Demon Soul

by Christine Ashworth

  Gabriel shoved the door open to his brother’s office.

  Justin and a tall, voluptuous woman, her body poured into jeans and some sort of flowy, gypsy-like top, were standing toe-to-toe and snarling at each other. A big purple leather bag sat on the desk. Rose envied her both the bag and the curvy body.

  "Just tell me where Kendall Sorbis is. I need the real deal, not a floozy who'll wave sage in the air and do a few chants," Justin sneered at the woman in front of him.

  She crossed her arms tightly over her ample chest. "Kendall's on his anniversary trip," she retorted, her voice a whiskey rasp. "I really don't think whatever emergency you've cooked up to embarrass him this time is going to pull him away from his wife and their celebration. Wasn't the last time you manipulated information bad enough? It took almost three years for him to repair his reputation."

  At their entrance, the two turned to look at the door. "Busy here," Justin barked.

  "So am I. Look." Gabriel pushed Rose in front of him. She stood there, her head held high. Gabriel might hate her, but it’s not like she’d had any control over what had happened.

  The woman had eyes only for Rose. "Oh." Her voice was faint.

  "See? I didn't make it up. She's real, she's here, and she's, she's..." Justin looked harder at Rose. He sat against the desk, stunned. “Wow.”

  "She's an angel?" The woman took a step back. "No..."

  Justin shook his head doubtfully. "Probably not. They aren't usually found this far south." He sighed, turned to Gabriel. "Gabriel, Rose, meet Magdalena de la Cruz. Magdalena, this is my brother Gabriel, and Rose Walters. Magdalena is here because she thinks she's as good as her boss."

  “He’s not my boss,” she snapped. “You can call me Maggie,” she said to the newcomers.

  "She glows," Gabriel said, gesturing to Rose.

  Maggie laughed. "I noticed."

  "She didn't earlier," Justin muttered.

  "I take back almost everything I said about you, Justin." Maggie circled Rose, fascinated.

  “Oh, it gets better. She just took what was left of my soul. ” Gabriel leaned against the wall, his palms flat against it.

  Justin stiffened and even Maggie’s eyes turned cold.

  Rose caught her breath. “I didn’t know it until it happened. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident, I guess you could call it. I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, right,” Gabriel muttered.

  “Who really sent you?” Justin crossed his arms, looking much more formidable without his signature smile.

  “I’ve already told you everything. Gabriel’s been in my head, he knows what I know. I didn’t mean to hurt him, I didn’t mean to take his soul.” She turned to Gabriel, her hands reaching for him. “I’ll give it back to you. Here, let me give it back,” she pleaded, and walked toward him.

  Maggie put a hand on Rose’s arm. “Wait.” She turned to Justin. “She’s a Soul Chalice? You weren’t joking?”

  “I don’t usually joke about things like this.”

  “I’ve never met a Soul Chalice before. I don’t even know how they work.” Maggie narrowed her eyes as she studied Rose.

  Frustration flowed through her. “I’m a human. I work the same way every other human works.” Rose shook off Maggie’s hand, her confusion flipping into irritation. “I eat, I sleep, I dream, I love, I hate, I have nightmares. This, right now, has turned into a nightmare that I can’t wake up from. Just let me give him his soul back, and I’ll leave.”

  “You can’t leave.” Gabriel looked at her accusingly. “You can’t. If you really are a Soul Chalice then you’re my only hope of getting my soul, the majority of it, back from Satine.”

  Maggie tilted her head toward Gabriel. “How does it feel, having your soul in two places?”

  “Not now, Magdalena.”

  Maggie flushed at Justin’s reproof. “Sorry.”

  Rose barely heard them talking, she was so focused on Gabriel. “Will you let me try to return it to you? Please. I’d do anything to help you. You must know that.”

  Gabriel winced. “You can try.” He flicked a glance at Justin. “My demon is unstable. I had problems, the past two days, of turning into my demon without being aware of it. Now that my soul is entirely gone?” He shook his head and flexed his hands. They fluctuated between human and demon, quick and sharp visual changes that blurred under Rose’s eyes. Maggie sucked in a breath and Gabriel looked to Rose. “I just don’t know.”

