So, you're available later today?
Yes, I replied, sending the text to Louis, glancing over at the clock. There was only fifteen minutes of lunch left and he was interrupting the little bit of midday Monday peace I had left.
I need you to come with me to speak with the survivor we discussed Friday. Everyone else is booked, and I think it would be beneficial to have more than me there.
I sighed. At least that outing would have to be work related, instead of the mess dinner had been. Okay. When do you want to go?
What time are your classes over today?
15:30.
Would you be able to meet me at 15:45 in my office to leave?
Sure. I'll see you then.
I put my phone away, only to get out the burner to find more messages from Louis. He'd asked how my day was going, how my wrist felt, how my ribs felt... It was amazing how I could provoke such drastically different responses from him. One was short, professional, and to the point—at least, it typically was; the recent shift was abnormal—and the other was loving, kind, funny, everything most people would kill to have in a perfect mate.
If he ever knew... Gods, he'd be furious. While he wasn't short-tempered, he had a handful of buttons that could set him off if they were so much as looked at too hard. Alexei Rivian just so happened to be one of those buttons, as he was frustrating and argumentative and disrespectful, things Louis had never handled well, even a century ago.
Things had just been so different back then. I never thought I'd been drastically different then, maybe a little happier, more talkative and sociable, but other than that, I'd argue with anything anyone said, including Louis. I walked all over anyone I didn't respect, and earning my respect was something that not many people had ever managed to do, even back then. Something Louis said during his conversation with Remy, Meredith, and Abigail had been correct, though—we'd never argued like we do as Alexei and Louis. I wasn't sure what made it so different, but it was. Maybe, in the beginning, we were meaner, because we didn't know that we were soulmates, but I remembered a few arguments from a century ago that had Louis and I past the point of throwing punches.
On the other hand, I could've been completely wrong, and perhaps I'd changed more than I thought. A lot of my old life had been stowed away, so why not some personality aspects? Pushing people away had become more common than it used to be, so that could be an issue. Not to mention, I was more cynical, quicker to anger.
All of those were things I used as Alexei, but when I was wearing the mask, being the Glass Hunter, I spoke. Perhaps I didn't speak as much as I used to, but I spoke more than I did as Alexei. I didn't close myself off from Louis like I did as Alexei. I actively tried to avoid arguing with him, because I knew the chances of getting swept up in it were too high to risk.
It didn't really feel right that I was more or less putting on a front for Louis, but without that, I didn't know how else I would keep my identity intact, as well as things sailing smoothly. In time, it really wouldn't matter, because I would leave as soon as I could, but for the time that we were together, it felt shitty. For as amazing of a man he was, it was shit that the universe couldn't give him a better soulmate than me. He deserved a whole hell of a lot better.
Maybe after the Aquireign was defeated again and I was long gone, Louis left alone, he would realize that. He would move on, meet a good person, maybe a counselor or a teacher, retired from Hunting, but used to Hunt and knew enough about it to discuss it. Someone that would take care of him, cook for him, make sure he was sleeping and eating. Someone that would make him laugh every day. Someone that would wake up at 4 in the morning just to sit up, drink tea, and watch the sunrise with him after stargazing until midnight before falling back to sleep, wrapped up in one another, not a care in the world. Someone that would spar with him, challenge him physically and intellectually, and keep him on his toes, because they knew how easily he grew bored. Someone that would be as fiercely loyal, kind, and selfless to him as he was to them.
Once upon a time, I'd always thought that would be me. A century ago, when we would be laying there after a long day of demon slaying, that's what I would dream of: a life with Louis with no demons and just being happy. We would have a cottage in the woods, no kids, but plenty of space for our nieces and nephews to stay when our teammates had children and sent them to stay with us during the weekend or for a week out of the summer. We would both have good jobs, Louis teaching, and me... Well, I'd never gotten that far. But, that was what I'd always pictured.
