Authors: Sydney Bristow
“What do you get out of the deal?” I asked. “Killing me?”
“I’d head up the Department of Extermination Systems and Solutions for Queen Z.”
“Wait a second,” said Kendall. “Is that a Beyoncé reference? As in…Queen B?”
The demon tried to shrug, as if to agree, but instead, she groaned in pain due to the tight grasp I had on her. “I’m much more of an Adele fan myself.”
“
Queen
, huh?” I asked. I wouldn’t be surprised if Zephora referred to herself as such in the presence of those she commanded. Regardless, if demons regarded Lucifer as their master, why would they place Zephora on a pedestal? I’d imagine that Satan would reserve that spot for himself. Since Zephora loved Darius, she probably wouldn’t serve beside Satan. Once again, things didn’t add up. I paused to contemplate my next move.
“Where did you go?” Brandon asked Kendall, unable to hide an irritated expression.
She slipped her tongue across her lips. “To get a bite to eat.”
Exasperated, Brandon threw up his hands. “All of a sudden, I’m not good enough for you? You’d rather feast on some stranger’s neck?”
Kendall sighed. “You could have used the word ‘feed’ or ‘drink,’ but using the word ‘feast’ tells me you aren’t taking this seriously. This isn’t a game, Brandon. I’m a vampire. You need to get used to it.”
“You don’t think I have? You’re my best friend. How could I
not
think about it? You don’t think I worry about you? About us?” He caught sight of me and appeared distressed that he’d gotten a little too personal in front of me (and a demon), but he looked too exasperated to reign it all in. “About all of us?”
Confused, she shook her head. “So what are you saying?”
“Look,” he said, “I’m not the jealous type.”
“Yes, you are,” she said. “That’s why you can’t settle on any one woman. You have trust issues.”
“Okay,” he said, standing tall. “Well, at least I admit it.”
“Yeah, but I had to say it first, so you’re just in agreement. You didn’t admit anything.”
He mulled it over and nodded. “All right, duly noted.”
“Um,” said the demon, “can we work out these inconsequential matters another time? My life is kind of hanging in the balance here.” Her understated tone would have made me laugh if I hadn’t been in such a precious position. Maybe she’d even relied on that outcome, so she could catch me off guard. Upon further consideration, I had an epiphany. What if, just like humans, demons had a personality that eclipsed their evil nature?
“Right,” I said, getting back on track with more important matters than a will-they, won’t-they relationship between Kendall and Brandon. “How many demons are out there?” After a demon abandons its host, if it fails to find another host in three hours, it returns to its own dimension, while another leaves that realm to take its place on Earth. However, I’d hoped for more details, and since I didn’t know how much intel I’d dispersed to Kendall and Brandon, so I’d left my question open-ended in hopes that the demon could provide more pertinent information.
“Pfffed. I don’t know.”
I leaned back, stretching the demon’s head back with me.
“Okay, okay.” The demon flapped its hands. “I’ll tell you.”
I released a bit of pressure. “Go on.”
“I’m the only one.”
“Bullshit,” I said. “There’s more than just one of you.”
“Okay.” The demon fluttered its palms again. “Okay, I was lying. Please stop.”
I couldn’t believe her willingness to admit the truth or her reluctance to fight back.
“I’m a demon. You can’t think I’d be honest
all
the time. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”
Once again, I questioned the temperament of this demon. Either she deserved an Oscar for feigning more impending pain, or she had a low threshold for physical anguish. But since she was probably equipped with the same pain receptors as the demon I’d fought in the alley last week, I presumed she was afflicted with a traumatic experience that caused an aversion to pain. So why had she come here and voiced her intentions if not to lull me into a false sense of security to attach when I least expected it…or gain my trust to deceive me later?
My right knee began to ache and my back hurt from holding this position for the past few minutes, so I jerked upright, dragging the demon to its feet. Without a second to waste, I swiveled around, snatched the Soul Sword from Brandon, released it from its sheath, slammed the demon against the wall, and placed the blade to her throat, so it tugged her skin, but didn’t cut it.
The demon’s black eyes lit up with fright. “Please, stop.” She exhaled quick bursts of air. “The tear between our dimensions…is small. Once one of us perishes, three hours later, another supernatural being can enter this realm.”
“So if I kill you,” I said before glancing at my friends, “and you don’t find another host within three hours, you go back to hell and another demon takes your place on Earth.”
After hesitating, the demon said, “Well, don’t get any ideas—”
“Three hours?” I asked. “Zephora created that timeline, didn’t she? She’s obsessed with the number three.”
“Zephora? She didn’t make up that rule.”
Her response caught me off guard. My gaze slid to Kendall and Brandon, but seeing them giving me a blank stare, I continued with the interrogation. “Then who made up the rule?”
She snapped her mouth shut.
