The Search for Starlight

by Elyse Salpeter

  So, she’s going to just keep hitting me? I can take that. She obviously isn’t going to kill me yet or she would have done it already. Keep her talking and just endure the beating.

  “I’m going to ask you this just one more time. Who sent you?”

  He looked into her eyes, wanting to see the demon in them, but instead he just saw his own eyes staring back at him. They were the same shape and dark color blue that he had. Something tickled at the back of his mind and he desperately tried to find the thought and catch it. He needed more time. He had to delay her.

  “I’m sworn to secrecy,” he whispered. Why isn’t she seducing me? That is her main power and yet she’s using a gun on me instead?

  “That’s it. I’ve had enough.” She pointed the gun between his eyes.

  He sucked in his breath in complete surprise. He hadn’t thought the demon would use the gun on him, and he tensed. He would not go without a fight and readied to defend himself before the gun went off.

  “Kelsey, stop!” The boyfriend he’d seen with her suddenly appeared by Kelsey’s side. The man leaned over and turned on the overhead light switch.

  Robbie blinked fiercely at the sudden illumination, but then took the scene in.

  The man leaned down to where they knelt on the floor and stared at Robbie. “Is this the same guy from last night?”

  Kelsey nodded. She’s even more beautiful in the light. Those eyes, though.

  “Geez, he’s just a kid. Give me the gun. I have him covered.”

  “A kid from another realm who tried to kill me, Desmond. A kid with flying darts and a portal ring.”

  “I didn’t try to kill you,” Robbie spoke up.

  Desmond leaned over and took the bag of darts from Robbie’s waist while Kelsey scoffed. “Oh really? And what do you call lying on top of me in my own bed and nearly choking me to death?”

  “I was just trying to subdue you long enough to get the talisman.”

  “So you said. You couldn’t just come and speak to me? You followed me to the cemetery where I was burying my dead friend, then set the bookshop on fire, and then attacked me in my bed while I slept. That was all part of your grand plan?”

  “I didn’t set the shop on fire. Someone else was in there with me.”

  Kelsey and Desmond exchanged a knowing look. Kelsey turned back and glared at him. “Look what you did to my neck, you asshole.” She raised her chin, and he could see the dark bruising he’d inflicted. It was nothing compared to what she’d done to his face. “Now tell me, who wants this talisman?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Then at least tell me which realm you’re from.”

  She knows about the realms? Of course she does. He had to keep her talking. Had to catch her off her guard. What would a few nuggets of information do? Truths always put demons off guard. They were so used to lies and it would give him time. He needed time.

  “I’m from Pritvhi. I’m a soldier.”

  She snorted. “A soldier. A pretty pathetic one. So, it was the soldiers in Pritvhi who asked you to find this talisman and bring it back to them? Why do they need it?”

  He swallowed the insult. “No, not them.”

  “Then who?” Kelsey asked, but Robbie remained silent. There was no way he’d give up the Emperor and Empress. Not to this monster.

  Kelsey squinted and then glanced again at the man she’d called Desmond. “You don’t think they sent him, do you?” She let that question hang in the air. Who was she talking about?

  The man’s eyes widened in understanding and his brows knit together. “No way, Kelsey.”

  Kelsey’s face puckered. “Why not? I wouldn’t put it past them. They turned on me, Des. It all makes sense now. Doesn’t it feel like they’ve been grooming me for this very moment?” She glared at Robbie. “I know who you’re working for. Why are you protecting them? They promise you something?”

  Are we talking about the same people? She was in Xanadu. She was riding a fedelia. Does she know? Robbie feigned ignorance. “Protecting who?”

  She squeezed his wrist hard, hitting a trigger point, and he flinched. “You know who I’m talking about. Why are you protecting the Emperor and Empress in Xanadu? Is it really worth getting killed over?” She released the pressure.

  Robbie squinted. “How do you know about the Emperor and Empress, Demon? And how are you riding a fedelia in that painting on the wall?”

