Demon's Alter-Ego Ch. 01-04

"You're a familiar face around these parts."

"That's your fault. Now please, no more whining or I will make sure you feel every sexual encounter in this building. And I will linger especially long in the shifter area."

My brow furrowed, I wasn't whining, was I? I shook off the insult and said instead, "Never a lull in the food supply for you."

I could almost hear the smile in his words, "Oh, you have no idea, my sweet." He twirled me in front of him as we neared the stairs, and he pushed me up them.

"What's the rush?" I panted.

"I told Shorn I'd get you here yesterday."

"Oh."

I panted at his pace as we turned to go up another flight. "Did he believe you?"

"Please. I keep my word. Mostly. Why do you think I'm in this predicament? Some of the things I've had to do have been absolutely wicked."

Again, I could hear the delight in his voice.

"I might have done this voluntarily if I knew it was going to be this much fun. He's kept me so busy I don't even want to smoke anymore."

We were in front of the door on the stairwell and he opened it from the other side. My eyes widened and I looked behind me quickly and back at him, "Fuck, Oldavai!"

He looked down at me seriously, "Right now?"

"Oh good lord! No!"

"Then don't offer." He grabbed my arm and propelled me into Shorn's office without a knock. I stumbled into his back when he abruptly stopped in front of me. The smell of brimstone availed my nostrils, and I flared them in recognition. I shifted my head slightly to look at the demon behind the desk. His head of dark, short hair bent down over his work. It was shaved on the sides, slightly longer on the top and flowed in a wave over his forehead. A twirling feather flared from the top of his grip. I braced myself for the moment he would lift that face and I was going to be looking into those disconcerting red eyes.

Oldavai announced us, "We're late."

Shorn didn't pause with his writing, "You underestimated by a whole day. Did you enjoy yourself?"

Oldavai placed his palms down on his boss' desk and leaned in, "You have no idea."

Shorn finally looked up, his attention on Oldavai. His dark gray suit fit his gray body perfectly. Nothing moved or bulged from under his skin. I realized he must be calm, even his red eyes weren't bleeding down his face. I was sure they would be after we were done. I seemed to always cause him agitation.

"I almost died," Taurin said with a shiver and barely contained glee.

"Really? Because Dove almost succeeded in killing you?" He tapped his quill in the ink well next to him.

"In a way."

"Well then, she should have no problem with this warrant if she almost killed you." He went back to writing his missive.

Oldavai continued, "It wasn't like that. Ezra and Taurin are not coming back."

These words caused his hand to stop moving, "How so?" He looked up and aimed his stare at me, waving his quill at Oldavai to move aside. There was no pupil and there was no iris, it was all red.

I detected the faint shimmer of liquid in those eyes. Just as imagined, those eyes were going to bleed. "They just can't come back anytime soon," I said, moving my eyes to the corner of the ceiling.

"Define soon."

I gave a deep sigh at his very calm words, which I knew were not, and looked back at him, "I can't."

His body rocked almost imperceptibly, and a series of bumps started to form under his suit rising up in a curve around his back. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "You're not going to explain."

"Nope." There was a tick in my wrists as I saw his jaw minutely start to widen. My pulse felt like it was trying to get out of my skin.

"I don't presume they are dead?"

I shook my head and pursed my lips, "No. They're alive. They just have some family business to attend to."

He stared at me. I fidgeted. Oldavai stepped in front of me again, as if to protect me from his attention, "She needs it."

I felt Shorn's focus shift from me to Oldavai, "Really?"

"She definitely needs it."

"Let me hear it from her own lips." A thin line started to rise slowly around his neck, just under his jaw.

Oldavai snagged my hand and brought me next to him.

I swallowed and my lips wouldn't open. Shorn looked at me from his crossed arm posture, leaning back in his seat, his expression clearly in mock anticipation mode. My mouth got dry quickly and I licked my lips. Instead, I asked, "What's the warrant?"

Silence reigned in that room for what seemed like minutes, but probably wasn't.

His body snapped back abruptly into a recognizable shape and, as if in exchange for stress placement, his eyes started to bleed.

"Dove. Please go over to Ila's office and tell her you need your review now so that you can proceed with your warrant." His stare never wavered from me, "Oldavai, go with her and tell them that you are going to be with her. You may tell them that you will protect her every step of the way on my order. If they inquire about a binding tell them it is not an option. Come back here regardless of what they tell you. Let me repeat for your benefit, do not bind with Dove."