Looking back on it, it'd been sweet. It was a beautiful, imaginary future I concocted for us. Now, though, sitting a floor away from a man I argued with during the day, and sweet talked into blowjobs as the sun sank behind the mountains, I saw nothing. I saw nothing for myself. For Louis, I saw just that, but the kids of all the friends he'd made in the academy, as well as in his survivor support group. Instead of me, it was another man, clean shaven with short blond hair and green eyes, a little lanky, but strong, and right at his height.
I sighed, leaning back in my chair, and shooting Louis a quick text to update him about my arm and ribs, as well as ask about his day. Standing from my chair, I gathered my things for my next lecture, took a deep breath to shake off the remnants of the thoughts still breaking into my head, and went to my next lecture, fully aware of the fact that the backs of my eyes burned and there was a slight lump in my throat.
Fucking hell, if being around Louis was going to make me as emotional as a cranky, sleep deprived toddler, then I either needed to grow the fuck up or discipline myself better, because crying for the second time in less than a week was unacceptable, especially while I was working. With another deep breath, I gritted my teeth and walked into the classroom, reminding myself of the work ahead of me and everything else there was to do. No one gave a shit how difficult the mess with Louis was getting, how guilty possessing two identities made me feel, how fucking alone I felt. I could handle myself, goddamn it. Worse things happened every day, and I sure as hell wasn't about to fall apart because of minor inconveniences and my own emotions.
With a third and final breath, I turned around, facing my students, and began the lecture, pushing every bit of emotion that'd bubbled up during lunch right back down, where I could forget it until I had more to hate myself for and a big bottle of scotch to fuel it.
The rest of the day went by in a blur, everything feeling unreal, dreamlike. I went to meet Louis in his office at exactly 15:45, like we'd agreed, and of course, I was a minute late. When I arrived, he was sitting there, dressed in a black button-up, gray blazer, and jeans. His hair was slicked back, as always, and he was engrossed in his phone, brows drawn and lower lip caught between his teeth as he stared at it.
I cleared my throat and knocked, causing him to jump, looking up at me like a startled deer.
"Oh, hey. Sorry," he said, putting away his phone and standing. "We're going to meet with her in their home, if you're alright with that."
I nodded. "That's fine. It'll be more comfortable for her anyway." Not to mention that if anything were to happen, I was heavily armed, and my arsenal was as mobile as I was, so I really didn't care. "So, what's the background on her?"
"She's a survivor of the first Aquireign defeat. Her partner was as well, and she was attacked and murdered last week by a demon that's believed to have connections to the Aquireign. We're going to talk to her about anything suspicious she may have noticed before the attack, anything her partner may have said leading up to it that hinted at an attack happening—"
"Basically just checking for warning signs, clues, something that's going to get us back to whoever is orchestrating this fuckfest."
Louis nodded. "Basically. Try to be considerate, though. She just lost her soulmate, and she's holding it together well, but these questions might stir up some emotions and—"
"Gods, Blanc, you'd think I'd never dealt with death before. I know how to pretend like I'm not an asshole."
He rolled his eyes. "Well, prove it today. Are you okay to teleport?"
"Sure."
He stepped over and put a hand on my right shoulder, ensuring we would end up at the same place. Louis's office vanished, replaced by a quaint, pale yellow, one story house on the corner of a cute, white-picket fence neighborhood.
Everything was against me today, huh?
Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, we stepped up to the door, and Louis knocked. A moment later, the door opened, revealing a petite, red-headed woman with freckles dusted along her nose. She had her hair twisted into a braid, and she wore a long, floral skirt with a tight, black v-neck. There were circles under her eyes, tear stains still on her cheeks, her soulmates dog tags hung proudly around her neck.
"Louis! It's great to see you, darling." She stepped forward, pulling him into a hug, a serene, polite smile on her face.
Louis returned it. "It's good to see you too. I'm sorry I didn't get to make it to the service."
"It's okay. Prue would rather you be working toward a brighter future anyway." She stepped back and looked over at me, smiling broadly. "I'm Dana Morigan."
