Awakening

by S. C. Mitchell

  “We’ve had a message from the other side that might interest you,” his Lady said in greeting. Feema had been a competent and useful mate over the past century and a half. She knew her place and served her Lord well. She’d finally produced the heirs he’d desired in Omixron and his brother Kwinlox.

  Yes, Feema had been a useful mate. But it was time for something a bit fresher. That daughter of Hvonerone was quite attractive and would assure a valuable treaty with the northern Demon Lord.

  Mated in the demon realm, Quexlon and Feema had crossed over together during the sundering at Tunguska. They’d enjoyed over a hundred years together in this fertile new world. Surely that would be enough for her. Perhaps Hvonerone would take her in trade.

  “I’ve been at the office all day,” he said, continuing his trek through his home. “I need to wash the stench of human off my body.” He had little interest in the happenings in the Ballor dimension. He lived here now, on this lush world. Just the thought of the horrid conditions in that other place made his stomach turn. That was his old life.

  Feema broke his train of thought. “It appears we have a new summoner here in our area.”

  The Demon Lord froze. “A summoner?”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  This was information worth processing. Quexlon didn’t dare ignore something so potentially beneficial to himself and his empire.

  “And how do they know this summoner is from our area?”

  Summoner’s were rare enough. He’d never heard of one even remotely close to Sheboygan.

  “She used a recognizable power point. That Gaian power point near Plymouth.”

  An Arcanist who could summon demons from the other side? Here within his grasp? His shower could wait. “Tell me everything you know.”

  He had allowed his older son to start his own harem to bolster their army of lesser demons. If he also had a summoner under his control, his army would grow at an even faster pace. There was also the prestige that came with having his own summoner. Quexlon was quite sure none of the other local Demon Lords had one.

  “The feed is still active in the shimmer. There is a lot of interest, but we are the closest Ballor base to that power point. Why not see for yourself?”

  The Demon Lord spread his great, purple wings and soared up to the second-floor balcony. In an alcove off to the side, a large mirror hung on the wall. It took great power to activate the shimmer, connecting the demon dimension to this world. Only information of the utmost importance would pass between, and the payment was always steep. But there was nothing as important to demon-kind on both sides as a summoner. With the exception of the great rift openings every hundred years or so, it was incredibly difficult to bring demons here from the other side. A summoner made that much easier, and the Demon Lord who controlled the summoner was assured of the allegiance of any demon brought over, even another Ballor.

  The newsfeed on the shimmer told of a Kolthas, pulled from the city of Cinder across the void to a wooded glade. The lesser demon had been questioned ruthlessly by an Arcanist witch. But it had been able to stay long enough to identify the power signature of the glade. The fool Kolthas had sat on the information for almost a month, trying to barter it into wealth.

  Now that the word was finally out, Quexlon would have to move fast or every Demon Lord in the midwest would be descending on his territory looking for the witch.

  His Lady came up behind him. “Why not have Kwinlox look into it. He seeks your favor and will not fail you in this.”

  Yes, she would suggest him. Kwinlox was the younger of his two sons by two years and the favored of his Lady. His eldest son, Omixron, stood in higher favor right now, but Quexlon enjoyed playing his sons against each other. And it was prudent. If one of his sons were to become too powerful, they could challenge him. Omixron could use a bit of taking down.

  His bellow reverberated throughout the mansion. “Kwinlox, attend your sire!”

  Does anyone truly change for the better? – Speedy Philosophy by Janet Johnson, 2015

  Chapter 11

  Anna’s phone tinkled the special ringtone she’d set up for Jack’s home phone number. She picked up, but before she could even say hello, Jack’s desperate voice cut in.

  “Anna, something is happening. I think I’m…Damn it!” That was followed by what sounded like the receiver hitting the floor. Anna waited, but he didn’t pick back up.

  Something is happening. What could be wrong?

  “Jack? Jack!” She grabbed her car keys and headed outside. Glancing up at the clear night sky she noted the full moon shining down. Had it really been a month since they’d freed Jack from that demon?

  A full moon.

  “Oh no! Oh God no!” It couldn’t be.

  The short drive between her house and Jack’s had her frantic. The full moon. Something is happening. But it shouldn’t—it couldn’t. Could it?

  The front door was unlocked, so she let herself in without knocking. There was an eerie stillness in the house. The only sound came from the telephone receiver lying on the floor in the kitchen.

  “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up…”

  Anna hung up the receiver.

  “Jack?” she said quietly then she screamed it. “Jack!”

  “Down here.”

  The rasping tone came from the basement. It was not Jack’s voice.

  Instantly on her guard, Anna threw up a shield of arcane energy. Slowly she descended the basement stairs, scanning for any movement. Was this a trap?

  She reached the bottom of the steps without incident. A Whargan demon paced back and forth in the cage that used to be Jack’s. Other than that, the room was empty.

  It wasn’t surprising to find a demon in one of the cages. JJ had been planning on bringing captured demons here for study. This one could be hers.

  “Where’s Jack?” she asked the demon.

  The creature brought its hands to its chest.

  “I’m right here,” it growled.

