Belladonna's Curse

by E. M. Whittaker

  She said it had been a mistake.

  In this case, Travis became an unfortunate victim of circumstance. It almost reminded him of Captain America—only his powers didn’t come from a syringe. He wielded the most powerful magic on the planet. No, the universe, even. The demon Angelique trapped within him belonged to one of the Deadly Sins.

  Just like Lim.

  That’s right. He heard the smile on her demony lips. Now, take it from him. He hasn’t mastered it yet, so he won’t fight back. We’ll become more powerful than ever before.

  He shook his head.

  You’re making a mistake, boy.

  Pain lanced through his head.

  He whimpered.

  Travis grunted and rose to one knee. “What the hell happened to me?”

  Besides becoming the world’s most dangerous superpowered mage? Oh, nothing … apart from his darkened aura, sunny disposition, and fact that he survived a bloody miracle and didn’t even know it. How he stayed this oblivious, he’d never know.

  Oh, wait. Lim had an advantage.

  He survived this, too.

  “Which version you want?” His finger traced over a patch of darkened aura. “The long, complicated one, or the short one with a sliver of hope at fixing this shit in the future?”

  Travis grabbed Lim’s leg. “Which answer is truthful?”

  “Both of them, technically.” He kicked the other man’s hand away. “They’re broken into separate parts. Humans can’t process the long explanation the first time around.”

  Sis’s trigger-happy partner slammed his gun into Lim’s kneecap. “I feel wrong. Fix it. It’s unholy and I don’t want whatever this shit is.”

  Lim knocked the gun away. “I can’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not the Magic Miracle Worker.”

  Travis aimed the weapon at Lim’s chest. “Stop being a smartass, Dalara.”

  “I’m fucking serious.” He held up his hands. “That spell is forbidden for a damn good reason. There’s no way to fix whatever happened to you. However, there’s a different way to circumvent it. It’s unconventional, but you might live.”

  He couldn’t harness power like this. His counterpart’s voice oozed with disdain. You were a unicorn, boy.

  Still, he had to try.

  Sis’s life was at stake.

  “Like it or not, you’re blessed with—”

  “Blessed my ass.”

  Travis’s dark tone—well—it became distorted. Almost demonic in nature. Like a person trapped inside a void without any way to escape.

  How would he explain this to Sis?

  He didn’t explain his own condition to her because she abhorred magic after his accident with Angelique. In fact, it created a rift between them for a while because he negated his original form to become more powerful. And it proved useful, too. He’d saved Sis’s life more than once in the last ten years.

  Irony was a cruel mistress. She prepared Sis for the inevitable.

  Even he couldn’t foresee this.

  “Look, we both have a problem.” He’d have to ease into this issue. “You’ve got dark magic. Well, really, a demonic entity inhabiting your body. And I … well—”

  A bullet whizzed past his ear.

  Lim squinted. “Don’t shoot. I’m just the messenger.”

  “Fix it.”

  “I’m a mage, not an exorcist, Travis. Well, almost a sorcerer.” He waved his hand. “You’re thinking of that anime shit Sis watches, Full Metal Alchemist or whatever it’s called. It’s the show with the equivalent exchange shit. Same premise, but it’s a different idea.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Right. Shoot first, ask later.

  Time for a different approach.

  “Look, we’re in the middle of a park, dude.” He circled his hand around the trees and trails surrounding them. “We’re still in Charm City, y’know. The police will hear bullets.”

  That got her agent’s attention.

  He put away his weapon.

  “Now, your problem is you have half a demon inside your body. So, you’re probably reaping the side effects. They’re different inside each person, but you’ll get the headache soon enough if you haven’t already been cursed with one.”

  Secret Agent Man stood. “What did she do to me?”

  “Who, Angel?”

  “Is that her name?”

  Lim nodded.

  “How do you know the Society?”

  Man, this guy asked the stupidest questions. The Red Coat Society paid him a visit before. They had to. They visited every mage on their roster. Even the unscrupulous characters got a visit from the Big Bad once in their lifetime. If Mikael Kelvin—asshole extraordinaire with a capital A—and his partner Soulstealer got a visit from these guys, then they already visited their pretty boy in blue here.

