The Demon Beside Me

by Nelson, Christopher

  I swore quietly and at length. “Now she’s got something she can provide to the Choir to show that Caleb’s a traitor.”

  “You don’t think she’d do something like that, do you?” Kibs asked.

  “I don’t know what she’s planning, but why did she run like that?” I shook my head and straightened up. “Why was she hiding in the first place?”

  “Maybe she’s just stalking you.”

  “Not funny.”

  Kibs sighed. “If we track her down, what do you want us to do?”

  “Let me know. Don’t bother pinning her. Whatever she did, it’s too late to stop it. What happened to Tink?”

  “Gave up and went back to the hotel.”

  “That sounds like a good idea.”

  It took me ten minutes to walk the distance I had covered chasing Hikari. I was tempted to walk around longer, but I knew that Tink would be waiting for an explanation. I didn’t want to give her one. The group that we had forged to bring war to House Lucifer had shattered. Of the mages, Julian had died and Chrissy had disappeared after the collapse of my old apartment. Becky had distanced herself. Jase had died and Caleb was leaving. Now Hikari had turned against us.

  She met me at the hotel entrance, blue eyes fixed on me. “It’s just you and me now, Tinkerbell,” I said.

  “She’s going to turn Caleb in, isn’t she?”

  “I don’t like the fact that you and I both came to the same conclusion.”

  Tink walked up to me and jabbed me lightly in the center of my chest, with her fingers and not with her knife. “And what do you plan on doing about it, demon? Do you have some sort of master plan to recover from this?”

  “I’m open to suggestions,” I said.

  “We need to get Caleb out of there.”

  “If we rescue him from the Choir, that only proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s a traitor in their eyes. What would we do then? Keep him locked in the basement here? Expect him to fight his own people? What can we do, Tink?”

  She balled her fist and punched me, leaving her fist pressed against me. “Fuck you, demon. Stop telling me what I don’t want to hear.”

  “Like I said, I’m open to suggestions.”

  “Call Hikari. Ask her what she wants.” Her head lowered. “Give it to her.”

  “What if she wants you and me to break our contract?”

  “Do it. Caleb’s life is worth more than our contract.”

  “What if it’s too late?” I asked softly.

  Tink’s head came back up, her eyes cold and bright. “Promise her that whatever happens to Caleb, I will make sure it happens to her.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  * * *

  We called her the next morning, bright and early, assuming that it would throw her off. She picked up on the second ring. “Good morning, Isaiah.”

  “Good morning,” I said.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  “I was calling to see if you had recovered from your head wound.”

  She laughed. “Well, aren’t you just a sweetheart. After you inflicted it, you decided to call to apologize?”

  “That was me who caused it,” Tink said. “And I wasn’t planning on apologizing for it, but if you’d really like one, I suppose you can have it.”

  “Anna, what a surprise to find you with him, first thing in the morning.” Hikari delivered that line completely deadpan, and I rolled my eyes. “To be quite honest, I couldn’t care less about what you say or do, so I’d appreciate it if you simply shut up and let the adults talk.”

  I saw her bristle, then deflate as I glared at her. “There’s no call for that,” I said to the phone lying on the table between us.

  “Zay, don’t waste my time.”

  “What do you want in exchange for not distributing the video or pictures you took?”

  “What makes you think I took video or pictures?”

  “Hikari, don’t waste my time.”

  Another laugh crackled over the phone connection. “Oh, Zay, you’re so easy to bait.”

  Tink looked about ready to explode. I almost laughed, but someone was bound to take it the wrong way. “Well, I figured that since you were busy doing something with your phone while you were running away for no apparent reason, you might just be uploading some pictures or video for later distribution.”

  “The imps should be commended for their attention to detail.”

  “So assuming you didn’t just upload it directly to the Choir, what would you like in exchange for not distributing it?”

  “What makes you think I’d send it to the Choir? Assuming that I did anything of that nature in the first place, of course.”

