The Demon Within

by Linda Kay Silva

  ****

  As sunlight faded into the eerie dusk around Savannah, Denny watched silently as Tyler Jones waited in his Porsche Carrera for the garage door to open. When the door closed, Denny leaned against a tree and sat tight as the light to descend into darkness.

  She had just come from training with Ames and was still slightly sweaty from the workout. He hadn’t been able to tell her anything more about Asmodeus than Lauren, except to say that any of the seven princes were extremely powerful and nearly impossible to track down. They used henchmen for most of their dirty work, and she was certain the Prince of Revenge had set all of this in motion—the Magyar, Quick’s set-up—everything. The Magyar had been under his employ…to destroy the Silver Legacy.

  Liderc was a pawn of Asmodeus. That much she was sure of. He had moved his minions to Savannah to do his bidding.

  But why?

  Was this part of the cleanse or was it a side-step on the way? Just what was at stake here besides Quick’s freedom?

  Denny paced across behind the tree line. She needed another suspect before Quick could have a retrial, and Tyler Jones was going to be that suspect. The quick trial, the lack of a deal, the missing evidence, all of this pointed to an attorney who was guilty of some connection with this crime. She just had to make the pieces fit.

  It didn’t matter to Denny whether or not he actually did the crime. The facts and the truth were no longer relevant to her. She needed someone else to take the fall for the murders and who better than the demon known as Tyler Jones?

  What she needed to do now was set two balls in play at the same time and see which one she could pocket.

  She had a feeling she knew.

  ****

  Once night descended upon the city, Denny returned to the red light district. She needed to find some of Asmodeus’ minions, and she had a good idea where to start. Less than an hour later, she found what she was looking for, playing pool at The Office.

  Bellying up to the bar, Denny ordered an expensive scotch and tossed it back. The Hanta had fine tastes, to be sure. When she ordered another, she kept her eyes on the pool game and the little shit-disturber she’d seen a few days ago talking to Oscar by the door. She watched him as he expertly maneuvered around the table, sinking balls like a pro.

  He had no idea she was there.

  Lower-level demons were often poor at tracking high-level demons, and this punk had no clue he was being hunted.

  None at all.

  “You play?” A deep voice came from behind Denny. She fought the urge to suppress a smile at how easy this was turning out to be. She didn’t even need to search for them. They came to her like fish that were hooking themselves unknowingly on her line.

  “Play? No, no, I just like to watch.”

  “Well, you’ve been staring at that skinny dude for half an hour. He’s ugly as shit, so you can’t be looking at him for that.”

  Denny turned to face the speaker. He wasn’t ugly for a guy with a Tom Selleck mustache and pock-marked face. His eyes lingered too long at her mouth—like he was thinking of biting it. “I like watching pool,” Denny said.

  He chuckled. “That would be true if it was the game you were watching, but it’s not.”

  Denny turned away. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Suddenly, she felt his hand on her wrist. Just as he was beginning to say something, Denny whirled around quickly and had his hand in a thumb lock on the bar. She knew it was all Hanta, and she relished it. “Don’t fucking touch me,” she growled. “Ever.”

  The bartender’s eyebrows rose and when he finally found his tongue, he said, “Alright, alright...umm, take it outside.”

  Denny released the hand, slapped a twenty on the bar and slid off the stool. “Coming?”

  “Christ, you almost broke my goddamn wrist.”

  Denny flashed him a smile. “Next time, I will.” Walking to the pool table, she said in the Hanta voice, “Come along, boys, and let’s get this over with.” As she started out the door, she winked at the Samoan bouncer before entering the cool night air. Then, she blew a kiss to the pool players and smiled.

  Walking down the street, she ducked behind the first van parked on the road.

  “Where’d she go?”

  “Who the hell knows? Come on. Let’s just tell him she outran us and get out of this muggy night air. How the hell anyone suffers this weather, I’ll never know. Let’s just retreat.”

  “Why? You afraid of some girl?”

  “No.”

  Denny rose up behind the two low-level demons. “You should be.”

