Angel with Attitude

by Мишель Роуэн

  “Yeah, let’s avoid those.”

  Claire flipped through the little book. “All demons have category names, but most of my research material’s in Latin, and, well, I only took French in school. So that doesn’t help me out very much. So, what do you say? Little, big, wings, no wings? Totally your call. We just have to concentrate on being specific. Très specifique. That’s ‘very specific’ en Français.”

  What kind of a demon did Val want to be her guide in finding Julian? Very good question.

  “It would be good if it was something small”—she held her hand down at knee level—“Cute, easy to control. Speaks English.”

  Claire looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think I can do small, cute, and speaks English.

  How’s that?”

  “Three out of four ain’t bad.”

  Val heard a crash and turned to look at Claire’s open kitchen. “What was that?”

  “That?” Claire looked over absently. “That one doesn’t speak English. And it’s not all that cute, either.”

  “It’s a demon?”

  “Pesky little thing, really. I was just experimenting last week, and boom.

  “You summoned that?” All Val saw was black fur, beady eyes, and what quite possibly was a cigar hanging from its mouth. Then it flipped her the bird and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  She took a moment to compose herself. “How are you going to get rid of it?”

  “I think I’m going to burn the place down and collect the insurance money,” Claire said matter-of-factly while she flipped through the tiny grimoire. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

  Even though the balance of the known universe lay in Val’s hands—talk about pressure—she was having serious second thoughts about Claire. She worried that going with the very first demon summoner she could find wasn’t necessarily the best course of action, and wondered if maybe she should have at least checked the Yellow Pages first.

  “Claire, I’m not sure about this.”

  “Not sure about what?” She’d taken an opaque blue bottle off her shelf and begun to pour white powder from it in a four-by-four circle on the carpet.

  “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

  Claire stopped pouring the powder and looked up at Val with obvious annoyance. “Do you have any idea how much this stuff costs?”

  “I’ll pay you back. Eventually. It’s just . . . are you sure this is safe?”

  She grinned, finished drawing the circle, and got to her feet. Earlier she’d changed into a purple robe that looked like a housecoat Val had seen recently at Wal-Mart. But Claire seemed to be acting more “mystical” since putting it on over the McDonald’s uniform.

  “Nothing is safe, Val. That’s what makes it fun.”

  “It’s just that I’ve met a couple of demons in the past couple of days”—she didn’t count

  Alexa since she’d been reduced to a stain and a memory—“and I’m not too happy with either of them. Which is a complete understatement.”

  Claire frowned at her. “So you’re saying you want to call this off? No summoning?”

  Val chewed her bottom lip while considering other possibilities, which currently amounted to not a whole heck of a lot.

  “Come on! Don’t be a party pooper,” Claire prompted. “It’ll be fun.”

  “She’s a little bit crazy,” Reggie piped up from behind a throw cushion. “That’s what I love about her.”

  Claire’s eyes narrowed and she glared at him from across the room. He ducked back out of sight. Val was planning on trying to convince Claire to turn Reggie back into a human before they left, but she wanted the witch to be in a better mood before that subject was broached.

  “First of all,” Claire said after a moment, “every time I summon a demon I learn something new.”

  Val blinked at that. “Every time? How many times have you done this?”

  She shrugged. “A girl’s got to have a hobby. Especially when she has a cheating boyfriend.”

  “I didn’t cheat!” Reggie yelled. “A kiss is not cheating!”

  She ignored him. “Why don’t I add in some precautions?” She pulled a small chunk of quartz crystal out of the pocket of her robe. “See this? All of the summoning power will be focused into this crystal. While I have it, the demon will have to do whatever I say. Cool, huh? Just figured that out recently. It sure would have helped with my current houseguest. Oh, and as a bonus, your demon won’t be able to lie. That’ll be a big help since demons are such major liars.”

  “Tell me about it.” She thought about Nathaniel and the obviously false words he used to try to get her to come to Hell with him. As if it was a fabulous all-inclusive vacation instead of eternal damnation. Did he really think he was fooling anybody?

  She frowned. Jerk.

  “So you can fix it so the demon will obey you and can’t lie.”

  “Isn’t that what I just said?”

  Val crossed her arms. “I just want to make sure I understand you correctly.”

  “Well, do you?”

  “Do I what?”

  “Understand me.”

  For a moment, Val stared at the eager witch. Demons were nothing to mess with. They were evil, vile, underhanded creatures, but Claire didn’t seem to care too much about that. The thrill of her little hobby might get her into trouble sooner than later. If she didn’t watch out, one day her enthusiasm for playing with such dark forces might end up getting her killed. Or worse.

  “Cool,” Val said. “Let’s do it.”

  Claire turned off all the lights in the basement apartment so even though it was the middle of the day it was almost pitch-black inside. She lit black candles—unscented—and positioned them on the circumference of the circle. She placed the crystal at her feet just outside of the circle. Then she realized that it was too dark to read from the little book so she had to get a flashlight to hold under her chin. That kind of spoiled the mood.

