Daemon Hunted

Chapter 13 — It hurts, but not as Badly

I nodded to Lana, intending to clarify anything I could now that the officers were gone. I ensured their patrol car had started up the road before I bent down and fixed the rug, allowing the door to shut completely now that I knew Lana wasn’t going to immediately run for it. I didn’t lock the door and took a few steps back from it an Lana. That she wanted more information was obvious, but it made me curious as to why. Darron Vance hadn’t held back in describing how he’d met me. It was explainable… if I told her everything. Lana regarded me cooly, eyes calculating my every movement.

“My dad had me train in fighting, but also in everything else he could think of. We gambled… a lot, and I got good at reading people, better than him in fact.” She said with a laugh which revealed more about her childhood than her story had so far. “He had friends in other branches of government. The CIA, FBI, I’m not even sure what some of them did or what they were a part of, but you know the types. I learned from them. I think he wanted me to take a route in life like him, protecting others, but staying out of direct combat or the military. He wanted me to be strong and work in the FBI or something. I almost did. But events in my life led me elsewhere. Here.”

“I bring all that up because that training lets me know a few things. I can tell you know more than you’re letting on to those officers, but I also don’t think you did this.” Her eyes bore into mine as if they might uncover my secrets. “That only leaves a few options. You’re up to something or tied to this in some way. Whatever it is, I want to know what you know, or I walk out that door and you never see me again.”

I stood silent. Not sure where to start or if I even should. I felt the apprehension of telling her the truth like a physical weight around my neck. That hadn’t gone well last time. I knew wizards tended to be more solitary in fiction and stories and it was for good reasons. Lore was based on a form of the truth. Wizards attracted danger. The pixie Fren had ‘dispatched’ was drawn to this location because of me and the residual power of my shop as well as the power I’d laid down in the very foundation of the building to protect it. It kept me safe, but it also made the building stand out to the supernatural like a castle on a hill. More inquisitive or stupid beings would be drawn to it.

I sighed as I weighed the many courses the conversation might go. The truth was, if I wanted to get to know Lana more, she in turn would have to get to know me. In my wildest thoughts since meeting her I’d never imagined having to tell her everything, today. My most wild of thoughts had only ever dared consider going on a first date. That had seemed like a pipe dream. I’d purposefully not thought about the eventual time I’d have to tell her ‘I’m a wizard’ and that my hobby was hunting creatures that fed on people, because I knew a date would likely never happen. Hell, Kate didn’t even know the truth, and I’d worked with her for two years. Other than Fren she was literally the person I was around the most.

But the truth was, I was lonely. I wanted someone else to know what I did. I faulted the elder wizards for their seeming distancing from humanity around them, yet I had largely done the same.

I’d grown up in foster care, switching families repeatedly until being adopted and raised in basically what amounted to an off-grid homestead in Montana which hadn’t lent itself to meeting many others. Moving here had been refreshing but I hadn’t made many close friends. I wasn’t sure how to be myself while also hiding the biggest parts of my life. I’d always kept my guard up and assumed others wouldn’t want to know the real me. That it would be too dangerous for them.

That was true, but it was also more… I was scared. I was afraid of telling anyone after what had happened last time, and that realization made me pissed. I hated being scared. Yes, Chloe had dumped me after learning who I was. Now I had the chance to start fresh, to possibly gain a friend based on trust from the beginning. Someone who knew the real me from the start. Someone who apparently needed people too.

I saw one of the plants in the corner sway in an unseen breeze. Fren telling me to basically ‘go for it’. He would have understood my pause and hesitation more than anyone else.

“Okay. You're right.” I said, to both Fren and Lana though she wouldn’t realize. “I know more than I let on. I’ve been trying to find and stop whatever’s been killing people in the forest.”

“The ‘mountain terror’ the news keeps talking about?”

“Yeah.”

“And in what world is that your responsibility? Do you have a hero complex? And if so, what more could you even offer than the police?”

Lana was smart. I had to give her that. Smart, very skilled, and as my hindbrain kept reminding me­—beautiful. Maybe not everyone would have found her so, but she was too me. There was a presence to her, and I couldn’t help but be drawn to her eyes, her mannerisms. It made me nervous to tell her everything, but I had nothing to lose. Attraction was a great initial part of a relationship, but it took more than that to last. They took trust.

“I’m…” Shit. There was no good way to go about this. Maybe I should have put ‘wizard’ in an ad in the paper, then people would start with that information before they ever even met me. “I’m trained to deal with creatures most people never encounter, things that don’t make sense.” I gestured to my shop, “This shop is wonderful. I love it. But it’s not my true calling in life. It serves to pay the bills and give me a place to live, but beyond that, it’s just a shop.”

Lana nodded, her hazel eyes not missing anything, boring into my own, “What kind of training and what type of creatures?”

And here it was, where things had to get weird. “The spooky fairy tale kind. The kind that consistently comes up throughout history and legend. The things that make us instinctively scared of the dark.”