  Justin moved to Gabriel’s side and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve got you. Go ahead, Rose.”

  She took a couple of steps toward him, but his ferocious concentration unnerved her. “Would you, um, close your eyes?”

  Anger flared, but he shut them. Rose took another two steps and held her hand out to him, unsure. Finally she pressed her hand to his broad chest. She glanced over to Justin. He’d reverted to neutral, but stood ready to help his brother.

  Rose closed her eyes and with all her heart, she willed his soul out of her and back into him.

  * * *

  Gabriel felt her touch go through him, soothing him. His demon reluctantly receded. As they stood there, connected through her hand, he could breathe easier. His vision, too, had cleared. It was as though she were containing his demon, somehow.

  But his soul stayed stubbornly within the girl in front of him.

  He opened his eyes and looked to his brother. “Nothing.”

  “I’m trying. I swear it, I really am trying.” Pure determination rang in Rose’s voice.

  Justin frowned. “Nothing? I felt something. You didn’t feel anything?”

  Gabriel gave a slight shake of his head. He put his hand over hers. “You tried,” he said to Rose. He’d revised his opinion of her so many times in the past few hours that he didn’t know what to think anymore.

  “Damn.” Rose freed her hand, wrapped her arms around her waist and turned toward the windows.

  Gabriel took a deep breath and bent his head to Justin. “I did feel something,” he said softly.

  “I know. Your demon is quiet now.”

  “I don’t know how to explain it.” Gabriel glanced at Rose now on the far end of the small office and lowered his voice again. “Maybe it’s because she does have my soul? Maybe that’s why my demon subsides when she touches me?”

  “That makes as much sense as any other explanation.”

  Magdalena stepped closer. “So she really is a Soul Chalice?”

  “I think we have to make that assumption. Which means, Gabriel, you need to stick close to her.”

  "She spent time in Purgatory. Anything could have happened to her there." He looked over at Rose and sighed. “She fills me.”

  Maggie looked at him sharply. "She what?"

  "You know we're tribreds?" At her impatient nod, he continued. "When I'm running low on energy, I can feed off other people’s fear. Pain. Panic. It's a desperation move on my part, and it doesn't feel good. A bracing tonic that energizes you, but at the same time turns your stomach."

  “Okay.”

  "But this is different - she fills me. A touch from her is pure energy, clean, light. Similar to what you do, Justin, but different. It's not a healing. It doesn't feel like a Fae power. But it makes me whole."

  Maggie looked to the girl in the window thoughtfully. "Maybe I wasn't far off. Maybe she is an angel of some sort. Soul Chalice, huh?"

  "Her aura grew solid and shimmery like that after I contacted Satine. Her scent is tainted with a splash of demon and something else I can’t quite identify." Gabriel leaned against the doorjamb. He held out his forearm, brushed at the burn marks there. "And her fingers carry fire. I thought maybe she’d picked up a fire demon, or was part fire demon herself, but now I don’t know."

  "We need to know more about Soul Chalices," mused Justin. “I just don’t know where to go for that kind of information.”

  Gabriel rubbed his chest absently. "With an aura that strong, coupled with that pull she has, demons will come out of the wood
work after her.”

  Rose approached them again. "I’ve been thinking. I'm here to save you, Gabriel. If I'm not supposed to have your soul right now, I don't think I could. I don't think it would have been possible to take it from you if it weren’t meant to be."

  Maggie nodded. “So what’s your theory?”

  "That I’m meant to hold his soul for now. He’s not supposed to have it, not right now. I am. It makes sense when you think about it.” She turned toward Gabriel. “I mean, it didn’t hurt you, did it? It didn’t hurt the same way as it did when Satine stole most of your soul.”

  He frowned, aware that his initial panic at missing his soul had subsided. The gaping hole was there, but no panic. “You’re right. It didn’t hurt at all. But that might have been the magic she used.”

  “Maybe. But I didn’t use any magic. So just maybe I’m right.” Hope shone in her eyes.

  Maggie turned to the men. “Hey, guys. Can you give us girls some alone time? We won’t go anywhere, I promise."

  Gabriel looked to Rose. “Okay?”

  "It's fine by me."