  Both wheeled around, hands clenched. “You!”

  “Yeah. Me. Is your boss that skinny ugly little shit playing pool?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Maybe.”

  She shook her head. “He send you out to deal with me?”

  “No.”

  “Yeah.”

  “God, you two are ridiculously stupid.” Denny pulled out her weapons and they crackled to life. “Did he fail to tell you I’m a Hanta? A shit-kicking, face-pounding Hanta?”

  They said nothing.

  “I thought not. So, fellas, this can go one of two ways. You can bring him to me and then scuttle away like the cockroaches you are, or you can die right where you stand.” She snapped Fouet. “What’ll it be?”

  They looked at each other.

  “I only need one of you to take off running toward your Master. The other will be cut in half before exploding into a million little pieces. It’s not pretty but it does the trick.”

  They glanced at each other again before the fatter one took off.

  “Aww. Looks like you lose.” Denny cracked Fouet.

  “No. Wait!” He put his hands out in front of him.

  “Yes?” The Fouet crackled and spit as if eager to taste his blood.

  “I...I know what you wanna know.”

  “Oh, really? And what do I want to know?”

  He blinked. “You wanna know what’s going on with the tracker.”

  Ah. They weren’t hunting her…yet. They were just keeping eyes on her. Denny’s suspicions that the Magyar’s minions had been keeping track of her were correct.

  And that’s why she decided to test the waters.

  “Actually, I do. You need to assume I know everything. You tell one lie and you’re toast.” She cracked Fouet. “Do I need to explain what toast looks like?”

  “No! No! No! I swear. The tracker’s job is to let him know where you are and what you’re doing.”

  “Him?”

  “The Master.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. The Master? Does he have a name?”

  “Asmodeus. He wants to know even—” Before he could finish, the ugly skinny pool playing demon shot him in the head. His body crumpled to the ground, the demonic spirit rising screaming from his body, but before it could take off, the gun wielding tracker swung his pool cue like a sword, cutting through the spirit, which fractured into thousands of black pieces.

  Then a third demon joined them.

  “Oh, look. If it isn’t the second string.” Denny held both weapons out in front of her. “You can’t possibly think the two of you amateurs can take me on?” Denny’s voice was more like a growl than a voice.

  The two demons backed up. “We came back here to warn you to stop what you’re doing. Back off.”

  Denny laughed. “Back. Off? Are you joking? You motherfuckers track me and threaten my family and you think you’re getting out of here alive?” Denny cracked Fouet. “I am going to really enjoy wearing your guts.”

  Suddenly, five more demons appeared, surrounding Denny. She looked slowly around at the seven demons surrounding her, a slow grin creeping across her face. “Seriously? Now this is a party.”

  The tracker with the pool cue kept his distance, but clearly took the lead. “You don’t wanna do that, Silver. He’ll just send more of us.”

  “Ah. You’re probably right.” Denny retracted both weapons and
pushed them inside her inner vest pocket.

  “Of course I’m ri—”

  Denny moved so quickly that the tracker couldn’t keep her from reaching his neck. She gripped it with a vise-like strength that she, alone, did not possess. “Look, dickweed, here’s how this is gonna play out: I am going to kill you and six of your buddies here. That will leave one of you to turn tail to give Asmodeus a message from me and mine. Kiss your ass goodbye.” With one swift motion, Denny snapped his neck, pulled her weapons back out, whirled around and disposed of the nearest two demons by cutting off one’s head and slicing the other in half diagonally from shoulder to hip. Guts exploded everywhere.

  When they blew, Denny whipped Fouet over her head and brought it down on the arm of the demon pointing a handgun at her. The arm and the gun clattered to the ground. She finished him off with Epee.

  Three down. Three to go. One to leave standing.

  Whirling around, weapons at the ready, she growled, “Step on up, boys and girls, and prepare to take your last breath.”

  With the exception of her crackling weapons, the air was still. Four pairs of glowing red eyes waited in the dark.

  “Cat got your tongues?” Denny laughed. “Look around, peeps. Only one of you is going to walk away from this.”