My eyes looked over at Oldavai and I spoke to Shorn even though my own never left Oldavai's, "O.k."

I heard him shift his arms, "Go before Oldavai and I end up in an altercation."

Oldavai grabbed my hand just as Shorn spoke again. "Oldavai," he barked. We turned at the door, "Play nice with Ila."

Oldavai pushed me out of Shorn's room and flung out his arm before I could knock. I watched him roll his eyes and shake off some imagined weight before he clenched his fist and pounded on Ila's office next door. Eventually she opened the door and her eye patch distracted me with all its elaborate embroidery. Her anger then had my full attention as her face expression went from annoyance to outrage.

"Oldavai! Will you please stop showering her in your dandruff. For Christ's sake, she's not your personal sex slave."

Oldavai lowered his chin and looked at her from the tops of his eyes, "I would never glamorize a sex slave." His voice was sharp, his facial expression angry and offended.

Her eyebrow rose in real surprise, "You're telling me you aren't having sex with her."

"I am not having sex with her, but when I do it still won't signify."

I grunted at his confidence, even as I knew he'd have no problem seducing me with his magic. Meanwhile, my hand swiped at my forehead. The second time I talked with Ila, a guardian for my kind, and I was covered in Oldavai's glitter. I'd forgotten for a moment there with my preoccupation with the big baddie sitting in the office next to us. "Ila, I need to do my review. Find out if they think I am acceptable to do a warrant."

"On this one you don't want to be. Why is he with you?"

Not wanting to prolong the moment or her disappointment, I got out quickly, "Ezra and Taurin are indisposed."

She gave me a look of irritation and stared her one good green eye at me. "You are such a problem child. Give me a second." She glared at Oldavai and then slammed the door in our faces.

I stared at the shut door, "I don't think she likes you,"

"I don't think she likes any of us."

I nodded, "That's probably true. But you don't like her either. So, I guess it's even."

Oldavai looked down the hall, "A truer statement there never was."

Ila opened the door again, "Go to room 36," she pointed to her left. "They think it's time to stop treating you like a human." She slammed the door on us again.

"O.k." I was talking to the wood. "That can't be good."

Oldavai raised an eyebrow at me, "I reserve the right to withhold judgment about the human part. It has to be someone who is impartial to us."

I was talking about the way she slammed the door in my face, but he had a point too, "O.k."

"You keep saying that word."

"Attribute it to shock."

"Don't tell the reviewer that," His hands pushed insistently from behind my shoulders to get me moving when I just stood there looking down the hallway.

When I was ready to move of my own violation, I shrugged off his grip, "Nope. I will just say o.k."

"Here." He knocked for me again.

A man whose hair was a black mass of short tight curls opened the door. He wore a beautiful navy fitted suit and showcased a trim goat-tee.

"Marcus," Oldavai said in greeting.

"Oldavai," the man said blandly.

The expressionless looks they bestowed on each other told me they wanted to murder one another. Holy crap, could this day get any worse. He beckoned us in with his heavily bejeweled brown hand and watched the demon with a steely eye.

Oldavai started out with a warning, "Dove, Marcus is a vampire, so don't look him in the eyes."

I flicked my eyes up at Marcus anyway and raised my eyebrow. As far as I knew, day walking vampires were a rare occurrence. I gave a fake smile that went completely unacknowledged since he was preoccupied with glaring daggers at Oldavai. Marcus motioned his hand to a seat opposite his desk in the dark room. I stopped myself from swearing at the two of them and grunted instead when I hit my toe on the chair leg. As if in response to my pain Oldavai started to cast a dim glow from his body. When I turned to look at him his smile was all smirk.

By the time we left the room I had the addition of a headache from all the tension. We stopped at Ila's and told her about the outcome before Oldavai blithely walked us into Shorn's office without knocking.

The demon now gazed at a computer screen with an intricately carved wooden box sitting next to it. He barely moved at our intrusion.

"Marcus approved her."

Shorn looked up, "That's because he's hoping you will die."

Oldavai grabbed my hand and kissed it, "I'll tell you that amusing story one day."

