I glanced down, seeing the large hole in the middle of the alley filled with hot lava that melted away parts of the pavement. The heat was unbearable, and I felt strong burning on my back. An incredible force whizzed through the air, ruffling my hair and pulling me away from the woman.
“No … you bitch, I won’t let him take me!” roared the skinnier demon, crawling away from the hole, suddenly conscious. He was bleeding, most likely wounded by my attack. The human’s heart was jackhammering so fast that I was scared she was going to have a heart attack at any second, and that wasn’t something that I had anticipated.
A thrilling and intense energy began dragging the two demons down to the hole. My leather jacket was melting into my body and that strong urge to jump too was messing with my half-human mind. Within a few seconds, both demons got sucked inside the pit. The whizzing noise was strong, pushing and pulling things around the alley. A split second later there was a loud blast, and then silence descended all around me, sucking the rest of the oxygen out of my lungs.
Everything was back to normal when I opened my eyes again and took a long, deep breath. Demons were gone, the hole too. I had no idea what happened, but no one apart from Watchers was able to open the gates of hell and there were none around. I was most certainly sure that I was the only supernatural being within a hundred yards.
Now I was stuck with a woman who had witnessed and felt everything that happened. That really complicated things for me. Now I was not only late, but also exposed. Fuck my life.
Chapter Two
“Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always” ― Dante Alighieri
“What happened? How … who—?” The girl stuttered, glancing from where the hole was and where the two sleazeballs disappeared, to me with my half-melted coat and singed hair.
I had to calm her down somehow, but I didn’t know where to start. There was a possibility that Watchers were going to show up at any second. They were responsible for preventing humans from knowing about the demonic world. Even though I had enough adrenaline in my system to run a marathon, my head was still pounding. I just couldn’t catch a break. I needed to forget about my doozy of a hangover and get my sorry arse out of here as soon as possible. The woman was losing the plot, mouthing words that didn’t make any sense. Humans just couldn’t comprehend anything outside of their little bubble of reality and that there was something other than them in the world. Still, I felt sorry for her. Despite her obvious shock and fear, there was something in me that didn’t want her to be removed by the Watchers.
“Look, you’ve had a mind fuck. I know it’s all confusing right now. I’ll explain everything in a second, but we have to keep moving,” I said, pulling her upright to her feet. The dreaded shadows of the city were making me agitated. The Watchers were in the area, probably looking for the person that opened up the gates. A chilling dread hung over my head. They also took care of mongrels and demons that threatened to expose themselves to humans. If they caught me, the uncomfortable questions would follow, and I couldn't afford to be stopped now.
Somehow I managed to hobble several meters dragging this chick without falling down. I was trying to gather my thoughts. It was difficult enough with the blisters on my back healing and my hangover, but the demon side of me was howling to be released, scratching at my impulses to get back to see if the gate would open again. My whole body throbbed painfully and I knew that I was going to suffer tomorrow morning. It’d been a couple of weeks since I last trained, since I worked my muscles to that kind of extent. In my line of work it was easy to dismiss the pain, but I wasn’t used to it like before.
The noise from the alley should have brought attention from other humans, but I had been right all along. No one in this damn city paid attention to other people anymore.
“The light…I felt so warm…those men were sucked right into the ground,” the woman kept saying over and over again. I had to drag her down the pavement just for a few moments to catch my breath, trying to keep a good pace. Lugging my sorry arse and the girl was pretty taxing. At least it hadn’t stopped raining yet. Watchers didn’t like rainy weather because they couldn’t track the magical fingerprint as easily in the rain, plus some weird shit about frizzy hair. You’ll never meet a demon that isn’t a little bit vain.
Ricky was going to lose his shit with me. I had no idea how much time had passed since I spoke to him on the phone. There was a strong possibility that all the candidates had already left, and my business partner would be sitting behind his desk, cursing me out and making a voodoo doll. Okay, so this time around I had a good reason to be late, and maybe I shouldn’t have stuck my nose into someone else’s business, but these arseholes weren’t going to stop with one innocent human. They were marked by a Watcher, so they were probably convicts on the run, who knew?