  Spinning around once more, Denny sliced the demon behind her in half at the waist. The others backed away. One pulled a gun and fired an errant shot at Denny.

  “A gun? Not very demonic of you, dude.”

  The shooter raised the gun. There was an extended pause and Denny knew she’d have to deflect the shot with Epee or risk being shot.

  Ames had taught her well. She hoped she was ready.

  Raising the gun to face height, the demon slowly pressed the trigger just as a shot from a different weapon rang out and a bullet tore through the forehead of the gun-wielding demon, ripping off the top part of his head. His weapon discharged into the sky and he was dead before his body hit the ground.

  His demonic spirit screamed as it left his body and Denny sliced it in half. It burst into millions of dark pieces.

  Denny had no time to look around for the shooter who had saved her life. Instead, she took off after the last three demons who sprinted away from her and into the darkness.

  “Yippy-O-Kai-ay, motherfuckers!” Swinging Fouet over her head, Denny flung it out at the demon lagging behind. The Fouet clipped the demon’s ankle, cutting his foot off. As he stumbled to the ground, Denny brought Epee down on him. He exploded loudly but she didn’t hang around to see it. Instead, she ran down the final demon, holstering Fouet as she ran.

  “No!”

  “Are you kidding me?” She barked, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him against a wall. “Did you read anything about the Hanta Raya, asshole?”

  “Fuck you.”

  Denny squeezed his throat. “Fuck. Me? Fuck me? You track me, attack me, and then curse at me? Oh, hell no. Listen Zippy. You’re going to live because I wish for you to. And you know why?” Denny put her face up to his. “Because I have a message for your master.”

  That was when Denny felt someone behind her.

  The mystery shooter.

  Faster than the human eye could follow, she pivoted, wielding Epee over her head.

  “Freeze!” The shooter called out from behind her.

  Denny managed to stop the forward movement of Epee just before it would have cleaved his head off.

  He was human.

  “What the—” The man lowered his gun slightly when he saw her red eyes.

  Denny used the butt of Epee’s hilt to knock the gun-wielder on the left side of his temple. He crumpled to the ground, and hit his head against the curb. He was out cold.

  Denny returned her glare to the demon. “Think you can just hunt me down and dispose of me that easily, asshole?” The voice, all Hanta now, was low and threatening as Denny pulled the demon to her face. “You tell Asmodeus I am coming for him. Tell him that nothing, and I mean nothing will stand in my way. I will kill every tracker, every hunter, every single piece-of-shit demon he sends after me until nothing stands between us. Do you understand?”

  The demon nodded, all wide-eyed.

  “Repeat what I just said.”

  He did...not verbatim, but it was close enough.

  Releasing him, Denny held Epee to his throat. “I’m not someone you and your little buddies want to fuck around with. If you or they choose to remain in Savannah...you will all die. Savannah is mine and mine alone. Come here at your own risk. Now get the fuck out of my face.”

  The demon took off down the street, so Denny holstered a closed Epee and turned to the guy on the ground. Reaching for his wallet, Denny flipped it open, revealing the badge she suspected she’d find.

  “God damn it,” she said, more Denny and less Hanta. “So not what I need in my life right now.”

  Denny looked at his identification. “Well, Officer Jason Shaw, looks like you’re going to wake up with quite a headache and images you won’t soon forget.” Denny placed his wallet back in his pocket and reached for the Beretta lying on the ground.

  “You think that wise?”

  Denny peered into the darkness to find Cassandra standing there in her long black cape, her face partly obscured by the hood pulled up around her ears.

  Moving slowly, Denny cocked her head. “You following me?”

  “Chyeah. You wish. Are you always so arrogant?”

  “Do you always stalk your bedmates?”

  Cassandra glided from the shadows. “Stalking implies intentional following. I’ve not been doing that. I swear.”

  “No? Then why are you here?”

