Sorrow's Edge

by Danielle DeVor

  My mark had been easy. It was the names of the archangels in their original listed languages. I’d looked up the Aramaic one, Selaphiel. The rest were in Hebrew. I wondered what was so special about old Selly, not that I’d had time to research it ever since we’d come to Arizona.

  If we could catch a lucky break, maybe I could take care of this before Asmodeus made his move. Or rather, more of a move than scaring Lucy. I knew there was a hell of a lot more he could do.

  ###

  The restaurant was nice. White tablecloths, candles, but Vespa had been right. There were plenty of people dressed casually. I let Tabby take the lead. It wasn’t like we could just come out and ask him if he had any weird symbols or anything, and she was a hell of a lot subtler than I. If it were up to me, I would have just tackled him at the house, stripped him, and inspected his body for a mark.

  After we ordered, Tabby took a sip of water.

  “So, Mr. Vespa. Are there any tattoo parlors around?” she asked.

  Wait. She wasn’t doing what she’d talked about with me. I fought myself not to say anything. It was better if I didn’t mess it all up.

  He blushed. “Oh, I’m—I’m sure there are, but I’ve never been to one.”

  Hmm. Satan boy didn’t like tattoos. That wasn’t normal. Most of these people who were so obsessed with demons were covered in them. Go figure.

  “Well, maybe we can check. I was thinking about getting another one,” Tabby said.

  “Added to your phoenix or what?” I asked. Maybe she figured it was better not to lie if she didn’t have to. Probably smart.

  “No. Maybe something to match your mark.”

  I almost choked. I was going to have to warn her to stick to the script next time. Damn.

  “What mark?” Vespa asked.

  Guess it was my time to show off. “When I got involved in all this, I was granted with a mark.” I unbuttoned the sleeve of my shirt and showed him my wrist.

  “Wow. That’s really cool,” he said.

  “Thanks,” I replied. Tabby and I kept waiting for him to say something, anything, but he was quiet.

  It figured. Every time we thought we’d finally had a leg to stand on, it would be jerked out from under us. Maybe Lucy was right and we should just get on with it.

  But before I did something rash, I’d rather talk to Doc first. If he didn’t show by bedtime, I was going to figure out how to contact him and find out what the hell was keeping him from coming when I called.

  ###

  I didn’t have to worry about it too long. On the drive back to the house, Lucy suddenly piped up.

  “Doc says not to worry. He’s working on something.”

  I blinked. Okay, good to know. “Tell him to keep the big guy away from the car,” I said.

  She giggled and went back to doing whatever it was she was up to in the backseat. I couldn’t exactly stop driving and look around, but she seemed happy enough.

  I stole a glance at Tabby. She looked tired. If I could, I’d let her sleep for a couple of days.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Not really. I thought we had it, ya know?”

  She wasn’t the only one disappointed. It did suck. We needed a break. “Yeah. It sucks, but what can you do?”

  “He’s really starting to creep me out,” she said.

  “So, does that mean we should say fuck it and just start the exorcism?” I was tired. She was tired.

  “No, that would be stupid.”

  I sighed. “I was planning on talking to Doc before I made a move.”

  “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day.”

  I didn’t know if I should be insulted or happy about that. I laughed. “Thanks.”

  ###

  When we got back to the house, Tabby and I headed upstairs to change out of our good clothes. Vespa would just have to deal with us not dressing everyday for dinner. I knew I hadn’t packed many dress clothes. It just hadn’t been necessary. No one wears a suit to an exorcism except a priest, and well, I wasn’t one anymore.

  “You’re too quiet,” Tabby said.

  “Too many places here I can’t talk.”

  Tabby shrugged. “I’m pretty sure he knows what we’ve been talking about anyway. Lucy always did, even when we were in the library.”

  “Shit. I’d forgotten about that. It had been Asmodeus’ arrogance that kept him from taking our plans seriously.”

  “I wish we knew what Vespa’s demon was capable of.”

