Chapter Eighteen- Gabe
Menace. That’s all she was. And I would haul her ass–all one hundred and fifty pounds of it–if I had to so she was reminded of who she was dealing with. I was frustrated that despite my self-control and hatred for demons, she did incite a physical reaction from me. She was beautiful. As deadly as her spitting venom and ability to kill. Most feared me but here I was being mocked. There was a reason why Haymen didn’t want me so close and this little new generation Guardian was ignorant to the fact of who I was and what I could do to her.
The others had some sense about them which is why her roommates changed almost instantly into one of their demon forms. Their demon ancestry knew who I was so why didn’t Vivian’s react in the same defensive way? Why was she not scared of me? It has been a very long time since anyone had the audacity to speak to me like that, whether Haymen’s pet or not. Others knew their place.
I looked towards the open doors of her balcony. I could sense an angel close by and knew it wasn’t just any one. I heard Vivian singing some terrible girl power song in the shower and assessed how long I might have to confront our new guest. I would make sure that this conversation didn’t last long. I jumped off the balcony silently. The strength and extension of my wings swooped me up into the sky of day. I would’ve preferred night and cloud coverage like most of my conversations. I kept soaring up until the air got thinner and I broke through the first layer of clouds. There, slowly padding her soft pink wings was Lyra. Instead of her fighter’s gear she came to me in a silken gold dress that swept around her curves. Her blonde curls were unaffected by the wind. She sat on one of the clouds not that it could hold her weight if her wings weren’t beating but it was for added effect that she had been waiting.
“What are you doing in Shabeah, I told you to stay and aid Torrin in my stead,” I growled at her. I didn’t want any of my angels in this city and I had directly ordered all of them not to come. Her disregard for my word was becoming far too frequent. I was also pissed by her cockiness to enter the city of demons without any military garment or obvious weapons.
“Would you believe me if I said I missed you?” she said looking at her nails and shrugging her shoulders. Which is exactly why I had never divulged in Lyra; for all her beauty and brains and ample offers she overstated her power.
“Go,” I growled and it rumbled through sky. She looked up into the dark clouds that began to sweep over. I was angry and didn’t handle control when my direct orders were being ignored. Panic slightly sunk in but not enough for her to leave empty handed.
“We don’t understand your way of thinking. Please, Gabe. You are the king of your city-“ I growled at her term ‘King’. I hated the term it was disrespectful to who I was and what I stood for. King was the title of selfish human men. “Apologies, Gabe.” She said dipping her head and started to concern herself with the dark clouds that began thundering above.
“Thirty days is all you have to handle. If not less. My investigation is underway and if you find yourself meddling on it again you will find that your wings won’t be able to fly for a year.” A crackle of thunder lit the sky and hit the ground in the forestry outside of Shabeah. I needed to release this anger and build-up of frustration. Her supple skin went paler and I knew she feared the coloring of my eyes which would have changed from a forest green to a winter storm blue. I have killed thousands of men with these eyes. She was only but one.
She came closer as if to comfort me, her voice ever so small.
“You don’t need to concern yourself with this investigation, Let one of the others do it for you, let me be of assistance!” She said as if to reach out to me. Her admiration had gone too far and her desperation to touch me only thickened my revolt in that moment. Another bang hit the ground and this time it wasn’t too far from her.
“Do you think I would jeopardize someone else in the city that is overlooked by Haymen himself after one of our own was just murdered?! Leave!” I ordered and this time for all the sass and overconfidence she swept in with, she fled with her tail between her legs. I inhaled, wishing I didn’t have to be so cruel to my own kind. Not all of them had fought beside me in the last war, many of my fellow guards had been killed by Haymen’s demons, only a few remained. They didn’t understand what the edge of war looked like. It always only started with the death of one... and then the edges of villages and then empire against empire. This treaty and human world was the center point for all the other worlds and homes that had been destroyed in that war. That’s why so many demons and angels now lived here. Demons had numerous worlds whereas us angels had only one, chose to live in only one. We were lucky to have protected our own during the last war. Never would I let it come to that again. Since then I dedicated my life and living quarters to the human world to watch those who might try to create another resistance or war.
