Authors: Kelly Hogan
"I was wondering how you know my name miss, and whether you have plans later on?" I look over at her raising my eyebrows in question.
She gives me a sexy laugh as she angles her chair towards me and leans forward.
"Now Asher, I think that would be a little inappropriate considering you're dating my daughter."
What the Fuck.
My attention has certainly been gained. Some crazy demon mom hunting me down for ruining their daughter's virtue. I don't have time for this.
Turning back to face the bar I say. "I don't have a girlfriend, Ma'am. You must have me confused with someone else." I take an extra long haul on my beer.
"Ma'am? Honestly Asher. I expected a little more charm then that. Your reputation has preceded you but honestly I'm a little insulted." She says with a laugh and flips her long locks over her right shoulder. I turn towards her and place my arm on the back of the bar stool, patience running out.
"Well then
Miss
, who might you be the mother of and what do I owe this greeting?"
"Look closely young man, can't you see the resemblance?" she grins at her revelation staring back at me intensely.
That's when it hits me, the sudden realization of who she reminded me of. Even her voice sounds eerily like Stella, how is this even possible? How does she know who I am?
"Ahhh, I can see the wheels turning Mr. Grey, don't strain yourself, please." She pats me on my shoulder and orders me a coffee.
"How do you know who I am?" I blurt out.
"Let me start my introducing myself. Helena Simone." She offers her hand to me which I hesitantly grasp.
"Very wary of strangers are we? I suppose this is probably a bit of a shock to you, but what is more of a shock is to why I seem to find you here, wallowing in self pity and pining over a young girl. What sort of demon do you pride yourself on being Mr. Grey because your rap sheet speaks different volumes altogether."
"And what would
you
know about me anyways?" I turn back to face the barman as he settles my steaming coffee onto the bar.
"I know a lot more then you think Asher, quite a bit more. A very impressive showing I might add; a laundry list about a mile long."
"Ok, so, 'Stella's mom', what do you want from me? Why are you here bothering me when I am trying to 'wallow' away my night with liquor. In fact, why come to me and not your actual daughter who's been wondering where the hell you've been for the past eighteen years? Leave me and my past alone." I shove the coffee away from me.
I see her expression darken.
"Fair enough. Perhaps I had better explain a few things first." She smiles a wicked smile that sends shivers down my spine.
"You think?"
We settled into a booth on the opposite side of the bar as she began her story. I really don't know why I let her explain. It's none of my business anymore. Stella isn't in my life, isn't my problem. Why am I torturing myself with this?
"So I suppose some background on me would be helpful," she begins. "I'm about 180 years young which isn't too much older then you Mr. Grey so watch what you say about age. I'm an aural demon which, on the low level, means I can read people based on their auras. On a higher level, I can anticipate a persons moves, desires and insecurities better then they themselves even understand. This made me a very enticing employee to 'The Register', for whom I do highly classified ongoing contract work for."
"I know what an aural demon is Miss Simone, get to the point."
"If I were you I'd watch your manners Mr.Grey," she spat. Her steel eyes piercing my soul making me shudder. I can see now that her outward appearance of a beautiful, innocent blonde couldn't be more wrong. Her true demon nature tells a different story, one of someone you don't want to screw with. She pauses to regain control before switching back to 'human' mode, plastering an icy smile on her face.
"As I was saying, this is my main strength but I possess many other unique abilities that are quite invaluable to them and of which you have no understanding of. So show some respect please."
"Alright you have my attention, just get to the point." I take a large gulp of the crappy coffee, burning my throat on the way down.
"Because of my honed senses, I can predict things, like I mentioned, sort of like a psychic but not a raging quack like most are. I can peek into a demons soul and see what they are thinking, how their minds work and what they might be planning. You're lucky I didn't run you out of town the second I saw you prey on her, you know." A small smile crept across her face, but vanished as she continued on.
"I think it's important to start with Stella's father who, as you know, is human."
She began nervously fidgeting with her glass, swirling her beer about in a clockwise motion. I can tell she's uncomfortable. It's pretty commonplace for supernaturals to avoid emotion at all costs. It's quite difficult for us to show human weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Some call it a defect in our genetic make-up, I like to think it's what makes us thrive. Survival of the fittest.
Drawing in a deep breath she continued, "I was immediately pulled to him, he had the most beautiful white light radiating around him; it was like a drug to me. I never planned to fall that deeply for him. I mean, someone like ME, falling for someone that good. Ridiculous. I'm not saying I was all THAT bad, but I've certainly had my share of questionable relationships and a few illegal mishaps, but it wasn't as if I killed anyone or anything, at least I don't think so."
My patience was wearing thin. Get to the point where I come in. "What about the pregnancy though, didn't you know how rare it was?" I ask.
"Of corse I did, it was the most shocking turn of events I could have imagined. Why me? I certainly did not plan on THAT. The fact of the matter was that I was blinded by our relationship and I thought that maybe I could pull it off, maybe I was meant for this, meant to be a Mother. God forbid! Pardon the expression."
"I thought that maybe I could stay for a little while, at least until he got suspicious of my non-aging. I was so stupid and naive. When Stella was born she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, her aura was even more brilliant then her fathers. I knew she just couldn't be a demon and that it was my time to move on. Now that I knew she wasn't like us, I would let her live her human life with her father..." she trailed off with a faraway look on her face. "It was the hardest thing I have ever done."
"But she wasn't human."