  She wasn’t the only one. This thing was such a fiasco. “Well, we know old ugly is involved somehow. He wouldn’t be screwing with Lucy otherwise.”

  “I don’t like that. I don’t like it at all.” She pulled a T-shirt over her head.

  “It could be worse, at least the demon isn’t coming on to you.” I could just imagine this scaly thing trying to go all hubba-hubba. It was funny until my head went to what a demon’s… thing looked like. I needed brain bleach again.

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “Oh, I am.” Tabby had only seen a little how Lucy had been manipulated by the demon. It had been ugly. I still remembered it trying to seduce me. Uggh.

  Isaac mewed from the bed. I looked at him.

  “You tell her,” I said.

  Tabby laughed. “You’ve really taken to talking to my cat.”

  I smiled and pulled her into a hug. “He’s smart. I’m not stupid enough to ignore him.”

  “No wonder he likes you.” She punched me on the arm. “You going to check the iPad?”

  “Nah. I’ll wait until we go to bed. Let’s go back to playing with ol’ Nick. Maybe he’ll slip and actually tell us something.”

  ###

  When we got downstairs, Vespa was pouring wine into glasses. What was the special occasion?

  “I thought we’d have a drink,” he said.

  I hoped he hadn’t done anything to the glasses. I didn’t want to be poisoned or anything. He hadn’t yet, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Not with the way that demon in him snuck around.

  “Do you ever relax?” I asked.

  He handed Tabby her glass and motioned for her to sit down on the sofa. Of course. Now I understood. This was another ploy to impress Tabby.

  “No, not really. My family was all about appearances.”

  I took my glass when he offered it. At this point, a little drink would do me some good. “Since you’re planning on changing your life anyway, why not just start now?”

  He froze. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of this before. The kid didn’t need out on his own, he needed therapy. In that, I did feel for the kid. His family wanted him to fail.

  “Jimmy has a point. Why not just give it all up?” Tabby asked.

  Nick sat down on the other couch opposite Tabby. “You think so?”

  I sat down beside my girl. Nick needed to get the message. Tabby was not up for grabs.

  “It would be kind of silly to keep up the charade, right? You aren’t eighty for Christ’s sake,” I said.

  He winced. I wasn’t sure if it was the curse or if it was my mentioning Christ. He acted like an old church lady who secretly read smut while trying to make people believe she was better than God.

  “That will be so freeing,” he said.

  “Plus, I doubt if your ‘companion’ would care how you carried yourself,” I said. It was true. I don’t think the demon would even know if a leisure suit was out of style. Nick might as well run around in a T-shirt and jeans.

  Tabby snickered.

  True, part of me was tired as hell of dressing up and shit for no reason, but also, he needed to learn who he was, not imitate his family member. I had a feeling he’d been doing it so long that he’d have trouble telling what was him and what was the persona. But he was a twenty-year-old kid. He needed to start acting like one.

  He took a big drink of his wine. “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys.”

  I did. He’d co
ntact other creepy shit to get revenge on his family. I guess I should feel good that he thought about contacting me. I just wondered what he’d done to get O’Malley to contact him in a dream. Since it wasn’t something that I directly needed to know, I didn’t bother asking, but it was a good question.

  “It’s okay,” Tabby said. “Just to try to remember you aren’t him.”

  “Too bad I don’t know who I am,” he said.

  Now that, I knew, he said for Tabby’s benefit. There was a slight change in the tone of his voice. He was playing the sympathy card.

  Tabby didn’t bite though and said nothing. It was probably better that way. Saying nothing meant she wasn’t encouraging him or hurting his feelings.

  “So, why is Asmodeus here?” I asked. I blurted it out. I don’t even know why I said it. Probably part stress, part irritation.

  Tabby froze. It was too late now. My big mouth had gotten me in trouble again. Might as well work it to our advantage.

  His whole demeanor shifted. I knew I was speaking to the demon now. “You have something that belongs to him.”

  Says who? Not me. “That is under review.”

  The demon hissed at me. “I’ll see you sleep like the dead, marker.”

