Bonded by Destiny

Nira Daniels, Centurion, Investigator and heir to the D Corporation throne. This was how she was known. Not as Nira, the cute and fun girl or Nira, the loyal friend. Nope, she was Nira, Darius Deus' daughter. Right now in fact, she was on yet another mission for her father. Her father's company made sure Mythics like Vampires, Lycans, and Daemoni stayed hidden from the real world. Sometimes this involved her, sometimes it didn't. Most of the time the job was tedious and felt more like a babysitting job, but occasionally there were fun cases where it was something unusual like discovering dragons in hibernation.

This time she was heading towards the infamous Hell's Gate, a cave in the mountains of Greece. There were rumors of a Daemoni terrorizing the local village. She knew that a realm veil existed in the cave that periodically became thin so it didn't surprise her that Daemoni were causing trouble. Realm veils were naturally occurring permanent doorways between the realms. They could be extremely dangerous if not warded to keep the helpless humans from stumbling where they didn't belong. Most of the stories of other worlds were inspired because a human came upon a realm veil.

Daemoni loved to take advantage of thin realm veils. They'd been known to tempt humans to cross over and once they were in the Dark Realms their souls become tainted making it impossible for them to leave. So it was her job to make sure that didn't happen. Daemoni were a fascinating group of Mythics. They always seemed to be causing trouble if she were honest. Maybe that was why she found them so fascinating.

Daemoni were called demons on Earth but they weren't all evil as humans and their religions believed. In fact, for the most part, humans got it wrong. They were extremely complex, much like humans. Their society existed as a hierarchy. Their High Queen, Innara, was at the top. Next came the Realm Princes. There were nine realms that made up the Dark Realms. Each was ruled over by a prince. Below the princes were their lieutenants and guardian Daemoni. Depending on the realm there were any number of levels below that.

Each realm in the Dark Realms was in charge of a certain type of soul. Some Mythics automatically went to a particular realm when they died. For example the Fae all passed through Asuras before either being punished or reborn. For humans, there were multiple realms they could go through. The most evil, though, always went through Ikisat for punishment.

Being around evil so much tended to corrupt Daemoni just as it would humans. Most were not inherently evil. They issued out justice and avenged those that had been wronged by punishing those that deserved it. They did the dirty work as it were. She often wondered if in that much darkness there was any light. She never heard of a single Daemoni finding love and happiness. That is if you didn’t count Lord Lucifer, but then he wasn’t technically Daemoni. He was Celestian. That left her wondering, did they have hope of finding love? Did they ever see the good or only the bad?

She often wondered if they even knew what love was. If they didn't have hope of finding love, what would it do to the Dark Realms if they were given that hope. Hope of finding love is what kept her going some days. She missed having a life outside of work. She'd traveled around the world and dealt with the craziest of situations but in many ways she felt like she'd never really lived. She had been on a couple of dates, but nothing beyond a warm body in her bed resulted from it. She wanted to find someone who saw her for her, someone who loved her heart and soul. She wanted what her father and step-mother Helen had... true love. Maybe that was all the Daemoni needed as well.

As Nira trudged through the mountains, where the path was so very rarely used it had essentially vanished, she inhaled deeply and enjoyed her surroundings and the fresh air. She loved being out in nature. It was a far better environment than being stuck in an office with her father. Oh she loved him but she'd never really gotten along with him. They were too much alike and things had always been a bit rocky between them for one simple reason, she was a human out of time.

Darius, an immortal who was half Illuminare and half Celestian, had spent one night with her mother thousands of years ago. He’d discovered ancient writings about her village and the people in it, including writings of a woman with the only child in the village with lavender eyes like his own, and how that village had been raided and destroyed along with all in it. Until that moment he'd had no clue he had a child, a child that hadn't lived past the age of four. So Darius had done what he'd always done, he fixed it. He called in a favor from the Magick Consortium's Lord of Time and rescued her right before her death and brought her forward in time.

For a long time she’d been angry that he hadn't rescued her mother. Once she had learned the whole story, that the Lord of Time had only allowed her rescue and not her mother's, she had forgiven her father and let it go. The issue now was that they were so very much alike and drove each other nuts. They just couldn't seem to avoid arguing with each other. As a result, she preferred field work while he stayed at the office. Their relationship was better with some distance between them.

Pausing in her thoughts, she unhooked her canteen from her backpack and took a drink of water as she took a minute to look around. The sky was a gorgeous soft blue color with small little puffs of clouds. The trees were tall and robust and the ground was lush and green. Creatures big and small roamed this area. Some were Mythics, some just simple creatures. Places like these held a natural magic that couldn't be reproduced. It was soft and beautiful and eased the soul. She always felt at home and at peace in places like this.

Closing her eyes, she breathed in the clean air and soaked up the gentle feeling of peace and unity. She opened herself up and for just a moment she felt completely at peace. If she could live in a place like this, she would. Here, the self doubt and the questions were quiet. Here, she felt content.

With a deep sigh, she fished out her phone, and pulled up the satellite app showing where she was and where the cave she was looking for was located. She realized that she was actually closer than she thought. Putting her canteen away by attaching it once again to her backpack, she continued her hike. As she got closer and closer to where the cave was she noticed that there was less green foliage on the ground and more blackened rock. Pausing to take a look at the rock she realized it was blackened by fire. She was definitely close now. Following the hidden path of rocks, she approached the cave carefully and as quietly as possible.