waited on his cliff, watching the little town wake up. The people going about their morning business unaware that anything was different than any other day. And he supposed it wasn’t. There were always going to be problems and they were always going to fall on someone’s shoulders. Right now they just happened to be falling on his.
He hadn’t slept very well. He wasn’t sure anyone at the Grove had. The air just seemed to vibrate with impending catastrophe and the scene between Bree and Sidney the night before hadn’t helped matters any.
At least he’d gotten a good night’s sleep. With Bree unconscious and recovering from her fight with Sidney, she hadn’t been able to ban Demon from the house. He’d capitalized on that situation and had claimed a small corner of the attic and made himself at home. An attic floor wasn’t a nice soft bed, but it was at least warm.
He saw the approaching figures of his mother and her partner in the distance. Most people wouldn’t even take a second glance at them, even if they weren’t cloaked from sight, thinking them large birds and dismissing the sight while going about their business. People didn’t have time for anything out of the ordinary. Demon saw them for what they were, their wings glinting in the morning sun almost turning metallic as the light hit them. He’d never really seen his mother’s wings much growing up, as they were always hidden, but they were beautiful. A pure snowy white that defied nature, and the sun lent them a golden hue. Her partners were much the same, though his had an under cast tone of blue that sometimes seemed to shimmer silver instead of gold.
A sudden sharp pang of jealousy shot through him at the beauty and grace of them. But he dismissed it just as quickly as it had come. Demons and other abominations didn’t get pure white anything, so the inky blankness of his wings suited him.
“Hello Elimson,” Bob said as he landed on the edge of the small cliff. He had a particularly odd smile on his face, his hand outstretched as he approached him as if to give Demon a handshake.
“Hi Bob,” Demon replied taking the man’s hand, “People call me Demon though.”
“Greshian told me that,” the man said pumping his hand too fast and griping him too tightly, “But it’s not a very good name so I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. I don’t always understand jokes yet.”
His mom landed and gave him a smile of apology, “Samuel is learning human customs, Demon.”
“Samuel?” Demon asked.
“It is as close to my actual name as this language will allow,” Samuel said, still pumping Demon’s hand.
“Oh, well that’s good to hear Bob,” Demon said, pulling his hand away before the angel broke it.
Samuel’s eyes narrowed at Demon’s purposeful misuse of his name.
“So, you guys made good time,” he continued before Samuel decided whether or not to be offended.
“Actually we took it kind of slow, my left wing has been bothering me. I think I pulled a muscle last week when, well, you know,” she said, gingerly moving the wing in question slowly.
He knew when she’d hurt it, it was during their scuffle with the crazy angel church members. So, it was his fault. Of course she wouldn’t think so, but Demon knew it was. Not that he could do anything about it. He brushed the thought aside until he could brood over it later. It was always nice to mull over a bit of familial guilt in the evening.
Sore wing aside, they’d still gotten from Angel Falls to Three Rivers in half the time it had taken him. Which was pretty galling. He had felt like he’d run a marathon when he’d landed and they looked barely winded. It probably helped that they constantly used their wings while his were just in storage ninety eight percent of the time.
“So, where is this person we are here to help,” Samuel asked.
“He’s still back at the house, I wanted to talk to you before we got there.”
Samuel stared at him blankly, and Demon realized that he was waiting for a response, one he probably wasn’t going to get due to a general lack of personality on Bob’s part. It was also possible that he hadn’t learned how to hold a conversation yet, but probably a bit of the first option too.
“People around here don’t know that I’m an angel…”
“Half- angel,’ Samuel corrected.
“Yes that’s right Bob, half-angel. They assumed a long time ago that mother was a witch and I was a shifter witch hybrid and we’ve just let them keep their assumptions.”
“That was smart Greshian, the fewer people are aware of our existence the better,” Samuel said turning towards Demon’s mother who smiled under the praise.
“Don’t want to gain a fan club?” Demon quipped, not really caring what Samuel’s reasoning was, he just felt like throwing a barb out.
“I don’t know what that is,” he said and turned towards Greshian for an explanation.
“Uh, it’s when a lot of people like you and they form a group to… uh… like you together,” Greshian shrugged.
