Demon's Alter-Ego Ch. 09-10

He smiled wide, "In charge. Me."

I scowled and felt my lips curl in distaste, "You're not in charge, I just conceded last night to you."

"Because I knew what I was doing," he said smugly.

I agreed, "Because you knew what you were doing. Would you ever just use someone like me and leave them to die drained in the middle of a fight?"

I watched his face turn serious quickly, "There is no one like you. And leave you!? So, Ezra can hunt me down and eat me. Or, better yet, have you call on the Eternal She and get turned to dust. No."

My eyebrows raised in surprise, "You really knew who it was?"

He cocked his head, "I've been around for a while sweetling. Ezra was in incubus territory when I was just an imp. He used to watch me while my mother went out."

I shot up, "He was your babysitter!"

Oldavai sighed, "I suppose you could call it that."

I could feel my eyes light up and my smile couldn't get any broader, "Did he change your nappies?!"

Oldavai sputtered while I laughed.

Finally, the slow smile spreading on his face felt like a blossom unfurling inside of me. Without warning he wrestled me underneath his body, "You're incorrigible."

I pushed on his hands encircling my wrists above my head, "Yeah. You're also way older and tricker than I am so I've got to get my shots in when I can."

We were still smiling when he bent down and kissed me. His tongue was deliciously stroking inside my mouth when the weight of his body wedged itself between my legs. When he raised his face from mine, he was all shining incubi. He touched nose to nose and wiggled his lower body even further up into the valley of my legs. I shivered in anticipation, loving and hating the feel of him trapping me.

"I promise to change your panties once I make you wet yourself."

I burst out a short laugh before I lost all coherent thought due to the onslaught of his talented mouth.

CHAPTER 10

Once sex and showers were out of the way we journeyed back to Michael's house and I stood fidgeting on the front porch waiting for someone to answer the door.

I voiced my agitation, "It's taking them a long time to answer, don't you think?"

Oldavai sighed in annoyance at me, "Open yourself up, Dove, and you will find that you can feel the emotions of two people. Neither of which are violent or grieving."

"And if they were?" I tried to look through the gauzy curtains on my left.

"I would not leave you here a second more."

I turned abruptly, my heart speeding up in fear, "I don't even want to think that outcome was possible. Talk about being hunted."

He gave me a grim smile, "Let's just say you would be visiting Ezra very quickly."

I gaped at him, "You had that planned out already, didn't you."

"Of course. I don't know who she is, but Ezra has been in close relation to the red succubus since I was a child."

I looked him squarely in the eye, "The one you tried to get to me with."

He shrugged, "It was a desperate move. I don't know why she's still alive when my mother isn't, but I never actually expected her to be in Ezra's dragon nest. Also, I had Shorn to contend with and he was becoming extremely impatient."

I raised an eyebrow, "And you?"

He grimaced, "Maybe I was missing your volatility."

"Well, you both had it coming. I got back at you by not being available for a long time." Carlos opened the front door at my words.

Oldavai leaned over and whispered into my ear, his black hair a brush of silk on my skin, "Thankfully you never received the brunt of Shorn's wrath. Just me."

I would have turned, but Carlos grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house towards the bedroom Michael was in. He was propped up against the bed frame surrounded by pillows and he pinned a stare on me as I walked in. Behind me I heard Oldavai mumble about impatient humans.

Michael's voice came out strained, "How do I get it out?"

I perused his wan appearance and moist forehead. "You haven't been able to yet?"

"NO! I've been trying all morning!" His words were distressing enough that I didn't need to feel the emotion accompanying them.

I glanced to my left at Carlos. He remained stoic with his arms crossed, pissed off Latino male at his worst. I looked at Michael and then at him again. Nervousness stuttered in my breath at my thought process, my heartbeat making erratic beats.

I spoke out loud while relaying internal instructions to Oldavai, "Ah, o.k."

'Make Michael believe you are going to attack him.'

I could hear the smile in his reply, 'Love to, my sweet.'

Oldavai walked farther into the room, scarily dominant, his power a push of wind before him and the golden glow around him so bright it competed with the sunlight coming through the window. He wasn't holding back and all three of us could feel it. I turned completely to Carlos and effortlessly put up a wall of thick ice with all the reliving of the Elemental's house behind it. The knives I knew he would throw stuck firmly, embedded just as I wanted them to. I directed the ice to sweep over them and hold them in its embrace. Knowing Carlos wouldn't stop there, I stared at his blur of movement coming towards me. I spread my hands out and the wall elongated to touch both wall and window on either side. Thankfully it stopped the bullets that were in direct line with my heart.

