Dhampirs of Sgiach

15. Kieran

Kieran made his way back to the Virgin’s Blood just as he received a text from Kage that he was ready to go home. He found the incubus at the bar eating a chocolate strawberry shortcake. When he noticed Kieran, he jumped up and threw his arms around him.

Sasha laughed when Kieran raised an eyebrow at her and patted Kage’s back. “He did very well,” she said with an affectionate smile for Kage. “His shyness worked very well at roping in his prey. It helped that the woman was a cougar.”

“Finally got some p***y, eh?” Kieran teased Kage.

Kage blushed and went back to his dessert. He did seem to have more energy and color to his cheeks. Sasha stroked his hair. “He needs to work on his technique though.”

“He’s a pleaser,” Kieran said as he stole a strawberry off Kage’s plate. “Exploration is the key.”

“Exploration?” Kage asked.

“Yep. Explore with your fingers, tongue, and lips. Find every spot that makes the other person squirm in delight,” Kieran whispered softly into Kage’s ear, close enough that his lips brushed the skin and cold seductive magic reached out to Kieran in reaction as Kage shivered.

Kieran’s fangs ached as they extended, and he brushed them along the soft skin of Kage’s neck. The scent of the woman he had fed on tickled Kieran’s nose, mixed with the cotton candy scent of Kage. The incubus let out a soft moan and went submissive as he leaned back against Kieran’s chest and bared his neck.

A growl rumbled from Kieran’s throat as one arm wrapped around Kage’s chest and his other hand reached down to cup Kage’s balls through his pants. The incubus’s breath came out in moan-filled pants that turned into a gasp as Kieran’s fangs pierced the soft skin of his neck.

Sweet metallic lira flowed over Kieran’s tongue as he held Kage tightly against his front. Kage shuddered against Kieran and went placid when Kieran released his neck. Shivers went through Kage’s body like shockwaves as Kieran licked the bite.

“Wow…”

Kieran glanced at Sasha and noticed quite a few s*x Nephilim watching them. Even the bartender was watching them with a hungry expression. Kieran rested his chin on the still languid Kage’s head and gave them a lazy grin. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. You gave an excellent demonstration of what a single bite can do when done right,” Sasha said with a smile for all the young Nephilim.

Kage tried to say something, but it mostly came out in a jumbled mush. Kieran chuckled. “Time to go home.”

The next day, Kieran woke up to the smells of bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns and pancakes. He found Kage and Echo in the kitchen, giggling together as they made breakfast. He leaned against the wall of the short hallway and just watched them for a moment. Both seemed happier than when he first met them. Kage didn’t seem so much like a skeleton and Echo had even gained a little bit of weight.

She smacked Kage’s hand away from the cup of chocolate chips and both devolved into more giggles. Kieran shook his head with a smile as he walked over to the kitchen. “You two seem to be having fun,” he said as he pulled down his coffee beans and grinder.

“Mama taught me how to make her chocolate chip pancakes last night while you two were out,” Echo said with a smile as poured batter onto the griddle.

“Mama?” Kieran asked.

Echo blushed. “Mrs. Ursine told me to call her mama,” she said in a small voice as she pointedly stared at the griddle.

Kieran ruffled her hair as he turned the coffee machine on. “Sounds like something mom would say. Do you two mind spending the day with Adam?” he asked as he texted Adam at the same time.

Kieran: I need to go do something. Mind taking Kage and Echo shopping?

Adam: Sure, mom is free today too. We can get them some more clothes.

“Where are you going?” Kage asked as he set the table. The incubus liked it when they all sat down together for meals.

“I need to go out and do something today,” Kieran said as he put away his phone and poured himself a mug of coffee.

Kage frowned. “Do what?”

“Nothing dangerous, I just want to go ask some questions of the dhampirs in the west side ghetto.”

“Are you going to ask around about the missing dhampirs?” Kage asked and fidgeted with a fork.

“Missing dhampirs?” Kieran asked.

Kage nodded. “No one would help me, but I did hear the rumors of dhampirs that would go missing sometimes.”

“Why did no one go to the Sleuth?”

Kage shrugged his shoulders as he kept his eyes downcast.

“Guess that’s something I can ask while I’m there,” Kieran mused. Missing dhampirs? I wonder if it’s connected.

Kieran was leaning against the brick wall of a pawn shop when Detective Reynolds finally pulled up. He grabbed the duffle bag at his feet and strung it across his back as he walked over to the human’s car. His magic tingled along his skin as he pressed his palm to the hot metal and embraced his Shadow Spark. He willed the magic to encase the car and hide it from notice.

“What are you doing?” Reynolds asked him.

“Casting a Notice Me Not spell on your car,” Kieran answered with a shrug as he turned from the main road and headed down the nearby alley.

“May I ask why?”

“Because you’re a cop and you brought your car to one of the ghettos. We’re in rat territory and they’ll strip a cop’s car the same as anyone else’s.”

“Thank you,” Reynolds said as they walked through the dirty alley. After a while, the detective looked around them confused. “Where are we going?”

