Demons' Home Ch. 36-37

Thanks to all the readers who keep coming back for more. This is for you. Alas, Demons' Home has come to its conclusion, but it's definitely not the last of Dove or her complicated beaus.

Happy Readings here and elsewhere,

AKBunny

CHAPTER 36

We were summoned to Halla's. Thankfully after our interlude of sex and food. There weren't many there. Five elders and Taurin's mother-in-law, some with bones twined in their hair, some who had more Elemental than the others, one with a book he kept thumping on. Halla seemed the most normal of them all and she was the one, in my opinion, who had the most to win or lose in this meeting.

They barely acknowledged me and spoke about what we had done as if I could contribute nothing to the conversation. I couldn't, not really, its not like I spoke Icelander. Taurin said nothing either, just bowed his head and listened, occasionally nodding his head and patting Halla's hand that rested on his thigh. The voices raised and Halla finally started making herself heard.

My attention drifted and I rose, layering myself in outdoor gear. I stood by the door and turned back to look at Taurin. His eyes drifted up to mine and they were swimming with the monster. Nothing else about him said First Protector, but his eyes drilled into me something fierce. I breathed in sharply through my nose as he lowered his gaze to the floor. It was like they didn't know who was sitting in their midst. My forehead furrowed, how could they not know? Weren't they the wise ones? My face frowned in confusion and I left quickly. There was something about the Elemental that scared me.

As I walked aimlessly through the paths of the village I dissected my fear. Why? There were so many to be fearful of. The Elemental spoke to me on a primal level. He wasn't the beginning of life like the Eternal She felt. He wasn't a predator, huge and breathing fire or even bullying me in my dreams. No, he was more like a virus. He snuck in, took over and moved from one entity to the next just from a simple touch. It was more than that though. He was intelligent... or maybe not in a way I understood, a force that... Damn! Where the hell was I?!

I stopped just as I realized I was really getting into the thick of the woods. My magic tingled inside of me and it was eerily quiet. I looked behind and saw the village a lot farther than I wanted. I stood frozen, knowing something wasn't right, wondering if I was compelled here. I would have never gone into the wilds without Taurin at my side. Then I heard it.

A crunching of unrhythmic footfalls on the snow. I faced the sound and watched as something standing on two legs walked into view. It wasn't close and I was glad. It didn't seem to notice me as it did it's strange lumbering gait. The movement of it's legs looked wrong, almost as if its knees were trying to bend backwards. A foot seemed to crumble on itself and its leg would drop, then right itself into someone taller. It stopped and turned its head to look straight at me. I swallowed hard, not moving.

A beard cracking with ice graced the face and he had ice flowing in a movement over his body. It wasn't a smooth movement though, it was a harsh crashing of waves on rocks, not the ripples of a lake like it had been when I fell into the ice wall. Everything about him seemed to break with it, falling in, then righting itself. I saw this in detail because he changed course and started to walk in my direction. I should have left, but I stood trapped in the horror of that visage.

He stopped far enough away that if we stretched our arms out we still wouldn't touch.

"IshaDove." He spoke and it came out of his mouth, yet it also whispered around me as if coming out of the surrounding snow. I lifted my chin and stared defiantly at the Elemental in front of me.

He was being ridden hard and I wondered if he had broken free when I destroyed the cave. Taurin was always being ridden hard, but he never looked like this.

The man spoke, "Taurin is the wickedest of my shards. I was an angry ice storm when he was conceived. I buried myself into his being with the intent to kill him." He cackled with a sound of ice breaking.

"Can you hear my thoughts?" I asked cautiously.

The man shook his head back and forth slowly and I heard the ice crack with each half turn. "No. He is always in your thoughts because you must make him revolve around you. Without him you would never survive." The head stopped it's strange nodding movements and those eyes stared intently at me, "Unless you give me free passage." He started moving towards me again.

I put my hands up and backed away, "No."

"Forgive me, my lady. I must move or this body will freeze were it stands."

"Then walk parallel to me," I demanded.

The man cleared his throat and turned to do as I asked. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Maureen said you blessed their family."

The man made more creaking sounds in his throat, "Maureen is wrong. I blessed only her. It is the one truth she refuses to acknowledge."

