The Demon Inside Me

by Christopher Nelson

  I woke up late the next morning. Tink and Caleb were already gone. I didn't see her again for nearly four months.

  Chapter Seven

  My door rattled. I hadn't ordered any takeout, nor was I expecting company this late. Maybe Becky was looking for a drinking buddy, but she didn't usually come over after ten. I considered not answering, but decided to put down my beer and take a look. Sometimes I had unexpected visitors. Sometimes I got lucky.

  I opened the door just as it rattled again. Unexpected, yes. Lucky, no. "Do I look like a doctor?" I asked.

  Tink staggered a step forward and leaned against the doorway. "Get out of the way." Several parallel lines oozed blood down her forehead and cheek. The lines carved right across her nose, part of which was missing, and across her left eye. I couldn't tell through the blood if it was missing as well. Her clothes were burned completely away in places that should have revealed smooth pink skin, but instead showed blackened leather. On her shoulder, she was supporting a body burned all over, almost unrecognizable. From some of the cracks in what was left of his skin, he was bleeding. Not red blood, but something clear, something that smelled sweet.

  I stepped out of the doorway. Fast. "Get him on the couch. That's Caleb, isn't it? What's left of him, at least."

  "Making me do all the work." She dragged the angel in and pushed him off onto the couch. I slammed the door shut and threw the deadbolt. When I turned around, she was on her knees next to the couch, slumping over sideways. "Not feeling great," she whispered.

  I picked her up, charred skin sloughing off at my touch, leaving streaks of blood on my fingers. "You're a mess, Tink."

  "Don't call me that. Hurt you."

  "I missed you too." I carried her to the bathroom. She was light, lighter than I expected, even for her size. She gasped as I bumped her foot into the door. "You ok?"

  "Think something's broken."

  "How did you make it up the stairs like that?" I lowered her into the bathtub. Blood streaked the white porcelain. She tried to say something, but only coughed instead. The injuries had to be agonizing, but she didn't seem to be in shock. I checked her injuries while she laid there. The burns I could see were bad, very bad. The cuts and lacerations were only secondary. I stood up and waggled my finger at her. "Don't go anywhere."

  She closed her good eye. "Hurry."

  I rushed to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. As I passed through the living room, I spared a glance for Caleb. It looked to me as if he was one hundred percent burned. Even an angel of his power wouldn't be able to regenerate that, especially if hellfire was the cause. It was a testimony to his resilience that he was still breathing.

  Back in the bathroom, Tink's breathing was shallow. I knelt next to the tub and held the knife up. She opened her eye and focused on it. "Going to sever our contract?"

  "No, I'm finally going to get to see you naked." I bent down and started sawing through the remnants of her clothing. She grunted and twisted slightly, but didn't cry out, except when I pulled her shoes off. "Not quite as sexy as I thought," I said when I finished, then put the stopper in the tub to stop any more blood draining down the pipes.

  "Not seeing me at my best."

  "Maybe I should call Kibs for a comparison."

  "I'll kill you."

  I grinned. "You can kill me after I'm done."

  "What are you going to do to me?"

  I slashed my palm open, letting ichor drip into the bathtub, mixing with her blood. Where they mixed, steam rose, stinking of sulfur. She grunted again and closed her eye. I let the ichor mix until I felt I had poured enough out, and then traced a circuit around the rim of the tub. Keeping it confined to the bathtub was going to be noxious, but it was my only recourse. I needed to have enough power confined there to work with. I started the water running, letting it dilute the mix so it wouldn't cause any further injuries. While it filled the tub, I went to make sure the front door was secure. If someone were paying close attention to this area, the amount of power I was working with would stand out.

  "Demon." I looked over. Caleb's eyes were open, full silver, no whites. "The girl."

  "I'm taking care of her."

  "Don't let her die." His eyes narrowed. "Or I'll kill you."

  I showed him my slashed palm, still oozing and steaming. "Caleb, if you threaten me again, I'll bleed all over you. Now shut up and let me deal with her."

