by E G Bateman
“No. We’d have known. I think this has always been part of you but it was masked by your other legacy abilities.”
She nodded slowly as the theory began to make sense to her. “And now, Alicia’s got all the legacy abilities and because I used all your magic, this has somehow been activated?”
Scott nodded. “I think it’s shown itself in tiny ways we haven’t noticed. And Alicia doesn’t have all the legacy abilities. I think that for the first time, she has hers and you have yours. In fact, it’s likely that some of the dark sorcerer blood had been locked inside her until the two of you met.”
Her analytical mind began to sift for holes in Scott’s theory. “But no dark sorcerers were present when they first came together to make the legacies.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “There may have been one.”
Lexi could see exactly where he was going. “You’re referring to that ridiculous myth about the one sorcerer who added his blood to the spell, aren’t you?”
“It would explain this.”
“I feel like you’re making huge assumptions simply to fit your hypothesis. Anyway, this is all academic. I haven’t been near any demon realms since Palm Springs. There wasn’t one in New Orleans, or at the condo—oh!” She froze and remembered she hadn’t told him about what had happened. She sighed. It was time to come clean. “This isn’t the first time this has happened since New Orleans.”
“The other night in Vegas?” he asked. “It’s okay. Dick told me.”
She stuck her tongue out at the vampire. “Traitor.” She paused for a moment, then continued. “Something happened last night, too. I had a dream. I don’t really remember it but when I woke up, I found a burn mark in the shape of my hand on the sheet.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It freaked me out. I didn’t want to freak you out too. We have a job to do here.”
“It’s possible you might have come into contact with an object or substance that was somehow connected to the demon realms,” Scott continued, although he frowned at her as though a little disappointed that she’d excluded him. “In New Orleans, that would have been Delphine’s ring.”
Lexi held a finger up. “But that magic was voodoo—ancestor realms. I have been listening, you know.”
Dick picked an invisible thread from his jacket. “Do you remember I smelled sulfur at the scene of Jamal’s murder? He was an amateur so he might have used something he shouldn’t have in that ritual.”
The sorcerer moved to the corner of her bed. “But that’s where my theory stumbles. There doesn’t seem to have been a demonic source in the condo or, as far as we can tell, in room X with the demon.”
The vampire’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding me? There was a demon in that room? Is that what the stink is? It’s revolting. I tried not to say anything, though.”
Scott stared at him. “You could have tried harder. Anyway. That smell is tallow, which is animal fat. The demon was covered in it.”
Dick raised an eyebrow. “I wonder if it’s anyone I know.”
Lexi stared at him, then shook her head when he shrugged in response.
The younger man gestured impatiently. “It didn’t appear to be up to your standard of conversation.”
She found a towel and wiped her hands again, only too aware of the smell. “Couldn’t the demon itself have connected me to the demon realms?”
He shook his head. “A demon that’s stranded on this plane is about as connected to its realm as we are. I don’t think it can act as a conduit to the demon realm. It can have its own power and lend it like Azatoth seems to do with Caleb. Anyway, I can’t think of anything that you would have been able to draw on in Dick’s condo.”
“What about the eerie yellow light?” She put the towel aside. “What was that?”
Scott looked at Dick and then at her. “What yellow light? Where?”
“Coming from something on the dresser. It illuminated that demon’s bedroom. You can’t have missed it.”
“The demon’s bedroom was dark until I turned the light on. I didn’t see any yellow light.”
Lexi turned to the vampire. “Jesús wore a pendant that glowed with that same strange yellow light that night at the condo.”
Dick’s brow wrinkled as he pinched his lower lip in thought. “Pendant? A little glass tube?”
She nodded quickly. “Yes, I think it was a tube.”
He stroked his chin absently. “Interesting. That’s brimstone. He’s a superstitious little soul and says it protects him from evil spirits.”
The reality of the discussion struck her. She sighed. “So, just like that, I’m an evil sorcerer now.”
“Do you feel evil?” Dick asked.
Lexi sighed. “I don’t know what I feel.”
Scott stood. “The glowing object was on the dresser?”
She nodded and he vanished.
He reappeared moments later. “We have a problem.”
Chapter Seventy-One
Lexi, Scott, and Dick appeared in the small, windowless bedroom.
“We really should do that more often. It’s so expedient.” The vampire looked around and shuddered. “Eugh! That stench.”
She stared at the bed, which was unoccupied. “Oh!” Her gaze slid immediately to the strange little box to find it was now open and also empty. She wondered what had been in it.
Scott examined one of the greasy straps. It didn’t look broken and he focused his gaze on her. “How tightly did you redo the straps?”
Her face flushed. “I didn’t want to hurt it.”
Dick raised an eyebrow. “Yes. You are clearly an evil sorcerer. Exhibiting that much empathy was a totally evil sorcerer thing to do.”
A squeal made them jump and Lexi raced to the other side of the bed. The demon crouched, grasped a small creature with bat-like ears in its fist, and held it against the wall. The little thing was almost crushed and beat its tiny arm against its captor’s hand.