The woman became very vocal all of a sudden, attracting too much attention to two of us. We were in a crowded street now and I had to do something. Other humans were staring. Some guy with a dog asked me if my friend was all right. I waved him off and pulled her around the corner.
“Hey! Hey! Calm down, crazy lady, you’re safe. The men ran away. I kicked their butts and called the police. You don’t have to worry anymore,” I said, placing my palms on her cheeks.
As the warmth of my energy reached her face, she stopped mumbling all of a sudden, staring at me with her wide blue eyes. I hated fiddling with human minds or emotions. If I wasn’t careful I could easily read their desires and tap into their deepest secrets. Sometimes I was too scared, in case I accidentally crossed that line that I let them see beyond the charm. I hated when my own privacy was invaded and had serious issues doing this to her, but right now the woman could get both of us into trouble. I had to calm her down.
I swallowed hard, seeing a little blond girl in her thoughts, and then her fearful eyes shifted, and she smiled. I was aware that tonight I had used too much energy. I didn’t have time to worry about the consequences right now, but I could feel the cold chill in my bones. The future didn’t look bright and the price for magic was always high.
The woman flinched, glanced around and narrowed her eyes at me when I backed away from her.
“Who are you?” she asked, and then cocked her head to the side. “Wow! Your eyes are so beautiful, so dark. I swear I think your pupils are almost purple.”
I scratched my head wondering if I might have accidentally sent too much energy into her and damaged her mind. That was impossible. I was gentle and she seemed strong.
“You were attacked in the alley, but it’s okay now, you’re safe. I scared the bastards away. They tried to mug you,” I explained, tossing my long dark hair behind me, confident that she would believe me. The woman opened her mouth but didn’t say anything. She looked down on her clothes that were wet and giggled nervously. I stood in front of her, puzzled, worried that I had done something wrong. I knew my limits, I knew that I was skilled, but maybe today, for the first time in my life I’d gone too far.
“Oh my God, really? I don’t remember anything. Thank you so much.” She leaned back and sagged against the wall. ”It’s like I have this big black hole in my head,” she said, looking confused.
“That’s okay, it’s probably shock. It will pass,” I assured her.
Then she threw herself at me with what had to be the world’s most awkward hug. I went stiff almost instantly. First of all, this woman was a complete stranger, and second of all I wasn’t used to anyone touching me.
“Thank you. You probably saved my life.”
“Yeah. Yay me. All right, I think that’s enough now,” I said, pulling away from her. “You don’t have to worry. They were probably junkies after your money, but they didn’t manage to take anything anyway.”
“I’m so glad that you came to my rescue. My name is Emma, by the way,” she said, smiling widely. “I shouldn’t have taken that shortcut, but I was running late for a job interview. Bummer, I must be like two hours late now.”
It started raining heavier all of a sudden. I grabbed her elbow, not even thinking what I was doing.
“Come on, I know a place where you can dry off.”
She nodded and we both started running through the streets. Twenty minutes later we reached my office. By the time we entered the building we were both dripping wet, but Emma was oddly recovered and somehow excited.
Ricky was right; I was weak enough to fall back to my old nasty habits. Magical tequila had shut down all thoughts about the past and made me happy for a while. No matter how heavy the secret weighed on me, tequila managed to carry it when I filled my belly with it. Plus tequila was way cheaper than therapy.
Emma didn’t seem to have an off button. She would not shut the hell up and kept talking all the way upstairs. She mentioned her white cat, her daughter, and the fact that she should have left her house early to get to her interview on time, a sale on at her favourite shoe shop, her favourite teacher in high school—on and on she went.
When I barged through the door of Doomed Cases, my own supernatural detective agency, I was exhausted and cold. Ricky slammed his fists on the desk as soon as he saw me. His normally perfectly symmetrical face was twisted in a rage, his tie was on the table, and two buttons of his shirt were open.
