The five-minute drive to the Order felt longer. No matter how hard I tried to relax, my body buzzed with the thick tension in the car. Well, at least Irene didn't grant Charles any of the fearful adoration she showed Arthur.
The three of us went inside the high building, attracting covert glances from everyone around us. What a trio we made. The fake human, the Enforcer, and the nine-tailed fox posing as a normal shapeshifter.
Soon enough, we were on the tenth floor. The entire floor consisted of massive laboratories set up with the latest technological and magical equipments. Immortals in white lab coats moved through the hallways, the glass walls and white floors made the entire space feel like a maze. Irene led us through with confident, familiar steps, until we reached a closed glass door. Behind which a woman stood in front of a huge hologram screen. Tall and slender, her skin was of rich chocolate and her eyes a piercing gray, her hair pulled into a tight low bun.
"This is Ed?" I whispered to Irene before she knocked.
She nodded with a small, satisfied smile. "Short for Edel," she said.
I had thought Ed was a man. That would teach me. Ed looked our way, smiled at Irene, frowned at me and scowled at Charles. I liked her already.
She opened the door and waved us in. "Come on in. I don't have all day."
A shapeshifter, I focused a bit more, trying to pinpoint what kind of shapeshifter she was. A feline, but what kind?
"I'm Ed," she said, walking back to the screen, we followed, "cheetah shifter, demonology expert, and I have some good news."
I perked up, watching as Edel fiddled a bit with the screen until a scan of what looked like an old document appeared on it.
She enlarged it. Even through the screen, I could tell the paper was ages old. Its edges were frayed and pieces were clearly glued together.
The ink washed out in some places. In the center of the page was a rough sketch of a humanoid creature with spiral horns protruding from its bald head, eyes that showed no white, a flat nose and a unique jaw that was a weird mesh of a human jaw and a canine's. The lower part of the face jutted out a little compared to the rest of its face.
"Before we begin, I might disclose information humans aren't privy to," Ed said, looking straight at me. Irene hesitated, but it was Charles who spoke, surprising the three of us.
"She has full clearance," he said, his large frame immovable next to me.
Ed blinked, then blew out a breath. "Alright."
So she wasn't going to argue. Considering Charles was one of Arthur's people, he technically was higher in the Order's ladder than both Ed and Irene. Irene would just love that.
On another note, I had a feeling I knew exactly who decided to give me full clearance. Either Arthur wasn't worried about me divulging confidential information after this case was over, or he wasn't planning on letting me leave alive.
There was a third explanation, but it was so unlikely that I vanished the thought in a second. Because there was no way he knew exactly what or who I was, and that I already knew everything the immortals tried to keep from humans.
Whatever the reason, I was not reassured.
Edel zoomed in on another small sketch next to the main one. A drawing of a jaw displaying a clear view of the sharp teeth.
"I took a look at the body myself after Stephanie got me the picture. I could tell from the trace and the angles of the bites that the jaw was unique. I knew I'd seen it before somewhere, but I couldn't remember until I went through an old book of high level demons that lived on Earth a long, long time ago."
A high level demon. I was right. We were so screwed.
"So you're saying our guy is a high level demon?" Irene asked, not bothering to hide her disbelief, "how the hell was he able to pass through?"
Ed turned toward us, crossing her arms, "that's the thing, in the last couple of decades or so, there has been more demon activity than usual. Before that, there was a very limited number of demons passing over to our realm, and they were all lesser demons," Ed looked at me, frowned, "since you're authorized to know about all this, might as well enlighten you if you want to be any help in the case." she looked at Charles. He nodded. She pointed to a few chairs around the table, "Sit."
We all sat down, except for Charles who loomed like a shadow behind Ed.
"Demons are not creatures of our realm, that's a fact that everyone knows. A long time ago, a portal was opened between the two realms, and all kinds of creatures passed over to our world, including demons. Demons are divided into categories: lesser demons, mid tier demons, high level demons and demon lords.
"Fast forward a few centuries, there was some trouble, and the demons decided to go back to their world. The portal was closed, but the fabric dividing the realms was never whole again. Chasms and little tears appeared, making it possible for demons with little power to pass through: lesser demons. They're little more than animals, some of them are more stupid, but some are a bit smarter, stronger and greedy little bastards.