  A cold knot twisted in her gut. Jack was cured. He was no longer possessed by the Whargan demon. She’d seen it happen—been a part of the process.

  “Jack?”

  Repossession of a host wasn’t supposed to be possible. How could he be the demon again? The exorcism should have blocked all mystic pathways to Jack from the demon dimension.

  “I was on my way over to your house for our date. As soon as I stepped outside, I started to change. I ran back inside and called you but I got scared that the demon would take over, so I came down here and locked myself in. What the hell is going on?”

  Anna wanted to know the same thing. She looked at the demon. The Whargan was wearing clothes, Jack’s clothes, but this could still be a trap of some kind. She had to stay on her guard.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, reaching for her cell phone, “but I’m going to find out.”

  Anna punched in the phone number of the one person she knew she could count on for help. Nathan Gray. Nathan was the most powerful and knowledgeable Arcanist she knew. Hopefully, he’d be available.

  “Nathan,” she said, sighing in relief when the old man answered, “I’ve got a problem.”

  Nathan Gray’s voice was coarse, but there was a lilt in his expression.

  “What ritual are you attempting?” he asked. “I thought you were taking this full moon off to spend time with Jack.”

  The date with Jack, dinner and a moonlit stroll, was to celebrate his freedom from the demon’s possession and the influence of the full moon. “I was. I am.” She was flustered. Her mind raced. “Nathan, it’s Jack. He’s a Whargan again.”

  “Is he loose? Where are you?” The lilt was gone. Concern colored Nathan’s tone.

  Anna sighed, collecting her thoughts. She needed to calm down and look at this with a cool head.

  “I’m at Jack’s house,” she answered, “and he’s locked safely in a cage in his basement.”

  The pause on the other end of the conver
sation was only a second, but seemed much longer, as Anna waited for Nathan’s response.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  * * *

  Twenty minutes later, Nathan Gray was pacing in front of the cage, his brow was creased in concern.

  “We’ve had many successful exorcisms. I’ve never seen one revert. The demon should’ve been thrown back to its own world and blocked from reentering Jack. This worries me.”

  “I’m not thrilled myself,” the Whargan said.

  Anna examined the puzzle. True, Whargan exorcisms were rare, but those that had been done were extensively documented. Nothing she’d ever read in demon lore spoke of this ever happening.

  “Jack, are you in complete control?” Nathan asked, “Do you feel the demon in your mind anywhere?”

  “Nothing, it’s just me in here. But I can’t figure out how to change back.”

  The creature had not snarled or tried to attack her. Yet, clearly it was a Whargan.

  “Do you think it’s safe to let him out?” Anna asked Nathan. “Would a protection circle change him back?”

  The protective circle in front of the cell door had faded and blurred in the month since the exorcism. Anna doubted it would be complete enough to protect her from a demon, if that was what was in the cell.

  Nathan Gray shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re on new ground here. We could try, I suppose.”

  The old man stood in front of the cage, rubbing his chin. Long minutes passed, yet Nathan just stood there looking at the Whargan.

  Anna gathered up the supplies she’d need to redraw the circle of protection, but Nathan held up a hand to stop her.

  “I have a theory,” he said. “If I’m right, I think it will be completely safe to let him out.” There was a twinkle in Nathan’s eye.

  Anna could almost hear the gears grinding in his head.

  “Jack’s father was possessed by a Whargan before Jack was born,” Nathan said. “Before Jack was conceived.” He began to pace, his hands behind his back. “Because the change is a physical one, unlike some of the other forms of possession, there could’ve been subtle changes in Jack’s father’s DNA that have been passed on to Jack. He could have been born with a predisposition to the change.”

  It made sense and it led to another thought occurring to Anna.

  “That would have made Jack an easy target for Whargan possession himself,” Anna added.

  Nathan smiled and nodded.

  “Whargan possessions tend to be short and…well…messy,” Nathan said, “usually ending in the human host being killed after going on a rampage. That Jack’s father lived and reproduced, keeping the demon at bay for so long, is rather unique. Jack may well be the only second-generation Whargan possession ever.”

  Following the old wizard’s line of thinking, it was a possibility, yet not something Anna had ever considered. She looked at the Whargan, impatiently pacing back and forth in the cell. Its mannerisms were so like Jack’s.

  “So, we’re concluding that Jack may have inherited the ability to change into the Whargan form from his father, well before he was even possessed?”

  “Precisely,” the old man said. “And this transformation is just his body doing what it was used to doing when the moon was full.”

  “But without the demon there to take over,” Anna added.

  So, the creature was Jack. Fully Jack. The demon was gone. He just looked like a Whargan. From everything she’d read, it was certainly a plausible explanation. But what could they do to fix this?

  The creature stopped pacing and came to the cell door, gripping the bars with its claws. “So, I’m still stuck with the change every full moon?”

  “Not necessarily,” Nathan said. “Jack, I want you to concentrate. Will yourself back into human form.”

  “I’ve been trying,” the creature said. “It doesn’t seem to help.”

  Nathan nodded. “Open the lock. Let me in with you.”

