Anya Bast - Witch Blood

“What do you mean?” asked Micah.

“We pulled through not just a demon, but a monster. A demon so terrible, who had committed so many atrocious acts in his own dimension, that they shut the door on him.”

“Wait a minute. Are you saying this demon couldn’t go home even if he wanted to?”

Stefan leaned forward, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. “They don’t want him back. This is his prison, his punishment.”

ON THAT COMMENT, THE WHOLE CELL DESCENDED INTOsilence for several moments.

Thomas drew a breath. If they hadn’t known the demon was bad to the bone already, now they sure did.

“I don’t understand why trapping the demon here would be considered a punishment,” said Isabelle, finally. “Why wouldn’t he want to stay here? Wouldn’t this be a big playground for him?”

Micah turned to her. “We suspect the beings we refer to as ‘demons’ live in a world not much different from ours. They have a culture, a society, laws, everything we have. They mate, they have little baby demons they raise to become big, bad demons. It’s their home . Here they’re just aliens, without freedom, family or friends. Think about it. Would you want to spend your life completely alone in a foreign world? This demon is essentially in exile.”

Isabelle hugged herself. “It’s just strange to think of them that way, as anything more than primitive monsters.”

Micah pushed a hand through his hair. “We believe their society is fairly complex, but we don’t know for certain since no human or witch has ever been through a doorway that we know of.”

“But we know they have prisons, just like we do,” said Stefan tonelessly. “In this case, the Duskoff pulled an inmate from one of them. It freed him. I’m sure he has been contenting himself here well enough.”

Contenting himself. Yes, killing people.

“How long has the Duskoff known the demon still resided on this side of the doorway?” asked Thomas. His voice sounded wooden to his own ears because he suspected the Duskoff could’ve stopped the demon long before now…if they’d bothered to try.

Stefan looked up, focused his gaze on Thomas’s face and laughed bitterly. “Since it stole our library.”

“Explain.”

“We had a collection of books — ancient texts on demons the Duskoff has possessed since the Middle Ages. The demon divined the location of the books and came one night. He broke through our magical defenses and stole them all.”

“How long ago?” His voice sounded like the lash of a whip in the small room. His fingernails dug into his palms as he fought to restrain himself.

Micah had found at least thirty-five murders of non-magickals the demon may have committed, aside from the two witches, in the time since the Duskoff had brought him into this world.

Stefan blinked, and then gave a slow, self-satisfied smile. “Twenty years ago.”

“You bastard!” yelled Isabelle right before she rushed him.

Thomas was tempted to let her go, but he stopped her for her own safety. Stefan had at least a hundred and ten pounds on her, all muscle. She got in one nice punch that whipped Stefan’s face to the side before Thomas was able to grab her around the waist and wrench her backward. He swung her around easily as she threw punches in the air, yelling about the murders that could’ve been prevented if they’d known.

But, of course, Stefan didn’t care about that.

Stefan just laughed as Thomas held Isabelle tight against him, allowing her a chance to calm down. She quieted and pushed angrily against his arms. He released her and she stepped away, glaring.

“ Soyez gentile , Isabelle! Be nice or I won’t tell you where the backup library is,” Stefan said, holding a hand to his face where she’d landed her punch. His cold gaze contradicted the amused little smile he wore.

“Why would you tell us where the backup library is?” asked Micah.

Stefan lowered his hand so he could appear offended. “I am not a monster, Micah. I want the demon defeated as well.”

Micah snorted. “Yes, that’s why the Duskoff did nothing and told no one when they discovered the demon had remained.”

“Get me to a computer. Allow me access to the Duskoff’s system and you will have our library. We digitized before the books were stolen.” He paused and shifted his gaze to Thomas, his tongue stealing out to lick the trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. “In return, I want you to kill me.”

Thomas smiled. “Please, that’s too good a deal for us. What game are you playing?”

He shook his head. “You don’t understand. I know the Coven wishes me to suffer; therefore they may choose to give me life imprisonment. I would rather die than be imprisoned here in Gribben until the end of my days. So, the deal is simple. I will hand over the digitized library and you will ensure that my trial is short and the sentence I am given is death.”

Thomas considered him. In Stefan’s place, he might very well be asking for the same thing. “Okay, but you don’t die until this is over, until the demon is caught, killed, or vanquished.”

A muscle in Stefan’s jaw locked. “Fine.”

“Micah, you deal with the computer. Stefan doesn’t touch it; he only tells you how to access the info.”

Stefan opened his mouth to protest and Thomas shut him down with a look.

Micah nodded. “So the bottom line is that we have a demon on the loose, one trapped here against his will. In all the history I’ve studied, I’ve never read about something like this. I’m trying to imagine this demon who has been shunned by his people, since his people can only be considered brutal in the best light.”

“So we hunt it down and kill it,” answered Isabelle. “Seems simple to me.”

Micah snorted. “Simple? Can I visit your planet sometime? Must be a nice place.”

“I know demons are hard to kill but trust me, honey, I’ll kill this one or die in the attempt. What I don’t understand is why he’s all of a sudden killing witches after so many years. Why attract the Coven’s attention now ? It’s almost like he’s playing with us, baiting us.”

“Maybe he’s bored,” Micah answered.

“Are you done with me?” Stefan asked with a healthy dose of bitterness. A bruise was already blooming on his face from Isabelle’s punch. “I would like to be left alone so I can get a head start on serving my sentence.”

“Bored?” Isabelle chewed her bottom lip, completely ignoring Stefan. “No. That’s not what I feel in my gut. There’s a purpose to these killings. There’s a reason why he’s targeting witches right now.”

Thomas felt it was something more, too, but it was just an intuitive hit. There wasn’t anything solid to pursue at this point. He looked at Stefan. “How do we track him?”

Stefan’s lips peeled back from his teeth in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Track him?” He gave a short, sharp laugh. “Please. The creature is tracking you . He will find you long before you’ll be able to find him, unless you get lucky and surprise him. Otherwise, there is no way to track a demon. Not physically. Not magickally.”

“That’s very comforting,” muttered Micah.

“Actually, I feel much safer in here than out there,” continued Stefan. The words fell flat, since they were accompanied by a glum look on his face. Stefan couldn’t even fake it.

“Oh, I’m sure if the demon set its sights on a nice, spicy fire witch, this prison wouldn’t stop him,” answered Thomas with a smile. “I’m sure our wards and spells would have no effect on him at all if he really had his heart set on you. Demon magick isn’t witch magick, after all.”