"The point is, a middle tier demon should've never been able to exist here, let alone a high level demon. They need a lot of magical feedback that they can't get in our realm, since our magic and theirs is different."
I nodded slowly, trying to look like I was absorbing all that information she just dumped on me. Which I already knew, of course, and in much more detail than she deigned to reveal. I especially liked how she reduced the entire story that changed the path of our world in one sentence: "some trouble". Some trouble, my foot.
"So," Ed said, looking pointedly at Charles, "you don't know how this is happening? Why are we getting a large number of unwanted guests these past decades?"
Charles just looked at her with an impassive face. Very conversable, our Charlie.
Ed sighed, then turned back to the screen, "as I was saying, the demon you're looking for is a high level demon, we have records of its kind walking the earth when the portal was still open. The records are very rare, and whatever exists from that time period is usually kept confidential and not open to everyone," she pointedly glanced over her shoulder at Charles again.
"So, what do we know about the demon?" Irene prompted.
"His kind was rumored to have found delight in eating human flesh. They're very powerful, and records of some special abilities like teleportation were found."
"Anything else?" Irene asked, as desperate as I was for something that would actually help us catch him. But Ed shook her head and fiddled with the screen some more, "like I said, records are very few. Whatever I could scrounge up I sent it to you."
"Magic feedback," I said, catching three pairs of eyes. "Since the demon is a high level demon, you said he needs magical feedback to keep surviving in this realm, how does he get it?"
Everyone was silent for a long moment.
"A connection to the other realm," Charles said, "somehow, he's keeping his connection to the other realm alive."
"That's impossible," Irene said, "the chasms through which the demons come to our realm are not constant, they keep opening and closing, and they keep changing locations. The only way he could keep a connection alive this long is through a portal. And we would all know if a portal was opened."
Our realm would be under a demon invasion, if that happened.
"Actually," Ed said, moving hurriedly behind her desk and tapping furiously on a laptop, "it's not completely impossible...where is it...Aha!"
She pressed a key loudly and the hologram screen in front of us changed into a scan of an open book. Ed joined us, and started flipping through the book I recognized. The First Grimoire.
The book contained records of a variety of magical experiments and rituals. A section of the book contained the ritual through which humans can summon demons. That section was leaked to humans centuries ago by some vampire, and no matter how hard the immortals tried to take it away from human hands, it always survived somehow.
Uncle Robert had told me that the immortal who leaked the ritual was still being punished to this day.
"Here it is," Ed said, zooming in on one dated page of the book. A note written in a tiny scribble at the bottom of the page. "It states here that there's a way for demons to maintain a connection through the realms." Ed frowned, "a blood connection, if I'm translating this properly. Anyway, the ritual itself isn't known to us, and it's only a rumor since there's no actual record of it."
"Still, it's a possibility," Irene said.
"How do you think he does it?" I asked.
Ed turned to us, a frown disturbing her smooth skin, "I can only guess."
"We'll take your guess," Irene said, "it's the best thing we have so far."
"Well," she tapped her lip with a beautifully manicured nail, "blood, a live connection between both realms. That would indicate he'd need living blood from this realm and that one."
"Living blood?"
"Yes, someone is constantly providing him with living demon blood and human blood. The living demon blood he could get easily from one of those lesser demons he had with him. Human blood, on the other hand...Either there's someone willing to provide him with their blood or he's holding someone alive against their will."
"This keeps getting worse and worse," Irene ran her hand through the long locks of her hair, "we came here hoping you could give us a lead on the killer, and you're telling us he's either holding another human as a source of live blood, or a human is willingly working with him."
"The amount of time he spent in our realm indicates that there would be more than one human," Ed said.
Great. Just great. Five minutes later we were in the elevator going down to the parking lot.
"We should check if there's any kidnapping cases around the time the killer first showed up," Charles said, "if we find nothing, then there's a good chance he has humans working with him."
