11

CHAPTER 7

I knocked on the door next to the main demon's office. Ila was a demon hunter in her eighties, who looked like she was in her thirties. She gave a glimpse of the slow age progression of our kind if we managed to survive that long. I never formally met her, but I heard stories. First and most importantly, she raged against having demons included in our laws. Secondly, when the council overruled all objections she demanded to be head of the demon hunter department. And thirdly, she refused to have an office on the human second floor. Then, she insisted Shorn's office be next to hers when she found out about his nomination. Three out of four ain't bad in my opinion.

She opened the door and turned around promptly, "Come inside and close the door, every wall on this floor is engineered and magiced to be sound proof. Too many damn auditory sensitive beings." She gestured to the right as she walked towards her desk. A chair was set diagonally from the corner of it. "I see Oldavai found you."

I frowned when I looked down at my now gold sparkly dress pants and ran a nervous hand through my long hair, "Do you have a mirror?"

I looked around her office and noticed its scarcity. A few books were on the shelves, glass orbs scattered throughout. The surface of her huge desk consisted of four rows of more colored glass orbs that ran its width. I sat down in an uncomfortable, navy blue office chair.

She was brusque, "You don't need a mirror. Trust me when I say that you're covered in his dandruff."

I grimaced and felt even more tense as I studied the woman in front of me. She wore an eye patch on her right eye and curly raven hair tumbled around her shoulders. A black leather vest laced snugly up her voluptuous front and matching leather pants. A frilly white shirt completed her ensemble. She looked like an honest to god pirate, and beautiful despite the cliche. I swallowed and pinched my lips together to keep from saying anything sarcastic, my emotions were in overdrive.

Her bright red mouth quirked as if she knew what I was thinking, "Dove Hawthorn. My, my, my. You were on the bottom of my pile, given 'kill only' scrap warrants. Beneath notice. Then, one fateful day, Shorn came in here asking for access to demon hunter files."

"You granted him that?!" I asked in shocked disbelief.

She quirked an eyebrow, "Of course not, but he went through every proper channel, no "i" undotted, no "t" uncrossed, and his request was granted. His reasoning was that he needed a specific demon hunter to succeed with a very high profile demon that only he knew the inner workings of. I had no option but to accede to orders from 'on high'." Her fingers raised in quotation marks at the phrasing.

My breathe left in a whoosh, "Ezra."

Ila twisted her lips into a wry expression, "Ezra. He pulled six demon hunters. After four deaths," her tone turned sarcastic, "the mighty council was reconsidering his request. Imagine that." She pushed back on her chair and propped her booted feet on her desk.

"When I was finally granted intelligence of his pairings I immediately started the process of getting Shorn's picks rescinded, one death too late. He was sending all of you to a death sentence," she paused, "or torture chamber. I know of Ezra's unethical scientific studies." She paused giving me a pointed look, "But you succeeded in a way I never fathomed. They applauded Shorn when Ezra, the scourge of hunters and everything else, including demons, came back not killed, but very, very bonded. To you."

She looked meaningful at me. "And then Taurin. And then a successful hunt on a lucifer, the demon Keish."

"I suppose you would know that term."

Ila laughed with irony and tapped her eye patch, "Shorn and I have a history and I know all about crazy lucifers. There's a lot that I'm not telling the council members. They order us around like children who don't know any better. They're too stupid and power hungry to have that information. Shorn and I agree on some things. More than either one of us will admit to." She paused to really study me. Her boots hit the floor and she picked up a green glass orb, moving it on her palm, curling her fingers around the sphere. "Then there was Oldavai." At the end of her statement she arced her arm and shattered it against the wall.

I jerked and looked at the scattered shards of glass on the floor then back to her, my eyes wide. I understood the placement of the chair and orbs now.

I repeated slowly, "Eeyup, then there was Oldavai."

She smiled, but it wasn't nice, "Look at the mess you've created. The least of my hunters has done the unattainable, not once, but four times. You," she pointed at me, "have some very high profile demons surrounding you.

"As impossible as it seems, I'm starting to think you might know more about demons than I do. This is what I want from you. First, find out from the oldest living demon what the hell happened to demon hunters centuries ago and why we have so little knowledge about our abilities. Second, tell me how you achieved a successful trap and subdue when no one has been able to. Ever. After that we'll discuss our next move."

