Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
F or all the work she’d put into summoning this demon, she would’ve thought there’d be some…flare when he showed up. Some fanfare. At least a little smoke and a sulfur spray or something.
But no. When the Kurgan showed up in the salt circle, he did so in the simplest way possible. One second he wasn’t there, and the next, he was. Bada-bing, bada-boom. As easy (and boring) as that.
He blinked at her a few times before shifting his gaze to Roan, then back to her, then down at the salt circle he was trapped in. He sighed. “So, I’m to die tonight then?”
Any triumph she was feeling at having appropriately summoned a demon this time bled from her at his defeated, tired tone. He sounded so resigned. Almost like dying would be a relief. “It doesn’t have to go like that.”
His small smile held not a trace of humor. “If you’re not going to Kurg with me willingly, and I’m not leaving without you, I don’t see any other choice. There can be only one winner.”
Haven ignored the ruckus she heard outside their warded room. That was undoubtably Benny and Lucas enjoying the fact that the Kurgan had just uttered a Highlander line without having any idea he’d done it. “Well, if we’re going to fight to the death, how about we take a little rest first and chat for a while?”
She gestured to the metal chair she’d placed in the circle. He looked down at it longingly. “I can’t,” he said sadly. “I’ll melt it.”
“No, it’s OK. We had an angel ward the room so that nothing in here could melt.”
Hope lit his dark eyes. “Truly?”
“Truly. Please. Have a seat.”
He sat down gingerly, as if he was anticipating his ass burning through the chair before it landed on the concrete. When that didn’t happen, he let out a moan of such pure relief she couldn’t hold back a grin. “Been on your feet a while?” she asked.
He snorted. “Only since I entered this dimension.”
“When was that?”
“Two—no, three—hundred years ago.”
She gasped. “You haven’t been able to sit down for three hundred years ?”
He rubbed the back of his neck wearily. “Everything here is just so flammable. It’s easily the most flammable dimension I’ve ever been to.”
So, so many questions. It was kind of hard to determine where to start. Eventually, she decided on, “How many dimensions have you visited?”
“At least a thousand.”
She glanced back at Roan with wide eyes. “Wow. That’s a lot. How many have you seen?”
“Probably only thirty or forty,” he said. “I’m not sure.”
The Kurgan asked him, “This one’s by far the best, am I right?”
“For sure,” Roan answered. “There are some real shit holes out there.”
“Like Nexxus,” he said with a grimace. “Those worm things they have there are disgusting.”
“I’m from Nexxus!”
“No shit?”
“No shit. I swear, the smell of brimstone never comes out of clothes. I had to burn everything I was wearing when I came here.”
The Kurgan gave him a rueful smile. “Not exactly a problem for me.”
Haven’s gaze bounced between them as they chatted like two college kids who found out they’d attended the same middle school. This was not how she imagined this would go at all .
She cleared her throat. “Hey, I hate to interrupt, but I don’t want to keep referring to you as ‘the Kurgan.’ What’s your name? I’m Haven, by the way. And this is my husband, Roan.”
The smile he gave her was so soft it looked completely out of place on his otherwise stern, scary face. “Haven and Roan. Those are nice names.” His smile dimmed when he admitted, “I don’t have a name. On Kurg, my kind are given designations. My designation is…well, I can’t think of an English equivalent.”
She frowned. “What do you mean ‘your kind’?”
“I’m a seeker. Much like … hmmm, let me think…hunting hounds in this dimension?”
“And you seek all alone?”
“Yes.”
Haven was so horrified at the thought of this poor man being sent out, nameless and alone, to a dimension where he couldn’t even sit down or rest without melting things, when dogs in her dimension were often treated like children, that she just sat there, dumbly, mouth agape. So, it was Roan who asked, “What are you searching for?”
He gestured to Haven. “Beacons. Like her.”
She sat up straighter. “A beacon? I’m a beacon?”
“Oh, yes,” he said on a gusty exhale. “You shine like a sun. That light is extremely rare. Typically, there’s only one beacon per dimension.”
Roan nudged her shoulder. “I think he means your aura. Didn’t you say he didn’t have one?”
“No, he doesn’t.” She turned back to the Kurgan. “What do your people do with beacons?”
He looked a little embarrassed, but eventually told her, “They are great sources of power. One beacon can power our entire dimension for one of your centuries.”
“Wow. That’s…a long time.”
Roan crossed his arms over his chest. “And what happens to the beacon while they’re powering your dimension?”
“They’re kept in stasis and harvested until their power is depleted.”
Well, that didn’t sound pleasant. “And when they’re all used up? Do they just…die?”
He swallowed hard. “Yes. I’m afraid so.”
“Fighting to the death is sounding better and better,” Roan murmured.
A ruckus sounded on the other side of the basement door. Haven imagined that was the sound of Hunter and Mischa holding her mother and father back.
The Kurgan nodded. “I understand.”
Haven frowned at him. “I don’t think we’re there yet, Roan,” she said through clenched teeth. Turning back to the Kurgan, she said, “Tell me about your dimension. Are you happy there?” She already knew he wasn’t well treated. Not when they couldn’t even be bothered to give him a name.
He frowned. “It’s not my place to feel happy or unhappy. It’s my place to seek beacons. But…my dimension is nothing like this one.”