  I slapped a hand down on the table, making the phone jump in the air. “Stop playing around! Caleb’s life is on the line here!”

  She clicked her tongue. “Don’t get so excited. What would I want? Let me think about that for a moment. Oh, wait, I know exactly what I’d like. Can you guess?”

  “I’m afraid to guess.”

  “Oh, come on. I’ll tell you whether you’re hot or cold.”

  “You want us to break our contract,” Tink snapped. “Because you’re exactly that sort of petty bitch.”

  “No, Anna, that’s not strictly accurate. I want you to break the contract because I’m a bitch. I want you to break it, irrevocably, in my presence, because I’m a petty, vindictive bitch. Get it right, whore.”

  “What did you-“

  “Shut up, Tink,” I snapped. “Stop provoking her.”

  “Fuck this bitch!”

  “He did that,” Hikari said, her tone that of barely restrained laughter. “Further than you’ve ever gotten, isn’t that right? With anyone, ever? Maybe that’s why you want to save Caleb so much?”

  “Why does everyone assume I want to fuck Caleb?”

  “Save it,” I said. “Both of you, save it. All right, Hikari. You want the contract broken in front of you? Fine. Where and when?”

  “Agreeing to it that easily? See how quickly he’ll abandon you, just like he abandoned me?”

  “Abandon you?” I saw red. “Who’s the one who never came back, Hikari? I put up with everything you put me through, I compromised for you, I compromised to keep you, and as soon as one person told you off to your face, you walked away and never showed me your face again. Who fucking abandoned who, here?”

  “I-“

  “Shut up.” Even Tink recoiled from the tone in my voice. I almost didn’t recognize it myself. “You disgust me almost as much as I disgust myself here, giving in to you yet again. At least this time it’s something more than just my pride on the line. Just tell us when and where to meet you and we’ll get this over with and then we’ll never have to deal with each other again.”

  She gave us instructions on how to reach a place, a public park that had closed a year ago. The place would be quiet and isolated. We’d meet there at noon. As soon as she finished, I ended the call and looked over the table at Tink. “It’s a trap,” she said.

  “No shit.”

  “We’ve walked into traps before, but something tells me this is a bad idea.” She spun her knife on the table, raising an eyebrow as it slowed to a stop with the point aiming directly at me. “Maybe we should bring backup.”

  “Not really an option. It’s not as if we can call up Opheran and ask him if he’s got our back. In fact, he’d probably sit on me to prevent me from going anywhere. House leadership tends to disapprove of suicide missions in the middle of a war.”

  “So we can’t tell anyone we’re going anywhere, right? What about the imps?”

  I shrugged. “I doubt they’re eavesdropping on us. We’ll leave a message just in case whatever trap she’s got set is too much to handle.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me.” Her expression darkened. “I’ve never heard you snap at anyone quite like that before. You really are disgusted with yourself, aren’t you?”

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  “I
wouldn’t have ever put myself in that sort of position.”

  I snorted. “Never been in love before, then?”

  “What does love have to do with anything? Do you even believe you were ever actually in love with her, or were you just going to jump in bed with any girl who showed you that much interest or affection?”

  I couldn’t help but flinch away from that. “That’s cold, Tink.”

  “At least I didn’t call you desperate.”

  “I was in love with her,” I said. “When we first got together, there was a spark. Yeah, it had been a couple of years since my last serious relationship, but there was something there, and it took a long time for me to get to the point where I realized the spark was gone.”

  “That point was today, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.” I stood up and stretched, wincing as my legs protested the movement. Yesterday’s run had taken more out of me than I wanted to admit. “Come on, we’re going to be late.”

  We left a handwritten note explaining the circumstances and our meeting place. On the way out to the car, I called up an imp and told them that we were heading out for a while, leaving something cooking on the stove, and that if we weren’t back by one o’clock, to have someone enter my suite and make sure nothing burned down. The lame excuse was politely accepted and we were barely five minutes away from the hotel when my phone rang.