"There's nothing we can do about it, anyway," Irene said, "Ed did say that the bastard could only maintain the connection alive for a limited period of time, maybe that's why he's killing his victims faster."
And if that was the case, we had even less time than we thought to find the victim. We reached the basement, and as we walked to the car there was someone waiting for us.
"Kit," Irene greeted in a tone that would freeze the sahara. Kit, with his arrogant scowl and glossy hair nodded at her, then nodded at Charles. He didn't even glance my way. Oh no. how could he. I was heartbroken.
I beamed widely, "Hello, Kit." His upper lip twitched as he held back a snarl. Gosh, he was so easy. "Nice to see you again."
He nodded, still not looking at me.
"We're off to speak to the family of the kidnapped victim," Irene said, "what's up?"
"Jason already talked to them."
"We know," Irene said with exaggerated slowness, "but we want to do it ourselves, my gut tells me there's something there."
"They're humans, there's nothing much you can get out of them," he said, taking out his datapad, "I need you to go take a lo-"
"Are you even listening?" Irene snapped, "I said we have to do something first, whatever you want to stick me into, I'm sure there's a spare agent who can do it."
Kit's eyes flashed a bright red, his nostrils flaring, "I think you forgot that you're working under me."
Irene took a step toward him, I moved slightly to stay between her and Kit. I had a feeling he was pissed about something that had nothing to do with us, and he'd take it out on Irene in a heartbeat.
Irene opened her mouth about to deliver a comeback when Charles spoke up, "Agent Herrington. Agent Kim and Miss Sanders already have their schedule figured out. I'm sure you'll find someone else to do your bidding."
Kit's body tensed, he looked at Charles, who was now standing behind a fuming Irene. She didn't seem to notice him at her back, or maybe she didn't consider him a threat at this point. I didn't, too, to be honest.
"With all due respect, sir, I-"
"That wasn't a request, agent Herrington," Charles said. Kit's mouth closed with a snap, whatever he saw in Charles' face, it made him back off. None of us moved until the elevator doors closed behind Kit.
Irene whirled around, standing toe to toe with Charles. She looked so small and pale next to him that the idea of her challenging him was almost laughable. And I'd better not tell her that.
"I had it under control!" she was in a real temper.
"I'm sure you did," Charles said. Irene made a frustrated sound, holding her hands up as if strangling an invisible throat.
"You- you- Ugh!" A flare of magic escaped Irene, and suddenly her nine beautiful tails were visible, white and fluffy and floating behind her. They looked like they would disappear if I were to touch them. An expression close to awe was on Charles' face, which was even more interesting for me than Irene's tails.
She didn't seem to notice.
"Irene, your tails..." I said. She looked behind her, her eyes swirling with blue and a scowl on her pretty face.
"Damn it." She took a deep breath, let it out slowly and the tails disappeared. After one last glare at Charles, she marched to the driver's seat of the car. Well then.
"Is she always so..." Charles struggled for words.
"Prickly?" I offered, he nodded his eyes on where Irene had laid her head on the steering wheel.
"No, you just have a knack for annoying her," I said. He glared at me, I smiled and added, "kind of like agent Herrington."
I joined Irene in the car, smiling to myself when I heard Charles' annoyed hiss behind me. I knew it, he didn't like being compared to Kit. Oh, this was so fun. These three were going to be so entertaining.
"What are you smiling about?" Irene turned on the engine as the backdoor closed.
"Nothing," I leaned back, "I'm suddenly feeling very hopeful for the future."
Irene looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was.
My cheerful mood came to an end soon enough. Meeting the kidnapped victim's grandparents put me right back in my place. She was still out there, going through who knew what.
Her kids, a boy and a girl barely over ten years old, were sad in a way no child should ever be, and her parents were heartbroken. She was a good daughter, a good mother, they said. She didn't deserve it, they said. I couldn't offer them the reassurances they were asking for. When they found out I was human, the wariness that coated their words when we first dropped at their doorsteps evaporated, and that made me feel even more guilty.
Unfortunately, after close to two hours of talking to them and going through the victim's place again, we found nothing. Absolutely nothing. Even mentioning the Pure Human Community got us nothing.