He paused and turned his head to me, "Soschen is my melting snowflake, but you are not. I would not have to fight Taurin if you gave me room inside of you." His body fell to pieces and ice built it back up as he leaned closer.

"You are the yawning pit we all want to fill and you are the match for my First Protector. Now," he shuffled forward closer to me, "I think She owes me a favor."

I moved my upper body away, "She?"

"Not Soschen, my lady. She."

My chin rose and lowered, "Oh. She."

He seemed to shift without turning and walked towards me again. His eyes looked beyond me, "Ah." The next time the voice came out it wasn't with the Elemental's force, "Taurin."

It was scratchy, broken and almost hurt to hear. Nothing moved as we listened to the Icelander's approach. I wouldn't look away from the disaster in front of me even when I felt him close in. Taurin stayed within my peripheral vision and never touched me. I felt the need to reach out and take his hand for my own comfort, but some instinct stopped me.

"Moaev," Taurin acknowledged. "What is your purpose here?"

He smiled a fractured smirk, "To deliver a message. You wouldn't."

Taurin made a noise of discontent, "That is no message a wise man says and well you know it."

Moaev looked over to me again, his body constantly swaying to keep the ice from taking him over. "She owes the Ice. A favor for a favor."

I interjected quickly in horror, "I don't tell her anything and I rather not garner her attention if it's all the same to you."

He didn't answer, but the Elemental looked out through his eyes. I felt myself sway closer and watched as the ice broke, shattering upwards as something soared up through it. The next moment I was in that landscape, seeing a column of spiraling ice shoot towards the sky. It spoke in cracking, creaking noises and Eternal She answered by swallowing us in space.

I came to on my knees, cold on all sides. Snowflakes fell soft around us as Moaev and I clutched each other. I watched his eyes film over and then he just poofed into snowflakes and my anchor was lost. My face planted into the snow and I scrambled up in horror, spitting it out.

I turned swiftly to see Taurin standing, one hand wrapped around the other wrist, his look stoic. I turned my head to the side and spit out more snow.

"It is a fool's errand to get caught between two deities," he said calmly.

"Do you think I'm a fool?"

He didn't move closer, "No, IshaDove. You are the yawning pit that swallows parts of us and doesn't let go."

"You speak the same words."

"I do. That is because I understand the words in a way Moaev never could. Had it been me delivering that message and not Moaev I too may have become snow flurries from their argument."

"Why would he risk his favorite Protector?"

Taurin did a short snort laugh and looked my way from the top of his eyes with a shoulder shrug, "Who can say?"

"You would have died."

His mouthed curled in a disagreement, "We do not die. We just change form." He finally let go of his wrist and gestured at the snow around him.

My mouth twisted in disgust at the thought of snowfall Moaev in it. Taurin watched the movement and smirked. The smirk grew into a bigger smile and then he outright laughed. He waved me towards him.

"Come Isha, let's get back."

I walked toward him, but he did not touch, just swung his arm out in a 'ladies go first' manner. I looked askance at him, but didn't mention it. He answered despite my quiet.

"The Eternal She is on the boundaries of your magic. I can see her darkness. I will not touch you until her displeasure is directed elsewhere. As you said, I am his favorite and where best to strike than me."

All I could do was humm in my throat to that. There were no answers, only more questions. We started walking.

Taurin finally spoke, "Will you stay with me?"

It was my turn to shrug, "I suppose. Maybe a little bit. Going home without either of you will be strange."

He trudged up a pace with me, but kept a good distance between us. "That is good. Once you go back you'll have to be more on your guard. Especially with Oldavai and Shorn."

"Hmm." I paused in thought, "Can you get me home?"

He nodded, "Yes."

As we walked towards the border of the trees I noticed bright light shining through the branches. I stopped in a puddle of it and looked up to see an inky blackness. "Oh Taurin! The sky is clear!"

"Yes. It does do that."

I turned to look at him and still he did not close the space, but he did give me a soft smile that I cherished. "Let's get out of here so I can see it all!"

