Devil Inside (12 page)

The tone in his voice raised the hairs on Harley’s arms.  “How does someone become Ignis then?”

“It’s not a choice, really, with the Ignis.  The Nocte, and I suppose the Lux, are bonded based upon a mutual acceptance.  The Ignis—is more of a hostile takeover.”

Harley felt chilled despite the fire that crackled in the fireplace.  Appropriately, Harley could see the flames reflecting in Levi’s eyes.  He continued, “When people lose themselves.  Whether it’s drugs, or depravity of some other kind, they weaken themselves.  They are more susceptible to outside influences.  Sometimes the Burners find these people when the veil between dimensions is weak.  They are able to take control over the person.  Like a country that is torn apart by civil war—they are in prime position to be taken over by a stronger entity and their resources exploited.”

That made sense to Harley.  “Does it hurt to become a Nocte?” she asked Levi.

He didn’t answer for a moment.  Finally, he responded with a shrug that was deceptively casual.  “It’s not pleasant.  But it’s not as bad as you might think.”

Harley had no idea what to think about it.  She shook her head, trying to clear away the mass of thoughts tumbling around.  “Why don’t Lux and Nocte just ‘take over’ people like Ignis?”

“There is strength in acceptance and choice.  Wouldn’t you agree?”

Harley thought about it only a moment before she agreed.  “Yeah.  You’re right about that.”  Having a choice allowed you to accept and work with your decision.  An invasion/takeover?  That would create more conflict and waste resources.  “Do all Ignis just ‘take over?’”

Levi considered the question.  “Well—no.  The Ignis may ‘invade’ the depraved, but I don’t doubt that some—if not most—of the people willingly accept the Ignis’ presence.

Something nagged at Harley; something she couldn’t quiet put her finger on just yet.  Too much was twisting around her brain waiting its turn to be processed.  She tilted her head and sighed wearily.  “OK, so let me make sure I’ve got this straight—Vampires are real.  You are a vampire.  There are vampires of the light, of the dark and of fire.  The ‘vampire’ part comes from some other dimension.”

Levi listened to Harley counting off the facts and sighed, frustrated, when she was finished.  “You have to let go of the ‘pop culture’ idea of vampire.  It’s not that simple and certainly not full of teenage-star-crossed-lovers crap.”

Harley wasn’t offended by his irritation.  She knew that he knew she was being sarcastic on purpose.  “But you do drink blood, right?”

“The Nocte do, but the Lux don’t drink blood” he answered.  “The Vigil and the Praesidio ‘hunt’ the Burners—but we don’t usually just kill them.  The Nocte and the Lux feed on the Ignis.  Just like the Ignis feed on human suffering.  I can kill an Ignis by cutting its head off, or destroying its heart or burning it.  Those things will kill anything.  But it can also be killed by being consumed.  By consuming the blood of the Ignis you can consume their—energy—their life-force—whatever you want to call it.”

Harley listened warily.  Levi suddenly seemed a lot less relaxed.  He uncrossed his legs and sat more upright.  When Levi spoke about consuming the Ignis his eyes grew darker.  As Harley watched they dilated and turned solid black.  His lips were parted slightly as he started to breathe deeper.  Slowly, she saw what could only be described as fangs—slid down over his canine teeth.  When her eyes widened and she recoiled slightly, Levi realized he had gotten carried away and he visibly forced himself to calm down.  He closed his eyes and leaned by against the corner of the couch again while taking silent, purposeful breaths.  When he opened his eyes they were normal again.

“Sorry.  I didn’t feed last night when I killed that Burner and it’s been a while.”

“Should I be worried?” Harley asked, still wary even though Levi seemed calm again.

“No.  Absolutely not,” he shook his head.  “I don’t feed on humans.  Human blood is just blood.  The Ignis bond with human blood—that’s the only thing that makes it appetizing or even edible.”

Harley relaxed, deciding that he was telling the truth about that.  “So why don’t the Lux drink blood”

“It’s more of a ‘psychic’ thing.  I don’t know how they do it—I’ve seen it done but can’t really tell what they are doing.  Everything just kind of…glows.”