“Two freaking hours, Maxine. You said that you were just around the corner. All the candidates left. Are you fu—”
“Oh, hello, my name is Emma. I’m so sorry for being so late. I came across some difficulties on the street when this lovely lady rescued me out of what seemed a mugging.” Emma cut Ricky off, shoving me to the side and shaking his hand enthusiastically. Ricky was a full demon, born to the Beelzebub faction. He was cast out from the underworld when he was caught sneaking out to the world outside and doing some dodgy business with other mongrels. He was bloody handsome, always well presented with an immaculate dress sense, but tonight he looked like he was just about to explode.
I held my hand up to him to stop any further rant he was about to vomit at me and scratched my head thinking how I could explain in front of Emma, eyeing her with confusion. For a split second I wanted to tell Ricky that he could shove this whole business up in his arse, that I was done, but somehow I restrained myself.
“Emma? As in Emma Carter? The five o’clock slot?” Ricky questioned my newly acquainted crazy human, suddenly forgetting that just a second ago he was ready to whoop my arse for being two hours late.
“Ricky, I got held up at the back street, when two freaks—”
“Maxine, shut the hell up for a second,” he snapped at me. “And meet our new assistant, Miss Emma Carter.”
His sudden anger vanished, and his eyes gleamed with amused curiosity. My clothes were sticking to my body and I was dreaming about a hot bath. I seriously didn’t care who Emma was right now.
Emma had streaky black mascara marks under her eyes, but she looked ecstatic. Ricky couldn’t be serious; this random woman wasn’t here for an interview. I didn’t believe in that kind of coincidence.
“New assistant… but… but I haven’t been interviewed yet, and I was late … so very late,” Emma stuttered, staring at Ricky in utter disbelief. I needed to sit down. This was too much for me to handle, even for one crazy evening like this.
“It’s all right, Miss Carter, you’re hired. I don’t have to introduce you to my business partner, Maxine Brodeur, as you have already met. Please come in tomorrow at twelve with all your paperwork, so we can add you to the payroll,” Ricky shot away.
“Man, can I have a word with you?” I said, finding my voice. My business partner was acting crazy. He knew well enough that we couldn’t hire a human.
“Oh, thank you, Miss Brodeur, I’m so happy. This couldn’t have turned out any better. I have been searching for a job for weeks. Thank you so much for rescuing me from those nasty men and the fire … yes, there was a fire. I saw something strange, like lava—”
“No, there wasn’t any fire, Emma. You’re still confused,” I cut her off abruptly. “Come back tomorrow like Ricky said. You hit your head pretty hard, so I suggest you have yourself checked out at the hospital.”
She should never have remembered the pits. I’d cleared her thoughts, implanted a different memory.
There was no way on earth that she could handle our supernatural cases, our caliber of clients. This was against our code of practise. Ricky was playing with me, and promising this woman a job was cruel.
“You’re both so lovely, and did I tell you that you have beautiful eyes? This one time I went to a beauty salon to do my nails and I swear to god the woman was special, she changed the col—”
“Emma, thank you so much, but we would like to see you tomorrow. Just go home and rest all right?” Ricky interrupted her this time around with his forceful tone of voice. “Let me walk you down.”
“Oh of course, silly me. I’m sorry to blab so much when I’m nervous, but you really are beautiful, Maxine, with those purple irises,” she added again, beaming.
I waved my goodbyes and slumped down behind my desk, rubbing my face with my palms. The human was right—I was a freak of nature. My eyes were bizarre: at times they were brown, other times almost purple. To anyone from outside I wasn’t just an ordinary human being with a pale complexion and dark colourful highlights.
Before when I had a stable career working in security, I used to make an effort, wore proper clothes and even put on makeup most days. Now after a year from hell (no seriously, real Hell, fire and brimstone and all that bollocks) I tended to wear the same hoodie and old jeans for days before I even considered doing the laundry. If my client didn’t like my appearance, then they could get lost. There were plenty of mongrels and demons in this shitty city that needed my help.