He motioned his head towards the village and we moved at a faster clip. I ran the last few steps out of the forest. Away from the canopy of the trees the snow was up to my shins, but that didn't stop me from turning in circles to look at the magnificence above me. There were three moons, just like in the Elemental's Place of Dreaming and they all blazed with their own light. Two were white and one blue. Even so, the stars dappled the sky in their own brilliance, meteors dancing in their midsts. And just like that, I felt her recede into the darkness of my being and turn her attention elsewhere.

Taurin finally stepped up to me and gently angled my face up to him, placing his lips on mine in a kiss. When he pulled away he tugged on my hand and kept me walking towards his cabin.

Days turned into weeks and still I stayed.

At times Taurin would leave for multiple nights and I would wander over to Halla's for company. She never minded and the children that visited braided my hair and laughed at my halting attempts at their language. Maureen was a different story. She almost couldn't look at me and her eyes grew haunted. I wondered if she journeyed to see her mother. I would have, but if she didn't remember me it would have left a tear in my heart. On the opposite side of that, her growing relationship with her father was a tiny seedling of hope. It gave me joy to see his own after he spent time with her.

It was a clear blue sky when I stepped outside during one of my weeks without Taurin. Usually there was only one sun shining, but today I saw the faintest outline of something smaller and to the right. My brow frowned in confusion as I stared. I was almost to Halla's when Maureen came barreling into me. I grabbed her arms to keep us from falling and looked up into a frantic gleaming blue face.

"Dove!"

I opened my mouth, but she barreled right over my words with her own.

"Something is flying!"

The lightening in her hair transferred over to my hold on her and I hastily let go. The electrical shock had me retreating my hands to my chest.

I tried to ask a question, "Is it a..."

"It's not a dragon! It's a blinding darkness of light! Wings so bright they rival a sun." She trailed off in volume. "My father loves you, so I've tried to send for him, but I don't think he will come in time."

She looked up at me again with her eyes of the Elemental and I shied away as I asked, "Come in time for what?"

"I don't know. Just be careful."

"Well," I took a deep breath, "thank you for the warning. I don't know what else to do though. Will you come with me to Halla's?"

She shook her head in the negative, "No. The Elemental is worried. So, please," she grabbed my arms tightly, "please, be on guard."

I nodded in agreement, "I will." With my reassurance she turned and ran in a different direction from me.

Once at Halla's I told her what Maureen said and she looked sharply at me. I tried to interpret her words, but it was no use. She turned back to her beading and pushed the bag I left to finish into my hands. So we sat in companionable silence and focused on our work.

That night the talk was about the second light that still burned bright in the night sky. It was coming closer. The children confirmed that there was a season they called the forever sun, but this wasn't the right time. The elders came and ushered them out, wanting to speak together as adults without their listening ears. I caught familiar words, and could feel the concern over what this event could mean. Since the children were gone and Halla preoccupied I left the confines of her house to go home.

Taurin was still away when I awoke in the morning. I stayed in, meditating to bring some perspective to the worry of the previous day. It worked for awhile, but I learned early on that too long with my own thoughts and company made me melancholy when thinking about the future.

It was late in the afternoon when I decided to get out and walk around some. I had barely stepped away from the cabin when a forceful gust of wind pushed me back. The shaking of the ground from the figure's landing in front of me caused me to fall hard on my legs, bruising my shins.

I looked up from my kneeling position, hearing the shouts of the children in the background and stared at an angel! Wings a blinding white that caused black dots to appear in my vision. My mouth gaped open and I found the only acceptable words.

"Holy Shit!"

My body thrummed demon at me as this being wearing only white flowing pants bent down, grabbed me by the forearms and shot straight up into the sky.

Maureen's words come to life.

CHAPTER 37

He flew unhesitantly high, his wings a force to be reckoned with. It wasn't the lazy glide of the dragons, riding the currents. He went right into them, propelled himself forward and my heart ratcheted up a notch with each drumming beat. He was going to drop me. He was going to drop me!

I squeezed my eyes shut to help with the searing feeling of air slicing into them, tears streaming out in rivers. I could trace their course by the wet coldness on my face. I focused on that refusing to think about the ground so far below my feet and his steely hold the only thing keeping me from falling.

