Hotel Carnalifornia Ch. 03 Pt. 01

Lora lunged for freedom, toward Oliver, but the door slammed between them, leaving her in the dark.

"Lora!" Oliver pounded on the wooden panel. 

"Oliver!" Lora's fingers brushed the wood as cold tendrils wrapped around her waist and lifted her away so she hung in the air.

"Looooora," a voice whispered. It came from every direction at once and repeated in different tones and volumes.

Faint thumps on the other side of the door gave her hope. Oliver hadn't left her. She flailed in the air, scrabbling for something, anything to hold on to. All she did was exhaust herself. The banging on the door stopped.

"Oliver." Lora's spirits plummeted, and she was in no mood for games. "Just get on with it." Hatred still burned hot in her blood. She refused to be easy prey anymore, and sent her magic out with aggression, wanting to hurt before she was hurt again.

No lust.

No... anything.

Well, no emotions. But there was something else for a moment. Some sort of... energy. It felt warm and malleable. Could she use that? Before she could try, it vanished.

The ghostly presence moaned. "I thought you were the one I needed yesterday, but I had to be sure. I've been waiting for someone like you for a long time. I want to speak with you. If you promise not to wail or flail, I'll set you down. Truce?"

Trapped in midair, and with no emotions or that puzzling energy to latch onto, she didn't really have a choice. "Truce." Lora retracted her magic as she landed gently on her feet. Her rage drained away, but she couldn't help the bitterness in her voice. "You could have helped me yesterday."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to." His sorrow seemed genuine. "I'm not as powerful during the day, or outside my territory. I lose most of my strength when I cross that threshold."

She wasn't sure she believed that. "Oliver and the Doctor are terrified of you."

"They're right to be frightened. I've killed many of them over the years. But you need not fear me. We can strike a bargain. I need your help. Follow me and we can talk about it."

"Wait. Oliver. Is he still at the door?"

"No. He is no longer in my territory."

Lora tried to quash her disappointment and squinted into the dark. The faint outline of a man hovered in front of her. A ghost. Perfect. She sighed, rummaged in her backpack for her flashlight, flicked it on, and played it around the darkness as she walked behind the ghost.

Dust covered everything and stirred into the air with her boot steps. Heavy curtains closed out light and she stepped over random pieces of wood scattered on the floor. "What do you need my help with?"

"The woman I love."

Lora missed a step. "The woman you... What?"

"Not all of us trapped here are alike." He sounded weary. "You've had the unfortunate luck to meet two of the worst right away. The vampire believes the only way to get anything is to force someone to give it to him. The doctor, well, honestly, I'm not sure he's ever thought of anyone as a person rather than an experiment, and he only gets worse the longer he's here."

"And you're what? The friendly ghost?" Lora scoffed.

He laughed. "I've forgotten my manners. My name is Nikolai."

"Nikolai, what is it you think I can do for you?"

"You'll see. She's not far away. Come on."

Lora shrugged her pack higher on her shoulders and crept after the ghost. This was a terrible idea.

Don't talk to strangers.

Don't accept candy from strangers.

Don't follow ghost strangers through the dark in haunted hotels in crazy vortexes.

Rules to live by.

Her gaze shifted, trying to see into every nook and cranny. She couldn't help feeling this was some sort of ambush, and she was walking right into it. Her flashlight beam landed on a staircase leading up to the next floor. Pieces of wood formed a haphazard stack at its base.

No. Not wood. She swallowed the lump in her throat and halted.

"Bones. That is a pile of bones!"

Nikolai's faint outline swung around to face her. In the more direct beam of her flashlight she made out broad shoulders and dark, curly hair, but his face was eerily blank. "Yes. I should have warned you about them. You'll find them strewn around this floor. What I want to show you is just upstairs in the attic."

"But why are all these bones here?"

"They tried to take my Damia away. She escaped from them and sought refuge with me. We fell in love over the years she's been here. I protected her when they came for her."

Years she's been here. A shudder ran through Lora.

She mounted the staircase. The attic space ran the length of the floor beneath, and she walked upright through rooms, past curtained windows and a few closed doors, navigating a maze of crates and sheet-covered furniture.

He tapped on a closed door, swung it open, and waved for Lora to enter. "Damia's in here."

