I couldn’t stop myself from asking questions I didn’t want the answers to. And I knew for shit-sure he didn’t want to answer them, but I also knew he wouldn’t withhold the truth from me. As much as I knew the answers would hurt me, I couldn’t hold my tongue. I needed to know more than I needed the absence of pain now. And even though it was a dream, it felt so real, that I knew I would remember it when I woke up.
“How many times?” I asked.
“For about a week. Long enough. I stopped it. She reminded me too much of you. I knew who she was but she didn’t know me. It was like I was punishing myself for not having you but also for the fact that you never told anyone about us.”
The truth may have set him free but it sure did cause me plenty of pain. This was not like my normal dreams. In them he would have said: No way, I haven’t slept with anyone but you, even though you’ve slept with countless men. I sat up realizing that what I thought was a dream, was probably not.
I swung out of the bed and stood next to it. I pinched myself hard enough to leave a very dark red mark on my forearm. Az had seen me plenty of times like this, but judging from the tent that was formed under the sheet, I still affected him.
“How could you?!” I exploded.
I knew I was being unreasonable. But anger was not a reasonable emotion.
“You left me. You broke me in every way. I lost my mind without you. Then today I remembered your voice consoling me when we broke up and I could feel you, like an imprint. And you told me everything you did you regretted and that you still loved me.”
How could I have gone back in time to the night we broke up? Did I travel in a dream or was I time traveling? I mean I knew I went off the radar but apparently I was off the grid. Hell, at this point I didn’t even know if I would ever see the grid again.
“Az, I have to be going crazy. I’ve lost touch. It doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s how I felt. Come on.” He patted the bed next to him and his tent. “Sit, let’s talk.”
Oh, I knew what kind of talking he wanted to do, and it had nothing to do with words.
“With you saluting me,” I gestured to his high standing erection, “there is no way I’m going to be able to just talk. Work off some extra energy, maybe. But not talk. Besides do you really want to screw me in the same house you screwed another woman? Or is that a new thing for you too?”
I was still mad about the Anie thing. I loved Az but we had hurt each other so many times it was hard to be around one another. Yet, I couldn’t stand being away from him either. I knew we would never be able to go back to the way we were, but I was hoping to find a new place to start with him. If, that is, we could get over all of the shit that had happened and still was happening.
Az seemed to let go of what I had said instead of getting pissed and just folded his hands behind his head as I had seen him do a million times before.
“Do what you need to. I’ll wait.” He looked totally at ease, while I was bursting with energy.
He had done this very thing for me numerous times. He would just sit and wait until I had worked out whatever I needed to. This was my Az. This was the man I had fallen in love with. I paced and tried working through some of what had happened, although I was distracted by the Demon and his massive erection lying in my bed. I decided to try and work through this with his help. I had never done that before.
I had always worked through most of my problems by myself. If they involved Az I would always go to him with the problem but only extract facts from him. I never thought to try and work on it with him. I guess even then I had been trying to protect him in my own way. I wondered if he would take it for what it was worth: a step in a new direction, a better direction.
“Do you know what I’m turning into?”
I knew he probably didn’t but it was a starting point.
“No.” He looked confused.
“When did the melting pot of supernaturals start following me?”
“Three weeks before your 30th birthday.”
I had only been 30 for about ten days, so not long.
“So, whatever is going on with me is age related. Oh – I forgot to tell you – Anie cast a thread…”
He’d know it was Kai without me having to say it. I could see his eyes start glowing. He was really pissed.
Kai and Az had never seen eye to eye. Not since Kai had made a pass at me while Az and I were together working one night. And when I say “made a pass” I mean he slipped his hand under my shirt and kissed the shit out of me. It pissed Az and I both off, but Kai was just like that. A pain in the ass to the end. Az and I both would like to grab his throat and shake him. His little kiss didn’t mean he was attracted to me; he was most likely just stirring the pot. Which he had successfully done.
While I let that set in for Az I started pacing and talking aloud to myself.
“So, what do we know about supes. I mean, I have to be a supe, right? What else could see through their eyelids as well as time travel with a thought, or a feeling or maybe it was just my voice that had really time traveled.”
Word vomit. I had it again. I had it in spades.
But it wasn’t Az’s hand that stopped my word vomit this time, it was the look on his face. He was stock still and there was no sign of moving. I waived my hand in front of his face to snap him out of it.
He hopped off the bed and joined me in pacing the floor. I thought it was my turn to be freaking out, but apparently not. We looked like two naked loons pacing past each other. And, really, that’s what we were. Two of a kind.
“What did you just say?” He asked me.
“I’ve gotta be a supe, right?”
“You time traveled by having an intense feeling?”
“Yes. At least I think that’s what happened.”
Az stopped moving and captured my eyes with his. He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time.
“Fuck. Now the pieces fit.”
And with that completely unenlightening information, Az was gone. The next time I saw him I was going to kill him. He knew something and disappeared before I could squeeze him for answers.
