by Parker,Lori
A few minutes before last call, Todd slides over to my side of the bar.
“What’s up, Ty? You’ve been really distracted tonight.”
I shrug at him. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
“Anything I can do to help?” he offers.
“Unlikely.” I can’t help the look of disappointment on my face.
“Come to my office after we close up, I need to talk to you anyway.” He pats my hand and moves away. Shit, I’m getting fired. Probably because of the trio of blondes that still glare at me every time I move.
I spend the rest of my shift dragging my feet. I really need this job, mainly to pay rent and eat ramen noodles. Plus, I have three semi-expensive knives to replace, and a whole bunch of demon-killing supplies to buy. Probably. If I ever figure out how to kill Kade.
When the lights go out and my till is counted, I finally head back to Todd’s office. It’s a space that he rarely uses, preferring to be out in the bar with his customers.
I knock on his door and enter.
“Hey, Tyler,” he greets as he rises out of his chair.
I must be really tired because for some reason it hits me how attractive Todd is. Like it’s something you know when you see it, but it takes you by surprise because of how humble the man is. I’ve never seen him pick up a drunk girl at the bar, no matter how hard she throws herself at him.
He pulls out an extra chair for me. “Sit down.”
I do, and he jumps right into it. “So, want to tell me what’s going on with you?”
“It’s not really something I can talk about, Todd.”
I’ve always been honest with him, ever since I strolled into the bar with my arm in a sling and healing wounds all over my body, months ago. He was ready to go kick some asshole dude’s face in when I finally broke and explained the whole demon-hunting thing to him. Granted, I broke because I’d been drinking, which is why I don’t drink a lot anymore. The surprising thing was that Todd believed me. The entire story, demons and all. I remember asking, “You know I’m not talking about figurative demons here, right?” He just nodded, his face resolved.
We’ve never revisited that conversation.
“I think you need to,” he says, “because from what I can tell you’re in way over your head with this guy.”
“What guy?” I’m playing dumb. It feels dirty and dishonest.
“The demon that Lindsay thinks she’s in love with.”
“What the fuck, Todd?”
“We’re not talking about figurative demons here, you know that right?” He’s mixing my words up and throwing them back at me.
“I’m a little lost. I feel like I’m in crazy town and you’re having a conversation without me here.” I guess I never really believed, in my soul, that Todd took my word about the demons.
The look of shock on my face gives me away, and Todd says, “Do you really think you’re the only person who’s met a demon, Tyler? Why do you think I risked my bar by employing a twenty-year-old girl?”
Huh. I am definitely not giving Todd all the credit that he deserves.
“So what do you know about Kade?” I ask him. Might as well see if Todd has any ideas.
“I know he’s bad news, never seen one as powerful as him. He doesn’t even use his influence. He’s just a walking sin on his own.”
Yeah. That’s Kade all right.
I bite my lip and debate on how much I should tell him. I trust that Kade wants what he says he wants. I’ve seen too many glimpses beneath the surface of his façade to think it’s all an act to tempt me.
“Kade came to me a few weeks ago and asked me to kill him,” I blurt out to Todd.
“So kill him.”
“It’s not that easy. There’s something going on with him that I can’t figure out. Nothing has worked. I used a very strong invocation, stabbed him at least four times, and nothing has happened. A little smoke and a little blood. But the fucker is still here.”
Todd puts his fingers to his mouth and taps his lips. I’m about to ask him what he’s thinking when he turns and unlocks a cabinet drawer and pulls out an old leather journal and plops in on the desk in front of me.
“This is my dad’s. It might have something in it that you can use.”
“Your dad was a hunter?”
“Yeah, he still is. Haven’t seen him in a few months, but I’ve got a few of his old journals here for storage. When you’re done with that one, bring it back and you can go through another one.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“Because when you came in here, you’d almost lost your life. I’d hoped that giving you a stable place to hang your hat would convince you to give up the fight.” He runs his hand over his face. “I should have known better. People like you, people like my dad. They don’t give up. No matter what it costs them.”
“Thanks.” I don’t know what else to say. He knows that I mean thanks for more than just the book.
“No problem. Just get rid of that thing before my old man stops by for a visit. I don’t want my home ripped apart by a demon vs. hunter war.”
“You got it.”
****
I spend the next day poring over Todd’s dad’s journal, forgoing sleep to read it.
His dad is the real thing. Hardcore, relentless. A legend. I don’t know a lot of other hunters. Unlike most, I wasn’t born into a family of them. I taught myself most of what I know. It was a way to keep sane. But even I had heard of Luke Whittaker, and now I was reading one of his journals.
I flipped through it again. I was on dayshift at the bar today, so I had plenty of time to study. I took notes, formulating a new spell, a new trap, and, hopefully, a new way to send Kade home.
But first, I had some questions for the demon. The primary one being, why didn’t he just kill himself? The second being, why didn’t our first spell work?
L.W. had sent an Arch back with a very similar spell. It was spelled out in detail in his notebook along with suggestions to make it easier for the next time. That’s what made him a legend, his ability to make and adapt anything to his current situation. That and the fact that he was a demon killing machine.