“That’s weird,” Harley said thoughtfully.

“Really—after everything else you’ve heard—and presumably believe.  That’s weird?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

“Good point.  I think maybe my brain has just reached its limit.”  Harley sighed and picked at her cuticles.  Levi gave her more time to process everything—staring quietly out the black window again.  He did that a lot—stared into the darkness.  Harley wondered what he saw now that she was so aware of how full the darkness actually was.

Finally, Harley couldn’t avoid the reality of the previous night’s events anymore.  “So what am I going to do about last night?”  The weight of everything pressed against her chest and it made it hard to breathe.

Levi sighed and thought carefully before answering.  “What do you want to do?” Levi asked staring at her intently.

Harley considered this for a while. 
What do I want to do
?  She assessed her feelings.  She was angry, sad, confused and a little scared.  She had to clear her mind and let her emotions come uninhibited by thought for several moments before she could be sure which emotion she felt the most.  It was anger.  Pure and simple anger.  Sure, she was devastated.  Her best friend was gone.  Her life as she knew it—boring as it had been most of the time—was over.  Her life had been far from fair even before Jamie had been killed.  Instead of letting the unfairness drag her into depression—she focused on the anger.  Her childhood had been horrible and through a lot of hard work her adulthood had become blessedly boring.  She had found a pseudo-family, gotten an education, and had a comfortable job and wonderful friends.  Now all of that had been ripped away from her.  She was angry at her parents and angry at the men who had taken her best friend away from her.  And she was angry at herself for not doing more to prevent her friend’s death.

“Why do you think those Ignis came after Jamie and I?  Do you think they were looking for you?” her breath caught painfully when she said her friend’s name.

Levi looked away, into the fire again.  “I don’t know.  I don’t think so.  If they had just been looking for me they could have waited around until I came back—and attacked me then.  I don’t see why they would have alerted me that they were here by killing you two.”  Levi continued to think for a few minutes.  “Can you think of anything strange that has happened recently?  Anyone weird or out of the ordinary?”

Humpf
   "You mean besides you?”

“Fair enough,” Levi smiled slightly.

Suddenly, Harley felt like the floor had dropped out from beneath her and her blood ran cold.  “Oh, god,” she said breathlessly.  Levi sat up, immediately on the alert.  Pieces began to fit together inside her head like puzzle pieces solving themselves.

“What?” He asked watching her carefully.

Harley gulped for air, “This is all my fault.”

“How’s that?” Levi asked calmly studying her.  He didn’t seem surprised that she was blaming herself and he seemed ready to disagree with her.

“Do you remember the obnoxious douche from the bar the night we met?”

Levi thought for a moment.  “Yes.”  He looked grim but waited for her to continue

“I knew something was weird with that guy.  He had the same look in his eyes as the guys from last night.  He was a Burner, wasn’t he?”

Levi was quiet for a moment.  “I never got a good look at him.  But, yeah, I’m pretty sure he was.  I was going to go after him…but I was—distracted,” he smirked.  “I figured since he was so easy to get rid of he must be a pretty weak Ignis.  Usually, they don’t just go away that easy.”

“I got the feeling that if other people weren’t around that he would definitely have caused more trouble.  I just figured he was a potential date rapist or something.  Do you think pissing him off could have caused those two from last night to come after Jamie and I?  Over something that simple?”

“Well, if the guy was embarrassed or pissed off enough—sure I guess.  Burners aren’t really reasonable.  Or necessarily make a lot of sense.  But,” his brow winkled, “that’s still a pretty extreme reaction over just being blown off  I guess if he has other Burners working for him or tied to him somehow, they could have come after you at his orders.”  Levi seemed doubtful as he tried to work out the plausibility of that theory.