"Alexei Rivian. It's a pleasure."
She stepped back, opening her door wider for the two of us. "Come on in, make yourselves comfortable. Would you like some tea?"
"Please," Louis said, smiling as he took a seat on the sofa.
"I'll put the kettle on now." She disappeared through the doorway into the kitchen, leaving the two of us alone.
I sat down next to him, crossing my legs at my knee and leaning back. "She's nice."
"She is," Louis agreed. "Her partner was too. They were some of the best people in the group, always sending food to others or volunteering, using their spare room for survivors that needed a place to stay and wait until they could expand the house to have a child... It's a shame that this happened to them."
"It sounds like it."
Dana came back into the living room and took the chair opposite us. "Okay, that should be ready soon. So, you mentioned wanting to discuss the attack?"
Louis nodded solemnly. "Yes. We're having difficulty locating leads on the Aquireign situation, so we're hoping that Prue's attack may have left something that will help the greater good."
Not a bad way to phrase it, if Louis ever decided to drop the teaching thing, he'd be a good investigator... or grief counselor.
"Before the attack, did you notice anything strange, perhaps anytime the week leading up to it?"
Dana frowned, shaking her head. "No, everything was normal. Prue was working a little later than normal, trying to get ahead, since we were going to take a holiday before... all of this."
"So, she never said anything strange? She didn't notice anyone following her or acting strangely?"
"If she did, she never talked about it. When it came to that sort of thing, she never really told me. Where she was still in the service, she handled demons better than me, so she kept me out of anything like that." Her eyes grew pink around the rims, her eyes growing glassy, like she was getting closer to crying.
"What about you, then?" I asked, jumping in before Louis actually had her crying. "Did anything happen to you that week that was out of the ordinary?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "There was nothing. It just happened out of the blue." Dana shrugged, looking down at her hands. "Prue didn't eat breakfast that morning since she was running late. She kissed me, said she'd be back late again, but she would call me at lunch time... She never called me. I called her office, but they said she hadn't come in that morning. Before I could call local hospitals or anything, two Covenant representatives showed up to tell me that she was gone."
So much for my attempt to keep her composed. It was a difficult subject, though. While our circumstances weren't exactly normal, I couldn't imagine that I would have a positive reaction to Louis's death. None of the other soulmate pairs that'd lost a partner had taken it well either, not the ones I spoke to anyway. They described it like a part of them dying, like something being ripped out of them and dying along with their soulmate.
I wondered if that was how she felt.
"I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now," I said, voice soft, watching tears pool in her eyes, threatening to drip down her cheeks for what would probably be the umpteenth time that day. "From the way you speak of Prue, though, it seems she would be proud of you for doing this, even if it's difficult to talk about it. You're saving lives."
She nodded, sucking in a deep breath, blinking back tears. "You're right." A forced, tight smile came onto her lips, the muscles in her face twitching as she fought to make it more genuine. "You are absolutely right, Mr. Rivian. She would think I'm acting like a wreck." That time, she chuckled, it was quiet and a little dark, but genuine nonetheless. "I'm sorry."
"There's nothing to apologize for," Louis said. "It's not easy, and we understand that. You're doing great."
I nodded. "You really are."
Dana smiled again and nodded, her cheeks a little pink as she wiped at the few tears that'd built along her lash lines. "Thank you, guys. Okay, keep going."
"Are you sure you don't want to take a breather?"
"No, I really do want to keep going. I'll be okay."
"If you want to stop at any time, just let us know," Louis said, leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees. Once Dana nodded, acknowledging it, he continued. "Since the attack, have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?"
"At night, sometimes it feels like I'm being watched while I'm sleeping. That could always be me imagining Prue still here with me, though."
Louis and I glanced at one another, exchanging a look, before I caught what I was doing and turned back, face forward. That was the first time I'd had a slip like that, but I'd never look at Louis to gauge his opinion as Alexei. I didn't respect his opinion enough for something like that.
"That's highly unlikely," I said.