  “It’s a long story that I don’t feel like explaining to you. But I will tell you they ordered me to get this trinket for them and deliver it to Xanadu, which I was doing last night until you came along and tried to suffocate me. Why did you attack me?”

  Robbie shook his head, suddenly wary. “They asked a demon to bring it to them? They asked me to take it from you and deliver it myself.”

  She raised her brows. “And they told you to attack me to get it?”

  He shrugged slightly. “They told me I had license to kill you if you didn’t give it to me. I didn’t think how I got it much mattered to them.”

  Kelsey’s voice was icy. “They told him that he could kill me, Desmond.”

  The man she called Desmond shook his head. “I don’t believe it. He’s lying.”

  “I’m not lying,” Robbie said defensively, but he felt suddenly confused and his mind raced. “But I don’t understand why I was instructed to deliver this if they tasked you to give it to them all along. It sounds like they simply wanted me to kill you, but if that’s what they ultimately wanted, why didn’t they just instruct me to do that? Killing demons is what I’m trained to do.”

  “That’s a very good question,” she seethed. “Tell me who you are. What’s your name?”

  Robbie shook with indecision.

  “Let me call for backup,” Desmond interjected. “We can take him down to the precinct and put him in lockup for the night. Maybe he’ll talk then.”

  “That will take too much time and I need answers now.” She held up Robbie’s wrist. “This ring will portal you out of here, right?”

  Robbie stared at her, surprised. “How do you know that?”

  “I obviously know a lot more than you think I do. Can I take it off or will we all leave?”

  “I can’t take it off or you and I will leave.” How does she know this? How does she know about the Emperor and Empress? Why did they ask her, a demon, to get them this amulet? And why did they ask me to kill her, yet Master Dov was adamant I let her live? Something is not right. For the first time in Robbie’s life, his perfectly ordered world felt wrong. A strange thought crept into his brain.

  Am I being… set up?

  Kelsey pulled him from his thoughts. “I’m going to release you. Are you going to leave?”

  Robbie stared at her and finally shook his head no.

  Kelsey squinted. “I swear to God, if you disappear, the next time I see you, I will destroy you, do you understand?”

  “I don’t think we should let him go,” Desmond said. “He’s got no reason to stay. We can put solid bar handcuffs on him so his hands stay separated in front of him. Then he can’t portal out of here.”

  This man is talking about portalling as if it were a normal, human thing. Who are these people?

  Kelsey studied Robbie. “I think he has a reason to stay. I can see it in his eyes. He’s finally realized he’s being played by people he trusted, and the only way he’s going to find out why is if we talk. So are you going to portal or not?”

  Robbie was racked with indecision. He wanted to leave. Every impulse told him to get out of there and get back to Pritvhi. His teachers would advise him to use any means to escape, but Kelsey was right. He was being played. He needed to find out what this demon knew, and for the moment, she was letting him live. And Robbie was no coward. “I won’t leave.” Kelsey still trained the gun on him.

  Desmond nodded his head towards a chair. “Come to the table and sit down. Keep your hands out in front of you.”

  Robbie complied and then watched Kels
ey hand the gun to Desmond and then stalk from the dining room and into the kitchen. Through the pass-through he saw her pluck a kitchen towel from a rack and then grab a wad of paper towels and rinse them quickly under water. She came back and handed the cloth towel to him. “For your head. I’d rather you not bleed all over my apartment.” She moved to the floor and used the paper towels to wipe up his blood that had pooled there. Since when did demons care about blood? His teacher, Master Dov, had been right. This one was different than the others.

  Kelsey tossed the garbage back into the kitchen and then sat down across from him. Robbie could tell she was furious from the way she glared at him and the way her hands kept clenching into fists. He had no illusions that she wouldn’t like to pummel his face again. He realized he was very lucky he was not dead by her hand for the second time in a day. Again he’d been caught off guard, which unsettled him greatly. He finally found his voice. Being mute was getting him nowhere. He tried to put her on the spot. “They told me you’re Mara’s daughter, Tanha. One of the three seductresses who tried to sway Siddhartha. Is that true?”

  Kelsey puckered her lips and nodded. “I was, once.”

