The Demon Beside Me

by Nelson, Christopher

  The door flew open. I held the box up and gave her my best attempt at a winning smile.

  She gave me an identical smile, snatched the box from my hands, and slammed the door again.

  Tink snickered. “Hey, bitch.”

  “You’re not helping,” I told her, then knocked on the door again. “Come on, Hikari! At least let me dump her on the couch or something!”

  “No,” was the muffled response.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want her here anymore.”

  “What?”

  The door cracked open. “Zay, I don’t want her here anymore. She’s not welcome.” Only one eye was visible through the doorway, but that was enough for me. “I can’t take this anymore. You never do anything like this with me.”

  “What, go out to dinner and piss you off to the point where you get drunk just to spite me?” Her eye widened slightly and I shook Tink a bit, letting her head loll to the side. “And you know why she got pissed at me? Because I told her to get her nose out of our business. Yours and mine.”

  Hikari flinched back. I took the opportunity to stick my hand in the gap, then immediately forced ichor into that arm to make sure she couldn’t just slam it shut. She didn’t. “But you went out with her for contract negotiations like this?”

  “Do you know what our initial contract negotiations were like? She stabbed me in the back. Twice! Yes, I agreed to this. I can heal myself afterwards, sure, but I still don’t enjoy the feeling of a knife blade sliding next to my kidney! It hurts!”

  “But you’re still contracting with her!”

  “Yes, I am,” I said. “She’s my partner. She’s the one who brought us all together. We’ve been working together for three years now. Especially now, we need to keep working together, with the Gatekeeper issues ongoing.”

  “But you’re contracting with her.” Hikari put emphasis on the word “contracting” and it took me aback. “You have a contractual obligation with her. To be with her. To help her, to save her, to fight with her, to fight for her.”

  “Is that what this is all about?” I asked. “You’re jealous of that?”

  The door opened wide. Hikari stared at me, then jabbed her fingers right into my chest. “Jealous? No, I’m pissed off that you’ll run off to save her each and every time because you have to, and you don’t have anything that’ll make you come to me.”

  “But you’re my girlfriend, Hikari. We’re living together! What on earth makes you think I wouldn’t break all sorts of shit to come to you if you needed it?”

  She lifted her fingers from my chest, then pointed at Tink. “That’s why, Zay,” she said quietly. “If you had to choose between me and her, you’d have to choose her. Have to. You’re bound to her by something more than just affection. If you were just a human like me, it wouldn’t bother me so much. But you’re not just human, and that contract binds your demonic side in ways I can’t ever understand. I know I’d lose to that, Zay, and especially now, that worries me.”

  “But-”

  “Don’t renew the contract.”

  I flinched back. “What?”

  “You heard me. Don’t renew the contract. I don’t care if you work with her, spend time with her, whatever. As long as we’re on equal footing, I don’t care. I’m not going to accept things the way they are now. Not anymore. I’ve had it.”

  “You can’t ask me to do that.”

  “Why not?” She crossed her arms over her stomach. “As you pointed out, I’m your girlfriend. We’re living together. I think I have a good enough reason to ask you to do that. Yeah, you two needed a contract back when we were fighting Azriphel, but he’s gone and those days are over.”

  “And now I’ve got the Angelic Choir breathing down my neck, if you recall,” I pointed out. “Remember Victor? The goofy Archangel who broke into your mind? They don’t only know about me, they know about you, and you want me to deliberately weaken myself when we know damned well that the Choir will jump on any perceived weakness?”

  “You’re under the parole of an important, powerful member of the Choir,” she replied. “I’m not stupid, you know. I saw Caleb back that Bartholomew off. If Caleb’s got that sort of power, I think you’ll be fine.”

  “He backed that guy off, sure. He also got into a fight with Duke Deshavin of House Lucifer a couple years back and didn’t come out on top. I don’t trust that Caleb could take on Bartholomew straight up. There’s something else there that we’re not privy to.” At least, she wasn’t privy to. Caleb’s history probably gave him an enormous amount of influence within the Choir and even one of the Cherubim might be cautious about crossing him. Having a sword waving in front of his nose probably had something to do with it as well.

  “It’s been a couple of years. Maybe he’s stronger now.”

  I snarled and tightened my hand on the doorframe. She wasn’t backing down. “Why are you doing this, Hikari?”

  “I already-”

  “No. Why are you doing this to her?” I shook Tink gently. She had passed out some time ago and her head bobbed up and down. “You know that she’s the one who brought us together. You know she’s going to be hurt because of this. And you know for sure that she’s going to lash out at me.”

  “Why should I care about her being hurt?” I flinched again at the snap in her words. “This is exactly what I’ve been angry about, Zay. Why should I care about her being hurt, when I’m the one hurt by the way things are? You’re hurting one of us either way. I’m telling you that I’m done being hurt by this.”

  I clenched my hand. The doorframe cracked and she took a step back. “And my feelings on the matter don’t seem to matter at all.” She opened her mouth but I didn’t let her say anything. “You win. I’ll take her downstairs and wait for Caleb so you don’t have to endure her presence any more than you have to. I won’t renew the contract, I’ll tell her exactly why, and you can deal with the consequences, just like you want me to. If this is what you want, then this is what you’ll get.” I let go of the cracked wooden frame and turned away, half-carrying, half-dragging Tink toward the stairs down to the first floor.