  But why ask about him?

  Still, it made sense. Lim wasn’t exactly born a magical entity. However, he caused them enough trouble over the years. He actively fought with one of their members despite always having a personal vendetta against her brother Dom. He stalked Sis as a teen. Even hit her once or twice. While she made Travis a half-demon, going after her wasn’t the top priority. Finding Sis’s blood—no, the altered drug—was.

  He’d deal with Angelique later.

  If he lived that long.

  Hopefully, he did.

  “They visit everyone. Well, if you make it onto their roster. I could have hidden under the radar, but we’re in a feud with Angel and her big brother.” He let the statement hang. “Anyway, that’s not the point. You’re in deep shit unless someone teaches you how to harness that demon of yours.”

  Travis slid his hand toward his holster. “And you magically have the answer to this, don’t you? You think I should use it to my advantage.”

  “What else can you do?”

  “Find a priest.”

  “Good luck.” Lim rubbed his neck. “The clergy side with the Sect. You know, the Red Coat Society’s whacked out organization.”

  “Not every church is indoctrinated by them.”

  “They serve the House of God.” He raised his voice for dramatic effect. “Haven’t you learned anything from dealing with them? They’ll kill you on sight if given the order. It’s their twisted rite of passage.”

  “There’s no demonic teachers on standby.”

  Lim sighed and brought silver fire to his hand. Then it turned into a blackened flame. The flames danced along his fingers and trailed up his arm.

  Travis stepped back. “What the—”

  “I can teach you.” He doused the fire. “It’ll be a crash course, but it’s better than being ravaged by a demon.”

  Revulsion crossed the other man’s face. “God cursed me enough.”

  “Well, he cursed you again. No one can purge this shit from your body. I’ve tried.”

  God, did he try. Thousands of dollars wasted. Tons of medical tests done which yielded unusual results but no empirical answers. He’d give anything to purge his own demoness himself without the help of a necromancer.

  He’d rather sell his soul first.

  “My girlfriend and I—we’ve visited every non-human hospital in the last three states. Even paid a hefty price to visit some sorcerers and the world’s best exorcists up in the Appalachian Mountains. Turns out the demon latches onto your soul. So, it’s tricky to expunge it. Unless you know necromancy, you’re pretty much screwed, bucko. Like me.”

  Travis leaned against a sycamore tree. “Not me. I can’t die yet.”

  Wow. This idiot was naive. Demons didn’t care about their host’s wants or needs. They acted without reason. They thrived on pain. And if you showed weakness, they turned up their pain-o-meter higher.

  But there was something else to this mage. Those eyes? They burned with something. Vengeance. That might fend off the demon for a little while. But once it latched onto his secret, it’d rip him apart mentally. Then he’d have nowhere left to
run and start acting like a patient with dementia.

  Lim already started.

  He already displayed the beginning stages of this new disease. The medical tests held some of the proof. Holes in his brain. Prions folding into themselves. He hardly slept anymore, either. Even with migraines, he pretended to be asleep for Cel’s sake. He just laid awake and hid the fact he heard hallucinations half the time.

  The road to hell was paved with good intentions until the demons showed up. Then they wrecked it and made their own demonic city after hijacking people’s bodies.

  Great. Not another hallucination.

  He didn’t need this again.

  “All right.” He slid his hand toward his back pocket. “If you wanna stay alive, I can respect that. Let me help you. You can’t battle a demon alone. Sis isn’t an expert in demonology like me.”

  “Expert.” Travis spat out the word. “What are you an expert in? Keeping secrets from your sister? Fighting with her all the time?”

  “Yeah.” His face turned red. “I hide a lot from her. She’d be worried about me otherwise.”

  “She’s worried enough about you.”

  He shrugged. “Why make her worry more? We’ll keep this between us.”

