Among Demons : Succubus Divine

Ch. 4 : First Request

The next week at work flew by without a single sign that people even knew that I was here. And I wasted time just organizing, decorating and submitting the documents needed for my personal file. I even snuck out during lunch one day and came back with curtains to help cover up the large window-wall and provide some more privacy for me while I worked. Yet I never once received a single email or heard anyone knock on my door for assistance.

My official job title was mostly known as a fancy little acronym, D.I.L which meant Demon Intelligence Liaison. It was meant to be a position that provided knowledge and information about all kinds of Demons so that Human officials, like cops, doctors and city workers, could help my people and do their jobs better. So I wasn’t all that surprised that no one was reaching out to me at all, let alone approaching me for aid for any kind. Even though I knew that my knowledge could be very useful to the cases that these cops and Detectives were currently working on.

I stared at my screen and once again read the email I had just typed out, hoping that I had sounded professional and nice enough to my new coworkers.

I flopped back in my rolly-chair once I hit send and started doing a bit of online shopping to distract myself a bit. I didn’t want to keep hitting refresh on my screen and waste another day just sitting here until my ass grew sore. I wasn’t really expecting a response back from anyone, and even if I did, I was sure that it was going to be nothing more than thinly veiled hate. So I was stunned mute when I looked through my emails during lunch and actually found a request for assistance in an active case.

I leaned as close to my screen as I dared and looked over the files that were attached to the email, feeling strangely excited and angry at the same time.

Without wasting time, I pulled out a notepad from my satchel and started jotting things down that I felt needed a second look. Then I wrote down the name of the lead Detective from the email and quickly found that his office was right across from mine at the end of the middle hallway. So, with my notepad in hand, I stepped out and made my way towards it, feeling determined to help out the victims that were involved.

Ignoring the weight of eyes that had watched me step out of my little cave, I stopped in front of the door that was labeled, RM 313, and knocked. It took a long moment before I started to wonder if anyone was inside and I slowly reached for the door handle to enter. But a rush of wind startled me and the door was pulled open, revealing a tall man that was equally as shocked as I felt.

He was a full head and shoulders taller than me, though I had always been pretty short. His dark brown hair was slightly longer than I expected, with a few locks touching the curve of his eyebrow. His steely gray eyes were piercing too, which made me suck in a breath when I locked on them. He seemed to frown a bit while he stared at me and something that I thought was recognition flitted across his face, though that couldn’t possibly be right. It was clear that he was physically active as well because of his large frame and the perfectly cut muscles that could be seen through his clothes. But an aura of danger and intimidation clung to him, making me cautious yet interested in this mystery man.

“Hi, I’m Devin, the new D.I.L.” I said, breaking out of my daze and offering him my hand. “I just looked over the request for assistance in the case you’re working on, Detective…?”

“Ciaran.” He answered, his deep and rough voice making me gulp a bit. “Marcus Ciaran.” He shook my hand and I was grateful that he didn’t seem bothered by me being a Demon, at least, not yet. “You’re not what I was expecting.”

I blinked a few times, stunned at his bluntness before a small smile popped onto my lips.

“Neither are you.”

The smallest twitch of a smirk appeared on him before movement from within the room caught my attention.

“What do we have here?” Another man said, stepping around Detective Ciaran while he eyed me openly. “Looks like the Chief really did hire a Demon.”

This man was an inch or so shorter than the first, with short dark blonde hair like my brother Nick. But his eyes were a warm chocolate brown color that I hadn’t seen much in Humans. He also had a light dusting of freckles that made him look younger than he probably was and a glint of mischief clung to his sarcastic smile, warning me of the amount of trouble he was sure to cause.

“This is my second-in-command, Detective Daniel Milton.” The Team Leader said, waving to the still snarky smiling blond. “The silent man is my third, Detective Izaak Kale.”

I glanced over at said silent man and my body quickly stiffened.

He was an ebony man with thick black hair and deep brown eyes that he was keeping as far away from me as possible. His hand was fiddling with the ring on his finger and he very clearly looked uncomfortable with my closeness, though I was much closer to his Team Lead than to him. He was just as big and tall as the others but the way he was behaving was all too familiar to me and my own annoyance and irritation shot up as we stood there.

