by C C Solomon
Azrael remained unaffected by Dante’s response. “I find a dead body, and I kind of want to know who it is. If nothing else than to say a little prayer.”
That could have been the truth.
Dante seemed satisfied with that response. “Yeah, both of you, don’t leave town just yet.”
Hold up, that was not part of the deal. “Well, we’re only here on vacation, so if we have to stay past our reservations, I guess you’ll be paying?”
Dante snorted before turning away from us.
I leaned towards Azrael. “I don’t think I like him.”
They gently patted my back in a shocking show of affection. “Me either. Let’s keep an eye on him, shall we?”
I nodded in agreement as we turned and headed to a very horrified looking Yasmine, who was currently leaning into Felix’s chest, with a hand to her mouth. I fought hard not to roll my eyes. This woman was the leader of the town. She needed to show strength.
I cleared my throat. “Excuse me, Mayor Covington,” I started, trying to pull her back to business. “Do you have any idea who that could be?”
She looked over to me with sad eyes, slightly pulling from Felix for the moment. “No. But I have my people looking into his identity. It shouldn’t take long with our magic. That poor man. How horrific.”
Felix rubbed her back. “Has anything like this ever happened before?”
Yasmine shook her head quickly. “Of course not. This is a peaceful sanctuary. We don’t have crime of any sort.”
I cocked a disbelieving brow. “Then why do you have all the men and women in black here?”
“Better to be safe than sorry. I’m no fool.” She pulled away from Felix and smoothed down her dress, standing straighter. I guess my questioning had gotten her mind back to mayor mode. “Did you find the child you were looking for?”
What if whoever had skinned that guy had grabbed the little boy and planned to do the same? I didn’t consider myself a softie but the thought of a kid getting harmed bothered me. I had a conscience even if I was half-demon.
I looked around the area as if the kid would just show up. Of course, he didn’t. “We lost him.”
Yasmine tapped her chin in thought. “I thought it was odd that you saw a child.”
I needed to know why. “Why are there no children here?”
Yasmine’s lips tightened, her eyes seemingly going dark. “Children bring pain. They are a distraction from allowing us to be our truest selves. Once you become a parent, it becomes your identity.”
“You don’t like kids?” I wasn’t judging. I was on the fence about wanting them myself.
“I don’t have a problem if one chooses to have kids. They just can’t live here with them. So, you see, if there is a child here, someone must have snuck them in. That would be against our rules. However, I have more pressing matters at the moment.” She looked past me. “Excuse me, I have to go.” She began to walk away, her security detail shadowing her. She suddenly paused and looked back at us. “You will tell me if you find this child.” She said it more as a directive and less as a question.
I wasn’t making her that promise.
However, Boy Scout Felix said that we would, and Yasmine flashed him a grin before turning away again.
“I don’t believe that they don’t have any crime here. It can’t be a coincidence that the day we show up, they have the one crime that happens to be a gruesome one.”
Felix shrugged. “It can happen. I listen to this true-crime podcast. It’s got supernatural and regular crimes. The most interesting ones are in unassuming places. Actually, when you think about it, nowadays every place is dangerous.”
Faith walked up to us with wide eyes as if she had something huge to tell us.
Azrael, by her side, looked less excited.
“Where were y’all?” I asked.
“Eavesdropping on the police,” she replied. “And we found out some things.”
I waved my hand to encourage her to speak. “Like?”
“Dead suit was apparently a local grocer. The witches tried to do a locating spell to find where his actual body is, and it pointed them to the mess on the street back there.”
I tilted my head. I felt like her calling the poor soul a dead suit was really disrespectful, but I would let that slide for now. “You said what, now?” What she said did make sense. Sort of.
She put her hands to the side of her head, still looking too excited for this macabre news. “I’m saying, dude didn’t get flayed. He liquified. Except for the skin, of course.”
I rubbed between my eyes with my index finger. “So, everything melted. Muscle and bone?”
Felix made a grumbling noise of disgust. “Kind of like deflated.”
Azrael squinted their eyes at me. “Ever seen anything like that?”
I leaned back. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because you lived in the underworld with a demon King. It’s not that hard a leap.”
Fair point. “No. I’ve seen people liquify, but everything goes with it, skin and all. And I have seen someone wear their victim's face like a mask but not the whole body. At least not without there being tears and stitches like some kind of Frankenstein.”
Faith gagged. “Damn, your life sucked.”
I shrugged. I hadn’t known any better at the time. “Anyway, I think it might be safe to say that a demon is here. I can’t think of any other being doing that. Not vampire, were, fae, ghoul…” I clapped my hands. “And it’s not our problem. We can let Monica know what’s going on and go back to our lives.”
Azrael crossed their arms over their chest with a shake of the head. “Not so fast. We have to confirm that it’s a demon. We want to make sure whatever we tell Monica is accurate so she can plan her next moves accordingly. We need to give her good intel.”
I let out a tired breath and looked around at the parking lot. The town was capable of solving their own issues. Why did the angels feel the need to get involved in every—
My breath paused as I saw a dark shadow on the outskirts of the parking lot, away from other people. It was tall and had the same red eyes and sharp white teeth I’d seen from earlier. And it was still waving. At me.
