Your Job Bites!

Chapter 30 Awakening demons

Madraeus paced the hotel room. He hated waiting. The flights had been a nightmare. He hated traveling in a coffin. First of all it was degrading, second, no one treated coffins with any respect. He had been knocked around an slammed against every hard object from Denver to Germany. Unfortunately there was no alternative. There wasn't time to wait around and take only night flights.

Madraeus glanced again at the curtains covering the window of the little hotel that Rami had found. The curtains no longer glowed bright orange. The glow from the sun was starting to fade. Anytime now he would be able to leave this room and get on with hunting Cecelia. He had been growing steadily more and more impatient as the hours crept by.

Soon.

He spun around. His eyes searched the room. He was sure he had heard a voice. Listening carefully, he could hear the sound of cars passing in the street below and the sound of the Rami in the shower but nothing else. There was nothing there.

He rubbed his eyes. It was happening again. It had been so long since he had been bothered by that whispering voice, he had forgotten it.

But now, he remembered.

He remembered how it whispered to him in the night when he was hunting. He remembered how it urged him to indulge in every fantasy that came to mind. Long ago he had put it down to being infected by Cecelia's demon. Once he had parted ways with her the voice had dimmed and finally about two hundred years ago when he had taken over as Head of the Council it had faded out completely.

He had heard it in the mine when he had exterminated the threat posed by those sixty-six people. It had been quiet but it was there. A hissing in his mind. He shuddered. Perhaps it was just being around Cecelia again that had triggered it. Maybe it really was her Demon infecting him again.

The sound of the shower cut off. He looked to the curtains. The glow of the sun was being replaced by the glow of the street lamps. The bathroom door opened behind him.

"I will never get used to the small mindedness of European architects." Rami rumbled as he tried to duck low enough to get through the door.

"They didn't know anyone your size when they built the building," Madraeus smiled at his friend. "Sun's set."

"Finally," Rami sighed.

"Where is this place?" Madraeus asked as he picked up a long knife that could have been considered a short sword and slid it into the sheath built into the lining down the back of his leather jacket. It was black and would help him blend with the shadows. He shrugged into it flipping the collar up.

"Across town." Rami rumbled as he pulled on his boots. "I did not want to be anywhere near it in case things go awry."

"As if anything ever goes wrong for us," Madraeus rolled his eyes.

"Oh never." Rami grinned at him as he pulled on his deep blue pea coat.

Madraeus moved to the door but missed it by a foot and walked into the wall.

Rami stared at his friend. He had never ever been clumsy. Madraeus stepped back and rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger.

"Damn it."

"What was that about?" Rami asked.

"Nothing." Madraeus growled. "Let's go."

Rami followed him out the door closing it behind him quietly. Madraeus scowled as they descended the stairs. He was worried. First he was hearing that hissing voice now he was seeing flashes of Whitney. She had been sitting at a table looking unhappy. The last thing he needed was to start hallucinating about Whitney. He reached the bottom of the steps and walked outside taking a deep breath to clear his head. He waited for Rami join him and point him in the right direction.