Demon Inhibitions: Caitlin Diggs Series #3

by Gary Starta

  Seals folded his hands, hoping I might offer more. When I didn’t, he said: “Okay. I understand. But the DA won’t prosecute three men for attempted murder who, from what I understand, didn’t harm a soul, and furthermore, ended up being critically injured.”

  I had to correct Seals. Don’t get me wrong. I loved this part.

  “The third man who carried the poisoned arrows had been sedated. The hospital never listed him as critical.” I arched an eyebrow at him for a long moment.

  “Well, excuse me, then.” Seals offered the same phony smile his alternate had given me the day I quit the Bureau in my old reality. “Two of the men were stabbed,” he said, reading pathology data. He poked his head up to stare at me. “Forensics has determined the wounds did not come from the weapons they carried. That says to me two beings who attended this concert were armed. They should be apprehended and charged as well, Agent Diggs. Didn’t anybody see these beings? Didn’t anybody check them for weapons when they entered the building?”

  Damn, I had to admit he had posed good questions, except for the security check. I reminded him the three Knights entered the building via Mollini’s portal. Nonetheless, I couldn’t be forthcoming if it meant betraying the good guys. I was not the same agent from my world, bound to follow Bureau rules that might end up harming the victims more than the perpetrators. Suffice it to say, I simply wouldn’t give up my friends Cleck and Carter, not even to bring down three terrorists. Thanks to the terrorist’s code of silence, the three Knights weren’t talking, not even if it meant incarcerating their attackers. I knew this long before I walked into Seals’s office, thanks to AD Grant.

  “I cannot say for sure,” I answered. “Maybe I would have had a more detailed report if you had lent me more support as I had requested.”

  Seals pretended to ignore my barb. He looked at his paperwork.

  “We don’t have the two weapons responsible for injuring two of the terrorists. But forensics did find a needle.”

  Grand! They must have retrieved it underneath the grandstand when Bastet dragged Federov away from Mollini.

  “The report indicates they couldn’t lift a clean print from it, Agent. However, they found animal saliva on it.” He winced. “It doesn’t seem to be from a domesticated animal. Just what kind of a cult is this?”

  I glared a full moment. Arms folded. “It’s not a cult. If you’re hell bent on finding one I think you should pursue the conviction of our three terrorists. They may have been injured, but they sure as hell came to kill a girl whose only crime was being different.”

  “I’m just being thorough, Agent. A defense attorney would do the same. Without more data, we cannot prosecute them. It’s just that simple. If you can’t provide the names of the beings they fought with I’m dropping the charges.”

  “Deputy Director. If Mollini had survived would you be petitioning for his freedom as well?”

  His pause to answer made my heart skip a beat. My instinct, not my empathic abilities, confirmed what I had suspected--a Bureau conspiracy. It was certainly possible. I had experienced one in my old reality.

  I would continue to feign ignorance for the safety of Cleck and Carter.

  Moreover, I’m sure the Deputy Director would have loved for me to conclude that Charlize Wilson was Mollini’s killer. In a sense, she was. But it was a mystical, paranormal kind of sense. I wasn’t familiar enough with this reality’s Preternatural Crime Division to know if such a charge would stick.

  I would not find that out today, however. I simply let Seals believe Mollini’s own magic had been his undoing. In a way it had. He had brought the portal with him to make his grand, surprise entrance. The transference of supernatural energy from the portal had become unstable inside the confines of the warehouse. Its decimation had empowered me to reassemble Charlize whose transformation, in turn, allowed an ethereal version of the gifted singer to take down Mollini. So one could argue Mollini murdered himself. One might argue I might also be responsible since I had given rise to a reconfigured version of Charlize. You see the confusion. I’m sure you understand why I had asked Briana if there was a manual for this job. This uncertainty made me feel better about omitting certain details from my field report. I might be guilty for not arresting Cleck, Carter and Charlize. But if you want to get technical, I’m not really employed by this reality’s Bureau. I’m just standing in. So maybe I wasn’t technically qualified to make an arrest. Hah!

