honestly, you over-think. When you refuse to raise the others, she’ll threaten to kill you. She’ll try to force me to do it, but I need you to distract her, probably with Foyl’s help, so I can kill her. If you do raise those others, she’ll wait until you’ve come to claim your price and then she’ll try to have me kill you. Then I’ll attack you, make it look convincing, then you shoot her, we attack her, problems solved.”

“You liar,” I said to him. “You know it isn’t that easy. We need to come up with a plan.”

“Sleeping. That’s the best plan I have,” he said, rolling back into the pillow. “We’ll plan later, alright? When I’m not so tired.”

I sighed heavily. “Not that I have a whole lot of options,” I replied bitterly. “Sleep. I’ll be in later with a sun lamp to try and get some answers out of you.”

“Ouch, Lucifel!” he laughed. “But you said later, right? So I get to sleep now?”

I smiled involuntarily. How someone so deadly could be like such a little kid I didn’t know. “Yeah, go to sleep.”

I went down the stairs, smiling as I saw Foyl curled into a tight ball on the top of a bookshelf. I brushed my hand against him as I walked past. He startled awake. “Lucifel?” He rose and stretched like a cat. “What’s on the agenda today?”

“A few questions for you,” I said, ushering him into the basement. I looked around in vain, trying to find something to eat. I finally sighted the peanut butter and started making a sandwich. “A witch’s familiar helps her use energy and cast spells faster, right? So then, as a necromage’s familiar, do you do the same thing?”

“Beg pardon?” he asked quizzically. “I could choose to bind to a witch if I wanted. I can still hold energy, but I don’t know if you can draw it from me. You’d have to learn.”

“Could you teach me?” I smeared the jelly over the peanut butter and slapped another piece of bread over it.

He thought about it for a moment. “I think I could try. But not now—I’m sorry, Lucifel, but I’m worn to a frazzle from the emergency call last night. It’s a powerful spell, and usually requires some preparation. I was surprised it brought who it did.”

“I heard you arguing with Caninus,” I said slowly, taking a bite. “You said you knew his secret?”

“I do,” Foyl replied. “And I wish I could dare tell you. But I have sworn not to, on my bindings to you. To tell you would be to sever those bonds. I’m sorry, Lucifel. I am.”

“You smelled it,” I said, ignoring his protests. “Which means its something physical that he carries with him. Can’t be that he killed his mother or anything.”

“Guilt has a smell too,” Foyl gave me a grin. “I know you’re fishing, Lucifel. I won’t give you the secret. I would have if he had let you fester with that virus, but he saved you. I won’t.”

“Then will you translate something for me?” I dragged up the memory of what Caninus had said to me the night before. “Can you read it from my mind?”

“Surface memories, I suppose. Concentrate on it very, very hard.”

“Try not to embarrass me, alright?” I replied, closing my eyes as Foyl settled on my shoulder, pressing his head against my neck. It was where Caninus had kissed me, and the memory flooded back with force. I tried to concentrate more on what he was saying than what he was doing, for both our benefits.

Foyl pulled away from me. “Lucifel,” he laughed softly. “I do not lecture, especially not lecture you. But I wonder, do you really want to know what he said?”

“Yes,” I replied simply. “The Latin bothers me, because usually he speaks in it when he’s torn to his last defenses. It’s a defense mechanism in itself; speak in a dead language so that you can speak what you can’t hold back, but no one knows about it.”

“Certainly true enough. ‘Ego dilgo vos adeo’ he said. ‘I love you so much.’”

I sat very still, the sandwich in my hand. I forced the mouthful down and just stared for several moments, too stunned. Then I barked a laugh, “They were right. The cards are always right, though we can’t see it or don’t believe it until it passes. Come to think of it, Uncle was right too. I’m sure he’d laugh to see me so stupidly humbled.”

“Elris would do nothing so cruel,” Foyl replied. “But this still surprises you. It surprised me, until I remembered what happened when he showed up. After you passed out. He was crying as he tried to care for you. Even after I had burned the cells away, he refused to put you down. Carried you all the way to the car, through your house and put you in bed. He hardly put you down to drive, held your hand the entire way. And he cried out every time your breathing became labored.”

