Demon Driven (12 page)

“And?”

“And we've been sorta waiting for something
like this. Hell, we thought it might come sooner,” she said.
“Chris, the demon blood has bound to you, added itself to your DNA,
at least that's what your doctor thinks.”

“You know Dr. Singh too?” I asked.

“Yup, and so this new addition feeds your
darker side, the side every human has. It actually makes you
stronger in some regards, but you have to fight it, control
it.”

“And if I can't, you have a plan?” I
asked.

“Well ...our plan has always been Tatiana,”
she admitted.

I thought about it, then nodded. “Yes, she
would be best. I probably wouldn't even fight
her.
Just let
her bleed me out. She'll be happy to do it, what with what I did to
her boyfriend.”

The slap was right-handed and fast. It made a
resounding
smack
that echoed into the night. Everyone in the
area turned to look, but I kept my eyes on Gina. It hadn't really
hurt, hell, she'd need a baseball bat for that, and I could have
avoided it, but I was shocked enough to let it fall. The black
beast inside me surged at this aggression, but I crushed it
ruthlessly. Retaliation against the few friends I had would never
be allowed.

Her eyes were hard and her lips had become a
thin, angry line. “That's enough! It's time you learned to listen
and think rather than react. What you saw the other night was rape!
Mind rape! And Tatiana was the victim, not you!”

I stared at her stupidly. “Mind rape?”

“Yes, Christian, mind rape! The very concept
we were talking about at the shoot house,” she said.

“How is that possible?”

“It's a talent, like any other. Reyes was
abnormally compelling or persuasive as a human. As a vampire he was
a nightmare of a magnitude higher. Only, he couldn't influence
Tatiana while
your
necklace was on her. So, his associate
managed to 'accidentally' snag himself on it and break the
leather.”

My mind was having trouble dealing with her
words. My understanding of recent events was turned on its head,
and if I followed the new information to its conclusion, I came to
two opposing thoughts. The good one was that Tanya hadn't chosen
another, she had never betrayed me! The bad one, the one my mind
tried to sidle away from, was that it was
I
who failed
her
. By jumping to a poor conclusion, I had not only broken
faith, worse I had left her behind to handle it on her own!

Gina's fierce expression softened as she read
my thoughts on my face.

“Chris, in your defense, Lydia told me they
kept the knowledge from you
,
that some vampires could do
this, because they didn't want you doubting your own feelings for
Tatiana. And when you blasted Reyes, you completely smashed his
power over her,” she said, quickly.

It didn't help. I've always thought of myself
as one of the good guys. You know, helping people against evil,
that sort of thing. But between my betrayal of Tanya, the only
woman I have ever been able to form a relationship with, and my
brutal treatment of Lassiter, my self-image was pretty much shot to
shit. Ripped right down to dregs. I sat down (it's called sitting
even if you fall on your ass right?). My vision was a little
blurry, as it will get when you look through water.

“Is she okay?” I finally asked.

Gina knelt and sighed. “Physically, she's
fine. Reyes was probably dead before you left the house, although
Lydia isn't certain if you killed him or Tanya, the pieces weren’t
big enough to tell. But emotionally, she's a mess. Thinks it was
her fault, that sort of thing,” she said softly.

“How long had he ...you know?” I asked.

“Very short. A few minutes. Lydia was going
to catch you on the way in and then sic you on him, but you got
there early.”

“Instead, I made it a thousand times worse,
when I stormed out,” I said, remembering the look I had given
Tanya. “Oh my God! Can I be any stupider?”

“Chris, if someone was loaded with PCP and
they misinterpreted something, would you hold it against them?” she
asked.

“No,” I answered, getting her point. “But
I've been living with this for months. And I should have known
better. Lydia is always telling me that Tanya won't change her
mind.”

“And you've never fully believed that have
you? It isn't a human thing after all,” she answered.

“Oh, by the way, how did your 'dark side'
like it when I slapped you? Did you want to hit me back?” she
asked.

I frowned. “Well it didn't like it much.”

“And how did you handle that?”