  “No, we won’t.” The agent pointed to his ear. “She can hear me through this. If I don’t keep tabs on her, she runs off without my permission. Whatever she learns—well, that’s between you two to discuss. Not me.”

  Dammit. He’d hear about this eventually.

  No point in hiding behind the drugs any longer.

  “But for now, I’ll keep your little secret.” He flicked his thumb behind his ear. “I won’t remember to switch this earpiece off every time.”

  “Fine.” Lim folded his arms across his chest. “I’ll train you once you’re not disoriented. It takes a while to acclimate to the demon and he—or she—might give you a wild ride. So, go rest up for the evening.”

  “I can’t.” Travis tapped the side of his head. “I have to—”

  “Let me give you some advice.” Lim wrapped an arm around Travis’s shoulder and motioned him toward the exit. He kept his voice to a murmur while he talked.

  “I’ve had countless medical tests done on my head. My body. One quack even tried doing an MRI and a CT scan of my soul. Didn’t work well, but his hypothesis was entertaining to say the least. The point is the physical side effects of possession mirrors other auto-immune and degenerative diseases. There’s no one size fits all or a checklist of symptoms to compare things to.”

  Travis grunted. “No shit.”

  “Look, go on home. I’ll look after Sis tonight.”

  “You can’t get into our base without—”

  Lim wiggled his fingers. “I can phase anywhere I like provided I have a visual of a place and a person. All Sis has to do is send me a picture message.”

  “She loathes teleportation.”

  “Yeah… about that.” He dropped a bottle of pills into Travis’s large pocket. “Use these next time. Give her fifteen minutes beforehand. Dramamine works wonders for motion sickness.”

  Doubt lingered on Travis’s face, but he kept the pills in his pocket. “All right.”

  “How do I reach you?”

  “Your sister.”

  “Wrong answer.” He fished in Travis’s pockets for his phone. “What’s your number? I’ll text you.”

  “I don’t text.”

  Lim waved the flip phone at him. “I can tell. Good god. Upgrade your phone, man.”

  “I have a Blackberry in my other pocket.”

  “Ugh.” The mage reached for his own phone. “No one uses those outdated devices anymore. Upgrade, man. You’ll be happier once you have a more versatile phone. Texting is the way of the century for millennials like my little sister.”

  “I didn’t have the luxury of owning decent technological devices till my wife died. She made electronics explode, so I stuck with the basics. I’m amazed at what people think they need. Anyway, that’s not the point. I don’t text. I’ll just give you my number.”

  “Then why carry the burner phone?”

  “Because.” Travis snatched his phone back, pulled out a business card, and scrawled a number on the back. “This goes to my regular line. Don’t call unless it’s important.”

  Lim nodded.

  “One other thing. Whatever beef you have with your sister? Settle it. You’re not involving me in your family squabbles. Got me?”

  “Sure.”

  “Good. I’ll see you later.” Travis hurried out of the park.

  Man. His aura changed into the dark and sinister variety. If it weren’t for the occasional platinum hue, Sis’s partner would resemble one of those evil mages from the Society. Somehow, some wisp of goodness stayed in the agent’s heart. Whatever kept Travis on the straight path wouldn’t last long, though. Turning people to the darkness became his demoness’s favorite pastime.

  He smiled. It took her ten years to break him.

  He had another year left at most.

  Lim checked his phone. He had two text messages - one from Maurice and one from Celene. He swiped the screen and answered hers first. She’d text a novel if he didn’t answer her back soon.

  Halfway through his message, a scarlet aura hovered behind a tree across the street.

  He lowered his phone, then scratched his forehead. Aquarius—no, Summer—shouldn’t venture out in daylight. Two hoodies, jeans, and a pair of gloves wouldn’t block out the sunlight completely. Even if it did, she’d roast underneath two hoodies. Any sane person would peel off layers the moment they stepped out into this muggy mess.

  Then again, she was a vampire.

  They didn’t sweat, did they?

  Didn’t matter. She hid behind a tree in broad daylight and dressed like she was about to face a winter snowstorm. She drew attention to herself by her outfit alone. If someone grabbed her, she’d bite them.