  “My Prince,” I said politely.

  “Isaiah, you’re a thrice damned fool.”

  “I was a little too obvious about it, wasn’t I?” Next to me, Tink snarled soundlessly and stomped on the accelerator. She had insisted that we take her car and I hadn’t argued. “My Prince, if you haven’t heard back from us by quarter past, assume the worst.”

  “What, that you’ve been captured, killed, or that the Horsemen will be given dominion? You’re putting more than just your own lives on the line. Get back here. We’ll mount an operation to extract Caleb.”

  “We thought about that,” I said, wincing as we ran a red light. “But that just makes him a traitor, period. As long we keep this within our little Gatekeeper family, he has a non-treasonous reason to fall back on. If you lead a force to pull him out, how could he ever prove that he wasn’t a spy? They’d never believe him.”

  “Your life isn’t worth his.”

  “That’s where we’ll have to disagree, my Prince. I think risking my life to save his is worth that risk. Besides, when have I ever failed to come back?”

  “I am dispatching forces after you,” Opheran said, his tone flat. “I’ve given you leeway before, Baronet, but I will not allow you to risk yourself on this. They will be given orders to restrain and return you here by any means necessary.”

  “We’ll just need to finish up before they reach us,” I said, and flicked the end call button. “I assume we’ll only have about ten to fifteen minutes before they reach us. Think that’ll be enough time?”

  “Probably,” Tink said. “Someone will run out of blood by then. Probably me. She’ll have preparations in place. We’ll have to put her down quickly.”

  “Don’t assume we’re going to end up fighting her,” I said. “Hopefully we can just do what she wants, get the data deleted, and then leave.”

  “Pussy. You just don’t want to hit her.”

  “I will admit a certain reluctance to do that.”

  “Personally, I can’t wait for the chance.”

  “You’re a bloodthirsty little fairy, you know that?”

  She glanced over at me. “Demon, we’ve had a habit of showing mercy and compassion over the past few years. Every time we’ve done that, it’s been thrown back in our face. Back then, it was Azzy killing Julian and possessing Chrissy. Now it’s Victor killing Jase and starting a war.”

  “So now you want to kill her?”

  “If it comes down to that.”

  That was something I didn’t want to think about, but her reasoning was sound enough. We had never benefitted from leaving an enemy alive. There was no telling if Hikari was actually an enemy, or if she was simply seeking revenge. “Even if we did kill her, she could easily have something set up to provide her data to the Choir automatically,” I said. “Last resort, Tink.”

  “That’s not a problem,” she said. “Weaken her enough and I’ll pull those memories from her head first. If she’s lucky the shock will kill her.”

  I shook my head, but didn’t say anything. Tink was seriously contemplating killing, and I knew I couldn’t talk her out of it. If it came down to it, I might need to stand between the two of them again, or I might need to stand aside. The fact that I even considered allowing Tink to kill Hikari in cold blood bothered me.

  “Are you listening to me?”

  “No,” I said.

  “Don’t get all cowardly with me now, demon. If she turns out to be fully against us, you can’t hold back. If you do, it might kill both of us. She’s a master mage, she’s on track to become a grandmaster, and she has connections. If we commit, we commit all the way. Got it?”

  “Got it,” I said.

  “I’m serious.”

  “So am I, but don’t expect me to get serious until I have to.”

  She took her hand off the steering wheel to smack my shoulder. “That’s more like the demon I know.”

  I rubbed my shoulder and declined to respond. The more I thought about it, the less I liked it. Even if she was officially now my ex-girlfriend, I still cared about her in some ways. Privately, I resolved that unless the situation absolutely called for it, I wouldn’t let Tink go wild. My goal now was to keep things from escalating to that point.

