The Devil's Mate

Chapter 14

Following the report on Lauran comes a report on Daniel but I can't bring myself to read it. Closing the file, I lean back into the chair with my eyes closed as I picture faceless figures using family members as leverage over the individuals with magical abilities to force them into giving them eternal youth. I can't bear to imagine the toll such magic takes on their bodies as from what I read, every spell drains different amounts of energy of the person performing the spell; the more powerful the spell the larger the drainage and it can sometimes take days or years to regain that energy. 

I feel sick to my stomach just imagining someone in a catatonic state with no proper access to the required equipment to keep the person stable for over a year just to save their family. My nose burns with the need to cry as I recall the line in Lauran's report that stated what happened to my mother or who was assumed my mother and with that my throat begins to close up making it hard to breathe.

"Toria," Dominic sighs heavily, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, allowing me to bury my face into his side as I give into my need to cry. "I've got you, my Angel...I've got you."

The wracking sobs passing through me as I cry in such a desolate way that the faes that were previously flying around the library checking the quality of the books have flown away as they couldn't bear to listen to my crying for too long. Having gone from fairly stable to hanging by a thread, a transformation no-one but the being standing beside me knew how to reverse.

"If it is any consolation, my dear," Dominic murmurs gently, patting my hair which has unravelled itself at his command shortly after I began crying. "Daniel Osbourne has been caught coming into Hell via the portals shortly after our departure to Heaven this morning. The guards in the cells said he's been yelling at them to allow him to speak to his sister ever since."

"I...I'm not his sister..." I blubber childishly, sniffling horribly through my blocked nose. "We're not even related. He...He was just pretending..."

"Be it as it may, would you like to see him?" He asks me regardless, placing his forefinger and middle under my chin to make me make eye contact with him. "You grew up thinking he's your brother. The feelings you grew up to have for him doesn't change in a minute."

"That aside," I change the subject, my breathing becoming choppy as I try to speak. "I...I've been...I've been alive...for more than eighteen years...I...how old am I?"

"Father thinks you could have been alive for much longer than Lauran or Daniel. It's unconfirmed," He tells me. "Don't try to change the subject sweetheart. Daniel didn't shoot the arrow earlier and from what I've read about him, he wouldn't have missed his mark. With that being said, I, for one, want to know why he's here if he isn't here to kill you."

Wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, I take a deep breath to calm myself down before stating, "Let's go then. I guess you could say I'd like to have a conversation with him as well."

"That's my girl," Dominic nods, helping me off of the chair, draping his suit jacket over my shoulders as we exit the library. 

To say I am confused when Dominic stops us below the attic on the fifth floor is an understatement. Dominic pays no mind to the confused look on my face which is amplified when he leans forward and speaks a few words in Latin to the velvet wall. Recalling that he told me to never go into the attic without him, I feel my blood chill uncomfortably when he walks through the wall, pulling me along with him.

The feeling of walking through very gelatinous water makes me shiver in disgust but what amazes me more is the fact that we're no longer in Helmsley Mansion. We're under sky blue water and breathing normally without the aid of underwater gear. Not only that but the water is so heavy on my shoulders that I can walk along the sandy ground beside Dominic without any issue of floating upwards and away.

"This is why I told you not to go into the attic without me," He tells me casually as though we aren't walking underwater, breathing properly and speaking as though we're on land. "Had you gone up through the door like I know you would have, you would have flooded the whole house with the bottom of the pacific ocean."

"We're at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean!" I squeal excitedly looking around at the fish bottomed humans swimming around in glittering silver armour and golden spears. 

"I'm glad your smile is back," He mumbles lowly, more to himself than me but regardless thanks to the density of water I catch what he says and instantly blush.

Walking through a dome-like air bubble not too far from the place we entered the sea through, I am slightly unsettled by the fact that I am totally dry despite having been underwater. Dominic is immediately greeted by a pair of men in golden armour with a glowing gun looking weapons which are a contrast to the spears I saw the merpeople in silver armour were carrying outside.

"King Hunter," The bigger one greets stoically, bowing low at the waist which his partner copies. "The human hasn't stopped requesting an audience with the Queen though he has added that my King's presence would suffice as well."

"Thank you, Gordon," Dominic says, patting him on the shoulder. "My Queen and I shall speak to him."

"Sire," This man, Gordon, nods agreeing, extending his hand towards the tiny grey building behind him.

The grey building compromises of three floors I learn as I hoist my floor-length dress up to climb the stairs to the third floor. According to Dominic who has taken of the advantage to tell me that we're in the city of Atlantis and that this building holds all the trespassers who somehow manage to make it through the labyrinth and get past the beasts from the portals in the South wing of Helmsley Mansion.

"There are about ten individuals in here right now," He informs me as we reach the top floor. "Our of the ten, five have chosen to join the merpeople's civilisation by shedding their human ways. The other five are still in their cells, waiting for the end of their days."

On the third floor, there are about fifty, one by two-meter cells behind iron-barred doors on this floor. Behind one of them, a familiar voice that I've heard throughout all my life is yelling to see his sister and that he needs to tell her something important.

Looking to Dominic at the sound, he shakes his head at me as he walks ahead of me to stand in front of the cell while Gordon unlocks the door to let him in. I stand out of sight while he does this upon his silent instruction.

"Where's my sister, Dominic Hunter?" Daniel demands as soon as Dominic enters his cell. "I want to see my sister!"

"She isn't your sister is she, Human Nuisance?" Dominic's indifferently bored voice replies to Daniel's frantic and slightly hoarse one. "What makes you think I will let her see you when you work for the very people that want her dead?"

"I don't work for them anymore!" Daniel yells at him, going hysterical and I assume he throws something since a loud bang sounds from the cell making a squeak of shock leave my lips. "I need to protect her. Let me see her! Please, Hunter! At least let me see that she's alright!"

"She's alright," Dominic states coldly. "She's shaken up by the attempted murder but other than that she's fine."

"She's alive?" The relief in Daniel's voice is palpable, his voice sounding like a huge weight has been taken off his shoulders. "Thank goodness. Thank goodness..."

"You're not a blood relative," Dominic remarks curiously, definitely speaking more for my benefit than his. "Why are you so relieved?"

"She is my family, regardless of how I came to be her brother," Daniel affirms indignantly. "I got the news not too long ago that a team of my kind of people have rescued what's left of my blood relatives. Victoria needs to come with me so that I can keep her safe from those humans."

An uncomfortable silence follows his declaration which makes my skin crawl. The seconds drag on for what feels like an hour when in reality it could have just been three minutes when Dominic finally speaks.

"Angel, do you want to speak to him?"