The Demon Beside Me

by Nelson, Christopher

  I stood up and walked toward the living room. The House had put me up in a corporate suite, which was very nearly as large as the apartment that Hikari and I had been renting. The furnishings, at least, were far nicer. I almost didn’t want to sit down on the couch for fear of getting it dirty.

  A knock on the door told me that the time had come. Tink and Hikari were standing side by side in the hallway, neither one smiling, both glaring at me as if I had done something very, very wrong. Maybe I had. I stood back to allow them in. Somehow, they both managed to walk through the doorway at the same time without coming in contact with each other. Neither one of them said a word as they selected seats opposite one another.

  I closed the door and cleared my throat. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you both here today.” Neither of them said a word in response, simply stared at me. “Actually, I have a couple of things to ask you about. More than a couple. I don’t even know where to start.”

  I might have been talking to a wall for all the reaction I got. I pointed at the television sitting dark in a corner. “Have either of you seen the news about some multi-national consortium putting together a twenty billion dollar aid package for Korea? That’s a twenty with nine zeroes after it. We’re talking real money here, ladies.”

  This time, Hikari blinked. There was no reaction from Tink. I continued. “From what I’ve heard, that corporation is brand new. They’ve built a history for themselves out of thin air. It’s not backed by the Host. It’s not backed by the Choir. Who’s behind it?”

  “Why are you asking us?” Hikari asked.

  “Because it’s backed by mages,” I said.

  “How do you know that?” Tink asked.

  “Come on, Anna, you know they have intelligence services,” Hikari snapped.

  “I’m not asking how the House knows, I’m asking how he knows,” Tink snapped back.

  “Obviously through his contacts in the House.”

  “How I know isn’t the issue here,” I said. While part of me was glad they were speaking to each other, most of me was screaming various warnings and imperatives to jump out the window right now. “I’m asking if you know anything about it.”

  “I don’t, but I’m not connected like she is,” Tink said. “Why don’t you let us know, Hikari-chan? I’m sure there’s so much you haven’t told us.”

  “I’m sorry? What exactly are you trying to insinuate here?”

  “Do you know anything about them?” I asked, cutting Tink off before she could say anything else.

  Hikari frowned. “I don’t know that I can tell you. Either of you.”

  “Why not?”

  “There are things you can’t tell me, right?” she asked. I nodded. “Well, there are things I can’t tell you either. Unless...does the name Nathan Kane mean anything to you?”

  I searched my memory. “Doesn’t ring any bells,” I said. Kibs would look into that.

  Tink’s face was scrunched up in thought. “That name sounds vaguely familiar. I know I’ve heard it before. Maybe Rashid mentioned it in passing.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if you had eavesdropped on a conversation.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means-“

  I stood up. “The second thing I wanted to ask about was the spell that’s still lingering on me.”

  Hikari’s mouth snapped shut. Tink leaned forward. “I’ve been wondering about that too, ever since Famine mentioned it. I know we cast that spell to keep him from producing ichor, but then we lifted it. At least, I lifted my part of it. Did you forget something, Hikari-chan?”

  “Stop calling me that, Tinkerbell.”

  Tink sat back with a satisfied smile. I was impressed. It took serious effort to get that sort of rise out of Hikari, unless you were me, in which case you could do it with no effort at all. “It’s still affecting me, you know,” I said. “It’s not keeping me from naturally producing ichor, but it is keeping me from converting blood to ichor. I haven’t needed to do so ever since I woke up, but you know, I could really use that ability back. I can’t sustain use of my powers without that.”

  “That wasn’t what we agreed on,” Tink said, her tone low, almost a growl.

  “I don’t recall agreeing on anything.”

  “It was a temporary measure, to keep him from-“

  “I know what it was for,” Hikari snapped.

  “So do I,” I said. Both of them looked up at me. “You did what you needed to do to keep me alive. You both did more than you ever had to do. What I’m curious about is that this lingering spell isn’t something that’s needed anymore. So why isn’t it gone?”

