American Demon

by Kim Harrison

  “You want me to tell Dali that you’re okay?” he said as he made Glenn’s latte, and I nodded, quite sure I didn’t like how cavalier he was about phoning demons. But the kid was Dali’s boss.

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” I said, and Jenks snorted, his bent wing leaking dust all over the table as he sat on top of Bis’s bottle. “Could you tell Dali that the baku is in a bottle and to let Al sleep?”

  “You got it.” Mark pulled off his gloves and reached for his phone, clearly resigned to having lost his day off.

  I hated to admit it, but between the coffee and the weird normalcy of Jenks begging Zack for a wad of whipped cream, I was starting to feel better. Zack looked utterly fantastic in a teen-crush sort of way in his suit and his new, hesitant confidence, miles away and just next door in comparison to the scared kid I’d found eating leftovers and hiding in my church. Seeing him with Jenks, I found a sliver of hope. If he was in charge of the dewar and they actually let him make some decisions, things might change.

  The memory of Bis swam up, and I quashed it in a flood of hurt.

  “So they made you the dewar’s Sa’han,” I said to distract myself, and Zack’s head snapped up, a faint flush on his cheeks. “Did you learn what you wanted to about Trent in your little walkabout?” I asked between sips of coffee.

  “Ah.” Zack wiped the whipped cream from his lips when Jenks pantomimed the same. “He’s everything that Landon said he was,” he said, green eyes flicking to Trent sitting beside me, head down as he surfed the net.

  “Sexy.” Jenks rose up with a wad of whipped cream on his chopsticks. “Smart. Good with magic and kids.”

  Trent looked up from his phone, his fingers stilling and a smirk on his lips.

  “Ruthless in his drive,” Zack added uncomfortably. “Willing to sacrifice what shouldn’t be for an end that might not be worthy. Landon was right.”

  “He wants the elves to succeed,” I said as I gave Trent’s hand an encouraging squeeze when his smile vanished. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Then maybe we should stop trying to put him in jail for it,” Zack muttered from behind his hot cocoa as if afraid to say it louder.

  “See, Zack?” Jenks said cheerfully. “I told you there wasn’t some old dried-up elf soul in you. No way, no how would one of those old moss wipes say anything like that.”

  Zack colored, but I privately thought there probably was. He’d been too good with those healing charms. No one had died, and even I wasn’t that good.

  “Zack?” Mark called from behind the counter. “Can you give me a hand? I need your opinion on something.”

  Whatever that something was, it smelled like Thanksgiving, and Zack immediately stood, taking his nearly empty cup with him. “Sure.”

  Trent, too, stood, lingering until I looked up. “Do you mind if I make a few more calls before Quen gets here with the car?” he said, hand on my shoulder. “Things are going to start happening fast now that the dewar has scheduled a press release for tomorrow. I want to head off the rumors and arrange for a closed-door meeting tonight to explain what happened. I’d like you to be there if you feel up to it. And if you can get Hodin to come, all the better.”

  My eyes narrowed, and my hand cupping Bis under the table twitched. “I’ll be there, but don’t count on Hodin,” I muttered, and Trent nodded, excusing himself to sit at a nearby table.

  “What’s up with Hodin?” Jenks said, and my anger flooded back.

  “He left Trent and me in the lurch when the Order showed up,” I muttered, and the pixy’s wings hummed into fitful motion. I’d have liked to blame him for what happened, but honestly, I probably would have tried to work with the Goddess anyway, and I took a gulp of my cooling coffee. “Did I tell you I had a dream a few days ago about Ray getting married?” I said, my eyes dropping to Bis curled up on my lap, and Ivy brought her attention back from the sunny empty streets. “Bis was there, grown to the size of a pony,” I whispered. He would have been about seventy. Just about old enough to be on his own.

  “Rache, we’re going to get him back,” Jenks said, and then he stiffened. “Al’s here.”

  Even with his warning, I jumped when Al popped in at the in-out circle at the back of the store. “Why are there fire trucks at your church?” the demon bellowed, and I winced, not turning. I could tell by his overdone accent that he was probably in full green-crushed-velvet regalia.

  Mark grimaced, a tray in his hand as he stood before the oven. “I am closed,” he grumbled, then asked Zack to get two more sandwiches out of the freezer.

