by KJ Robinson
I looked him over. I felt like he was telling the truth, but he was a demon and demons are full of shit and evil, right? Although, before he left, he’d been nothing, but sweet to me. Too sweet, I guess, that’s how we got Tyler. Before I could ask Demetrius what he meant by doing it for us my door flew open.
I’d forgotten all about my brief conversation with Detective Chase and there he stood in the doorway angrier than a leprechaun whose gold was stolen. He marched towards me and Demetrius instinctively rushed towards him ready to protect me. Chase blinked rapidly in what seemed like confusion and then said the last wards I expected to hear from his mouth.
“How did you find my brother?”
I looked between the two men more confused than a toddler on Jeopardy. “What are you talking about? This is my ex. I told you about him. Demetrius, Tyler’s father”
Chase looked Demetrius up and down and Demetrius did something he rarely did, he avoided his eyes. “But he looks just like Benjamin.” I noticed Demetrius wince at the name and wondered if Chase noticed it too. “Except for the eyes, Benjie’s eyes were gray,” Chase said after looking hard at Demetrius.
Chase had told me before about his brother Benjamin. He’d been missing since he was eighteen years old. The cops had always labeled him as a runaway but Chase always denied that his brother would just disappear without contacting anyone especially him. They were only two years apart, almost Irish twins and were really close growing up. Chase as the older brother felt guilty about Benjamin’s disappearance.
I don’t know what he felt he could have done to stop it, but it was the reason why Chase became a cop. He always thought he might be the one to break his brother’s disappearance. In the eighteen years since there hadn’t been a peep, not even a body being found.
Breaking up the silence, Demetrius stuck his hand out awkwardly and offered it to Chase. “Hi, I’m Demetrius, Tyler’s father. Tray, told me Tyler was missing and she thought maybe he had come looking for me,” he explained.
Chase narrowed his eyes and looked at both of us. “She told me she hadn’t seen you in years and didn’t know how to get a hold of you,” Chase replied. “So, how’d you know Tyler was missing in the first place.”
“She didn’t know that Ty had found me. He kept it a secret and we’d been communicating. I called Ty and when I couldn’t get a hold of him I got worried and called her.” I couldn’t tell if Chase was buying it or not, shit I couldn’t tell if the first part of what he said was a lie or not myself. I had a lot of questions for him if I could just get rid of the good detective.
“Yeah,” I started, but suddenly felt the temperature in the room perceptively drop a good ten degrees. I knew this wasn’t a good sign. I had specifically put up wards of protection on my shop, but it felt like something was trying to make its way in.
I didn’t have to wonder long at what it was. A million shards of glass from my shop window exploded like shrapnel all around us.
Chase ducked on instinct to get away from the spray of glass, but Demetrius, Ali, and I moved quickly into our battle stances. Chase stood shaking off shards from his hair and clothing. He looked at us with fear in his eyes as he noticed the orb of Orange fire in my right hand and my tatted sleeve writhing like it was alive.
Demetrius cut an equally impressive figure with his green eyes shining like monstrous beacons. Ali turned Not to mention there was a six-foot wall of rats clumped together in a vaguely humanoid shape. I hated lesser demons, they couldn't even possess an actual person.
""What the fuck is going on!" Chase screamed in a tone slightly higher than usual. I hoped he didn't want an answer because it was time to kick ass and ask questions later.
Although it had been a long time since I’d used my magic, I was already in a combative mood . My tattoos started to glow white against my tan skin and they started to writhe and reform into symbols of battle. I looked at Demetrius and could see his eyes starting to glow an even brighter emerald green, he’d gone what I like to call full demon.
The rat form divided itself into two forms and started to charge toward us. I reached for my magic and threw a bolt of energy at them which did nothing to stop them, but I could smell singed rat fur. I maneuvered myself low to the ground and did a leg sweep as the rats lumbered closer to me. This only had the effect of having the rats scatter and then reform. I couldn’t see how to defeat them. Their only weakness seemed to be the slow pace they moved at, a side effect of having to join together I guessed. I ran towards the back of the room, knowing it would take a considerable amount of time for the mass to get close to me.