  Reggie refused to stay on the floor in the dark during the summoning. He was afraid the demon-on-the-loose was going to grab him and make a rat sandwich. Since Val couldn’t guarantee that was definitely not going to happen, she let him sit on her shoulder after he promised not to try to look down the tank top she wore under her unbuttoned sweater. It took a full minute before he finally agreed.

  Claire had a look of proud accomplishment on her face for her little circle of Hell. “Now, Valerie, go ahead and tell the circle what you need the demon for.”

  “I need a demon guide,” Val told the circle. When the circle didn’t answer back, she continued, “To find a demon named Julian who has stolen something that I need to get back.”

  “Good enough.” Claire swished her robe and knelt in front of the powdered circle. She opened the book, and then gave Val an enthusiastic sideways grin. “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

  “Not the Bette Davis impression,” Reggie grumbled into Val’s ear. “Anything but the Bette

  Davis impression.”

  With the flashlight propped under her chin, Claire read aloud from the little book. It was in another language, something Val didn’t understand at all. Was it Latin? Didn’t Claire just say she didn’t understand that language? How did she even know what she was reading? And should Val be more nervous than she already was?

  As a full-fledged angel in Heaven, Val vaguely remembered being able to understand all languages of the human souls who entered through the gates. And just as she’d been told that all unusual meat tastes vaguely like chicken, all languages were the same and understandable to her.

  But that was then and this was now.

  Even though she wasn’t sure Claire understood what she was saying, she still spoke in a commanding tone, never hesitating even once. There was another container next to her—this one squat and about the size of a margarine tub—from which she scattered what looked like pink salt as a punctuation to the end of each line she spoke.

  It felt like it was taking for
ever and nothing was happening, but finally Val felt something. A wind. As if someone had turned on a heat fan. The warm air blew through the room and swirled around the circle. The crystal suddenly began to glow.

  “It’s working,” Claire whispered. “Now concentrate on what you want so we can find the best demon for you.”

  Concentrate. Okay. Val closed her eyes and tried to think about Barlow. The key. Finding

  Julian. Nathaniel kissing her, his body pressed firmly against hers.

  No, wait, she thought. That wasn’t important.

  The perfect demon guide. Who would have to obey his summoner and not be able to lie.

  Reggie let out a little yelp and Val’s eyes snapped open.

  The cigar-smoking demon was staring at them from across the room. Well, at Reggie, anyhow. And it looked hungry. Claire had stopped reading and also watched it warily.

  “I’m almost finished,” she whispered. “I just need to throw a last pinch of shadow salt into the circle.”

  “Well, let’s hurry it up shall we?” Val said . . .

  . . . Just as the demon launched itself at her.

  “No!” Claire leapt to her feet to block its path. “You’re not going to hurt my boyfriend.”

  “Your boyfriend?” Reggie piped up.

  “Ex-boyfriend.”

  “Muck-ruick soorl,” the demon spat at her.

  “How dare you!”

  “What did he say?” Val asked.

  “No idea,” Claire replied. “But it sounded rude, don’t you think?”

  The demon was growling, obviously agitated that he was being kept from what it probably thought was a tasty snack. Reggie was now so entwined in Val’s hair she worried she might need to cut him loose.

  The demon took a step forward and Claire held out her hand. “Stop!”

  “Ollor kiiod!”

  And then two things happened at once. The demon jumped at Claire and she said some witchy

  Latin thing. A pulse of white light emanated from her and touched the demon, causing it to freeze in mid-jump. It looked nervously from side to side, and then . . .

  The only way Val thought she could describe it would be to say it fizzled. Like a firecracker.

  Gone. The stogie dropped to the floor and Claire took a second to grind it out with her shoe before she fell forward on the carpet.

  Val rushed to her side and shook her shoulder.

  “Claire, are you okay?”

  She was breathing, but it was shallow. Val couldn’t believe Claire had that much power.

  She’d just vanquished a demon without any props or tools. Holy impressive, Batman.

  She blinked up at Val, looking a little, stunned. “I just kicked a little ass, I think.”

  “You did indeed. A little black, furry ass.”

  “You need to finish the summoning. Just concentrate very hard on what you want . . . throw the shadow salt . . . and keep the crystal safe. I need to . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  “You need to? You need to what?”

  “Have a nap. G’night.” She shut her eyes and immediately started to snore.

  Terrific. Just terrific.

  Val looked at Reggie, which hurt her neck a little since he was sitting on her left shoulder.

  “Now what?”

  His eyes were very big, but it could have just been their proximity to hers. His whiskers twitched. “Did you see what she just did to that thing?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  He scratched an ear. “I guess I got off lucky.”

  “I guess you did. Now, situation at hand. What should I do?”

  “She could be out for hours. The woman sleeps like a log and snores like a lumberjack. Like you said earlier, we don’t have that much time. Finish it.”

  “Right. Okay. I can do this.” Val crawled past Claire to the margarine tub and grabbed a handful of the grainy substance. What had she called it? Shadow salt?

  “Okay,” she said, mostly to herself. “Concentrate, Valerie.”