“Shit!”
“What is it?” Felix asked before following my gaze.
But he was too late, the demon waver dispersed into the darkness.
“I think I found our demon. And it looks like he wants to be my friend.”
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. There were no more visits from the demon, but I had a worthless sleep. I got up early the next morning and went out for a coffee. Finding a bench near the water, I sat down to think about my next move.
I didn’t need any more demons close to me outside of the ones I already knew. And this one was teasing me. But why? Was he the same demon who had melted the grocer?
What was I even doing here? This was such a distraction. Every day not focused on getting votes for the throne was a day wasted. Did I care that much if Monica helped me find out who I was? She probably wasn’t going to really help, and I had just attracted another demon for nothing.
Why hadn’t I followed up more closely with Marcus? He could help me regain some of my memories. But I didn’t trust him enough to let him know I was memory deficient.
How badly did I really want the throne anyway? Was I just going after it because I “felt” I needed to? Or because I was trying to find my place in the world?
Footsteps neared me, and I looked up to see Felix staring down at me, eating a donut.
How this grown man looked both intimidating and childlike at times was beyond me.
“Been looking for you. I thought you’d be near the water. Felt like that was your thing.” He passed a flat white box over to me. “Donuts. They’re pretty damn good.”
“Thanks,” I replied before opening the box and taking out what looked like a devil’s food cake donut.
Felix tapped the uneaten side of his donut with mine an
d said, cheers.
I chuckled. “You are a silly man.”
He leaned back on the bench. “I know.” He looked over the water. There were already a few people out canoeing and paddle boating. “Did you see the demon again?”
“Nope.” I took a bite. He wasn’t lying. It was good.
“Maybe it’s better I stay with you tonight. If this thing knows you’re taken, maybe he won’t bother you.”
I had to admit to myself I was a little happy he hadn’t forgotten about me while cozying up to Yasmine. Maybe I was just misinterpreting his friendliness with her. Maybe, Fran, you shouldn’t care because you aren’t in a relationship with him. I nudged him with my elbow. “Nice try. You know, maybe I attract demons because I’m part demon?”
“But I don’t.”
“Maybe you do, but you’re surrounded by your friends. Or maybe your angel father made sure you were protected growing up.”
Felix smiled and nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised. My dad was a good man. But if he’s really gone, he’s not able to look out for me now.” His smile fell, and a pained looked overtook his face. I could only imagine what he must be feeling.
It’s one thing to lose a parent. It’s another thing to know they are gone into nothingness. Not the spirit world or heaven. Just gone. When angels died, they became nothing. I never considered myself religious, but the thought was still unsettling. When the world changed, I’d always taken some comfort in the fact that there were different realms, that people could live on. I felt true comfort when I learned that paranormals could live extraordinarily long lives. However, to learn an angel could still be killed and be gone from any plane of existence was sobering.
I grabbed Felix’s hand because I didn’t know what else to do. I was the farthest thing from comforting. However, Felix was my friend, and I couldn’t just ignore his sadness. I wasn’t that heartless…most of the time. “I’m sorry about your dad. And we’re going to find your mother. And you’ll find out all about who he really was and who she really is. But I do know one thing about them both.”
He gave me a slight smile.
“They must have been good people because they raised a good man.” I gave a quick shake of my head. “That felt corny coming out. Was it corny?”
He lifted my hand to his lips. “You can be sweet when you want to be.”
I slipped my hand away from his. “Well, don’t get used to it. Anyway, back to the demons. Maybe if I knew what this thing was, I’d be able to handle it.”
“You’ve never seen that kind before?”
I shook my head. That had plagued me most of the night as well. “I called Nadia and described it. She hadn’t heard of a demon that looked like that before, either. I’ve seen a ton of demons. I did some research, and I’m wondering if it was a shadow demon.”
Felix finished his donut and brushed his hands clean. “I’ve seen one. Back when we were working for Alister as his enforcers.”
“Was I there?”
“No. But what you describe doesn’t sound like a shadow demon. What I saw was super tall and skinny with very long, bony limps. And it was faceless.”
I nodded slowly, feeling more confused. “Fuck. So I’m being tailed by an unknown demon. Sweet.”
He scooted closer to me. “But you have an angel and a Nephilim by your side. We’ll protect you.”
“I don’t need protection.” I finished my donut and jumped up. If I stayed seated beside Felix too long, I’d get comfortable. He was like a security blanket, all comfort and warmth. I almost felt like he would protect me. The problem was, I couldn’t depend on him if I was to be a leader.
“If we’re going to confirm there are demons here, we have to make sure Azrael sees it so he can report back.”
“How do you lure out a demon?”
“Let’s start with my new demon friend tonight. If it wants to say hi, I’m going to let it.”
