A Lovers War

Chapter 4

The rest of our conversation ended soon after I had agreed to the whole situation. Lamond had vanished off into thin air like usual on some “official” business and had left me here alone with Demitri. Demitri and I had to go meet up with a demon named Thrasher. Thrasher was supposed to be able to tell us the name of one of the 7.

“Are you sure he is going to tell us? He has very sensitive information, why would he hand it over?” I said as I eyed my boots. We were standing outside of an old rickety house, I was afraid to go in. The place looked as if it could fall down any moment. Thrasher lived here; I could feel an old presence nearby. It wasn’t a strong one but he still had some fight left in him. Maybe I would be able to torture him. I could tell I had already been in hell for too long because I could feel bad thoughts running through my mind.

“I don’t know, but Lamond said it would be easy enough. Plus we are a lot stronger than him so we could always torture him till we get our answers.” Demitri flashed a fang filled mouth at me, I could feel his hunger starting to surface and for some unknown reason it turned me on. That thought sent shivers racing down my arms. He could tell he struck a nerve with me. He reached his hand out and trailed his ice cold fingers down the length of my jaw. “You are a beautiful little thing Astrid. I could just eat you up.” He moved in closer and blew a warm breath down my neck. I shifted uneasily and pulled from out of his embrace.

“We have a job to do Demitri. Save the flirting for another lifetime.” I said in a cold voice but on the inside I had almost melted with pleasure. I don’t think he had realized what he had done to me. I need to stay focused and not jump into bed with a vampire that easily. I needed to get in that house now or Demitri would do me in for sure.

The house mirrored the image I thought it would. Old couches, tables, and other odd and end furniture covered with white plastic. Everything was covered in inches of dust and cobwebs were just about on everything. A few huge rats ran across the floor, of course jumping me in the process. “Thrasher come out now. We need a few words with you.” My voice echoed through the old house. Demitri was in a defensive position ready for whatever Thrasher had coming our way.

A man walked out of the kitchen very slowly and propped himself up against the far wall with his arms folded against his chest. He was wearing a tattered and torn black trench coat with black army combat boots. To the normal human he would have looked dangerous, but not to me. I could feel his power he was giving off and honestly, it wasn’t much at all.

“What are you doing in my home?” His voice boomed with authority. He had an angry look on his face and was poised to attack at any moment.

“Calm down Thrasher, we only want to talk. We mean no harm, for now.” Demitri had moved to stand in front of me. I guess he wanted to be my hero. How sweet.

I pushed past Demitri to where I stood next to him only a few feet from Thrasher. “We need some information on the 7 that protect Alfric my.” voice commanding attention. I was not going to let Demitri think that I was some damsel in distress. Demitri glanced sideways at me and let me continue without anything being said. “We know that you know, so you can make this easy and tell us or you can make this hard.”

Thrasher was standing straight up, but this time fear was written all over his face. He looked as if he was going to flee right out of the front door. “I can’t tell you. They will kill me.” His voice was trembling with fear. He began to fidget nervously. He dropped to his knees and crawled to my feet helplessly. “Please, you can’t ask this of me.” He was begging.

Thrasher, you will have our protection. We will not let them get to you.” Demitri said as he bent down to help the poor man up off my shoes. “Just give us one name Thrasher, we can work with that.” Thrasher looked up at Demitri and stopped crying.

 He shook his head with acknowledgment. “There is one that goes by the name of Serphine. He.” Thrasher began to immediately choke, he began to convulse on the floor. His mouth started foaming with his own bile. He reached his hand up to me and stared into my eyes. He was dying and I couldn’t stop it.

“What the hell is happening to him!” I screamed with panic in my voice. I reached down to try and help the demon pass but he was whipping his whole body wildly. His own insides had begun to come up, he was now covered in blood. He gave out one last scream and died. My heart was racing, I didn’t know what had happened.

“Shit, a warlock had placed a spell on him Astrid. Once any of the names of the 7 are spoken it immediately kills whoever is under the spell. We are working with a much stronger force than I originally thought.” Demitri was truly worried. Panic was written all over his face. “I have to report back to Lamond immediately.” He grabbed my arm and practically drug me from that house. “Astrid, are you alright?” He began to shake me.

I blinked a couple of times trying to shake the image of that demon dying in front of me. I was horrified. “Yea I’m fine. Just give me a few minutes.” I said trying to pull myself together. We were dealing with a very strong force and that force didn’t want us to know anything about it. Demitri gave me one last look over then went a few feet away and pulled out his phone and called Lamond.

A few moments later he returned. “Are you ready to go?” He asked me as he put his arm around me. I nodded and then we disappeared.