I lay back in bed and covered myself up, feeling a lot colder than I had a few minutes ago. I missed having a support system that I could rely on. Looked like the only person I could rely on was me.
I found myself hoping whole heartedly that Kai would get there soon and actually answer some questions for me, instead of just creating more.
Just as the thought had crossed my mind, there was a bright bundle of light that floated down next to my bed. Damn Kai. Ask and you shall receive, I guess.
~XI~
“’Cause they both end in trouble and start with a grin…”
– The Head & The Heart, Down in the Valley
When I had been thinking about Kai getting there soon, I hadn’t actually meant right that second. But he would show up in the middle of the night when I’m bare ass naked.
Not thinking much about the state of undress I was in, I stood up. I wanted to be able to kick Kai in the nuts if the occasion called for it. Which, knowing Kai, it might.
“I know you may not appreciate me being here at this time, but it’s a delight from my end.” He grinned widely. He finally looked at my face when I covered myself up with the sheets off the bed and sat down. I needed his help more than I needed to kick him in the balls. “When you summoned I had to come. I cannot ignore one of my own.”
“You can be a real asshole sometimes, Kai. You’re lucky I need you right now.”
One of his own? Was he suggesting I was a fucking Fairy?! I wanted to ask if I was one, did that mean the single question rule still applied to me, or could I ask more? But, I knew if it did then I had wasted my question and a week. I began running through the best way to ask the question that burned within me: what am I? I had done this enough times now where it didn’t take me very long to come up with the question.
“Can you list biologically, and magically, wh
at is contained within me, please?” The please wasn’t a requirement but it never hurt to be nice when you really needed something, especially from Kai.
“Ah, you’ve learned well over the years, my dear. Nicely done.”
Kai stepped forward and took my hands in his. He closed his eyes and began reading silently behind his eyelids. After about 10 minutes he jumped back as though I had just shocked him. He looked down at his hands in confusion.
“I don’t understand.” I wanted to ask Kai what he didn’t understand but he continued talking. “Delaney-” It was the first time he had ever used my name when talking to me. That freaked me out more than anything else. “you are everything. You are: Hunter, Vampire, Drover, Shifter, Fairy, Demon, Angel and human. You are what everyone has been looking for.”
He said shifter, which I found odd because the only shifters I knew of were Werewolves. Fuck not asking questions.
“What? How?”
“I don’t have to answer, but I want to know too.” Kai cautiously took my hands again. He spoke before he opened his eyes or let go. “All I can see is that you did not gain these attributes naturally. Everything else is blocked from me. Someone knew you’d be looking and didn’t want you to know it was them.”
“What do you mean by the I’m the one everyone’s been looking for comment?”
“You are, rightfully, full of questions.” He looked me over. I was standing now, still clinging to the sheet desperately trying to keep it around me. “As I said before, the show has been exquisite. Thank you.”
Because he was turning to leave and I needed to stop him I said the very words that mere days before I never would have said to Kai. Not for all the gold in the world.
“Kai, please. I need your help.”
He didn’t even pause. It was like he couldn’t help himself. Like he was waiting for me to ask for his help. Although he was still halfway turned away from me, he spoke.
“There has been a prophecy handed down for many years.” And when Kai said many years that was more than a few considering he didn’t even remember how old he was anymore. “It says that there will be a girl born from death, conceived in pain and raised by deceit.” I was with him for the pain and death parts. My mother had died in childbirth. But the deceit I was a little fuzzy on. “She would be created and formed to be the most formidable weapon because she will contain us all. All magic all mystery. She can lead a group to power and balance. She will not come to power until after her 30th birthday. After then all powers will show. But only one of them may prevail.” What group was I supposed to lead? Kai answered aloud my silent question.
“That my sweet child, is a question I cannot answer.” He paused then added, “And I’ve been asked.”
So everyone had been looking for me? Kai had heard that question, I assumed. I felt like if I wanted to, I could speak to Kai without words. Thus, I tried it. Since he was currently turning away from me and trying to get out of there.
Hold it right there, Bub. Who asked about what group I would lead?
If I tell you it will be the last for a month.
I heard his thought after that, which had been something about if I would believe this then maybe he could escape with his life.
Liar.
I will tell you. But after this little visit, I must hide for my life.
That was the truth.
“Okay.” I said out loud.
It was the man you know as your Father.
He hadn’t said it so others could hear and that was smart. With that simple phrase the rest of my world which was currently being held together by gasoline and dry brush went up in an inferno of flames.
Go into hiding Kai. And if you’re asked, you never saw me. And if you did see me, you never told me any of this.
He nodded his head at me and disappeared in a burst of tiny light sparkles. Where was I going to go from here? And with everything piling up, when was I going to fit in my procrastination?
