by Jaime Reed
Instantly, he slumped back and looked out the window. His face scrunched up in a pout, and even with that very human expression, he could never be mistaken for a mortal. “Your car has a strange odor, like old lunch meat,” he said, and I wasn’t sure if it was an insult or an observation.
I didn’t answer him and started the car again. A moment later, I pulled into the driveway and noted that Mom wasn’t home yet. She had her group meeting tonight, so I wasn’t too concerned; actually, considering my angry passenger, I was grateful. I consulted the clock, but 12:00 blinked on the dashboard as a result of Tobias’s short temper. Great. I would have to reset all my favorite radio stations, but I had to handle business first.
Shutting off the engine, I turned to him. “If I stay away from Caleb, will you let him live?”
He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Yes.”
“And his brothers?”
All I heard was crickets.
“Tobias!” I yelled.
“You ask an awful lot of me. But I promise, I won’t make the first move. If they interfere in any way, I won’t hesitate.”
“Are you a man of your word? How can I trust you?”
“The same way I can trust you, and I’m not a man. You hold up your end of the deal and we’ll be fine. I won’t let you waste my energy on that demon mutt. It’s for you and Lilith only. This is quite the betrayal, Samara.”
“Then you’ll think twice before you get all ‘date rape’ on me, won’t you?” I snapped. “I haven’t forgotten about your little scare tactic behind the bleachers, so forgive me if I’m not more considerate of your precious gift.”
“I told you why I did what I did. My methods may be harsh, but they’re effective. What I do is for food and survival. I don’t allow any woman I take to suffer like humans do, so you can take down your feminist flag. While you’re at it, you might want to take your hand off my leg.”
I looked down at my hand and yelped. Unbeknownst to me, my hand was moving in slow circles on his denim-clad knee. I snatched it away as if I’d been burned, wondering how it had gotten there. It seemed that my body had a mind of its own, working from a separate directive.
With arms crossed over our chests, we stared at my house, struggling for composure. We were both pissed off, but neither one of us was going to move until we calmed down, so I broke the ice. “The energy I took from you was ... weird. What was it? How many lives were there?”
“Dozens, finely coiled together and compressed—the best of the best,” he said, his chest puffed out high and proud. “Think of it as a quilt. You take a piece here and there and stick them together to make one whole tapestry. I’m meticulous with the material I use.”
“That’s a lot of lives to store. How can you ingest all that?”
His smile thawed some of the frost coating the air. “I’m bigger than you think.”
Against my better judgment, my gaze lowered to the front of his jeans, then looked away.
Noting my wandering eyes, he grinned wider. “You really do have a one-track mind, Flower. I’m talking about me, as a preternatural entity. I’m quite vast and heavier than I appear. Incubi can manipulate their body density so they can move with the air, defying gravity to an extent, expand and compress at will, just like spirits can. People think clouds are all light and fluffy, but the smallest one can stretch a mile wide and weigh over a million tons.”
“So how much do you weigh?”
He cowered away as if repulsed. “Oh come on, you never ask a person that. That’s just rude. But I’m happy to know that I fascinate you.”
Words escaped me. Not only was he dangerous, but he was completely insane. I guess eternity would do that to a person. What made it worse was his correct assessment. He did fascinate me, made me feel things I didn’t want to feel, like excitement and longing, emotions that should never be associated with an enemy.
“So, you’re strong, can transform into stuff, look like a bunch of people, and live for a really long time. What can’t you do? Do you have any fatal weaknesses?”
“You.”
“Besides me?”
“No, that’s about it. You’re my Achilles’ heel. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, you can have the same abilities as I have, and we could combine our powers if you choose.”
He leaned closer, making me perfectly aware of how small my car really was. Only a wall of hot air and tension stood between us and Tobias had no problem with crossing boundaries.