The tiny bedroom sat in a corner of the attic with windows on two sides and a slanted ceiling. An ornate canopied bed stood between two windows. A square table held a pitcher, a glass, and a covered tray. The surface of a four-drawer dresser was strewn with toiletries.

A woman, hardly more than tight flesh over bone, lay in the bed. She made such a slight figure the covers barely formed a bump. At first, Lora didn't think she was breathing, but a gentle wheeze long seconds later proved that assumption false.

Her long brown hair was neatly combed out, her skin was clean, and the air smelled of lavender. Nikolai cared for his love as much as he could.

Lora extended one hand to touch the woman's forehead. Her skin was clammy -- much cooler than it should be. She shifted her gaze to Nikolai. "She's dying."

He nodded. "I know. I bring her food and water, but she can hardly lift a glass to drink anymore. She hasn't eaten more than a few bites at a time in weeks."

What did he want her to do? "I don't know how to treat her."

Nikolai stroked translucent fingers across Damia's forehead. "Now that you have seen her, here is the deal. I want you to kill us. I know what you are, and I'll tell you... In exchange for our deaths."

Lora gaped at him. She had to have misunderstood. "Kill you? But... You're already a ghost."

"Semantics." One spectral hand waved. "I want to leave this place."

"How do you know you'll go somewhere better?"

He shrugged. "I don't. But it will be somewhere different, and I'm content to settle for that."

Lora placed her backpack on the floor and sat on the bed. "How am I supposed to kill a ghost? How am I supposed to kill her? Cut her throat? Smother her with a pillow? I don't think I can do that."

"I would never allow you to hurt her." Nikolai's voice sent an icy chill through the room. "To kill me, you will have to drain my energy as much as possible. You are in the unique position of being exactly who I need to take the energy I'm made of."

"Because of what you think I am."

"Yes."

"Tell me what I am."

"You agree to the bargain?"

She desperately wanted to know what she was, but could she murder someone to get that information? Drain the ghost? And there was still the question of how she was meant to let Damia die. "If I am able, I will do as you ask."

Nikolai held out a ghostly hand, and they shook on it, his touch sending a cool thrill up her arm. "Done. You are a succubus. A demon who feeds on energy -- life, magic or sex."

Her mouth opened. She closed it. It fell open again. "I'm a... a demon?"

He nodded. "Not full succubus, but you're demon enough. Do you know anything about what you can do?"

Lora scrubbed her palms against the thighs of her pants. "I... I did something to the vampire and could use his power against him. And when I kissed Oliver's cheek, he changed. The hump on his back disappeared." 

Nikolai grew more opaque. Now a square jaw with a short beard and brown eyes became apparent. "That's great! You fed on magic. You can do the same thing with life energy. And that's why you can kill Damia. You can take all her energy, like you can take mine. She'll just drift away. You can even make her feel pleasure while you do it." He shifted his gaze to Damia. "She won't suffer."

Well, that was a terrifying ability. "I'm a succubus." Saying it out loud didn't help make it real.

"Have you ever loved a single person? Known he or she was going to be enough for you forever?"

She'd always been a free spirit, not wanting to be tied down. The idea of marriage and children didn't appeal. "No."

He nodded. "Succubi aren't usually satisfied in a monogamous relationship. What about taking energy?"

"Before I came here, I couldn't do anything." Lora frowned. "Is this place doing something to me? Waking my powers?"

"Well, I don't know everything about succubi. It could be you would have awakened soon on your own. Succubi magic has a lot to do with emotions."

"I felt terror with the vampire and hatred with the doctor. Those were new emotions."

"Could be your powers switched on to defend you. Maybe you wouldn't have learned what you are at all if you'd never known terror or hate. But now that you do, there's no putting your djinn back in the bottle, so to speak."

"I want to talk to Damia. Hear from her directly what she wants. Does she have lucid times of day?"

Nikolai seemed to deflate before her eyes. "Not so much anymore. You can share energy with her, though. Just like you take it, you can give it. Wake her temporarily."

That made her ability a little more palatable, unless she had to have sex to do it. "How do you know so much about what I am?"

"I've been a ghost for a long time, and before that, in one of my lives, I hunted your kind. I know the basics."

"How can I share energy with Damia?"

"Make the connection like you normally do, then reverse the energy."