She could tell by the way his voice softened that he liked it here. “What’s your favorite thing here?”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his splayed knees and smiled, displaying a terrifying mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. “The choices. So many choices,” he said wistfully. “Humans can choose to be or do anything. On Kurg, we’re conceived for a purpose. And even if we wanted to change our purpose, it is not possible.”
He was breaking her heart! “What about friends and family? Do you have people who love you there?”
“My kind doesn’t need friends and family. We seek. Nothing more.”
“And when you bring home a beacon, then what happens?”
“I go to another dimension and seek a new beacon.”
She leaned forward, too. “What would’ve happened if you hadn’t found me here?”
He looked confused by the question. “I would keep seeking. Every dimension has a beacon. I would’ve found you eventually.”
“Yeah, I get that. But let’s say you just…never found me. Would your bosses send someone else to complete the job?”
“No. As long as I live, no one else would be ordered to search the dimension I was assigned.”
If they were in a cartoon, this would’ve been the point that a lightbulb would’ve popped up above her head. She was either having a great idea or another epiphany. She wasn’t sure which. Sometimes it was hard to tell. Glancing back at Roan, she saw the minute the lightbulb flared to life above his head, too. If he was thinking it, and she was thinking it, it must be a good idea.
But she needed a little more info first.
“If you were human, if you had choices, what would you do here?” she asked.
He cocked his head to one side and pondered her question. “Well, I’d definitely eat something I didn’t have to kill and burn first. I’m not a fan of the killing. And I like the animals here. So, I think I’d like to try…vegetables.”
He said vegetables like she said cherry cheesecake with a buttery graham cracker crust, which was adorable and sad all at the same time. “Then what?”
“Then,” he said, clearly warming to the topic, “I’d find work where I could sit down all day long…and maybe talk to people every now and then.” His eyes tipped down before lifting to hers once again. “I’ve enjoyed talking with you, Haven,” he said quietly. “I’m not looking forward to taking you to Kurg.”
“I’ve enjoyed talking with you, too. And I really don’t want to go to Kurg. But what if I had an idea that would help both of us get what we want?”
His smooth brow furrowed, and he rubbed a hand over one of his horns. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I had a job here in our call center. I sat down all day, taking phone calls and talking to mostly paranormal folk—you know, vampires, shifters, witches, demons—about concerns they have.” She briefly explained the triage process before adding, “But I never really wanted that job. I want to be out in the field. So, that job is open. I think you’d be great at it.”
“It sounds wonderful,” he whispered reverently.
Roan snorted, and she reached back to smack his thigh. “My mom and dad run this place. You’d have to go through our employment vetting process, which is really just meeting my mom and grandma and making sure you’re not a danger to anyone here. But other than that, I’m pretty confident they’d hire you on my recommendation.”
He blinked at her. “You’d…you’d recommend me for a job? Here?”
“I would. And lots of great people work here. You’d make friends in no time.”
“Her family takes in strays anyway,” Roan said. “They’d probably consider you one of their own immediately.”
He glanced down at his hands before raising his eyes to hers and biting his lip. “But what about…you know…”
She frowned, then it occurred to her what he was afraid of. “Oh, you mean the melting things? On Kurg, is that a power you can usually control?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I’m not really worried about that. We have people here who can teach you to control your powers. And until then, we can ward your spaces like we warded this one.”
“ My spaces?”
Haven smiled. “Sure! You’d have a house here on Section 8 grounds. All employees do. It won’t be super fancy, but it sounds like it’d be better than anything you’d ever have on Kurg.”
His eyes narrowed on hers. “How do I know you’re being truthful? That you’re not just stalling until you can figure out a way to kill me?”
Now he was starting to sound like he belonged here. A little healthy suspicion never hurt anyone. “One of my powers just happens to be the ability to share my thoughts with anyone I touch.” She extended a hand toward him and wiggled her fingers playfully. “My mouth might be able to lie, but my brain can’t. See for yourself.”
Skepticism was written all over his face, but his desire for a boring desk job and a chair of his very own must’ve overruled it, because he took her hand in one of his giant meat hooks after only the briefest of pauses.
His eyes fluttered shut as she opened her mind to him completely. She let him see her crazy family, her loyal friends, her love with Roan…he saw it all. Shudders flowed through him as he took it all in. And when he finally let go of her hand, he was silent for a full minute. All he seemed capable of was blinking at her, wide-eyed.
Finally, he whispered, “You have an amazing life.”
“So could you,” she said quietly. “All you have to do is take it. Leave Kurg and all those fuckers who’ve treated you worse than we treat our pets behind, and focus on creating a future full of choices for yourself here in this dimension. What do you say, friend?”
His smile started off as nothing more than a quirk of one lip. But it eventually grew into a full-fledged grin that lit up his whole face. “I say yes …my friend.”
She gave a little fist pump that made Roan chuckle before saying, “Oh, one other thing. You need to choose a name, because we can’t keep calling you the Kurgan. It’s rude. So, what would you like to be called from now on?”
He thought for a moment before blurting, “Ted. Ted Smith.”
Haven blinked at him. No one had ever looked less like a Ted Smith than this demon. “Why Ted Smith?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. It just sounds so…normal. Doesn’t it?”
For this place? Sure. Why the fuck not?
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ted. Welcome home.”