My hand jerked out of his instinctively. I gave him an incredulous look that he thought I wanted to hear it. I turned to Shorn, "Ila doesn't want me to do the warrant."

"Of course not. She is genuinely concerned for you." He moved so he could gaze at me without the monitor intruding.

"And you aren't," I said in resignation.

"On the contrary, I fully expect Oldavai to keep you alive. Ila is less optimistic about his attention span." He stood up and moved closer to us. Surprisingly, I noticed Shorn and I were close to the same height, his behaviors always made him seem bigger. His focus was so intense as he continued speaking to me, "Now, about this." The demon pulled out a glowing ball woven of gold and blue magic from an inside pocket. "Is Oldavai correct? Are you ready to take this back? I've been tempted to force it into me."

Oldavai hummed and vibrated the air around him. The effect was eeiry and sent a chill up my spine. Shorn had no reaction.

"He knows I won't. Much for the same reason everyone here is weary of him. I have no desire to have a mass orgy in this building and it's such a mediocre talent of his. They are happily naïve. This incubus can get so much worse, and few realize the truth." I watched him turn his head briefly to Oldavai as he said his next words, "With me in the building that would be disastrous and ruin all the work I've done. In any case, I won't have my best agent turned against the establishment." He aimed a tight, closed lip smile at both of us.

I knew there was something left unsaid between the two of them, but my attention stayed riveted on Shorn slowly placing the entwined power ball in Oldavai's outstretched hand.

"I was hoping for a better show. Dove, you are always so entertaining." He turned to walk to the window and waved at his desk, "Meet Michael in Texas. Te'a and Salem are there. This warrant would have never made it to a Chronicler's ring had we known Ezra was not coming back with you." He paused with an under his breath rumble, "Under no circumstances are you to fail me Oldavai." He never looked back at us.

I grabbed the paper and rushed out of the office. Oldavai didn't immediately follow. He'd catch up. I took the elevator down and couldn't get out of there fast enough. As I jumped multiple steps to get to the pavement outside something pulled on my magic behind me.

The building was the same as always up to the fourth floor. Chiseled stone pictures of waring monsters gracing the levels between the lines of windows. It was above that the building blossomed into something new, emerging from a dense fog of where I knew the roof was supposed to be. I saw a darkened sky with clouds swirling angrily around that added structure. There were a few windows with bars and a platform with guards in rotation. I stood on the concrete and stared.

Oldavai's vibration registered in my surroundings as I watched a slim, brown skinned man with dreads walk towards me. I barely gave the form a moment's thought as distracted as I was at the additional levels above the building, "Oldavai, do you see it?"

"You need to be more specific," he said warily.

"The floors above the fourth floor."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me away, "Stop looking and walk with me."

"You do see it."

"It's a portal to the world you were just visiting. I don't know if that's why you can see it or if it's a parting gift from that damn angel. In any case don't let them know. I'm not a knight to come to your damsel in distress."

"What do you mean?" I asked bewilderedly.

"The sentinels will kill you for your knowledge. It's a prison for supernaturals and if the general population knew that another dimension's prison rested above their heads there would be mass hysteria. The building is one of its anchors."

I opened my mouth to speak, and he interrupted me.

"Don't you dare say o.k."

I almost did, only he saw my remark coming a mile away and he shut me up in pure Oldavai style. His body smashed into mine and a hand threaded through my hair holding my head still for his intrusion. He thrust his tongue inside my mouth with a demanding caress and I moaned at the feeling. My eyes closed even as my hands came up to push him away.

He had me completely distracted as he thrust that pulsing twine of power into me.

I stilled as it sank into my being, and I could do nothing but wait to be bespelled by Oldavai again. Except that horrible, all-consuming love never emerged. In fact, there was a moment of chaos inside of me because there no longer was a complete hole waiting to be filled. It was shattered throughout my body. Then it was done, and everything clicked into place.

It was as if I could understand another language and felt my blade just on the verge of emerging. All of my magic was a louder vibration humming through my body, more present than it had ever been before being cut up by the angel.

Oldavai grabbed my hand again, "Come on."

I tripped as he pulled me, then immediately bent over my stomach. "Oldavai," I whispered as I was bombarded with emotions. Happiness, despair, evil glee, all of it washed through me. "Oldavai," my voice strained, "make it stop. Please."