“I hope my presence won’t be too much of a problem.” I looked back at Detective Ciaran, narrowing my eyes a bit as my voice took on a much sharper tone. “That is, if you really want my help.”

“As long as you don’t use those Demonic powers of yours,” Detective Milton answered, forcing me to look at him as he leaned towards me. “Keep your distance and do your job, then there won’t be a problem.”

“Of course. Now you all should stay out of my way, actually listen to me and show me the respect I deserve.” I countered back, letting a flash of my powers flow into my eyes and forcing the blond to back away from my now glittering ringed gaze. “What? Did you think you were the only ones able to make any demands?” I scoffed, shaking my head as I turned and started heading back towards the elevator. “You’re not that special.”

I could hear them whispering to each other behind me as I went to my office, gathering my things while they waited for the elevator. Once it dinged, I quickly locked my room and followed them inside, keeping to my own corner so I was away from them.

“From what I read in the files, there seems to be some confusion about the victims involved.” I started, using a professional tone of voice and keeping all three men in my periphery.

“Yes.” Detective Ciaran said, making me squirm a bit when I caught how heavily he was staring at me. “We believed that the victims were Human when we started looking into the death of the first, since she had no family. But with the second and third things became complicated since their families were clearly Demon.”

I nodded as he spoke and started racking my brain through the dozens of different races that could have this situation occur.

“That’s not abnormal.” I softly explained, talking more to myself than them. “There are some Demon races that can have that happen in their family if they mix with Humans.”

“What do you mean?” I jumped a bit and turned to face the Lead Detective, surprised beyond words that he genuinely sounded curious and interested in what I had to say.

“Well, there have been cases where a Demon and Human coupling have nothing but Human kids.” I continued, trying my hardest to keep myself from getting overly excited during my explanation. “This usually happens when the Demon DNA that the children were meant to be affected by remains dormant. So the next generation could carry it and either have Demon children as a result or keep passing on the hidden Demon Genes that remain asleep.” I calmly stepped out of the elevator and barely took note that we had stopped in the underground parking space where cops park their vehicles. “This only happens to certain races so once I see the bodies myself I can confirm whether or not the victims are Demon, as well as anything else that might connect them.”

“The only thing we’ve noticed is that they're all blondes with some type of flower tattoo somewhere on their bodies.” I followed them as they walked across the lot, aiming for a specific van near the back. “It’s crudely done and looks to have been placed on them post mortem, this is the only thing that has tied their deaths together and suggests that they’re being killed by the same person.”

“Or Demon.”

I ignored the quiet words of Detective Milton as I climbed into the backseat of the van, sighing when Detective Kale scooted as far away from me as he could.

“Hey, answer me one thing.” I narrowed my eyes at the snarky blond while the car started moving, clenching my hands tightly on my lap to keep my emotions under control. “We couldn’t find it anywhere in your file when we looked for you, and many of our colleagues wanna know too.” I raised a brow at him, silently telling him to ask his damned question. “What race of Demon are you?”

I stared at my lap as I felt their eyes on me and that familiar twisting feeling in my stomach returned, making it hard to breath. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and think that maybe these guys or some other coworkers would react differently once they learned what I was. I knew better than to expect them to see me as more than some Demonic slut that sleeps around, destroys relationships and uses her powers for selfish reasons. But a tiny stupid part of me was always hopeful and wanted to make more friends. To make connections with others as easily as Humans do and to stop feeling so afraid of growing close to other Humans that weren’t my brother.

“I’m a Succubus.”

The blond Daniel Milton scoffed and shook his head, clearly unhappy with my words. His team member Izaak Kale gasped audibly, cursing under his breath as he stared out the window, still playing with his wedding ring. And the Team Leader, Marcus Ciaran who stared at me through the rearview mirror as he drove, narrowed his eyes a bit, looking away without a word.

Yeah, it was such a pathetic, tiny and stupid piece of me to hope for something more.

I remained silent and stared at nothing, taking a bit longer to realize that I didn’t know where we were going. Hell, they could be taking me to some secluded place to get rid of me for all I knew. And I was just sitting here wallowing in self-pity over something I knew better than to waste time thinking about. But before I opened my mouth to ask where the Team Lead was taking us, he parked the car and they all rushed out.