"No. She wasn't. But I haven't been privvy to that knowledge until recently. I've always kept my eye on her, checking in now and again. She's always had this bright light around her, human in every way. It wasn't until she was about 17 that I started to see any noticeable changes occur. Then you came into the picture..."
Cutting her off, I couldn't control the anger beginning to fester. "So why not go see her when you knew she was a demon, can you even begin to understand how much she would have needed you?"
"You don't have to say it, I already know, ok?" She said lifting her hand up to stop me. "I was too afraid of her; too scared to face her anger and fear and when I saw you show up, I thought, maybe you could help her better then I could anyways."
"Why me? You say know my reputation, what could you possibly think I would do to help her? How insane are you?!"
Her pain was visibly crushing, but honestly, who does she think she is. She needed to man up and take responsibility.
"Well Asher, I think you'd be surprised at my answer."
"Surprise me then." I turned back, taking another long gulp of my coffee.
"You're forgetting about what I can do, how I can decipher peoples emotions and make predictions. What I saw in you was very interesting indeed. When you came into her life you were as dark as night, full of anger, betrayal, and egotism up the ass. I could tell you were definitely damaged goods."
"Geez, what am I thinking, no wonder you thought I could help her! I totally get it all NOW." This lady is a a nut job.
Her tone silenced me again. "I said
initially
. What happened next stopped me from intervening and made me pay very close attention to your dynamic. You see, Asher, when you were around her, your aura started to change. And before you yell at me again, yes, I know that others can affect our moods. But what she was doing was very unique; I've never seen it happen before. When you were around her, it was as if she was able to change your aura herself, grab hold and envelop you into the great light with her. C'mon don't tell me you didn't feel differently around her? The Asher Grey I have on file is not the same person who sits in front of me now. Albeit you're pretty murky at the moment, but you certainly are not the same demon who walked into my daughters life a few months ago."
It did make sense. I do feel different now. I just couldn't explain why. Was it really because Stella was able to change me into something else? Are her abilities that powerful?
"So what are you saying? Stella was able to change my aural soul? Change me from evil dark demon to light and fairy good demon? That's impossible. It doesn't exist."
"Is it so impossible Ash? Think about your actions the last few months. Why has there been such a gap in your usual 'activities'? And no, I don't think she's been able to actually change you from good to evil, that isn't what I'm thinking at all. I think that she has been able to pull you into the light; her strong feelings for you and you for her, have drawn you into a different path then you might have initially taken. I'm not saying you won't have a tendency to do bad things, I mean we all crave chaos now and then. But I think she has altered you in a way that is even hard for me to understand. I think she's managed to make you switch teams."
"Switch teams? Wait a minute, she did not make me gay."
Exasperated she heaved a big sigh. "No Asher, that isn't what I meant. Stay with me please. I'm still working on my theories but it would seem that somehow you are now ethereally connected to my daughter. Where there was dark, there is now light. Her bright light confused me before, it actually
is
demon, but a completely different breed I think. A bright and beautiful light that envelops you both when you're together. And when you're apart? Well, I'm still working on that one, but from the looks of it, you're not doing so hot. I don't understand the why or how of it, but this isn't something that happens every day, you know, not in our world at least."
"Well how often have you seen something like this happen?"
"According to the documented research we have on file?" she asks.
I nod.
"We don't have any. I've never seen this before Ash. Ever."
I pause before responding, taking in all this information, unsure of what to do with it.
"I don't know, this all sounds really hokey to me. We're demons, why would we have good ones and bad ones? It doesn't make sense. Sounds a little like Mom is a wee bit overzealous in determining her offspring's capabilities, don't cha think?"
Her gaze went black as tar making my skin crawl. Opps I've pissed her off.
"Ok so what if she was able to do this to me? Can she do this to all demons? What does it mean and why should I care. You do know that she fully made the change in the last few weeks. She's developed her abilities and believe me it's not child's play. Do you know what she can do now?"
"Yes, I've been watching her very closely the last few days, it's what brought me here today. Something has happened."
The hairs on my neck have started to prickle as I imagine every terrible scenario possible.
My heart pounding. "What's happened?"
"She's changed Asher. Her soul has gone very dark. Darker then you, and she's about to do something really stupid. You have to go back. You have to help her."
As I pull into the gravel lot I can feel my heart quicken and pound loudly in my ears; my blood boiling in my veins. What am I doing here? I didn't think about my destination as I tore away from the party, but strangely this is where I ended up; drawn to it in a way I can't describe. Like a moth to a flame. My desire for this world so great it was subconsciously pulling me back like an invisible elastic band that wouldn't let me move ahead no matter how hard I would struggle. Back to where it all started, and back to where I feel like I can break the old crappy ties and finally move forward again.
I haven't been able to breathe in weeks, frozen with fear, hurt, anger and confusion. What was I going to do with this new life I had inherited? I couldn't just turn my back on it. I couldn't just go back to where I was before HE turned me around to see the future that made so much sense to me. In one breath I curse him, unable to forgive him for what he did, then in the other, I thank him, indebted to him for showing me this world. I mean it would have been super weird when I noticed I wasn't aging anymore. Seriously.
I'm not yet familiar with this person I've become, unable to recognize myself in the mirror as I stand before it, wondering how to handle this direction change. I realize I have to turn my back on the old life, old friends, to everything human that I know; I think it is the only way to figure out where I fit in. I take a deep breath as I unlock my seatbelt. A habit so ingrained in me before I realize I don't even need a seatbelt anymore.