Irene punched the steering wheel, "This is frustrating. We have nothing on the victims, nothing on the killer, and the squads patrolling the city have no idea where he might be hiding. He might not even be in the damn city for all we know, he can freaking teleport!"
She started the car, and we silently drove to our next destination. Charles hadn't uttered a word since we left the Order. He didn't even argue about driving again.
"Let's hope the Pure Human Community gets us a lead," I said.
A heavy sigh was all I got out of her. A gloomy silence stretched until we reached the main office of the Pure Human Community. It was located in a nice, cozy neighborhood. The three story renovated building had an architecture that put me in mind of the old west. The ground floor was occupied by a small café. We climbed the stairs, clean and well lit, into the second floor. The door had a plate with Pure Human Community written in small letters under large initials PHC, and a logo of a heart surrounded by intertwined hands.
I rang the bell, almost instantly, the door opened. We hadn't booked a meeting since Irene was afraid they wouldn't want to talk to us.
A young man opened the door. Human, in his mid twenties with freckled, pale cheeks and round glasses. Green eyes blinked at me, Irene then Charles. Then he noticed the sword peeking over Charles' shoulder, the thigh holster in Irene's thighs. I had left my crossbow at the car, my sweater was oversized covering the bulges of my blades belt, and the t-shirt underneath was baggy and long enough to cover my thigh sheaths.
I smiled at him, "Good morning."
He adjusted his glasses, focusing on me, "Um, Hi, can I help you...?"
"We'd like to speak with someone please," Irene said.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"No appointment," Irene took out her badge. The Order's slogan glared at the poor guy. He gaped for a few seconds, turned around as if heading inside, then turned toward us as if he figured it was rude and dangerous to leave agents of the Order waiting at the door.
"P-please, come in."
The inside was sunny and roomy. It had been an apartment at some point, but they removed all the walls, and desks lined the place. Desks with humans who looked at us with a mix of wonder, wariness and fear. There were two doors in the place, one that read W.C. and another, the Director's Office, through which the boy disappeared.
Along one wall was a row of chairs, the three of us sat. I was in the middle, Irene and Charles on either side of me.
"Why are they afraid?" Charles whispered next to me, he was watching the room with a sharp gaze that missed nothing.
"Why do you think?" Irene whispered back, "thanks to the Order's stellar reputation in this city, I'm sure."
"'This is not how it should be," Charles said, a muscle in his jaw twitching.
I frowned, "you know, the Order has been dealing very strictly with humans over the last decade or so. I don't see how you expect them not to be afraid of immortals."
Charles fell quiet after that, but his scowl was beginning to make some people in the room squirm. Thankfully, the boy who'd opened the door for us exited the director's office just then, followed by an old lady.
Age carved lines on her light caramel skin, her eyes an intense brown that scanned the three of us with ill hidden unease. She smoothed down the skirt of her gray pant suit and held her hands out for Irene first.
"I'm Laura Kingston, director of the PHC Association."
I shook her hand next, and she only hesitated for a second before shaking Charles'.
"We'd like to have a word with you, if you don't mind." Irene said after we introduced ourselves, "in private."
"Of course," Chin raised and back straight, she led us to her office. A small room with white walls and one window behind her desk. Irene and I sat on the two chairs across from her. Charles leaned against the wall. As if just now realizing he had no chair, she stood up.
"I'll get-"
"It's alright," Charles said in his deep voice. The director sat back down, blew out a breath then smiled at us.
"I must say, it's not everyday I get a visit from immortals. Certainly not from the Order. So what can I do for you?"
Irene cut straight to the chase, she took out her datapad, pulled out a file with pictures and names of the victims and handed the gadget to Laura.
"I'd like to know if any of these women are members of your community, or if they attended a meeting of yours, before."
Laura frowned, pursing her lips, "I can't divulge information about our members for no reason, even to agents of the Order."
Well, at least she had a backbone. I sighed, Irene didn't want to reveal this was related to the case, but we were running out of time. If I get in trouble for doing this, so be it.
"Mrs. Kingston, have you heard of the recent case of human murders in the city that the Order is handling?"