He made it sound so easy. What did she have to lose? With a mental shrug, Lora sent her magic out and leaned over Damia on the bed. The magic recoiled from the sick energy sluggishly oozing around her. Pushing harder, Lora concentrated, willing at least one tendril to touch the sick woman, but they snapped and whipped wildly through the air.

Okay, you win. Lora let her magic recede. Sex was out of the question. Maybe a kiss would work, like it had for Oliver. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Damia's clammy forehead, focusing on pushing energy out rather than using her magic to draw it in.

A healthy flush flowed over Damia's face, chasing the sickly pallor away. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she sucked in a deep breath.

Nikolai pressed a chilly hand against Lora's back as leaned over her shoulder. "That's it! You've done it."

"What's --" Damia rasped and rubbed her throat.

Nikolai hovered a glass of water to the woman. He tilted it to her lips, and she drank down a couple of swallows.

She blinked, her startlingly violet eyes focusing on Lora. "What's happening? Who are you?"

"I'm Lora. I wanted to talk to you and shared some of my energy." She shrugged. "Because, apparently, that's a thing I can do now."

Damia lifted a skeletal arm. Black streaks ran like veins under her pale skin. A faint odor of rot wafted from the bedclothes. "Kill me."

Lora swallowed hard. If she were trapped here in this condition, she'd want to die, too. But it was one thing to want to die herself, and something else entirely to take the life of someone else. And if she agreed, how could she do it? With her bare hands? The idea of that especially made her feel sick.

"Please." Damia's voice cracked. "I know it's an awful burden to put on your shoulders, but I hurt. Every day, there is only pain." A tear slid down her cheek. She squeezed Lora's hand. "Here I linger. I want it to end." The plea took all her energy, and her eyes closed as she slumped.

Lora tucked Damia's hand beneath the covers. "How long has she been here?"

"Time doesn't matter. This place will keep her as she was when she entered. No one ages here. Not physically, anyway."

"What happened to her?"

"One of the others tried to hobble her so she couldn't escape him." The bedding at Damia's feet pulled away. Her ankles bore thick scars of badly healed wounds from either chain or rope. Black lines crawled up the withered skin and atrophied muscle of her legs.

"It's an infection in her blood, eating her from inside. It's traveled over most of her body." The neckline of Damia's nightgown moved down to expose her chest. More black streaks marred the skin there, all heading in the direction of the Damia's heart. "Even if you don't help her die, there's no treatment for her condition. Who knows how long she could linger like this? What you would be doing is a mercy, not a murder."

The laboratory in the tower. There were drugs there. The Doctor would probably still be occupied if she got there quickly. 

"Oliver knows where sedatives are and probably about dosages and things like that." Lora stood. "I can maybe administer an overdose, but he'll know way more than me. He could still be on the second floor. We wanted to free the women the Doctor was experimenting on. If we get Oliver to come back, I'm sure he can help."

"I have limited power beyond the territory I hold. If we run into others, I won't have the strength to protect you."

"I think we still have to try."

Nikolai floated back and forth, hands clasped behind his back. "If I let you go, will you return to help Damia?"

Lora nodded. "I promise I'll return." She left some painkillers and antibiotics from the first aid kit on the table and settled Damia against her pillows. There probably wasn't any point to the antibiotics at this point, but who knew? 

"Okay. Let's go. The stairway by the door I came in was covered in spiderwebs. Oliver said we'd have to go the other way. Do you know what he meant?"

"There are several staircases to the other levels. One on each end of the floor and the grand stairway in the middle for guests. Employee staircases. There are elevators, too. The dumbwaiters are big enough to hold a person if you can tolerate small spaces for a bit. That might be a more covert way to move around."

"Show me the dumbwaiters." She followed Nikolai down the wooden stairs to the fifth floor and into the main corridor. The guest area was decorated in dark blue carpet with cream walls and gold trim and wall sconces. 

"Does anyone else live on the fifth floor?"

"No." Nikolai smirked. "My fearsome reputation keeps everyone away."

"Who else lives in the hotel?"

"You know about the vampire and the doctor. Apparently, the spider came in. The baron chooses to live here most of the time. His room is on the first floor. Gargoyles spend time here and in the cemetery. Anybody can come to the hotel for a place to stay, but there are some who choose to live on the grounds. The wolf prefers the woods. There's no way to know who's in here at any given time."

