Devil Inside (9 page)

             
“Keep going,” she looked at him pointedly.

             
Levi took a deep breath before continuing.  “Our organization is definitely covert—it’s not a part of any government.  We aren’t a part of any military.”  He paused, considering his words carefully, “We also aren’t exactly human.”  Harley felt like she had been punched in the gut.  If this had been a movie, the music would have scratched to a halt.  Levi let that blunt statement hang in the air as Harley searched for some understanding of what Levi had just said.

             
Harley almost laughed but it was a reflexive response that her body actually didn’t have the ability to make happen.  “What the fuck are you talking about?”  She could feel the anger growing inside her again, tinged with despair.  On top of everything, Levi was either messing with her or crazy, and the callousness and unfairness of either was more than Harley could bear at the moment.

             
Levi sighed heavily, “We—I’m—not really…human.  The Nocte are something…different.  There is another group as well.  They are called the Lux Vigilum—the Light Watchers.

             
Harley could feel her mouth hanging open stupidly but couldn’t think of anything to say at the moment.  Her brain still wasn’t functioning fully and she wasn’t sure that she was hearing him correctly.  Levi continued with his story.  “Have you ever heard of the theory that there are different dimensions?  Layers of other dimensions that overlap ours.”

             
Harley moved her mouth, wide eyed, trying to form words.  Something in her demeanor must have answered his question affirmatively because Levi continued.

“It’s true.  There are other dimensions—we think there is at least one other one.”  He looked out the window and into the dark again.  “What I’m going to tell you is going to be hard to believe.  I will do my best to answer your questions—and prove that I’m telling the truth.  But if you don’t believe me—then you just don’t.  But now that you are involved, I have to tell you everything I can.  It’s the only way you will be able to make the right decisions and protect yourself.”

              When Harley still didn’t interject he continued, “Records were never properly kept, and sometimes they were lost or destroyed, so we don’t know how long ago the other dimension was discovered.  We don’t even know which dimension found the other first.  We don’t know the first time that a being from one dimension made contact with the beings in the other dimension.  From what we do know—it’s been thousands of years.”  Harley stared at him in disbelief.  He didn’t back down under her scrutiny but continued with his story.

             
“The separation between the dimensions is thin.  The typical ‘veil’ that you usually hear it described as, I think of it as sort of a curtain—one that is threadbare and has holes.  It allows beings to cross over into our world.  No one has figured out how to cross to their side yet though.   But, beings from this other dimension have crossed over to our dimension.  They don’t seem to have a physical body—at least not here—so they bond with humans.  The Nocte and the Lux come from one dimension—of the dark and the light that exist there.  There is a third type of being too.  We think it comes from the same the dimension—but we aren’t sure.  They come from something that—well can only be described fire.  I mean, they come from something that is distinctly similar to fire.”  He paused in his story to assess Harley’s reaction.  She continued to watch him with her mouth slightly parted incredulously.  She didn’t blink or speak.  She had become a living statue of disbelief.

Levi decided to continue since she didn’t seem ready to ask any questions.  Taking a deep breath he took up the story again.  “The beings that come from the ‘fire’ are—evil, I guess is the best word.  They are the beings that thrive on pain and suffering.  The humans that they bond with cause horror and terror.  Not all humans who do bad things are bonded with these beings.  But a lot of them are—they’re called the Ignis Turba, it means fire horde in Latin.  We call them Burners.

He paused again, giving Harley time to absorb what he said.  She took a deep breath and gulped down the last of her drink.  Wincing as she did so, but waiting quietly for him to continue.  He finished his drink and poured them both another double shot. 

“When these beings bond with humans, the humans acquire incredible strength and healing abilities.  We also don’t age.  It’s pretty amazing.”  His eyes animated excitedly for a brief second.  “The Ignis’ sole purpose is to feed off the pain and misery of humans.  And it’s our—the Vigilum and the Praesidio’s job to hunt the Ignis.