A chill slipped across my neck with such speed that I almost spun around and attempted to swat whatever I’d imagined had touched me. I didn’t want to broach the subject the demon had brought up, but I couldn’t ignore it. “You mean…Lucifer.”
Lulu, who’d been quiet for a while, chimed in with a bark.
“Not you,” I told her, doing my best to smile. “But you’re still my ‘Little Lucifer!’”
She unfurled her tongue and smiled.
If I didn’t rely on sarcasm or underplay the dire circumstances to settle my uneasiness, I’d probably end up a total badass who lived only to kill any paranormal element or end up huddled in a corner, weeping in a catatonic state. So if cracking wise at the most inopportune moments kept me somewhat sane, I wouldn’t change a thing.
“You have a good sense of humor,” the demon said and tittered.
“That wasn’t a joke,” I said. Still, I didn’t want to give the impression that I was soft, and since my legs were getting stiff in this position, I jerked her upwards, while setting my right foot at a different angle to relieve the stress. “Who told you about my sense of humor?”
“No one. We’ve been watching you.”
“Who? Other demons?”
“Yeah. We keep tabs on you. I’d bet tons of demons are watching us as we speak.” She lifted her head away from the wall until her neck tapped the blade. “Do me a favor,” she whispered with a disarming expression. “Let me save face, okay? At least a little?”
I blanched at the possibility that others watched us from another dimension. If anything, I should act tougher to give the next demons to visit someone to fear. I had no idea how it was possible, but I didn’t intend to adjust my demeanor because others watched how I handled things in this realm.
Brandon glanced around the room with paranoid eyes as though searching for a video camera.
Kendall said, “How many demons are in your dimension?”
“A lot.”
“How many is that?” Kendall asked. “A hundred?” She winced as though fearing the demon might nod in the affirmative. “A thousand?”
Instead, the demon chuckled. “How long has man walked the Earth? Now take the number of truly demented people in all that time…There’s your number.”
The possibility that tens of thousands of demons were waiting to enter our dimension raised my blood pressure. I accidentally loosened my hold on her, but feeling the demon shift, I tightened my grip again. “So Satan’s not pulling Zephora’s strings,” I said returning to a more pressing issue. “Then who is?”
“You don’t know him,” she responded. “He’s a Borderlands Demon.”
“What does that mean?” asked Brandon, looking like he only spoke because if he didn’t he’d be struck silent, which was a concept he’d never been familiar with.
“He’s the only demon who can pass through both dimensions at will.”
A sinking feeling hit me. “What’s his name?” I asked tentatively.
She giggled. “You don’t know him. Even
I
don’t know him.”
“Try me,” I said, my temperature dropping as quickly as it had risen only seconds ago.
“He’s second in command to Lucifer,” the demon said in a snide manner. “I don’t even know if he exists. Most of my pals think he’s a myth.”
Her reluctance to answer gave me goosebumps. “What’s his name?”
“Mephisto.”
Paralysis struck. My blood ran cold. When stars flashed behind my eyes, I realized I’d been so shocked I’d forgotten to inhale. I sucked in a breath and found I’d practically released the demon. Just as she attempted to break my hold, I gathered my wits and locked my grip tight on her, once more leveling the blade against her neck.
“It seems like,” the demon said, her voice quivering with fright, “you’ve heard of him.”
“I’ve met him,” I admitted. “We’ve talked a few times.”
“I don’t know why,” she said, her muscles going limp, “but I believe you.”
Her fear upon discovering that Mephisto existed increased my own uncertainty about how to relate to Mephisto. Satan’s right-hand man had first visited me as a pop culture fanboy, a playboy businessman, and a sort of…grim reaper with skeletal fingers. It meant I had a direct line to the most powerful, most ruthless supernatural creature in history.
My shoulders clinched as though Mephisto had placed his skeletal hand on my shoulder and placed his yellowed teeth beside me ear, close enough for me to smell his acrid breath. Realizing he had much more power than I’d first thought, I tried to figure out why he might have appeared to me. With no answer forthcoming, I suspected the demon might be incorrect. After all, she admitted that her demon friends considered Mephisto a myth. Therefore, I couldn’t regard her statements as truth. That relieved my tension a bit.
“Damn,” the demon grunted, “let up, it hurts.”
I clenched onto the demon with greater vigor because I’d underestimated Mephisto, only to learn he could probably crush Zephora with his pinky. I now knew why he wanted the Soul Sword, a weapon that could destroy any supernatural creature. It could kill him, and he most likely didn’t want anyone to have so much power over him. I also figured he couldn’t kill me to obtain the weapon because, as with
The Book of Souls
, the owner of the blade had to offer it to another.
“Why is Mephisto pulling Zephora’s strings?”
“How should I know? I thought he was an urban legend. I mean, demons gossip. What else are we going to do in hell except gamble and fight? That’s a boring eternity.”
