Demon's Alter-Ego Epilogue - Oldavai

OLDAVAI

I decided I'd be late showing up to the AO office because I still wanted to throttle Shorn and knew it was in my best interest to do exactly not that. I had tried to mind speak to Dove this morning, only to get an unbreachable wall. There was no indication that she was on the other side of the connection ignoring me, much like she did last night. I could only guess that she was with Shorn and he was putting a barrier against me... again.

The sigh I made was huge and dramatic as I plopped myself down on the bench. For once I hoped that people would stay away with the spectacle of my awkward adolescent body while I basked in the sunlight searching for calm. It took longer than anticipated.

When I did finally enter the building I could almost feel my pupils dilate to make up for how dim it was. I timed it as I always did, while jogging up the stairs, cataloging how long it took for them to adjust. Demon eyes were different, we had the ability to focus instantaneously on what we wanted, the lighting making no difference.

My body swayed into the deserted public area, all gangly arms and legs. Vacant because it was the afternoon, but it also could have been Shorn's brimstone leaking from his space that caused everyone to scatter. At that moment the highlight of my day was to not see the Darkness pulsating in the framework to his office, like an entryway into a very dark cave. Life was looking up until Ila calmly walked out of his office and shut the door firmly. I knew she'd guess it was me without looking like my incubus self.

She passed me calmly and asked without stopping, "Oldavai?"

I turned, following her movements, she was full of dread, "Yes."

She stopped at the elevator and turned to me, "I might have miscalculated."

Her palm forcefully slammed the blue evacuation alarm next to those sliding metal doors. Every floor had them for any number of potentially scary and fatal reasons. The drill was, as I knew Dove would pun with a corny smile, drilled into everyone. The sound was loud, ear piercing, and resulted in an immediate assault of anxiety straight to my core from the entire building. I quickly shut it out.

What kind of bullshit did she pull now?!

Ila fast tracked it to the fire stairs. She startled when I slammed my body into hers, hands wrapped around her biceps. I was being gentle with my grip, but my teeth hurt from how hard I was clenching them.

"What did you do?"

Hands shoved us harshly out of the way as the entire third floor departed quickly. Supes were all fast. I pulled her into the open area, "What did you do?"

I hated repeating myself.

She pushed me away and I let her go, she ran to the stairs. She didn't shout, but I heard her all the same.

"I miscalculated how much she meant to him."

My camouflage stripped away as I turned to Shorn's office. Darkness leaked out from the thinnest spaces around the door. Where was Dove that I couldn't get in contact with her? More importantly, where was Dove that Shorn couldn't find a way to have her by his side?

The ravenous Darkness flowed out. It seeped out the bottom of his door onto the floor like black opaque water. It rose up the walls, floated down the hallways, diaphanously like smoke. It moved closer to my feet and the emotion of Shorn's dissonance fractured through my body like the soundtrack to a horror flick.

I left.

I found Ila in the crowd outside the parameters of the pentacle. Dark had already seeped out Shorn's window and was spiraling in all directions around the building.

We all watched with rapt attention. The guards were split between stationing blockades and shoving the last of the workers out the doors. I highly doubted that everyone got out in time. Behind me I could already hear the cluster of traffic being re-routed outside any visible perimeters.

I cleared my throat. Found I couldn't talk and cleared my throat again, "Ila, you now want to tell me what happened?"

Neither of us looked at each other, just continued to watch the spectacle happening in front of our very eyes. It was a work of magnificence. The Dark had paused at the boundaries. A flat, straight edged star made of black. I don't know if the magic held or if Shorn stopped himself.

Darkness encased the whole building, but it wasn't just a void, it was a candle running big bulbous drops of wax. The top of the building where the prison would be had stalagmites of Dark wax surrounding it, dripping.

I grabbed her arm again, harder than last time, hating her a little more than I already did, "What did you do?"

She turned her head, focus following slowly, almost unable to look away. She finally looked me straight in the eyes.

"I drafted Dove as a sentinel."

The laughter came out riotous of its own violation before I could stop it, "The one place he negotiated not to go!"

She didn't shrink from me, and I never expected her to, "Yes."

The laughter abruptly stopped and I let go of her arm before I bruised it. She'd retaliate, we'd fight in front of all these AO employees, and the least of our problems would be that we'd fuel the gossip for days. It took me a couple moments before I could finally speak to her without any emotion.

"You miscalculated and you forgot."

Her anger saturated my air, "What, Oldavai?"

My smile felt sickly, "Like everyone does, you forgot that we are more than demons. Dragons have hoards to protect, and hell carriers need a cushion to fall back on so they don't lose themselves to the hunger."

"He never needed one before!"

I shook my head at her and looked back at the building. My reply was soft, "He always needed one."

The silent thoughts in my head shocked me. Exactly like I needed someone who wouldn't turn into a obsessive, lovesick idiot no matter how ruthlessly I showered them with incubus magic. My thoughts bitter, real incubi had it easy, they could turn it off, mine were a broken switch left in the on position.