“Even though the perks of the job are incredible, there are some drawbacks too.  One of which is the Nocte are virtually confined to the darkness.  We can go out during the day—but we are weak and vulnerable during the day.  Our healing abilities barely function and we aren’t any stronger than humans really.  The Lux are the same—only confined to light.  The Burners can go into either.  They don’t seem to be affected by the light and dark as we are.”

             
He paused again, giving Harley time to process and ask questions if she had any.  But she still hadn’t figured out which question to ask first.  Levi picked up where he left off when Harley didn’t interrupt.  He continued to hold her gaze steadily.  He met her stare with confidence shadowed only by slight weariness.

             
“The Nocte hunt the Ignis at night.  The Lux hunt the Ignis during the day.  The two men who attacked you—they were Ignis.  I think they were fairly young—they weren’t as strong or fast as older Ignis.  I’m not sure if they just happened to target you or if they came after you because of me…” his thoughts drifted off as he considered this.  He looked away from her and stared out into the darkness as if he was searching for an answer.

             
Harley slowly began to regain some of her senses and finally found her voice, “Oh my god,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.  Levi narrowed his eyes at her, trying to figure out where she was going.

             
“Are you crazy?  Or are you fucking with me?”  Harley gripped the edges of the table, trying to hold onto her control a little longer.  She could feel her finger nails sink into the aged wood of the surface.  She gritted her teeth and waited for him to answer.

             
“Well I’m definitely not fucking with you—the crazy part is debatable,” he said with a wiry smile.  But, I told you I would try to prove it to you, right?  You remember the first night we were together?  You said my eyes looked funny.   They were all black right?  They probably did it again tonight—when I was fighting?”

             
Harley didn’t answer his question; she just waited for him to continue.  “That was the Nocte.  It happens when I get—excited.  When I’m fighting, and apparently during sex sometimes.  I’ve never really known it to do that before though…” his thoughts carried him away for a second again.

             
The little control that Harley had finally gave way.  She jumped to her feet and the chair she was sitting in slammed into the wall behind her with a crack and she picked the heavy wooden table up just enough to slam it back down with a bang.  The movement and sound brought Levi to his feet as well.  Both of their glasses had tipped over and the pungent aroma of the liquor wafted through the air as it pooled across the surface.

             
“Black eyes?!  People do that with contacts every day,” Harley snarled.  “Why are you doing this?”  She kicked the chair out of her way and stalked around the table to stand in front of Levi.  She looked up and him and was seething with fury.  Levi didn’t back away or hesitate in the face of her anger and disbelief.  Her anger was so strong that it burned through her body and she could feel the heat of it radiating from her and burning her lungs.

             
As Harley watched, Levi’s eyes began to dilate entirely.  Literally.  The blue and white slowly disappeared as the black widened across the blue and then the white until his eyes were solid black.  Harley hesitated. 
Contacts?  But how did he just make them appear.
  Harley’s confusion gave her pause.  He blinked again and his eyes went back to normal.

             
“OK.  Nice trick.  How did you do it?”  She was still filled with rage but she forced herself to focus on Levi’s trick.  Curiosity nudged her fury aside slightly.

             
“I can call on the Darkness if I need or want to.  The eyes are the dead giveaway for us all.  The Lux’s eyes turn white.  The Ignis’ eye shine like an animal’s almost.”

             
Harley was exasperated, tired, scared, angry and very, very sad.  But for a second she remembered the two men’s eyes.  She had thought they were shiny because of drugs, but…
No!  Ridiculous!
   She was at the end of her rope and the ugliness and the pain of the entire night rose up from her guts.  “So you are saying that you are—what?  A demon, creature—whatever.  And that the demons—creatures—that you hunt may have attacked my friend and me because of you?”  The pain boiled through her and her chest heaved as she tried to breathe normally.

             
Levi finally hesitated, “Maybe.  I don’t know if they came after you because of me.  But I think they might have.  The Ignis can sense us—the Nocte and the Lux.  They may have caught my scent on you.”

