The Mythos Unveiled (Demona series) (2 page)

Was he
controlling me?
“Y-you
asked to see m-me?” Demona asked.

Darius
folded his hands and took a long moment to look over her. “You have been with
us for two years now. Marc tells me that you are continuously late for work,
and that you have been ignoring your responsibilities. I regularly receive
reports about how disrespectful you are towards other coworkers. Just today, I received
one from our cafeteria worker, Marcie.”

“But—”

“It
seems as if you have no regard for our rules, or your position here at TGHC.
Your continuous slack is backing up the work for your fellow employees. I am
aware that you have not had proper combatant training, but I am going against
policy. You will from this moment on, be a field agent.”

“But,
I didn’t do anything. And I can’t defend myself!”

“I
cannot keep you in the offices any longer. You have disrupted the work of your
coworkers for too long. These are the consequences of your actions. I have
assigned you a partner, Kerrick Balen. He is an exceptional agent. Do as he
says and learn from his example. If you do so, you just might learn something,”
Darius said.

“You
can’t do this! It’s not fair!”

“Control
yourself Demona. You brought this upon yourself. Meet Balen tomorrow morning.
Be on time. Now, you may have the rest of the day off. Goodbye.”

Demona
rose from her chair and walked to her desk in a daze.

“Hey,
Claudia. I think Demona is really in trouble this time,” Persephone said.

“Yeah,
she looks pretty upset,” Claudia said.

“Shut
up! Shut up, you two! I am so sick of it!” Demona said.

“I
think someone woke up on the wrong side of the coffin,” Persephone said. She
and Claudia giggled at the joke.

“I
am glad I’ll never have to deal with either of you psychos again!” Demona said.

“Oh,
you broke my heart!” Persephone said.

Demona
grabbed her things and made her way out of the office.

Chapter 2

The Tour

Demona
stood in the lobby, staring at the glossy marble tiles below her feet. She
glanced up as more people began to come in through the lobby doors and take
their place in the growing line at the cafeteria. She had been one of the first
in line and had already finished her meal. Now, she waited.

A
human walked in and she stopped to ask the security guard for directions. The
TGHC employees avoided any form of contact with the human. If the woman had
been watching, she would have noticed how they tried to avoid even looking at
her. At TGHC, employees were instructed to avoid talking to any humans that
entered the building. Nobody wanted to let slip something that would reveal the
true nature of TGHC. It would mean big trouble for everyone.

As
soon as the lady had turned towards her destination, the security guard reached
for his walkie-talkie. Demona watched the guard give a report over the
walkie-talkie as a shimmer rippled through the building. It was a shimmer that
only Demona’s kind could sense, it was the sign of a powerful magic spell being
cast. The human would be completely oblivious to it.

The
shimmer disguised everything that might seem unusual, to humans, and changed
them into something that would seem normal. The blood rations appeared as
tomato soup, the raw meat appeared as spaghetti, and fried frogs appeared as
fried chicken wings. An angry vampire was in a confrontation with his coworker,
the vampire’s fangs instantaneously appeared to be normal teeth. The werewolves
looked less hairy.

Persephone
and Claudia walked in through the double doors at the entrance. They had
spotted Demona before she could avert her eyes. She had hoped that they would
not notice her standing there. Both of the girls approached her in fits of
giggles.

“Hey
Claudia, I bet Demona is going to meet her
telos
today,” Persephone said.

“What
are you talking about?” Demona asked.

“Hah,
the stupid vampire doesn’t know that
telos
means death,” Persephone said.

“I
know what
telos
means,” Demona said.

“Oh.
You were the big talk of the office yesterday. After you left, everyone was
taking bets on how long you will make it on your first field assignment,”
Persephone said.

“Thanks
for the vote of confidence,” Demona said. She tried to turn away from them, but
they kept moving to stand in front of her every time she moved.

“I
bet you won’t make it until the end of the day,” Persephone said.

“I
told them you’ll probably run and hide after you’re out in the field for one
day. Either way it’s a win-win situation for us,” Claudia said.

Persephone
nodded in agreement.

Can this day be
over already?

