Demon's Grace Ch. 41-43

"Don't try to intimidate me!" I yelled and stood up, making him back away.

He help up his hands in a surrender position, "I'm sorry. You're right. I'm taking my frustrations out on you."

"Well, that seems to be happening a lot lately," I said as I stretched out my back and shoulders trying to get rid of the itchy healing feeling.

He gestured to the chair, "Please, sit."

"You first," I said, motioning to the desk.

Zanzibar did, so I graciously followed suit.

"Of course I told him. That's what we do. That's why I knew about the possibility of the bullets. I leaked that information subtly to Punk."

"You helped create them?!"

He shrugged, "It's a dog eat dog world."

I ignored his pessimism. "Why would your demon give our kind an advantage?"

"Because I give him the advantage." Zanzibar looked steadily at me.

"You can't work both sides of the fence, Zanzibar." I said as I shook my head at him.

I watched his jaw clench. "Yes, I can. The laws have mixed everything up for us, Dove." His southern accent increased with his agitation. "They tell us who we can and cannot hunt. Now demons have the legal right to bind with us! And you know what?!" He pointed to me with anger. "You'll be working both sides of the fence too, if you aren't already. You can't not, especially in the position you're in. The world is gray, not black and white!"

I looked at him thoughtfully before I spoke, gathering my thoughts. "You're right, it's not. So, how much does he know?"

"He figured everything out. I gave him a description of the demon I saw you with. He knows the Ice Dweller, called him Taurin. I told him about your scales and he told me the other is Ezra. A particular demon who I should stay far away from."

I kept my face blank.

"Are you going to confirm?"

I raised a shoulder and laughed with condescension, "Why should I?"

He stared hard at me and continued. "He wants me to give you a message."

"Are you going to?"

"Absolutely, darlin'. He said 'Tell her there's a brother doing research for 'God' and that she's a perfect specimen.'" He looked at me expectantly. "And God was definitely said with contempt."

I took his words in, turning them around in my mind, when I noticed the look on his face. "What's with the look?"

"Do you know what research he's talking about?"

"Maybe. He didn't tell you?" I asked smugly.

"No. If one of us doesn't clarify, we don't ask."

"But, you'll ask me?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Shure." He smiled and his eyes crinkled around their corners.

I nodded slowly. "Has he been around you a lot lately? Watching over you?"

He looked askance at me, "Actually, he has been in contact more than usual. In fact, the moment I told him about you he came to town.

"What?! Did you already call him to tell him I'm here?"

"No. I wanted to talk to you alone, not with him."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God."

"Now, what do you know that I don't?"

"Did you know Regina?" I asked.

"'Did?' Something I should know?" He drawled.

Shit, I said to myself. And again, fuck. I stared at him with a dazed look. I thought for sure Vi would have run his mouth in some way, unless they ordered him not to. Which actually worked out in my benefit if they did.

He got off his desk and moved in a little closer to me, "What the hell happened?!"

I put my fingers in front of my mouth. "Ok, just... listen. Regina is not the only witch demon hunter out there right?" It was rhetorical and I kept talking, "She had this idea that she was going to save demons' souls and was basically performing lobotomies on them with her witch abilities."

I looked at him as he stepped back, a look of incomprehension on his face. "Wait... I don't know what was going on with her, really. She talked about getting visits from angels who showed her how to do it. She said she could tell that I was... evil. I don't remember her exact words. You realize this was after I had a little too much to drink." I gave him a meaningful gaze and he nodded his head in understanding.

"She wanted to save my soul. So, she was going to give me her version of a lobotomy. She mentioned your name, Zanzibar. That you needed saving too." I continued to give him full eye contact.

His brown eyes narrowed behind his glasses, "What did you do to her?"

"She was going to kill me or close to. Do you understand?"

His jaw clenched, "World's not so black and white is it?"

"No."

"Where's the body?"

I just shook my head.

He paced some more as he rubbed his forehead. "Ok, so, you're telling me that I am in danger of witch zealots, like you."