  Sighing, I turned to Al. Sure enough, he was in his top hat and full coat and tails, his blue-tinted glasses doing nothing to hide his sleep-deprived fatigue. “Because it was on fire?” I said, and Al grimaced. Resigned, I pushed a chair out for him.

  “Dali said you bottled the baku.” Al tugged his lace down at his cuffs and stepped forward. “Is that it?” he said, looking at it on the table before turning to Junior and Zack behind the counter, one in an apron, one in a suit. “Demon grande in porcelain, if you please,” he said, then frowned at Trent, still on the phone. “Damn elf lives with that thing stuck to his ear. Tell me, Rachel, does it remove it for sex?”

  “Demon grande!” Mark said, and a bell above the register rang of its own accord.

  “Excuse me.” Ivy rose, eyes on the Jeep that had quietly pulled into the lot. “I want to talk to Glenn before he lands in this.”

  I nodded, and she touched my shoulder before slipping from the table and sauntering to the door. Zack’s security noticed, watching her all the way. The click of her undoing the lock was loud, and from behind the counter, Mark sighed—at the new customers, not Ivy.

  “This should be interesting,” Jenks said, and I blinked fast when he came to sit on my shoulder smelling of green things and whipped cream.

  Shoes tapping, Al halted at the head of the table. “My God. It’s really in there?” he said, making no move to touch the soul bottle. “How did you do it?” he asked, and Jenks’s wings buzzed against my neck. “Dali is green with curiosity. Even Newt didn’t know how to manage it.”

  She does now, I thought as I took the bottle in hand, and Al visibly stiffened—as if I held a poisonous viper. I was trying not to care that the church now had smoke damage in addition to everything else. I should just walk away before I burn it to the ground, I thought, but the church was the first time I’d felt a part of something big, something wonderful. Even if I did keep destroying it.

  “I broke the rules—that’s how,” I said, unable to look up from the swirling pearl and blue behind the glass.

  Al sat, his head tilting as he touched my chin and forced me to look at him. “Rules. You captured the baku. No one has ever done that. And totally unharmed.” His fingers curled under themselves, and I looked away. “Where is my coffee!” he bellowed, and I jumped.

  Jenks darted from my shoulder, wings rasping. “Bis is comatose without his soul,” Jenks said, hovering belligerently in front of Al. “But yeah, she’s unharmed. You demon weenie.”

  “Bis?” Al said, and steeling myself against the heartache, I looked down at him curled in my lap. He looked as if he was sleeping, and it hurt.

  Damn it, I’m not going to cry in front of Al, I thought as I pulled myself together. “His soul is right here,” I said, focusing on the blue bottle instead. “It’s mixed up with the baku’s. Bis dragged it in there with him. Is there any way to separate them?”

  Al peered at me over his glasses, a familiar, angry glint in his eyes. “You caught it by sacrificing your gargoyle?”

  My chin lifted. “Seriously? You seriously think I asked Bis to do this? He did it on his own before I could tell him to stop.” I hesitated. “Is there any way to separate them?”

  Hope stirred, but it was short-lived as Al looked at the bottle, his goat-slitted eyes unreadable as he touc
hed Bis’s head with a finger and shook his head. My throat grew a lump. “His body slumbers. Curious.”

  I stifled a flash of anger, but it was Jenks who rose up, almost snarling. “Curious, hell. Can you separate his soul from the baku or not?”

  Al shot a peeved look at Jenks, then softened. “I don’t know. The baku makes things difficult. You won’t find anyone in the collective eager to try. We’ve all lost kin to it. Ah, here’s my coffee. Thank you . . . Zack, is it?” He grinned, but it looked forced. “I do enjoy being served by elves. It makes one feel so alive.”

  Frowning, Zack backed up, returning to the counter as Mark called for him.

  “Don’t listen to him, Rache,” Jenks said, again on my shoulder. “We’ll get Bis back.”

  I blinked fast as I shifted my hand, and Bis’s tail tightened about it.

  Al cocked his head, clearly surprised at the band of white around my finger. “Keep him safe. I’ve never seen such a reaction from a body without a soul.”

  “I will.” My hand curved more protectively about him.

