"There is a chance that even the demons don’t know what they have Bri." Ashess said defending their race and she was so on board with that. Bri loved Belle but she had an anger, a hate inside of her that made it damn near impossible to love her. With Belle you crossed your fingers and hoped she didn’t betray you.
"Either way you need to go see Ezek, he needs to know that one of his demons has the original knife and that means Bri, that that demon will be looking for the original."
"If the demon knows what they are for." Ashess defended, her tone getting more agitated by the second.
"Irrelevant at this point don’t you think considering the contract is tucked away just beneath our feet." Belle snipped back.
"Are you implying that I would sale Bri out to free myself of my own contract?" Ashess demanded as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared down Belle.
"Whoa Ash." Bri said shocked that the conversation, though utterly terrifying had escalated this far off the grid.
"No I'm saying that you guys both need back up now from Ezek because whoever has the original knife will be coming for the contract." Belle said in a calmer tone hoping that Ash was convinced.
"Look Ash and I both will go to Ezek at nightfall and tell him what we found out and see what he thinks we should do." Ash seemed to calm at that so Bri took a deep breath. "Until then we need to start checking flights for these addresses and what the hell kind of demons we will be dealing with."
"How do you know they are from your Dad's Pantheon?" Belle asked while looking at the bill of sales seeing nothing strange.
"Ezek marks us physically as you know with his symbol of the moon and star and that draws us together, it’s how we always know when a demon of our pantheon is around. Seeing those names was all I needed."
"You just know." Ash agreed.
Belle went back to her computer and started typing. "So what do you prefer ladies? Coach or first class?"
"First Class." They said at the same time and sat down to start planning the search.
*
"Ah, Princess I just finished talking to a friend of yours in the human world." Her father Ezek said as we walked into his chamber the instant the sun sank in the western sky. His chamber looked like any office in any building and she remembered that when she met him she had feared coming here because she expected to see prisoners chained to the wall and fire burning all around her but Hell in general wasn’t a bad place. There was a special place in Hell for the truly vile, the truly evil and it was a chamber Bri had never seen or wished to. She took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of his dark cherry wood desk, glancing at the photos he had on the wall. There were a few of Bri and Ash and a few with Bri and all the girls. A bunch of just her and the one on his desk was of he and Bri just last Christmas. He replaced that photo every year with a new one of them together.
She wasn’t Ezeks only child, she was however the only child of his he had the privilege of knowing, saving and loving. He had no choice but to wait and see if any of his children would reach maturation like Bri did. When she jumped to her death all those years ago she had done it looking for peace and instead found out she was half human and the daughter of an Incubus. She chose to continue fighting after Ezek forced her to see reason, it was a few hundred years later that of all her siblings denied him and chose to stay dead.
Bri chose vengeance because the vengeance chose her.
Ash and Bri explained what they found and watched as Ezek grew more pale by the second. "And you don’t know what demon has the original?" He asked rising from his seat and stroking his blood red tie.
"Not a clue but we do have their names and addresses and I wondered if maybe you could summon them and ask for each knife." Bri figured that would be the easiest and safest way to scurry out the real knife from the fakes.
"I could if it was anything other than the blessed knife but I cannot allow a demon in my chamber with a weapon of such magnitude. If they didn’t know what it was made for they sure the hell would when I demanded they bring it."
He made a valid point but Bri was still mad. The last thing she wanted to do was scour the earth for the one thing she needed to be free for good. "Then we need help as far as back up Dad, because I have no idea what we are up against."
"We need breed information as well on each demon, that way we can prepare for each visit individually knowing what we are up against." Ashess said and handed Ezek the copies of the bill of sales with the demons info.
He called for his receptionist and when she came in the room dressed in combat boots and a school girls uniform it took Bri a minute to notice she had two black horns on her head and a tail with a mind of its own as it goosed her father.
"I need the breed info on these demons, I also need station and rank and any files we have that will tell me if they are probationary or not." Ezek said and the horned demon smiled and goosed him aaaaaaagin and left the office.
"I figure if the demons are on probation I can search their residence under law at anytime. If that’s the case I will go not you." He said cutting Bri a look that said don’t even ask. "If they aren’t probationary then I will review their predator history and I should have a plan for you tomorrow. As for backup I will send you my best including Carver until I know that you have the knife."
Bri gasped. Carver was her father’s personal guard, paid very well and treated like a king to ensure her father was to remain the arch demon at all costs even Carvers life. He was also Ezeks closest friend and like a second father to Bri. "You need Carver dad, you can’t be without your guard you will be too vulnerable."
