Page 46 of Druid Dreams

“None of us will hurt you,” Briggs offered in his gravelly voice, not sounding the least bit sincere.

Sloane swung the bathroom door open and ran across the bedroom. Just as she reached the door I coughed obnoxiously, and she turned to glare at me. “You’re naked,” I pointed at her and let my eyes linger on her body.

“Right.” She snapped her fingers and ended my viewing pleasure. “Who’s yelling?” She ruffled her wet hair. It looked more grey in its dampened state than the usual silver and light blue mixture.

“Levi.” I distractingly answered while looking down at her clothes. “Are you wearing purple?” I’d only ever seen her in black.

Confusion flooded her face as she nodded slowly. “Yes,” she drew out. “What's wrong with purple? Are my boobs hanging out the bottom of this crop top or something? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” I tried to recover, blanking my facial features. “Your tits look fine. Purple looks good on you.” She eyed me suspiciously before opening the door and stepping into the hall. The shouting had calmed to frantic whispers. Upon crossing the threshold in the living room, we were met with five backs leaned over the sofa.

“Uhm,” Sloane began and five heads whipped around. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Palmer knocked Levi out,” Vaughn supplied, tucking his hands in his pockets nonchalantly.

Sloane looked at me, and I gave her a guilty half smile. “Uh-huh, and who is Levi?” She inquired, glaring at the others for an answer.

“Come on, Barbie. Let’s go to the kitchen and I’ll tell you all about it.” Briggs ushered her out of the room while Palmer explained to us that it was just a sleeping spell.

“He’ll come round in ten minutes or so.” He rolled his stormy eyes skyward then looked back at us in amusement. “Mmm, maybe 20. I forgot he was human. I hit 'em pretty hard with dat spell.”

“What did you guys find out about him?” It’s the only thing I care to know about right now.

York answered me with the man's entire life story. He had no family and nothing to go back to. No one had ever reported him missing. He was homeless when Kelvin brought him in as a human lackey. Novak had already done a background check on him, which was pretty impressive to me. The guy was clean, no arrests and very little to be found. He was in a tight spot and got offered the world. Not a bad guy. A good guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Levi jolted awake and scanned the room while he rubbed his temples. He gave quick notice to everyone in the room before he landed on me. He wouldn’t take his eyes off of me. It was unnerving to be viewed like I was a rare specimen on display. He didn’t blink. It felt as if he was waiting for me to change forms and thought he’d miss it if he closed his eyes for a split second. “What are you?” He squinted and cocked his head to the side like it might change my appearance. I’m not holographic.

“I’m just a dentist,” I shrugged. “How are your teeth? Any pain?” I knew that wasn’t what he was asking me, but I tried to be clinical. I’d rather him be scared of me for being a dentist instead of a demon. Some fears were irrational, others weren't.

“Like fucking teeth, dude. How are your teeth?” His sarcasm could’ve been cut with a knife. He didn’t believe me. I flashed him a big smile and he leaned closer to examine my human teeth.

“Where’d your fangs go?” His country accent grew heavy in his disbelief.

“I don’t have fangs. I’m not a vampire.” I rolled my offended, navy eyes at him.

He laughed under his breath. “You had a mouth full of shark teeth,” he informed me. York and Palmer both turned their heads to silently laugh, their bodies shaking as they kept the sounds contained. Vaughn’s crystal blue eyes danced with amusement. Novak was hysterical.

“I’ve never heard them compared to shark teeth,” he blurted as he sat down to talk to Levi. “I take it you haven’t seen too many demons in your time at that camp?”

“Uhhh, no,” Levi scratched his neck. “Bunch of shifters. A few vamps and mages. That's about it.”

“Well, Levi, Stone is a demon.” Novak threw out with too much joy. “A very big, very scary demon.”

“Yeah, okay. You don’t look like a demon.” Right. Of course I don’t. That’s the point. He wasn’t scared though, so that was good.

“I told you, man, I’m a dentist.” I tossed my hands up and went to walk out but Sloane appeared from around the corner.

With a determined and serious set to her oval face, she approached Levi tentatively. “I have an ultimatum for you. This is completely up to you, but think them both through before you answer.” She smiled reassuringly as she sat beside him and grasped his hand. He let out the breath he must have been holding, and his shoulders sagged with what looked like defeat.

“You know more about our world than most humans do, and that’s both a good and bad thing. We can erase your memories of the last few years and feed you better ones. Memories where you’ve been living off the grid and enjoying life before you decided to go back home.” She held her index finger up to indicate that was the first option she was giving him.

“Or, you can keep your memories, and I’ll give you a job so I can keep an eye on you. For your safety, of course.” She held up two fingers and then continued. “Either one you choose is fine with me. I’ll put you up for a couple months so you can get back on your feet. We’ll make sure you don’t have any issues getting an apartment or a car. Whatever you need, it’s yours. I’ll give you an hour to think about it.”

Levi’s mouth gaped open as he struggled for words. Shaking his head vigorously, he stopped her from standing. “I don’t need to think about it,” he choked out before clearing his throat. “I want to keep my memories. I need to live with the things I’ve done. I need those lessons to learn from my mistakes. To remember that a bad guy conned me into thinking he was good, and then turned me from a naïve teenager in a bad situation to one of the bad guys in a worse situation. If I forget that then I’ll go back to being the same person I was before all this began. I don’t want to be that naïve person anymore.”

Sloane grinned her approval at him. “That’s a mature way to look at what you’ve been through, Levi,” she observed. “Would you like to know what your new job is now?”

He hesitated for a moment before giving a squeaky “sure” in reply. Sloane told him all about the position of head of security at CBP. She gushed about the changes she wanted to make and complained about the lazy guards that were currently employed. I soon realized I stood alone listening to Sloane talk. I drifted out of the living room after a few minutes and found myself outside on the deck.