The unpleasant turn of my thoughts and my disgust at her actions had me wanting to strangle her. My imagination saw her one eye going dull, hands trying to loosen my grip. We'd both be called in as soon as they realized this was all Shorn and not a spell gone wrong. I just couldn't be next to her right now knowing I would be again and in front of a contingent of council members. I turned and walked away.

My focus went towards Dove and I pulsed myself outside her home, scanning the area. There were more emotions staged around her outside property than previously.

Demons.

Demon hunters.

Shorn had to have known too because I sensed will o' wisps of ravenous Dark flickering across the grass. I couldn't see them, but I could feel them, and they caused a shiver to snake up my spine.

It always surprised me that Dove debased us to our bestial selves. She was such a contradiction of docile and forgiving, yet willfully aggressive, behaviors. Because of that we became spoiled brats in her presence, unclenching the parts we learned to keep tightly repressed, finally giving in to the feeling of freedom to just be ourselves.

Unfettered. Pushing her relentlessly.

We all had an unflinching belief in her ability to reign us in before we could take even the tiniest deliberation into our worst corruption of becoming lucifer. I had no doubts that the four of us bombarded her. I could feel it from Shorn when she stood next to him and I could feel it soaked into the fibers of her cabin from Ezra and Taurin. To my shame, my own rampant, unchecked emotions shone out to me too.

I slowly walked up her steps scanning for enemies and snares. My hand paused on the cold, front doorknob. A slight smile formed as I remembered how angry she was when I casually broke her lock the first time she invited me in. Because of this I turned, looking for possible new key placements.

It felt as if she was calling my name when I looked up at the light fixture. There, hidden in all that swirling metal work, a key, placed while thinking about me. A thrill of delight rained sparks inside my chest.

I was important to her.

Once inside I stopped again and looked to my left. Her meditation room caused my heart beat to sky rocket and my blood to ache as it forced its way in a rush through my body.

I stood in the threshold taking in the emotions of the scene. I couldn't see the blood, but my demon side let me smell it. Shorn's and hers. He threatened her, dominated her, terrorized her. I didn't want to step foot in that room and wondered if she would ever be able to again.

Shorn was Ares made flesh when he let himself go. Jealousy, violence, chaos.

He never would have overwhelmed her had he believed she'd refuse to accept every secret part of him. Then again, he wouldn't have had a single moment alone with her if he believed she couldn't handle it.

Perhaps she was relieved when Ila sent her to the prison, even without knowing it was the one place Shorn agreed not to visit without invitation.

I took a breath. A demon was behind me.

Cold air buffeted me, trying to make me stumble forward. I looked down and watched as frost spread out in a lace pattern underneath my feet.

I surprised myself at how calm I was while his anger beat at me from behind. "Taurin."

"Why does the air in this place feel heavy? What have you done?"

My eyebrow quirked at his intuitiveness and I turned. The first thing I noticed was his palm, heavy on the pommel of his sword strapped to his side. Another weapon playing hide and seek over his shoulder, through his long, unbound hair.

"I have done nothing. Shorn has been the instigator."

"Why would Shorn be here?"

I smiled and it didn't feel good, "Because he has laid a claim on Dove."

All that indignation Taurin swamped the room with when he found me standing here stilled. He paled, looking so ethereal, with all that sun-washed, platinum hair, "To kill her?"

My answer was quick to stop him from following that line of thought, "No. That is not an option for him."

I held up a hand to halt whatever he was going to say next, "What caused you to come here?"

"Ezra mind spoke to me in the Icelands and asked me to surveillance."

I nodded, my mind working furiously. Ezra wanted Taurin to know what was happening, perhaps because the prison also had an anchor in his homeland.

"I'll be quick then. Shorn has taken a liking to our Dove..." He interrupted me.

"She's not yours!"

Taurin had always felt much offense at how my relationship with his bonded started. It was warranted and I found his defense of our Dove acceptable. I walked slowly towards him, floating embers of love's tranquility into the surrounding space, "Be at ease. She loves you like no other."

I notice his grip relax on his weapon at my words and magic.

"She does?"

He was astonished and that insecurity surprised me. I stopped within a few feet of him, "Yes, but Shorn is a dangerous demon."

He scoffed, "Everyone knows that. What exactly does he have to do with anything?"

I shook my head gravely, "No. You do not know. You have seen him restrained and at his best behavior. I know Shorn and Dove has unleashed his primal side. Trust me when I say it is nothing you can even begin to imagine."

He narrowed his eyes, his expression turning hard, "She angered him?"

A laugh came out from under my breath, "You should have no doubt that she angered him. She is not known to be sweet tempered or accommodating when she disagrees. The real threat is that he fell in love with her."

The little color that started to blush over his face left again and the incubi side of me took notice. I looked him up and down, his traditional garb so form fitting over his body. So beautiful and intriguing. I wonder...

He shifted his stance, grounding it, ready to take up arms, like the warrior I knew him to be, and asked, "Where is she?"

My upper lip sneered before I could catch it, "Ila drafted her to the prison."

His eyes iced over, like a cloudy, frozen lake, then something unseen cracked it from beneath.

It seemed I needed to revisit my thoughts about this demon.

Taurin had caught my attention.