He growled as she said the last word and Bri knew he took offense. "I am never vulnerable." He said the word vulnerable like piece of shit. "Besides you are my only daughter that loves me and I will not see all my hard work in ensuring your freedom as well as your happiness get destroyed when you get killed. You take Carver I will stay here in the chamber where I am safe until he is returned to me." The tone of his voice demanded respect and also let Bri know that his decision was final and a debate would not be tolerated.
"Be back here tomorrow night at sundown and we will discuss your itinerary." He said by way of ending the discussion. He was the Arch Demon and he made his decision. Now all Ash and Bri could do was wait for word come tomorrow night.
They stayed a while longer laughing and visiting him and Bri felt bad that she didn’t just visit more often. He would never admit it but she figured that he gets lonely and besides the few demons he trusts, Bri was all he had. "I love you." She said against his neck as she hugged him close thankful that she could rely on him. "You know that right?"
He kissed her forehead and sent her on her way with a smile. "Of course I do Princess." She heard him say as the elevator door closed them in and sent them happily away from the Dark.
*
The drive to Ashess' house was the perfect opportunity for her to grill Bri, yet in true Ash style she only commented on the scars. "So what’s with the old look? Did Fangs like what he saw so now we get the real Briar?" It was nice of her to ask instead of admitting she knew damn well what happened last night, knew the minute Bri walked in the door because even with everything going on she couldn’t hide from a broken heart and Fangs was front and center in her mind.
"You know why." Bri said silently while shifting gears as they hit the 405. Traffic was a joke and Bri cursed exactly how much time it would take to get home.
"You going to be ok?"
"Going to be?" She highly doubted it.
"I know you’re not ok now but I am wondering if you really believe deep down inside where even I can’t read you, if you think you can live with this decision."
Bri thought about it and her answer was simple. She didn’t know. She was in pain right now, dealing with the hurt over losing him and the guilt at hurting him and the anger because her life wasn’t her own, it had belonged to someone else as far back as she could remember. Bri wanted him to understand and know all
her secrets but it came down to the bottom line every time. He would die trying to save her and though life sucks without Fangs now, at least she knew he existed. "I don’t know." She finally answered.
Ash reached over and tapped her hand in a gesture of compassion and Bri smiled, knowing that so few had the closeness she did with Ash. Sometimes Ash just got it, no words could describe exactly what she was feeling but because of her succubus mojo and the blood bond between them, Bri didn’t need to explain. She could see in her heart and of everyone, she knew why Bri made that choice and understood it herself.
Sometimes walking away from love was the only way to be honorable in life. *
Chapter Seven
It was midnight when Fangs walked through Bri’s door soaking wet and pale as she had ever seen him. Her first thought was he was in bloodlust but Fangs wasn’t stupid. Bri stood from her lounge on the couch and reached for a blanket, a natural reaction to a stormy night in Seattle when you were dripping wet. Not so much for a Vampire though and she did tend to forget that they do not get hot or cold, they just are what they are.
"Fangs...." She said completely startled and totally confused. Bri handed him the blanket but he brushed her hand violently away.
"Don’t!" He spat through razor sharp fangs and Bri took a step back. Maybe it was bloodlust.
Realizing far too late that her shields were down she pulled her hair free of the hair tie and let it fall hoping it hid her scars. He had seen them though, he had taken a long leisurely look at the purple roping that the raised skin created and Bri was overwhelmed with shame. She hated those fucking scars and hated the look on his face having seen them, seen Briar in her natural state for the first time. Not how she planned it.
"I can’t believe I never noticed." He said so low she wondered if she heard him right. "Can’t believe I never put it together, all the pieces were in front of me." He ran his hands through his rain soaked hair as water dripped on the floor, not that she cared.
"I know Fangs, I'm sorry I never showed you..." She trailed off as he looked at her with hell in his eyes. Even through his anger Bri could sense his pain and knew that she caused this.
He raised his hand and Bri flinched as he laughed a dark deep growl in his chest as he cupped her scared cheek. "This..." he whispered. "I could care less... Princess." There was nothing but vengeance and disgust in that final word.
Have you ever had to slam on your breaks so fast in your car because a child ran in the road or a car cut you off and your less than inches from complete disaster and that shot of fear shoots from your toes to your brain before slamming into your gut so hard you will either pass out or puke? That is what Bri felt when she heard him call her Princess because she knew then that he had gone searching for her secrets and found where they lie.
She staggered back; her mind was in shock as a thousand different scenarios played through her mind. "How?" She asked angrily for wherever the betrayal came from.
“That is what you have to ask?” He growled through clenched teeth. “How I found out, yet nothing on the last two years of lies and disloyalty?”
“Just tell me Fangs!” She demanded.