“I choked it down” I said.

“So maybe the answer is that you just have to
teach that dog to heel?” she suggested. “Now tell me about the girl
who can't take her eyes off you.”

I explained about Stacia, giving Gina all the
details. She watched Stacia watch us while I talked.

“Alright, I'm gonna go chat with her myself.
Maybe I can nip this in the bud,” she said.

I had no idea what that meant, but I had
enough to think about. I grabbed a new tee shirt from my patrol
bag, which Gina had brought with her. Stirring up the fire, I added
some more wood from the boyfriend's pile.

Campfires always have a calming effect on me
and this time was no different, especially with the full moon
rising over the treeline. But before I could get far with my
thoughts, I noticed movement near Gina and Stacia. One of the
Vermont troopers was edging closer to the two of them. It was the
shorter of the two I had encountered at the coffee station, the one
who had commented on my lack of firearms. He was watching Stacia in
particular, and he was frowning. The black beast raised its head,
wondering at violence. I promised it free rein if anyone or
anything threatened the two women.

The cop's name tag gleamed in the firelight,
and I could now read it – P. Reynolds. Looking from one to the
other I could see some resemblance, making him possibly an
uncle?

He finally moved over and spoke,
“Stacia?”

“Hi Uncle Paul,” she replied without over
much surprise.

“What are you doing here? Oh, I see – Dan is
it?” this was directed at the boyfriend.

“Er, yes sir,” Dan said, a bit nervous.

“Trooper Reynolds, is it?” Gina said. “Your
niece and her boyfriend have been attacked by a bear.”

The trooper snorted, “That’s no bear! I was
born and raised here, Ma’am, I’ve seen a hundred bears. That’s a
monster!” he said.

“Hmm, do yourself and your niece a favor and
think of it as a bear from now on.”

“Uncle Paul, it
is
a bear! Please!”
Stacia pleaded.

“You all right, Stace?” he asked.

“Yes….but…” she trailed off, uncertainly.

“Trooper Reynolds, your niece experienced a
traumatic experience, one that will most likely require therapy. We
– “Gina gestured back at me where I was staring at the fire while
shamelessly eavesdropping – “my partner over there and I, know a
group of people who specialize in helping victims of this
kind
of attack. The victims often need help of a…particular
kind.”

He frowned, looking from one lady to the
other.

“Therapy, huh? I’m tempted to call you crazy
and ignore this…circus, except for two things; that monster over
there and your freak of a partner. How much will this
help
cost? Stacia’s mother does the best she can and I try to help out,
but ever since my brother, Stacia’s father, died in Iraq, there
hasn’t been much money.”

“It won’t cost a thing. In fact Stacia will
most likely end up with a college education and a career out of it.
There may be a chance for her mother to relocate to the city as
well, with employment of course.”

Trooper Reynolds was looking at Gina like he
was waiting for her to pull the other leg.

“Why? Why would you and this group do this
for my niece?” he asked.

“I understand your skepticism, and you’ll
have an opportunity to meet these folks, most likely in the next
week or so, but they are sincere in their efforts to help victims
like your niece.”

Movement out of my left eye caught my
attention. One of the senior CSI type agents was showing Duclair
the damage to the werewolf and I caught her looking my way. I had
screwed up all day long. Allowing my temper to get the best of me
and pulling one stunt after another was more than stupid, it was
potentially life-altering (or ending). Duclair had lost the wolf
but now had a good idea that I might be a better lab specimen
altogether. I was getting a real bad feeling that got worse when
Simmons started walking over to the teenagers’ group, frowning, a
nasty glint in his eye. I glanced at Duclair and found her watching
me. My stomach clenched with tension and the black thing inside
stirred restlessly.

