Chapter Text
Hello, heathens. Today we're covering an exciting topic in the Infernal Realm, for all of you who like to dabble beyond the spirit realm. That's right, demons. Now, the first thing to know about demons is how to protect yourself against them. Two of the most common tools are easy to find, but important to understand how to use. The first is salt. It's a common belief that demons can't pass over salt lines, but that's only partially true. The reality is demons can't pass over salt lines without disrupting them. So they won't completely ward off a demon, but if you lay a salt line, you can check to see if an invisible demon or Hellspawn has crossed the area. Second is silver. Most weapons don't hurt demons at all. Silver does hurt demons, but only if it breaks their skin; it sets their blood on fire. So keep a silver knife or blade ready; you need to break skin, so blunt objects won't do the trick. We suggest....
Continue reading on pg 9, "Salt and Silver"
-Witchcraft Weekly, volume 54.
Empty rooms were the scariest, Felix had always thought. Terrifying as it was throwing a door open only to be greeted by a demon, at least then he knew where it was.
But luck was not on his side today, as he carefully swept the room, looking for the invading creature. They'd gotten the right room, as Elodie had pointed out some tracks of blood on the carpet, and the lights to the room weren't working, but the demon itself was nowhere to be seen. Felix hoped it hadn't fled; it had taken long enough to track the demon here, starting over would be a nightmare.
"Checking the closet," said Elodie. She had to lower her flashlight, so Felix kept his aimed on where she was looking. Elodie reached the small closet in the room, holding a silver blade. in one hand and sliding the door open with another. "Damn. Nothing."
"Checking the bathroom," said Felix. Elodie turned to hover the beam of her light over the door as Felix steadied himself and then swung the door open. He didn't see anything at first; the cheap appliances didn't offer much hiding space, except behind the shower curtain. Creeping up to it, Felix opened the curtain, but once again found nothing.
"I don't think it's here," he said, before turning around, getting ready to leave the bathroom...
...and coming face to face with the demon.
The demon, as well as the human body it was possessing, was clinging to the ceiling like a lizard. A young man was possessed, but the shadowy eyes and black veins pulsing out of its skin made it clear that the thing was a demon, if it's position on the wall wasn't evidence enough. "It's here, Elodie," Felix shouted, dropping the flashlight to brace himself as the demon leapt at him.
Elodie began reciting an exorcism as the demon attempted to claw into Felix's chest. He slashed at it with his own silvered knife, managing a small slash into its arm. The creature recoiled briefly before moving in for another strike, which Felix ducked underneath before darting out of the bathroom.
Elodie was on the other side of the room, focused on the chanting. Even though she posed the greater threat, Felix seemed to be the demon's current target. He flipped on survival mode. He and Elodie knew the odds of beating a demon in a brawl like this were low, and with a human being possessed, Felix couldn't go in for the kill even if he did have the chance. The only option was to survive the assault until the exorcism was over.
The demon skitters down the wall onto the floor as it exits the bathroom and Felix launches himself out of the way as it tries to lunge for him again. He can barely think over the adrenaline pulsing in his veins, but manages to strike at the demon again, to keep its attention on him. He goes in for another swing, but the demon is ready this time, and Felix is knocked to his back, rolling back up onto his knees just in time to avoid a lethal swipe at his neck, the demon having grown long, sharp claws. They plunge instead into the skin of his forearms, and Felix shouts in pain, but holds strong.
After what feels like minutes, but is only about ten more seconds, Elodie finishes the exorcism. The demon screeches, a high-pitched sound that pierces Felix's ears. The claws retract back into human fingers, the human falls back limply, and the demon's spirit is pulled out of the body and thrown back to hell.
"You alright?" asks Elodie, coming to his side and pulling out a first-aid kit.
"I'm fine. Check him out," says Felix, tilting his head towards the unconscious man. He pulls some gauze and a roll of bandages out and begins treating the wound on his arm himself. It stings but he gets through it.
Elodie looks over the man. Felix isn't 't too concerned, as when demons used their powers to heal themselves, the bodies they possessed were also healed. "Just the small cut from where you nicked him. It wasn't even enough to burn the skin." She starts to clean the cut and the man startles awake.
"Holy shit, where am I?" the man asks, trying to sit up. Elodie gently places a hand on his shoulder, guiding him to lay down. "Who are you?"