  I held that thought in my head for the rest of the trip, and all the way through the park to our eventual meeting place. I held onto it as we confronted Hikari, the two of us standing side by side at one end of an abandoned playground, facing off with her. No words were spoken, but I felt Tink’s magical powers surge.

  “Planning on attacking me, Anna?” Hikari smiled, clasping her hands behind her back. “Go on. Attack one of your superiors.”

  “Give me a reason,” Tink breathed.

  “I didn’t think you’d need one. But, if you insist.” Hikari turned sideways and gestured, extending her hand. A figure stepped into sight from invisibility, the magical shroud falling away as he took that first step. He took Hikari’s hand, lifted it to his lips, and turned to face us.

  My guts turned to water. Tink froze in place. “What the fuck have you done?” was the only thing I could think to say.

  “I considered my ‘petty’ vengeance carefully,” Hikari said as she produced a knife from a hidden sheath. “Forcing you two apart would be satisfying, yes, but not as satisfying as this. Not nearly as satisfying.”

  Victor produced one of his scimitars and they both sliced their palms open, then pressed their bloody hands together. “By my blood, I invoke this contract,” Hikari said, her voice sing-song and lilting across the air to us. “By my blood, I invoke our vengeance.”

  “By my blood, I invoke this contract,” Victor intoned. “By my blood, I invoke our retribution.”

  “No!” Tink flung her arm out, spraying blood toward them, each drop shining with magical force. Each drop struck an invisible barrier, splattering the air between them and us. Her knife followed, bouncing off that same barrier.

  “By my blood, I invoke this contract,” Hikari said. Her gaze turned to me. “By my blood, I invoke our castigation, our redress for wrongs done unto us, as God is our witness.”

  “So let it be witnessed,” Victor said. His gaze turned across the playground to us as well and I felt a surge of power that nearly sent me to my knees. “So let it be done.”

  If I could have moved, I would have moved. The shock and betrayal I felt had pinned me in place more easily than any magic ever could. It fell to Tink to save me, which of course, she did. The amplified torrent of magic burned through the place where I had just been standing, just before Tink threw me aside with her own force magic. I bounced, came up to on
e knee, and threw myself sideways again as another blue-white blaze of raw magic energy seared through the air.

  “Get up!” Tink screamed. “Get up, demon, get up!”

  Hikari and Victor were laughing, laughing as their combined magic flashed toward me, forcing me to scramble to stay one step ahead of them. It took around a half dozen blasts before my shock faded into rage, and from rage into pumping ichor, and from pumping ichor into my full demonic form before the seventh blast of magic came anywhere near me. When my ichor-fueled power saw it coming, I realized that it was all light and fury, without even the strength needed to pierce my skin. I caught it in one hand, tossing the blast back behind me without even wincing. “I realize that I’m a halfbreed,” I said, “but you should know better than to underestimate me.”

  Tink strode to my side, her hands running scarlet. “There’s also a question of experience with amplified magic,” she said. “We’ve got it. You don’t.”

  “Then take your best shot,” Hikari said, stepping away from Victor and spreading her arms wide. “Go on, dear sweet Tinkerbell. I’ll give you one freebie.”

  Tink was already inscribing runes in the air with one hand with her right hand, but I noticed her left hand inscribing something as well, something that lay edge-on to Hikari, making it nearly impossible for her to read. I couldn’t read it either, but I trusted that some sort of unpleasant surprise was in store. I held my hand out, my claws already having gouged my palm to offer my ichor to her. She dipped her fingertips in the green pool to finish the right-hand rune, lifting her left hand to complete the casting. “Are you sure, Hikari-chan?” she asked sweetly, before punching both runes together and sending a familiar swirl of power spiraling in toward Hikari.

  Naturally, Hikari had read Tink’s rune and the spell deflected up into the sky, fading away almost instantly. I watched it go and smiled. That wasn’t where the amplification had gone.

  The true portion of the spell, the left-hand scrawl, punched through Hikari’s defenses and blew her clothes off in their entirety.