I scrambled out after them and paused for a moment, realizing that we were across from a live crime scene. The stereotypical police tape along with cops were keeping the small gathering crowd from getting closer. I kept close behind the three men and rounded the corner to a large building that looked to house many small businesses, nearing the back where the dumpster were. Once we crossed the yellow tape and stopped by a large metal trash bin, my hand flew up to my necklace that I always kept hidden under my clothes, my fingers playing with the thin metal charm that hung below my breasts.

“Alright Demon.” Detective Daniel asked, glancing at me while the others went around the body. “Find us something useful.”

I ignored him and slowly approached the young woman who looked more like she was sleeping. I slipped my hands through some gloves that I carried in my bag and kneeled by her head, frowning as I got a better look at her.

She was a beautiful woman with a fair complexion and not a single beauty mark anywhere on her. Her head was slightly turned to the side while her shoulder length blonde hair looked to have been combed and fanned out around her, almost like a crown. Blood stained her neck and I could almost see the imprint of a palm left behind by the person that left her like this. Her clothes were also torn and covered in all manner of stains, leaving her partially exposed to all the men that were walking around her. Her knees, knuckles and toes were also badly cut up and scraped, like she had put up a hell of a fight before whoever attacked her cut her open. She was even missing a shoe, though I could see it now on top of the overflowing bin of trash behind me.

“It’s the same guy.” Detective Izaak muttered, pointing out the badly drawn flower that was scratched onto her calf.

My frown deepened when I started putting things together and I began to pull things out of my bag to confirm it.

First, I pulled out a thin pure white ribbon and tied up a small lock of her hair, cutting it with a switchblade I kept in my bag. I then stuffed the little lock into a small vial and sealed it, hoping it would be enough to appease her family and get them to answer our questions. Then I took out a little square of thin paper and rubbed on the back of the poor woman's ear, softly apologizing when I needed to add some pressure on her skin. That same paper was then shoved into a different vial, this one made of glass, and a bit of water was added to it. I pulled out a lighter and proceeded to boil the bit of water in the vial then waited for it to cool before I popped it open and brought it to my nose.

“What the f**k are you doing?” Asked a crime scene tech, eyeing me as if I’d just stepped on a kitten while dancing the waltz naked.

“I’m confirming whether or not this victim is a Demon or not.” I got up and focused on the vial in my hand, taking a deep breath of the crisp and alluring scent of roses that filled my nose. “Can you tilt her leg again for me?” I told the still stunned man, smiling when he did as I asked. “Thanks. I’ll need to see the other bodies, but I can say that this woman was a Nymph.”

“How can you be sure?” Detective Daniel questioned, opening the woman's eyes to show that there was only one color to them, not a pair of rings. “Her eyes are Human.”

“Contrary to what you see before you, Demons don’t always hold their dual colored eyes after death. Some races lose that physical part of themselves seconds after they die because all that is left is a Human shell. Their powers as well as their very core all tie into their Demonic half, which gives them dual rings like mine.” I explained, looking at everyone that had stopped to listen to my explanation. “Nymphs are one of those races that lose their secondary color after death, making them hard to identify. But, because their connection to nature remains with their bodies long after they die, performing a scent test, or a special blood typing will still mark them as Demons.” My eyes then dropped to the woman who was now gingerly being loaded into a body bag for her trip to the morgue. “She was a rose Nymph, which also explains that crappy red blob that was scratched onto her leg.”

“Alright.” I jumped a bit, not realizing that the Team Lead had moved to stand by me as they loaded the body into the van. “Let’s head back to the morgue after we’re done here so you can confirm things with the other bodies. We’ll go over the evidence and see if there’s anything else that can be learned to stop more bodies from showing up.”

I nodded, watching as the other two carried bags of evidence into the crime scene van. I waited by the van while the three man team questioned onlookers as well as the woman that found the body, most likely hoping that someone saw something that could help us. And while I waited, my fingers continued to play with the charm hidden under my blouse, needing it to keep myself calm.