I blinked, "Ezra's the oldest demon alive?"

"Figured that one out did ya," she said sarcastically and continued, "as far as I know. On this side of the dimension."

"And he knows..." I trailed off waiting for her reply.

"The 'whys' and 'whats' of everything we've lost. You know our myth in the reference book, 'Hunting Nightmares'."

I nodded, "About the massacre of demon hunters until there were none left and we had to start our population over again."

"I think it's mostly true, not complete annihilation. Shorn refuses to deny or confirm. But, we're missing so much about what we do and why we do it. Ezra has to know. Find out." Her fingers drummed on her desk and she bore her green eye into me. "Now tell me everything."

I took a deep breath, "Are we going to war?"

"Not if I can help it. That damn council merged us too much with their hopes of trying to gain more funding and brute strength with the inclusion of demons. It was a financial move when they enacted that," she sneered, "law. Stating hunters could control demons with binding and bring about a peaceful society. If they push too hard on this one we may have to all walk out. If we don't, we'll slaughter each other, the first casualties being those who are bound together."

I started talking. I didn't want to tell anyone the details of what happened between Oldavai and me, but she was an experienced demon hunter and on my side, I hoped.

CHAPTER 8

"I'll give you the condensed version. Our law of binding is a half measure. I'm picking up that the majority of bindings are demon driven, but I know they don't like doing it. I'm positive they leaked it to the council." I shook my head, "I think it's a back up measure in case they were ever ousted by the Affairs' Office, or else to try to control and survey us."

My voice lowered and I ducked my head, "That being said, mine and Ezra's was not forced. Then Taurin's happened because I believed," I shrugged, "in Ezra I suppose."

Ila laughed harshly, "Ezra's was forced, you just missed it. No wonder Shorn picked your file for the most powerful demon out there. You're just a gullible, soft-hearted girl."

I narrowed my eyes at her description and continued, "Demons can claim a being. It's not a servant and it's beyond the law of binding the Affairs' Office knows about. The binding law, I think, is them putting our magic inside theirs. It gives us telepathy with each other and causes an entry way for both sides to lure in and use each other's magic. The process can be draining and I've seen them use it to harm and manipulate us."

Her lip curled, "I know all about the consequences of that law, even though the politicians claim it's lies or a patriotic sacrifice for the needs of the citizenry."

"If you knew this why didn't you tell us?! Why didn't you protect us?!"

Ila's eye narrowed at me, "Hold your tongue! I protect my teams every day, but not with those who know nothing. There is a reason I sit here," she forcefully pointed her finger to the floor, indicating her office and then stretched out her arm and pointed it to her right, "next to Shorn. HE is the one who I have won concessions with. Many none will EVER know."

I shook my head. I believed her and yet, I wanted more from her. I continued. "I believe claiming is a reverse process where they put a piece of their magic inside us and tie it up. They grow roots in someone else's magic, but it effects them too. Everything seems to be more intensified."

She snarled at me as she tilted her chair on its back legs, "You're just another experiment for Ezra."

My frustration grew as I attempted to ignore her remarks. My insecurities of being a hunter confirmed by the best of us. "Forget Ezra," I growled. "Oldavai did it to me and I ripped his magic out, only it pulled out some of my own."

"Really? Oldavai did that to you? On purpose?" Her eyebrows rose in disbelief as she looked at me from the top of her eye.

"Yes and I have no fucking idea why! I understand demons even less than I use to!" I stood up and started to pace.

"You're missing part of your magic. Oldavai's missing part of his magic. And Shorn has it." It should have been a question, it wasn't.

I put my hand up in an aggrieved gesture and rolled my eyes, "I think it's our souls, maybe. It was Shorn or me. If I took it I would have had to put it back inside me and then Oldavai would've had a hold on me. And Oldavai's magic is wrong somehow." I shivered, remembering the moments before Ezra blew open the entryway of where I was handcuffed to the bed having breathtaking sex with Oldavai.

Ila made a noise of agreement, "I remember how he made Laci his love slave."

I gave her a look out of the side of my eye as she sat thinking with her hand covering her mouth. I picked up a glass orb and sat caressing the sphere, passing it back and forth in my hands. Finally she gave me her attention and I placed it on her desk.

"Anything else?"