Kieran glanced at him as they made their way through the maze of back alleys, seemingly with no clear sense of direction. “To the dhampirs.”

“Are you sure?”

“You’re the one who asked for my help,” Kieran grumbled as they turned into what looked like a courtyard hidden in the warren of alleys. Everywhere were tents and dirty dhampirs, some of which were no more than toddlers.

Male dhampirs hissed and bared their fangs at the pair as females grabbed the younger ones and herded them into the tents. Kieran moved in front of Reynolds and hissed back as his own fangs extended. Amber eyes met sky-blue eyes that looked slightly purple from the blood-lust glow of the lead dhampir that faced Kieran.

“Why have you brought a human here?” the man snarled at Kieran.

“We want to ask about the missing dhampirs,” Kieran answered as he looked down and set the duffle bag before him. The dhampirs murmured amongst themselves as they watched him unzip the bag and show them what was inside. “I also figured you could use some vitamins, medications, condoms, and there’s even some snack cakes for the kids.”

Blue-eyes knelt and looked through the bag before handing it to someone else to take it to the others. “What do you want to know?”

“Who was the last person to go missing?” Kieran asked.

“A dhampir/incubus hybrid that had made his nest in an alley on the edge of the ghetto and a girl a week later. No one since though.”

Kieran pulled out his phone and showed the man a picture of Kage and Echo he had taken earlier. “Is he the hybrid?”

The man smiled and seemed to relax more. “Yeah. It’s nice to know someone finally helped him.”

“Why did none of you help him?” Reynolds asked.

Both dhampirs looked at the human. “You don’t know much about Nephilim, do you?” Kieran asked. The human shook his head and Kieran sighed. “If you help a Nephilim, you become responsible for them. Their health and safety become your responsibility. If you help them but abandon them, the gods curse you. Angelic Nephilim tends to be helped more often than the demonic.”

“We had not helped the hybrid because we already have others we care for. But we prayed for help to come for him,” Blue-eyes said with a glance for Kieran.

Kieran watched Reynolds pull a small notepad out and write down that tidbit of information about Nephilim.

“Can Kage leave your care?” Reynolds asked.

“He can leave any time he wants,” Kieran answered. “If I attempted to bar him from leaving, I would be cursed as if I had abandoned my duty to care for him.”

Reynolds continued to write in his notebook. “Why did Lucifer Ebonwings not reach out to help him?”

“Other Nephilim cannot. Only one who is not Nephilim.”

“How did you come by him?”

Kieran frowned at the question as he thought about that. “I got into some hot water with Lucifer, and he offered forgiveness in exchange for finding Kage…”

“Wouldn’t that be Lucifer helping Kage?”

“He told me to find Kage. I made the choice to help him.”

“Hmmm… Fine line that,” Reynolds mused. “What about the girl that went missing? When did you notice that she was missing.”

Blue-eyes didn’t have a strong grasp of the days of the week but they narrowed it down to just before Steve died. And that no one from the west side ghetto had gone missing since. They also asked for descriptions and names of every dhampir that had gone missing. Most were girls. All of them eighteen or younger.

Reynolds was tapping his chin with his pencil as he went over his notes when they got back to his car. “Thirteen dhampirs missing, kids no less, and no one at the precinct even knew about it.”

Kieran leaned against the car and crossed his arms. “Would anyone have looked into it if they had come to the police?” he pointed out dryly. “They’re transient enough that you guys would have shrugged it off and said that the missing dhampirs had just moved on.”

“Can you find them?”

“Yeah, but I have no idea how long that will take. Some may have very well moved on without telling anyone.” Kieran hoped most of them had.

“Can you narrow your ability down to the ones that did not simply move on?” Reynolds asked, and Kieran glanced over at the older man curiously. There was a strange desperation in the man’s voice.

Kieran closed his eyes and embraced his Shadow Spark. Blue-eyes had given them their names and descriptions. He held his desire to find the dhampirs that had not simply moved on firm in his mind and felt the tingle of his magic rush through him until it turned into the nagging urge to go to the southwest.

When he opened his eyes, a shadowy wyvern of smoke flew around him, beckoning him to follow. Kieran turned and opened the passenger door of Reynolds’ car. “We follow the wyvern,” he said as the detective got behind the wheel.

“Will it lead us to them?” Reynolds asked as he drove and followed the smoke wyvern.

Kieran nodded, his eyes locked on the wyvern as they followed it out of town and until they came to a point on the edge of the forest that they could not drive through. They parked and got out of the car, Kieran not waiting for Reynolds as he followed the wyvern deeper into the forest.

“Keep an eye open. We’re not in Sleuth territory,” Kieran warned. “Or pack.”

“How do you know?” Reynolds asked and rolled his eyes at Kieran’s look. “Nevermind.”

They walked for what seemed like hours and the sun had begun to set when the scent of decay reached Kieran. When they crested a hill right before the Enderhein River, they were greeted by the sight of a massive beaver dam. On the northern side of the dam was the source of the smell.

“Gods…” Reynolds breathed out as he looked down the hill at the damn.

Kieran nodded. “I had better go while you call this in.”