Chapter Two
Kilian touched thepicture of Stephen Nguyen. His strong cheekbones and dark hair hinted at something non-European, but no one would guess he had a Vietnamese grandmother. His hair curled, the texture almost identical to his mother’s, but his amber eyes commanded attention. They had an intensity that had been startling, even when he’d been a child.
Stephen was part of a life Kilian had given up when he’d joined the Army — a life he’d severed completely when he’d chosen to become supernatural. Kilian had been probably ten or twelve years old when four-year-old Stevie had hit that coffee table when Kilian had been babysitting. Stevie had been running between the kitchen and living room after the three-month-old lab puppy his parents had hoped would wear him out. He’d come around the corner, slipped on a toy and run into the corner of the coffee table.
Stephen had promptly fallen back on his butt and screamed. At the time, Kilian had been terrified that he’d allowed the kid to maim himself. Looking back, he had not been old enough to babysit Stevie. The kid was a menace with ten times more energy than any child should have. Most adults wouldn't have been able to handle Stevie, so at ten or twelve, Kilian had been out of his depth.
He had texted Stevie's parents before scooping Stevie up and running him into the bathroom. There had been so much blood. Stevie’s parents had come running back from their dinner date, and Kilian remembered Stevie's dad rolling his eyes while reassuring Kilian that they didn’t blame him for Stevie's accident. Meanwhile, Stevie's mother had been pressing a washcloth to her child’s face, red smeared across her dress from Stevie grabbing her.
Never again had Kilian babysat the terror, although growing up in a small town, they’d known each other well despite the six- or seven-year difference in ages. Little Stevie had haunted the park when Kilian was in his early teens and hoped to impress some girl with daring leaps off the swings. The summer before Kilian had left home to join the Army, he’d been the only full-time lifeguard at the city pool, and Stevie had lived in the water. He must have been about twelve back then, and Kilian had expected his grand career of saving lives would start by having to pull Stevie off the bottom of the pool. He never had. He’d had to grab the kid to keep him from running on the decking more than every other kid combined that summer, but Stevie had never even stubbed a toe.
“You said the demon cursed his father. Is Nathaniel okay?” Kilian asked.
“He is. He aged a few years before we could stop the curse, but he’ll recover. He would like to visit his son, but Stephen insists that we have to keep his father away. We are disinclined to contradict Stephen's wishes.”
“And Sarah?” Kilian remembered Stevie's mom. She always baked the best brownies, but every time she made cookies, they turned out like hockey pucks. Her real skill, though, was in keeping up with Stevie. Even during the worst of his ADHD-fueled mania, Sarah had been a woman perpetually on the verge of laughter.
“It did not end as well with Stephen’s mother,” the woman said with a sigh.
Kilian winced. She had been Stevie’s rock, so that must have hit him hard. Stevie didn’t have any family outside his parents, and he’d been far closer to his mom. His father’s use of any holiday as an excuse to drink had contributed to that. So if Stephen had even inadvertently caused his mother’s death, he would have a hard time forgiving himself. Kilian wanted to push for details, but if he was going to see Stevie again, he didn’t want to have that truth hanging between them. It would make Kilian too uncomfortable to know the gruesome details of Sarah’s death. Besides, there was a more significant tactical concern.
“And the demon summoner?”
“Gone,” the woman said, her tone vindictive. “She was not much of a witch — little more than a mundane who chanted under the moon. She stole the raw power required to complete the ritual and then lost control of it. Unfortunately, that means that we are left with almost no information on the demon itself. The demon destroyed the ritual before we could study it. Heaven save us from hedge witches.” She spat the last two words in disgust.
Kilian’s time in the Army had been focused on people making morally questionable decisions, so he wasn’t surprised that someone had been that stupid in pursuit of power. The general population was between ninety and ninety-five percent mundane, but the small percentage with paranormal powers proved the old adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Before becoming a vamp, he’d worked hard to qualify for the Army paranormal unit, so he had seen more than his share of human stupidity.
He had seen witches tapping into cursed objects that twisted their flesh into near-demonic forms. He had seen werewolves who never bothered to control their basic instincts and who ran mad on the full moon. He had seen druids twist bargains to trap the unwary, and mermaids drag children to their deaths in the ocean. Kilian no longer questioned the depth of the human capacity for evil, and those with supernatural powers were still human in every way that counted.
“So Stephen is alone.” Kilian didn’t know the man Stevie had become, but he felt bad for the boy he had been.
“And now you see the problem. We are quite literally at Stephen’s mercy to keep the demon contained, and he needs more emotional support than we can provide. At the same time, we need someone to act as a last line of defense against the demon. While it has been a hundred years since a demon has managed to free itself of its master in this realm, I'm sure you have heard the stories of what an unbound demon is capable of.”
“I had assumed those were stories. No creature is gifted with unlimited power.” Kilian knew that firsthand. He had gained strength and a healing ability that surpassed even those of the were-creatures, but every time someone blessed him after he sneezed, the pain was a knife in the gut. He trained to avoid flinching even as words sacred to Judas’s God set his nerves on fire. When three thieves had stolen Judas’s Christ-given power, they had inherited Judas’s guilt and his aversion to any reminder of the god he’d betrayed.
“Do not assume that anything you know of supernaturals applies to a demon. Other supernaturals have enhanced abilities, but they’re still human. A demon is not. They are born of the unadulterated magic beyond the veil. Nothing can stop a demon except a sacred object from the god that inspired that demon’s line.”