  I fought to roll my eyes. He hadn’t done anything to me yet. If he’d been able to, I would have at least been slapped, but there was just old big-mouth over here. “What is he, your boss?”

  The demon laughed. “He is a prince of Hell. In that respect, yes, he could be my ‘boss,’ as you say it.”

  I nodded. That made more sense. He was some lesser demon trying to gain brownie points. “Tell your ‘boss’ that he better speak to his boss about the legalities of this. Somehow, I don’t think he’d like an angel invading Hell to poke around.”

  It smiled. “Earth is not Heaven.”

  He thought he was so smart. Too bad I was smarter. “But my marking of the soul makes the soul marked by God. Might as well say that your prince is trying to steal a member of Heaven.”

  “Semantics.”

  “Just so,” I said. “The rules are that God and Satan negotiate. If the soul is negotiated to go to Satan, it is up to him to decide where it goes. Not Asmodeus. Somehow, I don’t think the Devil will take very kindly to his ego.”

  The demon blinked. “You may be correct. I’ll inform the light bearer and see what he would like to do about my prince.”

  Yup. This demon was weak. He was a pussy. Wouldn’t even tell old Assy to get off his lawn. Had to go tattle to the big guys for it. I’d do anything to stop crap from bugging Lucy, even if it meant an interview by the Devil himself.

  “Sounds good,” I said.

  Nick slouched over. After a minute, he held his head in his hands. “I’ll be glad to get rid of him.”

  “We’ll do what we can,” Tabby said.

  He looked up at her. “Anyone ever tell you that you look like an angel?”

  Oh, Jesus. I wanted to puke. Did he ever quit?

  ###

  I didn’t bother trying to come up with anything clever. This was enough of a goofy mess anyway. Tabby just ignored his weird come-ons. She had better control than I did. I alternated between wanting to clobber the kid and wanting to beat my head against a wall.

  Tabby, well, she was a lot more understanding. She let him make his comments, then she’d either slightly answer or change the subject. I had to give her credit. I didn’t have that much patience.

  Long about nine, Tabby and I went up to bed. The kid didn’t even have a TV for Christ’s sake. Not that I’d seen, anyway. It made for some interesting conversation. Well, not really. I was bored out of my mind, but at least I knew that Lucy would be in the same boat in here as out in the car. I didn’t feel quite as bad. Still, though, if she was in the house, I could yell at the demon. Outside, she was on her own.

  I did my evening constitutional, then went into the bedroom.

  “Well, that was fun,” Tabby said.

  “About as fun as listening to a fanatic try to convert you, I guess.” I sat down on the bed and took off my shoes.

  “What were you playing with down there, anyway?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The thing with Asmodeus. I mean, Jesus, Jimmy. Like we don’t have enough problems.”

  “I’m just trying to protect Lucy.” Truth was, I didn’t know why I chose then to ask. Maybe something else had prodded me. Something supernatural, but I didn’t tell that to Tabby. She’d never believe me. Not about something like this.

  “And what are you going to do if the big man himself shows up here to interview you?”

  “Shit my shorts. Hell. I don’t know. It’s not my fault the Order expects me to do any of this without guidance.” And I did have that thing where I kind of laughed in the face of danger. Maybe that made me a special kind of nuts.

  She stood with her hands on her hips. “Now that was a cop-out. Before you had the Order, you just lived with what you had to work with. Now, it’s always, ‘Well, if the Order would do this—.’ I’m tired of it.”

  I sat there, silent for a minute. She had a point. I’d changed the way I looked at things, and maybe that was one of my problems. I was confused as to what to do, where to turn, and before, I never really worried about it.

  “I need to go back to thinking they don’t exist,” I said.

  “Pretty much.” She stared at me for a minute, then turned away.

  “Okay,” I said. I picked up the iPad and put it in my backpack. “For now, they don’t exist. They won’t exist until we’re done with all of this.”

  “Works for me.” She left the room to freshen up before bed.

  While she was gone, I refilled Isaac's food bowl. He watched me from the bed. When I was finished, he dashed over and started stuffing his face. If I were a cat, life would be so much easier.