It was Michael's shout that stopped the melee, "Carlos it worked!"

"WHAT FUCKING WORKED, YOU PENDEJO?!"

We kept our eyes locked on each other as his body shook with rage and adrenaline. The ice I created was a clear pane of glass and I could see his every twitch.

"Oldavai was pretending to attack me. It worked. I can draw it out. Stop giving Dove the death glare!"

He was definitely staring death wishes at me as he walked up as close as the ice barrier allowed. "You need a warrant," I said with false calm. Inside I was shaking with just as much stress.

He nodded his head slowly as he spoke, "I would have killed you had you not been fast enough. Like you say, I need a warrant to distract me otherwise I will rip all three of those demons from you, bruja. Get them out of your life. What the HELL are you thinking?!"

I swallowed my conflicting emotions and decided to address the question as if he were asking about Michael and not binding with three powerful demons. "The only thing I know. My sword came out because I thought I was going to be attacked. I don't know of any other way. I don't know of any other way to merge a demon hunter with their magic. What are you going to do, Carlos? Because this is going to be too tempting for you to step away from. At most, a month before you're asking for the same thing."

I felt Oldavai come up behind me and enjoyed his warm hand curling around my neck. I was cold with fear for so many different reasons. His other hand went in front of me to touch the ice, its fingertip etching a melting line until it pointed at one of the bullets aimed for my heart. His face leaned over my shoulder until it was lined up with Carlos', "Just say the words, cabron. I would dearly love to shove your sword through your chest."

I expected some sort of verbal retaliation, but Carlos said nothing. Just an eye flick towards Oldavai and then back to me, calculating.

My breath hitched as Oldavai nuzzled his way across my neck and he fake whispered so everyone could hear, "You're going to be asking before the week is done."

Carlos said nothing, just continued staring me in the eyes. Oh shit, he really was going to ask. Would Michael do it? Were we going to start a horrible fad with demon hunters.

I swallowed and looked backwards to Michael and then to Carlos, "Remember the fight with Ratha, say the chant before going to battle. It will keep them from feeding on their second energy source for a limited time. Remember, if the AO finds out you're stronger they'll throw worse at you."

I could hear Michael's scoff, "It can't get much worse than Ratha."

I didn't turn to look at him. "Really? What if it was Oldavai and he had sex with you?" I retorted back.

Michael sputtered and Carlos took a firm step back from the wall of ice. Oldavai threw back his head and shouted with laughter. When his mirth died down, he gazed back through the ice at Carlos.

"How could you want to kill her? I don't even want to kill her."

Michael spoke from the bed, "She definitely makes life interesting."

"Can I put my hands down now? Will you stop?"

Carlos waved angrily, "Put Taurin's wall of ice away. You knew how I'd react."

Oldavai twirled my hair with a finger, "What, no apologies, demon hunter?"

The wall wavered as I attempted to pull it down. My breath came out in a rush of fog as my memories pulled me back into the Place of Dreaming. The ice moved like a wave on the ocean, exactly like the time the Ice caught me in its embrace. The smack on the back of my head was lightning quick and had me refocusing. Oldavai spoke hurriedly in my mind.

'Don't bring an Elemental here!'

The brief throb of pain helped me stop thinking about the Ice Elemental and the barrier melted in a cascade of water. Carlos' bullets and knives thumped abruptly to the floor. Everything happened so fast that I hoped Carlos never saw, or at least didn't know enough to know it was a problem.

He stepped over that line of wet across the carpet to get in Oldavai's face. Speaking as if he never noticed the drama that happened in seconds before him, "No, nor does she expect one." He stalked off towards Michael.

I blinked a few times to bring my concentration to the matter at hand. He was speaking about apologies. And he was correct, neither of us would.

I looked over at Oldavai to find him now staring at me, his emotions completely closed off and his face a blank canvas. He was still human looking, but his eyes gave away everything, they swirled in high agitation and were now so dark a gold iris it was like darkness lay over their color. I understood, because I was just as upset over the episode of my magic running away from me.