Harley didn’t know how to feel.  The thought that everything could have been because she blew one loser off was more than she could bear and seemed impossibly ridiculous.  Levi seemed to read her thoughts, “You can’t blame yourself.  It doesn’t take much at all to draw the attention of an Ignis.  And we don’t even know for sure that it was you he was after.  He could have been watching me for a while and saw I was interested in you.  He could have been hoping you would be easy to lead off and I would come after you.  When you didn’t he could have decided to try coming after you later—at home.”

“But how did they know where I live?  Why did those two come after me?  Why not the guy himself?”

“More than likely they followed you at some point.  You go to that bar a lot, right?  As for why not the guy himself?  Those two may have been his lackeys.   They may have been planning on bringing you back to him until things went sour.”

“If they were after you, why didn’t they just wait until you came back?  Why attack Jamie and me?”  Harley came back to problem in their theory that they were after Levi.  She, so badly, wanted to believe that they were after Levi and not her.  Harley didn’t know if she could handle knowing that Jamie’s death was her fault.

Levi thought for a moment.  “You’re right.  I don’t think we can assume they were after me.”  He sounded regretful, like he also wished he could take the blame for this tragedy.  The sentiment warmed Harley slightly.

“Why were you there last night anyway?”  The question had been nagging at Harley for a while now.

Levi rubbed his face with one hand.  Harley realized that was his quirk—he rubbed his face when he was stressed and she found it inexplicably endearing.  “I could tell something was going on.  It was in the air.  It’s like a restlessness.  I was driving around trying to get a sense of where it was coming from.  I realized I was near your place and just…got the feeling I should drive by…luckily I did.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you did.  Too bad it wasn’t a few minutes sooner.”  The words had slipped out before Harley could stop them.

Levi looked regretful but he didn’t bother apologizing.  He knew that her pain was just popping off in anger at whatever it could.  The anger began to build upon itself and suddenly Harley felt the rage seething through her again.  The pointlessness of the attack made her rage even more bitter.  She stood up and looked around the room desperately seeking a way to diffuse the tight coil of emotions that was pounding their way through the walls she had rebuilt.  Seeing her now empty glass on the table she snatched it up and without thinking slung it across the room.  The glass exploded in fine shards against the far wall.  The crystalline mist and sharp crack eased some of the tension inside her.  Levi continued to watch her silently only raising his eyebrows at her outburst.  She picked up his empty glass and sent it on the same path as hers.  When she still felt the rage burning inside her, she picked up the bottle of
Jack
.  Before she could throw it across the room as well, Levi caught her wrist.

“I know you are pissed, but there is no sense in wasting good liquor,” he said trying to defuse her anger.  With his free hand he sat the bottle on the table but didn’t let go of her wrist.

How could he make jokes at a time like this
?  She stared at him in disbelief.  She tried to pull her wrist free.  Her struggling did no good.  He had a good grip and she couldn’t break his hold.  She pushed against him with her free hand and he grabbed that too.  She struggled against him using all her strength.  It didn’t seem to take any real trying for him to hold onto her.  He didn’t get angry and he didn’t try to talk her down.  Instead, he patiently waited for her to tire herself out.  The anger burned through her and she growled and fought against Levi’s hold.  She wanted to fight, to break more stuff.  She knew it wouldn’t do any good, but it would feel good.  She wasn’t really mad at Levi and she was grateful that he didn’t let her go.  Fighting against him was a relief from the rage—it was a pressure release that allowed her fury to vent itself.  Eventually, she siphoned enough of the pain to stop struggling and waited for him to let go of her.  Her nostrils flared as she panted like an angry beast.

Sensing that she was regaining control, Levi let go of her wrists and she flexed and rubbed them to sooth the irritated skin.  “Are you done?” he asked her.

“No,” she shot back stubbornly and began pacing around the room.  No longer in a destructive and blind rage she stalked the room with clenched fists.

“Well, what are you going to do then?  Break more stuff?”

“Maybe,” she snapped.  “What else do you suggest I do?” she snapped.

“How about getting even?”

Harley pulled up short.  “What?” she asked suspiciously.  “How would I do that?  These things aren’t human, right?”