  This conclusion gave me smug satisfaction as I let Seals’s barbs bounce off of me. He offered the final insult by informing me I was officially off the case. I really wasn’t sure what that meant. I considered the case--one which I had initiated, I might add--to be closed. Mollini had been vanquished. So I let Seals get his jollies. The thought almost made me snicker. I pictured Seals dressed as Santa. Oops. Sorry, Directory Director. Another name I just happened to forget to include in my report because of my momentary lapse of consciousness.

  As I readied to leave, he did offer a curt, but appreciated thank you. “The Bureau is indebted to you for taking down Mollini. He might have killed many more people.”

  The thought sobered me. I did not yet know if Mollini had killed anyone else in this reality other than my alternate. There were no news reports of any strange deaths. I had to hope he had stopped soul feeding between the time he killed Diggs and the time of his own demise. As far as Seals was concerned, Mollini had not killed a soul in this reality. He would never come to know about Agent Diggs. Not if I could help it.

  Seals broke my train of thought. His eyes told me he had one last concern.

  “I’m not taking you off this case to punish you, Agent Diggs. I just see you’ve personalized it. I know you shared a bond with the girl. I didn’t have to read it in any field report.”

  Okay... Maybe the bastard wasn’t such a bastard after all. Then again, he might be telling me what he thought I wanted to hear. If there were a Bureau conspiracy, the Knights would love nothing better than to learn Charlize’s whereabouts. I let Seals know that I had read between his lines. To protect Charlize, I had renamed her as Tamara for my report.

  “I won’t be bonding with Tamara any longer, sir. I’m afraid I’ve lost all contact with her.”

  I left Seals’s office a lot more demure than following our previous encounter. I nodded a solemn goodbye to him, attempting to persuade him that I had just told the truth. I would never know if I had succeeded. Deputy Director Seals, in any reality, was a shifty man, capable of anything--unfortunately.

  I elevated down to AD Grant’s office for my next assignment.

  He took a look at my disheveled hair and advised I take the rest of the week off.

  “I’ll assign you a case on Monday. In the meantime, why don’t we make tonight a date night.”

  A part of me filled with lust. Another part of me filled with anger.

  I wasn’t up for another clandestine romp on Grant’s couch. I had been impure when I let lust rule. I wouldn’t play squeaky couch with Grant again, unless love came along as a side dish.

  He turned around to pluck a rose off of his desk.

  “Please accept my apologies if you believed I used you for casual sex. It’s just that an assistant director has to keep up certain pretenses. Let me make it up to you by taking you to dinner tonight.”

  Grant had spun me one hundred eighty degrees. He really was a real man at heart.

  Thoughts of lust swirled in my mind as he grabbed me for a kiss. His hands worked their way down my back to my behind as we lip locked. My sex immediately responded. So did my tattoo. It tingled. I concluded that my recent transformation might result in a supercharged love fest. Despite my urge to test my theory, I broke the kiss.

  “That sounds lovely. Do you mind making it a late date though, I have a lot of catching up to do with some friends first.”

  He nodded. I knew a part of him did mind and I enjoyed it. It confirmed how much he wanted me.

  Yet right now, I wanted answers. Brahms ha
d promised me some for saving his eugenically made daughter and I needed to make good on that debt before the avocado loving professor did his famous disappearing act again.

  Twenty Four

  Brahms insisted we all meet in the confines of his automobile. “Walls have ears,” he said.

  Briana sat in the driver’s seat accompanied by Charlize and Dr. Federov. I shared the backseat with the man who was about to tell me his real name. However, it seemed surreal, parked in the lot of Marissa’s Soft Serve Ice Cream Emporium. I had to admit the hustling bustling summertime shuffling of kids and parents gave us anonymity. No one seemed to care a lick about plotting terrorists or conniving scientists when Marissa offered Buy Two, Get One Free sundaes covered in rainbow colored jimmies. Okay. I cared about hot fudge, usually. I had to give kudos to Charlize for keeping me honest. I just had to know how Brahms had created her.

  He saved the best parts for last. Just like a professor, I thought, until he told me that was a guise, part of his permanent disappearing act.

  “My real name is Brands. I like how that sounds. Charlize Brands.” He paused to reflect. I couldn’t help but notice how Dr. Federov was not sharing in this man’s moment of Zen.