“I met your Father, the fucking Arch Demon of Hell itself. He could sense your essence on me when I left here last night. Then after summoning me just hours ago he informed me that he would like to enlist me in the fight against some bloody demon war you are about to start!” He roared the last part and Bri found herself flinching again.
“I foolishly informed him that I have fought beside you for the last two years not knowing who or what you even are. He didn’t let me know immediately that he was your Father, I guess it’s a secret best kept quiet but upon his learning of the danger you placed your ass in he summoned me,”-he slapped a hand on his chest- “to actually hire me to fight beside you once again.” He flicked a hand written check towards Bri and she glanced the amount her father offered him and gasped.
Maybe her father could loan her the money to just by the fakes and the original back… She switched her mind back to the problem at hand now was not the time to start plotting.
“I will return the check to him immediately.” She mumbled so angry at Ezek she could breathe fire. All her lies, all the covering of her ass for the last two years to keep Fangs from the danger that loving Briar was, had been for nothing now that he knew the truth.
“The hell you will.” He snapped.
“No Fangs, I won’t have you involved in this. I know your mad and hurt but”-
“Enough!” He roared and charged her with speed she could not fathom and had her pinned to the wall his cold grip strangled around her neck. “I won’t stand back and watch you go off and kill yourself in a war you cannot win.”
There it was, hand painted and smelling of daisy’s, all of her reasoning to keep him in the dark was legit. He would die fighting for her and without knowing it he proved it by demanding to help her out. She knew she had no choice but to throw it all on the table.
“You don’t get it Fangs, I don’t want your help.”
“I have seen you fight Bri, stood there and watched you kill with dull blades and missing marks making a bigger mess than learning for hells sake how to do it quick and efficient.”
“Like you do?” She asked mockingly.
“Damn straight like I do. I make no messes, I don’t gloat as you do, not having the ability to back it up. I kill because I am meant to. I’m a bloody predator- a fact you fucking well forgot!” He snarled releasing her from his grip- and the wall he smashed her against.
“I know you are deadly Fangs I don’t doubt it and never have.” Bri watched him closely careful to keep from strangling him back, a fight she would absolutely lose, but he smirked like the arrogant ass he was. “But you have no idea what I am about to face.”
She stalked him now, desperate for him to listen to her and understand that this was not a pissing contest. “Your arrogance will Get. You. Killed!”
The temperature in the room dropped as she watched the stone cold killer inside him emerge. Bri knew she offended him but his pride was a backseat in this fight. She would not relent and would not have his death on her shoulders. There are some things that even eternity can’t heal and Fangs dead, gone forever, was one of those things.
“You misunderstood Bri. You don’t have a choice in the matter. Ezek hired me to protect you and as far as I’m concerned you are out of this fight.” He walked to her kitchen with the swagger of a serial killer and took a beer from her fridge and started scrolling through his phone. Putting his own team together she assumed.
“So help me Fangs I will not allow this!” She almost whined like the brat she was being. She hated knowing what her first line of defense would be but it is what it is. “I’m calling my dad.”
She sent out a mental call to him and felt him answer and knew he would be here shortly. In the seconds it took her to summon him Fangs started laughing. “You won’t allow it?” He asked and edge of cruelty in his voice. “Please do call your daddy love; we’ll see who has the better chance of winning.”
He ignored her and started scrolling through his phone again when her father stormed through the kitchen.
Now Fangs will see whose boss.
That was her last thought as she smiled and folded her arms and rested against the wall waiting for the showdown to begin. *
“Ah, good to see you again.” Fangs said with a smile as he shook Ezeks hand. “Seems your little princess here thinks I’m in a bit of danger backing her ass up. Guess you want the check back and I’ll find work somewhere else.” Fangs said with all the innocence of a thief. He was playing her father on his own fears that she would die in this fight.
The look on Ezeks face said he was buying it.
Shit.
“ Briar?” Her father asked turning his frightening presence towards her. Bri hated meeting that stare when she was defying him. Humans thought they had it bad with over protective dads. Try having a father, older than t
he current year and the Arch Demon from hell be your dad and look at you with disappointment and rage in his eyes. “Why would you defy me when I know exactly what I am doing?” He asked, the edge in his voice egging her on, tempting her to defy him.
So she pulled out the big guns, the only weapon she had against Fangs at the moment. She just hoped he didn’t kill him. “Because dad, I have been sleeping with Fangs for two years until I ended it several months ago. I think working closely will be too hard.”
Everything froze to an uncanny still, even Fangs who stood motionless almost constantly. Now he stood stone still with a look of complete fury on his face obviously because of her admission. Looking at her Father who had the same evil glare, she wished he had frozen her as well.
“Daddy release Fangs, I wanted to have sex with him.” Like a fool she spoke without thinking. Did she honestly think that would help the situation.
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