Personal Demons

by David Morrison

  “And you didn’t try to save him?” I said, “The real Deepak?”

  “What was I supposed to do, make the vampires trip over their shoelaces? I told you, I don’t have the power I used to. The last thing I wanted was a bunch of punk-ass vampires to find out about me.”

  “Right,” I said, “Wow.”

  “That’s kind of dark,” Kate commented.

  “Yeah, well. There really wasn’t anything I could do and remember my magically bound priority was Jayce. I had no choice in that at all.”

  “What would you have done if they’d somehow found and taken me instead?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” Dee admitted, “Back in the day, sure, I could have had a crack at them, but nowadays...”

  Kate shrugged.

  “Well, at least we’re getting things out in the open,” she said, “and now I know for a fact that I’m not crazy.”

  “No-one actually said that,” I grinned.

  “Ha. Ha. Ha,” Kate replied.

  Somehow, over the past few hours the mood between the three of us had gradually lightened. Little jokes had begun to slip in, bits of banter here and there. It wasn’t much but it was a big improvement on where we had left things off, with both of them storming out of my house.

  Getting rid of our secrets was a huge relief for all of us.

  Suddenly, Dee’s face became serious again. He’d been outlining stuff about the djinn realm, filling Kate in on the mythology of this strange new world that we’d all found ourselves involved in. Some stuff I knew, some stuff I didn’t.

  Now, however, his face darkened.

  “There’s something else you both need to know,” he said, his voice sombre.

  “Go on,” I said.

  “You know that old joke about gingers not having souls?”

  He paused, hesitated. He grimaced as he dropped the bombshell.

  “It’s not a joke,” he said.

  Kate gasped, put her hand to her mouth. Ran a finger through her ginger hair.

  “No soul...?” she whispered, “But...”

  To his credit, Dee managed to keep his face straight for a full ten seconds before cracking up. Then he couldn’t hold it in any longer and he roared with laughter.

  “Your face, Kate,” he cried, wiping the tears from his eyes, “Oh my days, you should have seen the look on your face!”

  “You absolute idiot,” Kate said, but she quickly saw the funny side.

  For the next couple of minutes Dee howled with laughter and before long Kate and I were joining in.

  Chapter Thirty Nine: What’s Going On?

  “So now what?” Kate asked.

  “I’ve been piecing everything together and I think I’ve worked out what’s been going on. The demon that attacked me and killed the cursed one...”

  “Yeah, he sounds like what you’d call a ‘proper’ demon, from what you’ve told me,” Dee cut in, “One that took the other side in our civil war, fought against the angels. Warrior demon. Hard as nails. They don’t possess humans usually, but can shape-shift to resemble them.”

  “Right. Thanks. So this warrior demon. He wants to bring down the barrier between our world and Arcadia, and by all accounts that will be bad. Like apocalyptic, hell-on-earth bad.”

  “It doesn’t sound like anything good,” Dee said, “I can hardly remember our home and there’s no telling what could have happened there in the meantime. If the demon is out for revenge, bringing down the barrier would be a good start.”

  “Okay, so I think he somehow found out the first cursed one was living not too far from here. If he’s been stuck here for the last seventy years, maybe he got lucky, discovered who one of them was.”

  “That’s quite a coincidence,” Kate said, “The cursed one living so close to us.”

  “Maybe, but I’m pretty sure that’s the only coincidence. I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Less than eight hours after the murder, the Monster Liberation Front...”

  “Dumb name,” Dee said.

  “Shut up, it’s my name and I’m sticking to it. Less than eight hours after the murder, the MLF hit Section 19. The timing is way too close for it to be a coincidence, right? I think they were looking for the Operation Blackstar file, working with the demon – or the commander as they called him. The warrior demon knew who one of the cursed ones was, but didn’t know who the other two were.”

  “There were rumours the first one was tortured before he was killed,” Kate said.