  "Are you threatening me?" The angel was stubborn. I had to give him credit for that.

  "You're a guest in my apartment," I told him. "And both of you have already threatened to kill me while I try to help you. You're damn right I'm threatening you. Trying to be a decent person doesn't seem to get through your head."

  He sighed. I waited for him to say something else, but he closed his eyes and didn't speak. Prideful bastard. I shook my head and walked back into the bathroom. The tub was foggy and about halfway full, but the circle had done its job and kept the fumes confined. "How are you feeling? Ready to go to Never-Never Land?"

  Her eye fluttered open. "Never going to stop, are you?"

  I tugged on my palm, opening the wound wider. This was going to take all of my remaining ichor, maybe more. I started converting blood to ichor, but it was going to be close. "Well, you've never called me by name, so why should I?"

  Her eye widened and she opened her mouth, but coughed again and groaned. She swallowed, hard, and closed her eye again. "Hurts."

  "Here goes nothing." I touched a drop of ichor to her forehead, introducing it to her wound. Her good eye sprang open and she squeaked. "Sorry. It's going to be painful."

  "Doesn't hurt as much as what caused it. I can take it."

  I painted her wounds with my ichor, forcing it to mix with her blood and restore her wounds. The cuts were easy. "Can you open that eye?"

  Her eyelid fluttered, but didn't open. I reached down and forced her eye open as gently as possible. She hissed and water splashed. Whoever had done this to her had cut right through her pupil, the slice barely visible. I clenched my fist and dripped ichor right on it. She winced, then gasped. The pupil, split in half, melded back together and she blinked, my ichor oozing away like green tears. "Thought I had lost it."

  "Blurry?" I asked. She nodded, so I added another drop. "Better?"

  "Yes."

  "You'd have looked good with an eye patch, you know. Are you sure you want it fixed?"

  She smiled a genuine smile as she looked up at me. It was the first time I'd seen that expression on her. "I prefer depth perception."

  I turned the water off as it threatened to spill over the side of the tub, then turned my attention to the last of the cuts. "So, Becky got me a job with her dad's company. Never considered it before. I'm not big into physical labor."

  "Shocked."

  "This is going to hurt. I need to find the fracture before I heal it. But yeah, it's a job, and it pays better than I thought. They've been working on a new subdivision, so I have work up until the end of the year, at least. Maybe more in the spring."

  She hissed again as I lifted her foot out of the water, then flinched as I touched the side, near her big toe. "So you're employed again. Good, I guess."

  I touched ichor to her skin over the break and pressed it in. She held her breath and I could feel her tremble. "Sorry. It'll take a minute. The dilute ichor in the water is starting on the burns. I was talking to Becky about moving up. I guess her dad's impressed since I'm stronger than I look, plus a bit smarter than most people in the field."

  "Cheater."

  "I only cheat when I need to."

  "Why are you telling me all this?"

  I probed the first burn, the one that had charred most of her left arm. This one wasn't too deep, just a secondary splash. I rested for a moment, letting my ichor settle into her wounds before tackling the burns. "Reciprocity. If I tell you what I've been up to for the past four months, you'll tell me your story too. Plus it'll distract you from what I'm doing."

  "Not that curious about you
r personal life."

  "Liar."

  "Am not."

  "This is going to hurt too." I rubbed the length of the burn. Her charred skin peeled off, revealing a new pink layer underneath. She cried out. Rapid regrowth of new skin was not fun with the pain receptors all turning on at once. "I can't spare any more ichor to numb it, unless you want to wait for a little while. It won't get any less painful than it is right now."

  "Shit, that hurts." She closed her eyes. "Go faster."

  "Harder?"

  "Shut up. Just do it."

  I pulled her onto her right side, facing toward me. Her face was close to the water, so I let some out before getting to work. The next burn was on the back of her left thigh. It was deep, almost to the bone. I suspected that's where hellfire had hit her directly. Only a spark, if that, but it would have killed her if it hit her chest or head. Luckily, it had cauterized the injury. "I'm surprised you were able to walk."

