California Demon

by Debra Dunbar

  Not voluntarily. They tended to cluster downtown, which meant I avoided downtown. I’d seen the occasional one at a distance here and there, and made it a point to drive in the other direction as fast as possible, praying the whole way that it hadn’t seen me.

  “There was one that came down our street a few years back. We locked the doors, turned off all the lights, and stayed inside. He tossed a few cars, then went on his way.”

  She grimaced. “He picked up the cars and threw them?”

  “No, I mean he broke into them and stole shit. He was a little guy. Slimy. Had a tail. Kept jacking off on people’s lawns. We still have a foot-wide brown spot by the driveway where nothing grows.” I didn’t want to think what that demon-ejaculate would do to a human partner.

  “Sounds like a Low. They don’t have a lot of power. They’re easier to kill than the other demons.”

  “The guy had acid sperm,” I countered. “How is that not a lot of power?”

  “A Low can’t hold you in place with his gaze. A Low can’t create a convincing human form, not that even the high-level demons bother to hide their real nature anymore.”

  “A Low can’t activate the gates to Hel, or teleport himself and a victim. He can’t split atomic particles with a thought, or rearrange the molecular structure of the air around him into a weapon of pure energy. He can’t survive without a physical form to anchor his spirit-being.”

  I spun around to see Bishop walking across the room toward us. The guy didn’t make a fucking sound. I hadn’t even heard the door open.

  He shook his head, the faint smile at the edge of his mouth belaying the stern expression of his blue eyes. “I’m assuming you’ve gotten yourself into trouble with a demon?”

  “Not yet,” I told him. “So far I’m only in trouble with the Fixers and the tax collectors, although if the Disciples figure out that I killed three of their guys today, then I’ll be in trouble with them too. Oh, and if that Disciple I met with at the In-N-Out knows I stole his motorcycle helmet, he’s probably going to be pissed. Or maybe not. He wants to fuck me, so he might overlook the helmet thing.”

  Bishop snorted. “Not likely. You’re hot, but you’re not that hot. So what’s up with the demon?”

  A thrill ran through me that Bishop thought I was hot, quickly followed by disappointment that he didn’t think I was hot enough to even overlook minor theft.

  “The guy that wants to bang her said her sister was given to a demon named Desiree,” HB chimed in.

  “No,” I corrected. “The guy whose dick I cut off told me Nevarra was turned over to Desiree, who seems to be in charge of the gang’s human trafficking operation. The guy who wants to bang me is the one who hinted that this Desiree is a demon.”

  Bishop snorted. I think it might have been a laugh, but I wasn’t sure. “Is this a normal day for you? Slicing off dicks and offering to screw men for information and favors? I’ll admit it’s a great follow-up to last night, where you killed a few guys and robbed a warehouse.”

  “Hey, you robbed a warehouse too!” I protested. “And I remember you and Bob doing your share of killing.”

  He shook his head. “Woman, you are nothing but trouble. I’m pretty sure your first name is trouble.”

  “Actually it’s Eden,” I told him.

  He laughed. “That has to be the worst name ever for you. Eden. Seriously? You are about as far from the Garden of Eden as anything on this planet. No, your name is Trouble.”

  I was kind of insulted by that, but whatever. I wasn’t here to win friends and influence people, just to get whatever information and help I needed to find my sister.

  “Back to the subject, I think I convinced the guy who wants to bang me to get me a job interview with Desiree. She’s my only real lead to Nevarra,” I explained.

  “What about that Fender guy?” Bishop asked. “You’re better off going after him than someone who might be a demon.”

  “That’s plan B,” I told him. “If he turned Nevarra over to someone else, he might not know where she’s being kept. I’d rather go with the last person who was known to have her.”

  He walked up to stand beside me. “Suicide by demon is your plan A?”

  I felt a bit sick in my stomach at that. “Hopefully I live long enough to get my sister and return her safely home.”

  “Sounds like suicide to me,” HB chimed in cheerfully.