  Cassandra walked up to Denny and flicked a piece of flesh from her shoulder. “You know, you understand so little about the supernatural world, and it worries me. I was out trolling...you know...to feed my baser sexual instincts...when I felt the incredible amount of psychic energy you possess.” Cassandra stroked Denny’s scarred eyebrow. “You have no idea, I am sure, of the tremendous amount of vibrations you create whenever your demon rises to the surface. It’s...delectable, really. Yummy in a way I cannot explain.”

  “So, you were following me?”

  Lowering her hood, Cassandra smiled. “No. I followed the energy, like I said, not realizing it was yours. When I understood what luck I had in finding you in flagrante delicto, I waited in the wings to see you...at work, as it were.”

  “And?”

  “And I am seriously turned on right now.”

  The man on the ground stirred.

  “Watching you kill…so very attractive. So incredibly intoxicating.” Cassandra pressed her body against Denny, who backed slightly away.

  “I’m a demon hunter, Cass. It is what I do.”

  “Oh, I understand all that, Golden Silver. I’ve just never seen such a thing. It...it was very impressive.” Cassandra trailed a single finger down the side of Denny’s face. “Incredibly sexy.”

  “And very dangerous.”

  “Haven’t you heard? Danger is the new sexy.” Cassandra gently touched Denny’s hand. “Leave it. You’re a demon. You do not need human weapons.”

  Denny tried not to smile. “How was it I didn’t feel your presence?”

  Running her hand through Denny’s hair, Cassandra closed the gap and whispered, “While you’re learning Demonology 101, spend a little time learning about witches and our craft. We could be such good…helpmates to each other.”

  Denny felt her heart quicken. “And why do I need to learn that?”

  Pulling closer, Cassandra kissed Denny’s mouth, seductively running her tongue over Denny’s bottom lip. “Because now that I know your quarry’s name, I can summon him.”

  Denny stopped kissing her and pulled her head back a little. “Oh no. Nuh-uh. Summoning demons is a bad, bad thing. I am just fine on my own right now.”

  Threading her arm through Denny’s, Cassandra led her away from the scene. “Oh yes, I can see that. But there’s no reason to be so
afraid of a summoning. Let’s just say a number of us have a way of summoning the evil ones…even ones as evil as Asmodeus, without being at risk or in danger.”

  Denny tilted her head. “Like you said…I need to educate myself more, and until I do that, there will be no summoning. None. While I appreciate the offer—”

  Cassandra yanked Denny to her, kissing her deeply and rubbing her body against Denny’s. “I love it when you get bossy. Now, come back to my place and show me what else comes with that delicious dictatorial demon of yours.”

  Without a second thought, Denny joined Cassandra in the shadows as they headed back to the coven.

  ****

  Cassandra’s mouth was unnaturally warm against Denny’s inner thighs, but even when clamped to Denny’s wet lips and slippery slit, Cassandra was a consummate lover—a giving seductress who knew her way around a woman’s body like a blind woman’s fingers knew Braille.

  She knew when to push harder, when to pull back. She simply…knew.

  And even when Rush’s words flooded her mind, Denny came so hard, she tore the sheets with the Hanta’s powerful grasp as her back arched and her muscles tightened, a pawn to Cassandra’s brilliant moves.

  When the waves of her orgasm became ripples, Cassandra laid her head on Denny’s shaved mound and chuckled. “I have to say, I’m not quite sure who I just had sex with.”

  The last three words rang in Denny’s head. She was grateful Cassandra hadn’t used the words made love with. While this sex was off-the-hook heated and passionate, it wasn’t making love. It wasn’t even close.

  “Forgive me” Denny said. “Sometimes it...”

  “Shh. No apologies. I knew what I was getting into—pardon the pun—when I first met you.” Cassandra climbed next to her and nuzzled her neck. “You’re not half bad, yourself. A very generous and attentive lover. Brianna was a fool for turning you away. A fool.”

  Denny sighed. “She moved on. It happens.”

  Cassandra kissed her salty neck. “Well, I wouldn’t kick you out of bed for eating crackers.”

  Denny smiled. “I appreciate that.” She pulled back so she could see Cassandra’s face. “So, you think you could actually summon Asmodeus? Hypothetically speaking.”