I looked to Demetrius and he was attempting to rip the rats apart, but each time he tore one in half it just became two rats. At the rate he was going we’d be overrun. “Demetrius, do something else, you’re making it worse.” His rat form had nearly doubled in size from his efforts. He shrugged and muttered something under his breath and then shot fire from his fingertips towards the rat figure. The rats still shuffled towards him while on fire.
“Don’t burn down my damn shop while you’re at it!” I screamed, not realizing how close the rat demon was to me. The mass held out what would be its hands and started to choke me. I could slowly feel myself losing consciousness when out of nowhere Sheba raced from a back room and jumped onto it. Sheba’s eyes glowed amber as she sunk her teeth into the rats’ fur and flesh. Each rat that she bit fell and died where it lay. I didn’t know what she was doing that was killing the rats without me pouring my own magic into her, but it was working.
Since it looked like Sheba didn’t need my help I raced to Demetrius and pointed to my ring. It was a huge amethyst stone Demetrius have got me during our courtship. Not only was it a romantic gesture, but he told me that it was a conduit to help amplify magic. He knew that since I had to use my magic in a while it was draining me and I needed something to boost my power without completely sapping me of my own energy. I nodded to him and focused my magic into the stone which then started to glow. I focused all my intention into the thought of fire. My sorcery magic was compatible with demon magic and we both had the power of the element of fire. While I focused my magic Demetrius raised his hands clasping together and I saw waves of flames erupting from his hands which he then focused towards the demon rat poured in front of us I did the same and the rat demon burst into flames.
“Your son is but one key,” it hissed as it burned. I held my breath, the stench of singed rat was unbearable. The rat demon then dispersed into the thousand or so rats it was made of and they all hissed in unison, “The master is nigh, the Lesser Key is near,” as they rushed towards the shattered window and made their way, flames and all into the gutter near my shop.
My body shook releasing the adrenalin that had been pumping throughout my body during the fight. Even when I was using my magic, I hadn’t used it like this. I shuddered in revulsion at the memory of the grotesque rat demon. Disgusting wasn’t the word.
You know that game on Facebook where they say like Batman if you were a superhero named after your greatest fear, it would be a tie between Rat-woman and Spider-woman. Those things gave me the willies, powers or not.
I looked over to where Chase stood in a stupor. Seeing me must have shook him out of it because he started walking over to me. Each step was magnified with the crunch of the glass between his feet. Before I could say anything, he spoke.
“I don’t know what the hell just happened, but that doesn’t mean Tyler’s off the hook. I need to talk to him STAT!”
“Don’t you get it? This is about more than Tyler and even if I knew where the Hell he was and I mean that literally. I wouldn’t give him over to you and the police department to help him get killed. Or worse.”
“Tray, we don’t have time for this,” Demetrius interrupted tugging on my arm. I turned to him and gave him the Bambi eyes. I wasn’t sure if that would work on him, being a demon and all, but I figured it was universal when he let my arm go. I walked over to Chase and put my hands on his
face. It looked like I was going to kiss him, but instead I poured my magic into my eyes, my tattoos turned purple and glowed.
“This didn’t happen,” I started. “You will remember none of this. You came to see me and the shop was closed. You will go home and tomorrow you will go to work like normal.”
Chase shook his head while he was in my magic induced stupor. I gently kissed his forehead and turned him towards the door. I watched him walk away like a robot and turned back to Demetrius.
Demetrius whistled, “Seems like for someone who hasn’t unleashed her magic in over a decade you’re sure not rusty.”
“If you’re trying to thank me for saving your ass from the feline demon horde, you’re welcome.”