When Lyra had completely vanished safely, I swooped back down trying to ease my fury. I lightly padded on the deck of Vivian’s balcony and knew as soon as I touched ground that her usual dark energy that surrounded her wasn’t in the room. The shower was still going and to double check I opened up the door. She was gone. I pushed the door back and, in a rage, swept through the doors and swooped up again. I headed back for the clouds so I could hide amongst them for coverage and sense out the demonic energy that surrounded her. I made sure to familiarize myself with her energy so I knew where she was when she decided to run. I thought surely she couldn’t have gotten too far in the time I was gone... evidently I was mistaken.
Chapter Nineteen- Vivian
The song ‘She’ll be coming around the Mountain here she comes!’ Kept playing in my head as I darted through the city on my slick motorbike. This time I took the back streets and areas that had coverage and confusing trails. I had the feeling that the quickly brewing storm behind me had something to do with Gabe’s temperament. Somehow even the overpowering drift of wind and smell of rain... felt like him. If I wasn’t zipping through streets I would have considered wiping away the residue that sprinkled on me in disgust. But I wasn’t a fool. As I had familiarized myself with angelic energy I imagined he had done the same, which meant that he would be tracking me right now. For some reason, humans had created the concept that angels could do no wrong and were forever happy and bright. Just because he was an angel didn’t mean that his power and temperament didn’t mix just like the storm that was now brewing. Angels could be consumed by darkness and evil and there were dark angels for this very reason.
If I were lucky, my tricks and zipping through the city might’ve mucked up a lot of my trail and scent. He could be searching for an hour and that’s all I need for the business that I intended. He couldn’t know about the Shadow people in our sleep. Or whatever they liked to call themselves. And I certainly couldn’t let him follow me on this case where I might be tracking more like Alice. I pulled up sharply at the gutter in front of the orphanage. I took my helmet off and stormed towards the entrance wary of my time. Tahmeed had taken over my case during the few days I was gone with little success. Without her permission or knowledge, I took it back. This was my hunt.
My arrival was welcomed by Dorothy who waited for me atop the stairs of the orphanage. It has now been three days since I’d last been here and her being here meant that they didn’t take my advice to leave. I paced up the stairs greeting her at the door.
“There was another attack two nights ago,” she began as she walked me inside.
“The children?” I asked stepping into the ill and twisted residue in the air. Something had been here not that long ago.
“No, Mr. Greenhouse.” she said, tears spilling over her cheeks. “But what he had done to the children,” she sobbed. I had no time for her sentiment and walked through the main hallway which reeked of vile and evil. The hairs on my nape raised up high and I looked into each room skeptically, ignoring what Dorothy asked me, flustered and panicked by my rash behavior. Something was in here but I couldn’t get an exact location on it be
cause it surrounded me. It was watching me.
One child screamed as I opened the door, startled by my sudden entrance. I left it open allowing my keen hearing to overpower all of their breathing and now quiet noises. My tattoos glowed bright blue through my sleeveless leather shirt and I turned into my cat demon. Hackles instantly rose on my back as she hissed on the intrusion that was in this children’s home. It was good timing to have entered while the demon was here. The chilling feeling was similar to speaking with Alice in the Aztec. Maybe it really were our nightmare shadows who has infested this children’s home.
I rounded the corner after checking the numerous rooms trailing down the hallway. I didn’t dare open my cat’s eye and sixth sense in the presence of whatever evil it was that lurked. This was not a standard demon. I stopped at the kitchen doors where numerous children were once again cooking meals. The chill that shuddered through me pulled back my ears and the single ring of the bell on my tail rang. All the children went silent.