His voice was a silk scarf caressing my skin. “Your human body confines you, anchoring you down with earthly limitations. Even as a Cambion, you’ve yet to tap into the power you have. There’s so much of the world you haven’t seen that’s right in front of you, visions only your demon eyes can withstand. The things I could teach you, Samara, if you just allow Lilith a little freedom, if you just let go.”
“No, thanks. I’ll pass,” I answered before I could second-guess myself. Oh man, the curiosity was there, and he had one hell of a sales pitch, but the asking price was too high. I had enough trouble getting Lilith under control as it was.
Moreover, the fate of Caleb and his brothers still hung in the balance, unresolved. Something deep down told me that Tobias would keep his promise and wouldn’t go after them. But he was cunning enough to find a loophole somewhere. Right now, the best thing to do was to keep my distance from them. For Lilith’s sake, he would never harm me, but everyone else was fair game.
Hating the silence, I asked, “Can you go away now? I’m sure Malik has a curfew or something.”
“I’ve already checked in, and his family is fast asleep.”
Feigning a yawn, I made a production of stretching and rubbing my eyes. “Yeah, well, it’s late. I’m gonna call it a night. You should probably get some sleep too.”
“You might be right. Too bad I don’t sleep, though.”
I paused with my fingers on the door handle. “You don’t sleep? At all?”
“Not the way you do, no.” Sighing, he threw me a look of impatience. “Samara, I’m inhuman, and by your estimation, quite evil. No rest for the wicked. That would imply some sort of reprieve, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh. Good point.” I opened my car door.
“Do you need help carrying your bags inside?”
“I can manage.” I stopped for a moment as an idea struck me. “On second thought, could you carry my book bag? It’s really heavy.”
Hefting the bag over his shoulder, he waited by the passenger-side door while I grabbed the bags from the backseat. Keeping an eye on him, I dug into one of the bags and singled out the small bottle of oil. Lilith rattled my spine, taking the defensive, but I ignored her. She’d annoyed me enough for the night. I unwrapped the plastic tamper-proof covering and twisted the cap. I dipped my finger inside, expecting some burning sensation, but nothing happened.
“You okay back there?” he called.
“Yeah, just grabbing trash from the back,” I said, then returned to my task.
The oil slid down my finger, warm and creamy, coating the digit in a shimmering gloss. It didn’t hurt to touch, so it wasn’t an irritant like silver supposedly is for werewolves. Maybe it had to be ingested. I wondered what effects it had on real demons. To my knowledge, their skin was like human skin, but pliable enough to transfigure into other forms. I poured a few more drops and slathered my hands in the oil. The sound of crunching gravel shot me upright. I made quick work of hiding the evidence, closed the door, and turned to face Tobias, who came around to my side.
His eyes darted to the backseat, then back to me. “You ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
We marched side by side down the walkway until we reached the porch. I opened the front door and dropped the shopping bag inside before turning to him.
He waited.
“You can’t come in,” I said and blocked the entry.
“Since when do I need an invitation?”
“Since now,” I said, then gra
bbed his hand with my oily one. He flinched at the contact, loosening his grip on my backpack.
I snatched my bag, rushed inside, and slammed the door in his face. My back pressed against the door, my heart drumming a beat that Caleb would want to sample for his collection. Club Rib Cage: the panic remix.
As the band played on around my ears, I considered my counterstrike. It had worked. The oil had really worked. My victory didn’t last long as a peculiar side effect came to my attention. It began slowly at first, but as the rush of danger drained away, it surfaced, a light heat on the same hand that had burned Tobias’s.
The entry in Angie’s journal warned me about how a linked pair could sense each other’s pain, not the injury per se, but the echo of its effect. The feeling would worsen as the pair fed from each other, but the energy charging my system was enough to make my hand tingle from an unsighted sting. This was the least of my problems once that strange, odorless smoke crept under the door, tickling my ankles. Dry ice the color of pitch had begun to slither up the wooden surface, its outstretched fingers clawing its way in.