Chapter Seven
Every single bone and muscle in my body hurt. Although we had just fought a crazy rat demon I was relieved that we had something to go on to look for Tyler. How hard would it be to plumb the depths of hell to find one missing, half sorcerer, half demon eighteen-year-old?
I didn’t want to tell Demetrius at my shop, but doing all that magic depleted my energy stores. If I was going to go toe to toe with some big mucky-muck in the underworld I was going to need to find a way to practice my battle magic. As well as find a way to fend off aggressors when my energy waned.
Maybe it was a bad idea to have kept my magic under wraps for so long, but I thought that's what was keeping us safe. I guess I was wrong. Dead wrong.
I made my way from the couch, that I had crashed on as soon as I made it home. My walk was stilted as I maneuvered my way to the master bathroom. I sat on the edge of my garden tub and turned the water on hot, I wanted it scalding. I was going to soak my poor muscles for at least an hour.
Sheba was already in the bathroom waiting to meet me. I still had no idea how she got from place to place and especially how she could do it faster than I could, but I wasn't complaining. Without her help, I don't know if Demetrius and I could have defeated the demons alone.
I sat on the edge of the tub and absentmindedly rubbed her head while she rubbed herself against my calves. "Thank Sheba," I said tickling the fur underneath her chin. She purred in gratitude.
I eased myself out of my black jeans and matching tank top and sunk into the depths of the tub letting the warm water penetrate my tired muscles. If I hadn't depleted my magic I would've done a quick restoration spell and infused it in the bathtub water.
I laid my head against the back of the tub, my long curly hair floating in the water around me like black seaweed in the ocean. It was going to take forever to dry, but oh well. I needed to concentrate, I was missing something. Something that was obvious, but I couldn’t place my finger one it.
There was something that the demons had said that I just couldn’t get out of my head. They said that Tyler was the key. The key to what and how? I didn't know whether to take it on its face or was it just gibberish misdirection demon-speak.
I knew they loved their riddles to confuse their enemies. There was just something about the way they said it that tickled the back of my memory. I just couldn't shake loose the memory I needed to access.
I realized what had been nagging me the demons hadn't said that Tyler was the key to the prophecy. They said Tyler was a key to the prophecy. They also said something about a lesser key. Does that mean that they were going to kidnap someone else as back up if Tyler didn't work out?
I didn't think that was it, we would've heard about another kidnapping by now. The phrase lesser key still niggled at the back of my brain. Where have I heard that phrase before? Think Traylor, think.
I stepped out of the now tepid bath water and wrapped myself in a towel. Sheba came trotting towards me and I absentmindedly patted her head. I started to lay out clean clothes on my bed, more black. In the middle of determining what was better demon ass kicking shoes, I head Sheba whine loudly.
"What is it Sheba, hungry again?" I asked. I turned my attention from the closet to her. She was laying on my bed and under her paw was a scrap of paper. Somehow she got a portion of the sketch I had done at the shop. Maybe it got trapped on her paw during the fight and she brought it back to the house.
I raised up her paw and peered at the scrap. What was once a circle like shape with symbols I couldn't decipher around it now was just one specific symbol. As a part of a whole I couldn't decipher what my sketch meant but seeing the symbol by itself triggered a memory.
The lesser key wasn't another person. It was the Lesser Key of Solomon.
Ali and Demetrius looked at me as if I’d grown three heads. Finally, Ali spoke, “The Lesser Key of Solomon? No way. Do you know what that means?”
“It’s something to do with the Bible?” I asked.
“No, something more sinister than that,” answered Demetrius. He crossed the distance from the fridge he was leaning on to where I sat at the kitchen table and sat down. He motioned for Ali to join us. Ali was standing near my sink jumpier than a cat with firework induced PTSD.
Ali shook his head no. “I don’t want anything to do with this. My people suffered enough.”
“Your people? I don’t understand.” I said.
“The Lesser Key is a grimoire, a spell book,” Demetrius started. I nodded for him to go on.