Some looked at me in fear and others in awe. I supposed it was not every day they saw a naked cat demon at the entrance of their kitchen. My clothes always vanished when I turned into a demon so their true form could be appreciated.
I searched the room unable to locate the exact positioning or concentration of the evil. The girl which I had noticed last time with brown plaited hair walked up to me. My eyes narrowed on her and I retracted my claws so she wouldn’t be so scared.
“Have you come to save us?” she asked with tears in her eyes. The child was petrified. This small girl had seen something and survived it.
I pushed her out of the way as the teenage boy behind her jumped at us with a knife in hand. He swung at where she once stood and began swinging at the other children barbarically. I grabbed him and pulled him into the hall before he could hurt anyone.
“Close all the doors!” I shouted at Dorothy without watching her do so. I circled the teenage boy whose laughter echoed the hall. And there it was, the same projecting tone that Alice had. But this one was different as if it were a completely different soldier possessing the boy.
“Oh, how easy you are to bait,” his voice said far older than the red haired, freckled face boy. “Children are always such an easy lure. And to think, Haymen claims that your kind doesn’t feel.”
“I’m going to beat the shit out of you until you release that boy,” I hissed.
“But how do you kill something that doesn’t truly exist?” He asked me, his head cocked to the side awkwardly. I had heard and lived that line once before with that exact same voice. This thing had once attacked me when I was younger.
His veins deepened in blue around his face and his eyes were black pins. My claws were out and bared. My ears pulled back as I felt the shadows of the room vanquish. The lights began to flicker and only a small brightness seeped in from the door in the distance. All the curtains shut tight and suddenly I realized I wasn’t just dealing with one nonphysical demon that could possess but numerous. The walls felt as if they were breathing in and out around me trying to squeeze my very breath.
The freckled boy breathed out a husky laugh. “A Guardian’s fear is always so sweet. And you have attentively grabbed our attention. We will enjoy eating your body from the inside.”
I felt the mass of something coming towards me and I jumped from it. I couldn’t see it but my cat’s demon’s senses were aware when something paranormal was close. I jumped again as a second dove for me. I rolled on the ground blocking the knife the boy tried to stab me with. It scraped past me as I jumped away, being caught off guard by the invisible force that tried to attach itself to me.
Despite being a teen boy, the child fought like a warrior, an ancient one. I jumped back and forth, agile like my cat demon. Screams began erupting from the kitchen and another two young girls ran out with sharp blades. I was cornered in the room.
The laugh that echoed out of the little girl with brown plaited hair erupted and it was familiar. It was the same laugh that had possessed Alice.
“So, you didn’t die?” I growled.
“Human children are so easy to possess,” he gleamed through the child’s face. “Thank you for freeing me from Alice’s body. I was trapped in there until her body died.” I hadn’t killed Alice but maybe the demon that hid within me had, like it had to all the inmates that tried to kill me.
My hackles had risen. Killing the young was against everything the cat demons lived for. They had purposely lured me here to the children, knowing that only my cat demon would be able to detect them. None of my other demons had sixth sense. I would be defenseless even if I changed.
“You took something very interesting from Aztec. I had been hopeful it would lure to Alice’s body but it seemed to reject that ideal,” the brown-haired girl chuckled. “So instead I watched it host inside of you. And my master would very much like that for his own body.”
Even I didn’t know what crammed itself into my body but if it held value for these demons, I wasn’t going to hand it over. And for all that creature’s power, if it truly was concealed within me, it certainly wasn’t helping me kick ass today. Instinct to survive was drilling in for me to make my way to an exit–even jump out of the windows–if I had to but then the nature of my cat demon got the better of me. I had to save these children. I growled at the notion. Sentiments always got people killed. I wasn’t a hero and would never be revered as one. But if I could lure them far enough from the children then maybe they stood a chance.