  The strange wind was still blowing. A few books had blown off their shelves. A vase filled with plastic daisies lay broken on the floor. Val leaned forward and picked up the glowing crystal and squeezed the salt tightly in her other hand.

  What I want, she thought. Concentrate very hard on what I want.

  “Okay, here goes nothing.” She threw the salt into the circle.

  As soon as the shadow salt made contact with the inside of the circle, everything changed.

  The room got incredibly light, so bright that she had to shield her eyes. Then the wind seemed to switch direction. Instead of moving in a circular pattern, it moved upward, Val’s long blond hair blew wildly, straight off her face. Where the circle was drawn on the carpet, flames shot out of the white powder, until they touched the ceiling to form a cylindrical wall of fire. She scrambled back to avoid the intense heat. The crystal glowed brightly in her hand, but remained cool to the touch.

  What have I done? she thought with more than a little panic. And is it too late to be having second thoughts?

  Uh, yeah.

  She glanced at Claire who’d moved into the fetal position on the floor and was sleeping peacefully while sucking on her thumb.

  She was going to be zero help.

  “I hope you only thought nice thoughts,” Reggie said shakily. “And we get a nice demon.”

  “Me, too.”

  The flames cut out as quickly as they’d appeared. The wind stopped blowing. The brightness subsided everywhere including from the crystal. The white powder circle lay as if untouched on the carpet.

  And from inside the circle Nathaniel looked out at Val with confusion.

  Nathaniel?

  Hmm, she thought, feeling stunned. Guess I shouldn’t have been thinking about him just a minute ago.

  Well, hindsight was always six-six-six, wasn’t it?

  Not good.

  “Valerie?” he asked after a moment.

  “Uh-huh?”

  He cleared his throat and absently brushed off his long black jacket. Underneath he wore a black shirt and black pants. Looked to Val like a bit of a theme. Not that she expected to see him appear in a Hawaiian shirt. Not that she expected to see him. Period. But there he was.

  He smiled, but it seemed forced, as if he was confused about what just happened. That made two of them. “I was just looking for you at the motel. You weren’t there.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  His smile faltered. “What’s going on?”

  “Um . . .”

  Nathaniel finally looked down at the circle he was standing in. He looked at Claire, unconscious in her Wal-Mart robe, clutching the tiny black grimoire, then again at Val with remnants of shadow salt still stuck to her palms. She slipped the crystal into the pocket of her jeans.

  His eyes narrowed. “What exactly have you done, Valerie?”

  She stared back at him. That was definitely the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?

  He attempted to move outside of the circle, but the invisible barrier created by the white powder stopped him with an audible zapping noise. He jerked back with a confused expression on his face. Then he held out his hand and lightly touched the barrier. It shimmered.

  Val just watched him in silence and a healthy amount of shock, while absently petting Reggie who still sat on her shoulder. He didn’t complain, but she could have sworn she heard him murmur, “Oooh, baby.”

  Nathaniel certainly was an extremely handsome man. Demon. Whatever. She hadn’t been able to observe him at length before.

  Tall, dark, and evil.

  He stared down at the circle that kept him trapped. Then he looked at Val slowly, his gray-

  blue eyes shimmering with an inner fire, and a shiver went down her spine at the intensity of his gaze. Surprisingly, a smile spread across his perfect features.

  “So, little angel, now that you have me all to yourself, whatever are you planning to do with me?”

  “Hey, do you two know each other
already?” Reggie whispered.

  “Shhh.” Val stared back at Nathaniel and removed her hand from Reggie, who protested a little. “If it’s any consolation, I didn’t mean to summon you in particular.”

  He nodded slowly. “I see. Just my lucky day, then?”

  “Must be.”

  His smile widened. “I’m glad. I was hoping to see you again. I wanted to apologize for my rude behavior last night.”

  “Is that so.”

  “Yes. It’s just . . . I’ve been dealing with some personal issues. I certainly didn’t mean to take any of my . . . frustrations . . . out on a beautiful woman such as yourself.”

  It sounds pretty good, she thought. So sincere. So warm and friendly, and delivered in that smooth, deep voice that made her knees feel weak.

  Stupid knees.

  “You’re lying.”

  “Excuse me?” He gave her innocent eyes. “I’m not lying.”

  Didn’t Claire say that the summoned demon couldn’t lie? Val was the one who threw the last bit of shadow salt into the circle. She had the crystal safely in her pocket. Didn’t that mean she was in charge now? Well, there was only one way to find out.

  “Can I ask you a question, Nathaniel?”

  “Of course. Anything you desire.”

  “You’ve been summoned against your will and are currently trapped inside that circle there.

  Are you angry with me right now?”

  “Furious.”

  Val’s eyebrows went up.

  He frowned deeply.“What . . . I didn’t mean that. Yes, I did. I’m furious right now. I want to—” He clamped a hand over his mouth.

  “What?” she prompted, though an unpleasantly cold chill had gone down her spine at his answer. “What do you want to do?”

  His eyes narrowed and he lowered his hand from his mouth. “I want to tear you apart.”

  “Yikes,” Reggie said. “Are those actual flames in that dude’s eyes?”