  The mages exchanged looks again. “I wish I knew,” Tink growled.

  “It’s nothing you need to know or worry about,” Hikari said.

  “Are you serious? Of course I need to worry about it,” I said. “Hikari, why’d you leave something like that in place?”

  “For your own good.”

  “Yeah, right,” Tink snorted.

  “For my own good? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “We couldn’t risk you straining your system by producing too much ichor,” Hikari continued. “I felt that it’d be best to restrain your powers until we were sure you wouldn’t pop a hidden pocket of purity somewhere.”

  “You felt?” Tink pounced before I could say anything. “You felt we should wait? Funny, I don’t remember you consulting me about this. I bet you didn’t talk with Opheran about it either.”

  “We had already agreed to stop the ichor production! This was just another precaution along those same lines.”

  “Then why didn’t you mention it? How long has it been in place? When did you plan on releasing the spell?” Tink paused, but when Hikari turned her head away instead of answering, she continued the barrage. “Better yet, why didn’t you tell him? Oh, you haven’t had the chance to tell him because you decided that working overtime at the shitty job you hate is more important than visiting your boyfriend in the hospital?”

  Hikari flinched. I felt the need to step in. “Look, this isn’t a witch hunt.”

  “Like hell it isn’t,” Tink snarled. “Demon, look at her. She’s refusing to answer. Why didn’t she tell you? She’s hiding something. Not just from you, but from me as well. What is it, Hikari? Some sort of Conclave plot?”

  “Don’t ask me that.” Hikari’s voice was hoarse. She stood up and walked over to the window. “Don’t ask me that, Anna.”

  “What on earth do you see in her?” Tink’s voice held nothing but disgust. My heart sank. Whatever friendship these two once had, it was gone. “Look at her. She won’t tell you why she’s tied a knot around your powers. She’s hiding the reasons from you and from me. She’s deliberately avoiding you. You know, I could deal with her being a complete bitch to you in your relationship, that’s none of my business. But now? This isn’t your relationship. This is your fucking life, demon, and she has a noose on you. Are you going to let her do that, after all we did to save you?”

  “Shut up, Anna.” I heard a scraping sound from the window.

  “Or what? You going to try and shut my powers off too?”

  “Shut up, Anna!”

  “Wait!“ I tried to jump in. Neither of them were listening to me.

  “Make me, bitch.”

  Hikari spun around, knife already in hand. Blood streaked her hands and tears streaked her cheeks. A rune blazed to life in front of her, not one that I recognized, but from the strangled gasp I heard from Tink, she certainly did. Hikari finished the spell and pointed it at Tink and I started to step forward to get between them, but it was far too late for that.

  A spark of light flashed out from Hikari’s fingertip. Tink had her knife out, but she didn’t have enough time to draw blood, let alone counter the spell. She didn’t even try to dodge, simply stared at the spark as it flashed on a direct line for her forehead.

  When it struck, she simply crumpled. Speechless, I knelt bes
ide her collapsed form. There was no rise and fall of her chest. I reached a hand out toward her, but then stopped. The contract link between us still existed, regardless of what my eyes were telling me. “What did you do, Hikari?”

  When she didn’t reply, I looked up at her. She had frozen in place in front of the window, her jaw slack as she stared. “That spell wasn’t powerful enough to do that,” she said. “I don’t understand. What happened? It couldn’t have done that. Why?”

  “What spell was that?”

  “I didn’t mean it.”

  “Hikari!”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t mean it!”

  The air next to her rippled, a very familiar knife leading the way. Tink drove her knife directly into Hikari’s hand, causing her knife to fall to the ground. “Like hell you didn’t mean it, bitch!” She wrenched the knife free in a spray of blood, drawing a strangled scream from Hikari. Her next move was to aim for the other hand, but she was just a bit too slow. Hikari danced backwards, bouncing along the wall next to the window, clutching her wounded hand.