  Anna held her breath. For just a moment she worried they’d both been tricked—that the creature behind bars wasn’t Jack at all. Could this still be some kind of trap?

  Nathan Grey was the strongest Arcanist in the Midwest. Possibly in the world. Various demon Lords had been trying to destroy him for decades.

  But the creature opened the combination lock and opened the cell door. It had to be Jack.

  Over the next hour Nathan Gray worked with him. From time to time the creature would begin to morph. The snout would flatten slightly, the fur coat would start to recede. The creature appeared to be enduring intense pain.

  No, it wasn’t a creature. It was Jack.

  Anna’s heart ached at the agony he was enduring trying to change back to himself. Finally, she turned away, unable to watch.

  She busied herself redrawing the protective circle on the concrete floor. Not because she thought it would be needed. Simply to keep herself occupied.

  “I think I’ve got it,” she heard a voice say. Jack’s voice, strong and confident, and when she looked, it was Jack in the cell.

  “Jack,” Anna said. Her eyes were damp.

  He strode from the cell and took her into his arms “And once again, you save me.”

  She hugged him close. “Well, I had a lot of help.”

  He pulled back and turned toward Nathan. “Yes, of course, Mr. Gray. I can’t begin to express my thanks—”

  Nathan waved him to silence. “No thanks necessary. This has been fascinating and may prove very helpful to our cause. And I believe, with some work, you may be able to control your changes. Even be able to change to the Whargan form at will, possibly even when the moon is not full.”

  “Why would I want to do that?” Jack asked.

  “Oh, I can think of a number of good reasons,” Nathan answered. There was a curious glint in the old man’s eye.

  Does anyone truly change for the better? – Speedy Philosophy by Janet Johnson, 2015

  Chapter 12

  Anna’s heart warmed with thoughts of how her relationship with Jack had grown over the past two months. He’d breezed back into her life as the plumber fixing her clogged drain and everything had changed for her…for them. Had fate really caused that careless spill into her sink so many weeks ago?

  Anna believed in fate, the alignment of the stars, all that. She’d seen the power of the earth and elements, and witnessed the disasters that could result in tempting fate. The universe seemed to be saying she and Jack were fated to be together. Still, she knew better than to go strictly on her heart. There were too many outside forces that could work against her. She had to keep her head in the game and her intuition on full alert.

  Working with Jack and his ability to control the change to Whargan form was an amazing experience. It had opened up new pathways to understanding the demons and their blight on the world—possibly leading to new ways to combat the menace—all because of a clogged drain.

  JJ had commandeered Jack’s basement, turning it into the ‘Northern Demon Research Center’ for the local Arcanists. And there was suddenly a flurry of demon activity in the area, keeping all of the Arcanists busy and on guard. Something had the demons around Sheboygan all riled up.

  Why now? Anna wondered. Did it have something to do with Jack?

  JJ already had five lesser demons locked in the two cages down in Jack’s basement and had virtually taken over his house. Jack didn’t seem to mind. He was spending most of his time over at Anna’s anyway. The plan was to study the demons for a while, then have Anna send them back to their home world. Anna had found the ritual in the same book where she’d found the one to summon demons. Even though they probably deserved it, all had agreed it would be wrong to simply kill the captured demons.

  And it harm none. Did that apply to demons?

  Nathan Gray had deemed the project so important he had released Arcanist funding to allow Jack to quit his job and Anna to let her business slide so they could devote full time to studying his ability to change and getting him ready for
his future work with the Arcanists. If Jack could learn to control his change, he would be invaluable to the Arcanists in infiltrating demon lairs. Just that afternoon Jack had been able to do a complete change to Whargan form outside, under bright sunlight. They’d celebrated with dinner at a local supper club.

  “So, what’s on your agenda tonight?” he’d asked, after a passionate kiss on her doorstep. “It’s the full moon, so I’m sure you’ve got something planned.”

  “Oh, I’ve got plans,” she’d answered as she dragged him inside. She could wait until tomorrow to send the demons across. Tonight would be theirs.

  She made him wait in the living room while she glided into her bedroom to slip into the sexy new negligee she’d picked up just that morning in town. Jack’s jaw dropped as she waltzed out in front of him to model it. She felt positively wanton.

  “You like?” she asked as she twirled around.

  She never finished the spin. Jack was behind her, his arms hugging her waist as his lips traveled up the side of her neck to nibble at her earlobe.

  “I like,” he whispered breathily, as he peppered kisses on her neck. Then he pulled back and twirled her to face him. “Yeah, I really like.”

  His eyes glowed with desire.

  The saleslady at Virginia’s talked me into it,” Anna said as her body clenched under his passionate gaze.

  He pulled her into another hug and kiss. “Now I just have to talk you out of it,” he whispered in her ear.

  That wouldn’t be hard.

  * * *

  An hour later she was out padding around barefoot and rummaging in her refrigerator for a half-bottle of wine she was sure was in there somewhere. Spying it behind the milk, she reached in to snag it.

  The flash of intuition hit her hard. The wine would not be good for her. She knew it on a level she rarely felt. A little would be fine, but no more.

  Why?