What we do in the Dark

Chapter Twenty-Three

He crouched down at one of the many tall bookshelves. I stood behind him waiting patiently. He pulls out a piece of paper. What is he going to do with that? He places a hand on each side and closes his eyes. The paper glows red and slowly expands into a massive book.

"Wow, cool. What other things do you have hidden amongst all these books?" I poked one of the books and something clicked, before I knew what was happening Thorin raised his hand up with his palm open. I thought I had sensed something shooting down at me. I looked up to see an arrow stopped in its tracks from shooting me in the head. It was glowing red as Vihaan's powers held it in place and seemed to infuse with the flames of hell and holy water. I've never seen such weapons. How'd he get a hold of something like that? "Rather protective of your books aren't you."

"Yes well, I have a remarkable collection of texts that if in the wrong hands could end us all as we know it." He stood up as the arrow disappeared back to wherever it had come from.

"Sounds fancy. You and your literature." He reads too much, books of our realm, books of the heavens and most of all the human realms. He seems to really like human literature. Most of Heaven's and Hell's books are non-fiction, but the humans seem to come up with thousands of fiction texts a year, and Vihaan eats up what he can. Much like the single cookbook he owns he doesn't have many human realm books. For us demons, it's unheard of to go to the human realm to shop. Though When Vihaan used to leave the house he would shop. Then he stopped going out and is now stuck with the same books he's had for over a millennium.

"Yes while as I'm sure you're aware of that old saying 'knowledge is power', well it is most definitely true." He flipped through the massive book too fast for me to see anything more than a few squares and a blur of text.

For the demon who raised me, much of his life is a secret. I don't even know what type of demon he is. All I know is that he feeds on knowledge, hence why he reads so much. He doesn't even need to attain the knowledge from humans or any other being for that matter, he can simply attain knowledge himself and that is what feeds him. He is self-sufficient. It's a tremendous power. I've never met another demon with that sort of ability.

He stopped turning the pages rapidly, his eyes scanned the page. "I do believe this is him." He turned the book my way. On these particular two pages, there were two pictures of Exitium. One of his true form and the other of his shadow form. There was also a massive amount of writing.

"You're not gonna make me read all that are you?" Please no, please no. I crossed my fingers. I don't like to read.

"Well, you want to save these humans of yours no?" He raised an eyebrow letting go of the book allowing it to float in place. It glowed red as Vihaan's powers caressed it.

"I mean yeah..." I pouted scanning the thousands of tiny words. "But can't you like tell me what it says, I know you can read super fast. This is gonna take me a century, they'll die of old age before I get through all this. This is impossible-"

"Hey!" My eyes darted his direction. "I taught you better than this. Are you going to allow your own selfish reluctance to read stop you from helping these two humans that you care about?" I guess he had a point but how long is this going to take? "To add to that I don't know what it says." I looked back up at him. What does he mean he doesn't know what it says, there isn't a book in this room he hasn't memorized.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I was reading the tiny words. He's lucky I have amazing vision even for a demon.

He sat on the lounge chair, crossing his legs elegantly, sitting up straight. "Well, you see that book is one gifted to me by god. Back from when I was an angel." I lifted my eyes to his. A gift from God when he was an angel?

"Don't they take all your belongings when you fall?" Me being a demon who never fell, I lack certain experiences, one being the merciless experience of falling.

"Yes, but I managed to keep this. It is a very powerful book. If anyone knew I had it they'd exterminate me at once." He says it so nonchalantly. "It is the book of omniscius, it knows every being that has existed in our universe. It knows everything you'll ever need to know about them, their history, their powers, weaknesses, and the book is always evolving to fit the current time. Humans are in there as well." I wonder if I can find Vihaan in here? "And don't try to snoop, only I can turn the pages." Well, nevermind I guess. He's so damn secretive. I wanna know who he was before he became my father.

"Can you at least tell me how old you are?"

"Why are you so eager to know? You always used to ask me that as a child too." He crossed his arms finally relaxing into the couch.

"No reason really just curious, you are my family after all, why wouldn't I want to know who you are and where you came from?"

He stayed silent for a moment. "I don't know my full age off the top of my head, I try not to think about it. It's somewhere amongst the 672400000's." My eyes widened and my lips parted. That's impossible. There are very few beings that exist that hold that sort of age. Is the man who raised me really one of the Ancients? I've only heard the legends of them, they are the most powerful angels and demons, feared by all. Their powers surpass any of God's other creations.

"Are you messing with me?" Vihaan, a feared ancient demon? It's hard to believe considering he's afraid to go outside.

"No, I am not. There are few of us left, we blend in well with the rest of our kind. We are feared by all. If they found us they would execute us in the most gruesome of ways. Do not tell a soul about what you heard from me here." I wonder if he has powers he's kept from me all these years.

"I won't." I would never put Vihaan in danger like that.

"Good now start reading. Those humans of yours are not going to save themselves." He summoned a human novel into his hands. One he's read a few hundred times at least. I need to get him some new books.

"Could I convince you to come to the human realm with me." His eyes shot up from his book. His lips parted slightly as though he was about to protest my suggestion. "I want you to meet them. Plus things have evolved so much up there since your last visit.

His eyes half-lidded and his lips pursed together. "Are you trying to get me killed? My time will come but until then I have much to teach you-" I can't stand the way he talks about his own demise so calmly.

"No, your time will not come. You're immortal, and no, I want to go on a family outing like when I was a child, but instead of the hot streets of hell, we will visit the human's ever-evolving land." Vihaan would love it, after all, he does have a fixation on the human way of life.

He sighed placing his book face down on his lap. "I'll think about it if you complete reading those two pages and a novel of my choosing." Did he just kind of agree. Oh my devil, he hasn't been out of the house in hundreds of years. I can't beliv- did he say read a book?

"But Vihaan-"

"No buts do as I say and I will contemplate going up there with you but only this once." He picked his book back up again, eyes scanning the pages at an impressive pace.

"Fine." This isn't going to be easy for me, but anything to spend some quality family time with him. I locked my eyes to the page reading up on all the information on Exitium. Wow, this book is amazing. There is so much about this guy I didn't know. And to think I was keeping taps on his for all these decades when I could have just read an ancient book.

Zev and Jasper will spend the rest of their lives happily together. I'll see to it myself.