I looked up at her for a contemplative moment, "Yes. I believe that as long as Shorn holds onto that magic, he is subdued, but the moment anyone not directly involved tries to retrieve it Oldavai will attack."

"The prospect of a floor filled with sex crazed supernaturals gives me the chills. At least now I know why that hasn't happened yet."

"There is no way that anyone can trap and subdue a demon since the demon has to do it voluntarily. It won't happen."

"You don't have to convince me, but I'm sure as hell not telling that to the council, they'll never believe me. What I do need to do is convince them that trap and subdue warrants need to be rare and well thought. Not something as nonchalant as a flyer handed out at a grocery store." She stared at me, "Dove, you need to get your house in order. Shorn having a piece of you is not an ordered house. You know that don't you?"

"I don't know what else to do, Ila. If it comes anywhere near me it tries to go home and then I'll be idiotically in love with him." I said dejectedly.

She ruffled through some papers distractedly, "Stop the pity party. Think of something. Ezra too, before he kills you, or before you wish he would kill you. Here." Ila shoved a warrant at me before I could even form a thought about disagreeing with her assessment of Ezra's character.

"What's this?" I asked. "Oh. Oh no." My head shot up so fast I enshrouded myself in a dusty golden haze. This name was on a list I compiled of demons who were deadly to hunters, Taurin verified to me that he was no lucifer, no demon who had gone insane, but a very sane one. The warrant was a policing one, not kill. I was never good enough for these warrants. No one ever accused me of being diplomatic or experienced enough that my threat would actually sway a demon.

"He's in California, entertaining on my turf. Kill him."

I breathed a sigh of partial relief. There was a silver lining to that storm cloud.

She continued, "Play the game. Be dramatic. Convince the council that the consequences of a trap and subdue on a demon hunter are not in their best interest. I don't want you to be forced to leave the Affairs' Office, but I want them to be weary of demon hunters turning into someone unstable and unpredictable. If you don't do this Dove, there will be a war, because after what you told me I am not subjecting our people to ripping out their souls for the sake of politics. I have as many demon hunters in Sacramento right now as when that damn binding law was enacted. So, start the gossip again, like you did with Oldavai. Like with Taurin and just like you did with Ezra."

She locked her gaze on me and pointed to the paper, "We never had this conversation."

I nodded silently and stood up, folding the warrant and putting it in my pocket. My thoughts raced as I tried to work out a messy plan. I made it to the door before she stopped me.

"Dove," I turned and watched her pull a laptop out of a drawer, "I was part of the movement to exterminate Taurin. Don't fail me or you'll be expendable and I will kill him myself."

She never looked up and I walked out of her office listening to the sound of her typing until the door swung shut behind me.

CHAPTER 9

Fucking figures, I thought to myself. Except that I didn't think it only to myself.

'What figures?' asked Taurin's voice in my head.

I rolled my eyes and went to the open space in the middle of the floor. It was back to its hustle and bustle, voices drifting around me. I sat on one of the plastic chairs and spaced out in my mind, not interested in replying to Taurin. I felt Ezra's heat and faintly smelled the remnants of cloves before he actually stepped behind my chair. The flex and drape his wings to their full length was a sound that could cause dread in others. I watched it happen. Most left for offices, others stared, their emotions seeping into the air: fear, curiosity, the need to be alpha.

I sighed and placed my hand palm up over my shoulder. His hand closed around mine. I pulled him around until he stood in front of me and I could gaze in wonder at the dark red glowing of his wings. He stretched them out even more and then closed them snug to his back. In all other aspects he looked human, his black hair disarrayed, his suit still tidy. He bent down on one knee to be eye level with me.

"Angry?" I asked.

"Not any more," he replied.

"Shorn?"

He shrugged.

"Taurin?"

"Rarely."

"Oldavai?"

"Oh Eshera, always."

"I have a warrant," I told him.

"Ila?"

"Yes. It might stop all this."

"Whose name?"

"I need to think."

Ezra looked askance at me, "I will not like this name."

"I have no idea."

"I do." His hand wrapped around my neck and he brought me to his mouth, "Kiss me."

I smiled, wanting to do nothing more than that. It was a soft kiss, the smallest of movements across each other. His eyes so serious as he inched his face even closer and bit my bottom lip delicately. I pulled away from Ezra with a content look in my eyes. The smell of brimstone snaked into my nose as I looked up to see more of our audience quickly leave.