The demon seemed to try to squeeze through a small hole in the wall. It had managed to get its head through, but the aperture wasn’t big enough for the rest of it to follow. Its captive squealed again. She had no idea what it was, but it was clearly suffering.
Scott inspected the barrier. “Look how the wall’s wavering around this little monster. I think the demon’s somehow using it to create a portal.”
Dick squinted at it. “Could it be a thinner?”
Lexi retrieved a shuriken and threw it at the demon’s hand, which sprang open and allowed the little creature to scuttle away.
The moment the demon lost contact, the hole in the wall disappeared. Unfortunately for the demon, its head was already on the other side of it. It’s body, from the neck down, fell clumsily.
The vampire grimaced. “Oops.”
When she looked at the dresser, the object was gone but a slight glow came from the wall where the portal had been. She could make out a rough yellow circle, not much bigger than the demon’s head, drawn on the surface. Curious, she crouched to where the little creature attempted to hide under the bed while its hand softly glowed in the dark. “What’s a thinner?”
“I’ve heard of them,” Scott answered. “It’s a kind of demon that can be used to make the veil between dimensions—”
“Thinner,” she finished. “So this is one?”
He looked at Dick and the vampire crouched to look under the bed. He straightened after a moment. “I don’t know, honestly. I’ve never seen one. But if I had to make an educated guess…”
It crept toward her. Instinctively, she skittered away from the wall until her head hit the side of the dresser. “Ow! Shit.”
The small, black, scaled creature had huge, amber eyes and its wide bat-like ears twitched. It held itself in apparent pain and whimpered before it flopped onto the floor.
Lexi moved closer to it. “I wonder how it got here.” She was aware of Scott shuffling closer. “Be careful. Don’t touch it. For all we know, it could be poi
sonous.”
Slowly, she extended her hand to the being, which shrank away from her as best it could and made a frightened, trilling sound. “Hey, little guy, it’s okay. I’m only going to try to help you.”
“Little guy?” Dick whispered. “Even if it’s not a thinner, it is some kind of demon. It’ll probably elongate its jaw and bite your arm off. I can’t watch.”
She flicked a glance at him and smirked when she saw he watched from between his fingers. When she looked at Scott, he’d pulled his face back so far he’d given himself a double-chin. She rolled her eyes at the two of them. When her hand was close enough that she’d still be able to pull it away quickly, she held it still and simply waited to see what the demon would do. It moved forward tentatively and sniffed her. The pupils in its giant eyes became huge, and its arm reached toward her almost in slow motion before it grasped her hand with long spindly fingers.
Two sharply drawn breaths behind her made her smile.
The moment they touched, the glow from the creature’s hand brightened and she felt her unhealing scar tickle. It scampered up her arm and hugged against her shoulder.
Dick covered his eyes. “Dear God, it’ll bite her head off.”
A quick glance confirmed that he had covered his eyes with his hands. “Hey, Prince of Darkness. Look, it’s fine.” She shook her head, completely at a loss to explain why she trusted it.
She could see that while the hole was gone, the wall still appeared to be in a state of flux. “Hey, little guy, do you need the portal to get home?” She lifted the creature away from her shoulder and held it closer to the wall. “You should be able to get back to wherever you came from now.”
He tightened his hold on her hand and refused to let go.
Lexi turned to her companions. “Should I shove it through?”
It squawked and raced up her arm again.
The sorcerer sighed. “I think this little…uh, whatever it is—”
“Demon, Scott,” Dick supplied. “It’s a demon.”
He shrugged. “Okay, this little demon doesn’t seem to want to go in there. Maybe all the big demons pick on it.”
“No personification of the monster. I absolutely forbid it.” The vampire stepped closer to Lexi and attempted to take the creature. “Fine, I’ll take it outside and crush it with a rock.” He leapt back and cradled his hand. “The little bastard bit me.”
“Well, now you know what it’s like.” Scott smirked.
“I already know what it’s like. How do you think I became a vampire? Osmosis?” Dick retreated. “I’ll simply let the little fucker cling to you like a limpet, but if he tries to eat Marcel, all bets are off.”
“Fine. What will we do about this?” Lexi pointed at the corpse.
Scott stooped and took an arm. “Let’s get it on the bed, strap it, and leave it how we found it.”
She moved to grab its feet. “It’s a start.”
Dick raised an eyebrow at her. “Someone will notice it doesn’t have a head. It won’t look good that you were seen snooping here and the next time someone checks, the demon has no head.”
The two men took an arm each and they swung it onto the bed and retied the straps at its wrists and ankles.
The little creature scrambled off Lexi’s shoulder and scampered to the wall.
The vampire glanced at it. “At least your little limpet’s going back to wherever it came from. That’s one less problem.”
Scott looked at the headless corpse on the bed. “Maybe we could burn it.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Great idea. Let’s leave a packet of cigarettes. Perhaps Nila will think it was smoking in bed.”
Lexi rounded on him. “You’re not being very constructive.”
“Erm… Guys.” Scott stared at the wall and they turned as one.