  "I'm glad somebody appreciates me," I said.

  ###

  Tabby came in a few minutes later. Her red hair was wet from her shower. I loved her hair. It was so thick it hung down her back in almost separate locks.

  "Forgive me?" I asked.

  "Maybe. It depends on how many demons we have to deal with by the end of all this."

  "With my luck, we'll have a demon army camped out front." Leave it to me to look at the positive. I wasn’t the most…fortunate guy in the world. Bad stuff had a tendency to happen to me.

  She sat down on the bed and pushed me. "Don't you even joke about that. One demon, the one in Vespa, is enough."

  I agreed with her. I really did. I just had a sinking suspicion how bad my luck really was. Should I have brought up all that about the hierarchy of the demons? Probably not, but it wasn't like I had much else to do. I had to stop Asmodeus from bugging Lucy somehow.

  I was an exorcist, a marker, not a demon slayer. And if I wanted Lucy to be safe, I had to go with what was at my disposal. Right now, that meant my smartass mouth. It was probably already getting me into a lot of trouble.

  Suddenly, I heard a pop.

  "I hear you been looking for me, " Doc said.

  I almost jumped out of the bed. Thank God. "Yeah. I have."

  "I'm here. Whatcha need?" he asked.

  "Hell. Everything.” My brain was moving faster than my mouth could. I stopped myself, got my thoughts in order, and took a deep breath. “Big demon's been terrifying Lucy. Vespa is an idiot, and I still know nothing about his contract. Oh, and I might have invited the Devil to come up for tea."

  Doc glared at me. "What the hell you talking about, boy?"

  I closed my eyes for a minute, then told him about Asmodeus and the conversation I'd had with Vespa's demon.

  "I swear. Leave you alone for a while and this is what you make of it?" he asked. He muttered to himself and paced back and forth a few times across the room.

  He looked over at Tabby. She shrugged, and the corners of her mouth were quivering, almost as if she was trying not to smile.

  Traitor. I scooted back from
the end of the bed, making room for Doc to sit.

  He took it. It wasn't like he needed to sit or anything, but hell, he was my relative and it was polite. No sense in letting the man wander around all night.

  "So, what is it you need from me?" he asked.

  "Help,” Tabby said.

  "Some answers,” I said.

  He laughed. "I maybe can do that."

  ###

  "So, where were you?" Tabby asked.

  "Out and around. Trying to get you people some information." He brushed some invisible dirt off his pant leg.

  "And?" I asked.

  Doc started laughing. "He just doesn't quit, does he?" he asked Tabby.

  "No, unfortunately," she replied.

  Great. More people to team up on me. What was I, a punching bag?

  "What do you want to know first?" he asked.

  "The contract stuff. Lucy said something about it not mattering." This was the most important. If I knew that the contract didn’t matter for sure, I could get the exorcism done and get the hell out of here.

  Doc thought for a minute. "Did she say why?"

  "Something about the outcome being the same anyway."

  He nodded. "Near as I can tell, it's a case of where there is a contract with a demon like this, the demon can still be expelled. What will happen to the soul, however, is anyone's guess."

  "So, I have to mark him?" I asked. I did not want to do that.

  "Didn't say that,” he said. “The marking is only for those folks that die while you do the exorcism, right?"

  "I guess. I mean, I never tried to mark someone who was still alive." And there was the little matter of the training I should have had that would tell me all of this. Not that I was bitter or anything.

  Doc tapped his fingers on his knee. "That would be something."

  "Either way, I don't want to have Vespa with me forever. He gets on my nerves." And if he tried to rape Tabby in her sleep just because he was a spirit and he could, I’d wrangle a soul sucker myself and let it eat him.

  Doc shrugged. "Well, seems to me that it’s up to you if you want to mark him."

  "I don't want to."

  Doc laughed. "So, condemn the little fuck to hell. He isn't exactly a pristine type."

  Tabby laughed. "Doc, I like you."

  He nodded to her and smiled. "I like you too, little lady."