Daimonion (The Apocalypse Book 1)

by J. P. Jackson

Marta was my last chance. I had hoped that she could do some white healing magic that would help us find him. Apparently, she had already used that.

  But then I considered that her efforts would never work. Marta was searching for the human Alyx. That Alyx was no more. The demon Alyx, however…

  I carefully planned my words to make sure they counted. “Your young man made a foolish and ill-timed decision to find me. How he did it, I have no idea.”

  “You foul creature. You twist words to make me think you’re some good beast? Trying to help me? I knew I couldn’t trust you. I knew my deal with a demon would come back to haunt me. It always does. Is this then my payment? My Alyx? I should’ve known better…” Tears streamed down her face as she clenched her tissue closer.

  “Marta, how many times have I come here for your help over the years? It’s been a rare occurrence when I’ve darkened your doorway. Other than your talent for healing, what have I ever asked of you? Nothing. I kept my word. Alyx was safe. But Alyx grew up and began making his own decisions. You have to know I did nothing. But if we don’t work together, we will both lose him, if he isn’t lost already.”

  “What do you mean lose him?” she sobbed through tears of frustration.

  This wasn’t going to be easy.

  “Alyx isn’t human anymore.”

  She shook her head. “No, no, no. No!” Marta yelled at me this time while slamming her fists into the shop’s counter. I had to show her.

  I lifted up my shirt and displayed the red jagged wound that was healing nicely. It would eventually form a scar crisscrossing just under my ribs from where the silver minion had extracted itself.

  “My master infected his small horde with…I don’t know what they are…parasites maybe? Our instructions were to find hosts and… well, it’s complicated.”

  Marta’s lips hadn’t changed, but her face was scrunching up and turning into a scowl full of rage. She wasn’t hearing any of this, but I had to keep trying.

  “These parasites transfer demon blood into suitable human hosts, which turns them into…well, us. Your Alyx was infected with my blood. He’s been missing for a week because he’s been trapped inside a cocoon. His body morphed into…into one of my kind.”

  “What are you saying?” Marta spit out the words with hatred. Little droplets of saliva flew out of her mouth as she spoke.

  “I’m saying that Alyx found me on his own. He got too close to me, and one of these bugs decided that he was a suitable candidate. The thing ripped itself out of me and bore its way into Alyx. That started the process of changing Alyx into a D’Alae, like me.”

  Marta backed away from the counter, distancing herself from me. “No, it can’t…” She screamed at the top of her lungs, turning away from me, and gripping the sides of her head. “I was supposed to keep him close, keep him on the right side.” Marta was blithering. “I did everything to ensure that. You were never to take him.”

  Marta slumped to the floor.

  I rushed over and caught her, not wanting her to pass out or bang her head on something.

  “Up you go.” I hoisted her up, but her knees were still buckling. So instead of attempting to get her to stand, I scooped her into my arms and carried her to the office in the back of the shop. This time, she was the patient on her fainting couch. I sat in her swivel chair.

  I gave her a few moments to compose herself while I fiddled with a wand that was lying on her desk. I dropped it abruptly when its crystal point touched my skin and burnt me.

  I shook my hand, trying to alleviate the pain, and noticed the blister beginning to form. “Marta, I don’t know what I can do to prove that I have no desire to hurt Alyx or you. If anything, I want to protect him.”

  “Well, you didn’t do a very good job of that now, did you?” The words stabbed deep with the truth of it.

  “No. I didn’t.” I let my head hang slightly. The guilt I felt weighed like a bag of rocks that pulled me under unseen waters.

  Marta sniffled as she watched me. Despite her anger, her anxiousness from not having seen or heard from Alyx for days, she put that aside as I struggled with my own inner imps of failure.

  “Alright, beast, let me see.”

  Marta grabbed my hand. Her tender human flesh felt warm and secure until her light magic wrapped around my hand as energy tendrils trickled, sparks igniting randomly.