He did an abrupt dive and it felt like we collided into a current. It grabbed us and we shot forward at a pace that had the contents of my stomach rise into my throat. I knew this feeling, he hitched a ride on a magnetic line and it was the farthest feeling from smooth. It pushed us in several directions at once and I felt him crash out and immediately hop onto another one.

When we finally reached his destination he dropped me unceremoniously onto red dirt. I got a close up view of its dusty hues as I spewed everything inside of me except for my organs. I used my sleeve to wipe my mouth and tried to spit out what was left. My head pounded and I fell backwards on my back with my eyes shut.

His shadow fell on me, blocking out the warm sun. I refused to open my eyes. "What do you want?" I croaked out.

"What do I want?" His voice was harsh and full of resentment.

"Yes. What do you want?" I finally opened my eyes to look at the demon gazing upside down at me. Blue eyes swimming with white clouds that suddenly retreated to blazing blue irises with a black pupil. Pale hair spiking into silver, a familiar figure from a Seattle bar.

He crouched down to his knees and I felt his finger trail down the ski slope of my nose. "I need to use you to find out how to pull the demon out of me."

I groaned, "Holy fuck, Regina's angel! She knew you were a demon. Why would she be so dense?!"

He made a noise as if he couldn't believe I asked such a stupid question.

"Look at me," he stood straight and spread out wings and hands, turning in a slow circle, "Dove." He drawled out my name, putting all the meaning into. He crouched back down, "Thank you for coming to me, here."

I scowled, "I didn't come to you."

"Yet, here you are, in a world not your own. I would like to think of it as fate."

"I don't."

He smiled cruelly and gripped me under the arms to fly me over to an alter of stone. He shoved me down, jarring my back and shackling me before I could react. Retreating nausea came back full force and I groaned again, my vision circling around me. Sweat started beading on my forehead, due to the sickness or the heat, I had no idea, probably both. I could feel him looking at me, so I opened my eyes and watched him cock his head while surveying my body.

"Not the most appropriate wear for my home." His wing stretched around to the front of him and I watched him pluck a large feather out. He twirled it in his fingers and smiled evilly at me again. I watched in disbelief as he used it as a knife to slice open my clothes. Demons were always so good at making me feel conflicted, I was almost naked, but at least I was cooler.

I took an agitated breath before speaking, "You don't really think you can pull the demon out of you?"

His wings raised and lowered, "Why not? You did."

I gave him a look of disbelief, "Not without leaving a gaping hole in my soul! And I'm not a demon. Think about it."

"You look like you are doing just fine."

Nope. He wasn't gong to think about it. He was gong to ignore the fact that I wasn't a demon, so I focused on what he believed. "No. I am not doing fine. There is a constant feeling of emptiness. I know exactly what is missing and I can feel it. Even in this other world I feel it and know exactly what is happening to that part of me. Have you talked to Oldavai? He should be able to give you a better description since he is a demon."

He sneered, "I wouldn't step anywhere near that incubi. Shhh. I need to work." He stood next to the alter and studied me.

The look on his face didn't have anything to do with me being mostly nude. He was looking beyond it, like he could see my soul, or magic, or whatever it was that made me, me. The demon spread his hands, hovering them above my body and I watched as the blue took over his eyes.

"This is what I taught Regina, only she was too grounded in the physical and needed something to relate to the body. She had to take their blood as a targeted focus. Such weakness. You didn't need to do that though did you? From what I hear you just ripped it right out."

I gasped as he pulled at the roots that connected me to Ezra and Taurin. My blood pounded in my ears and their music inside faded into a discord barely on the edges of my conscious.

"There they are. I am my own demon locator."

I gasped again at the strong tug of his magic and strained my voice to speak, "Great. Use it on yourself. Because I am completely happy with being everything I am." My voice broke at the end of my sentence.

His grunt at me sounded like disbelief.

With a blank look on his face he started to painstakingly pick at one piece to break it free. "I won't damage you to the point where you can't return. I want to be whole after I do this to myself, not empty the way you describe. Which means I have to extract and reconnect."

"Are you fucking... Egh.." I took deep breaths as he continued to slice away at me, "This is not going to work! Oh dear Goddess, this cannot be happening again!" I ended with a shout of pain.