I shut the notebook and pull out my phone.
Me: We need to talk. I get off at 9. Come to my apartment.
Kade: I’ll walk you from the bar.
Me: Don’t come here. I don’t want to deal with Lindsay.
Kade: I can handle her.
Me: Just meet me at my place.
Kade: Bossy. I like it. ;-)
A smile definitely doesn’t pull my lips up at his emoticon. Okay, it might have, but I’m still swimming in denial.
When I look up and see Todd staring at me the smile vanishes quickly.
Chapter Three
Kade’s in my apartment, and my cat is lying on his lap. Again.
“I know I locked the door this time.” I say when I see him sitting there.
“You did, but I charmed your landlord into letting me have a spare key.”
“What?” My voice reaches an octave I didn’t even know I had. “How?”
A cane pounds the wall. I guess the truce with Mr. Perkins is over.
“I told her I was your boyfriend and it was our anniversary. I implied, heavily, that I was going to propose to you.”
“You did what?” My hands are shaking from the combination of humiliation and rage.
“Calm down, Tyler.”
“I swear to god if I had any knives left, I’d drive them all through your heart.”
“You don’t have any at all?” he asks, surprised.
“No, some asshole demon ran off with all of them embedded in him, and hasn’t returned them.”
“Seriously? How are you a demon hunter without a full arsenal?”
I sigh and flop down on the couch. “It’s a long story.” I bite at my fingernail. A long story, that I don’t want to tell. Ever.
“I’ve got eternity.” He leans back against the couch,
and Bear climbs back onto his lap. It’s ridiculous how much the cat loves him.
“You didn’t happen to bring my knives back, did you?” I ask hopefully. I’d texted him several times about them, but every time I see him, he doesn’t have them.
“I’d rather not get stabbed with enchanted blades again, to be honest. They hurt like a bitch and they’re ineffective.”
“Against you, but you’re not the only demon I’ve had to deal with in my life.” I rub my arm unconsciously, remembering everything demon hunting has put me through.
“I told you, no one will bother you while I’m around.”
“But you’re not always going to be around.” I can’t help the way my voices rises. A lot of shit is pressing down on me right now, memories that I’d rather not remember keep popping up in my head. If anything, Kade has taught me that I can’t hide from my life.
We both stare at each other in the silence. It feels like something large is looming over us. Something unstoppable and deadly.
“Why haven’t you killed yourself?” I ask.
“What?” He’s confused by my question.
“If you can’t just hop back into hell, why couldn’t you just use your power to kill yourself?” I don’t know if it’s something that’s ever happened or been attempted. For the most part, I think demons can just transport between the planes.
“It’s not that simple to kill me.” He shrugs. I’m not letting up though.
“Why didn’t my last spell work? Every bit of research I’ve done says it should have worked. Even on ArchDemons.”
“Listen, I have no idea, okay?” I can tell that he’s getting angry at my line of questioning.
“Bullshit. You’re keeping something from me.”
“I was banned, okay?”
I hear years of frustration, hurt, and anger in his voice. It’s scary. His eyes flare black and red. If I wasn’t sitting on the couch, I would have taken a step back. Hell, I would have fucking run.
Before I can rise, it’s gone. Kade is no longer angry, or powerful. He just looks done.
“Why?” I whisper.
“That doesn’t matter.”
I don’t push him anymore. Because I don’t think it will matter. Banishment from hell. Who would have thought that would be an actual punishment? Seems like heaven to me, but I’m a mortal who likes not being a minion of evil.
“Okay,” I say. “This changes things. Maybe. But I’d still like to use the spell I wrote.”
Kade’s turned so his back is to me. His shoulders heave, and I can tell that he’s sad and showed too much. He’s trying to reign his feelings back in. He turns back to me, and nods. The charming college boy is no longer in the house. Kade is all business.
We enter my cleared out kitchen again, and I have him stand in a newly-drawn demon trap. It’s a bit more permanent than dry erase maker, but not much. I’d spent a few hours putting it together after I’d read the journal from Todd.
“Electric tape?” Kade raises an eyebrow at the new circle.
“Deposit.” My voice is a singsong, like, it should be obvious.
I’m still not committed to defacing my rental with satanic symbols. Not yet. In the absence of my enchanted demon knives I’m using a magical athame that I bought on the internet. So, it’s probably not really magical, but the handle is cool as shit, and I laid some pretty heavy spells down on it earlier. It’s not to kill him though, because I think we’re beyond those tricks now.
Candles flicker when the air conditioning kicks on and I begin the chanting. It’s similar to what we did before, but this time I’m calling someone to come and take Kade.
I sacrifice a bit of my own blood when I cut a finger on the blade. I reach out and do the same to Kade. Mixing our blood, hoping to entice something to show its face, I drip the blood in the pentagram as I finish my third round of chants.
The air shuts off and the candles flicker again. The apartment is silent, only our breathing audible. First mine, then, as I focus, Kade’s.
Then, a third.