Carlos went over to the bed and kicked the mattress, "Michael, get off your lazy ass and get the warrant."

"You haven't closed it yet?" I asked, grateful for the opportunity to turn away from Oldavai.

"Hell no, I wasn't doing anything until Michael was well."

Michael groaned as he got out of bed, "I gave you all of the explanation needed if it didn't turn out."

I took a loud inhale as I realized what he meant, "You were going to tell them you died during the battle."

Michael stood up and cracked his neck side to side, "Maybe, I didn't think I could trust Salem. I was going to make something up about a parting gift from Ratha."

Carlos interjected as he picked up his weapons, "No, you mean you were leaving it to me to make up some bullshit story for the Chronicler."

While they quietly yelled at each other Oldavai crowded behind me. He ran his hand down my hair, projecting an unexpected calming presence of magic. I leaned backed into him, grateful for the respite of not talking about the unpredictability of my own.

"So what! You're better at it than I am."

"Amigo, you test the bonds of friendship."

They stood facing off with one another as Michael said the next words, "Tell me that when you're forcing me to shove a sword through your chest. At least, I never asked you to do that."

"No, you just implied," Carlos spit back.

Even Michael knew it was coming. I moved to leave the room and redirected their animosity with a flippant wave over my shoulder, "No, you just asked the crazy woman."

"Well, yeah." Michael agreed without looking at me, unperturbed.

I looked over to find Oldavai's face still completely free of emotion and said drolly, "Of course." I knew he didn't like the comment. I had no doubt the demon had a million thoughts running through his mind.

Michael waved us into another room while he opened the drawer of an end table. He moved over to his mirror and bowl before chanting for the chronicler on shift. A thin man with steely eyes appeared in the mirror surveying the three of us. On the table sat an opened laptop to his right and a glass bowl in front of him. Oldavai stayed outside the room, leaving us to what he referred to as our 'kiddie praise'.

"Accounting of hunters?"

Michael answered for us, "All alive."

"Ratha?" The man asked detachedly.

"Dead."

"Warrant."

Michael tossed the paper into the bowl and bent down out of sight from the chronicler in the mirror. He drew his weapon out from his wrist with the wickedest smile on his face I had ever seen on him. Of course, he would be feeling all sorts of emotions, the least of which due to his magic no longer ringing with Ratha's vibration. He popped up all casual and scraped the sword lightly on his bowl's rim. With the answering vibration in the bowl on the other side of the mirror the chronicler put his ringed hand over it, and we watched a ring encircling his thumb break apart and fall. He then lit a match and tossed it into his bowl. Our warrant caught fire and burned into ash.

Any one of us who was there for Ratha's death could have scraped our swords over the bowl. If our magic saw the death, it would destroy the ring connected to the demon.

It would have been just a day at the office except for what happened next.

A gray tail whipped out from the boundaries of the mirror, wrapped around the chronicler's neck, and lifted him out of his chair. His scream of terror abruptly died off seconds after he left the perimeters. A deadly silence ensued until I saw a familiar trim figure stroll into view. He was adjusting his extremely dark green suit as he calmly walked in. In unison, the men instinctively flowed into a defensive position, backing away from the threat in the mirror. I moved closer, having more familiarity with this particular demon. I heard Carlos grunt of disapproval as I watched Shorn occupy the seat the chronicler had been forcibly ejected from. I scanned those nimble fingers for any extra appendages as he gently closed the lid of the laptop while pushing the glass bowl to the side. His stare never left me as he roared for Oldavai with enough magic that Michael's house shook as if in an earthquake. My heart ratcheted up so quickly that I grit my teeth. Oldavai was by my side in his incubus form before Shorn even finished calling for him.

In a disturbingly calm voice he spoke, "It's rude to keep me waiting."

Oldavai stayed slightly in front of me as he tried to wave the men out of the room. I was surprised by his valiant efforts to take the brunt of whatever lecture was coming but Shorn was having none of it.

"Don't leave, hunters. Stay right where you are and let me have a look at you."

There was silence again as he surveyed the two of them with his red eyes. His pale gray face moved to me and it felt like he was taking inventory.

I got one syllable out before Oldavai threw his hand out with a, "SHHH."