"Take it easy. You were just possessed by a demon," she says. "I know that sounds hard to believe-"
"It doesn't, actually, not after everything that happened," the man interrupts. "Do you see my glasses, I can't see without 'em."
Without saying a word, Felix stands up to find the glasses, as Elodie keeps talking to the man. His name is Dwight, and he was in Vegas for a corporate event, but got lost trying to find a venue, then blacked out and came to in the driver's seat of a taxi. He hadn't been able to control his own body, watching the stolen car speed down the street before parking in front of this hotel and coming into this room, where he'd been for about three hours.
"I swear I didn't steal that car, though. Am I gonna be arrested?" he asks frantically, as Felix returns with the glasses.
"You'll be alright," Elodie assures him. "We have a government contact who will take care of any nearby camera footage or anything."
Felix tunes the rest of their conversation out. They give the same speech to all the people the save, how demons choose weak, unsuspecting targets, so it's unlikely they'll be a victim twice, a support group they can contact to share experiences with, and an explanation of what happened.
Felix finishes cleaning his injury before pulling out his phone to call Jonah. He shares Dwight's name and description of what happened, and Jonah assures him he'll take care of the stolen taxi, keeping Dwight's name clean.
Elodie gets Dwight set up with another place to stay for the night before they part ways. In the car, Elodie drives while Felix sketches the spirit he saw in his journal. The details are vague because he only saw it for half a second, but it's better than nothing.
"That should be the last of them," says Elodie as they pull up to their own hotel. A valet takes their car as they enter the resort. "Three demons in two days, though. That sucked."
"I'm glad Haddie got us out here, though. Things could've been a lot worse."
Elodie nods in agreement. They'd uncovered a plot by the three demons to start a fire in the poker room of one of Las Vegas's busiest casinos. The chaos and injuries could've been so much worse.
"I'm so looking forward to a good night's sleep, for sure," she says, unlocking the door to the suite they shared.
Felix agrees. They'd been woken up at three a.m. from a call from Haddie, telling them she'd had a vision revealing the location of one of the demons. He was ready to lie down for a long time. Taking off his jacket, he moved over to the window to examine the view of the Las Vegas strip, and froze.
"We have to leave," he said, pointing to the window sill. Elodie gasped. The salt line they'd set for protection was broken in the middle. A demon had been here.
"Damn it, I knew there was something off in that casino yesterday. I should've listened to my gut," said Elodie. In order to track down the demons, Elodie had performed a ritual that allowed her to see traces of nearby demons. She'd found a faint trail unlike the three demons they were tracking, but had brushed it off as nothing. "We need to kill it before it hurts anyone else."
"How would we do that?" asked Felix. He was already moving to the bedroom to throw his belongings into a bag.
Elodie doesnt answer for a minute, pacing back and forth in the room. "Hang on, our trap worked," she said, gesturing to the windowsill. When they left the salt lines, they had laid silver tacks within them. As the demon entered the room, it must have cut itself on the tack, leaving a few droplets of blood on the wall. "We can summon it and then kill it." She leans down, collecting the blood in a small glass vial.
"Are you sure? We've never performed a summoning?" asks Felix.
"We don't have a choice. If this one broke into the room, he could be tracking us or have our scent or something. We can't risk him finding us again. Plus, I've been studying rituals, and Mikaela has been giving me some tips."
"You're right. This is our best option. Maybe we can use the safehouse south of here. It's a bit of a drive, but better than doing it here."
"Good thinking. I'll call Zarina and make sure it's okay. We should drive separately, just in case."
"You go ahead now. I'm going to check the room for anything else out of place," says Felix. Elodie quickly gathers her things and after a quick hug goodbye, leaves the room.
Felix immediately gets to work. He doesn't bother checking furniture or other hotel items; he's more concerned about their personal items being stolen or tampered with. He looks over his journal, the extra knives they keep, and some of the extra spell components Elodie didn't take with her. Nothing seems out of place. Felix is just about to leave when he spots it.
Lying on the bedspread of Felix's bedroom, just beneath the pillow is a green and black poker chip. Upon glancing at it, Felix doesn't see anything out of the ordinary with it. But it most certainly wasn't here before. He reaches into his supply bag and pulls out a lead box. Lead is known for being able to ward off infernal properties; if that chip is cursed, it won't be able to affect him while it's in the box. Felix inserts the chip into the box, finishes packing, and heads out into the night.