  So his master had spoken the truth.

  “Tanha’s a demon.”

  “So what?” Kelsey asked, clearly bored by the statement.

  “I’m a demon hunter.”

  “No kidding. What’s your point?”

  “The point is, I hunt demons. That’s my calling.”

  Kelsey leaned back in her chair. “Again, so what?”

  “So, I’m supposed to kill demons.”

  Kelsey spread her arms wide. “Do I look like a demon to you, kid? I was Tanha a long time ago. Today I’m just Kelsey Porter. A human girl born to human parents.”

  “No, you’re a demon inhabiting a human girl born to human parents,” Robbie clarified. “There’s a difference.”

  “Again, what’s your point?” she seethed.

  “The point is, if you’re a demon, then how do you even know about the Emperor and Empress?” He thrust his chin towards the far wall. “How do you possibly have that painting on your wall of you riding a fedelia in Xanadu? You’ve been there? They let a demon into Xanadu and actually let her ride a fedelia? That right is reserved for their protectors.”

  She snorted at his obvious naiveté. “If you must know, I know the Emperor and Empress because they saved me once when I was a child.”

  “When? When your father, Mara, tried to kill you? They actually brought you to Xanadu?”

  Now Kelsey’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “So, you know more about me than you’re letting on. Then why are you asking?”

  “I find it stunning that you left your father’s kingdom in the first place. They say he’s been supposedly killing you in every lifetime you’ve tried to lead since.”

  “It’s not supposedly. It’s the truth.”

  Robbie stared around the apartment. It didn’t look at all like a place a Naraka temptress hell demon would live. Of course, he’d never met a demon who had her own purchased residence on Earth. Most of the demons he hunted resided in the various hell realms, and his group attacked them in the caves or forests where they roamed. Most of them weren’t beautiful human girls.

  “Now tell me who are you,” Kelsey asked.

  Robbie made a decision. Perhaps the truth right now was best. Perhaps it would win him enough time to figure out some way to get the amulet back and complete his mission. Then he could go home and continue his training. What would telling her a bit about himself do except keep him alive and get him more information? She obviously already knew more than he’d thought, and being a demon, she could probably find out everything if she really wanted to.

  Knowledge is key, Robbie. The more you know, the more prepared you’ll be. Perhaps he’d learn more about her as well and be able to find a way to escape. Then he’d have more insight for his masters when they went after her later.

  “My name is Robbie. I’m a soldier in Pritvhi assigned to fight demons and protect the realms.”

  He’d expected another bored glance, but Kelsey’s reaction was anything but. She froze where she sat and paled drastically as if all the blood had drained from her face. The change in her put him instantly on guard.

  “Your name is Robbie?” Her voice hitched.

  He nodded, tensing. Something about his name bothered her greatly.

  “How old are you?”

  She’s asking my age? Kelsey stared at him with the oddest expression, and he fought the urge to glance behind him to see if someone stood ready to attack him.

  “Eighteen.” He could swear the demon girl’s hands shook.

  “Were you born in Pritvhi?” She nearly choked out the question.

  Why is she asking me this? Should I answer? He decided to. “No, I was brought to Pritvhi as a child.”

  “Why?”

  He raised his brows. “I don’t see how this is important.”

  “Answer me… please.”

  It was the please that got him. Since when did demons ever say please? “If you must know, I was ill. Someone brought me there to be healed at the age of three.”

  Kelsey jumped to her feet, knocking her chair over.

  Desmond looked on, alarmed. “Kelsey, what is it?”

  A look of horror had spread across her face. “This can’t be happening.” She moved to Robbie’s side and bent down so she was face to face with him. She edged so close he could smell the exotic perfume she wore. It took all of his resolve not to grab his hand and portal out of there. He kept his fingers plastered flat on the table.

  Kelsey peered deeply into his eyes. Her own widened in distress and… what was that expression on her face? Recognition?

  “Oh, my God, no. They wouldn’t do this to me. Desmond, they wouldn’t.”

  “Who wouldn’t do what?” Robbie asked, alarmed.