  “Zay?” I looked over my shoulder. Hikari stood in the middle of the hallway. She was smiling as if she’d won. “I’ll be waiting.”

  “Don’t bother,” I told her. “I’m going to hang out with Caleb for a while.”

  “Zay?”

  I ignored her and headed downstairs. The entrance to our apartment building was dimly lit and claustrophobic at the best of times. In my current mood, the walls felt like they were about to crush me. I wanted to punch a wall, but I’d probably end up breaking something and dropping Tink. I wasn’t sure which one of those would hurt more.

  A creak from the stairs caught my attention and I cranked my head around. Nothing. I had almost expected Hikari to chase me down and give me some more pieces of her mind. If she had, I didn’t know how I’d react. She was asking me to do something ridiculous. It felt like betrayal.

  On the other hand, I had never wanted a partner in the first place. I looked down at the tiny blonde girl who had forced her way into my life at the point of a knife, forcing a contract on me twice. Almost three times, considering how she had gotten the jump on me last year. She had almost gotten me killed time and time again, but then again, without her, I’d never have met Hikari or any of my friends. I’d never have learned about the Gates. I’d never have become anyone of interest in the House, and I’d probably have just lived my life as humanly and normally as possible. At least, I would have lived until Azriphel shattered the Gates of Purgatory and destroyed half of the world in the process.

  Someone’s hand came down on my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin. “What’s wrong, Zay? You were looking at Anna as if you were about to strangle her. Did she throw up in your car?”

  “Caleb,” I said. “We’re going out to get drunk.”

  “What?”

  “You and I. Getting drunk. Tonight. Now.”

&nb
sp; “I have to work tomorrow.”

  “I have to get drunk tonight.”

  He sighed and stepped around me, sharing the burden of carrying Tink around. “Something happened with Hikari?”

  “Am I that obvious?”

  “Everyone knew it was going to come to this point eventually. Well, from the look on your face, maybe I should say everyone but you.”

  I ground my teeth and tried to stop from snapping at him. We carried Tink out to his truck in silence, arranged her in the back of the cab, and then I got into the passenger side and sat in sullen silence. Caleb glanced at me, then started the truck and we drove off. “She still hasn’t told you where she lives, right?” he asked after a few minutes.

  “Nope.”

  “That’s a bit of a logistical problem, then. How about I drop you off someplace, then come back after I’ve taken care of her?”

  “That’s fine.”

  Caleb sighed. “What happened, Zay?”

  I snorted. “Hikari said either I refuse to renew the contract, or she’s done with me.”

  “Oh, that’s an easy one,” Caleb said. “If you need a place to stay until you get your own place, I’ve got a couch. Least I could do for all the times I’ve had to crash on your couch over the years.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He looked over at me. “Wait, are you trying to tell me you actually gave in?”

  “She’s my girlfriend!”

  Caleb stared at me for an uncomfortable length of time, until I pointed out that driving through a red light at a busy intersection could be a terribly bad idea. He slammed on the brakes and I heard a rather annoyed grunt from behind us. “Isaiah, are you insane?”

  “You’re not the only one who thinks so.” I wondered that myself.

  The light turned green and we kept on moving. “You’re going to give up on Anna because you think that doing so will make Hikari happy?”

  “Sometimes you need to compromise,” I said.

  “Tell me the last time she compromised with you.”

  “Just because I can’t think of anything off hand doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.”

  “Fine. You tell me that she’s compromised on anywhere near the number of things you have, then. Be honest.”

  I looked out the window. “No, she hasn’t.”

  “And you’re going to give in on this one?”

  “I guess I am.”

  I heard a thump as Caleb hit the wheel with the palm of his hand. “You’re certifiable, Zay. You’re stupid. You’re an asshole.” I looked back toward him, surprised he was this upset. “You’re going to hurt Anna. You’re going to betray her trust in you, just because Hikari asked you to.”

  “I’m going to hurt one of them either way,” I said.

  “Which one deserves to be hurt? Which one doesn’t?”

  I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t say anything. After another minute or two, Caleb pulled into the parking lot of a bar we had visited with Becky a couple of times last year. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said. “Maybe if I get you drunk enough, I can talk you out of doing this sort of stupid thing.”

  “From your lips,” I said, and got out of the truck.

  Chapter Seven

  * * *

  Caleb’s apartment was nothing like mine. Hikari was hell bent on keeping things organized and relatively clean. I had kept my own apartment neat, but she took it to a whole new level. Caleb’s apartment was also on a whole new level, but in the opposite direction. While it wasn’t a garbage dump, that was mostly because it was small and Spartan in terms of furnishing.

  The walls were bare, the curtains over the single window were slightly ragged and worn, and the rug showed no sign of a vacuum touching it in recent memory. However, there were no cans of soda or bottles of beer piled up anywhere, there was no garbage can filled with junk, nor was there an overflowing bookshelf. In fact, his bookshelf was neat and arranged.