  I looked down, noticed that Tink’s body had vanished, and abruptly realized that my dear partner was about to kill my dear girlfriend. Granted, she had justification, but this wasn’t the best of times. “Hold on, settle down!”

  They either didn’t hear me, or didn’t care. Hikari flicked some her blood at Tink’s face, which caused her to flinch away. That was all the time it took for Hikari to smear her fingertips with blood from her wound and create a new rune. Light flashed and I saw spots dancing across my retina. When I could see clearly again, Hikari’s knife was back in hand and she and Tink were slowly circling each other, knives in one hand, the other hand empty but streaked with blood.

  Hikari struck first, a jab with her knife toward Tink’s face, her hand dropping low to draw a rune in the air. Tink ignored the knife jab and dropped her own knife low, pricking Hikari’s hand before she could finish the spell. Her own rune flared to life, a simple force rune that rocked Hikari’s head back and bloodied her nose. Before Hikari could recover, Tink lunged upwards with her knife, trying to drive it full on into Hikari’s chest or throat. Hikari deflected it with the flat of her own knife and sidestepped the rest of the way out of the attack.

  “Knock this shit off!” I shouted.

  “Piss off,” Tink snapped. “This is between us.”

  Hikari didn’t respond, simply reversed her knife and went on the defensive. Her fingers splayed, flicking into various patterns. She was attempting to keep her knife in the line of sight between Tink and her free hand. Once again, Tink elected to not be subtle in the least, and jabbed at Hikari’s face, but that was just a feint. As her right arm pulled back from the jab, her left leg snapped a kick right into Hikari’s shin. I winced.

  Undeterred, Hikari thrust her spell right at Tink’s stomach. The impact sent Tink flying backwards to crash into the far wall. I could see Tink’s shirt curling away from the impact, the fringes charred and an angry looking weal burning red on her exposed skin. She shook the impact off and brought her knife up into a guard position again, but she was obviously shaken. “You really are trying to kill me, aren’t you,” she growled.

  “I’ve had it with you, Anna,” Hikari snapped. “Just leave. Get out of our lives.”

  “I was here first.”

  “I don’t care. If you don’t stop this-“

  “You’ll what? You’ll kill me?” Tink beckoned her on with her bloodied hand. “Better people than you have tried. Better demons than you have tried, for that matter. Come on, bitch. I don’t care if you’re a master, I don’t care if you’re a damned grandmaster in disguise, I’m going to cut that frosted heart right out of your chest.”

  Hikari’s face turned pale, then flushed bright red. She knelt and started drawing a runic circle on the ground with her blood. Tink took a step forward and knelt as well. Both of them inscribed various symbols across the rim, drawing more and more blood as needed to power their magic. The circles began to glow as power infused them.

  Even I couldn’t simply walk across those circles. Instead, I walked directly between them. “You two need to cut this out,” I said, keeping my tone deliberately conversational. “I know you’re both upset, but I’d rather not see either of you kill the other, all right? I mean, if you want to flay the clothes off each other, that’s perfectly fine by me, but I’m going to have to insist on drawing the line at anything more than that.”

  “This isn’t your fight, demon.”

  “Back off, Zay.”

  I sighed. “I’m going to stand right here in the middle, you know. Are you going to shoot through me?”

  “Don’t you think we know how to curve spells?”

  “I’m telling you, you two really need to stop this. I like you both too much to let either one of you off the other, especially considering how much I’m going to need to rely on you in the near future.”

  “Isaiah,” Hikari said in the tone she used when she was about to explode, “you need to get out of the way, or I can’t take responsibility for what will happen.”

  “Hikari,” I said in the same tone, “I am telling you for the third time, you must stop this. Right now.”

  “Or what?”

  I had warned them three times, and they had refused me three times. I forced ichor to circulate rapidly, my transformation happening explosively. My joints popped audibly as my bones and muscles strained them, my wings erupted from my back with a wet tearing noise, and the horns sprang out from my temples with the crunch of shattering bone.

