by HDA Roberts
"There are certain things relating to my Liaisons that may require some leeway," I finally said, suddenly feeling a little sick.
"No," Killian replied, "It's all or nothing. She will not interfere with anything you do. She will only report back, and keep you safe should the need arise."
"Alright," I said, still unhappy, "She won't be sharing my bed or anything, will she? Because my girlfriend's nearing the limit of her tolerance in that department."
Demise looked disgusted. Palmyra laughed.
"Oh these two are going to get on just fine," Hopkins said, trying to conceal a smirk (and failing dismally).
"And how do we explain this to the school?" I asked her.
"I'll have to do a little mental Magic," Hopkins replied, "But it's not an issue. This isn't the first time Demise has been a Watcher. She knows how to blend in. We'll tell anyone that asks that she's an exchange student, not that I expect too many questions."
"Well, if you're sure," I said, with a resigned sigh. I didn't see how this was going to work. Demise may not have been very approachable, but she was beautiful enough that at least some of the four hundred or so hormonal boys were bound to notice her, but that wasn't my business.
"Demise, how are you with Shadow-Walking?" I said.
"What's that?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Nothing much," I said lightly, "You don't mind staring into infinite darkness, do you?"
"Matty, don't be a prick," Hopkins said, swatting my arm.
"Fine," I said, "How long is this to last?"
"Until you've persuaded us you can be trusted again," Killian said, not answering the question. Like I suspected, months or worse.
I sighed; this was going to be interminable.
Hopkins portalled the three of us to a dark room somewhere, where Demise collected a few things into a duffel bag. From there, it was back to school; Hopkins hadn't stopped grinning the entire time.
"Would you stop that?" I asked.
"This is pretty funny. If there was one person on the face of the Earth who'd hate a Watcher of this invasive nature, it's you."
"She'll break before I do, she has to watch me shower and pee."
"And how much alone time did you think you were going to get with Cathy in this situation?" Hopkins asked, her smile turning positively evil.
My mouth dropped open in horror.
"No..." I said.
"Yes," Hopkins replied gleefully.
"No!" I said, turning to Demise, "Tell me you're not planning to watch that?!"
"You do it, I have to watch it," Demise said, hefting her duffel into a more comfortable position, "Including any and all intimate activities."
"Oh... just bollocks," I said, now feeling thoroughly down.
"I can't wait to hear how you're planning to tell Cathy about this," Hopkins said.
I muttered something and led Demise out of Hopkins' classroom, her laughter following me.
I led her towards Kimmel, "So, how did you get this job?" I asked her.
"I'm the best," she said simply, glaring at me as we walked, she didn't elaborate.
"You don't like me much, do you?"
"Do I have to?"
"No, but it might help if you didn't hate me quite so much. I'm not Nash, you know," I replied.
She snorted, "Nash was much stronger than you."
"Can't argue with that."
I showed her my room and she dropped her duffel on one of my chairs.
"This is it?" she asked, "This is where you live?"
"No, this is just school. You can take the bed, if you like, I have a sleeping bag."
"As do I. I don't need your creature comforts, Shadowborn."
"Mathew. If you're going to be here, my name is Mathew."
She snorted again; it was beginning to annoying me.
I went to lunch, where I found Bill and Cathy. Bill wasn't looking well; he was pale and a little shivery. He perked up immediately after seeing Demise, though.
"Well hello," he said, standing to offer his hand, "William Hedrin, at your service."
She ignored him and put her tray down at the far end of the table from us. She'd drawn a few looks (surprisingly few, actually) and cheerlessly ignored them all. Thankfully she looked young enough that she could just about blend in, even if her outfit wasn't exactly school-friendly (black on black).
"So, who's the icicle?" Cathy asked.
"My new minder," I said with a grimace, I explained the situation and Cathy looked over at me.
She, very deliberately, so that Demise could see, turned my head and planted a kiss on my lips that made me tingle from forehead to toes.
"She wants to watch? I can live with that."
I went bright red and Bill started choking on his fruit salad, "God, don't say that kind of thing where I can hear you! Damn!" he complained.
Fun though the thought was, neither Cathy nor I were into that sort of thing. We were firmly of the opinion that while public displays of affection were just fine, public displays of genitals were not. She wouldn't even take off her jumper without three locks and a shield spell between her and potential witnesses, goodness only knew how she changed her clothes every day.
Essentially that meant that I was rather thoroughly screwed (just not in the fun way), and had a great many cold showers to look forward to (if I wasn't already harbouring a pretty healthy dislike for Namia Sutton, this would have clinched it, let me tell you...).
"You alright, by the way?" I asked Bill after he'd coughed up an unfeasibly large strawberry that had somehow gone down the wrong pipe, "You're looking a little sick, want me to take a look?"
"Naw, that's alright," he answered, "My new girl kept me up late is all."
"Bill, calling your left hand a girl doesn't fool anyone," Cathy said.
"Damn, Cath, I'm eating here!" I said.
"She's real!" Bill complained.