  “Do either of you know anything about this Desiree?” I asked. “You both seem to know a lot more about demons than I do. Maybe she’s one of these Lows and all I have to worry about is acid bodily fluids.”

  “I don’t know any demons personally,” HB announced.

  “I haven’t heard of a demon named Desiree, but that’s not surprising,” Bishop said. “Names have power. They can be used to bind and control. Demons often have a long string of names. If you know them all and know their order, then you have a significant advantage. That means demons are constantly making up new names for themselves. They might be Horace this decade, and Justin the next.”

  Crap. I was hoping he would know something about her—something that might help me prepare at least a minimal defense. I wanted to know what I was going up against, but it seemed I’d be walking into this demon’s lair blind. If Piers came through for me and I got an interview, that is.

  Maybe Bishop was right. Maybe I’d be better off going with Plan B and staying away from this demon. But time was ticking. I needed to find Nevarra. And the quickest way to do that was to stick my head into the lion’s mouth.

  “Thanks.” I slid off the bar stool. “I appreciate the info. And the tea.”

  I headed for the door, a bit surprised that Bishop followed me out.

  “How’s the other little girl? The one who was hurt?”

  He knew about Sadie? Had Bea told him last night while I’d been getting ready?

  “I’m worried about infection setting in.” I told him. “We’ve got some antibiotics, and first aid supplies, but neither Bea nor I are trained in medical care. I really don’t want to have to take her to the hospital, but we might have to.”

  Bishop grunted and kept walking beside me, pausing as I reached my bike.

  “Let me know if you get a scent again, and I’ll bring Bob out,” he offered.

  “I will.”

  Even though I knew it would cost me each time I used his services, I was grateful for the offer. I slid my stolen helmet over my head, then straddled the bike.

  Bishop eyed me for a second. “Good luck. And try not to get killed, Trouble.”

  I kicked my bike to life and pulled away from the bar thinking that I was going to need all the luck I could get.

  I had to knock on the new front door since I didn’t have a set of keys. Something twisted painfully in my chest to see Bea answer it instead of one of the girls. I was so used to one of them peeking at me through the window first, and demanding I tell them the phrase each of them had come up with to let them know everything was okay.

  My favorite color is bacon.

  There’s a penguin in the backyard.

  I’d give anything to rewind back two days. Anything.

  “How is Sadie?” I asked, noting the worry in Bea’s eyes.

  “Feverish. Her leg is hot and swollen.” Bea’s voice shook. “Marissa dropped off some food this morning, and I asked again if she could get her cousin to send a doctor or a nurse over. If she can’t get anyone to come by tomorrow, I’m going to take Sadie to the hospital.”

  The hospital. Where Bea and Sadie would sit and wait all day just to be seen, where nurses, doctors, and staff were so shorthanded that medical care sometimes came too late. Out in the waiting room, Sadie would be exposed to all sorts of germs, feverish and in pain without even a bed to lie in. But she needed medical help. If we couldn’t get someone to make a house call, then the hospital was better than watching her die of infection here in our home.

  I went to the girls’ room and sat on the bed beside my littlest sister, feel
ing the heat from her before I even put a hand on her forehead.

  “I’ve given her some aspirin, and more antibiotics,” Bea whispered. “I was about to start putting cool cloths on her when you came in.”

  Sadie’s eyes drifted open. “Eden.”

  “I’m here sweetie.” I smoothed the damp hair back from her forehead.

  “Where’s Nevarra?” she asked, turning her head fitfully.

  I glanced over at Bea who shook her head. She hadn’t told Sadie what had happened, and it was better off if we kept it that way.

  “She’s staying at a neighbor’s house for a while,” I lied.

  “Where are the elephants and flowers? They came to visit me. Elephants squeezing under the bedroom door then blowing up huge like party balloons.”

  Fever dreams.

  “The elephants went home,” I said. And hopefully they wouldn’t be back.

  “I saw an angel,” Sadie abruptly said, her fevered gaze suddenly locked onto mine. “He was so beautiful, so bright that it hurt to look at him. He was gold and pink and dove-gray like a sunrise on the beach. So beautiful.”