  While both of them had seen me in my fully demonic form before, neither one had been on the receiving end. I glanced at both of them, concluded that Tink was less likely to try to take advantage of the situation, and swept toward Hikari. I drummed my fingers against the circle’s barrier to feel for its power, which was impressive, but not powerful enough. Hikari took a step back as I cocked a fist and simply drove it through. The magic shattered around my hand and I stepped across the bloody tracing and grabbed her blouse and hoisted her into the air all before she could take another step back. She dropped her knife and grabbed my forearm. “I said to stop, didn’t I?” I said, spreading my wings wide. “Don’t even try it, Tinkerbell.”

  “Let me down, Zay!” Hikari rasped.

  “Are you going to stop this bullshit?”

  “Let me down!”

  “Not until you agree to stop. Or do I have to command it?”

  “I’ll stop.”

  I let her down, and then spun to face Tink. To her credit, she had already broken her circle, her expression dark. “Don’t even think about asking me to stop,” she snapped.

  “I wasn’t going to ask,” I snapped back. “By Lucifer’s gory gallstones, you two need to cut this shit out before I have to put you both in comas. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with this. If you hate each other, fine, hate each other all you want. I won’t force you to work together, speak to each other, or even see each other. Just stop trying to kill each other for the duration of this Gatekeeper bullshit. All right?”

  “Fine,” Tink snapped. “But once this is done with, you and I are going to finish this, bitch. You hear me?”

  “Looking forward to it,” Hikari snapped back.

  I let the transformation fade away as they both turned their backs on each other. “So, if we can get back to the original issue here, I’d really like the spell on me removed as soon as possible. Preferably, right now.”

  Hikari looked at me, but before she could say or do anything, Kibs phased into view behind her. “You don’t have time, Zay,” he said. “Emergency situation. We’ve got a car ready for the three of you.”

  “What sort of emergency?” I asked.

  “Caleb called. There’s something going on at First Rev.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  * * *

  A platoon was already waiting for us when we got to the hotel parking lot. The lieutenant snapped me an unnecessary salute and ges
tured to the third van in line. I glanced over my shoulder at the two mages. “Are you two going to behave yourselves, or do we need to put you in separate vans?”

  Both glowered at me. I took their expressions for acquiescence, and I walked toward the passenger seat on the van. A quiet word to the lieutenant assured that they wouldn’t be sitting next to each other, and we were on our way. Before he pulled away from the curb, the lieutenant grabbed my shoulder. “Is there any word about what we’re getting in to here, sir?”

  “Not a clue,” I said. “And you don’t have to call me sir, Lieutenant...?”

  “Kalil,” he said. “Prince Opheran advised us that you were in command of this operation.”

  “Operation?” I asked. “I was hoping you’d know what was going on. All I got was an imp messenger telling me that we were being called in by a friend.”

  Kalil shrugged. “We don’t have any intelligence regarding the situation. All I know is that Prince Opheran said you’re in charge, and he’s gathering another platoon or two to reinforce us. He’ll be maybe ten minutes behind.”

  “Well, Lieutenant Kalil, I’m just a civilian commander. If there’s any hint that we’re going to enter a combat situation, consider yourself in command. We’ll do our best to defend ourselves and stay out of your way.”

  Some of the tension seemed to flow out of the other demon’s bearing. “That’s a load off my mind, to be honest, sir.”

  “I said you don’t have to call me sir, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “How far away are we?” Tink called from the seat right behind us. She was sandwiched between two bulky troopers and looked far less than happy with the arrangement.

  “We are under orders to avoid drawing attention to ourselves,” Kalil said. “We’re just under thirty minutes away.”

  “Hopefully Caleb can handle whatever’s going on at the church until we get there,” I said. “Is there any way we can get there faster?”

  “Not without flying,” Kalil said. After a moment, he lowered his voice. “Who or what is Caleb?”