"Sure, sure," Cathy said, pinching a spoonful of my pudding.
After that, Demise followed me everywhere, and Cathy seemed to take her presence quite well, even if she did have to tone down our time together a little.
True to her instructions, Demise did everything with me. Showering was a nightmare, but in the end, I just covered the important bits with Shadows and carried on. She showered at the same time, in the same stall, and I put my back to her while she did (a courtesy she never did me, by the way). She slept in my room, watched me work, went to the bathroom with me (same arrangement). It wasn't fun.
There were times when I thought that students or faculty were going to comment, but they seemed to barely even notice Demise, a glazed look coming over their eyes when they looked at her. It didn't take me long to discover a discreet spell that clung to her aura, which made her hard to remember, see or hear with any clarity. I asked her about it, but she refused to teach it to me.
After that kind of start, I was fairly certain that I would go insane before we were done, but I eventually found out that Demise wasn't all bad.
It was late on the third day, about nine at night and I rubbed my eyes to clear them as I finished up a bit of Physics prep before heading out, walking towards the Maths department.
"Chess club tonight," I told Demise.
"You play?" she asked, it was the first personal question she'd asked me.
"I do. You?"
"Some," she replied.
And wow, was she good. She beat Bill twice and Cathy once in the first half hour. She and I then set to and had a marathon match that lasted well past the end of the hour and ended in a stalemate.
She grunted, "Not bad, Graves. You were careless in your opening."
"And you were sloppy with your Steinitz Gambit," I replied.
"I thought I had the advantage," she said with a shrug.
"That's what I wanted you to think."
She actually gave me the littlest smile at that.
"I'll get you next time," she replied.
"Promises, promises."
"You
talk big for someone who barely managed a draw," she said.
"I'm eighteen, what's your excuse?"
She snorted again, but this time it was a little more friendly.
As promised, she slept on the floor in a sleeping bag. She did accept my spare pillow with ill grace (and used it every night).
She came on dates with Cathy and I. She watched what we did with what can only be described as disinterest, but wow, did she watch everything. I think she paid more attention when we were kissing than when we weren't, though, the pervert.
When we went out to eat, I bought food for Demise. When I asked her what she liked, she just said 'anything'. It took a good seven meals before she was willing to express a preference. She liked beef a lot, though she also tried to hide it. When I bought her ice cream, she almost cried; I don't think she'd had it before.
"You don't eat out much, do you?" I asked once we were alone again, which was often.
We were in my room, and I was reading a book just before bed.
"Not really," she said from her sleeping bag, "It's a waste."
"Of what?"
"Time, money, capacity. Food is fuel, nothing more."
"Even triple chocolate fudge?"
"Especially that."
"What do you do for fun?" I asked, "Life can't be all about duty."
"I play chess with my sisters. I practice my Magic, I spar. I learn; I make myself a better Magician."
"So, chess and fighting? That's all?"
"I need nothing else. It is an honour to serve my Lord," she said with finality.
"I know you don't need anything else, but don't you want things?" I asked, "Everyone wants something."
"Not me. I have everything I want."
She went quiet for a while before speaking again, "What do you want, Shadowborn?"
"I have Cathy," I said with a smile, "That's all I've ever really wanted. If I could trade all my Magic for one more day with her than I'm supposed to have, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
I felt her attention on me and turned to see her eyes boring into me, "That kind of attitude has led to more destruction than you can possibly imagine."
"Meaning?" I asked.
"That Love put more spells into that Grimoire of yours than hate ever did," she said, closing her eyes again.
"I don't get it."
She sighed and looked at me again, "Goddess forbid, but if your Cathy died tomorrow, is there any length you wouldn't go to if you thought you could get her back? To see her, hold her again?"
"I... I can't answer that."
"That means no, and that's what I'm talking about. The power of the Archon is the stuff that dreams are made of... or nightmares, depending on the man. You could be an awful nightmare, Mathew Graves. One that I will have to dispose of, or die trying. And you're too smart for my comfort, too smart by far, and too patient. The last one was ruthless and strong, but he wasn't smart."
"I'm not him!" I protested.
"I know. Whether that's a good thing or a bad one remains to be seen."
She went to sleep and I muttered as I followed suit.
I swear, it would be easier to list the people who don't think I'm a monster in waiting than the ones that do...
Chapter 18
Days passed, and pleasantly enough. Demise wasn't as oppressive a presence as she'd been, and playing chess with her before bed was actually quite fun. We won, lost and drew about equally as we got used to each others' strategies and adapted.
She swore blind that she hated movies, but she started shushing me mercilessly whenever I had one on and asked her a question. She loved listening to the radio; she was actually quite sweet to watch as she tapped her foot along to something and then immediately stopped when I noticed.
She appeared quite determined not to enjoy anything she was exposed to, but couldn't seem to help herself. Cathy seemed equally determined to corrupt her, too, and even offered to take her to the hairdresser, which led to me being dragged there and spending two hours on a sodding sofa while I waited, Demise's eyes constantly darting at me to make sure I was still there.
