The Unlikeable Demon Hunter_Crave

by Deborah Wilde

  “Don’t insult me.” More typing. “Hold off on telling your brother about this, babyslay.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m more than mildly annoyed hearing what went down, which means Ari will go ballistic and I need his head in the game right now.”

  “Got it.”

  “Let’s see what we’ve got.” Kane hummed under his breath. “Fuck.”

  I leaned forward. “What?”

  Kane didn’t answer me.

  “Kane,” Rohan snapped.

  “Wait,” Kane snapped back. “Fuuuuck!”

  I gripped Ro’s hand. “Kane?”

  “There’s only one Rasha in the past fifty years with ice magic. Ferdinand Alves.”

  I needed a moment to absorb the fact that a supposedly dead man had attacked us.

  Ro paced in a tight circle. “Search for all Rasha killed in the past, say, six months.”

  Kane came up with a list of twelve. Four of the men were the hunters that had been killed in Askuchar.

  “You sure those Rasha are dead?” Kane asked.

  “Yeah. Mahmud saw their bodies and I trust Mahmud.” Ro pinched his nose. “Any correlation between missions? Chapter houses?”

  “No and no,” Kane said. “Other than the fact that they all supposedly died, there’s nothing connecting them.”

  “Thanks, Kane,” Ro said. “Be careful, man. We don’t know what the Brotherhood has managed to piece together about who’s working with us, but just being our friend is enough to throw you in the danger zone.”

  “I’m hard to kill. And no one else is getting hurt on my watch.”

  As soon as Kane had hung up, Rohan grabbed the burner phone. “I’m gonna call Drio. He needs to be warned.”

  I flopped back against my mattress, rubbing my eyes. “He’ll want to come back here because it’s safer for us to be together.”

  “It is safer.”

  “And if he decides to bring Leonie with him?” I stared at the print Leo had given me, wishing I could grab her and disappear into that neon cityscape.

  “I’ll convince him there’s no point coming back here tonight. But she has to tell him.”

  No, that was the one thing she could never do.

  Ro’s conversation with Drio was short and to the point. True to his word, he assured Drio there was no reason to come back tonight. Ro didn’t expect any more visits and the attacker had done what he came for. At least until we made our next move.

  We had one final call to make and I insisted on making it.

  Rabbi Abrams took the development in stride, even the news about my witch status.

  “I always knew you were an interesting girl,” he said.

  I switched the phone to my other ear. “Does this change anything?”

  “Should it?”

  “Well, no?”

  He chuckled. “Beseder. Then get some sleep.” He said he’d arrange privately to beef up the security at the chapter house. A ward could be set to keep all Rasha out, but that would include us, so Muggle security solutions it was.

  I chucked the phone onto my rug and rolled myself up in my blanket like a burrito. If Rohan was able to confirm that those eight hunters left on Kane’s list weren’t actually dead, then they had to be the ones working with Mandelbaum on whatever was going on. I edged my head out of my cocoon. “Can I see the photo you got at Ferdinand’s house?”

  “Sure thing.” Rohan jogged downstairs, returning with the snapshot.

  In his forties, Ferdinand was ruggedly good-looking, with a crew cut and the deep tan of someone who spent a lot of time outdoors. His clothes were neatly ironed. He had his arm around a woman with long blonde hair with gray streaks, wearing a tie-dyed dress in brilliant swirls of color.

  “One of these things is not like the other,” I said.

  “Huh?”

  I tapped the photo. “He looks like he’s in the military and she’s a Woodstock refugee.”

  “Love is blind.”

  “Is it? Really? Check out her pendant.”

  “A crescent moon. Witch?”

  “I’d say love knew exactly who it was tapping.” I yawned. “I’ll see if Gelman can identify her.”

  “First, sleep. We need to hit up the sugar refinery in a few hours.”

  “The excitement never stops around here.” I didn’t bother leaving my blanket roll.

  Rohan crashed out on my bare mattress.

  I was woken up by someone shaking my shoulder. “Five more minutes, Mom,” I mumbled.

  “Sparky, wake up. Sarah needs to install the safety bars on your window.”

  I flung a pillow at Ro’s head.