I dove into my shopping bag, recovered the oil, and let a few drops spill on the cracks around the door. The vapor drew back once it made contact. I moved to the living room and added oil to the windowsill, then followed suit with the one in the dining room. I’d finished painting the glass when Tobias appeared on the other side of the pane, looking winded and livid.
“You can’t come in. Please just go away!” I yelled.
He chuckled to himself. “Where on earth did you find anointed oil?”
“It’s not that hard to come by.”
A tight smile stretched at his lips. “You did your homework. I’m impressed. Must have been a powerful elder, or several to cause this amount of damage. Good stuff.” He regarded his burned hand, which had turned red and blotched with peeling skin and small white blisters.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Flower. I can’t.” His eyes pleaded for compassion, understanding. His brows knit together in pain, not for his hand but from my firm rejection. I felt his grief burning within my chest, Lilith whining and appealing on his behalf, my arms throbbing to hold him and make it all better, but I had to be strong.
Bright headlights caught both of our attention. Mom’s blue Chrysler pulled into the driveway and parked behind mine.
Tobias’s sullen expression morphed into one of menace. I looked to Mom, to Tobias, then back to Mom again. The headlights shut off and the car door opened. Her dark head appeared before leaning in to grab her briefcase. I looked back to Tobias and screamed.
On the other side of the glass stood my dad, dressed in a gray suit and tie, smiling down at me. I shook my head, knowing what he would do. Tobias had been in my house long enough to see photos of my family. As the heavyweight champion of mind tricks, he no doubt knew about Mom’s unrequited feelings for Dad. This was bad, really bad, and I was helpless to stop it.
Mom’s high heels clicked against the pavement, drawing closer. Telling by the evil glint in Tobias’s eyes, she would never make it to the front door. I wasn’t one to beg, but if it would keep my mother safe, I would kiss the ground he walked on. But the words refused to break free, nor did I have time to speak.
Tobias took one step forward, then stopped dead in his tracks. Horror distorted his features, and the dark brown tint of Dad’s skin melted down his face like a runny water-color. Tobias in his true shape appeared behind the fallen mask, terrified beyond words or movement. His breath caught, his eyes bugged out as he watched me, but more directly, the bottle of oil hovered dangerously close to my lips.
Meeting him square in the eye, I shook my head slowly. I wasn’t sure what taking olive oil straight to the head would do to me, or Caleb for that matter. But the possibilities were enough to render Tobias motionless, and that was worth the risk.
Mom’s keys jangled at the door and if he was going to make his move, now was the time. But he didn’t budge. We stared at each other for a long, excruciating minute, communicating our stalemate with silence. His attention locked to my mouth and the lips that touched the rim of the bottle.
Taking a deep breath, he lowered his head, then nodded in a manner that declared defeat. He stepped away from the glass, retreating into the shadows as the front door opened.
“Whoop!” Mom yelped, followed by the thud of her briefcase hitting the floor. By the time I rushed to the door, Mom clung to its knob in an attempt to keep from falling flat on her butt. One foot shot out in front of the other as her left shoe flew off and landed by the stairs.
I raced to her side and grabbed her arm. “Mom, are you okay?”
Standing upright, she yanked and smoothed down her charcoal pantsuit. “Yeah, I must’ve slipped. Did you spill something by the door?”
“Um, yeah. I’ll grab a towel to clean it up.” I went to close the door.
Outside, Tobias stood on the opposite side of the street, that dark cavity cutting through the scenery once again. I may have won this round, but this fight wasn’t over. His presence burned into me, waging a war that he vowed to win.
15
There was no way to downplay or diminish the temperament of my internal roommate.
Lilith was straight-up pissed. I’d expected as much—no one wanted to be used as a bargaining chip in a hostage situation. But it had gotten Tobias off my back for the next three days, so mission accomplished. Seeing as Lilith couldn’t talk, she didn’t voice her displeasure aloud, but boy, was it obvious. She made her disapproval known by doling out another bout of insomnia.