  “Kelsey?” Desmond asked. “What’s going on?”

  Kelsey walked a few feet away from the table in apparent shock. She ran her hand through her long brown hair and paced. “It’s all been a lie, Desmond. Everything. Absolutely everything. Everything in my life has been an utter, absolute lie.” She turned to Robbie and her expression was a mix of anger and hurt and what seemed like pain. “I’ve been set up. Set up my entire life for this one moment. To let you, a soldier from Pritvhi, kill me to fulfill some prophecy my own father translated for a set of monks who have been training me my entire life to get me to this same moment. And now I believe my father may have even known all along what was happening. I mean, how could he not have?” Kelsey stared hard at him. “I know who you are.”

  “That’s impossible. I’ve never met you before.”

  “Oh really?” Kelsey grabbed the photo Robbie had been holding earlier in the evening and shoved it in his face. “Do you know who these people are? Do they look familiar to you at all? Think!”

  He heard Desmond suck in his breath in apparent understanding.

  Robbie looked again at the photo that had drawn him in earlier. The mother’s eyes spoke to him and a strange yearning settled in his gut. The picture simply reeked of familiarity. “I don’t… know.”

  Kelsey placed the photo back on the table. “You were sent to Pritvhi because you were sick.

  Do you know who sent you?”

  “I don’t. They’ve only told me I was born on Earth and came down with a fatal blood disease they couldn’t cure here. In order to save me, my father sent me to live on Pritvhi where they would be able to heal me. But then he died, so I couldn’t return home to him after I was cured.”

  Kelsey stood stock still and balled her fists. “They told you your father died? What did they tell you about the rest of your family?”

  Robbie got a sick feeling in his gut. Something was very wrong. Why was this demon asking him these personal questions? Why would she even care? “My teachers told me they all died in Tibet a few years later. Some accident that killed my mother and a sibling. It was why they
kept me in Pritvhi and didn’t send me home. I had no one to go home to.”

  Kelsey stared at Desmond and he returned her shocked gaze. “They didn’t all die, Robbie.” Her voice was barely a whisper and her eyes teared up.

  This demon is crying? Those eyes of hers. He glanced down at the photo again. Images began to pop in his brain like tiny pinpricks of light.

  And suddenly, he remembered.

  He felt his eyes widen in shock and he flinched. This could not be happening. He stared at Kelsey and images of the little girl with pigtails exploded in his brain in amazing clarity. She was running in a field and he was trying to keep up. She was sitting on the floor, reading him a book. She was feeding him snacks and laughing. She was playing dress-up with him, holding his hand, and cuddling him. She had the same eyes as the demon in front of him.

  A nickname came out of thin air. Kel Kel. The name he used to call his sister when they were little. No, the name his father used to call his sister. Wait, he had a sister? Yes, he did! Her name had been… Kelsey. Robbie shook his head in horror. “Are you…Kel Kel? Oh, no. No.”

  Kelsey grabbed his right hand. “Oh, yes. It’s me, Robbie. I’m your sister. I don’t believe this. They told me you died!” Without warning, the demon fell into his arms, crying and hugging him so fiercely that he felt his breath leave his body. But after a few seconds, he stunningly returned her hug just as strongly.

  Finally, Kelsey pulled back, staring at him in wonder.

  Robbie kept shaking his head. “I don’t understand. You’re a demon. How can you possibly be my sister? What the hell happened to all of us to get to this point?”

  Kelsey took a long, deep breath. “It’s complicated.”

  Chapter Ten

  Robbie was furious. More enraged than he’d ever been in his entire lifetime. Angrier than the time he had to fight a Rolang who had sentient thought. This demon zombie had bitten a little boy, taken over his soul and had used the child’s tongue as a sword to kill the boy’s own family.

  Robbie’s rage had been building steadily since he’d found out the truth about Kelsey and about his parents’ deaths. How Mara’s men attacked them all and nearly killed Kelsey. While he understood Kelsey was a demon at her core, the atrocities she’d had to endure offended his human consciousness.