Demon's Grace Ch. 04

Neither demon stood, but they were both definitely on alert. Ezra's aura grew and, like an octopus, its tentacles seeped into and wrapped around my own power.

The demon on our warrant stood in front of our small, square table and eyed Carlos. "You would not have succeeded, with or without them," Taurin said.

Carlos said nothing. There was silence.

Fucking demons. They could stay like this for days, years probably, Carlos too come to think of it. Thankfully the bar would close before then. I sighed turning his attention to me. I was then on the receiving end of a stare I couldn't fathom. I stared back, taking in his human form, which I barely noticed when I attacked him. He was gorgeous.

I wondered if it was natural or if he worked that hard with deception. If all his victims were women or homosexuals I would say that he used it as a weapon, but they weren't. As far as Carlos and I knew, partly due to the rumor mill of demon hunters, he killed everyone and everything indiscriminately, lately focusing on our profession.

I looked at the tall, blond haired, blue eyed demon in front of us. His eyes were definitely in demon mode. They were a color that could be called glacier blue. I stared, watching ice form and crack across the entirety of his eyes. It was beyond beautiful.

The waitress came into our oppressive sphere at the same time I felt Ezra's tail lash tightly around my left foot. My experience told me that I wouldn't see anything if I looked down, it was the spirit manifestation of it. I put my hand to my lips to hold back a laugh, thinking I was getting as bad as the rest of the boys by just standing there saying nothing. I sat down abruptly and pulled Carlos down just as the waitress reached our table.

She was grumpy and didn't care who knew it, curt words tripping out of her mouth as she started to turn towards Taurin, "Are you leaving or staying?"

Bronti quickly distracted her with an exaggerated movement. "We'll be staying. I've changed my mind, I would like a dry red wine. Our friend here does not want anything. Don't worry about the change." He gave her money and artfully redirected her back to the bar. When she was occupied he flicked his hand and a chair seemed to form out of the shadows next to Taurin.

I stifled another laugh. 'Changed his mind.' I don't think I ever knew a demon to change their mind, much less actually say those words. Keeping the stupid grin on my face, I leaned back in my chair. My chair tipped precariously on its back legs. Honestly, I don't know what got into me, everything seemed a little funny.

Bronti's voice came hard and stern out of his mouth. "Sit down. Unless you've come to do battle right here in front of everyone. You've done it before."

Taurin continued to watch me. He slid into the chair just as the waitress placed a wine glass on the table. Bronti's expression changed completely and he gave a brilliant smile that had me blinking with surprise at him. It bedazzled my attention away from Taurin briefly, it definitely kept the waitress from noticing him. What good liars they all are. I took a swallow of my soda as Taurin turned his gaze to Ezra.

"I wanted to inform Ezra that I would be aligning myself with him before I bonded with this one," gesturing to me with his hand.

The forceful thunk of the front legs of my chair on the floor vibrated up my body. There was no grace in my movements as I stopped myself from spitting ginger ale all over everyone. I think Carlos was as astonished as I was because I saw the swift movements of him reaching for his blades. Bronti's restraining hand reached his arm a little before mine did on his other side. I turned to Ezra to cough to him that his tail was now cutting off circulation to my foot.

"These games you play," Ezra whispered darkly.

I watched black seep into his eyes like smoke from the borders. I cleared my throat and looked over at Taurin. He looked composed.

"I could just kill her," he replied.

My hand reached out in a calming gesture to Ezra. He gave off streams of heat. I cleared my throat, "Taurin, you say that we would not be able to kill you. Therefore, if you killed us, me rather, let's say, free lunch for you. The Affairs' would send out more hunters and you wouldn't have to search for them because they would be coming to you. You could just keep killing. So, my question to you is how many hunters bonded to demons would it take working together before you would be in deep shit? Also, why bond at all, there's no benefit in it for you."

"There aren't enough bonded demons out there that don't owe me something. And I want a demon hunter so I can get off the Affairs' list. Simple."

My eyes narrowed at the certainty in which he spoke. I knew there was more to it than that. "Why don't you just let Carlos and me find you a demon hunter to bound with?" I asked. I felt Carlos' glare before he even turned his head.

Taurin laughed and I got the impression that he laughed at himself, "Who would have me?" He gestured to his chest with his hand.

"Well, why would you think that I would?"

Ezra's hand tightened briefly on mine. "I can answer this for you, Dove."

Ezra continued to stare into Taurin's eyes, which had turned a human looking blue. "Because he will attempt to sip you to death every time you are weak and psychically unguarded. Which means he will be hounding your every step to be in touching distance. Focusing entirely on you. He did not just draw your blood, he drew your blood with magical intent. Magical intent prepared in advance."

Taurin grinned. "It will be a fun game, won't it. Gives me more of a challenge instead of just outright killing you."

Carlos looked at Bronti questioningly. Bronti nodded slightly to him. I started to put the pieces together, massaging my hands as I did and letting Carlos talk.

"Why doesn't this happen more often?" he asked.