My stomach wouldn’t sit right. “This is impossible,” I said softly. “He’s a vampire, and will very probably be asked to kill me by the end of the week. No way in hell. He’s playing us.”

“Believe what you will believe,” Foyl replied diplomatically. “That is what he said.”

I ran my fingers through my hair, no longer craving the sandwich. I ate it anyway, though, because every time I put it down, Foyl bared his teeth slightly. “Hey,” I said after the first was gone. “I’ve never seen you eat. Do you need food?”

“Of course,” he replied with a grin. “I don’t live off of magical energies. I prefer sausage to peanut butter, though.” I laughed and pulled some from the freezer, popping them into the microwave.

“Listen,” I said. “I’m going to need you to teach me how to draw energy from you. I need to know if I can use that energy to raise the dead. Specifically, dead vampires. I should need a sacrifice to do it, but Caninus seemed to think I could draw energy through you.”

He paused thoughtfully for a moment. “Maybe,” he said. “I wouldn’t care to try. Perhaps…but we will have to see.”

“He thought you might be able to store energy from the other three I need to kill, too,” I said, pulling the sausages from the microwave and setting them on the table.

“Probably, but only for a limited time.”

I grinned wildly. “If it works, I just got a plan.”

*&*

No manner of brilliant plans was going to keep me from having to do my job today. I called Harold Thompson at his office. He was a junior partner in a law firm. Go figure. “Hello?” He picked up the phone with an air of disinterest after his secretary transferred me.

“Hey, Harold,” I said, with just enough of an air of danger to keep him scared.

“Excuse me, who is this?” His tone wavered between polite and angry. Good.

“What, you don’t remember me?” I purred. “It was just last night. You were pretty eager to know me then, and now you don’t even remember?”

“Hold on a moment,” he said, and I heard a door close. “What do you want? Blackmail?”

I laughed despite myself. “I’m a professional, Mr. Thompson. I let you slide last night because of…unforeseen circumstances. But I’m giving you the offer now.”

“Pay out your contract? And then you collect again from my wife when you tell her I’m working?”

“Half again,” I corrected. “I’m not without compassion, certainly.”

“Fine,” he replied curtly. “Give me the account and amount and I’ll have it wired right away.”

“As soon as the bank calls to confirm it, I’ll phone your wife.” I replied pleasantly. I gave him the numbers and hung up the phone. “Foyl,” I smiled as he settled on the desk. “I meant to thank you for what you did for me last night.”

He shrugged, “I did what I had to. I couldn’t let you lie there and die.”

I shrugged in return. “Nonetheless. Thank you.” He smiled and I scratched him down the scaly ridge of his back. “There are three more I have to kill. I was thinking about making contact with the first today.”

The phone rang on my desk. I picked it up and spoke pleasantly with the banker. When she confirmed the amount, I thanked her and hung up. “Mrs. Thompson? I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night. Another case came up with the police and I didn’t have the opportunity.”

“Oh! Okay…Harold got in late last night, but earlier than he had been. He told me he’d been working.”

“Oddly enough, Mrs. Thomson, he was working. He may be cheating on his diet and possibly flirting with his secretary, but he doesn’t appear to be a werewolf.”

“That was all? Working and eating cheesecake with his hand up Fat Anne’s dress?” She laughed happily.

“Mrs. Thompson, I’m not sure I understand your sentiments.”

“He’s been banging Fat Anne off and on for some time, and I look the other way. He only sleeps with her when I won’t sleep with him. I’m relieved. I’ll have the amount wired to your account.”

“Half of it, please,” I said to her. “I’ll give you a discount because of the lapse in my etiquette.”

“Oh, thank you! I’ll have the bank wire it immediately.” I thanked her and hung up with a laugh.

“I just made an extra five grand, just for lying to some guy’s wife. That’s such a depressing sign of the times.”

“You saved him the trouble,” Foyl answered.

The phone rang and I answered it, expecting the bank. “Is it true?” Eric’s voice came through the phone, rich with indignation.

Shit.