by LJ Swallow
"Don't you think all five of us is a bit of overkill for a few pathetic demons?" asks Joss. "They're not exactly powerful."
"This will take us a few minutes, and then we can head out for a celebratory pint, don't worry," Heath puts in.
Despite my shaking nerves and anger I'm about to slaughter those responsible for my assault the other night, his words amuse me. "A quick kill on the way to the pub? You guys never cease to amuse me."
"Why waste an evening?" says Joss with a grin and opens the door. "Are they definitely home, Ewan? Need me to check?"
"Yeah. Xander tracked them before."
I'm sandwiched between Ewan and Heath in the back, something I'm not unhappy about and led to my mind drifting in directions that would've shocked me in the past. I don't have any intention of asking them, but there's something arousing at the thought of both guys um... "tending to my sexual needs" as much as they tend to all my others, if I let them.
Focus. Do not picture them naked.
"Two take the front of the house, two the rear," says Xander as he climbs out.
"Um? What about your Fifth?" I ask.
"With me," says Ewan before Xander can reply. "The rear."
I follow Ewan and Joss around to the end of the street, so we can head down the lane and to the back of the houses. We pass a row of graffitied garages and paved areas, some with cars parked on them and others with washing hung on lines.
"This one," says Joss in a low voice.
A flaking wooden gate leads into the unevenly paved yard, weeds pushing through the gaps. A light shines in an upstairs room behind a thin curtain, but the room in front of us, to the left of the back door, is dark. Ewan heads to the door and examines it.
"Dead bolt. We either kick the door down or wait for a demon to run out when the guys break in the front." A knife flashes as he takes it from his pocket. "I'm all for getting straight into this."
"Boring!" exclaims Joss. "Prime the door."
"Prime?" I ask.
"Yeah. True." Ewan glances at my confusion. "I can add something nice and painful. The amount of bacteria for me to use around here's plentiful."
Joss straightens as noise begins in the house. A male yell, footsteps running upstairs. "Not sure you'll have time."
The door flings open and a girl, wild-eyed and holding a white shirt against her naked torso, stands on the doorstep. Ewan steps forward and Joss grabs his arm. "No. She's human. Victim probably."
The girl spots our knife and turns back to the house with a scream, but Joss rushes passed and steps in the way. "It's okay. We're not here to hurt you."
"Those men... they're attacking my friends!" She looks at me, then back to Joss. "Is this about drugs? I can tell you where the drugs are. Please don't hurt me."
I step forward and address her in a gentle voice. "It's cold out here. Maybe put your shirt on?"
She frowns down at the shirt in her hand. "Right. I didn't realise. When did I take that off?"
The anger I'm containing seethes as I spot her unbuttoned jeans too. I could've been her. "Do you know these people?"
"Yes. Kind of. We met them last week. Do they owe you money? They're not bad people, they don't deserve to die!"
Her voice rises into a shriek and Ewan swears under his breath. "Get the girl back inside!"
"No!" she half screams. "Don't touch me!"
"Joss!" Ewan jabs a finger at the girl. "Calm her down."
"It's okay," I say in a low voice as she flinches away from Joss's attempted touch. "We're not going to hurt you. We're here to help."
"Yeah, police, undercover," says Ewan and half drags her inside.
I groan. "Seriously?" I mouth at Joss.
"Don't you dare tell her the truth," he says and nudges me with his elbow, grinning.
How can he grin right now?
The door leads into a filthy kitchen, where ashtrays filled with cigarette butts and empty cans and bottles vie for space on the Formica table and kitchen counter. I wrinkle my nose at the mixed scent—mould, rotting food, and unmistakable sickly drug smell.
"Sit with her," says Joss and pulls out a metal chair from under the table.
"No," I say. "I came here to"—I glance at the girl—"Deal with the problem."
"I think—" he begins.
"You sit with her," interrupts Ewan. "Vee, come with me."
"What?" Joss frowns. "Why?"
He doesn't get a response as Ewan drags me through the next doorway and into a smoke-filled lounge room. Xander stands in the corner, over a girl's lifeless body as Heath chases another who's running upstairs.