  Her spell continued to gain in strength, encompassing more and more of me until a wall of light pushed me up from the chair where I sat and pinned me against the wall of Marta’s office. A wave of nauseating brightness penetrated through me and burned deep, searing into my eyes. It felt like shafts of sunlight were stabbing my head—but it was Marta’s fingers, digging through my brain for memories.

  I felt her firm touch but was aware of her soft skin. Marta’s perfume, an aroma of jasmine and vanilla, overcame me. Her odour was oppressive, but I did not sense it through my nose or skin. It was deep within me. I could feel her inside my head, searching for something hidden within my memory. The truth.

  The night Alyx showed up at my place.

  Jenae crossed the hall to tell me a friend had arrived. I told her I had no friends. Hemming lay wounded on the couch. Alyx entered into my apartment, an unknown and uninvited guest. I warned him to get away, but instead he took just one step too close. And then it was done. The parasite sailed through the air, I leaked blood, and Alyx collapsed as the minion bore its way into him.

  The black crystals swarmed out of his wound quickly, covering him in his entombment. Glassy pillars anchored him to the ceiling and walls of my bedroom where I laid him gently to rest during his metamorphosis.

  The memories of the past week flooded through me, right up to the point Alyx shirked away from my outstretched hand—the heavy guilt I had from not having kept him safe and the stabbing rejection as Alyx refused me. I was so sure that he and I would…

  As suddenly as it came, the wall of light receded and I was left reeling. My hands grasped for something to steady me.

  Marta caught me and helped me sit down. I had become the patient again. Once settled, she patted my thigh.

  “Okay, demon. I see what you know. Memories do not lie.” She might have been kind to me, but there was still grit in her voice, a tenaciousness that hinted at the lengths she would go to for her boy. “Who is the girl? I have seen her before…” She wiped the tears away from her cheeks. “Wait…I think…”

  Marta went to one of her filing cabinets. There were several in the back room, each holding any assortment of items, the least of which were files. She pulled out a large plain envelope from the one silver cabinet next to her desk and dumped the contents. Scattered in no order were a number of pictures.

  Marta fingered carefully through the old photos; most were losing their colour. As she did, her fingers appeared reticent, as if these were memories that were too hard to touch.

  “Here.” She held out a photo towards me.

  I took the photo cautiously, eyeing her while I grasped the image. She nodded and urged me to look.

  It wasn’t a good photo. A little blurry even, but I was stunned. It was a picture of Alyx and a very young version of Jenae…

  And Master.

  “What the Hell is this?” I did not like the uneasy feeling that swirled in my gut. My brain threading together connections that I was unsure I wanted to know.

  “That”—she pointed at the photo—“is Alyx’s father. He was the one who tricked me, who made me believe that I could overlook your evil and live a happy life. That I could love one of you… I was a young, foolish witch. But from that unthinkable relationship, I had Alyx. The only thing that kept me living with my choices, from ending everything, was Alyx. I was so young and so stupid.”

  “That’s Alyx’s father?” My stomach lurched.

  “Yes.”

  “That is my Master. He was the one who sent me to your house when Alyx was a child. He wanted me to harvest Alyx.”

  “Well, of course he did, yo
u idiot.” Marta stared at me incredulously. “He wanted Alyx by his side, and I wouldn’t let him anywhere near. It took everything I knew to shield Alyx. Everything. But it is almost impossible to hide a father’s flesh and blood or from any eyes who had seen Alyx. If Silenus had never laid a hand on his son or never had him in his sights, I would have been able to steal Alyx away from him forever. More mistakes I made.”

  “How is Jenae with them? What is she doing in this?”

  “That is Alyx’s half-sister. After I sent Silenus packing and barred him from ever entering this house, he returned repeatedly but only once with the girl in tow. He hoped that with another child in hand, claiming she was Alyx’s sister, I would succumb and take them both in. I met them in the park near the house, and I let Alyx play with the girl. But it was a short visit. Only enough time to ensure that Silenus knew he was never to come calling ever again. A neighbour took the photo—not that I was aware—and she gave it to me shortly after.

  “I know how to drive him back to his damned world. And if I had, he would never have gotten back out.”