  “Right, good –I mean, no, not good, horrible in fact, you know what I mean. He wanted information. The demon tortured the first cursed one to get the names of the other two. He also got the name of the operation they worked under. The problem was that the first cursed one didn’t know the new identities of the other two. So the demon ordered the attack on Section 19 to get the relevant files and put the section out of commission while he pursued the other two. At the time, half of his team were out on call, posing as section agents, dealing with the demon hound that had accidentally been released. I think the portals opening when a cursed one died were an unintended side effect.”

  “Yeah, probably,” Dee agreed, “That much pent up magical energy would have had consequences.”

  “So as soon as they got back to the base, they set off their strike. Me being there was coincidental to the actual attack, but it was triggered by the same event. You following me?”

  “Yeah, I got this so far,” Dee said. Kate nodded.

  “Right. So then they had the files on Operation Blackstar. It told them who was involved in casting the spell that closed off Arcadia. It told them who were the last two members they had to kill, but they had the same problem as before. Operation Blackstar had the original names of the warlocks involved in the ritual. It didn’t contain information about the cursed ones’ new identities. So the demon warrior and his crew were back to square one.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Kate said, “He found the second one.”

  “No,” I said, “Our anonymous hacker found the second and the third one by trawling through various classified databases and bank records, piecing it all together bit by bit. When did the warrior demon find the second cursed one?”

  “Right after you went there,” Kate said, “after you called the section.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So either the demon somehow overheard the phone conversation, or he was tracking you,” Kate concluded.

  “I think so, yes. I led the demon to the second cursed one.”

  “Why would he be monitoring you?”

  “Why wouldn’t he be? Weird kid with powers shows up out of nowhere, gets involved with both Section 19 and the Pryces. I’m an unknown variable in the scheme of things. I’d want to know what this new kid was up to and how he was involved. If nothing else he might have been planning to recruit me until I got in his way.”

  “So, do you think the hacker was in on it?” Dee asked.

  “No, I don’t. If he or she was, they would have just handed the cover names and addresses over to the demon. They wouldn’t have bothered contacting me. The MLF was probably keeping an eye on me, and as soon as I flagged up something weird, they made a move.”

  “Yeah, okay. I’m impressed Jayce,” Kate said.

  “Yeah, thanks, well, I’m not all dumb.”

  “No-one ever said you were,” Kate teased.

  “Actually you did half a dozen times.”

  “Let it go.”

  Kate thought of something else, “Wait, Victoria and Vincent Pryce?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You mean like the actor?”

  “I guess?” I said.

  “Vincent Pryce. That’s funny,” Kate nodded.

  “If you say so,” I shrugged.

  “So how do the Pryces fit into all of this?” Dee asked.

  “I don’t think they do. I think the warrior demon and the MLF are doing their own thing. If the demon warrior was working with the Pryces, I doubt he would hav
e stabbed me. Victoria has invested way too much in me for that, and besides I’ve got no reason not to trust her. There are three factions in play here. The MLF, headed by the demon warrior, Section 19 with their shoot to kill policy and the Pryces with their sanctuary. Four factions if you count the hacker.”

  “Okay, but the demon knew your name,” Kate said.

  “Yeah – the doctor at the section, remember? Pierce. She’s working with him, so she’d have told him about me.”

  “I think she was another demon,” Dee said, “From what you told me, probably a possession demon. She’d have got inside the original Doctor Pierce, taken over her body. Easiest way to infiltrate Section 19. At first I thought she was a half-troll from your description but possession demon makes more sense.”

  “A troll?” Kate said, “Trolls exist as well?”

  “Yeah okay little Miss X-Files, one day we’ll sit down and I’ll fill you in on all the supernatural creatures that exist. Trolls are fey, in essence. Most of them left before our barrier went up, but there are still a few kicking around. Wait till you meet a real-life goblin.”