The sight shocks me, but I need to tell myself these aren't people. The guys aren't killing women but demons. A young guy on the sofa, black hair, piercings, blinks at us through a drugged haze as he buttons his jeans. "What the fuck?"
His voice is weak as he struggles to stand. This isn't only drugs; the succubus on the floor must be responsible for his state because the guy's shirt's open and eyes glazed, face pale.
"Fun's over. Thank us for saving your life," growls Xander. He jabs a finger toward the stairs. "Ewan. Some ran upstairs. We think there're more in the bedrooms. Heath's up there."
I shove Ewan to one side and charge up the stairs. My shoes stick to a stained carpet, and I hear a woman scream behind a door to my right. My blood chills. I bloody hope that's Heath and a demon. Light filters beneath another door in front of me. Ewan kicks at the door to my left, face impassive.
Adrenaline pushes me forward, and I throw open the third door.
A girl with long red hair lies on the bed. Naked. Unconscious. I want to look away but the horror drives reality home. A man steps away from her, backing up as he hastily puts jeans on and looks at me.
Not a man. A demon. The other guy from the club.
Stocky. Vibrant green hair, but this time with a drunk look on his face from feeding on the girl. This is the first demon who touched me that night, by the bathrooms and was involved in my assault. My stomach turns as I look between him and the bed, imagining my face as the girl's. Shit. Is she unconscious or dead?
Fury grips me and builds with a sudden intensity. Fucking demon bastard.
My control snaps, and I lunge at the guy with my knife; he sidesteps me. "Back for more?" he sneers. "I heard my friend was rudely interrupted when you were having fun the other night."
His arrogance surpasses any fear this incubus has for me as he steps forward and attempts to close his hand around mine holding the knife.
"You don't fucking touch me!" I shout and hold the point towards his face. "You really don't know who you're messing with."
He laughs. "Of course I do. We knew. You think you're special? Untouchable? The perfect Fifth? You don't have the guts to do anything; the weak female who can't do anything without the Four around."
"Wrong!" I snarl and rush him, slamming a hand into his chest. My strength surprises us both as his back hits the wall, head smacking against the plaster. The demon blinks, dazed for a moment, and the overwhelming desire to kill him frightens me.
"Go on," he hisses. "I'm too human looking. You're scared."
The naked girl. His mocking. The memories. A pressure begins behind my skull, one I recognise from Portia's house. Only this time I'm alone; no Xander. This strength is all me—and I'm going to bloody use it.
"I'm not scared of you. Or anybody," I snarl.
His eyes widen as my skin takes on a luminescence, white light building as my blood becomes lava-hot and courses through my veins.
His struggling stops, frozen in place, as the light fills the room. This time I keep my eyes open and watch as the light focuses into a snaking beam that coils around the incubus, tightening across his body before it explodes with a force that fills the room and knocks me back from him.
This isn't the same as last time. This is me and only me. I watch with triumph as the guy's eyes blacken, his form shifting from that of a younger guy into the twisted visage of a demon. His unnaturally poi
nted features and a cruel turn to his wide mouth with runes cover his red skin reveals his true form.
"I don't think you look very human," I hiss and bury the knife into his chest, to the place Xander repeatedly showed me in practice over the last few days. The sneer doesn't leave his face as he sinks to the carpet. My hand shakes as I pull at the knife protruding from his chest.
His closed eyes snap open. "Try harder," he rasps. The demon places a hand on the wall, and I'm momentarily arrested as he pulls himself to his feet, blood spreading into a stain across his chest.
How was that not enough? I thought they were weak?
The heat in my veins changes, tingle switching to a pain resembling electric shocks spreading down my arm and into my fingertips. I drop the knife in surprise as the light surrounding my hand crackles into energy.
The need to end his life overwhelms me again, a strange instinct taking over my fear, and I hold my palms out, approaching him. A visible white lightning-like power shoots from my hands towards his chest, and he jerks before dropping to the floor; a dead weight.