The little creature had pushed its arms through the undulating surface and now pulled at something. It tugged a few times, placed its little black feet on either side of the hole, and yanked harder. After a loud popping sound, it sprawled on the floor with two fingers up the nostrils of the demon’s snout and one in its mouth like a bowling ball. It squealed, dropped the head, and studied a finger that had caught on one of the pointy teeth. Strange chattering noises followed as it kicked the head and rolled it to Lexi’s feet. It climbed her leg, then her arm, and settled onto her shoulder.
Dick turned to Scott. “So, how exactly does this counseling work? Could I hire you to eradicate the last few minutes?”
She picked the head up by the hair and plopped it onto the corpse. “There, perfect.” It immediately rolled across the pillow. Speculatively, she looked at the black energy running through her scar.
Why not?
Before she could change her mind, she put the head in position, slapped her hand over the scar, and pointed a finger at the demon. “Stay put.”
The three of them stared as the head sealed itself to the neck. She was delighted. “I have my mojo back.”
Dick shook his head. “That’s definitely not the mojo you had before.”
Ignoring him, she turned excitedly to Scott but he simply frowned. “What?”
“Stay put? Mutter it, at least. You’ll give sorcerers a bad name.”
Lexi pointed at the demon. “But look what I did.”
The little black creature on Lexi’s shoulder made an “Oooooooh!” sound.
The vampire raised an eyebrow. “You impressed the little demon.”
She shrugged. “I’ll take what I can get.”
He leaned close to the corpse’s neck. “God, this thing stinks. But I can’t even see the join. You did a good job.”
The demon’s eyes snapped open and a high-pitched howl issued from its mouth.
Dick screamed and leapt back several feet.
Scott’s jaw dropped.
Lexi stepped forward as it began to sit and punched it in the head, and it flopped unconscious.
The three of them stood and simply stared, not quite willing to believe the evidence of their own eyes.
She opened her mouth to say, “Let’s get out of here,” when a key rattled in the lock. Scott caught their hands and muttered softly. A moment later, they were in her room.
Scott frowned. “How the fuck did you do that? You reanimated it.”
“I don’t know what that means.” She picked a towel up.
“You brought it back to life.” He gestured wildly with his hands to punctuate his words.
Lexi shrugged as she wiped her arms. “I don’t know how demons work. Its head is on and I thought that was what we wanted.” She was being intentionally obtuse and was well aware of what had happened. It terrified her and excited her in equal parts. “I wonder who was going into the room.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll take a quick look.”
“Wait. Be careful and stay invisible.”
The sorcerer rolled his eyes and vanished.
Dick stared at the little creature on her shoulder. “I can’t believe you brought that with you. They’ll know someone was in there when they see it’s gone.”
“Or when they see the demon’s blood on the wall and floor from its temporary beheading.” She shrugged and sat on her bed. They both remained silent for a minute.
The vampire looked at his watch. “What’s keeping him? Should we go down?”
Scott reappeared. His eyes were wild, and he looked slightly green. He sat heavily on the chair.
Lexi was instantly alert. “What happened?”
He focused on her. “It was Nila.”
“Did she notice something different?” She stood anxiously. “Did she see the blood on the wall?”
He exhaled a slightly panicked breath and raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think the blood on the wall will be an issue. She killed it.”
Dick narrowed his eyes. “Scott, you’ve seen demons killed before. You’ve done it yourself. What has you so freaked out.”
Scott shook his head. “It was so…visceral. That bo
x you almost tripped over on the floor—she held it over the demon asking, ‘Where is it?’ I’d guess that’s where your little friend was. The demon only made that whining noise. Nila lost it and pounded the box into its face. Then, she threw it aside and ripped its head off with her bare hands.”
The vampire folded his arms and leaned against the wall. “It lost its head again? I’m not a fan of demons but that one had a seriously shitty day. I feel sorry for it.”
Lexi bit her lip. “What the hell is Nila doing?”
The sorcerer shuddered. “Nothing good. What now?”
Dick stood and his face brightened. “Go down and put its head on again.”
After a moment, both Lexi and Scott asked, “Why?”
He smirked. “To screw with Nila. Can you imagine her face?”
Scott shook his head. “What happened to you feeling sorry for the demon?”
He picked an invisible thread from his shirt cuff. “It comes and goes.”
They stopped speaking at the sound of approaching footsteps.
“Hellooo. Hello?” Patrick’s voice came through the door as he knocked.
Lexi looked urgently at Dick. “He might not be alone.”
Scott disappeared with Dick and returned alone a moment later.
She spoke loudly. “Hi, Patrick. Come in.”
“I’m sorry to disturb you. I wanted to check you were all okaaaaaa— Holy Mother of God. What the fuck is that?”
In her rush to get the vampire out of the room, she had somehow forgotten the creature. She turned and looked into the saucer-like eyes of the little being clinging to her shoulder and peeking out from behind her. “It’s my…cat.”
An awkward silence settled on the room. She looked at the two men in turn and their faces indicated that they had come to the same conclusion.
No way does this look like a cat.
“Monkey,” she finished. “It’s my cat monkey.”
Remarkably, a silent consensus was reached by everyone in the room, and each person seemed prepared to go with it.
“Does your…uh, cat monkey have a name?” Patrick seemed to struggle to get “cat monkey” out of his mouth.