Chapter 9
In my mind, the demon might go from waving to visiting if I looked more approachable. It also seemed to disappear when others showed up, so Faith begrudgingly agreed to sleep on the sofa bed in the living room. I stayed in the bedroom with the doors closed and blinds open in case whatever was trailing me wanted to look in to ensure I was asleep. I wasn’t sure this demon was related to whatever had skinned a person, but I wasn’t going to ignore the coincidence either. I needed to speak to it or kick its ass. Whatever the case, I wasn’t going to ignore it.
While waiting up for the demon, I closed my eyes, otherwise known as falling asleep. I’m not sure how long my eyes were closed, but something woke me up. I wasn’t sure how late it was after I drifted off. There was no clock in the room.
What had woken me up?
A noise. Like a scratching of wood. It was coming from the foot of my bed. I slowly turned my head in that direction.
A blur of darkness moved off the bed to the floor.
I shot up and quickly crawled to the end of my bed.
Nothing.
Damn, it was fast. Something had been sitting on the bed with me while I was asleep for who knows how long. That was scary.
Child-like snickering broke the silence of the night, and I looked around the room. Squinting my eyes into the darkness, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
Something was definitely in here with me, though.
“Okay, I don’t know what you’re laughing at, but if you’re trying to scare me, it’s not working. So, come out.” I sat up on my bed, my legs folded beneath me with crossed arms.
More laughter.
It sounded like it was coming from under the bed. Oh, this thing really wanted to go for gold in scaring me. Didn’t it know I didn’t frighten easy? I mean, it was still some nerve-wracking shit though.
I bent over the side of the bed slowly and then quickly lifted the comforter, looking under the bed. No red eyes. No sharp white teeth.
I moved back up and let out a yelp as the waving demon crouched on the end of my bed. It snickered, its glowing razor teeth parted as the laugh emanated from it. I had to admit, it did make for an eerie sight.
I raised my hands in mock surrender. “Okay, you got me. Haha. Now, what do you want?”
It jumped off the bed and stood up. It was tall, his head almost grazed the ceiling.
So, maybe it was a shadow demon.
I slid off the bed, readying myself for a battle. However, the demon just turned and walked to the door, disappearing through the wall. I grabbed my sneakers beside the bed and opened the door to follow it.
The demon stood near the front door as if to wait for me. I looked over to Faith who was sleeping on the couch, her face in a frown and one leg hanging over the edge.
“Wake up Faith, we have to roll,” I shouted, stuffing my feet in my shoes.
Faith shot up, but her eyes were still closed. “Show time?” she mumbled.
“Yep, demon is taking us to our supposed doom.”
She opened her eyes and slipped on her shoes. “That doesn’t sound right. We sure we want to go?”
I turned back to the demon, but he was now gone. I swung open the door and looked down the hall. The demon stood, waiting in the center of the hallway. I walked towards it, keeping my eyes focused on it in case it tried to disappear again.
Faith came up behind me. “I called Felix and told them we’re en route. This feels crazy unsafe.”
So, far as creepy as this thing was, why wasn’t I more scared? Oh, right, because I dated a demon King and was surrounded by far scarier things all the time with him. “Who you telling?” But we were here to investigate, and so we would.
The demon went through a door with a glowing exit sign above it, and we opened the door after it, moving in a jog.
No demon in the stairwell. We went down the steps and exited to the outside of the inn. I looked around and found the demon crouching on a car.
“Would you wait up? We can’t walk through walls like you can,” I shouted.
It laugh
ed again. The sound pricked my spine. Even though it was child-like, it was far from cute.
Faith leaned toward me. “Like, I’m pretty sure you aren’t crazy, but who are you talking to?”
I kept my eyes on the creature who now jumped off the car and began to walk down the street. “You don’t see a giant-ass black shadow man right in front of us?” I asked, pointing in the demon’s direction.
Faith squinted her eyes, trying to see ahead. “No.”
Maybe she didn’t have as good of night vision as I did. However, no one could miss those glowing teeth and eyes or that laugh.
“You didn’t hear it either?”
Faith gave me a wide-eyed shake of her head. I looked back in the direction of the demon and cursed myself for taking my eyes off of it. The creature was gone. I ran forward to where it had been standing only a second ago. Then spun around, searching for it.
“Come on, man! Didn’t you want me to follow you? Where are you?”
Faith made a noise, her face a mix of confusion and sleepiness as she pointed to her left. “Where did he come from?”
I looked in the direction of her hand and found a little boy standing under a street lamp. He was the same one from the other night.
Okay. This was beyond weird. So the shadow demon and the kid were connected. “Hey, kid. What are you doing out here alone?” I walked forward and then paused.
The child smiled, and I saw the familiar glowing razor teeth in his mouth. His dark eyes suddenly shown a ruby red. Crap, this kid was the waving demon. What kind of game was being played here?
“Can you see the kid?” I asked, my eyes remaining on the now little human-like demon.
“Yes. What do we do?”
“Do you want us to still follow you?” I called to the demon.
He nodded and then turned to walk again in the same direction as before.
I shrugged. “Guess we keep following.”
We continued to walk in silence for several blocks.
After a while, Faith let out an impatient sigh. “This feels like a set-up.”
“That’s because it probably is.”