  "Had to use magic to keep going," she said through clenched teeth. "Wearing off."

  "Tough little girl."

  "Stop making fun of me."

  "That wasn't making fun of you. That was flattery."

  "That won't get you anywhere either."

  I threw my hands up. "I can't win!"

  She smirked up at me. "Not supposed to."

  "Fine. Grab on." I offered her my hand. She eyed it for a moment, then grabbed my hand. With my other hand, I peeled the ruined flesh away from her leg. She cried out again and clenched my hand. I felt my bones creak. "Easy, girl. I can't spare the ichor to heal my own broken bones."

  "Shut up and hurry up." Her grip did lessen, though.

  I turned her onto her back again and turned the water back on. The last burn crawled up the left side of her chest, probably from her clothes bursting into flames. I took a glance at the mostly-unmarked right side. Maybe a little more than a glance. She caught my gaze and tried to cover herself. I looked away. "Sorry. Going to have to wait for a minute, I let too much water out. Need to add a little more ichor to get it back up to the right concentration."

  "Fine. Can't hurt any more than it is now, right?"

  "Probably not." I put my back to the side of the tub and sighed. "Why me?"

  "What do you mean, why you? I remembered how you said you had healed that other girl. Figured you might be able to help us. Caleb didn't get a vote." She laughed, her voice harsh.

  "I was more wondering about why you picked me out in the first place. It's not as if I go around advertising that I'm part demon. How did you track me down?"

  "That's a trade secret."

  I turned and shut the water off. "You know, I think you owe me a little bit for doing this."

  "It's in the contract that you have to protect me, you know."

  "I'm not talking about the contract, Tink."

  She was silent for a minute. I squeezed my sliced hand, trying to pull enough ichor out of the wound to add to the mix. The conversion of blood was still cycling through my body and it would take another minute or two to convert enough ichor to spare. "It wasn't anything you did that gave it away. I sensed you in passing, a couple of weeks before we met. I think it was in a grocery store."

  "You mean we ran into each other in the store? That's so unromantic."

  "Demon, you're trying my patience."

  "Sorry."

  She sighed and I heard water ripple. "It wasn't anything you did. As I walked past you, my warning rune went haywire. You were thinking in demonic as you glanced at me. I couldn't tell what you were thinking, but I could tell it was inhuman."

  "So why did you think I was Azriphel?"

  "I had tracked him down to this area a while ago. Found you instead. You know the rest." I nodded and squeezed my hand again, cupping just enough ichor to finish the job. I dumped it into the water and stirred it around. She let out a sigh a moment later. "That feels good."

  "Ready for the last burn? This is the worst one. The other two were a lot smaller, though the leg was deeper. You've lost a lot of skin and, uh, tissue. I'm going to be touching places you might not normally want me to."

  "What, you expect me to slap you when you're trying to heal me?"

  "Yes, actually, I do. Ready?"

  "As ready as I'll ever be."

  I put my hands on her chest and pulled. Burned skin peeled off in long strips and I left them in the water. My ichor would dissolve them over the next few minutes. After each strip, I made sure that the new skin was healthy and solid before removing more. More ichor went into the process of rebuilding tissue that had simply been lost. That was a harder task and by the time I finished, I was sweating heavily. Her body would take care of the rest.

  "Are you done yet?" she asked.

  "I hope so."

  "Then could you move your hands?"

  I did, with just a little bit of regret. "Anywhere else hurt?"

  Tink was too busy making sure I hadn't left anything out to say anything. I took the opportunity to lean back and take a few deep breaths. My vision was starting to blur and darken. I had kept converting during the ordeal, but I just didn't have enough blood volume left to continue if there was anything left. "Good," she said. "Nice work, demon."

  "Thank you, Tinkerbell."

  "Now, get the hell out of here and leave me some clothes."

  I pushed myself to my feet. The room darkened, spun, and nearly fell down around me. I put a hand on the wall to hold it up. "Make sure you rinse everything down the drain. I've got bathroom cleaner under the sink."

  The shower snapped on as I walked out. "Take a breather. Caleb's next."