After
Demona turned and was given her position at TGHC, Claudia and Persephone had
approached her. They had befriended her and brought her into their circle of
friends. Demona had trusted them and considered them her best friends. She
thought she had done everything a person would expect. When she had apologized
to them, in case she had offended them, her apology was shoved back in her
face.

Demona
had no one. She only remembered a few scattered fragments of her past that had
been revealed through her flashbacks. All of those memories were of the night
of the attack. She did know that she had been in foster care, which was one of
the few things that TGHC was able to dig up on her past. Mostly they were just
pieces of information that were found in records from doctors visits or from
when human services had checked up on her in foster care. Her loss of memory
seemed to be a form of amnesia that was not common with the transformation. The
nurse witches could not explain why she could not remember her past.

In
reality it made things easier for Demona. When someone asked about her past she
just told them she had been in foster care her whole life. It seemed to end
conversations quickly. Nobody wanted to hear of a child growing up in the
system and all of the sad stories they had to tell about not having parents or
some of the experiences they had in bad foster homes.

A
man approached her as he exited the elevator. It must have been Balen. He had
some handsome features, though mostly ruined by the collection of scars across
most of his visible body. She guessed he was turned in his mid to late
twenties. He had messy, blond hair and stubble across his face; he needed a
haircut and a shave. Balen had a very muscular build. There was an air about
him that gave Demona the impression that he was silent and mysterious, yet
strong willed and dangerous when he needed to be.

Balen
stopped in front of her. “Brennan?”

“Have
fun!” Persephone said. She and Claudia walked away.

“Yeah,”
Demona said. She stood up straight and stared ahead.
I will not run from this. At least it will be better than being stuck
in a stupid cubical with them.

“You
have been assigned to me as a partner. You will follow my instructions. No
heroics!” Balen said. He studied her for a moment. “If you pay attention to
what I say you will learn how to survive in difficult situations. If not, you
will meet your
telos
. Is that clear?”

“Yes,
sir,” Demona said.

“Good,
follow me,” Balen said.

He
led her towards the back of the building to an area she had never been to
before. They walked down a flight of stairs and through a long empty hallway
with many doorways. It appeared to be some kind of medical wing; there were
rooms for triage and patient recovery. A few nurse witches passed them as they
continued down the hall.

Demona
thought she heard someone screaming from behind a closed door and was mildly
curious as to what was taking place on the other side. They continued past a
few more closed doors and entered another stairwell that took them even farther
below ground.

Demona
and Balen entered the first open doorway on their left. There were a few small
desks in a windowless room. Each had a laptop placed on it and the usual office
supplies. Corkboards and dry erase boards practically lined the room. Demona
could not make out the words on the papers pinned on the boards, but easily
read the large letters G.L.C. written on the dry erase board.

“What’s
GLC?” Demona asked.

A
large dark skinned witch that sat at one of the desks flipping through
paperwork and looked up at her question. “GLC, or Good Light Council, is a
group of do-gooders. They’re always interfering with TGHC business. They’re our
enemies, more like a nuisance really. You will probably never have a problem
with them.”

“Agrippa,”
Balen said. “This is the recruit, Brennan.”

“Hi.
But why are they our enemies? They don’t sound so bad,” Demona said.

“There
is a long history of conflict between our sides. Sometimes a dark being likes
to stir up trouble and the GLC thinks they need to stop it,” Agrippa said.

“Okay…”
Demona said.
It doesn’t make sense.

“Calvin
Agrippa does most of the reports for the prisoners that we bring in. When we
bring in criminals we bring them to the office. Calvin processes them and files
a report. The criminals remain in these cells, until Darius decides what is to
be done with them. When the need arises, he’s also our backup field agent,”
Balen said.

Balen
and Demona continued to walk through the room towards another doorway. When
they entered the room Demona saw a series of barred prison cells each with a
cot and a toilet. Most of the cells were empty, but one nearby held a werewolf
in transformation.

The
werewolf’s skin sprouted fur and canine teeth popped out of his mouth. Then,
his body contorted and he screamed in pain. His recently sprouted fur began to
shed and the teeth fell to the floor to be replaced by human teeth once more.
The transformation repeated back and forth, over and over again.

That doesn’t
look like fun.