  I felt more at home at his place than I did at my own. It had been just about a week since Hikari had laid down her ultimatum. It had taken me a day and a half to work off the hangover from that night. Normally, I would have used my ichor to break down the toxins, but I knew that I didn’t deserve to avoid the misery. I hadn’t told Tink that we hadn’t renewed the contract, coward that I was.

  Hikari had seemed pleased with the results of that evening, at least at first. We hadn’t gotten into a fight for three days straight afterwards. That was mostly because I tried to avoid coming home. There was enough work available that I could rack up the hours, spending twelve hours a day on projects, then coming home and collapsing on the couch.

  She had started a solid argument just before I left for Caleb’s place. She had started to rage about how I wasn’t spending any time with her anymore, throwing Caleb’s name into it every chance she got. I let her tire herself out, then threw a cheap shot back at her. “So now that you’ve driven a wedge between me and one of my friends, you want to do it with another?” That had shut her up and I took the opportunity to walk out before she could continue the verbal assault.

  Something icy touched the side of my head. I jerked away. “You’re brooding,” Caleb told me as he handed me a bottle. “You’ve been brooding ever since you got here. I don’t know why you’re putting yourself through this.”

  “What other choice do I have?” I asked.

  “Simple. Leave her.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  “I know.” He raised his own bottle to me and I lifted mine in salute back. “You know what I think, Zay. Just know that my offer stands, all right?”

  “Much appreciated.” I laughed. “We’ve come a long way from waving swords in each other’s face, haven’t we?”

  He chuckled as he collapsed into a chair. “Some days, I think that having cut first would have made my life so much easier.”

  “Just remember, that’s what Tink did, and see where it got her?”

  “Speaking of Anna, she should be here any minute now. You still haven’t told her?”

  I shook my head. “I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it quiet for now as well.”

  “I will, but you know you’re just making it worse.”

  I shrugged. “If it comes down to it, she can just stab me and force me into a contract again. Nothing I can do about that. Hikari will be pissed off, but what else is new?”

  Caleb shook his head, but there was a knock on the door before he could say anything. He got up, checked through the peephole, and then opened the door. “Good morning, Anna.”

  “Morning, Caleb.” Tink swept into the room and fixed her eyes on me. “Morning, demon.”

  “Morning,” I said, looking her right in the eye.

  Emptiness. I broke eye contact with her before she could sense it as well. The contract had expired and with it, that subtle sense of connection between us was gone. I had used that connection in the past to track her down. I knew it existed. Had existed. It was gone and it was as obvious in its absence as it had been subtle in its presence. I didn’t know if she felt it in the same way, but I didn’t want to take that risk.

  She sat down on the couch next to me. “So this is the big day. We get to meet another Horseman. Why are we here and not at the demon’s shack?”

  “I don’t want another incident like last time,” I said. “No one else needs to get involved. We should keep this right between the three of us.”

  “That’s why we both denied requests from the Host and Choir to have an observer,” Caleb added.

  I saw Tink nod out of the corner of my eye. “Makes sense, in a way. What about the imps and archons? We can’t keep them out of here.”

  “Right, but they won’t go off and give that information to anyone. If they did, we might just have to make them the subject of one of our later commands. I’m sure they wouldn’t enjoy the results of a famine directed at them,” Caleb said. He kept his tone light and joking, but I knew it wasn’t entirely a joke. We couldn
’t stop them from listening in, not without borrowing whatever House Lucifer had developed to keep them out, and the odds of House Lucifer doing me any sort of favor were not good. We could make sure that they didn’t pass it along. I heard a frustrated hiss right next to my ear and couldn’t help but grin.

  “What about passing it along to the Conclave?” Tink asked.

  “Do whatever you want after we’re done here. I’m sure we’ll all be giving reports to our respective, uh, governments.” Caleb glanced at me. “I don’t even know if that’s the correct term. Faction doesn’t quite sound right either.”

  “Organization?” I suggested.

  “That sounds like some sort of mafia connection,” Tink said. “Bloc?”

  “Now that sounds like we’re revolutionaries.” I shrugged. “Our respective groups?”

  “Whatever,” Tink said. “We’ll all tell our people.”

  Our fascinating discussion came to a halt when someone knocked on the door. Caleb checked the peephole again and frowned, then cracked the door open. “Can I help you, sir?”

  Sir? I craned my head to look toward the door. “I’m looking for the Gatekeepers.” The voice was rough, with a slight Southern accent. “Might I find them here?”

  “Please, come in, and be at peace,” Caleb said, pulling the door all the way open. I stood, partly out of respect, partly out of wanting to see why he rated an automatic “sir” from Caleb.

  “Me? At peace? That’s irony, right there,” said the Horseman. He rolled forward into Caleb’s apartment, his wheelchair gliding over the thin rug. Both of his legs terminated at the knee and his left sleeve hung empty, pinned up at the shoulder. Scars curved across his face, permanently curling his upper lip.

  “I didn’t think this building was even accessible for the handicapped,” Tink muttered.

  “One of the perks of being an unimaginably powerful being,” I replied.