  “Sorry.” A dimpled woman who had to be close to retirement poked her head in to my room. She had a large red tool box in one hand. “I’d have let you sleep, but Uncle Isaac told me this was urgent.”

  I blinked through my grogginess, squinting at my clock. I couldn’t see it from this angle, but my room was flooded with bright sunlight. “Yeah. Of course.” I had never been so happy to be wearing sweats and not my dress from last night.

  Last night!

  I stumbled out of bed, scanning every available surface for the purse I’d so cavalierly tossed somewhere and any bondage systems that may have tumbled free.

  “Smooth,” Ro murmured, brushing my hip. “I put it in my room.”

  “But it’s mine.”

  He grinned, booped me on the nose, and left.

  Sarah tested her cordless drill. “You two are adorable. New relationship?”

  “Yeah.” I shrugged on Ro’s hoodie that was draped on my chair. “I’ll get out of your way.”

  I followed the rumble of the coffee maker down the curved staircase, my hands jammed in the pockets of his hoodie. I rubbed my cheek on the shoulder because the fabric smelled like him.

  “Navela.” Rabbi Abrams beckoned at me from the front porch. I almost tripped off the last stair. The man wasn’t in a suit. Just dress pants and a long-sleeved shirt. “Come see what we’ve done.”

  I threw a longing glance back down the hallway toward the kitchen and found Rohan behind me holding out my already doctored coffee. “Remind me to thank you in sexual favors,” I whispered.

  Rabbi Abrams showed off the new front door. He hadn’t changed the hand scanners because he didn’t want to alert anyone, but this door was some heavy duty shit. It had rebar running in a “T” pattern. When the door was locked, the rebar sunk deep into the frame of the house. No one was breaking in through this puppy. The back door was now the same model.

  My burner phone trilled. I glanced at the text as I finished off my coffee.

  Thank me in sexual favors.

  I snorted my drink out, coughing. Ro patted me on the back, a pious expression on his face as he asked the rabbi questions about how the new security bars on all the windows opened from the inside.

  Rabbi Abrams walked us around the house, pointing out all the hidden camera that would be recording twenty-four seven with the data on a server in-house for our eyes only.

  “Does your niece own the security company?” I said.

  “She’s not really my niece. Daughter of my wife’s best friend. But yes. She’s discreet, trustworthy, and very good at her job.” Rabbi Abrams lowered himself into a chair on the back deck, rubbing his knee. “Do you have your phones on you?”

  We shook our heads, having left the Brotherhood-issued phones in Ro’s room, and got comfortable on the wicker sofa. I leaned against my boyfriend, my legs curled into my chest.

  “Update me,” Rabbi Abrams said.

  Rohan told him about the list. Rabbi Abrams asked for each individual name, closing his eyes. Once again, I’d have sworn he was asleep if he hadn’t been fidgeting with his kippah. “Stop,” he said at the seventh name. “Ilya. He trained here as an initiate many many years ago. His brother still lives here. Mischa didn’t carry the Rasha gene, but they were inseparable. I can put you in touch.”

  “Wouldn’t his brother have
been told he was dead?” I asked.

  The rabbi opened his eyes. “Most definitely, but Mischa was his twin. How well did you believe being told Ari was no longer being Rasha?”

  I pulled Ro to his feet. “We’re in business. But first I have to see a witch about some demons.”

  Gelman was in-between chemo treatments and looking a lot better today. In fact, she was dressed and waiting around for her green light to return to her sister’s house. That was the good news. The bad news was that when she glowered at me, holding the photo of Ferdinand and the woman tight enough to turn her fingers white, she was healthy enough that if she decided to blame the messenger, I was toast.

  Fuck it. What was one more target on my back? “Do you know her or not?”

  “This photo is a fake.” She flung it back at me.

  I picked it up off the ground and brushed it off. “Based on your savvy Photoshop skills?”

  “Based on the fact that Tessa would never have anything to do with a Rasha. She isn’t working with one and she certainly wasn’t involved with one.”

  I picked up the photo and shrugged. “Looks pretty chummy to me.”

  “Then she’s being coerced.”