  I caressed the edge of the photo. Alyx’s father was my Master. The overwhelming ties and subtle manipulations that Master had machinated over the years left me speechless. Worse, I wondered how much of my feelings towards Alyx were my own. Had Master somehow spoon-fed me in ways that I hadn’t discerned all in an attempt to get his son back close to him?

  “It damn near killed me to turn her away,” Marta continued, “knowing that he would get his grip into the child and twist her. I’ve lived with a lot of heavy burdens over the years to bring up Alyx as far removed from the dark as possible. I made sure Alyx had access to the knowledge in my store, but I fed him full of the light and all the power that comes with it.

  “I knew one day he would have to fend his own battle. I didn’t realize it would come so soon. I wanted him to have a life before any of this reared its ugly face.”

  A very loud thump came from down the hallway. It almost sounded like a car had hit the stone wall in the back of Marta’s shop.

  Then from the front of the store, the sound of breaking glass filled the room. The big picture window must have shattered.

  As soon as the sound of tinkling shards had stopped, the light in the room Marta and I sat in dimmed, and the shadows grew very long, very quickly. The air grew dense and thick, and an uneasy feeling fell over me.

  “Hello? I smell a demon and a white witch in here! Where you at, sweeties?” a musical voice filled the room, and the smell of cherries and honey saturated the air.

  “Oh shit.” I turned to Marta, “Listen to me and listen quick. I haven’t seen this one in a very long time and she’s…”

  “Hush, D’Alae. I know a Succubus when I smell one.”

  Killing

  DATI

  The shadows in the dark corners of the room elongated and reached for the ceiling. We had seconds before the beast would show in the doorway. My hands morphed into demon talons, and the skin on my face tightened. I was ready for what was coming. Marta, on the other hand, was calm and still, and her eyes were closed. Around her, a faint glow emanate, almost like a halo.

  The aroma of cherries intensified, and a sticky honey scent lingered after it. Staccato clicks echoed, growing louder with each step. Long slender fingers wound around the edge of the doorframe, the nails painted a deep red.

  The demon was very tall and lithe, and she slinked out of the pitch black of the hallway, entering into Marta’s office. I crouched to fighting stance, ready for battle, claws raised.

  “Well now.” She leered at me, her gaze sultry. “It has been a while, hasn’t it, Dati?” She walked over to me, hips swinging suggestively, her tight black dress enhancing every curve of her body. The outfit was split from the waist to the floor, and the ends of the dress puddled behind her. Black leather stiletto boots encased her shapely thighs. She bent over and, with puckered lips, placed a gentle kiss on my forehead, despite the fact I was hunkered, postured for a fight.

  She giggled manically and then wiped her lipstick off of my skin. She dragged one long sharp nail down the side of my face and under the jawline, up to my chin.

  “I like the beard, honey. It suits you.”

  “Alicia, it has been a long time,” I spat out between clamped teeth. “A very quiet and uneventfully long time without you around.”

  “Now, now. Don’t be petty. It doesn’t do your body good. All that pent-up negative emotion causes stress. Don’t worry, hon, I had more than enough fun while I was away. But Master asked me to come back. Special assignment. How could I resist?” Alicia flicked her head and long tendrils of thick dark curly hair bounced across her shoulders. The simple gesture revealed two shiny black horns, hidden in the voluminous hair that any woman would kill for. And several had.

  “Hanging out with white witches now? Hardly demon-ish of you. And drop the war-stance, sweetie. It’s not gonna get you anywhere anyway. What’s the line? ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter’?” Alicia rolled her eyes, then leered at Marta, who stared down at the floor of the office, doing anything and everything possible to thwart what would have been an instant attraction to the Succubus if she so much as glanced at Alicia. Whatever calm meditation or spell she attempted before Alicia’s entrance had long since evaporated.

  “Oh, sweetie, don’t worry. I’m not gonna lick you in places you’ve never thought of. You’re not my type. But I might want to watch you squirm just a little.”

  Marta grimaced.