This time, as I stare down, head and hands hurting, he doesn't move. I poke him with my boot. Dead.
The girl.
I grab a blanket scrunched on the bed corner and cover her body before anybody else appears. She's violated enough without anybody else seeing her naked. Despite the heavy make-up, her face is soft, innocent. Tears push their way into my eyes. Will she remember what happened to her? I bend down and touch the girl’s neck, praying for a pulse. Weak.
"Was it him?" I look up to a more dishevelled than usual Ewan. "Is he the demon from the club I couldn't find?"
I nod. "Were there more?"
"Yeah. Six. In pairs. Mostly attacking and oblivious when we arrived." His face contorts back to anger as he notices the girl on the bed. "I bloody hope she isn't dead."
"No. Weak."
"Fucking bastards!" He crosses his arms and eyes the girl. "I don't want to touch and scare her. Will you sit here until she wakes up?"
Ewan's too fired up to notice, but I'm ready to reach out, to ask him to tell me everything's okay. Whatever gripped my body frightens me, and I stare at my still tingling fingers. The truth hits me like a wall of water.
I took on the unrelenting fury of War, and I conjured Death. I blinded with Truth and revealed the demon's deceptive appearance. Do I possess Joss's and Ewan's powers too?
I tuck shaking hands beneath my arms and nod. Ewan makes to leave the room and pauses. He stares at the dead incubus for a few moments, lips thinning as his brow pulls deep, before he turns his eyes to mine. "Wish I'd had the pleasure of killing the bastard, but great job, Vee."
I sink onto the bed as he strides back out the door. Great job? Bloody hell. Is this a mundane task to perform before an evening out, the way I joked?
The girl on the bed stirs, blinking up at me in a sleepy haze before her face transforms into panicked horror to match her friend who tried to run outside. She opens her mouth, ready to scream, and I place a hand on her shoulder. The girl's mouth closes again as she grasps my fingers before she drops forward against me, head against my chest. The girl’s back moves as she sobs, and unsure what to do, I stroke her hair and will the fear to leave.
Gradually, she stills and relaxes, and I close my eyes, fortified by a new energy replacing the exhaustion from fighting the demon. I snap them open again.
I have Joss's power too.
14
VEE
Another guy and a girl were in the upstairs rooms Xander and Ewan went into. Add in the guy from the sofa and girl on the bed, plus the one who tried to run, and we have five witnesses to the demons' deaths, or aftermath. The guys are drugged, and the girls are high too. Caused by magic or the white powder on the table? All are freaked out, understandably, since they just witnessed multiple murders, and I watch the Four, curious how they deal with this situation.
Judging by their handling, this isn't an uncommon state of affairs for them. Xander gathers the group into the lounge room and frightens the group into silence, of course. He informs them we’re undercover detectives on a drug sting and threatens to arrest them for possession, waving around a bag containing enough white powder to land them a hefty prison sentence. He impresses on them that the gang were dangerous and would've killed everybody. I’m as caught up in his whirlwind explanation as they are; his authority’s clear.
Finally, he warns them police backup is on the way and that if they don't leave, they'll be taken in for questioning. Sofa guy doesn't need telling twice and stumbles out of the house in seconds.
"I bet he already has a criminal record," mutters Heath.
Joss is gentler. He sits beside the girls and they look back at him, their swimming eyes focusing on his face. I don't hear his words to them, but they relax and nod, tears drying as they sink back on the seats.
I turn away and walk into the kitchen, towards the open back door where I sit on the step and stare across the yard towards the garages opposite. Too many lies around me. If I open my big mouth, things could become complicated.
Heath perches beside me and squeezes my leg. "You okay?"
"Think so. Not really. I don't know." My voice catches.
"Vee..." He wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me close. "What happened?"
How do I explain this? "I think I’m War and Death too."
"Huh?" He pulls away. "What do you mean?"