The incubi paused and I could feel his downward stare at me. "Tch, tch, Dove. I can't help you regulate this." I watched his knees crouch down and then he looked up into my face. "Up you go." He gently cupped my shoulders and pushed me to stand straight. I stumbled after him as he guided me to a bench shaded by green leaves. I bent over again as if to cringe away from the emotions surrounding me.

"You have not invited me in."

I made pained noises, not quite whimpering, but I was getting there, "What do you mean?"

"I named my magic for you. I know what it's doing, but I was never granted a conscious way in to help you."

I grimaced from the stabbing pain starting to rise in my head, "What..." I had to stop and pant as ferocious anger beat a pulse through me.

He sighed with annoyance, "Really, how can you be so ignorant?"

"Fuck, Oldavai! Just say it!" I regretted my vehemence immediately as my eyes started to pound to my heartbeat. I lowered my volume to a whisper, "These emotions. They're everywhere."

"My sweetest pain."

I could almost hear him shake his head in annoyance.

"I bound you to me, but you did not do the same for me. I have only the narrowest alleyway into you and it's not enough for what you need. I can play child's games with the merest trickling of your power, but nothing significant."

The realization hit me that he was talking about what was known as 'binding' for demon hunters. Taurin and Ezra gave me the seeds of their power, but I had already given them mine to travel, therefore they could regulate their magics inside of me. I couldn't even imagine what that meant, what they let grow and what was kept in check within me. "No," I moaned finally understanding the full implications of the power living in me.

"No, you won't let me in? Truthfully, you have so many emotions riding you right now I can't figure out what's yours and what's not." With his ankle resting on his other leg, he started to shake his foot agitatedly.

"Shorn said no binding."

"I had no idea you followed Shorn's orders so complacently," he said idly.

"Of course not. I just don't think it's... Oh dear gods, make it stop," I whispered.

"You want my help then give me your blade."

"No," I grunted out, raising my body to lean against the back of the bench. Lust wafted right behind me and it rode my libido only to be pushed out by tears of loss. "Ergh... It has to stop eventually."

"No, it doesn't. We are made of emotions, even me. I can help you or you can learn, much as I did as a young imp. Granted, that took a very long time."

I bent down again as tears from someone else's heartbreak coursed down my checks, "Why?"

"Well, most importantly, because Ezra won't just eat me. In a way, I will become a part of his hoard, as much as Taurin is." He chuckled, "And he will hate it."

"You don't want this. There's no way." I rocked on the bench as a particularly slimy, unfamiliar feeling rode me. Something alien and otherworldly.

He made a noise of agreement, "Perhaps. I seem to enjoy telling you my secrets so let me tell you one more. Every single being I've had sex with is killed because I don't bound with just anyone and I refuse to let my doppelganger have all the fun. I won't kill you, Dove. You won't make demands on me. How could you with an Ash and Icelander demanding your time?"

"Ash?" I asked, trying to distract myself, looking over at him.

He was tracing the lines in his palm and didn't look up, "Closest English term to Ezra's kind."

Just let him in, so simple, lose a part of myself again. Just another ten degrees towards someone else. I've already moved so much off the track of who I thought I was. I moved my palm and placed it on his thigh as another wave of intense love passed to be followed by something full of unquenchable desire, almost a hunger, making my stomach seize in sharp pain.

"Dove, binding cannot be forced. It must be freely given."

I gave a large inhale to combat someone else's panic attack, "I thought it could be forced."

"No."

"If it's a choice between binding and torture is that not coercion?"

He shrugged and eyed me from the side, "I suppose, but it's still a choice."

"That is no choice at all," I grunted. I felt anger slip through my thoughts, not even knowing if it was my own due to his indifference.

I flipped my hand and sitting there was a metal star, sharp all around. There was no way to grasp it without feeling the sting of it parting your skin. Desperation breeds necessity I suppose, and my unconscious did not want to be incapacitated from this.

I watched him without turning my head completely as he picked it up. It didn't take long for me to see the gloss of his blood start to slide. His hand went around mine and he lifted it closer to his face. My eyes closed to the gentle way he held a finger with his thumb rubbing in a soothing manner. I never felt the slice on the pad on its tip with my own weapon, but I did feel him push his own finger over it, mingling our blood.