  Dee winked at me at the ‘goblin’ line. I wasn’t sure if he was pulling her leg again.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Kate said. I could see her filing every detail away. Ever since she was twelve she’d been looking out for evidence of the supernatural, believing it existed despite all the cover-ups. Now that she’d finally had it confirmed, she certainly wasn’t going to stop digging into it.

  “So in theory there’s still a chance to stop all of this,” Kate said, “If we can protect the last cursed one.”

  “I think so - and I think I know how to do it.”

  I went into the kitchen and retrieved all of our mobile phones from the draw I’d put them in. I’d become aware of how easy it was for people to listen in to conversations through phones, so I’d made sure that we’d switched ours off and then put them in another room to be on the safe side.

  I fished out the phone Victoria had given me, figuring it was the least likely to have been bugged by Section 19. Dialled Victoria’s number.

  “Jason,” she said, “What can I do for you?”

  “I need your help, Victoria. I need transport. Maybe a couple of your soldiers if possible.”

  “Are you in trouble?”

  “No, someone else is, and it’s serious. I’ll explain everything when we’ve got this person to the sanctuary. Right now I need your help to pick them up.”

  “Why not just tell me where they are and I can send someone?”

  “It’s too risky. I think our phones are being monitored. If I say or text the address, someone else could get there first. It’s best if I go, pick this person up and bring them to you.”

  “This sounds serious,” Victoria replied.

  “Victoria, please believe me when I say to you that it is. I can’t go into details now, but we can stop it. Together.”

  Victoria considered.

  “I can send the limo and the driver. I can’t spare more than that right now. We’re on high alert after Major Wilson’s attack. I’m still half expecting Section 19 to show up at any second.”

  I’d been hoping for a helicopter. The limo would have to do.

  “Tell your man to hurry. And thanks, Victoria.”

  I ended the call.

  “You’re taking the cursed one to the Pryces’?” Kate asked, “Why not Section 19?”

  “Because quite frankly, Section 19 just screw everything up.”

  “Fair point,” Dee nodded.

  “Good, right. That’s all sorted. I’ll pick up the cursed one, get her to safety.”

  Kate and Dee looked at each other meaningfully and then looked at me.

  “What do you mean ‘I’?” Kate said, “You aren’t doing this on your own anymore. No chance.”

  “What?”

  “We’re coming with you, mate,” Dee nodded.

  Chapter Forty: To the Rescue

  It was pointless trying to talk either of them out of it. Despite knowing how dangerous this might be, they both insisted on coming. After twenty minutes of going back and forth on it, they wore me down. I wasn’t happy about it, but neither of them would budge.

  As we were waiting, I cut off the plaster cast on my right arm. Flexed my fingers. The broken bones had healed. So had the wound on my stomach. The arm felt heavier, as if the bones had hardened after the injury. The area around my stomach felt tougher too.

  “Are you okay?” Kate asked.

  “Yeah, I think so. Where I was injured. It feels stronger. Heavier.”

  “I heard bones grow back stronger after they break,” Dee said.

  “That’s a myth,” Kate replied, “It could be a side effect of your healing abilities. We should get your arms x-rayed. See if there’s any noticeable difference. Maybe run some tests.”

  Despite only having known about everything for a few hours, Kate hadn’t missed a beat. She’d taken it all in her stride and swiftly adapted to the new circumstance.

  I grinned, “You sound like Victoria.”

  “Yeah, I’m looking forward to meeting her,” Kate replied, “She sounds like the kind of woman I want to be when I grow up.”

  “What, insanely rich and living in a huge mansion?”

  “No, idiot. I’m practically doing all of that anyway. I mean the doctorates. That stuff.”

  Of course.

  “Nerd.”

  “Ha, that’s a nerd you love, remember?” Kate bantered back.

  “What?” Dee asked.

  “Jason lurves me,” Kate teased, “He said so.”

  I glowered at Kate.