  "Right, then, off you go," and before he knew it, Gabriel found himself and Justin herded out and the door closed behind them with an audible ‘click’.

  Chapter Four

  “I can’t believe you have to do this twice in one day.”

  “I used to do it more than twice a day on you, remember?”

  Gabriel remembered. He sat motionless while Justin did his Fae healing thing on him. That's how he used to think about it when they were kids, the "Fae healing thing". Justin would practice whenever one of them got a black eye or a skinned knee.

  Gabriel had tried to do it once but ended up giving his brother an even bigger bruise. He never bothered again, figuring he didn't have enough Fae blood in him to get the healing gene the others had. Oh, he could do some small Fae things, like tapping into the power of all plant life; but he couldn’t heal.

  It just confirmed what he already knew. He was a killer.

  "So. Did you find Satine?"

  "Yeah. She's local – owns a nightclub called Twisted. I'm meeting her late tonight."

  Justin's hand moved up one arm to where scorch marks from Rose's fingers showed. The cool healing flowed, erasing the marks. He hovered his hand over Gabriel's heart, then up and down Gabriel's body, side to side.

  "I can feel the place where your soul should be," Justin said. "I've never felt that before, that emptiness."

  "Does it feel wrong?"

  “Yeah, it does. But I believe in that girl, I believe she’ll help. I know, that sounds weird."

  "You always sound weird."

  "Ha ha." He moved his hand up Gabriel's neck to the scarred cheek.

  Gabriel felt a cool tingling against his scar and hit his brother's hand aside. "Don't waste the energy." The words came out harsh. "I know how it drains you."

  Justin sat back, concern in his moss-green eyes. "What happened to you? You didn't have that ten years ago."

  "Demon fire, a very long time ago." He shrugged. "A lot of things happened to me. Nothing you could have fixed, so drop it. Okay?"

  "Gabriel!" Rose's scream cut through the thin walls of the office.

  Gabriel was up and halfway down the hall before she'd finished his name, the terrors in her voice a surprising prod to his protective instincts.

  He shoved open the door to the conference room to see Maggie frozen by the couch and Rose plastered against a window, flames licking at her right arm. Shadows of tiny horns graced her temples and her skin had an orange cast.

  Rose shot him a defiant look out of whirling yellow eyes. "Help me, damn it!"

  Gabriel cursed under his breath and brought lessons back to mind he'd thought forgotten long ago. "Close your eyes and breathe slowly. No one is going to hurt you. We're here to help." He kept his voice low and even as he took measured steps toward her.

  "You're fine, Rose. You call the fire and it responds to your call. Now thank it and send it back to its source. Send it away."

  The flames shrank, disappeared as he reached her. Gabriel brushed his hand along her arm, cooling the heat there. Rose opened her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself. "Okay, scared now. Really."

  Justin started in on Maggie, but Gabriel ignored them as his past and present merged and dread settled in his belly. He closed his eyes. Not another innocent woman harboring a fire demon, not another killing. He barely survived the fight last time. What made him think it would be any different this time?

  "You must have done something to upset her," Justin pointed out to Maggie, who kept shaking her head in denial.

  "I told you, I didn’t do anything. We were just talking, that’s all. I got caught by surprise. Let me check her over." Maggie moved to her purple bag. "I've been working with Doc Cavanaugh."

  "No.” Gabriel sensed both of them turn his way in surprise, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Rose now. “She'll be okay. I've seen this before. It’s proof that she’s got a fire demon inside her, but by my guess, it hasn't been there very long." Gabriel shot a quick glance to Justin, who turned to Maggie.

  "What did you guys talk about that so upset her?"

  "Stuff. Nothing of any importance, until the demon she’s harboring spoke to me. He said that what was left of Gabriel's soul was safe with her. He said he wouldn’t touch it." Maggie spread her hands when the men turned to look at her. "Don't ask me why. It wasn't that chatty."

  “And yet, it spoke to you. Fascinating. What about motive? Why would any self-respecting, talkative fire demon latch on to her?"

  "I don't know, but I'm staying with her until we get this figured out. No arguments," Gabriel said to Rose, who shivered. “You’re getting what you wanted.”