  “We both will,” Jenks added, and Al sat back, apparently satisfied as the door chimes jingled and Ivy and Glenn came in.

  “Rachel, I’m sorry about Bis. I should have spelled Weast with his own magic and made him listen,” Glenn said as he and Ivy crossed the coffee shop. “Is there anything I can do?”

  “Thanks, no,” I whispered, and my shoulder went warm from Jenks’s dust.

  “Condolences are not required,” Al said as Ivy sat at the far end of the table and pulled her coffee close. “The world breaker lives. We will find a way to bring his soul home.”

  I grimaced, but damn my dame if I didn’t feel better with Al’s thin promise. “I don’t know what I’m going to say to his father,” I said.

  “Etude?” Al’s eyes tracked Mark bringing Glenn his coffee. “Tell him you’re working on it. Bis is stronger than he ought to be because of you. But I think Etude will thank you.”

  A surprised burst of dust slipped down my shoulder, and I almost choked on my drink. “For letting his son sacrifice his soul to save me?” I blurted, and Ivy slipped me a napkin.

  Al’s shoulders lifted and fell as his gaze went distant out into the sunny parking lot. “It’s long been a question if gargoyles—having been created by demons—possessed a soul. Bis has proved that they do. If he didn’t, the baku would have not been snared and bottled.” Al’s eyes came back to me, and I read the truth in them. “Bis has given his entire species a great comfort. And as I say, we will work to free him.”

  I took a slow breath, feeling it shake as I exhaled. Al thought it was possible. Hell, he thought it more than possible. And until then, I would keep him safe. Both Jenks and I would.

  “No one in the collective will help.” Al stared at Bis’s tail for a moment, then returned his attention to his coffee. “Still, there are texts lying about no one has looked at for thousands of years.” He hesitated, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Hodin might.”

  “Really?” I blurted, and then Al pushed back from the table, standing to slam his fists on the top to make Jenks ink dust and the bottle threaten to fall.

  “You have seen him!” Al bellowed as I scrambled to grab the bottle and keep it from falling. Pulse fast, I stood, holding it and Bis tight to me as I slid out of the back of the booth. Trent ended his conversation and stood, and Zack’s security made a beeline to him. “This is his fault!” Al shouted, his eyes narrowed as he scanned the room as if looking for him. “That backstabbing, elven-rutting gigolo convinced you to treat with the Goddess, and now your gargoyle is lost and your church has fire trucks parked at the curb! Where is he? Odie?” Al yelled at the ceiling.

  “That’s not what happened.” I backed up to find Trent standing behind me, grim-faced. Jenks was on my shoulder, and I held Bis and that bottle tight. “Al, I swear—”

  “Show yourself, you little worm, or I’m going to sell you to the nearest elf!” Al bellowed.

  And then I yelped when a soft pop of air pushed me back a step.

  “Again?” Hodin said wrathfully as he stood in the center of the room, his slim build looking dangerous in his black jeans and T. A hint of purple magic flickered through his fingers, and my hair crackled with static. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice . . . Well, you won’t get the chance because I’m going to send you to hell, Gally.”

  Glenn and Ivy slid out of the way, but I stood firm with Trent beside me. “Guys,” I started, then yelped as Al yanked heavily on the nearest ley line, almost buckling my knees with the power he drew to life. He didn’t even bother harnessing it with a spell, just marshaled the raw energy into his hand and threw it at Hodin.

  White-faced, Mark pulled Zack to him and invoked the protection circle at the register. Zack’s security dove behind the counter. Their pistols were out, but honestly, they were the least of my worries as the ball of energy sped harmlessly under Hodin when the demon vanished into a black hummingbird.

  “You little pus bucket!” Al shouted, now swinging wildly at Hodin as he dove at him, plucking bits of hair and stabbing at his ear. “Putrid elven bootlicker!”

  “Enough!” I shouted, and then, with Bis pressed to me, I flung a hand out. “Corrumpo!” I shouted, the expanding force of air flinging the hummingbird that was Hodin to smack into the window and knocking Al to a hand-reaching stagger. Mark yanked Zack back below the counter, but the kid immediately popped up, shoving Mark into his own circle to break it. Eyes wide, Zack started for me, only to be tackled by his own security and go down with an indignant yelp.