"Because we kill you. Demon hunters are a nuisance," Bronti said without any shame. "Dove didn't die."

I finally let out what I was thinking. "You guessed I wouldn't die! And you," I turned, "what was your plan?" I didn't let Ezra answer because I swiftly turned to Bronti again. "You did it on purpose. You bargained with him." I pointed angrily at Taurin and gave him steely eyes. "What's the deal Taurin? I think I have the right to know!"

"Ask Bronti," he replied with a casual flick of his fingers.

"You set everything in place and moved us like chess pieces." Carlos said calmly.

"It was you or her. It was not going to be you," Bronti said as he looked at him.

"No, you mean it wasn't going to be you." Carlos retorted, unable to keep a bite of anger out of his tone.

"Of course, but there is also truth that I refused to have it be you. Taurin wanted a way into Affairs', he asked me for you, I came up with a better idea. My debt is repaid."

"And what if Ezra showed up?" Carlos asked the demon.

Bronti smirked. "I had something prepared for that, but didn't have to resort to it."

Carlos turned to me and said severely, "This is why you don't bind yourself to demons. For exactly this reason. They always play a good game of chess."

I clenched my jaw. I wasn't about to get into an argument with Carlos with three demons surrounding us. I turned my attention to Bronti. "Let me see if I got this right. You advise Carlos to take the kill." I gave no apologies to Taurin for that. "Makes sense, because Ezra's not there, and you'd make sure he wouldn't be there even if he did decide to show. Taurin attacks Carlos while he's looking for him through magic because you told him exactly where we would be. You guess that I'd defend Carlos while he was distracted."

My stare hardened on him."You play a risky move there because I don't think Taurin would have cared who he took down. I just got in the way faster." I spared Taurin a short glance. He gave back expressionless eyes and face. "You wait those precious moments after he attacks me so he can latch onto a piece of my power and then throw up the protection spell. Your next risky move is that you wait for Ezra to cure me instead of kill me." I turned an accusing glare at Ezra.

Ezra's hand came up to cradle my face, his eyes a galaxy of stars.

He spoke softly, "Dove."

I shook my head to dislodge his grip and angrily retorted, "Dove nothing! And stop trying to calm me down! It's ok for you to be angry, but not me?!"

"Nothing should be unexpected when it comes to us. You know this. Finding a hunter who would willingly bind themselves to me, none would have it until you." He leaned in so close that his lips touched my ears. Barely any sound came out as he continued, "And I was looking from before the Affairs' wrote the law."

I gave him startled eyes at his revelation.

He pulled back and spoke in a louder voice, "Taurin will be a hundred times worse to find someone willing because he has been killing your kind with intent. I told you that we could not kill him, not now, not as we are. There was no time to prepare you. He will try to kill you if you decide to decline this," he glared over at Taurin, "honor. It is your decision however."

Taurin remained expressionless as I glanced at him.

Carlos ran his fingers over his skull. "This cannot be happening. You can't have two demons bound to you. One, you're paranoid, two, you're mad."

"Thanks for your support," I said dryly.

He looked down at his knife. "It's never been done and it's not mentioned. Demons don't play together. I don't even know if it's possible!"

"It's never been done." Bronti said decisively.

I sneered at Bronti, "I don't even want to hear your voice. In fact I don't even want to look at you. You can leave now." I didn't really expect him to leave. He didn't, but he did give me an oily smile.

Ezra looked at Taurin, "I will destroy you if she dies due to your conniving." He paused, "Regardless of any words spoken between us." His tone light... unconcerned.

I eyed Ezra, unable to process the contrast between his words and tone. He wouldn't go up against Taurin for a warrant, but he would for me. I gave a confused head shake but refused to stray from priorities. I gazed back at a thoughtful Taurin and heard him speak the word.

"I will not kill your pet."

That was it. That was the word I was sure Ezra was going to use earlier. My jaw clenched and I sprang off my chair to jump over the table. I'm not sure what form my adrenaline would have taken, slap, punch, knee in the chin. It's just as well Carlos grabbed my sword arm from one side and Ezra stopped me with his arm across my chest and a tail wrapped hastily around my leg. What was I going to do? Wrestle with a demon in a bar and lose, lose badly.

Taurin barked a loud laugh.

I stayed standing and directed my gaze to Carlos. "My offer still stands. You coming?"

He stood up. "Yes."

I looked at Ezra and said, "Don't wait for us."

Ezra stood for me and I walked around the table, Carlos went behind Bronti. As I moved past Taurin he stood lightning quick and grabbed the bandana over my hair. I heard the scrape of Carlos' blades being pulled out as I grabbed the other end of the cloth. He pulled me in so swiftly that we stood inches from touching each other.

"Get your fucking hands off."

Taurin leaned in close to whisper into my ear, "The two of us will be good together."

He relaxed his grip and I whipped the bandana out of it. With a brief glare I turned defiantly and walked away.Carlos was already all nonchalance, his hands free of blades and swinging casually. "I know of a 24 hour pancake house."

"Great, I'm starving. I've been mostly dead all day you know." I laughed grimly.