I’d endured sleepless nights before, but images of Tobias lengthened the hours between midnight and sunrise. I knew for a fact that I wasn’t in love with him. I was more than certain I hated him, but that didn’t prevent the explicit images from flashing before my eyes. My personal adult video library and we were the lead actors in every scene.
I’d pinch my eyes shut and count to ten to rinse away my filthy mind, but an ocean of water couldn’t remove that stain. Only one thing could supplant the immediate need, only one body could replace another. Just thinking about him made me sick with guilt.
Caleb.
What would he think about me drooling over his potential killer, a jilted demon lover on the rebound? I imagined Caleb’s bright eyes peering down at me in contempt, though at this point, I’d do anything just to see those eyes open. I missed having someone to confide in; I missed his goofy style and our verbal spars. Heaven help me, I missed his hands—large, strong hands that promised safety and comfort.
I kept my promise and stayed away from Caleb’s room, technically. With help from one of the orderlies I caught in the parking lot, a few drops of oil protected the door of room 278. I hated using my abilities like that, but I needed to cover my bases.
Though I kept my end of the bargain, I called Haden every few hours for updates. Caleb remained unconscious, but seemed responsive to voices. I explained that I had too much makeup work for school to visit, and the brothers agreed to hold down the fort until I could think of a better lie.
After ending the final call of the night, I stayed awake, but fell into a trance of deep introspection. What a difference a few weeks could make. Or maybe I was the one who had changed? I used to have fun, joke around, and laugh until it hurt. Now, I was a good razor cut away from turning emo. I’d never needed to lie to everyone I cared about, but now lies followed each sentence like punctuation.
Pride demanded that I blame Lilith for flipping my world upside down, but what good would that do? There’s no escape from one’s self. No matter where I went, there she was: 24-7-52. She felt what I felt and likewise with me. No matter how much it annoyed me, Lilith was now my responsibility, and it was my job to sate her appetite.
That soon became a problem when I nearly passed out in government class the next day. The few drops of Tobias’s energy I had kept finally burned off and my poor sleeping habits made the crash that much harder. I was a fiend for another hit, and what’s
worse, my dealer kept staring at me from behind his textbook, giving me the “sex me” vibe.
After the olive oil standoff, Tobias attended every class we shared, seeking my attention. He didn’t dare sit next to me; I kept olive oil in a small body spray bottle in my pocket. This demon business was very much like training a pet. Whenever he misbehaved, I had to hose him down. In return, he sat across the room, using the Jedi mind trick to project his longing and employing Lilith to trigger mine.
I squirmed in my seat, gripping the edge of the desk while witnessing images of Nadine and Tobias. Vivid details crowded my senses: the sounds, the smells, the warmth of his skin. And Lilith, the little perv, did nothing but kick back and cheer them on.
It was wrong, yet I couldn’t look away, even if I’d known how. The mating process fascinated me; it was very different from human coupling, not that I knew from personal experience. Some images appeared in split-vision, taking multiple points of view at once. I could feel not only what Nadine felt, but also Tobias, and his response through her. Signals passed through their private frequency, back and forth, moving faster, climbing higher until—
“Yo, Sam!” a voice called from the outside world.
I looked up and found Mia glaring down at me, her binder clutched to her chest.
“Class is over,” she reported.
“Oh.” I swept a glance across the now empty classroom and wondered where the time had gone. Mr. Frasier stood in front of the marker board, wiping away notes that I was pretty sure I would need for Friday’s test.
Eyeing me in suspicion, Mia said, “I saw how Malik was staring at you. So are the rumors true? Are you two hooking up?”
“No,” I answered and wiped the sweat from my neck and forehead.
“You sure about that? I’ve seen you two together. That’s really messed up, Sam. Caleb’s in the hospital, and you’re sneaking around like this.”
“I’m not sneaking around, okay?” I gathered my books and scooted out of my seat. “Look, there’s more to this than you know. It’s—”