  “I implore all of you to keep this secret for me. I paid with my heart, blood and soul to buy my new identity. I had to go underground of course to steal away from the Knights of the White Temple.”

  “Yes,” Dr. Federov said, interrupting. “How nice that you managed to escape their wrath all these years.” She finished the sentence with her best scowl.

  His tone grew serious, but still boasting like a pontificator.

  “Ah, but I had to. It was for the sake of your sweet, Charlize. Dr. Federov, let me reiterate once again how much I appreciate you looking out for her.”

  “For a scientist, you don’t know squat. I didn’t just look out for her. I was--I am-her mother. And I always will be.”

  “No disrespect, Dr. Federov. I would never dream of taking Charlize from you.”

  “And live to tell about it? No. I think not,” Federov replied to Brahms.

  He smiled. “I’m certain she is in the best of company.”

  I gave Brahms a look. The kind of look a child might give to a parent when they want a reward. I had been good. I had put Charlize back together into one piece again. Charlize seemed to think that confirmed my resurrection as Isis. She had reminded me several times since Mollini’s last act that Isis had reassembled her murdered husband. It sounded convincing. So did the appearance of my Ankh tattoo. I guess there would never be enough evidence to convince me I was a goddess, though. Now it was Brahms’s turn to give me a look. He caught me daydreaming.

  “Getting enough avocadoes in your diet?” he asked. I almost smiled. But the look on his face told me he was serious.

  “I promise I’ll eat a whole bushel if you’ll continue your story.”

  He did. He reprimanded himself for being a young, ambitious scientist. I noticed that Federov didn’t mind his self-deprecation. It began to endear him to me, however. I could see that paternal concern of his rising again. It wasn’t an act.

  He explained how he created both Mollini and Charlize from the union of sperm and egg. They both shared the same mother, his first wife, Arielle, who had since died. Later he had become romantically involved with a witch. I asked if that was who was enabling his glamour. He denied it. He had learned how to perform the magic on his own, using science as an aid. That’s when he really got excited, waving his hands, furrowing his eyebrows, postulating as if he had succeeded Einstein as king of the eggheads.

  “Yes. Magic enabled through science. That was the conundrum. They said it couldn’t be done. My peers, I mean. That’s what led me astray into the tainted hands of terrorists. I believed their story, that they needed a demon killer to save our world. I didn’t realize the world needed saving from them.” He paused and turned his eyes towards Charlize. “I am so sorry, my dear. But it’s that quest which led me to create you.”

  I know we all had a billion questions by the way we shifted in our seats. I raised a hand at everyone. “We will let him continue in a chronological order.”

  He explained how Mollini’s creation had been a failure. His eugenic manipulation did not turn out as planned. He maintained one could never know if the finished product would be a success. It was the reason why he never attempted to create more beings like Charlize. Yet, he eventually forgave himself for manipulating her genes, to give Charlize her gift. It was his atonement for making Mollini.

  “Mollini was supposed to be a demon killer. But as it turned out, he preferred taking human souls. I had to create Charlize to repay not only humans, but also demons, for my sin, a being that would not kill demons, but help them. And this,” he paused to waggle his left index finger, “explains why I chose the surname Brahms. I wanted to compose like him. I wanted to create a beautiful child who would heal with her voice. I could have given her gift in many forms. But I chose music because I love its pure essence.” I shared a look with Briana. It explained why he hummed around her house so much. It also confirmed the mystery person playing piano in my vision. It was clearly Brahms.

  “I had hoped,” he continued, “that giving Charlize up for adoption would keep her safe, that one day she would find her gift and help many demons with their inflictions. Now I’m not so naïve to infer that her gift will ever stop demons from doing any harm. Vampires will continue to drink blood. Succubi will take power from their lovers. But under Charlize’s thrall, these demons will never take a nonconsensual partner in their deeds.”

  Brahms made me think of Manners. He had always maintained his sexual conquests were consensual. I chided myself for doubting him. He had apparently managed not to feed off of any unwilling participants even without the aid of Charlize’s gift.

