Page 67 of Catatonic


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He nodded, making up his mind. "I will come with you."

I raised a brow at Savida and Daithi and waited for them to speak up. Savida's expression was crumpled with upset and hurt, which looked odd on his usually beaming face.

Daithi answered for them both, "We aren't going to see the people who took my soul mate's fire."

“Shocking,” I replied sarcastically and shook my head in disgust.

I pressed the phone again and said, “We’re going to stick our necks out for you, Joe. Myself, my familiar, her soul pair and a demon will be with you within the hour. Please don’t ambush us. I’m sick of the drama.”

He laughed again, but I was being serious. “Excellent. Let the reception know you’re here for the SC meeting, and they’ll lead you to our room.”

SC? Supernatural Council? Subtle.

* * *

I checked my watch,impressed, as Clawdia shrugged on a jacket and opened the door, smiling lovingly at Zaide as he passed her. We’d all showered, dressed—Alcor borrowing some clothes from Savida—and headed out within fifteen minutes of ending the call.

Daithi and Savida watched us go wordlessly, and as I closed the door behind us, I pinned them with a look that told them that our discussion wasn’t over. Far from it.

Hot-wiring the car again was a faff but it was nice to do it again under less stressful circumstances. When the engine was finally running, we set off into mid-afternoon traffic.

It was a quiet start to the journey—everyone recovering from some kind of emotional trauma the morning had given us—so I turned the radio on low for some background noise.

Poor Zaide. He had double the fun with Clawdia and then Daithi and Savida.

As I turned right down a road, I looked at our new friend in the passenger seat next to me. He was lost in his thoughts as he stared out of the window.

Probably pretending he was in a music video.

Do demons have music videos?Unlikely, but I was curious to know more about his home realm.

Savida didn't remember his home world and hadn't visited. Knowing how controlling and possessive Daithi was, he probably feared friends or family of Savida would steal him away and so never let him visit.

“What’s your home realm like, Alcor?” He jumped at my question. “Sorry. I was just thinking that I don’t know much about other realms.”

He smiled kindly and began, "It's very mountainous. Some of our cavernous villages are deeper than the tallest mountain, and many of our most vulnerable live down there since they are often unable to fly to more tenable areas. Despite that, we are very much like humans in the way we live. We have families and jobs we are interested in."

I saw the dreamy glaze he had in his eye as he thought about home. "Sounds interesting," I replied softly. "You don't have to answer this if it's triggering or whatever, but I'm a nosey bastard, so, how do you get summoned? How does that work?"

"Our fire names are listed at birth. It isn't a name our parents give us. It's the name our fire cries upon arrival into the world. Our name holds the key to the power of our fire. With the right ritual and a name, we portal ourselves to whoever called us."

It sounds shit. I wouldn’t want to be a slave to a word activated power.

"You can portal?" Zaide asked.

"Fire gives us many gifts when called." Alcor’s blue ringlets bobbed as he nodded.

"So, you can only use your gifts when you use your name?" I clarified.

"Correct. Unless, of course, our fire is taken entirely. Then, it is simply a power source."

"Your fire is like a battery. In different people, it powers different things but only when it's turned on." I summarized in a way that made sense to me. "And you find these gifts, how?"

"We are tested at a young age. Many have portals, healing, and possession as their gifts."

"Hold on. Possession?" I felt my eyebrows hit my hairline.

"Yes, we can take over the bodies of other creatures, encourage them to do things. I heard of a demon who was summoned to help a witch stop smoking. He didn't enjoy the task, but with enough time, her body stopped craving the cigarettes, and he was returned home."

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