I step to the side and see a shadow standing beside Kade, and it’s not his. It closes in on him, and I am suddenly taken by the urge to cover Kade, to protect him from this shadow. Long lines of red open across Kade’s chest, his shirt turning into ribbons before the blood starts to flow. Unlike the cuts I’d given him, these do not immediately close.
“Blow them out!” Kade screams. He’s scared now, on his hands and knees.
More slashes form on his body. The shadow figure now blends into the natural shadows of the room. It can’t leave the circle. So I am safe, frozen in spot as I watch a nightmare tear an ArchDemon apart.
It’s apparent that Kade isn’t dying, nor is he being taken back home.
“Break the fucking spell!” he screams in agony.
It shakes me from my half-lucid state, and I blow a candle out. Calm replaces chaos.
I fall to the floor, my energy sapped. My chest heaves as if I’d been running. Terror does that to a person’s body.
Kade’s warm fingers grab mine, giving my hand a squeeze. My hand has passed the threshold of the circle. I’m alive, and that thing, whatever it was, is gone.
“Let me out, Tyler.”
Kade is lying prone on my floor; a pool of demon blood surrounds him. It grows, and flows making its way steadily to me. I resist the urge to watch it flood over our entwined hands.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I finally convince my muscles to move my bones. I dig a nail under a piece of tape and rip a small line through my carefully rendered demon trap.
“I’ll live,” he says as he gives me a wry smile.
Unfortunately, he will, and it looks like he’ll be in pain for some time. He’s healing, but it looks half-assed and delicate. A strong wind could re-open the smaller wounds that have already closed.
Kade staggers to his feet, a firm hand slapping onto my proffered shoulder. He’s very pale, and looks like he could faint any minute now. I don’t know how or why, but I somehow get him into my bed before he passes out. I’m not far behind him. I lay down on the covers and close my eyes to rest for a bit, but sleep pulls me under before I can move again.
That’s how I find myself waking up in bed with a lust demon. Fully clothed, thankfully. He’s smiling at me. A devil may care smile. I can tell he wants to make a smart-assed comment about us sleeping together.
“Don’t fucking say it, dude,” I croak, my mouth dry.
“You snore.”
I clear my throat. “Yes.”
“You’re a bed hog too.” His hand gestures to the fact that I am very close to him. And he is very close to the edge of the bed. Thank god I didn’t wake up all over him like some horny romance heroine.
“Yep.” I pop the ‘p’ letting him know that I am getting annoyed.
“You also cuddle.”
“Fuck you, I do not.”
My back pops as it arches, and swing out of the bed. Before he can say another word, I head to the bathroom. I don’t think my brain or my bladder can take another minute of small talk.
When I come back, Kade is still in bed. He looks like he’s sleeping peacefully. My heart breaks a little bit knowing how hard last night had been on him. I take a deep breath, trying to get my emotions back in check. I can’t feel guilty, not now. Not ever. I can’t feel anything for him.
“Still really sore, huh?” I kick the end of the bed, not falling for his sleeping act at all.
“That obvious?” He cracks an eye at me. When he sits up, it’s with caution. His shirt is still on, shredded.
“You can’t leave looking like that.” Every part of him, and most of my sheets, are covered in blood. There is no way he can leave my apartment looking like he got attacked by a pack of rabid dogs.
“Sorry about the sheets.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just buy some bleach for them.” I walk over to his side of the bed and hold out a hand to him, “You don’t mind crashing on my couch for a while
?”
“Nah, I’m not sure I can walk home.” His smile doesn’t fool me. I know he’s not being honest. It’s so stupidly human of him. I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that it’s an act. Something he’s trained himself to do to prey on the weak.
“Okay, well let’s get you out of there so I can get dressed and go buy that bleach.”
With a little effort on my part I get him up, and out to the living room. By the time he’s settled, I’m beginning to think that he’s faking being in pain. But I don’t say anything, because it’s my fault he could possibly be in bad shape.
“I’ll be back,” I say and hurry into my room to get dressed. It doesn’t take me long, and instead of being normal and saying goodbye to him, I just give him a weird smile and rush out the door.
While I’m at the store I buy him some sweats and a clean shirt. I figure if I take long enough, he’ll be ready to leave and I can go back to bed. There’s only so much time you can dally when you’ve got a hot-as-sin Sin in your living room.
When I get back to the apartment I throw the clothes onto Kade’s sleeping chest. “Get dressed and get out.”
“What, done playing nurse?” He smirks at me.
“I swear to god, I will stab you and then call those fucking things back. And I won’t break the spell this time.”
“You wouldn’t do that to an injured person.” He mock-gasps at my glare.
“You cleaned my entire apartment, you’re not injured.”
“I beg to differ.”
To demonstrate how injured he still is, he quickly strips out of his ruined clothes. He looks absolutely terrible. The wounds are completely closed now, but the skin looks inflamed and painful.
Air hisses between my teeth when he turns his back to me. “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” he whispers.
“What the hell were those things?” I don’t think I want to know, but the hunter in me can’t keep my fat trap shut.
“I don’t think they have an actual name, at least not one that I know of. We just call them Tormentors. They’re usually pretty harmless to demons. But I’m a special case.”