*********************************************
I won’t lie, I laid in bed for the rest of the morning and for far longer than I should have. But who in their right mind, finding out what I had earlier that morning, would want to get out of bed? Not me. So, it turns out I could still find time to procrastinate. All good procrastinators could.
I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or maybe in my case, the other anvil.
I had discovered some of my Fairy abilities while Kai had been there and that was good. See? I could find the light in a bad situation.
The Hunters didn’t know much about Fairies, besides how to summon them. Now, I knew more. The rest of the supes I had in me, with the exception of Angels, I knew enough about. I knew a lot about them, in fact. Something I could finally thank my Father for.
So, I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper I had found in the night stand and started listing what I knew about the different groups.
Vamps:
- Needs blood to survive (hopefully don’t get)
- Extraordinary strength
- Can see well in night and day
- Skin’s sensitive to light, can’t stand in direct sun light during the daytime.
- Hates sleeping in coffins
Drovers:
- Shifts only on full moon
- Can shift into anything at that time (that’d be awesome)
- Must stay with Drove that changed you (this would
suck)
- Not easily killed (which I am anyway)
- Stays together in large groups or in large areas
Weres:
- Can shift anytime (yes, please)
- Will shift only into wolf (hope I don’t stink like
dog)
- Extremely strong
- Can only be killed by beheading
- No sensitivity to silver
Demons:
-Heals very, very quickly. A slice of a blade is
nothing.
- Lacks honesty, unless pressed for it (with exception
of Az, at least I THINK)
- Lustful, easily distracted by tits and ass (I miss Az)
- Strength is highest of all supes
- Abilities: clarity bend, teleport, mind reading,
slime kill (eww, like Slimer from Ghostbusters but with a much deadlier result.)
Fairy:
- Can mind read at least with each other
- Can communicate telepathically
- Can by summoned by casting the thread
- Glow when traveling (that’d be a nightmare to
explain)
- Deceptive
Angels:
- Can fly? (I’ve only heard stories)
- Guards over good? (Again, only stories)
- Can do what Demons do? (Power of deduction, some Demons are fallen Angels, right?
- I really don’t know shit about Angels
With the last of the list I realized that my body would no longer be my own soon if I didn’t do something to change or control my future. What would be the dominant magic? I knew there were Werewolves that ended up going crazy because their human and beast sides fought for dominance, trying to overtake the other. It ended up looking a lot like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Great musical, scary reality.
I guess I wasn’t really a Hunter anymore. I knew the second word got out that I was some sort of supe hybrid I would end up exiled from the Hunter world with a boot print on my ass, my little lump sum severance package and looking for a job elsewhere. Although I think I’d make a good P.I.
I couldn’t tell anyone about this. And thus, I was utterly alone. More alone now, than ever. I’d never felt like a magical creature or supe. But, I had when Kai had been in my room. I could only figure that Kai’s magic had awakened my own Fairy magic.
I now had figured out what had blown up my house and had been telling Anie to kill me: an Angel. It had to be. What other creature would wash peace over me and be surrounded by blinding light. The Hunters knew nil about Angels. But why ki
ll me? Why not have her care for me, or awaken my Angel magic? Or maybe whatever had been in my house had been a high up Demon? One that could trick how I viewed them. It would have to have been Mastema himself. I had never met the bastard but I would assume he would be something freaky like that.
I’d never been so lost before.
And I’d never wanted answers more.
My Father. I hoped I could control my features well enough for him not to see the discontent in my eyes. I didn’t want to be this thing, this created tool, but somehow my Father was involved. I just didn’t know how. Looks like all paths did lead to home. But in my case, that wasn’t a good thing.
~XII~
“Time to tell me the truth, To burden your mouth for what you say, No pieces of paper in the way…”
–Sara Bareilles, Between the Lines
“Pretty please with a cherry on top?” Asking Anie to take me to the Hunters HQ was not easy.
“No. Your Father would love any excuse to get me ousted from any of the future Council meetings.”
“Listen, I have to talk to him. It’s non-negotiable. He is the only one I can talk to about getting back in with the Hunters.” I was lying to Anie, but it was necessary. She didn’t need to be in anymore danger than she already was. I was withholding because I needed to get into Headquarters to try and flush out what my Father was up to.
“No. No fucking way. How many ways do you need me to say no until you understand?” I had been pleading with her for a while.
“I’ll do anything.” Anie seemed to consider this and she seemed to like what she found in that little head of hers. After a few minutes, she spoke.
“I’ll escort you on a few conditions.”
Anie had to take me. If she didn’t then I wouldn’t be allowed in the front door. I knew my Father well enough to know that when he mandated something, it would be followed, no questions asked. I was in Anie’s care so she had to be with me. Period. And of course, Anie was going to have conditions. I didn’t blame her, I wouldn’t have gone and been like: Okay, yeah, sure I will take you. No problem. I’ll just piss off the head of the Hunters by just dropping you on his doorstep, no questions asked.
Demons: A Hunter's Novel, Book 1 Page 7