"There are enough rooms for everyone?" The numbers were in the forties and getting higher. If the other floors were the same, there would be hundreds of rooms. 

"In addition to guest chambers, there are staff quarters, and that's just the hotel. There are other locations. You'll need to get your hands on the guest book. That will have what room every guest who has come here has been assigned."

"I tried to move the book before, but it wouldn't budge. I can take pictures with my phone. But the, uh..." Rapists was the first word that came to mind. "Regulars won't be in it?"

"No. There might be records for them somewhere, but if so, I've never seen them."

He led her past a foyer, elevators, and another hallway of guest rooms with gold numbers in script to a plain door at the end of the hallway. It opened into an unadorned room that held a desk, a service elevator, and the doors to a dumbwaiter. Two rooms led off a doorway -- a small bedroom and kitchen. 

Nikolai opened a door to reveal a rectangular box in the wall. She would fit in there, but not with her backpack. What did she have in her pack that she could use? Carrying the whole thing seemed like overkill, but things were unpredictable here. If she left something behind, she might not see it again. On the other hand, it would be easier to run, if she had to, without a heavy pack.

Was there time for two trips? No. Oliver might have left already. She opened her pack and removed a few things she could take in her pockets. No need for spare clothes. Flashlight -- definitely. Insect repellent -- why not? Swiss Amy Knife -- absolutely. Makeup compact -- couldn't hurt.

Lora removed the shelves and climbed into the dumbwaiter.

"I'll lower you to the second floor. You'll come out in a service room like this. I don't have any strength so far away and in daylight, but I can do some minor tricks on the fourth floor, so get there if you need help, and I'll do what I can. You can also pull yourself up in the dumbwaiter using the ropes. I'll wait here, and if I see the box moving, I'll pull you back up."

"Okay. Lower me down." She folded herself into the opening. 

Nikolai nodded and closed the doors. The dumbwaiter lurched for a second, then moved quietly.

When the downward motion stopped, Lora slid open the door, climbed out, and peered into the guest hallway. It was empty. The second floor looked like the fifth, except in green and silver. The hallway was lit by the sconces, sending light and flickering shadows ahead of her. She should have gotten the room numbers from Oliver. He could be inside a room and she'd never know. 

"Oliver?" Her whisper sounded too loud in the utter silence.

Lora tiptoed to the first door and pressed her ear to the panel. Nothing. Zigzagging down the hallway, she listened at each door, moving on when there was only quiet. She made her way to the grand staircase, halfway through the second floor.

Maybe Oliver had left without stopping here after she was taken. She couldn't really blame him.

Pausing at the red-carpeted stairs, she glanced up and down. There was nothing in sight, but something made her nape prickle. She took a second to psyche herself up and dashed across the open space. It felt like a chasm she'd never get across.

Something creaked ahead of her and she fought the urge to turn back. But she was almost to the other side. 

Lora pressed herself against the wall, willing her heart and breathing to steady. Another creak and a click. A door closing. She dug her compact out of her pocket and held it out, angling it to see around the corner. 

Oliver! There was a woman with him. She was tall, with black skin and long black hair done in braids. Light green eyes scanned the hallway in front of her. She walked behind Oliver, and he moved stiffly. Was she holding a weapon on him?

Lora liked her immediately.

Returning the mirror to her pocket, Lora stepped into view with her hands up.

"Oliver!"

"Lora! You're all right."

"I am. Seems like you might be in some trouble."

The woman jabbed Oliver had enough to make him wince and stumble a step. "This guy looks different, but I know who he works for. I'm not going back to that tower."

"You don't have to. None of us do. Oliver doesn't work for the doctor anymore."

"So he says."

"It's true. Oliver helped me escape."

"Where's the madman now?"

A twinge of guilt made Lora feel ashamed, but she'd done what she'd done. "Getting a taste of his own medicine." She slipped her fingers into her pocket and held up the vampire's fangs. "Do you know what these are?" 

"Teeth?"

"I pulled them out of the vampire before I left him. I'm not under anyone's control. I'm here to find my friend and escape. If you want to get out of here too, Oliver can help us."

The other woman offered nothing.

Lora blew out a breath. This was taking too long, and she didn't like the open staircase at her back. "Look, there's a safe place we can go. You can trust me or take your chances on your own. It's up to you. Let Oliver go. He comes with me. We don't have time to stand here arguing with you."