  “Yeah, at a patio restaurant with a good view and a fancy-ass bottle of wine. Scary.”

  Gelman slammed her hand on the arm of the chair. “She hates the Brotherhood.”

  “You sure? Love makes people do stupid things.”

  “Yes, I’m sure, you insolent girl. Who do you think I got the Vashar from?”

  “Whoa. Hang on,” I said. “She made the Vashar? Is that not a case for her being involved in black magic?”

  “That magic was gray at best.”

  “Tomato, tohmahto. How can you defend her when she sicced the gogota on you? Those demons may have been modified by the Brotherhood, but Tessa was the only one who could have forced them to attack us. Bad enough the demon came after me for the Vashar, it came after you, period.”

  Gelman crossed her arms, jutted her chin out, and looked pointedly away.

  “This is your last warning. Quit upsetting her,” Sienna said, entering the room.

  I glared at her. She had bags under her eyes and her cartoony penguin scrubs were a glaring contrast to her listless shuffle. Even her dreads hung limply.

  “Do you have an APB out for my visits?” I said.

  “Yes. The nurses on this ward call me when you show up. Did you pack your toiletries?” Sienna went into the bathroom.

  “I already checked,” Gelman said.

  “Uh-huh.” Sienna returned, holding up a toothbrush. She hipchecked me off the hospital bed to toss the toothbrush into Gelman’s open suitcase.

  “You’re a total witch,” I said.

  Sienna raised her eyebrows. “And?”

  Grr. I pulled up a chair. “Lure kids to your gingerbread house, much?”

  “Nah. I have celiac. It’s straight up puppies and candy out the back of vans.”

  “Your patients must love you.”

  “They do.” She rubbed her temples.

  “Pulling overtime again?” Dr. Gelman said.

  Sienna blinked at her confused for a second, before nodding. “Yeah. Rough night.” She pointed at me. “I don’t like you and I certainly don’t trust you.”

  “Sienna, enough. Nava is annoying, but her intentions are good.”

  I pressed my hand to my heart and fell back in the chair. “Such praise. I’m verklempt.”

  Sienna picked up the photo. “Since when is that Tessa’s type?”

  “It’s not,” Gelman said. “He’s Rasha.”

  The room went absolutely, eerily still. Sienna’s lip curled and any trace of tiredness vanished. “Who is he?” she growled.

  “Since you both seem to be so chummy with her, how about one of you call her and find out what the deal with this guy is?” Suddenly, I was levitated horizontally, then crashed onto the ground. Hard. On my tailbone. Bypassing the nice chair I’d been sitting in altogether.

  I rubbed my butt, letting Sienna see the magic crackling over my hands. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “You want to earn a drop of trust with any witch who isn’t Esther? Give me his name.”

  If Sienna went after Ferdinand, I suspected it wouldn’t go well for him. I shut down my magic and hauled myself back into the chair. “Ferdinand Alves. I don’t know where he is but he attacked me and he has ice magic, so if you want to rip his balls off for taking advantage of your friend or whatever? Go nuts.”

  Sienna dropped the photo in my lap. “Bloodthirsty. There may be hope for you yet.” She scanned the empty closet and closed up Gelman’s suitcase. “Call me if you aren’t feeling well tonight.”

  I didn’t rate a goodbye.

  “Will I be able to levitate someone like Sienna did? Or wait.” I slid the photo into my pocket. “Fly?”

  “Levitating, even a split-second elimination of gravity, takes years to master. So I’m going to go with no. You want to fly? Book a plane ticket.” Gelman rummaged through her purse for her phone, scrolled through her contacts, and called Tessa. She left a message saying it was urgent. “We’ll be lucky if she gets this any time soon. This week was solstice. She’s probably at the Santa Barbara celebration.”

  “There are witchy vacation destinations?”

  “There are places of interest for our community, but Tessa lives in Los Angeles. It’s not far.”

  “Is Tessa powerful enough to wield black magic?” I said.

  “Possibly, but she wouldn’t do it for the Brotherhood. Tessa’s a very talented witch who fervently believes that organization is to blame for our community losing strength.”

  “How so?”

  “What do you know of the Laws of Thermodynamics?” she asked.