  “That’s not what I said,” I mumbled, my cheeks flushing. Getting stabbed by a demon and trying to save the world? No sweat. Having a pretty girl tease me?

  Yeah, I still had some issues.

  “You luuuuurve me, Jayce. You told me so.”

  I gritted my teeth. After all this confession and honesty, this was my reward? It hardly seemed fair.

  There was something playful in Kate’s tone that pulled me back from getting peeved about it though. So instead of being irritable, I smiled and held up my index finger, shushing Kate.

  “I said, if you recall, ‘I think I love you’ and I’m rapidly revising that opinion,” I bantered back.

  Kate grinned, content.

  Right answer, Jason. Ten points, well done.

  Dee groaned and pretended to vomit, “Get a room already.”

  Banter, jokes, teasing. Things were almost back to normal between the three of us.

  For a short while, at least.

  *

  The limo took an hour to arrive.

  “Sweet ride,” Dee said. Kate looked less impressed. She’d grown up surrounded by rock stars and minor royalty, a snazzy limo wasn’t anything special to her. We got in the back. The driver was the same one that had driven me to Avebury.

  “Where to, sir?” he asked.

  I gave him limited directions, enough to send us in the right direction without giving the exact address. I was getting better at the cloak and dagger stuff. Suppose the limo was bugged? That could have been the end of it there and then.

  I privately congratulated myself on my improvements on the whole ‘spy’ side of things.

  As we got into the limo, I realised I shouldn’t have let Kate and Dee come along. It was far too dangerous. I knew why I hadn’t argued with them as forcefully as I should have, though, and silently cursed myself for it.

  The fact was, we’d been bickering and fighting for over a week about pretty much everything, and I couldn’t bear to start another disagreement this early into our reconciliation. So instead of putting my foot down I’d caved in and allowed them to come on the road, potentially putting them in harm’s way.

  I had to keep them as far from the knife-wielding psycho-demon as possible, but I’d still let them come along. Part of the reason I’d told them everything was I hadn’t thought it fair that they might be
put in danger because of me and not know why. Now they were heading straight towards it.

  Maybe Victoria was right, I thought glumly, keeping my friends and family in the dark might well have been safer for them.

  Despite my strong misgivings, it was good to have them both along for the journey. I was hopeful that there wouldn’t be another confrontation with the demon. It had taken him an hour and a half to catch up with me in High Wycombe. Although I still wasn’t sure how he’d tracked me, I figured this mission would have a much faster turnaround. All we needed to do was get to Christchurch, get the last cursed one and get back to the sanctuary.

  Easy mission, no complications.

  I tried to relax. With the right precautions everything would be fine. There was no reason for Kate and Dee to end up in danger.

  As for me?

  Ever since Victoria had revealed what I was and where my powers came from, I was feeling more self-assured than ever before. The last week had toughened me up and knowing what I was created a new sense of certainty I hadn’t ever felt before. A confidence that I wasn’t used to.

  There were still questions to be answered: Who had experimented on me, who bound Dee to me, why had my biological parents abandoned me? Despite that, knowing what I was had cleared away a lot, maybe all, of my self-doubt. I owed Victoria for that. She’d made good on her promise to help me out.

  Sure, I wasn’t thrilled that someone had injected me with an experimental serum at less than two years old, but at least I knew what had made me this way. The years of being scared of myself were over and the fears that I might accidentally hurt someone were also gone.

  I was starting to feel in control of myself and my powers.

  Not a hundred percent, but enough for a rematch with Mr Stabby if it came to it.

  Chapter Forty One: Nobody Home

  Christchurch is a pretty town on the south coast, a popular tourist destination during the summer because of its beaches and historic buildings. On a damp, windswept November evening it’s less of a sightseeing spot and more of a ‘wrap up warm and stay indoors’ type of town. It was described by a national newspaper as “The Retirement Capital of the United Kingdom” due to having one of the oldest populations in the country. Over thirty percent of the residents were over sixty-five years old.