  “I said, enough!” I shouted when Hodin, still a bird, shook himself and started for Al. “Al, leave Hodin alone.”

  “He is a liar and a cheat!” Al snarled, his hat gone and his glasses askew to show his bloodshot goat-slitted eyes. “And he’s going to die. Right now!”

  “Then you will have to go through me,” I said, and Al spun comically fast. As he stared at me in horror, I felt a shiver run through me.

  “Ra-a-ache-e-e-el? What did you do?” Al intoned, and Hodin flew to hover beside me, where he turned back into his usual broody dark self.

  I glanced at Hodin, then took a step from both him and Trent. “I, ah, promised to stand up for him if the collective got ugly,” I said. “And that includes you.”

  “You what!” Al bellowed, thick hands fisted. “What did he give you? Something you already had, I bet. Something you could have found on your own, or something I could have given you.”

  “You never gave anyone anything.” Hodin sniffed and pushed his rings to the base of his fingers. “And truly, what did you expect? Your student’s life was in danger, and you abandoned her for nearly a week?” He shook his head, his hair falling to hide his eyes in a mocking, threatening peekaboo. “From the same thing you were hiding from. You don’t deserve a student this talented. She did what no one else has ever done.”

  “At what cost!” Al shouted, and I winced. He was beginning to hurt my ears. “You are a worthless hack of a demon, fit only for bedroom games and little more. Rachel is mine.”

  Hodin’s jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing.

  “Ah . . .” I held up a finger. “I don’t belong to anyone, guys.”

  Al turned to me, hunched and frustrated. “Fine,” he said as he swooped up his hat and brushed cookie crumbs from it. “But this. . . . demon—and I use the term loosely—is a loathsome, betraying liar unable to best even the weakest elf. Which is why he slept his way through the revolution that gave us our freedom, playing sex games and eating fruit and meat while we starved and suffered from exposure. I will not let you ruin yourself by associating with this . . . milksop sexpot!”

  Jenks made a snorting scoff from my shoulder, and the dust spilling down shifted to an amused gold.

  “No need,” Hodin said, his expression twisted as if he were smelling something ra
nk. “As long as the collective leaves me alone, I’ll take the baku for safekeeping and leave you to your pathetic cosmic powers. None of you suffered as I did under it. It’s mine.”

  I pressed back into Trent, glad for his light hand at the small of my back. Jenks was a threatening hum on my shoulder, and Ivy had made her way back to us after having convinced Glenn to sit it out with Zack and his crew behind the counter.

  “You are not touching that bottle,” Al threatened, and Hodin grew smug.

  “It’s mine,” Hodin said lightly. “We have a deal. Don’t we, Rachel?”

  Al’s expression faltered. “You didn’t,” he said, but I’d had enough, and pushing forward, I stood between them, pissed to the Turn and back. Bis was in my arms, and my heartache fed my anger. Boys. They were acting like spoiled boys.

  “This is mine,” I said, holding the bottle in one hand, Bis in the other. “Mine! Neither of you is getting it until Bis’s soul is back in his body.”

  “We had a deal,” Hodin said as he turned, his anger at Al shifting to me.

  “Yep.” I cocked my hip, angry at both of them. “The deal was that you get the baku after you teach me to fly with Bis.” I hesitated, satisfied when Hodin’s gaze dropped to Bis and he lost his bluster. “Fix this,” I said, softer this time. “I can’t fly with him unless he has a soul.”

  Hodin’s stance became unsure. “I don’t know. . . .”

  Al laughed, the ugly sound making me shudder. “I don’t know,” he mocked. “Truer words have never been spoken. Very good, itchy witch,” he added, and I went cold at the hate in his eyes. “I’m proud of you. It’s hard to get the better of one of Odie’s deals. We will talk about this unfortunate problem of standing up for him before the collective, but you did reasonably well.” His lip curled as he looked at Hodin. “Hodin has more than the usual share of guile and trickery. Give me the baku. It goes in the vault.”

  “It goes on my shelf,” I said, and Al’s hand dropped, his ugly smile faltering. “Until I fly with Bis,” I added. “And then it goes to Hodin.”