“This
guy was cursed by a witch, his former girlfriend, who is currently at large.
She put a spell on him after he insulted her. The spell causes him to relive
the most agonizing moment of the transformation process. The other agents are
out hunting her down. I will introduce you to them when they return,” Balen
said.

They
walked farther down the cell block and stopped in front of another cell.

“This
witch practiced unsanctioned magic on an innocent woman. We had to bring him
in, after we received reports that he was preparing to sacrifice someone in a
ritual,” Balen said.

The
man stood in the back of the cell chanting in a different language. He
completely ignored their presence.

“Follow
me,” Balen said.

They
walked down the remainder of the cell block and out a door, which lead back
into the hallway. After going a few feet they made a turn into a doorway on the
right. Demona and Balen descended another set of stairs. At the bottom of the
flight a security guard sat on a folding chair reading a newspaper.

“Brennan,
this is Hellerson, the day shift dungeon guard,” Balen said.

Hellerson
gave a casual salute. The chair he sat on was located off to the side of the
dungeon in an alcove. Beside him was a vault made of shatterproof glass. A
thick door was centered on the wall that was sealed and locked. The vault was
white and sterile, unlike the rest of the dungeon.

“Hey,”
Demona said. “What’s that?” She pointed to the sealed door.

“That
is the demon vault. It’s where we keep demonic spirits, which are trapped in
vials. We use strong seals to make sure that if the vials would happen to break
the demons would have no chance of escaping the vault,” Hellerson said.

Demona
and Balen walked farther down the cell block into the dungeon. It was similar
to the cell block that they had previously visited, except for the rusty
shackles that were chained to the walls. Demona saw rats scurry across the
floor out of the corner of her eye. She found it hard to breathe in the
dungeon, because the air was much more dank than the floor above. Balen stopped
in front of a cell to their left.

“The
criminals that are put here are sentenced to terms ranging from weeks to a
lifetime. Since vampires don’t die, you can imagine how long some of them are
down here. The deeper into the cell blocks you go, the longer the prisoners
have been there.

“We
won’t go any farther; I just wanted you to see what it was like. You need to
understand that if you go in without a guard you could get lost. The prison
blocks are like a maze. You don’t want to go in the deeper cells, unless it is
necessary. TGHC is a new entity, but Darius has owned this land for a very long
time. There are caves and tunnels that have been here for hundreds of years.”

Demona
heard shrieks and screeches coming from deep within the cell block. It sounded
like there were raving lunatics within the walls. She imagined that most were
chained in the shackles, spending a lifetime in the dungeon.

They
left the dungeon and climbed back up the stairs. When they entered the hallway,
two field agents drew closer dragging a witch between them. One of the agents
was a tall slender woman. Demona assumed she was a witch, but she was not
certain. She was beautiful and elegant in the way that she moved. With long
straight blonde hair that extended to her lower back. When the woman saw Balen
she smiled.

The way she
looks at him makes me think there is history between them.

The
man on the other side of the prisoner was a vampire. He was large and muscular,
even more so than Balen. The vampire’s broad shoulders and thick thighs
reminded Demona of one of those professional wrestlers on TV. He lumbered
alongside their captive as they grew nearer.

“Kerrick,
it’s good to see you,” the slender woman said to Balen with a Scandinavian
accent.

Yup, definitely
history.

“Same
to you, Salina,” Balen said.

Demona
was not certain if that history had ended badly or not, but there was more than
just a coworker relationship in their past. They were on a first name basis and
agents always went by their last names.

“Foss,”
Balen inclined his head to the big guy. “We have a fresh fish.”

Foss
gave a sly grin at Balen’s words.

“Welcome,”
Salina said. “Have you recently finished your training?”

“No,
I worked in the office, until last night. Mr. Grier told me he wanted me to be
a field agent,” Demona said.

“I
see. No worries then. Kerrick will take wonderful care of you,” Salina said.

What’s that
supposed to mean?

Foss
and Salina continued to drag the witch along with them towards the office.

“That
is it, just the five of us. Usually, one or two of us can handle an assignment
on our own. It will be difficult for me to get adjusted to working with a
partner again. When big trouble arises we call in reinforcements, which would
be the other team or Agrippa. We are the day shift agents and Salina, I mean
Bergfalk, and Foss are the night shift. Are you aware of the different species
we will be dealing with?” Balen asked.