I hold out my hands, convinced I'll find evidence, but there's none but a faint glow. "When I fought the incubus, I was strong, stronger than usual. And angrier. My light turned into something else. I don't know... something like electricity came from my fingers. Hit the demon in the chest and killed him, the way I saw you at Portia’s. That’s your power, isn’t it? And the strength is Xander’s?"
"Holy crap," he says in a low voice. "But I wasn't there."
"I don't think you need to be," I whisper. "This gets weirder. The girl... I calmed her down when she was ready to scream the house down. Like Joss does." Heath touches my face, and I curl my fingers around his. "Do you think I am? Am I made up of all of you?"
Heath kisses my forehead. "No, you’re Verity, and you’re Truth. But I think we just discovered what powers you have."
I swallow. "All of them?"
"Looks that way. Remind me never to piss you off." I crack a smile at his attempt to lighten my situation. "This is a game changer, Vee. How do you feel about it?"
"Not sure. Not scared, more confused." I rest my head against his shoulder, and focus on my breathing, on his scent. His comfort doesn't match Joss's, but I've kissed and touched this man; felt his care for me before. "Relieved that I can match you. I think you guys will need to believe I can look after myself now."
"I’m bloody sure you can. Did you choose to use the powers when you were upstairs?"
"Not sure. I was angry when I saw the girl on the bed. I think that triggered War’s power against the incubus. Then my own, but instead of amplifying one of you it revealed the Truth. He didn’t die which triggered the need to use the Death inside me. And then after... I starved the girl of her fear. Famine."
"And Pestilence?"
I chew on the inside of my mouth. "No. Not this time, anyway."
"Weird. Well, maybe the more you use the powers, the easier they'll come."
I laugh softly. "You make it sound as if I'm learning a new sport."
"It kind of is."
"You see killing as sport?"
Heath shrugs. "No. Well, sometimes. Thrill of the chase and all that."
Somebody touches my hair, and I tip my head backwards to look at Joss. "How are you feeling, Vee?"
"Overwhelmed."
"Understandable." He sits the otherside of me and places a hand on my leg. "Ready for a drink?"
"A drink?"
"The pub? These guys promised me a beer."
How can they switch off from this as easily? They just freaking chased and killed demons, dealt with horrified victim
s, and all they can think about is a trip to the pub?
I shift out of Heath’s embrace. "No, thanks. I'd rather go home. In fact, I'd like to get out of here before the police arrive."
"We are the police, remember?" says Joss.
"The real police," I say in a low voice. "Somebody must've called them."
"Maybe, maybe not. People don't like to interfere," Heath says.
"When women are screaming?" Heath and Joss exchange a look, and although I understand people's "don't interfere" attitude, morally that's wrong. The human race is disappointing.
No, surely somebody must’ve called the police.
"I'll take her. You guys help Xander clear up." Again, I hear those words clear up, this time spoken by Ewan. He walks over and sits on a nearby kitchen chair, resting elbows on his knees and hands beneath his chin.
"You just want an excuse to be alone with Vee again," says Joss. "Impress her with a ride." He pauses and sniggers. "On your bike."
Ewan scowls, and I sigh and shift away from Heath and Joss. "Tomorrow, I want to talk to you all about something."
"Sounds interesting," says Joss.
"Just a few concerns. Some ground rules."
"Ooh, Vee has rules for us now she’s powerful. Can't wait to see what Xan-the-man has to say about that." Joss rubs his hands together. "Love it!"
"I can take you home if you want?" asks Heath.
"No dude, you have the SUV and are designated driver. We won't all fit on Ewan's bike if he’s the one who stays!"
I suppress a laugh. "He's right. Is that okay with you?" I ask Ewan. "I'll go to the pub if you really want to as well."
"No, Vee." He's firm, the gruff Ewan; the only one I experience since the night at the club. "You want to go, I’ll take you."
"You'll take care of her, yeah?" asks Joss and looks between us, then wags a finger at Ewan. "But not too well."
"Nah, they'll probably geek out with their laptops," says Heath.
I attempt a smile but I'm still shaking like jelly after the last half an hour. The evening's events catch up with the old, human Vee, as she attempts to reconcile this new one.