Bill... he was getting strange. He now owed me something in the area of five hundred pounds, and Cathy another two, and he was spending every free afternoon in Stonebridge. His grades had dropped to dead last in our classes, and he always seemed to have a cold. I kept offering to have a look, and he kept refusing.
Events came to a head that Saturday.
I never saw it coming.
My phone rang in the afternoon, just after lunch, as Cathy and I were settling in for a few hours under the Old Oak and, if things proceeded the way they usually do, a few interludes in a large bush behind the bike sheds.
What with Cathy lying on my shoulder, her nose and lips happily moving on my neck, there was no way in hell I was answering the damned thing. It rang and rang, and I just kept ignoring it until Cathy eventually grunted and pulled the thing out of my pocket and pressed accept.
"Bill, so help me, you'd better be dying," Cathy said.
She went white and passed it over with a shaking hand. I took it from her.
"Hello?" I said.
"Matty, you've got to help me," Bill's terrified voice said, "I'm hurt and I'm somewhere I shouldn't be."
"Where are you?" I asked.
He gave me a meaningless (to me) address in Stonebridge and I stood, "Alright, I'm coming. Hang in there; I'll be there in ten minutes."
I hung up.
"I've got to go get him," I said.
Cathy nodded, her lip trembling.
"He'll be alright, Cath."
She nodded again and I ran for the indoors, where I'd find a patch of Shadow deep enough to open a Gate.
"Don't forget your agreement, Shadowborn," Demise said, right on my heels.
"What? Oh, sure," I said, finding a dark enough alcove under the stairs in a nearby corridor, "put your arms around my torso and close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you. The Shadow Realm isn't something you can unsee."
I wasn't entirely sure anyone but me could see in the there, but it felt like the right thing to say, and any sensible Magician would trust those instincts.
She nodded and followed instructions. I wrapped my Shadows around her and opened the Gate, stepping through.
I still wasn't used to seeing the Shadow-version of everything, but I was getting better at navigation. I found the right street in only a couple of tries (I'd consulted Google-maps before going). The address was a large house in one of the newer districts of Stonebridge, to the north of the City Centre.
I stepped out of the Shadow Realm under a tree in front of the house. It was a tall, red brick building with a tiled roof and small windows, three stories high.
"We're clear," I said. Demise let go and stepped back.
I cast Mage Sight and saw a single aura in the house, towards the rear. I started moving cautiously. Demise was hot on my heels.
"Something's off," I said.
I'd felt something strange... something I didn't recognise. I didn't even know if it was Magic, but it was very definitely there...
"Like what?" Demise asked.
"I don't know," I replied, "Shields up, just in case."
She nodded and I felt her defences snap on, much faster than mine, I might add. I strode up to the front door and set a lock-pick spell into it. It clicked open and I pushed it away from me.
We walked into the house. Nobody and nothing presented itself.
The whole place was tastefully furnished and elegant. The owners were apparently comfortably well off. Was the owner's daughter Bill's new girlfriend?
Bill was lying on his side in a large conservatory, right in the middle of a rug. Demise stepped towards him. I clamped my hand around her arm (well, her shielded arm), and she glared back.
"What?" she asked impatiently.
"He's not bleeding. None of his bones are broken. He's just sleeping."
"He's not hurt?" Demise asked, now suspicious herself.
"Then it's safe," she said, trying to move forwards.
"Not what I said."
I called my Will and tried to move Bill. My Magic hit the edge of the rug and just drained away.
"Sneaky bastards," I said, seeing it at last, "Spelleater trap built into the floor under the rug. Very clever work, you couldn't see it before it was activated."
I called extra power and probed the edges of the mat with my Will. I yanked on two corners and pulled both it and Bill away, revealing a sigil carved into the tile that hurt to look at.
"Bloody hell, who made that?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.
"Someone very powerful and stupidly talented," Demise said, looking around her.
I called force and aimed at the Sigil, putting extra strength into the Spell before releasing it. It smashed into the stone and a crack broke the enchantment.
"Idiots, it wouldn't have held me," I said, "The best it would have done was slow me down a little, and why would they bother?"
I should learn not to say things like that. The Universe likes answering questions of that sort in hilarious ways. That hurt.
There was a Magical crump, and a weight descended on the whole place. My nose started bleeding and I felt lightheaded. Worse, I couldn't feel my Shadows. They were just... gone, like that part of me had been cut off. It wasn't pleasant.
"Wha?" I managed as more Magic poured into the perimeter, and I saw black flames surround the house as the sky turned black. Before my eyes, the fire burned hotter and dissolved into a massive, surrounding portal.
I saw fire, darkness and molten rock through that hole in the universe. And Hell poured through. Demons by the dozen. They looked confused at first, but then they looked right at us, even though we were concealed by walls; it was like they could feel us. Some didn't even have eyes, but still they turned to face us.
"Graves, what's going on?" Demise asked.
"Unless I'm very much mistaken, we've walked into a Dimension-Trap, I've just lost my Shadows, and in a very short time, we're going to be overrun by Demons."