As he climbs into the car waiting for him in the parking lot, he rubs his eyes. He's exhausted, and the safe house is a six hour drive away. No matter; catching this demon takes priority right now, and if that means giving up a few more hours of sleep, he'll do it.
On late nights like this, slot machines are Ace's favorite stomping grounds. They're full of people addicted to the sounds and lights, and it's far too easy to get people going, spending more, risking more. He lives for the cheap thrills.
He slinks up to a woman in her fifties. She slams her hand on the machine; four sevens had shown up but the last symbol didn't match. So close. She turns to get out of the chair, but Ace puts a friendly hand on her shoulder.
"Oh, so close! Give it another go, why don't you?"
"I don't know. This one's having a bad streak."
"That's how they get you. You step away just before the big win," says Ace, fully aware that he's lying about the machine's algorithm, and statistics in general. "Next one's on me," he adds, sliding another dollar into the machine.
The woman's eyes light up as the wheels spin around, but once again, no money is won. "So close!" Ace shouts sympathetically.
"Maybe I'll try again," says the woman, pulling another dollar bill out of her purse. Ace grins and walks away.
This casino gig is the best he's had in a decade. He's a natural at getting people to spend just a bit more money. The crooked owners made a devilish deal a year ago, wanting more money for their business, and Ace had been assigned here to help. It was a lot better than signing contracts and seducing people daily.
Not that he didn't enjoy that. In fact, right after encouraging a young man to splurge on some top shelf whiskey instead of the normal stuff, he spots two gorgeous men laughing at a roulette table. Ace runs the numbers in his head; he'd met his quota of money he'd convinced others to spend for the evening. He deserves a good time. After all, he'll have to feed soon and these gentlemen make a fine target.
He goes up and introduces himself, and their positive responses tell him he's read them right. They're a couple, but looking for a third tonight, and Ace is more than happy to volunteer his time. He goes to buy them another round of pink cocktails, but the bartender stops him.
"Hey, boss has a job for you," says the bartender.
"Ugh, seriously? This late?" asks Ace, knowing that this time of night is prime time for his sort of work, but he likes to complain.
"You're lucky, it's a quick one." The bartender leans over the bar so only Ace can hear what comes next. "Room 13 in that hotel next door. There's a pair of demon hunters staying there. Go in and mess it up just enough to scare 'em off. Let 'em think we're on to them."
"Sure thing," grumbles Ace. "But gimme those drinks first."
The drinks are ready in record time. Ace takes one in each hand and returns to the table where the guys are celebrating a win. Doesn't matter. The casino will win it back soon enough. Triple zero roulette, an addition Ace had suggested, always beats people out.
"Gentlemen, I got a quick piece of business to take care of," says Ace. He hands a glass to each of them before winking. "But I'll be back before you can say 'spit-roast'!" The couple laughs and Ace turns to leave.
The crisp air is a welcome feeling as Ace slips into a back alleyway. He finally allows his human disguise to slip. While his physical features don't change much, he sprouts a pair of horns, his eyes darkens, and his tails slips out behind him. The room is on the first floor, so Ace simply forces the window open through sheer will and peaks inside.
Everything looks empty. The lights are off and he doesn't hear anything. There is, however, a line of salt in the windowsill. This job just keeps getting easier. Ace climbs through the window gingerly, but disrupting the trail of salt nonetheless. Perfect.
He surveys the room, looking for any obvious traps he'll have to destroy, but sees nothing. Upon entering one of the two bedrooms, he notices a small bag with a handful of herbs, stones, and other strange objects, and thanks Lady Luck that the room was empty. He hated dealing with witches or spellcasters of any kind.
The other room has fewer signs of a demon hunter, but there is a large journal sitting on one of the desks that catches his eye. Ace wants to flip through it, but he's on a time crunch. Doesn't want to risk being spotted by demon hunters. So he settles for one more ill omen that is sure to leave the hunters confused. He conjures a poker chip out of the void and tosses it onto the bed.
As he begins to leave, he hears someone speaking outside the door, prompting him to leave in more of a hurry. Slightly careless this time, he scrapes his hand on something sharp. Fuck, they'd left silver on the windowsill. But there was no time, so Ace slips out the door and shuts the window before the door can open.
As he walks back out into the dark night, he shifts his appearance back to his human disguise. He reenters the casino, looking for the lucky pair he'd found earlier. It was shaping up to be a damn good night.