“That seems ridiculous, but no. Our relationship with humans works better if they aren’t aware of us at all. Being that we feed off of their emotions- “
“Wait, we feed off their emotions?” Demon asked.
“Well, we did,” he indicated himself and Greshian, “While we were still on the angelic plane. But not as much now. We can still feel strong emotions from humans, but they don’t give us as much power as they did when we were at home.”
Demon didn’t understand. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. His mother hadn’t raised him with very much knowledge of her people or how they lived. He’d learned a few words here and there. A phrase to unlock locked doors, a little song to heal small wounds. Nothing about feeding off human emotions… but then again he hadn’t really asked. He’d been more concerned with a father and brother that shunned him and the side of the family that thought he was an abomination.
But now that he’d met some of his mother’s people it seemed like they agreed on that.
“Ok, whatever. But the point is they don’t know what I am, so I was hoping we could keep it that way, and maybe you guys could hide those huge wings and pretend to be something else as well.”
“What would we pretend to be?” Samuel asked.
“Well they already think we’re witches,” his mother said.
“But I don’t know if that will work. We’ll be in a house full of witches, at least one of which is a mind reader,” Demon said. It was one thing to make them think he was half witch half shifter, how could anyone be sure of the nature of such a thing. But if Greshian was going to pretend to be a full bloodied witch in a house full of witches then that was going to be a lot harder.
They pondered it together for a moment when Samuel said, “Why don’t you just bring him here to us. And we can avoid being seen at all. We will wait.”
***
“Sidney is not going to like it,” Jessica was saying, flipping her long black hair over her shoulder, she stood in front of Demon blocking his way into the parlor, as if she were going to actually be able to stop him.
“Have I mentioned the fact that I don’t care?” Demon asked.
“No, but I care. She just got to sleep after a long night of keeping all of us awake by sobbing as loudly as possible and yelling randomly,” she said, the lack of sleep was obviously causing the beauty queen to be grumpy.
“Not my fault. I slept like a baby,” he said, pushing the girl to the side. It was true, he had actually slept pretty well considering. He figured it was due to a combination of exhaustion and being warm. “And I’m going to take my brother. I’ve found someone who thinks they can help him.”
“And what am I supposed to tell Sidney when she wakes up?”
“How the fuck should I know, tell her the truth,” he walked over to where his brother was, still out cold and laying on the sofa he’d propped him on the night before.
“”Did you see her throw Bree out of the window?” Jessica asked, her voice rising a bit higher than usual, “How about you tell her the truth.”
“I will,” he said, hoisting his brother onto his shoulder, about as gently as he would a sack of grain, “when I bring him back, healed. Now move.”
He gave her credit, the little witch stood her ground, arms crossed.
“This is not a fight you’ll win Snow White,” he said sensing the magic stirring in the air. He prepared himself, ready to toss his brother aside and fight if this misplaced cheerleader felt the need. He almost wanted to fight, it would feel good to let some of this frustration out.
But luckily for her it didn’t come to that, Jessica moved aside with the air of a 5 year old who hadn’t gotten her way. She practically stomped as she followed him to the door.
“I will not be responsible for what Sidney does when she wakes up and finds Red gone.” She said, the anger of not getting her way coloring her voice. Demon could almost picture her has a child having a tantrum. Good thing they didn’t work on him.
“Fine, nobody asked you to,” he said as he went out the door.
“Fine,” she screamed after him slamming the door behind him.
He laughed as he was about to go down the stairs and then grimaced and turned around and opened the door again.
Poking in his head he yelled, “Hey, Jessica, I forgot to ask. Can I borrow a car?”
***
“And you said that a witch convinced him to let go of his humanity?” Samuel asked, looking over the unconscious Red lying on the ground.
“Well, she didn’t ask his permission so much as just did some hocus pocus and he just let go of all the parts of himself that were causing him the most trouble. Worried about his kid, so the paternal instinct disappeared. In love with a witch but conflicted about the morality of mixing races, his ability to love disappeared. Worried about the future of the town, his loyalty disappeared. Just one by one all the things that made him, him slipped away.”