My whole body locked up. If someone pressed a finger into my shoulder, I would have tipped over.
“I think Lucifer’s growing restless,” the demon said. “It’s been over three hundred years, and Zephora has returned to Earth four times now! I’d have thought the third time would have been the nail in the coffin, but Mephisto must have a soft spot for her.”
“What’s her goal?” I asked.
“How should I know? If I didn’t even know Mephisto was real, how would I know what Satan plans to do? He’s the one telling Zephora what to do. Do you think we chat over lunch?”
The demon’s response echoed in my mind, the potential consequences reaching far and wide. I didn’t have enough peace of mind to follow up with that statement, but another thought occurred to me. In battling Zephora, I was actually fighting Mephisto. This time, the demon’s words cut so deep inside me that I couldn’t maintain my hold on her. My joints had tightened up, making me back away from the demon.
Even before I hit the ground, Kendall had pounced on the demon, sinking her fangs into her neck, sucking hard and deep, her lips glistening red as the demon’s body wriggled under her. Kendall held firm and locked the woman’s figure tight, preventing her from slipping out of her grasp.
As my friend gulped down blood, I contemplated the challenge facing me. Now I understood how Zephora had access to so many abilities. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough power to defeat her, and knowing that Mephisto supported her, he could no doubt supply her with everything she needed to kill me.
All sense of self-worth and liveliness inside me drifted away. No other thought crossed my mind except dying at Zephora’s hands.
Then again, three witches in our line had sent Zephora back beyond the veil, despite Mephisto’s assistance. That thought infused me with a shred of hope that I might be able to do likewise, even if I didn’t have the powers my predecessors claimed. A second later, however, a mental barrier blocked me from putting any faith in that piece of logic. Every witch before me had the luxury of Darius’s help, as well as the other witches in our line.
Alexis sided with Zephora, and since Celestina looked up to her mother, who was already on her way to being brainwashed by Zephora. I couldn’t count on either of them to help me. That left me with three allies: Nolan, Brandon, and Kendall…who was still sucking deep on the woman’s neck.
Black smoke oozed out of her eyes. It rushed toward the heavy wooden door and tried to slip under it in order to reach the spring door, but although it swept along the length of the door, it couldn’t find an opening. A hole for the demon to escape through surely existed, so I guessed that the wood served as an obstacle it couldn’t bypass. I recalled two other instances humans had used wood to defend oneself against supernatural creatures: to stab a vampire in the heart and to lock Zephora’s soul into a box. I tucked away that knowledge for future use.
The black smoke headed for the window, detected a crack between the window and the wall and slid through it. Once outside, it swirled toward the sidewalk in a quest to seize control of another person. Contrary to rational thought, I hoped it would achieve that goal. It took very little effort to coerce her to spill details about Zephora, Mephisto, and Lucifer, which told me she wouldn’t pose much of an obstacle if we faced off again. Either that or she’d willingly give up the information for reasons I couldn’t comprehend.
I suspected that, if there was a tear in the fabric between this dimension and the one beyond my senses, the toughest demons battled each other to slip past the veil. In that case, how had she entered our realm? She seemed like a weasel, someone who would turn on her closest confidants to get what she wanted. I imagined her sitting at a table beside four other demons, playing poker, whereupon the winner gets first dibs on returning to our dimension. Even if she didn’t win, I imagined that she’d somehow cheat her way to victory.
Reflecting on the demon reminded me that if she had vacated its host, the woman she had controlled had now regained full control of her body. That realization sent a ripple of fear slicing through me and broke my momentary paralytic state. I rushed toward Kendall, who still clutched onto the woman’s neck.
“That’s enough, Kendall!” When she didn’t respond, I dropped the blade, clutched onto her shoulders, and tried to pry her away from the woman.
Kendall didn’t move or even acknowledge that I tried to separate her from the woman, probably due to her super strength. That disconcerted me. Did my lack of strength, compared to her, render me as inconspicuous as a mosquito? I swept my right arm around her neck and used all my power to yank her backwards.
This time, I’d managed to strip her free, but before I even hit the ground, Kendall had slipped out of my lock-hold.
Lulu charged up to Kendall and barked. Then she backed off a bit and yapped at her.
Ignoring my dog, Kendall pushed away, slipped around behind the demon, and clamped down on the side of the woman’s neck, her mouth puckering in and out like a fish as blood filled her mouth before she pushed it down her throat.
She met my eyes with a heated gaze that said…
don’t you dare try that again!
Her eyes looked rabid, predatory. It seemed that while feeding, vampires neglected reason and gave way to a feral instinct to protect their food source.
“The demon is gone,” I told her in a placating manner, so she wouldn’t regard me as a threat. “She’s human.” At that moment, Lulu decided to start barking again, so I pointed a finger at her, which silenced her. I redirected my attention toward my best friend.