"Typically, when it comes to spirits of loved ones, there is no sensation of being watched. You may dream of them or just feel really safe or warm. Malevolent entities are those that create the sensation of being watched, of an uneasiness that something isn't right," Louis said, breaking it down a bit more.
Just because she was a Hunter didn't mean she was a demonic expert. The only reason Louis and I were so well versed in it was due to our backgrounds as teachers, as well as the fact that our trainers had thought it important we know every demon, all of their powers, and any potential weaknesses of every subset of species.
"Not to mention the fact that there's usually a gap of a week or two between the death and the reappearance of the spirit in our plane," I said. "Have you noticed anything else when you feel this?"
Dana bit at her lower lip, picking at her cuticles. "Well, I've woken up and seen a dark figure in the corner of the bedroom... I thought I'd been having a recurring nightmare, but every night, the figure moves a little further into the room. It started in the hallway, and I thought it was a shadow. Then, it was on the door, and then the corner, which is when I thought it looked less like a shadow and more like an apparition."
"Where was it last night?"
"At the foot of the bed."
Again, I felt Louis's eyes on me, like he was attempting to do that fucked up telepathy thing we used to do as the Glass Hunter and 1274, like we'd just done a second ago. Without even looking at him, I knew exactly what he was thinking.
"We might—"
A loud, piercing whistle cut through the room, interrupting me, and making all of us jump. Dana popped out of her chair and disappeared through the kitchen door.
"It's the tea! I'll be right back!"
Once she was out of earshot, I looked over at Louis, a brow cocked. "She's in danger."
"But what should we do? We can't just leave her here another night. The likelihood she'll be murdered is—"
"Roughly 80%?"
"90%. I don't know how she's going to feel about a protective order from the Covenant, though," Louis said, sighing as he brushed his hand through his hair.
"We could do a sweep, see if there's been anything going on, and use what evidence we find to convince her a protective order is necessary."
Louis shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't want to get the Covenant involved, but with me as the only Hunter here, I don't think we're going to have much of a choice. If this thing was strong enough to kill Prue, then I don't want to chance provoking it without backup."
"Dana and I are retired, not damsels. I don't know about her, but I can hold my own if need be."
"I'd really rather there be no need, then. It's reckless."
I rolled my eyes, but dropped it. There was no reason to push him on it, especially when I was already walking on thin ice with my identity. "I think we should talk to her a little more about it, maybe take a few minutes to let her calm down, then do the sweep so we can get the Covenant involved with more than just our opinions."
"Fine. I'm going to use the restroom, so don't discuss anything important until I get back."
"Yeah, yeah." I waved a hand at him, shooing him on as I rolled my eyes.
Louis stood and walked over to the entryway of the kitchen, barely poking his head in. "Hey, Dana, your bathroom is the first door on the left, right?"
"Yeah," she called.
He went down the hallway and disappeared into the door on the left. A moment later, Dana was back carrying a tray with three teacups balanced on it.
"I hope you like chamomile and lavender tea, Mr. Rivian." She placed the tray on the coffee table between us, and took her seat in the chair.
"That's fine; thank you. Feel free to call me Alexei."
"Well, what do you do for a living, Alexei?" she asked, a polite smile on her fae-like face.
"I'm a professor. I used to Hunt, but I retired."
"Oh? Was this before or after the Aquireign defeat?"
Strange way to ask it, especially since the defeat had been a century ago. "After," I said.
Dana leaned forward, into the beam of sunlight streaming in from the window. The light caught her eyes, and the breath caught in my throat. Her irises had turned black, the pupils were in the shape of slits, like a cat's. A reddish ring divided the pupil and iris, faint, but bright enough to be noticeable from a distance.
They were demonic.
"You have a very familiar aura, Alexei," she said, hands extended outward, as if warming her hands at a fire. "It's nice, though. Pain, regret, guilt..." She sucked in a deep breath, eyes fluttering closed. With a twitch of her fingers, black magic oozed out and wrapped around me. "Oh, I know exactly who you are."