  “Nothing.”

  She muttered a few choice words about the dumbing down of humanity. “First Law. Energy can’t be created or destroyed. Same with magic. Think of all magic as a cup of rice. The number of grains are finite. They can be divided into piles but to do so you must take from one pile and give to another. No adding in new grains.”

  My stomach growled. “Hold that thought. I’m just gonna run to the vending machine.” I’d forgotten to restock my purse stash of snacks in all the excitement of the past couple days.

  Gelman rolled her eyes, reached into her bag and tossed me a granola bar.

  “Aw, thanks, Mom.” It even had chunks of dark chocolate in it. Sweet!

  “Feel free to chew before swallowing.”

  “I’m channeling my inner anaconda. So what you’re saying is the more Rasha, the smaller the witches’ pile?”

  “Yes.” She unwrapped her own granola bar, eating it with pointed slowness. “Tessa figured she could reverse the problem. Magically castrate the Brotherhood and all would be replenished.”

  “Hence the Vashar.”

  Gelman smiled.

  I gasped. “You cold-hearted snake.” I tipped my head in acknowledgement. “You stole the amulet from her so she couldn’t use it and then handed it over to the Brotherhood. Why would you do that? If not having Rasha means witches get stronger, don’t you want the same end goal?”

  “Take away the hunters, do you take away the demons?”

  “No.”

  “Precisely. So we stop future Rasha from being made and in, what, thirty years? Fifty? Demons run wild over the earth. We witches are not trained to handle it anymore, and most in my community have other concerns. We need hunters. Also.” She waved a hand dismissively. “The amulet was a crude solution. Stopping Rasha one at a time would be futile.”

  I made puppy dog eyes at her purse but no more treats were forthcoming. “Is it less magic or weaker magic as well?”

  “I suspect both. Historical records report witches’ magic had once been strong, come easily, and incurred less of a personal cost. That’s changed.” She cleared her throat. “We seem to succumb to disease faster these days.”

  I closed my eyes briefly. Was it h
er magic, not her smoking that had caused the cancer? On the surface, magic seemed so cool. It was necessary; I just wasn’t sure it was worth it. And from the wistful expression on Gelman’s face, I couldn’t tell if she did either.

  20

  Armed with Tessa’s full name and place of residence, I went to an internet café and Googled the shit out of her. What I found floored me.

  I leadfooted it back to Demon Club, parking the car practically sideways in my haste to get inside.

  Rohan and Drio were clipping their Brotherhood-crafted employee passes on beige overalls. A set of work boots and a hard hat sat on the table for each of us.

  I waved the record I’d found and printed at the café, mouthing the word “Phones?”

  “All clear.” Ro tossed me my overalls.

  “They’re married. Ferdinand and Tessa. I don’t think her friends knew about this.” I stripped off my sweats to step into my uniform. Changing backstage or in coed dressing rooms all those years for dance meant I didn’t give a crap about stripping down to my underwear in front of people.

  Rohan smacked Drio across the top of his head when he stared at my boobs more than listening to me.

  Drio shrugged. “Leo’s are better.”

  I plumped up my girls. “You wish. Pay attention. Even if Ferdinand charmed Tessa into marriage, convincing her to use her talents to bind demons, why would she go along with it if she hates the Brotherhood?”

  “Table it.” Ro zipped up my overalls and I smirked at him. “We gotta get to the docks.” Ro left the room but before I could stop him, Drio stepped in front of me.

  “Wanting a peek for the road?” I said. “Smart to wait for Ro to leave, but still not happening.”

  He scowled at me, rubbed his neck, and then scowled again. “I want to do something nice for Leo. Take her out. The two of us.” He jabbed my shoulder. “Why aren’t you making one of those little comments you think are so funny? You don’t think I’m good enough for her?”

  “This isn’t just hooking up. You want a serious relationship with her?”

  “Forget it.”

  “No.” I grabbed his arm. “You just caught me off-guard.” To say the least. I wasn’t going to out Leo and I wasn’t going to cast aspersions on their relationship, but I was going to have a very serious talk with my bestie very, very soon. “Take her to a Whitecaps game. Our soccer team,” I clarified.