Chapter 13 I’ll take Bourbon
I’ll take Bourbon
“Tea?” Raymond looked at me sideways as I pulled out the leaves from the cabinet. “I thought you meant something stronger.”
“Oh, hell no. I’m not about to get drunk with demonic things stepping out of the shadows!” I fussed at him.
“Okay, but I’m going to need something with some weight on it.” He leaned back in the chair and reached his hand out. It vanished for a moment, reappearing with a bottle of bourbon.
“So you’re a shadow walker?” There was no sense in beating around the information I already knew, since he was performing party tricks.
“Yes.” He cracked open the bottle as I handed him a glass. “Wait. How did you know that?”
“I saw you last night.” I waved him off. “You were with those men who had accompanied X. I followed you after I realized you left your phone in the car.”
“And that’s why you’ve been avoiding me.” He sighed.
“Yes.” I placed the kettle on the stove. “I needed time to process what the hell I saw. I’ve seen a lot of freaky things in my life, but never that.”
“But you already knew what I was. How did you figure it out?”
“I had to phone a friend.”
“The one you said was returning for dinner.”
“Yep.” I nodded.
“And what are you?” he asked. “Clearly, you aren’t new to any of this. So, what’s your deal?”
“There really isn’t a name for what I am.
Descendant of magical alien abilities, connected to nature and can use it at my will.
” I shrugged. “Call it whatever you want. Closest definition is a green witch because of my connection with nature. Except I don’t really do spell work, though a lot of witches come to me for what they need. I have the best stuff.”
“That explains a lot.” He grinned.
“Does it?” I asked.
“I know a few others with similar abilities. They’re control freaks too. They also have that same hypnotic ability over non-magical beings.” He sipped his drink and smiled. “That explains why I’ve had to fend off that sad sap a few times.”
“Who?” I raised a brow.
“The guy who showed up that night. What was his name? Deonta?” He tapped the table with his finger. “He started showing up at the office early in the morning, trying to catch you off guard. That’s why I was coming in early for a while. I had to set him straight.”
“That’s why? I thought you were just being a pest.” I chuckled. “Why would you do that?”
“Of course you did. I wanted to protect you and Natalie. He could have hurt her, since she often gets there before you. But I think he’s gotten it through his thick head now.” He laughed. “Now that I know about you, I realize you could have handled it on your own.”
“True.” I paused; I hadn’t considered Natalie’s safety when Deonta showed up at my office. “I have a solution for men who get a little too enthusiastic. It’s an elixir I make that works like a memory eraser.”
“You make them forget about you?” He scoffed. “That’s a shame.”
“It may be, but it’s the simplest solution. It’s pretty easy to do when they don’t know anything real about me. Most of them never even know my real name. Deonta found a way around that.”
“Damn, woman.” He sucked his teeth. “You’re a lot tougher than I thought.”
“Anyway, we’re not here to discuss all that. There are more important things to focus on.” I sat at the table across from him. “Why are you being attacked?”
“Getting down to business, as always.” Raymond fiddled with his cup.
“Yes.” I looked out the window. “There’s no time to waste skirting around the issue. Tell me everything.”
“I have enemies.” His shoulders lifted and dropped with a deep sigh.
“Enemies who are clearly not from this world,” I commented. “I exist on the outskirts of the supernatural community, but even I would have heard about those things if they were from Earth.”
“They’re from the Bane,” Raymond confirmed. “A long way from here.”
“And what exactly is the Bane?”
“Another world often described as a hellscape,” he explained. “It’s where I’m from originally. Things went bad while I was there, so I left. I thought I could live here peacefully, and for a long time, I have. But it seems my problems have followed me.”
“Is this the moment you're going to explain to me what drama you had going on that made you need to run away from hell? Because if, after all these years, they still want to come after you for it, I’m sure it wasn’t a minor issue.”
“You’re right. It was a big issue,” Raymond started as the kettle whistled. “Someone died.”
He waited for me to return to the table with the tray I’d prepared, and as I began making my tea, he continued.
“It was someone very important, and they lost their life because of me. I made a mistake, and I knew no one in the Bane was going to let me forget it. A few people wanted to take my head because of it. If they have their way, I won’t live much longer.