"We do not see that. Ever. No one on this floor has issues displaying dominance, it's the acquiesce we have problems with. I definitely would not have expected Ezra to be at the other end of that precious moment."

I stood abruptly and spun around in anger. Shorn stood there playing cat's cradle with a small ball of magic twined with blue and gold. His mouth twisted in a half smile at the rage flashing out my eyes. He bit his lip and blood dripped, slowly following the contours of his chin. He looked surprisingly in place, no extra parts emerging. Peripherally, I saw Oldavai emerge from my left, his eyes glued on that little ball of our power Shorn twirled over and under his fingers. I just knew he could feel a hollow echoing in his soul like I did whenever Shorn played with it. Maybe it was even worse for him.

I started to make some hurtful comment to Shorn about his parentage, but Ezra clamped a now clawed hand on my mouth. I heard Taurin in my head saying 'oh shit' at the same time Ezra spoke. They were both inside my mind and knew my foul mouth temper was about to explode.

"Our little Dove sometimes speaks before thinking." He turned to look at me sternly, "Enough."

He was right. I had had enough and the little dragon that Ezra put inside of me shrieked. It shrieked so loud that even though not everyone could hear it they saw the effects of it as objects vibrated, some falling to the floor. Glasses and coffee pots cracked. Ezra's hand shot off my mouth and his eyes glazed over as he looked possessively at me.

I turned my attention back to Shorn. He stood there, bloody eyes lost in wonderment. "Ezra's been busy and he's incredibly always conniving to make us forget who he really is. I almost regret finding you." Oldavai's and my ball of magic increased in diameter until his hand grew to accommodate it. "End this, protege. So that we may go to the next calamity."

I surveyed who was around, Ila leaning up against her door, Oldavai somehow now standing a foot away from me, his eyes on Shorn, and Taurin's cold air behind us. I needed to leave and Shorn was right, I needed to end this, all of it. I gave the globe one last determined look and turned sharply. The two of them reached me after I was halfway down the street searching for a hotel.

I found a room. A nice one, it had two bedrooms and a sitting room. I didn't have to declare that I wanted my own room, it was obvious. They would accommodate, but just to what they deemed safe. I said nothing about it except that I was going to get some clothes and didn't want them anywhere near me.

Before I left I looked at Taurin, "Ila told me she was after your death."

Taurin just stared, saying nothing.

I continued, "It's good you didn't tell me before you bonded. I don't know what I would have done. She's a guardian of us all."

"I know. I suspected she'd stop coming after me because of you and she did. She was the third member who was after me when we first met."

I shook my head in displeasure as I walked out and securely closed the door behind me. I had no idea how long we were going to be there so I left to find more clothes. It was when I was browsing a surplus store for boots that I came across more demon hunters.

A female with long, dyed red dreads in pigtails approached me, "You're Dove."

I arched an eyebrow at her, "And you are?"

"Rebekkah." She gave me a smile and placed a hand on her cocked hip. She reminded me of a naughty doll. Thigh highs, boy shorts, and snap corset. She had bright red, pouty lips and eyes outlined in heavy, blue eyeliner. Behind her was another hunter dressed in camouflage who she pointed to with her thumb, "Elsie."

"What can I do for you?" I asked as I continued to look for my shoe size.

"Tell us how to trap and subdue a demon."

"Fuck em'." I paused and then started laughing at my unintentional pun. Tears were leaking out of my eyes, because that was exactly how I was able to fulfill my warrant with Oldavai. I whispered the words a couple times until it faded and I no longer had to hold my stomach from the pain of laughing hard.

"I'm sorry. Sorry." I wiped the tears away. "Inside joke," I started laughing as I continued, "you would've had to been there." I cleared my throat, "Just kill 'em or stay away."

She and her friend started whispering to themselves until Rebekkah finally said out loud, "You should come out tonight."

"Why? Where?" I asked as I tried on a pair of zip boots.

"Hunter's Club. 10 p.m. Off J street."

"Demons go there?"

"You are Dove, right?" Elsie chimed in nastily, her Spanish accent heavy.

I finally gave my full attention, "Sometimes I wish I wasn't. How'd you recognize me?"