CHAPTER 18
I talked to Ezra as I got ready for the day. He was sitting up on the bed reading an underground magazine for vampires. "I still want to go to the local office and look up lucifers." He said nothing, just continued reading. I placed the last of my knives in their sheathes while waiting for a comment. Oh, fuck it. I'll go by myself. I walked towards the kitchen and listened to the silence as I grabbed an apple and headed to the front door.
He stood in the bedroom door fully dressed and human looking. He merely watched me as I strode past him. I had the strongest feeling that he had plans that didn't include me. I drove to Seattle without distractions from my mind or music. I reached our city office and parked close to the front door, noticing the few cars in the parking lot. The building was one floor with a basement and about three employees of the Affairs' Office. It was more like a library with some office space and summoning rooms. There were books, but usually most people used the internal computers hooked to the Wired Affairs' Complex, or derisively called WACKED. Security was different here. Meaning there wasn't much. All I needed to do was sign in and have my identity verified.
I logged in and referenced 'Unfulfilled Warrants', which was the political term for dead demon hunters, alive demons. From there I searched for multiple unfulfilled warrants for the same demon. This category had very few entries in the years after the Affairs' Office grudgingly accepted demons as part of the supernatural committee, about thirty years ago. I would have to find a demon hunter that survived to their late forties or more to give me some insight as to the way these hunts used to be before demons were acknowledge in the Affairs' Office.
As I snuck bites off of my apple I searched earlier years for Kiesh. He was not on it, which meant his rampage of killings was not reported. I opened up random files and looked at everything to witnesses' accounts to pictures of demon's torture. There weren't many with a documented successful kill, they remained filed under 'Unfulfilled Warrant', most with 'Location Unknown'. It seemed as if the warrants for them just stopped being issued after the inclusion of demons to the Affairs' Office.
I scoffed at my first thought that the Affairs' Office was not issuing warrants for those demons anymore since they were so dangerous. Next thought was that some had been killed by a demon, as Taurin explained to me, which wouldn't be documented. I then took a suspicious turn where I wondered if some power hungry demon personnel in the Affairs' Office went through the list and killed them. That sounded plausible.
I had the computer comprise me a list of demon names for print out. As the information scanned on the computer I stopped it when I saw Ezra's name. I wasn't sure if I wanted to look in that file. He certainly had his share of deaths. I didn't hesitate for long.
I noticed that on the location it stated bonded, predictably not to who. Under his name he had a list of warrants which were administered decades before I was born. I admit I was surprised that the Affairs' Office continued to send only one lone demon hunter to kill him after years of unsuccessful hunts.
I opened his files in timeline and looked at every single one. By the time I got to the last one, which of course wasn't mine, since I wasn't an unsuccessful warrant, I didn't quite know what to think. The earlier ones had witnesses who were disoriented with strange images recorded. They remembered being attacked, but retracted memories were foggy. Other witnesses saw humans and other beings restricted on tables and being cut into or dangling from chains. One saw Ezra drain blood out of a body with medical equipment. Maybe I did a stupid thing by bonding with him.
Let me rephrase that, I'm sure I did a stupid thing. Carlos would definitely agree with me, but he's in the 'do as I say, not as I do' category. On the positive side Ezra hadn't tried to do any type of disfiguring or illusion on me. At least not that I knew of. I laughed sarcastically at myself, 'Go to your happy place.'
I decided to leave his file and continue sorting through names. Of course Taurin's showed up. Oddly enough his name only showed recent years. He only had clean kills reported, which was relative to what I would consider a clean kill by a demon. My understanding of his obsession to gain power seemed to match what I was reading. I would have to be careful around others, too many demon hunters were killed by him.
Binding with a demon who was actively searching out hunters is not a good survival skill. I revised my thinking, binding with any demon wasn't a survival skill. Thankfully, it never shows who a demon has bonded with. This gives some protection for the hunter and the demon. Although eventually it gets around through the network of demon hunters. That network would be bars and 24 hour restaurants where the conversation would be about the latest weaponry and a 'Do you know who I saw?' Right now the only hunter who knew was Carlos and even he couldn't be a hundred percent sure about what happened after he left.
Evening was fast approaching by the time I stopped taking notes on my print out and logged off. My next stop was food. As it happened I found my self slipping inadvertently into a network of demon hunters.