Samuel listened and nodded while touching Red’s chest, “I see.” He said, his voice dull as always. Demon was prepared to hear the worst, that they couldn’t do anything for him when Samuel continued, “That shouldn’t be too hard to fix.”
“Really?” Demon asked, shocked. It’s the first thing that had come easy in a while.
“Yes, nothing is ever really lost, it just changes shape. And since this man is still alive nothing of his could have moved on to a different plane. All I’ll have to do is… call his pieces back to him. If that makes sense?”
It didn’t make a bit of sense to Demon but whatever worked, “Whatever you say boss. Do you need me to do anything, get you anything? Some rare ingredients or some water from the Vatican? Anything? A virgin, a holy relic?”
Samuel’s blank face didn’t change, but Demon could tell that his sarcasm had confused him. “No,” the stony faced angel said, “Why would I need any of that?”
“He was just joking Samuel,” his mother said coming up behind him.
“Again with the jokes, I’m not sure I’m ever going to figure that out,” he said.
“It’s ok honey, just do what you can for Demon’s brother,” Greshian said, patting the angel on his arm.
“Fine, Elimson, you might want to walk away a bit and cover your ears, I’m not sure how this is going to affect you.”
Demon did what he was told, staying close enough to see them, but far enough away that normal speech couldn’t be heard.
Then Samuel began and Demon hit his knees. The pure beauty of the song the angel sang sent a longing shiver through Demon’s body. He couldn’t understand the words, but the sound of it spoke to him on a soulful level, making him feel like everything he’d ever missed in life was within reach, that home wasn’t a concept beyond him but a place he could find, all he had to do was learn the words and he’d be there. These words, this song, these were his home and he hadn’t known what he’d been missing all of his life but now he did. And he needed it so badly.
“Demon, Demon,” he heard his mother’s voice, “Elimson!” there was panic but he wasn’t sure why.
“Mother?” he asked, opening his eyes and seeing her flawless face as if for the first time.
“Oh thank goodness!” she cried and wrapped her arms around him. He was confused, what had happened. Samuel stood a little further away looking on as mother hugged son.
His confusion must have been apparent, even for someone as clueless to human expression as Samuel because he said, “She thought you’d gone deaf and blind. That happens sometimes when humans hear us speak. In our true language.”
“Oh,” was all he said. No, he wasn’t deaf and blind, he was the exact opposite, he felt like he were seeing and hearing for the first time. “Is that what that was? Our true language? Why didn’t you teach me Mother?”
“I did, but just not that particular version. Our language has several distinct… dialects, or forms, I guess you could call them. The few words I taught you were in the common form. What you just heard were in the command form. Each dialect is used for different things.”
“Why am I just learning this now? I feel like I’ve been missing this my whole life,” he asked.
Greshian held out her hands, looking for the words to say, “I… didn’t know how… ”
“She couldn’t, it is for a son’s father to teach him the higher command forms or dialect or whatever we’re calling it. Women teach their daughters and men teach their sons because not only are the forms different for different things, they are different depending on your gender. So, no matter how hard she tried, a mother could never teach this form to her son,” Samuel said.
“And you were always so much more interested in your father’s side of things, and being with your brother, that I just didn’t think you would be care about it…” Greshian said.
He guessed what they were saying made sense, but he still felt like something had been stolen from him. He’d figure it out later, Greshian’s words had reminded him of why he was there. His brother.
“It’s ok Mom, we’ll talk about it later. How did it go with Red?” He turned toward Samuel who was still standing over the prone shifter.
“What do you mean how did it go? Do you want me to show you what I did?” Samuel asked.
“No, did it work is what I’m asking?”
Samuel eyes sequenced around the corners, “Of course it worked, why wouldn’t it?”
Demon shook his head, it didn’t matter, “So, can we wake him up and see?”
“See what? He’s right there,” Samuel said.
“Really,” he asked his mother.
Greshian put her hand on her son’s arm, “You might want to take him home where he’s more comfortable and familiar to wake him up. It’s going to be hard for him.”
Demon nodded. That would probably be for the best. If he knew Red at all, even if it wasn’t hard he was going to make it hard on himself anyway.