Laura blinked, then nodded, looking down at the faces on the screen, "Yes, is this related to it."
"Yes," I said, ignoring Irene's look, "those women are the victims. The killer had just kidnapped another one, and if we don't find her soon she will be added to that list. You already know that the killer only targets human females. And for reasons related to the case, we need to know if any of those women have anything to do with your organisation. Please. It will be a great help."
Laura nodded immediately, opened a laptop on her desk and worked on it in silence for a few minutes, looking back and forth between the datapad and the screen of her computer. After what seemed like forever, she sighed heavily and held up the datapad for me.
"This woman attended one meeting," she said, pointing out the victim we already knew had attended their meeting. "But none of the other women have anything to do with us."
"Are you sure?" Irene asked.
"Yes," Laura nodded firmly, "I can ask around the office if anyone has ever seen them before, but we're very diligent in documenting everything and everyone around here,."
I slumped in my chair, ran my hand over my head. I had been so sure there was something here, even now, my instincts were screaming at me. I was missing something.
"We'd appreciate it if you let us know if anything comes to mind," Irene said to Laura at the door when we were leaving, handing her her card.
The old woman nodded, "I will."
Irene and I slumped back in our seats when we reached the car. Charles leaned forward from the back seat between us.
"Why here?"
"One of the victims attended one meeting," Irene said, "the family of the victim didn't tell us at first, not until Elle talked to them. They were afraid it would somehow backlash since the association's goals aren't exactly aligning with immortal wishes."
Irene started the car and drove on, "anyway, we thought we could find a lead on how the killer chooses his victims to predict his movements, but ..."
Charles leaned back in his seat as we drove through the human half of the city. The black SUV with the Order's slogan on it attracted many looks, with the same mix of emotions the humans in the PHC office did.
I leaned my temple on the glass, my thoughts on the director of the Pure Human Community Association. Laura, their director, had quite a bit of magic in her. It was kind of ironic, seeing as the community's core message is to keep the human race pure and discourage interbreeding.
Laura's ancestors had definitely mated with someone with magic, though. Almost all humans nowadays have a small measure of magic in them. They can do nothing with it, it doesn't affect them, and only powerful immortals can detect it. But it was there.
Laura's aura was so different from the victim's grandparents we met this morning. They were so human, with almost no magic at all in them...
I raised my head from the glass very slowly. In fact, when I thought about it, all the victim's families were humans with very little to no magic at all-
Something dropped on the roof of the car with enough force to contort the roof. Almost at the same instant, something bumped into the car from the left and the right. Irene pushed the brakes, stopping the car suddenly. The traffic in the street was very light considering the neighborhood and the time of the day, so thankfully there were no cars around us.
I looked through my window and immediately took off my seat belt. I was out of the car and face to face with a demon in the next second, one very similar to those we'd fought yesterday. And just like yesterday, there was a horde of them quickly surrounding the car.
I had my blade in one's chest and my dagger slitting another's before my two feet touched the ground. I hear Charles and Irene exiting the car, too.
"What the hell!" Irene called from around the car. I had my back to it and the demons seemed to be coming out of nowhere around me. I couldn't even see Charles anymore, the demons had completely surrounded me. Crap.
"Charles, they're after Elle!" Irene called again. Double crap.
I was vaguely aware of the screams of horror no doubt from the small number of humans around. They better find someplace to hide.
Burning pain in my side. I looked and found a demon with his black claws digging into my flesh. He was trying to drag me his way. I cut his arms. The distraction cost me, though, and the next thing I knew I was hanging upside down over a hard shoulder, my face disgustingly close to a reddish hide. I grunted, buried my blade in the heart of the demon through his back. He was trying to run through the other demons with me over his shoulder. Not in this lifetime, buddy.
The demon paused, a shudder ran down his body when my silver blade found his heart. I straightened and buried another knife in the back of his neck. He fell right where he stood. I rolled off him before he hit the ground, my blade and knife still in his body.