CHAPTER 19
I walked through the glass door and was immediately waved down from my right. It was Shauna sitting at a curved table at one end and an unknown demon, with noticeably shocking, white hair, at the other. Two drinks sat between them. I smiled and walked up to her.
Shauna was from India. Her parents sent her to her brother in Seattle when they learned that she was a hunter. India had its own problems with demons, and her parents, well versed about them, wanted her far away so that they wouldn't get killed. They kept her around until she was ten and then sent her to an older brother. Shauna's brother sent her to someone who trained demon hunters. He didn't mind that she hung around town, as long as she didn't live with him. It was a problem we all had, we were like lepers.
"Hi Dove! It's been too long since we've seen each other. This is Vi. He's with Reggie. Michael's here too. Why don't you join us? There's enough room. They just went to the restroom. I thought you had a demon now? Where is he? I thought once you bonded you were like, always together." She moved over and patted the seat.
I'd forgotten how much Shauna talked. I got out an "Uh-"
Shauna interrupted me, "Oh, here they are now. Both at the same time. I figured Reggie would be longer. You know how she is."
I watched Regina's long stride as she walked towards us. She always wore the tightest fitting clothes imaginable, usually leather. Just like her brown body was encased in now, including a leather jacket. Her black hair was smoothed back in braids. Her lipstick and fingernails, a deep red. Regina always wore her daggers in noticeable places, so she had to flash a lot of permit around to security people. I suppose the clothes she chose to wear would have made it almost impossible to hide them anyway. What was interesting about her was the fact that her daggers were her secondary defense. Regina depended on her witch craft above all else. Where as my blade and nose helped me detect Vi she told me once that her body was an unwavering compass towards a demon. I kind of envied her for that. Worse case scenario for me, I had a cold and no blade.
My gaze moved to Michael's scarred face. He was not a Seattle regular. In fact, he was from the Southwest. Rumor had it that he was captured and tortured by demons. He had short, wavy brown hair and melt in your mouth chocolate brown eyes that always seemed to have a fire of justice lit in them, he was fighting to get the bonding law repealed.
I only met him once, we were in Colorado at the same time. He didn't have the goatee then, nor the scars on his face. Three raised red lines started at his left temple and moved straight down to disappear under his collar. They were very precise and razor sharp. I caught his eyes with mine and we gave nods to one another.
Shauna got up and let them both in. Oddly, Michael slid in first and sat closest to Vi. After giving me a warm hand casually sliding over my back Regina moved in close to Shauna. Vi moved closer to the middle of the booth and looked at me with invitation in his eyes. Something very weird was going on here and for once it didn't have anything to do with me. With that thought I gave Shauna a confused look and sat down next to Vi.
"Sooo, Shauna tells me you and Vi are together?" I looked from Regina to Vi and was momentarily captivated by his appearance. White, shoulder length hair paired with very stunning green eyes. His cheek bones were sharp and showed perfectly horizontal in his face. It gave the effect that his eyes were deep set. His skin tone resembled Shauna's, but looked more sun kissed. The scent of him reminded me of what I thought Egypt would smell like, heat and sand.
Vi talked before Regina did. "Yes, we are bonded," he whispered, it was an eire effect. Then he blinked, slowly and deliberately.
My mouth opened to talk, but it took the words awhile to come out. "Ahh... for how long?"
Regina actually answered this one for me. "Not very long." She tiredly rubbed her eyes. "It's only been a couple of weeks."
Regina always had a sexy voice, but I detected weariness in it this time. I didn't want to think fear, because I always figured demons could smell it on you even if you thought it.
"Oh. Um. Well, it's good to see all of you again. How've you been, Michael?"
The waitress placed a salad down and took my order before he could answer. Vi crossed his left ankle on to his right knee. I had a feeling he purposely maneuvered himself in such a way that his knee touched me.
Michael's serious eyes met mine, "Alive. I'm in Seattle to visit Reggie and Shauna."
I couldn't help but notice the tension. I didn't want this to be any of my business, selfish, but true.
Vi spoke up, "What Michael isn't saying is that he came here to check us," he hissed out the 'us' as he looked at Regina briefly, "out."
"Do you always talk that way," I asked boldly, staring directly into his vivid eyes. Meanwhile, it felt as if ants were marching on my leg from where Vi's knee touched it. I looked down just to check and didn't see any.
"Yes. Does it unnerve you?" He leaned in close to my face. I leaned back from him and he moved the tiniest fraction closer. He uncrossed his leg and made it so his thigh pressed against mine.