Kendall continued drinking from the woman’s neck, but my words must have entered her mind because she no longer fed with such ferocity, and her eyes no longer shined with animalistic need.
“Hey,” said Brandon, sliding his knees against the carpet as he slowly approached her. “Look at her. She’s unconscious! She’s so pale. You’ve taken
at least
two pints from her. If you take any more, you could really hurt her.”
Kendall met his gaze and after taking a few more gulps of blood, she stopped sucking from the woman’s throat. She removed her lips from the woman’s skin and licked the blood from her lips.
Brandon sighed with relief.
I appreciated that Brandon severed her primal need to feed, but I didn’t like how she’d responded when I’d done the same thing. I feared there might come a time when I tried to get her to follow logic, only to have her ignore my pleas with more than a glare.
Kendall looked at the woman and her eyebrows quirked as though startled to find a human in her arms. She drew her own arms back, disgusted by her actions.
The woman slumped to the carpet.
“Hey!” I said, drawing near the figure on the ground. “Be careful. She’s a person.” I was glad Kendall acknowledged how she’d harmed the woman. Perhaps it would prevent her from attacking another person with abandon the next time she was starving. I put my ear beside the woman’s mouth and felt her breath against my earlobe. I placed one hand on her shoulder and gave it a light push to rouse her.
The woman squinted and groaned. “A little dizzy.” She smacked her lips as though thirsty.
I turned to Brandon. “Could you—”
“I’m on it.” He bolted toward the kitchen.
Instinctively, the woman placed a hand against her neck. When her fingers tapped her skin, she cringed and grunted. “What happened?” She glanced around, her breath coming quick. “Where am I?” Although I hovered over her, she looked at Kendall.
My friend licked her lips again, shrugged, and looked elsewhere out of guilt. “Sorry.”
The woman met my gaze, and fear entered her eyes. “Who are you people?” She plugged her palms against the ground and scooted herself backwards. “What’s going on?” She looked at Kendall again. “What have you done to me?”
Brandon arrived with a tall glass of water and an apple, the latter probably because he’d seen those working at blood banks do the same thing after someone donated a pint of blood.
The woman regarded him with a sadistic glare before extracting a cell phone from her pocket. “Somebody better start talking.” She lifted a finger, prepared to start dialing.
Kendall hurried over, snatched the phone from her hand, and retreated to the spot she’d just vacated a moment earlier.
The woman hitched her shoulders and stared at her. “What are you?” She scooted backwards until her back hit the wall. Alarmed, as though expecting to have butted up against another person, she glanced back, but seeing no one she looked our way again. “Somebody, tell me—”
I couldn’t find a way to tell her what had happened, so I said to Kendall. “Let’s see how good you are at compelling another person.”
* * *
In my living room, thirty minutes after Kendall compelled the woman to believe she’d scratched a mosquito bite open and to stop the bleeding before sending her on her way, Nolan, our band’s guitarist and the man I hoped would someday become something more than just my bandmate said, “So in dealing with Zephora, we’re basically dealing with the devil?” Nolan sifted his fingers through his thick, dirty blond hair and paced my living room with an incredulous expression that made it clear he was aggravated that he played a part in this paranormal world.
“So what now?” asked Brandon. Along with Nolan and Kendall, he looked at me for direction.
Rather than answer, I tried to slow my heartbeat now that I couldn’t avert my eyes from Nolan. Although I wanted to melt upon seeing his beauty, I scrutinized him for any sign of physical weariness, but he seemed completely fine. I was a little disappointed, considering that if he’d needed a power boost, it would have given me an excuse to get close to him. On the other hand, since we had no reason to touch, I wouldn’t deplete my energy or lose time from my life. Insecurity crept into my mind when a different thought occurred to me. Had he found another willing accomplice?
I wish he needed to stay at my house the same way Kendall and Brandon did. It would have given me a chance to keep an eye on him. What if he discovered a new ability at an inopportune time? What if the gift appeared in public? At least, if he stayed with us, I’d be there to help him regain his focus and potentially prevent others from noticing what occurred. Likewise, if I’d failed in that endeavor, Kendall might be able to compel those who’d witnessed what went down to forget what happened. Those excuses sure sounded better than simply acknowledging that I wanted to spend more time with Nolan.
“I set up a gig for tomorrow night,” I said, trying to take my mind off all things supernatural.
“Wait a minute,” Nolan said, hitting me with a heavy stare. “I’m all for talking about another show, but this Mephisto guy kind of trumps…everything! So what’s going on?”
After he listened to what I’d learned a short time ago, I said, “Lucifer lies and manipulates others to act on his behalf. I guess that’s why Mephisto carries out his plans in our dimension.”
“What’s our next step?” asked Nolan.