"Yes, because of how intimately bonded we are to our demons."

"Do you believe in angels?" His pacing put him standing behind the desk.

I shrugged, "Do you?"

"No. Maybe. They've never shown themselves to me. And you?"

I pursed my lips, "Angels? In theory, I guess. It could've been illusion. Another demon using her to get whatever he needed from demons who weren't quite all there anymore. Thing is, she believed it. Completely. And there can be more out there doing the same thing. In the end, they'll be coming after us because of our," I put my fingers up in quotes, "evilness. We're on their radar. As far as what you said, we're the only two demon hunters with this problem."

"And you have two demons inside you. Just like Daemion said, 'perfect specimen.' But, for what?"

I growled in frustration, "I have no idea for what. Daemion, your demon?"

"Yeah," he said distractedly.

"There's something else I need to know."

"Well, it seems like today I might not know anything about anything," he scowled irritably.

I put my hands up in an open expression, "I just gotta know if there is anything that I can do to control this demon magic inside of me. It's wild and unpredictable."

"That's a tall order, honey." He shook his head. "I just meditate, a lot. I'm so good at it now that I can shut off one part of my mind and still talk to customers in my bar. It's like locking up the magic in it's own meditation room. I also call it up and use it when needed. We have a lot of access to their power. More than just a regular binding. Their barriers are weaker to us as ours are to them." He put his hand up and briefly wiggled fingertips reflecting back colors of gasoline in water at me.

"Do you feel like it's an addiction? Like they warn us about taking over the power of our demon kills."

He thought for a moment and stared down at a picture on his desk. I couldn't see it. He put the picture face down. "My belief is that those with an addictive personality will become addictive to it even if they know it's going to kill them."

I watched his fingertips trail over the smooth surface of the desk. "I'm not addicted to it. Are you?"

I started to immediately deny then stopped, "I don't think so. I'm warned by them constantly that I could go insane. Well, if they didn't think I already was."

Zanzibar threw back his head and laughed boisterously. His words drawled out, "Forgive me. That's really precious."

I waited until his laughter died away before I started talking again. "Hmph. So, do they only come in at my invitation?"

"Yes and your invitation is not shielding yourself. The door opens wide when you use their magic. It will take practice to actually be with the demon and not be open spiritually to their presence. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I think so. If I'm with them then they can worm their way in to talk in my mind or use my magic, because... I'm thinking about them?"

"Thinking about them, shure, simply not guarding your mind. Also, with demons, being physically close makes it easier for them to use their power on you, or take yours. It doesn't mean that they can't do it if they can't see you, it just takes more energy and focus on their part. You have to be better at putting up walls. When your touching their ability to topple your defenses is inevitable. The same goes with us too, with practice, but most of us won't live that long to even get a fraction of their control. It won't even matter."

Then he gave a heavy sigh, "With us there's more than just a link. They actively put a piece of themselves inside of us, just like they initially drink our blood into themselves for the," his tone turned sarcastic, "'law abiding' binding they're allowed. So, can we keep them completely out, no, not entirely, because they have a part of themselves living inside us. Mostly, he can't read my thoughts as long as I'm shielded. If he really wanted to there would be a fight and I'm not sure who would win. The shields weaken when we're talking mind to mind. And, of course, physical proximity is still an issue."

My mind spun into anger as I realized about how first Ezra, and then Taurin, were programming me to think nothing of their touch, in fact I took it for granted and as a pleasure every day. My lips twisted at my gullibility. I refocused on Zanzibar, "I found out that if you have non-demon magic in you that you can shut them out." I hesitated, thinking about the difference between Ezra and Taurin while I was staying at the Alpha's house. I suddenly realized that Ezra had tapped into the pack magic through his own animal side. "As long as they can't figure out a way to interact with it."

"And that piece they put inside of you? Where did it go?"

"I don't know. And maybe that's the only reason why it gives them an opportunity to figure out how to interact with it."

"How do you know?"