A mental image came, unbidden, from the
darkness beyond the portable lights that were set up around the
were. Okwari. His mental picture was a scene of Federal bodies
strewn in broken, torn piles about this very site. Blood, bone and
guts, shattered skulls, shredded flesh. The blackness inside me was
unimpressed. It could promise the very same image, if Simmons
continued on his current path. My options were many and violent,
and I had at least one major bear-shaped surprise lurking in the
dark.
He
wouldn’t even leave the choice of action to me, not
if he thought I was threatened. I looked back into Duclair’s eyes
and let my resolve harden. If she chose this, so be it. A flicker
of something that looked suspiciously like fear flashed through her
eyes, and after a moment she slid her gaze from mine to where
Simmons was advancing on Gina’s group.

“Simmons, leave off there and get over here,”
the Special Agent in charge ordered, one last glance skimming past
me.

Chapter 14

The McDonalds cashier checked the bulging bag
of burgers one last time, then handed it to me, her expression half
disbelief and half disgust. It
was
a lot of food, but I have
a minor revelation for you. If you need to lose weight, try hunting
a werewolf on foot, then go hand-to-paw for several minutes. The
calorie burn is crazy. I had been shaking in hunger the whole ride
down into town.

The convoy was back in Bennington, stopped
while Briana arranged the final logistics of poor George’s body. As
the helicopter had needed refueling anyway, the pause gave us (me)
a chance to grab some food.

I walked across the dark street and sat on
the front steps of the Presbyterian Church, absently checking my
re-holstered Glocks by habit. Briana had handed them to me in a
large sealed manila envelope when we had climbed into her SUV.
Stacia had left with her uncle in his cruiser, and Dan (“He’s not
my boyfriend, just a mistake!”) had driven himself home in his own
Blazer.

I took a big slurp of my chocolate shake and
started to unwrap a Big Mac.

“Well! Glad to see that you're about on the
other side of that whole Darkness thing!” said a voice next to
me.

It was all I could do to keep from spraying
my mouthful of shake across the church's steps. A blond man was
sitting next to me, and he hadn't been there a moment before. I've
gotten used to sensing other beings before they can get remotely
near to me, so my feeling of shock was most unwelcome. At least I
recognized him. He called himself Barbiel and I had a sneaking
suspicion that he was an angel.

“You alright? You don't look so good,” he
said. It might have been my bulging eyes that did it.

“Jes....eez!” I amended quickly, “you just
took ten years off my lifespan!”

“But your lifespan is pretty much infinite,
so how is that pertinent?” he asked.

Our last conversation had been like this as
well.

“I meant that you startled me. You came outta
nowhere!” I explained.

“Weren't you expecting me to appear? This is
a church.”

“Well I didn't really think about it, I just
wanted to eat outdoors and these steps looked ... right, somehow,”
I said.

“Of course they did! All Holy ground should
look inviting to you!” he said.

I couldn't get my thoughts ordered, and it
took a lot of energy to have a conversation with him, so I took a
big bite of burger and chewed slowly, while I thought.

“Is that actually pleasant to do? Eating,
that is. 'Cause you look like you enjoy it.”

I swallowed and answered, “Yeah, it is.
Especially when you get as hungry as I do.”

“Well, I can see how that might be, what with
all your upgrades and all. Amazing really and still abides by the
Accord.”

I could just about hear the capital 'A' in
Accord.

“Listen, Barbiel – right?” He nodded, so I
forged ahead. “I don't have any idea what you are talking about
most of the time. Could you maybe help me out with this stuff?
Accord? What Accord?” I asked.

“You really don't remember, do you?” he
asked, amazed.

“See there you go again. Remember what?” I
asked.

“I had heard that you would be blocked from
the knowledge, but it didn't sink in.”

I was beginning to think that my angel wasn't
the brightest. He continued before I could prompt him.

“The Accord is ancient, between Yahweh and
Lucifer. The ones you call Hellbourne are allowed to walk this
world, if they can get here. And Yahweh is allowed one such as you
in every generation. Well, one such as you were before. You're the
first of the new you's.”

See what I mean, although I was actually
starting to follow his explanations. That, itself, was cause for
worry.

“So, Lucifer can send Hellbourne here to
wreak havoc, and God gets just one like me to stop it?” I
clarified

He nodded, so I continued: “That's crazy!
There is no way I can police up all the Hellbourne in the world by
myself!”