  He crossed the street, grabbed her hand, and dragged her into an alleyway. Then he shoved her into the shade.

  Her scarlet eyes glowed in annoyance.

  “Sorry, Summer.” Lim released her wrist. “I didn’t want you to burn yourself.”

  “Humph.” She waved the umbrella attached to her free wrist at him. “I had this. And don’t use my real name. We’re on the street, remember?”

  “For fuck’s sake.” He stepped away from the pale woman. “Don’t you sweat underneath those black hoodies?”

  She lowered her hood and pushed a lock of black and red streaked hair behind her ear. “Nope. I don’t sweat. One of the perks of vampirism, I think.”

  A perk? Yeah, no.

  He’d stay alive, thanks.

  “I came because something happened.” She peered over her shoulder. “I didn’t want to call you. But someone followed me to the hideout. They’ve been tailing me since I left. I think it might be Chelsea’s men or those blasted Red Coat Society members looking for you again.”

  “Yeah.” His voice came out gruffer than intended. “They had a trap set for me. Luckily, I didn’t get ensnared. But Sis’s partner wasn’t so lucky. He got the short end of the stick. I think he’s got a demon trapped inside his body now.”

  She pointed to him. “Like you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I overheard the person following me a little.”

  He waved her closer. “Go on.”

  “They’re working with Chelsea’s men. She hired one of them to hunt you down. And there’s more. Your suspicion about the old boss was correct.”

  Of course. Evan Donahue didn’t like when Lim retired the first time. Not for Sis, or his parole sentence. None of that mattered to the treacherous kingpin. He wanted his cash cow primed and ready to rake in money as soon as possible.

  He knew exactly what Donahue planned. Otherwise, Chelsea wouldn’t lash out at him or destroy their shop.

  “I figured.” Lim leaned against a brick wall and kicked a metal trash can. “Donahue’s always wanted to capital
ize on Sis’s blood. Of course, he doesn’t understand the implications if certain parties like the feds or another government agency found out about the secret formula I made. Then again, it never mattered to him as long as people bought from him. I guess that hasn’t changed.”

  “If he pulls this off.” Aquarius nibbled on her fingernail, “We’ll have more than a problem on our hands.”

  “I know.”

  “No, you don’t understand.” Her expression turned grim as she pulled folded pieces of paper out of her pocket. “I tried analyzing this sample your sister had inside the safe. I can’t figure it out. Neither can your brilliant girlfriend. I mean, we’ve got some of the components, but—”

  He held out his hand. “Let me see.”

  She handed the papers to him.

  “Her blood’s in there somehow. How, I don’t know, but it’s what killed those people. Not the drugs themselves. It’s like the blood negated some of the drug’s effects to some degree.”

  One formula stood out along with a set of numbers.

  It corroborated Aquarius’s story.

  “I mean, the coroner won’t find anything weird, but—”

  “Enough.” His finger trailed down the paper. “How are we gonna stop Donahue? He’s got cronies all over Charm City. You and I—well, and Cel—we’re only three people. We can’t just recruit people to stop him.”

  “Your sister.”

  His breath caught in his throat. “No.”

  “Limmy, you can’t hide her secret forever. I mean, she’s working for a dangerous organization now, right?”

  He grunted. “Yeah.”

  “You can’t protect her forever. She’s got to grow up sooner or later.”

  “I’m her big brother.”

  “She doesn’t treat you like family.” Aquarius’s snooty voice turned overprotective. “No little sister should treat their big brother like shit—even if they had a substance abuse problem. I didn’t. But then, I have over twenty brothers and sisters. That’s the problem with being sired, I suppose. You never know how many brothers and sisters you have.”

  Or if they multiplied. Because with vampires, they multiplied. A lot.

  He’d hate to see her family reunion.

  “Ahem.” She rubbed her chest. “I digress. The point is that you should let Aviere fend for herself. She’s old enough now. Besides, that weirdo you just talked to has more powerful magic than you. If she’s hanging around him, he’ll keep her alive.”