Ali interrupted and walked over to the table where we sat and grabbed a chair. “Not just any spell book. A spell book that can control demons and Jinn.”
“But who has the power to do that? I thought only Satan or God could control demons. Are you saying Solomon. King Solomon from the Bible had that power?”
“He did,” Demetrius answered.
I looked down at my half full coffee cup thinking I needed something a bit stronger than coffee for this. “I don’t understand what King Solomon has to do with Tyler.”
Demetrius placed his hand over mine, “King Solomon was a chimera like Tyler. Half demon and half sorcerer. With his power of sorcery, he could create spells. Being half demon himself, gave him the proper dominion over other demons. He believed that he was chosen by God to be his representative on Earth.”
“God’s hand puppet,” Ali spat. “But like all men, he got greedy. Had demons and Jinn alike building his temples, his castle, doing his bidding like slaves. Those were bad times,” Ali said as he got up from his chair. He ran his fingers through his hair making it stick up like someone who’d just gotten out of bed. This wasn’t the Ali I knew, he was always so confident, almost to the point of arrogance.
“But Tyler would never do that. He’d never force people to do things they didn’t want to do.”
“Yeah, well I don’t want to stick around and see what happens. I’m ghost,” Ali said headed towards the door. He opened the door, but turned around before he walked out. “D, you shouldn’t do this.”
“It’s my son,” Demetrius answered. Ali shrugged and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
I looked up at Dimitri,” You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” I said.
“I want to and I have to. I thought I was protecting you and Tyler by disappearing. I thought if people didn’t know what he was. If they didn’t know he was a part of me, you guys would be safe. Now I see that I made you guys even more vulnerable by being away. If Tyler knew how to fully use his powers he would’ve been able to fight off whoever took him.”
I shook my head trying to fight the tears that were pricking the back of my eyelids. It wasn’t all Demetrius’ fault. I had spent too much time trying to reign in my power and Tyler’s not realizing that I was handicapping us both.
“I might not know a lot about this religious stuff, but I know who does.”
“Do you think he’d even help us? I mean, has even seen Tyler since he was a baby?” Demetrius asked.
“Well, we won’t know unless we try,” I said. I said hell would freeze over the next time I saw my stepfather. As I picked up my keys off the table, I wondered if they were ice-skating in hell right now.
Chapter Eight
Driving up
the long spiraling driveway to my parent’s home brought back memories, not all of them were unpleasant. When I wasn’t trying to hide who I was, there were some good times. Those good times were sometimes marred by the undercurrent of hostility that my father had for my mother and myself, but they were there.
You can imagine they weren’t too happy with their teenage daughter getting pregnant. They were even less happy that it was by one of Satan’s minions, their nickname for Demetrius of course. You see I wasn’t always a sorceress, no I was just your regular hedge witch.
Half witch at that, my mother was a witch, a conjure woman she liked to call herself. She was part of a coven that covered Southwestern Virginia that was solely populated by Melungeon people. They were an insular group even sometimes intermarrying. A mix of English, African, and the Native tribes that were there, they were all descendants of free people of color in that region and were very proud of their heritage. My mother getting pregnant at an early age with me from someone out the group left her ostracized and excommunicated from them.
Later when she met my stepfather, she was so relieved to find someone that would accept her and her “bastard” daughter. I knew nothing about who my father was other than that he was outside my mother’s clan and for that reason she and I were outcasts.
She renounced her magic to marry my stepfather, a very religious man who thought our kind was blasphemous at best and abominations at worst. I guess she thought not using magic wasn’t as bad as being an outsider and single mom in the 1980s.
Not like it was a picnic being a single mom even now. It’s a scarlet letter no matter what decade you’re living in. No one ever faults the guys that scatter their seed the same way the walking fern seeds spread.
I grew up having to suppress my growing powers and never getting to know my mother’s side of the family or my father. Not to mention having to go to a shit ton of church meetings. My father eventually became a pastor of his own church. A church that envied the powers of those they deemed evil.