  I checked the living room. He was still breathing. I walked to my bedroom, found a shirt and shorts for her, and brought them into the bathroom. She had pulled the curtain closed and all I could see was her shadow through it. If I hadn't been so exhausted, it would have turned me on. "Got clothes for you. Leaving them on the toilet. I don't have any women's underwear here, though, so you're out of luck in that regard."

  "Won't be the first time I've gone commando."

  I snorted. "So, about Caleb."

  "Hope you can do as good a job on him as you did on me. He's close to dead."

  "I can't do anything for him."

  She pulled the shower curtain open just enough to stick her head out. "What?"

  I leaned against the sink. "I can't save him, Tink."

  "You haven't even tried yet."

  "You know what happens when demonic ichor comes in contact with angelic purity?"

  She shook her head. "They cancel out?"

  "Annihilate each other." I put my hands together and spread them rapidly. "Sometimes it burns, sometimes it explodes. Pieces of angel go flying across the room. Not pretty. I'm going to need to throw that couch out. Dammit, I liked that couch."

  "He can't die!" Tink pointed at me, letting go of the curtain and showing a little more skin than she probably intended. "There's got to be something you can do!"

  "I could put in a request through the Consortium," I said. "They could get in touch with the archons and get an angelic healer here. We'd get a lot of attention and suspicion, and no guarantee they'd make it in time."

  She growled something. "Nothing you can do?"

  I shook my head. "His only chance is you."

  "Me?"

  "Don't you know any healing magic?"

  Her face fell. "Rashid showed me a few things, but I don't think I could do anything more than stabilize him, and I can't even do that. I'm exhausted, just like you."

  What I could see of her was shaking. "What's so important about keeping him alive?" I asked.

  "He knows," she said. "He put it together, after what Rashid told us. I need him to help us finish this. That damned Duke!"

  "What happened to the Duke?" I asked.

  "Caleb happened to him. That bastard won't be coming after us for a while." Her tone was grim. "But we won't be going after him for a while either."

  I tapped my fingers on the sink. There had to be some
way to save the angel if he was that important to her. "How about you try to stabilize him? If you can do it, I'll call in Kibs and get a message out. Maybe getting more attention will be a good thing."

  "I don't have the blood to devote to that," she repeated.

  "Can your magic use someone else's blood?" I asked.

  "Sure."

  "What about ichor?"

  Her eyes narrowed. "Might be worth a shot."

  "You spare some blood, I'll spare some ichor," I said.

  She pulled the curtain open. "Let's do it."

  I couldn't look away. I didn't want to. Who would? I felt my cheeks heat. She was slim, almost to the point where people might think she had a medical condition, but her arms and legs were muscled. Taut. She stepped out of the tub, nice and perky. Her hand twitched as she glared at me. "A job well done, if I do say so myself," I said.

  She picked up the shorts and stepped into them. They hung from her waist to just past her knees. She snapped the elastic and frowned, then twisted from side to side. More swaying. It was hard to take my eyes away. "A little big."

  "I'm a little taller than you," I pointed out.

  "I noticed. What, are you serious? A white button up shirt when I'm soaking wet?" She looked up at me and scowled, then looked away. Her cheeks were red. "Pervert."

  I intended to enjoy the sight, and I did. She turned and buttoned it quickly, but it did stick to her skin in interesting places. The tails hung down to mid-thigh, and she had to roll the cuffs back several times to free her hands. By the time she was finished, I was definitely less tired than I had been. She pushed me out of the way, one hand flat on my chest, and walked out to the living room without another word.

  Caleb's breathing was slow and shallow. I suspected that if she didn't work quickly, he'd die within the hour. "Where's your chalk?" she asked. "Same drawer?"

  "Same drawer." She spent the next couple of minutes drawing a trio of concentric circles around the couch, placing various runes on the outer rim of each. I concentrated on building up my reserves while she drew. By the time she finished, I had just enough ichor to spare a few drops without passing out. She sat back and put the chalk down on the coffee table. "Done?"