I looked at him from the tops of my eyes, my expression guarded. "Experience."

"Fine," he said unhappily and rapped a knuckle on his desk. "It's a learning process. You'll have to figure it out or you'll just be a tool for them to use." Then he chuckled to himself, "Most of them have lived too long for us to even grasp the concept of using them as a tool without trapping them in a magic cage. Even then they'll eventually get the upper hand. The longer their magic grows in you the quicker they'll find you no matter where you hide. We're like their extra batteries."

I leaned my head back into the chair and looked at the ceiling. "Jesus. What a fu...uh nightmare. On a different note, do you know what I got?" I asked rhetorically as I directed my gaze back to him.

"What?" He asked distractedly, propping the picture back up, his fingers caressing the glass.

"A 'trap and subdue' warrant."

He slowly looked up at me. "Oh darlin'. Are you that good?"

I gave a bitter laugh. "NO. Never did one. Never want to. Any suggestions?"

He stared at me in silence.

"That sounds like a 'no'."

"Listen, you have two demons helping you. You'll be fine."

"Except this demon moves faster than anything I've ever experienced. And he can kill me, but I can't kill him." I stood up.

"Good Luck," he said with a big smile. He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a camera.

"Dove," he said and I partly turned around. I flashed a look of annoyance over my shoulder and he snapped away.

"Just in case," he said.

"Yeah. So everyone will know I'm dead. Do you have a picture of Regina?"

"Yeah."

"Don't put mine next to hers," I said as I started to walk out the door.

"Wait."

I turned and found him giving me a demanding stare.

"Eeeeyes," I prompted. I watched his thoughts pass over his face, waiting for an explanation, curious.

"It's Oldavai, isn't it?"

"Jesus! Do you know everything?!" I said with annoyed disbelief.

He nodded his head, but not as an affirmative to my question. "That's your trap and subdue." It should have been a question, but he made it into a statement.

My head gave an erratic bob. I watched him bring his hand up to his face and rub his cheek. "Um, damn." He shook his head again.

"Spit it out, Zanzibar!"

He closed his eyes for a second and then finally looked at me with determination. "You need to find a vampire named Laci. She used to be a demon hunter before she was turned. She also used to be a lover of Oldavai and harbors a very, very deep resentment for him. If anyone can help you with trapping that damn soul sucker it's her."

"You're kidding me? You're kidding me!? You are FUCKING KIDDING ME?! No way in hell am I getting involved with vampires!" I slammed his office door closed and crossed my arms.

"You have no idea how many have tried to go up against this demon!"

Confusion marred my face, "This warrant hasn't been active, Zanzibar! How old are you?!"

"Old enough. As you'll find out," he said dead pan.

My mouth gapped, "You've got to be shitting me!"

"Dove. If you don't get killed, you are going to be alive with them for a long time. Call it another benefit."

"Fuck no, I won't call it a benefit. No wonder they have no desire to claim a demon hunter! Jesus! Why the hell didn't they tell me?" I had to pace. I had so much anger I didn't know what to do with myself.

"Stay focused." He strode up to me and grabbed my forearms to make me stop pacing.

I shook him off in agitation.

He continued, "Find Laci. She'll help you. Go to the vamp clubs. Tell them who you're looking for and it'll get around. Or better yet, I'll do it so you don't have to set foot in there. It might take a while depending on where she is living... er, well... you know, setting up house or whatever it is they do." He shook his head, "Actually, me going there is a better idea. Vampires are nasty business."

I looked at him in disbelief and repeated my mantra, "Are you kidding!? Demons are nasty business!"

He licked his lips and gave me a stark smile, "Yeah, that's true. But, they're what we know. They're in our blood and I don't mean because of any bindings. I'll send word around. She's your only chance."

"Fine. Do that. I know this is not a good idea, but I'll take it. Thank you. "

"It'll work, Dove."

"Or I'll be dead and it won't matter." I waved distractedly at him and calmly opened and closed the door. I thought I showed rather good restraint.