I didn't have time to recover before demons were all around me again. They were like damn cockroaches. Before their grubby hands reached for me, several demons lost their heads simultaneously. The rest of them froze for an instant, it was all it took me to barge my way through them and emerge on the other side, where Charles and Irene were already busy decapitating the others. Charles' sword moved like a mirage, I couldn't even see it move clearly, it relieved several bodies of their heads in one single swipe.
The demons were slow to realize that I was no longer in the midst of the circle they'd made. When whatever was left of them turned around, Irene, Charles and I went through them with quick efficiency. It was easy because they seemed to be programmed to reach for me, which gave Irene and Charles plenty of room to make their moves.
I buried my blade in the heart of one, watched his head slowly slide off his body from Charles' sword, then I gave his body a kick to get him off my blade. He toppled to the ground next to his head.
Irene, Charles and I were back to back in one instant, scanning the area around us. The road was littered with reddish demon bodies and blood, none of them seemed alive. At least twenty of them. They seemed like much more when we were fighting them. But the fight wasn't over yet.
"There's something out there," Charles said, echoing my feelings. My senses were picking up on a strong demonic presence somewhere around me, not the lesser demons who were all over the ground. Something more.
To the right.
Before I was even aware of it, I acted on instinct and slashed my long blade in front of me and to the right. There should've been nothing but air, but my blade found resistance. It sliced through flesh.
A grunt sounded and blood sprayed me and Charles, an instant before its owner materialized out of thin air. Short horns pricked out of the forehead, skin a pale gray and eyes the same color, unlike the now dead lesser demons, this one had a long curtain of shiny white hair and was dressed in a long gray tunic that reached his shins. The gray tunic now sported a bloody line across the chest owing to my blade.
The demon hissed. Charles and Irene moved, the demon jumped back out of reach in one smooth leap. And before none of us could attack again, he swiped his hand on the blood on his chest and held up his palm toward us, hissing out a word.
My muscles locked up. Charles and Irene also froze on the spot with their swords raised, their eyes wide and bodies trembling.
I looked at the demon again, his own hand was trembling as if it took all his will to hold us in place. Still, he advanced towards us, towards me, with sure steps. My magic lashed out inside of me, wanting to defend and attack and burn the foreign energy that dared put its hands on me.
This demon's eyes were smarter than the ones littering the ground. He was no lesser demon, maybe a mid tier demon, though the energy he was emitting tasted of something much stronger. He could think for himself, which meant there was a possibility of getting information out of him.
I took a deep breath and allowed my magic enough leeway to shrug off the demon's effect. But I stayed unmoving until he reached for me. The back of my blade hit his temple with enough force to knock him to the side, his surprised eyes widened. I didn't let up. I kicked his feet from under him, he fell on his back and rolled to his side, trying to get up but I had my boot buried in his ribs once, twice, three times until I heard a crunch.
He took hold of my ankle and pulled. I had my arm out before my back could hit the ground. My hand on the concrete supported my body and I kicked with my two feet. His hand was loose enough that my foot connected to his chest and the other smashed into his face with a satisfying crunch. I loved these steel heeled boots, I had to thank Kenji after this for getting them for me.
I was on my feet in a second. I pushed the demon on his back with a kick to his shoulder and crouched next to him, the tip of my blade on his chest, right where his heart would be.
This was the problem with some demons. They lived for so long, relying solely on their magic in hostile situations that when you took it out of the equation, they remained practically defenseless.
Of course, not all of them were like this. The smart ones kept their battle skills as sharp as their magic. This one, though, wasn't a very talented fighter.
"Release them," I told him, aware Irene and Charles were still frozen behind me. Sirens blared in the distance and the street around us was deserted. At least humans had enough sense to stay back.
Charles was able to take a small step, but nothing else. The gray eyes blinked at me, pain clouding his expression. I pushed my blade until his skin sizzled from the silver. The demon grunted, then tried in a stealthy move to reach for the blade. He was so slow I almost scoffed. I knocked his hand with mine, then put my boot on it, and heard the bones crunch.
"Release them, or die, what will it be?" I said again. He blinked repeatedly. The sight of his gray eyes with no whites was disturbing. He blew out a breath, a second later Irene and Charles joined me, looking at me with wary eyes infused with dread.
Great, I've freaked out the badass immortals.
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