  Brahms eventually concluded that he had to pursue Charlize once he discovered she was in danger from her long lost brother. “I’m sorry I had departed your hospitality,” he said to both Briana and me. “I was acting irrational. Ah… how should I say?”

  Federov answered for him. “Like a concerned parent?” Her facial features had softened from her usual scowl to something one might interpret as an understated smile.

  “Yes. And I’m sorry. I witnessed the slaying of the demon. I feel responsible because I led that terrorist to him. The Knights had followed me despite my disguise. And I know that’s how Mollini eventually found Charlize.”

  I explained to Brahms that the man who had slain the demon had since committed suicide. It explained why Tim had fled the murder scene. Brahms had seen him. But Brahms had also scared the daylights out of Tim. He had taken the form of a lycanthrope. We all laughed at Tim’s expense. It served the murdering bigot right.

  We spoke more of Charlize. I had to ask, no matter how abrasive it might sound, why the Knights had to request Mollini’s aid in hunting Charlize. The Knights had sharp swords; surely they could have killed her.

  Brahms had a ready-made answer.

  “I had designed Charlize to be indestructible. As long as one shred of skin remained, she would be able to regenerate herself. I believe the Knights’ scientists knew this. I had foolishly shared a lot of my ideas with them before my departure. I think they saw Mollini as someone capable of killing her, permanently. She would have died if not for you, Agent Diggs. You pieced her together after she had reached the point of no return. You were the only one who could have saved her. It’s why I believe you should trust my daughter’s assessment of you. I believe you are indeed a goddess.”

  I considered Brahms’s theory and then I gave him a condition on his confidentiality. If the Bureau or the Knights believed I was Isis I would be in danger. But I wasn’t just concerned about my welfare. I wanted to be around to protect Charlize. I spoke to Brahms, cupping my hands together as if to indicate an offering.

  “I will protect your real identity only if you continue your eugenics work. We need more beings like your daughter around. It
will make the terrorists less able to concentrate their hate all on one target.”

  He began to protest at participating in such dangerous work but now it was I who waggled a finger at him.

  “You must create more beings like Charlize. You don’t have the luxury of citing fear of failure, because what you did with Charlize obviously worked. We need a whole army of Charlizes to aid the demons. And I think that one day, when humans are convinced they are in no danger of being bitten or killed, demons will share the same neighborhoods, schools and workplaces with humans. And on that day, there will be no more need for terror.”

  I proposed I would help Brahms access grant money. I knew there were plenty of corporations willing to fund such research. It was the reason why those companies had been vandalized by terrorist attacks. They had funded the controversial research that Brahms told me was scientifically referred to as demon-omics.

  I turned to Charlize. “Please don’t misunderstand me, sweetie. I don’t think your father will ever quite be capable of duplicating you. I just meant he could create others who might share your same abilities.”

  She nodded. “I know what you meant. You are wise, my goddess.”

  Silence ensued until I told everyone the goddess was treating everybody to rainbow sundaes. Then everyone laughed as if they were children.

  ~ * ~

  I still had one more piece of serious business to conduct before joining Grant on a dinner date.

  I had to come clean on whom I really was with the man who had made me feel most at home in my new reality. It was because of my familiarity with his counterpart from my old reality that convinced me I could trust this world’s Stanford Carter. I really needed to be this man’s friend even though I was tangled in much confusion as to where we stood romantically. The cold reality of my situation was that I would be staying in this reality for a long time, possibly forever. Briana maintained that Mollini had effectively decimated the one and only portal back to my home. Manners confirmed he could not safely teleport me back there because of my human makeup. Yes. I suppose I am still humanoid despite my proclivity to becoming the second coming of a goddess. Because I wouldn’t be going home anytime soon, I figured there would be much need to discuss the many weird and freakish changes in my life with a dear friend. I could only hope Stanford would share this desire as well, especially after I did such a great job at erecting an emotional barricade between us. I thought I was truly different from those who judged. Back in Salem, I chided the police force for their bigotry. Yet, when I was faced with a real-life scenario, I behaved much like them. I just hope I could change my behavior as easily as paranormal influences seemed to be changing my physical constitution.