             
“So you are saying that Jamie’s—Jamie’s—”   Harley choked on the word, “—dead—because of you?”  Whether what he was saying made any sense, or contained any truth or not—Harley finally had an object to project her fury onto.

             
“Maybe.  Or it could have just been—" Levi’s words were cut off when a fist slammed into his nose.  It took several seconds for Harley to realize that it had been her fist, partly because she didn’t even feel it.  Everything inside of her had finally exploded with the admission that Jamie was dead.   The punch had completely caught Levi by surprise and snapped his head back just slightly.  She doubted a punch from her could do much damage, so she was surprised when blood gushed from his nose.  She was even more surprised to realize his nose was broken which she could tell because of the way the lower half pointed just slightly to the left.  Levi seemed equally stunned.

             
It took a few seconds for him to collect himself; he stood there wiping the blood away with his shirt.  During this time Harley felt the anger begin to leave her body.  As she watched the blood drip from his nose she remembered the feel of the blood dripping down her arm.  Her stunned gaze met Levi’s and he smiled at her.  It was a humorless and rueful smile—and as she watched, Levi’s nose stopped bleeding.  Before her eyes the bridge of his nose moved on its own accord.  Working from the inside out—his nose straightened itself with a faint crunching sound.  Levi’s winced slightly and finally spoke.

             
“Do you believe me now?” He stared at her pointedly.

             
Harley’s blood suddenly turned to ice and she didn’t know what to believe.  She made one last effort to find some sort of rationale.  “You haven’t drugged me have you?”  It wasn’t really meant to be a question but Levi answered it anyway.  “Nope.”  Harley’s mind struggled to come to terms with the facts.             
I’ve only ever seen Levi at night.  That hadn’t seemed all that strange because of our schedules.  On three different occasions I’ve seen his eyes turn black all on their own.  He is deadly serious and doesn’t seem crazy at all.  This explains the weapons and his constant wariness and paranoia.  And the most convincing evidence of all—I’ve just seen a broken nose heal itself.  And most importantly,
Harley thought to herself,
believing Levi’s story means that I don’t have to believe that a random, awful, act took the life of the best friend I’ve ever had.

             
As her brain decided it didn’t have the energy to fight the story that Levi was telling her, her body also decided it didn’t have the energy to hold onto her control any longer.  The tears that she had been holding back since seeing Jamie fall finally broke through.  They started small at first and grew in intensity, and as the sobs wracked her body, her knees gave out and she collapsed into herself, sinking to the floor.  Her mind couldn’t make sense out of the chaos and her heart and nerves couldn’t take the pain of everything that had happened.  Her body had finally decided it was done and let the tidal wave of emotions break through the wall.

Levi sank with her and wordlessly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his lap.  She wanted to fight him.  She didn’t want his comfort and not just because he might very well be crazy.  And she certainly didn’t want him to see her crying.  Even worse the whole night might have been his fault.  But she didn’t have the strength to push him away, nor the motivation if she was honest with herself.  Harley cried for the pain and anger of losing her best friend.  She cried for the frustration and guilt that she felt over having not done enough, or for having done too much.  She cried because the man that she cared about was either crazy or lying to her or had just shattered her beliefs about the world as she knew it.  Levi let her cry and didn’t try to coddle her; he seemed to understand that she had to cry it out.

              Finally, Harley was able to pull herself together and took a shuddering breath.  She had not cried the pain out—but she had let enough out to shut the door again.  She raised her face from Levi’s chest and used her own shirt to dry her face off.  She couldn’t bring herself to look at Levi as she spoke, “I have a lot of questions.  I’m not saying I believe you.  I’m not saying I don’t.  I just—I just can’t ask them right now.”  With the pain pushed aside and buckled down for the time being, Harley felt hollow and empty.  Not unlike a Faberge egg that could shatter with the least bit of pressure.