  I clamped my lips tight and blinked hard. I knew she’d been hallucinating, but still couldn’t hold back a hard shiver. When the demons had come, we’d put our faith in the angels to save us. My faith was already shaky at best, but two decades of being dragged to mass had left me with certain expectations about the messengers of God.

  Those expectations had been quickly shattered. The angels battled the demons, destroying even more of our city and state. They’d killed demons, sent a huge number of them back to hell, then they’d left.

  They’d flown off and forsaken us, leaving us to deal with the demons that remained and the ones who quickly returned from hell. Even our own country had abandoned us. They might be beautiful as Sadie said, but I’d given up any hope of being saved by angelic beings from on high.

  “The angel stood next to the elephants and spoke to me.” Sadie closed her eyes. “It wasn’t words. His voice was like bells, like wind chimes. He told me I’d live, that my leg would heal.”

  I slowly let out a breath and forced a smile, because if Sadie believed, that was all that mattered. “He’s right. You are going to get better. You’ll be up walking around again in no time.”

  “I told him he could take my leg if he’d just bring Nevarra back to us. I’d trade him my leg if Nevarra was safe, if she was back home.” Sadie looked at me again. “I know she’s gone, Eden. I know they took her. They took my sister. They took her.”

  She knew. I hadn’t wanted her to worry, but we were past that now. “Nevarra will be fine, Sadie. You concentrate on getting well, and let me take care of bringing Nevarra home.”

  “The angel told me I was a brave girl. He said he didn’t want my leg, and that you’d find Nevarra. I made him promise, Eden. I made him promise to help you find Nevarra. Because angels always keep their promises.”

  Like fuck they did.

  I reached down and took her hand. I wasn’t sure what was stranger—that Sadie in her fevered hallucination had tried to bargain her leg away for her sister’s life, or that she’d badgered an angel into helping me.

  Me. The least likely person to ever be receiving heavenly aid.

  “Don’t you worry about any of this.” Bea smoothed a damp cloth over Sadie’s forehead. “Eden and I will take care of everything. Don’t you worry one bit.”

  Sadie closed her eyes once more. “I miss the elephants. They were nice elephants. Maybe we’ll get married.”

  “You want to marry an elephant?” It wasn’t the weirdest thing I’d heard in the last few days, but it was up there.

  “Or an angel. If I marry an angel, we’ll all go live in heaven.” She turned her head to the side and whimpered. “I wouldn’t hurt if I were in heaven.”

  She wasn’t going to die. And she sure as fuck wasn’t marrying an angel. I was absolutely not ready for any of us to go live in heaven.

  I sat beside Sadie for a while as she slept fitfully, watching as Bea lay cool cloths on her face and chest. A tense knot formed in my chest, growing until I could barely breathe. What was I going to do? Bea was covered with bruises, her arm still in the makeshift sling. What if it was broken? What if the bones weren’t lined up and it healed wrong? She needed X-rays, possibly surgery. She didn’t need to be sitting here in pain trying to take care of Sadie.

  And Sadie… Even if she somehow managed to fight off this infection, would she ever walk again? Would she ever be completely free of pain? How much nerve and muscle damage had she suffered when that bullet ripped through her leg? They both needed me to care for them. And Nevarra needed me to find her.

  What if the Fixers came back looking for me? Bea was in no shape to fight them off. What if they killed Bea and Sadie, then lay in wait and murdered me when I came home tonight? They were probably watching the house right now. They’d probably called in reinforcements when they saw me come in. They’d pick me off as I left, or storm the house. I’d die. Bea would die defending me. Sadie would die alone in a bedroom with no one to care for her. No one would come for Nevarra. She’d be sold, raped, beaten, starved, tortured, and killed, and all the while she’d cry, wondering where I was and why I can’t come to save her.

  Everyone I loved would die. The only people in the world who mattered to me would die horribly and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  A hand rested on my shoulder, and I realized my breath was coming in sharp panicked gasps. My chest felt as if someone had pummeled it with a sledge hammer.