  Justin raised an eyebrow. "Is that wise? Besides, you don't have a place to stay."

  "We're moving in with you. When I go out tonight, you'll take over watching her. You're here in the area?"

  "Yes." Justin's unvoiced protest hung in the air.

  "You have a better idea?" Gabriel sent him a challenging look.

  “No. I just have to change my plans for tonight,” Justin said. “You remember where Dad used to keep the spare key?"

  "Yeah."

  "It's in a similar place at my house. I'll leave you directions on my desk." Justin looked at Rose, now staring unblinking out the window. "Magdalena and I have some research to do, and I've got some people to see." He gripped Maggie by the arm and hustled her along, talking over her protests. "So we'll say goodbye for now. Just lock the door when you leave," he instructed Gabriel. "I don't know when I'll be home tonight, but I've got my cell on me. The number will be on the desk, along with the address."

  "Get your hands off me," Maggie hissed. She sent a narrow-eyed glare at Justin before turning to Gabriel and Rose. "I look forward to seeing you both again. I promise I'll do everything in my power to help you." The door closed behind them.

  "Now what? What else will go wrong?" Rose turned away from him to walk in circles.

  "So, this being host to a demon isn't something you already knew about? They didn’t tell you that part while you were in the waiting room?" Gabriel leaned against the desk and watched her.

  "No. They didn’t say a word about demons. I don't know if I'd have gone along with that, seeing as how I didn't believe in demons then. I'm just a normal person. How can they expect me to handle this?"

  "I know you're scared, but I can't go along with the normal bit. Not now, when you can use a fire demon's powers. Do you know how rare that is, how dangerous?” He never knew Marianne had been a host to a fire demon. At least with Rose, he knew in advance. He’d do everything in his power to help her control the demon.

  "Great. Just great. I'll never have a normal life." She threw herself on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

  Gabriel eyed her uncertainly. "I'm not an expert on demon possession, but I do know that handling demon powers is mostly a matter of control. Do you remember what you were talking
about before this last manifestation?"

  "Maggie wanted to separate us." Unexpectedly she blushed, a fiery wash of color over her pale cheeks.

  His lips twitched. "Okay, so you felt strongly about it. You and me, staying together, is important to you? I’m trying to stay out of your head now," he added.

  "Right," she mumbled. "I've told you that part, though. I need to be with you to protect you. Plus, you feel better when we’re together."

  He skated over that issue. “You were trying to make Maggie see your point?"

  "Yes."

  "Demons respond to strong surges of emotion, especially when they have a new host. When your emotions engage, you need to be careful about where you put your energy."

  Her gaze met his, her eyes forlorn. "So in the meantime, I've just got to live with it?"

  "Something like that. Are you scared of the demon?"

  "Yes. No. I mean, I went from watching myself die to having been dropped into a fantasy world. Now I find I'm one of the fantastical creatures. How would you feel?"

  Remembering his adolescence and grappling with coming into his own demon powers, he understood exactly how she felt. Still, Gabriel picked his words carefully. "Disoriented. Unsure who to trust and unaware of how powerful you could be. I've been there, Rose. I can help you."

  "Really?”

  "Demon blood, remember?"

  Rose rubbed at her eyes. "My life has taken a very 'Alice in Wonderland' turn." She sighed. "So what do we do now?"

  "You need rest before we train at Justin's house. Later tonight, I'll go hunting for Satine."

  Rose shuddered. "Hunting vampires? Are you freaking insane?"

  “Maybe. But the damn bitch has a good chunk of my soul. What else can I do?”

  "You really don't have a choice, do you?" Rose looked down at her fingers. “It would help you if I could, what, protect my mind?”

  “It’s the best thing you can do to keep yourself safe.”

  Rose took a deep breath. Her eyes met Gabriel's, full of determination. "Okay. Train me."

  * * *

  Sweat rolled down Rose's throat and soaked into her tee shirt. They had found Justin's house and she’d rested. The past couple hours had been spent training in the backyard, sitting on a perfectly groomed lawn surrounded by tropical plants. Palm trees stood motionless in the hot summer night. A koi pond shimmered, the waterfall adding to the island feel of the place. The pool, at the other end of the yard, beckoned.