  “See, Master brought me back for some specific reasons. I learned all kinds of things while getting fucked by the old goat. Turns out the old boy’s still got it, and he’s thick. I like ’em thick.” She held out a cupped hand, indicating a size, and smiled devilishly. “Know what he told me? He said you were a good lay back in the day, huh? Liked it a little dirty, too.”

  “Alicia, please. This is not really necessary,” I said as Marta’s cheeks reddened.

  “Such a prude, Dati.” Alicia whipped her head around towards me. Her pupils morphed into slits like a snake ready to strike. Her irises burned and shimmered topaz colours. “Really, put the claws away, D’Alae, or she will pay.”

  Alicia leaned in, and despite her original promise, a forked tongue lashed out and licked Marta’s cheek. Marta whimpered but held fast and kept her eyes tightly shut.

  Now we were in trouble. Succubae were female demons who used sex, pheromones, and human desire to get what they wanted, creating chaos in their wake. Alicia was by far the most devious, mean-spirited bitch I had ever met. Once her eyes shifted, there was no turning back. She had turned on all of her charm and was coming at us with hormones racing at full tilt. I could smell her musky scent of rage underneath the permeating stench of cherries.

  Against my better judgement, but wanting to keep Marta safe, I suppressed my demon, leaving us undefended.

  “Never did understand why you turned all this down.” She ran the palm of her hand over the front of her breast, which I was quite sure would make a fleshy appearance by bursting forth from the skimpy attire. “But then, I had no idea you liked the little boys. And as it would happen, I’ve found one for you. In fact, I think you already like this one.”

  My mind reeled, thinking of my missing Alyx. I took a step towards Alicia and snarled in the process.

  Alicia, unfazed by my warning, bent over and whispered in my ear, “Tell me, is he tight? He looks like he would be.” She leaned back to stare me in the eye before calling, “Oh, boys!”

  Heavy footsteps stampeded in the hallway as an assortment of male demon ilk and human men, all dressed in black, filed in around Alicia.

  A couple of shadowy figures formed in the darker corners of the office where we stood, while a flock of crows erupted from behind her. The bird’s wings became a flurry of feathers, and the squawking drowned out all noise as the fowl flew together and coalesced into a mass, morphing quickly into a monster of a man that stood behind her and guarded her. The demon’s hair
was jet black and long, and seemed to be made out of the birds’ plumage. His eyes were solid white.

  A thundering crash came from the back door as it was blown open, and the sound of more footsteps stormed from the hallway that led to the alley out back. The tips of my fingers slowly turned sharp and black as my talons returned, anticipating a fight—but I was trying very hard not to lose control.

  Along with the cacophony of footsteps, I recognized the sound of something being dragged. I controlled my breathing, hoping that it wasn’t what I feared.

  Seconds went by, and we were surrounded by Alicia’s male-harem, each of them decked out in shadowy clothing, tough boots, and sporting overdeveloped muscles. Each man displayed the same red scar mark on their necks: a circle with two vertical slashes near the top. It was Alicia’s hex mark. That scar told every other demon that these men belonged to her.

  With my D’Alae strength, I would have outmatched any of them one-on-one…except for maybe the crow man. He was huge. But with all of them surrounding me, I was significantly outnumbered.

  As Alicia’s sentinels came into the office, they split, circling us. One hung back. He was another huge monstrosity, whose face was more bull than human. He sported an earring in each lobe and a large link of chain through his nose. He came into the center of the room, directly between Alicia, Marta and I, and dumped a body at Alicia’s feet.

  The prisoner’s wings were sprawled out and pinioned with a thick brass ring that pierced through the reddish leathery skin. His arms and legs were hog-tied.

  Alicia grabbed a shank of his red hair and lifted his head up.

  “Alyx.” I might have been relieved to finally have him in my sights, but in the current situation, there was no room for relief. I was actually terrified. Alyx was in danger. My lips curled, my eyes went hot, and another snarl rumbled menacingly in my chest.

  The men in black nearest me took a step forward, closing in.

  “Please…leave him,” Marta begged, her chest heaving with sadness. Tears streamed down her face. “Take me. Do whatever you want to me, but leave my boy alone.”