  “Easy. Breathe in two three four, breathe out two three four.”

  I did as Bea said, my body reacting instinctively to the warm cadence of her voice. The four count became six, then eight and the tightness in my chest began to loosen. The hand on my shoulder eased me against a soft warm body, the other arm encircling me. Bea’s lips touched my forehead and it felt almost like a blessing.

  “I am not going to die. Sadie is not going to die. You are going to find Nevarra and bring her home.”

  “The Fixers…”

  “Will regret they ever came within a mile of this house.” Her hands smoothed my hair. “Dave Rickard chased off one of them this afternoon with a hail of bird shot. Christopher Hammond set up some battery-operated alarms across our back fence. The whole block is taking shifts doing patrol duty. Genevieve Planteaux is drawing wards on the street at the intersections and along the curb.”

  I snorted. Genevieve Planteaux’s only magical powers were probably in her head, but what did I know? Either way, the Fixers would be wary of crossing a bunch of chalk symbols that might be nothing, or might make their skin erupt with agonizing boils.

  Bea’s hand smoothed my hair once more. “We haven’t had much in the way of problems here. Some cars broken into and stolen, some vandalism. That’s it. Even after the fights were over and the angels left, the worst we had was that sad excuse of a demon wandering down the street, jacking off, stealing stuff from cars, and yelling profanities. Oh, and that cute little kitten with the laser eyes.”

  That kitten had been terrifying. No one dared breathe until the thing crawled under the fence into the landfill transfer station and headed north.

  “The gangs leave us alone,” Bea continued. “None of us have anything worth stealing—and nothing worth getting shot over. What happened to us yesterday scared people. If a bunch of armed hooligans can roll up to our house, bust in the door, shoot Sadie and steal Nevarra, then it can happen to anyone.”

  “Anyone who gets set up by a cop and has the tax collectors after her,” I added.

  Bea made a shush noise. “All they know is we got attacked. And that means it’s time for the whole block to get together and start protecting each other. I’m not saying the Fixers won’t be back, but if they come, they’ll be facing some seriously pissed off residents.”

  The Fixers weren’t like the Disciples. They took a job for the money and wanted to make sure they came out alive and
uninjured at the end of it. With a neighborhood full of vigilantes and the streets lined with runes of unknown power, they’d probably just decide to grab me elsewhere. It was one less worry on my mind.

  “Sadie…” I turned to look at my sister.

  “I am perfectly capable of caring for your little sister. We’ll get a doctor or nurse here within the next day, or I’ll take her to the hospital. And you better believe we’re not going to be sitting in that waiting room all day long waiting to be seen. You know me better than that.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. Bea was kind, understanding, loving, but if she needed to defend one of us, a pack of starving lions wouldn’t stand a chance against her.

  “Trust me to take care of us while you find Nevarra,” she said.

  “But your job. What about your job?” I was running out of things to worry about, and that was a rarity.

  “If I lose my job, I’ll find another. I’ve done it before, you know. We’ve all figured out that we can cut back. I’ve got sewing skills I can trade for food. And you’ll get things straightened out with the tax collectors and start earning again.” Bea’s hand continued to stroke my hair.

  “We lost all of our savings.” And I owed Bishop a small fortune for his help.

  “We’ll save again,” Bea reminded me, her voice soothing. “And we’ll leave when we can. Until then, we’ll make the best of what we have here, just like all these other people are doing. Not everyone can just pick up and leave, Eden. Some have to stay and fight to make their homes a better place. If that’s what we end up doing, I won’t be sad about it.”

  We’d dreamed about making a life across the border, where we didn’t have to wonder if there would be water or electricity each day, where the schools would be open and Bea could go to work knowing the kids were in classrooms learning, not cooped up in the house afraid to go out. I wanted that for us. I wanted that for them. I didn’t want to have to stay here and fight tooth and nail for every scrap we had, only to have it all blown away because some crooked cop lied about my take.

  Speaking of cops…