The wait was dreadful. Thoughts flew through Shorn's expression. Finally, the burning stare turned to Oldavai and he spoke, "I see." He paused. "I believe I gave you explicit instructions."

Oldavai gave a one-word answer, "Yes."

Shorn finally gave me his attention again and drawled out my name, "Dove, how'd it go?"

I took a deep breath before speaking, hoping my voice didn't squeak, "Ratha is dead."

"That was... unanticipated," he said without any inflection.

"Did you want him alive? It wasn't on the warrant." The last words came out in a rush as he continued to stare at me. My eyes zeroed in on the tiniest pulsation in his neck. I knew what was coming next.

"No."

Oh Goddess, here it comes. The skin on his neck started to bulge in a distinct tail or tentacle like shape. Should I say something? Say nothing? Oldavai and I weren't even mind speaking to one another. I didn't know about Oldavai, but I was scared to.

I cleared my throat, but Shorn interrupted before I could speak, "I expected different dead bodies."

"Oh." There really wasn't more I wanted to hear after that declaration.

He briefly looked over to Michael and Carlos again. I didn't dare look away from the demon. Could he jump out of the fucking mirror to choke us all to death? I didn't know, but maybe I would ask once we got through this. He loosened his tie until it was unknotted, then undid the first two buttons. That tentacle finally came out and whipped around his neck a couple of times. My jaw started to ache from the tension.

I verbally ventured out into his territory, "Did you want me dead?"

He laughed his scary gang of birds laugh, which I still couldn't decide if it was worse than his hoarse crunching on glass chuckle. A shiver went up my spine all the same.

"You are so delightfully candid. Let me respond in kind, had Oldavai failed me I would have hung him by his ball sacs, skinned him alive, and watched his blood drip into the ravenous Darkness." He gave me a small, delighted smile and finished, "Then I would wait."

I didn't want to know what he would wait for, but Oldavai's gold complexion paled. I've never seen a demon pale like that. If Oldavai's blood drained completely from his face, I couldn't even imagine what my two fellow demon hunters looked like. Thank all the holies that Oldavai was shielding his emotions behind a stone fortress because I could definitely feel someone's fear soaking through all my own. Alas, being frightened makes me do stupid things and all this terror was grating on my last nerve.

"Then what's the problem?!" I demanded.

His eyes started bleeding fast. Stupid bravado for the win.

"Your eminence," I added in a belated attempt at levity.

He threw his head back and laughed... still the cawing of birds. "Do you know what would have happened had you died?"

That was an easy 'A', "Ezra would have happened."

He shook his head affirmative, his shirt collar soaked in blood, "Ezra would have happened. And that is one demon, excuse the language, that I do not want to piss off."

A nervous laugh pushed out unexpectedly and I tried to cover it with a throat clearing. He was excusing his word choice when he just talked about what suspiciously sounded like Hell. I hurriedly filled the gaff with some words, "We don't have to worry about that."

"Ila and I have had the whole political ladder shoved so far up our... Well, you know, that I could not get out of this warrant. All eyes were on you. This warrant was a set up. You must know that I have no issues with your success, but to succeed with no hunter casualties or injuries, well... that will cause consequences."

The kind of consequences that might not be so good for my compatriots. Higher expectations that probably weren't feasible for other hunters. I wasn't going to be invited to any parties soon.

My attention was brought back to the lecture when I felt Shorn's scorching gaze roam over the four of us. I knew we could all feel it like an actual low-key fire buffeting our faces. "Carlos you weren't invited, but so glad you could make it."

Carlos' surprise blasted me with the sound of his name being said by the demon on the other side of the mirror.

"Half the circus wanted you dead and the other half wanted Ratha dead. I am so glad you all survived. I also happen to know Salem is avoiding me, but I'm not taking it to heart. Were there unexpected occurrences?"

"Perhaps," I said wearily, waiting for whatever was coming next.

Shorn made a quiet grumble and something dark flew up and smacked wetly on the bottom left of the mirror, Oldavai and I flinched back. I didn't know what that green blood entailed, but it was splattered on the other side. "As I suspected. Tell me how you did it."

My throat was suddenly dry. "Nope." I had to wheeze the word out. I was certain Ezra wouldn't appreciate family secrets getting around. Shorn's weren't the only ears in this room, and I wasn't itching to get into another argument with Carlos if he knew the details of my exact predicament.