They will end me, but not before dragging me back to hell to make sure the right people know about it. ”
“So you did something that led to the death of someone important, and now you're on the run for it?” I thought about his words as I added honey to my cup. “Did you kill them? Are you leaving that part out of the story?”
“No. I wouldn’t do that. I've killed a lot of people in my lifetime.
That's not something I'm afraid to admit.
What happened was a mistake, a lapse in judgment on my part.
It's something I can never take away. The wrong person lost their life, that's all I can say. And I will never forgive myself for that.” He gulped down the rest of the drink before refilling his cup.
“So, what happens now? They know you're here; they're going to keep coming after you. Those things did not look like henchmen. Even if they give up, more will come. Am I correct?”
“Yes, you are. They work for someone a lot more powerful.”
“X?”
“Not exactly. X is above them but still not the top of the chain,” he explained. “It’s a huge organization. You’d probably compare it to the mafia here on Earth, but it's so much bigger than that.”
“And now they know where I live.” I rolled my eyes. “Demonic mafia about to be busting down my damn doors.”
“That's why I came here. I wanted to make sure you were okay. You weren’t answering your phone. My mind went to the worst place. They saw us together, learned your energy signature, and they could have easily found their way to you. I was afraid they had hurt you. That’s why I’m still here.”
“Still here as in here in my home?” I glanced around the kitchen.
“As in, on Earth. I planned to leave. There are other places I can go where they won’t be able to find me. That's why I decided to hand over everything to you.I probably should have left immediately, but I didn't. I couldn't.”
“Why not?”
“Do you really have to ask that question?” He leaned back in the chair and looked me dead in the eye. “Do you not know why I would not want to leave this world? I've been here for decades and never had an issue, but suddenly, I feel tied to this place. Connected.”
I ignored the implications behind his words. “How did they find you?”
“They came here looking for something else.” He chuckled. “Isn't that just my luck? They came here for another demon who’d messed up, and while they were searching for him, they found my energy signature and followed it.”
“Well, they know you’re here. Leave,” I said with na?ve optimism. “Leave now, and all of this goes away, right?”
He snorted. “Do you really believe that?”
“No, I don't. Those things are going to keep coming after me to get to you. They think I’m more important to you than I really am, and that's some bullshit. Why should I have to deal with any of this? I swear to God, if I ever see Mitch's backstabbing ass again, I'm going to throat punch him.”
“Mitch?” He raised a brow. “What does he have to do with this?”
“Isn’t it obvious? If he hadn't screwed me over, I wouldn't have had to reach out to Rose for help, which means I would have never met you, which means I wouldn't be dealing with any of this right now.” I tied it all together while ignoring the look of increasing confusion on his face. “This is all his fault.”
“Hey, as long as someone else is taking the blame for this, I'm all good.” He chuckled and ran his finger along the edge of the cup. “Shit. I can’t believe this is happening. I did everything right.”
“Okay, what do we need to do?” My brain kicked into work mode. There was no sense in sitting around pouting about the situation. We had to take action. “How do I protect myself?”
“Now that they've seen what you can do, this is going to be a lot more complicated. Before, they just thought you were a human. They weren’t worried about you. Now, they’ll see you as a threat and are probably going to come back with more aggression.
They’re gonna want to know everything about you, and I'd be surprised if they haven’t already started digging deeper into your past.”
“Were those the same people from last night?” I asked. “I know you said they work for X, but are they the same guys? They didn’t look the same.”
“A couple of them, yeah, but the others weren't,” he explained. “Most demons have to use a disguise when they come to Earth. They need to blend in.”
“Damnit!” I fussed. “I can’t have this demonic shit messing with my business. Wait…are you in disguise? Do you look like those things? I think I’m going to be sick.”
“No, I look like this all the time. Well, kind of.”
“What the hell do you mean, kind of?”
“When I’m in the Bane,” he pulled up the sleeve on his arm to show me his tattoos, “these aren’t tattoos. They’re an extension of myself. Since I’m here, I keep them flat to my skin, but when I’m alone… Wait, I’ll show you.”
He stood and took his shirt off. Somehow, I kept my mouth closed; I didn’t want to stop whatever he was about to do.
Raymond took a deep breath, flexing the muscles in his arms and chest, and then wisps of smokey tattoos lifted from his body.
They stood around his body like the aura of an animated character.