I moved, but I didn't. I hadn't moved anywhere. I was paralyzed.
Fuck.
I opened my mouth to speak, but my lips wouldn't move. No noise would rise from my throat. I couldn't even warn Louis, so he would walk into whatever the shit show manifested into in the next minute or so.
Dana stood and walked over to me, well, if it could even be considered Dana anymore. I wasn't sure whether her form had been copied or if she had been possessed. She put a hand on my shoulder, her eyes closing, sucking in a deep breath, tilting her head back, almost like she was having an orgasm. The corners of my vision went black, I found myself falling into a rapidfire slideshow of my two and a half centuries of life.
My vision cleared, and instead of seeing a demonic version of Dana, I instead saw a charcoal black demon with dark red eyes and gold, geometric designs crawling up its arms.
"How long has it been, Hunter? A century? It's no wonder your aura's so dark. All the lies, the secrets, the fear, it's all so good. All that pain and energy, just brimming under the surface. Not to mention, Rainier's favorite student. He'll be pleased to know I've found you, Alexei."
My stomach tightened, nausea setting in as the room spun. Rainier? What did he have to do with anything? Wasn't he dead? There had never been any reports of his death, but... I'd just assumed—
The calloused hand came up to my cheek, resting on it, visions of wooden cells and demonic rituals racing through my head. No, no, no. Not again. I'd gotten away from it once; I couldn't—
"We're coming for you next, Alexei." That voice... That voice. Rainier. "First the woman, and then you. Without their weapon, this new collection of Hunters won't stand a chance. Just like last time, you'll be leading the lambs to slaughter."
"No!" I sucked in a deep breath, sitting back on the couch, eyes flitting around. It was gone, Rainier, the demon, whatever the fuck... It had... I blinked, stopping to see Louis in front of me. "What the fuck?"
"It was an emotional tracker," Louis said, gaze a bit distant as he looked at me. "I vanquished it, but it may have just been an astral projection."
"No, wait, Dana!" I went to stand, but Louis grabbed my shoulder, pushing me back down. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine. She's unconscious in the kitchen, but she's alive. It looks like the tracker sedated her, while it came in to latch onto you."
"How much of that did you have the pleasure of hearing?" I asked, being a sucker for punishment. The way he was watching me was making me nauseous. Even if the tracker hadn't outright confirmed my identity, Louis had a whole hell of a lot more evidence in that corner.
"I know the tracker latched onto you, and you're probably being tracked... Why would it be after you if the targets have only been survivors, Alexei?"
"Rainier wants me back."
A brief flash of disbelief appeared on Louis's face before slipping into confusion. "You think he has something to do with this?"
"Now, I'm almost certain of it. We need to get investigative on it, and contact the reps to get a protective order on Dana. Whatever plans they have for me, they're polishing Dana off first."
"We should get an order for you as well."
"I'll talk to them about it," I said, having no intention of asking the Covenant for anything. Instead, all my focus was on my next move in separating Alexei and the Glass Hunter. Even if there was more evidence now than ever that I was the Glass Hunter, Louis still had that sliver of doubt, the single shred of thought that until he saw the mark on my chest, his dog tags around my neck, or saw my face underneath the mask, that he could still believe I wasn't the Glass Hunter.
My face in the mask... That was it. There were apparition spells I could use to make a form of Alexei appear when I was in the mask. They were uncommon and tended to use up a lot of magic, though... Perhaps it was best to wait a few days, build up some magic, then try it. Besides, it would look suspicious if that happened immediately anyway. As soon as condemning evidence appeared, something drastic happening to contradict it felt fishy.
"I'll call them now."
"No, go check on Dana. I'll get the reps."
Without a word, Louis turned and headed into the kitchen, leaving me alone and nauseous, wondering how much he knew, how much he suspected, and how much longer I had until everything I'd fought to hide was blown all to hell, the glass shattering and every secret I kept was revealed.