Ricky showed up several minutes later, looking perfectly happy.
“Right, now you can tell me what that shit show was really about. You can’t be serious. We both know that we can’t take her on,” I said, putting my legs on the table. The water from my soaked jeans began dripping on the paperwork.
“It’s a done deal, Maxine. I already gave her the job. Emma is going to be our new assistant and if you’d gotten here earlier on, then maybe we could have picked someone else,” Ricky said, folding his arms over his chest. The bastard was good looking, well groomed for a man and a demon. He knew that he was an asset to the agency, always bringing in new clients.
“Well, two demons from Asmodeus’s faction cornered her on my way here. They were planning to drain her lust and innocence. I had no other choice but to help her,” I explained. I seriously needed a drink and nothing else would cut it but tequila. I most likely looked terrible but felt even worse. My clothes were soaked and singed, and that crappy taste in my mouth wasn’t going away anytime soon. “Besides, we both know that we can’t take on a human. She already witnessed enough tonight. Clients won’t like this and on top of that she is—”
“Cute,” Ricky finished for me, smiling wolfishly. “She is the sweetest human creature that I ever met, and she will do just fine. Besides, you already messed around with her mind. We need her. The cases are a mess and we might have an audit next week. Lucifer is sending his people to find out if we are following the protocol.”
I sighed, feeling a dull pain in my head. I was completely broke, and I was late with my rent. Last night I blew all my available cash, so now I wasn’t in any position to argue with Ricky. I had to let this one go.
The odd thing was that, although she chattered away, I kind of liked the human that I just saved. It was hard for me to like anyone these days, but she was so happy and genuinely excited about a job. My mind was now sober enough to be aware of the images and feelings I wanted to hide so that they danced right in front of my eyes and I desperately needed a distraction. Someone that could help me pull myself back from the torturous misery. The world around me was changing, and I had been slipping down in the past six months. I had to get my shit together.
Emma was like a small weak candlelight in a moonle
ss night. She seemed to have no idea the world that she had grown up with wasn’t real, that there were other creatures walking amongst normal human beings. Maybe that was the reason I felt connected with her—she had the purity and innocence of a happy mind that I lacked.
Two years ago, I was the happiest half demon in the world. Everything was working well for me, until it all fell apart.
“Stop overthinking this, Maxine. You will be working with the human. It’s time to shift things around here. You know I’ve tried to help you, to push you forward, but it seems to me that you want to stay unhappy, broken and sad. You have a business to take care of, bills to pay and people that rely on you. Tomorrow you will be here at two o’clock in the afternoon, and if that means I have to come to your crummy flat myself and throw you out of bed, then so be it. Now go home, cure your hangover, eat something and don’t even dare go out drinking tonight,” Ricky said, getting into my head. God, I hated when he was so insensitive. “I mean it, girl, pull through or I’ll personally make your life difficult.”
After his speech, I opened my mouth to argue. I wanted to remain my stubborn, difficult self, but honestly I couldn’t raise the energy to give a shit. I jumped off the table and walked towards the door not saying anything at all. Maybe for once I was willing to admit that he was right. I’d never fucking tell him, the vain demon bastard.
Chapter Three
“There is no greater sorrow Than to recall a happy time When miserable.” ― Dante Alighieri
I woke up the next day feeling fresh and well rested. For the first time in a long time my head was clear, my body didn’t ache from a restless night, and there was no eyeball-shattering hangover. It was strange to see this fucked up world in its true colours rather than hidden by my Ray-bans. I may have woken with my body straight, but I still had my mind and spirit to get right. I wasn’t one of those women who could hand myself over to fate or faith. I usually found my mind in the bottom of my spirit. Tequila won’t solve your problems but it’s worth a shot. Yeah, I had a logo T-shirt; don’t judge me.