The glass of the windows shattered and Gabe swept in. His landing shook the building. Fuck. Not even ten minutes. And how glorified he looked to watch my ass be handed to me in time. I jumped away from one of the phantoms that swept for my body only to have a second catch me off guard and throw me across the hall and into the door on the other end. The impact crushed my ribs and dislocated my shoulder. But that wasn’t my issue. The impressive force felt like talons ripping apart my skin and trying to take my body. I pushed it back with my own demonic force, resisting it. My presence seemed to be weak against its force as those talons continued slashing into me. I gritted my teeth to prevent the screams that tried to claw out.
The door behind me crumbled under the force and I was thrown onto the balcony. I coughed at the impact but gave myself enough time to roll even under its force to prevent the young girl with plaits bringing her knife down on me.
Light swept through the hallway and I heard the screams of the children who have been possessed. Gabe stood in the hallway his, wings glowing so brightly that even my cat demon wanted to shrivel away. The force began to retract. It was a combination of Gabe and his light, a weakening of anything that was formidably dark. I rolled onto my side and noticed a hooded figure that chanted at the front gate with gold bangles around their delicate wrist. Witch. I struggled to get up considering my broken wrist and ribs. Whatever the chant was those who were possessed were struggling to stay in their hosted form. An exorcism spell perhaps?
I ventured toward the figure who stepped towards me, inviting me closer. Until I was overshadowed by that of a pissed angel. The witch before me scattered into hundreds of orange leaves, leaving its remains to the wind. No. I ran over, awkwardly trying to hold my broken body together. Left behind was a pentagon burn mark of the spell it had teleported in and out of. I knew better than to leave without evidence of the witch. I hooked the light green hair that was attached to the singed grass and put it in my pocket. Any material that was either theirs or a part of them could be used for a location spell. And I knew just the right witch to find them for me. I looked behind me noticing the steam that misted from the floorboards of the three children who had been possessed. All of them had pentagon markings from where the witch had exorcised them out as well.
I assessed the streets and the fog that lifted as soon as they were gone. What had happened? Things escalated from zero to a hundred in seconds. I tried to center myself and think clearly, past the pain of my body that began to try and knit itself back tog
ether. Gabe stood behind me and I ignored him not wanting to deal with his pouting mood.
“Three, two-” he said and with speed I couldn’t anticipate, he popped my dislocated shoulder back into place. Black and white starred my eyes but I only grunted through the pain not giving him the satisfaction to hear me whimper. My broken ribs would take their time to heal but I made note to not let it show. My tattoos glowed bright and I turned into my succubus. She was the fastest at healing and I concentrated all my thoughts onto that one spot. It might take an hour or so but at least it was better than healing at human speed.
So many thoughts swept through me. For some reason these shadow people were after me specifically. The former Alice, whose name I didn’t know had seen the beast from Aztec harbor in me. It mentioned that it was hoping it would choose to harbor in Alice’s body, which meant that the demon was relevant to the Guardians. Even with the demon choosing to harbor in me I had no new contracts nor tattoos. I didn’t even know if demons could do that after I was reborn into a Guardian. I thought the contract only held seven demons?
There was no one in this world that I trusted, especially to ask about this. If the demon that slumbered inside of me held value then others would come for me. I could never ask Haymen and if it was seen in a negative light I was as good as dead. I could however ask one person, who if I paid enough would always stay quiet. He called himself Black Crow and if I needed information I would find him in the Black Market. It was a gamble to ask even him who would never show me his face.
Even so, I still had to go to the black market to request a locator’s spell on the witch with green hair. Why had she taken the children that were possessed and what spell was she chanting? Who was she?
“What is today?” I asked Gabe as I turned to face him finally. He looked at me with disbelief and pointed back at the orphanage. His gesture was implying for me to deal with the carnage that was left behind instead of focusing elsewhere. Dismissing him I swiped the medal implanted on my ear and my blue screen appeared in front of me. Tuesday. Those who could tell me when the next black markets were operative would be in the usual place today.
The Shadow Minds Journal, #1 Page 16