Lana gave me a long look, “Melodrama much?” She said. While her words portrayed annoyance or disbelief. Her eyes told a different story as she considered me, listening to every word. I wasn’t good at reading people, much less her, but I didn’t think she thought I was crazy. She hadn’t run for the door yet, that had to be a good sign.

“—You’ve seen things,” I said, and to my surprise, she looked down. Unsure of herself. Most people had seen something they couldn’t explain. People lived long lives and things happened. Usually, they forgot, or convinced themselves it was something mundane, or that it never happened. Human recollection is terrible even in controlled studies, much less the messiness of actual life and recalling events days, weeks, and years after they passed. Plus, people didn’t want to be seen as crazy, so they adjusted their stories until they landed on something they could believe or explain away.

“…My dad, and other Navy seals, some of the people that came to visit him… they told stories.” Lana bit her lip, “Militaries are full of stories that don’t make sense. Deaths, attacks, black ops missions that fail for unknown reasons. He taught me to keep an eye out for the truly weird.”

“But you saw something. You wouldn’t act this way if it was only hearsay. You saw something personally.”

She nodded. Lips tight, shoulders hunched.

“Do you… want to talk about it?”

“Not right now. I need to know how you know what you do. How you are certain you can find this thing?” Lana stared at me for a long moment. Her eyes growing watery, she had a tear form in the left one, but it wasn’t enough to run down her cheek only blur her eye. Her dark mascara stained the drop an ashy color. Whatever she had seen must have rattled her.

“Well...” I said, “I’m never sure how to start this but… I’m a wizard.” I shrugged as if I hadn’t revealed something extremely personal.

At my words, she didn’t laugh but furrowed her brow in confusion which bled to anger and exhaustion in a moment.

“A wizard?” Disbelief like a clear dagger in her words as the tear ran down her cheeks and her shoulders slumped. I saw a bit of the light in her persona falter.

“Yeah,” I said, gut clenched as I knew I was being rejected… just like before.

She took a long look around the shop, then looked me up and down. I wore jeans and an off-the-rack T-shirt which I’m sure didn’t help my pronouncement. I was tall, wiry, and had a scruffy few days of beard growth. Basically, I looked normal. I saw the change in her expression. The disbelief turned to a closing off of herself towards me. She didn’t want to share personal information with someone who thought they were a wizard. Someone delusional that might even be a murderer. Whatever spark of interest that had caused her to stay so long was now thoroughly quenched.

“I can show you,” I said. My heart tight and my chest heavy. I wanted to unleash a massive flow of power and crush a car. To do something drastic and prove I wasn’t lying.

She raised a hand to stall me from saying or doing anything else. “I’ve met people who said they were wizards, Wickens, or who had supernatural gifts. They all turned out to be frauds. I just… well, I thought you might be different. Might actually know about the supernatural.”

The lack of belief made me irritated, “I am. I’m not a simple wilder. I am a wizard.”

She let out a long breath. “You may have seen things too, but a wizard?” Her jaw firmed, “No. That’s a step too far for me. I should leave.” She stepped towards the door.

I thought of a million things I could say, that I could do, but this reminded me too much of Chloe. I felt hot and my hands were shaking. I had a raw spot for those not believing who I was when I flat-out told them.

I wasn’t a liar.

It hurt, but not as badly as it had in the past. Chloe had been my best friend and then-girlfriend. We’d been inseparable the last two years of high school—Lana was barely an acquaintance. I was who I was, and I didn’t blame her. Hell, most wizards kept their identity secret and didn’t take kindly to those who shared that information wantonly. Witch burnings hadn’t all been wrongful superstitious killings. The truth was, even doing magic in front of someone who didn’t want to believe it wouldn’t change their mind. In the same way a religious person could see a miracle where others saw only coincidence, or where a political rival only saw the faults of the other side, despite absolute facts presented to them. People were tribal and it was impossible to convince them of things they were set against. Trying with Lana would only frighten her. Even if I managed to give her a glimpse of a largely unseen world around her, it would only scare her, and make her feel less secure. She’d been through enough and was just starting to rebuild herself. Honestly, it was probably better for her to not know me.

My chest hurt. But I could control my feelings, my frustration, my pride. I tried to rein in my magical aura, so as to not damage her phone if she had one. My emotions were growing frayed and it took some work.

“I’m sorry I wasted your time. Thanks again for coming by,” I said, managing to keep my tone level. “You're always welcome back."

Lana nodded, and I swung open the door for her, unsure of what else to say.

She began stepping through the threshold but paused, half in and half out of the shop. Her eyes met mine for a last moment, scrutinizing them. Perhaps, given time she’d be ready to learn more. The plant beside the door and out of view from Lana drooped as if dead and unwatered for days. Fren likely could feel my disappointment and felt the same. He was a good friend. I guess it was just me and my tree companion for a little longer, though I knew an annoying night of unsolicited advice was heading my way.

Lana turned to leave—and something struck her like the hand of god. She was thrown back into the shop, tumbling in a sprawl across the floor. I hesitated, looking to see if she was all right rather than slamming the door so the building’s strongest wards could activate immediately. That was all the time the creatures needed.