Eternal Spring A Young Adult Short Story Collection (34 page)

For a demon, Dan had an incredibly upbeat personality.

"Go away.” I said. “You’re stinking up the car. Now
she’ll think I smoke.”

He sat up and hung his arms between the two front seats.
"Just tell her about me. Problem solved.”

"So not going to happen.”

"She’ll believe you, she is a necromancer.”

"Necromancer in training.”

"Whatever.” He waved his hand, scattering cigarette
ashes on the seat.

“Watch it.” I brushed at my jacket. “I actually washed this
with my own two hands, you know.”

“Mate, she’s totally not going to care. All she’ll be paying
attention to are those big beautiful eyes of yours.” He ruffled my hair. Hair
I’d spent exactly twenty minutes on to get that perfectly messy look.

I slapped at his hand. “Don’t you have some demon-like thing
to do tonight?”

“I suppose I could go possess someone, but it’s only fun
when you’re there to exorcize me out of them.”

Not only were Dan and I best friends -- well as much as an
exorcist and a spawnling from hell could be friends -- we also worked together.
He possessed them, and I saved them for a disgustingly large fee. Most of our
clientele resided in the City of Angels, Hollywood. We didn’t con just anyone.
We picked out marks carefully. Only those truly deserving of a little trickery
and thievery. I’d seen true possession and the damage it did to people, so Dan
and I limited our jobs to the real dickwads of the world.

“I’m sure there are plenty of other things you could be
doing right about now.” I pulled to a stop in front of a small yellow bungalow
and parked. “And I mean now.”

“Fine.” He sighed. “But if you need any help with…”

“Dan,” I warned.

There was another pop and he vanished. Cigarette smoke
lingered in the air from where he’d just been sitting. Even after all these months,
his sudden comings and goings still freaked me out.

I turned the car off, opened the door then slid out. While I
made my way up the front walk to the door, my gut tightened. I was so nervous
my knees shook. I’d performed dozens of exorcisms, stared down a multitude of
nasty demons, heck I’d even spent a year in Hell, but girls were a whole
different matter. I had no clue what I was doing.

When I reached the door, I did a quick breath-check then
knocked. By the time the door opened, my heart was thumping hard. And when I
saw Aspen outlined in the doorway, her blond curls framing an incredibly sharp
face, it beat twice as fast. She was just as pretty as she’d been when I first
saw her in the cemetery. More so because she didn’t have flecks of dirt on her
face or spots of blood on her slim hands.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey.”

“Do you want to come in? My mom wants to say hey.”

“Um, okay.” Knowing I didn’t really have a choice.

I followed her into the kitchen, admiring the way her butt
looked in her tight jeans. Her mom, Dina, was sitting on a bar stool at the
kitchen island. Although she was smiling, her intense blue eyes still
scrutinized me. Like being raked over hot coals. I couldn’t really blame her
though. I did have a bit of a reputation. Well, my whole family did really. The
Butchers were known to deal in the three D’s: danger, demons and death. In her
opinion, I probably wasn’t the ideal candidate to be dating her daughter.

“Hi, Caden.” She tucked an ash blond curl behind her ear. A
gesture that Aspen had obviously picked up.

“Hey, Ms. Spencer.”

“How’s your dad fairing?”

I shrugged, uncomfortable talking about my dad. I never knew
exactly what to tell people. He was sad and angry all the time and drank way
too much.

Instead of sharing that happy information, I said, “He’s all
right.”

“Good to hear.”

I dropped my gaze, unsure of what to say next. I’d stared
down a level two wrath demon and banished him back to Hell, but Dina Spencer,
the most skilled necromancer in the Western hemisphere, was ten times more formidable
and one hundred times scarier.

Aspen was next to me in a flash, tugging on my arm. “Okay,
Mom, we’re going now.” She led me back to the front door. Dina followed us
there.

As Aspen slipped on her runners, I looked at everything but
her mom. Making eye contact with a hostile entity was always a bad decision.

“Be home by midnight.”

“Yes, Mom.” Aspen sighed, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t give me that look, Aspen.
 
You know as well as I do what comes lurking after dark.”

“I know. You don’t have to worry.” She wrapped her hand
around my arm. “I’m with Caden, exorcist extraordinary. What could possibly
happen?”

Dina didn’t answer; she just looked at me. Her gaze was
withering. It was obvious I’d just been measured and found extremely lacking.

“I’ll take care of her, Ms. Spencer. Trust me.” I gave her
my winningest smile, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Dina Spencer
didn’t trust me one iota.

Once we were in the car and had pulled away from the house,
I relaxed a little.

“Sorry about my mom. I know she can be a bit scary.”

“No worries. I wasn’t afraid.”

She gave me a knowing look. “Liar.” She laughed.

I laughed with her. “Okay, maybe a little.”

Smiling, she looked around the car, taking in everything including
me. Her blue eyes were intense, and looking into them made my gut clench. “So,
where are we going?”

“I thought the Young Street spring fair?” Nervous she was
going to hate my suggestion and think I was a complete loser for suggesting it,
I watched her face, waiting for a positive reaction.

Meeting my gaze, she nodded. “Cool.”

After I parked the car, we made our way to the street
carnival. There were game stalls, food carts, a few rides, jugglers, mimes and
clowns. It was a smorgasbord of harmless fun and frivolity. My plan was to eat
some corn dogs, win a big stuffed animal for Aspen at the ball toss, then make
out on the Ferris wheel.

But before we could make our way to the corn dog stand, a
tall, rail-thin clown with bright blue hair stepped in our path. Smiling, he
twisted some balloons into a wiener dog and presented it to Aspen.

She laughed. “Thank you.”

He took a deep sweeping bow, but his gaze never left mine.
He creeped me out. I grabbed Aspen’s hand and pulled her away.

Twenty minutes later I was making good on the second part of
my three-part plan. I had one ball left and only two more bottles to knock down
to win the big panda bear Aspen was eyeing. Just as I wound up to throw, Dan
sidled up next to me, and I missed the tower of bottles.

“Oh bad shot, dude.”

“What are you doing here?” I turned to glare at him.

Thankfully he was looking like his innocuous teenage
persona, with unkempt brown hair, brown eyes, two-day scruff, and not like Sid
Vicious, which was his preferred character skin. They’d been close friends way
back when.

He grinned that devil grin of his and turned his attention
on Aspen. “Just wanted to meet this girl of yours.” He pushed past me and
offered his hand to her. “Hi, I’m Dan. Caden’s better looking and more charming
friend.”

Looking at me for help, she shook his hand. “Aspen.”

“Fantastic to meet you Aspen.” Then he glanced at me.
“You’re right, brother, she is hot.”

I shook my head in exasperation. “Don’t worry. He’s
harmless.”

“Speak for yourself.” He slung an arm around her shoulders,
then mine. “So, what’s on the agenda?”

“Well, Aspen and I are going to go on the Ferris wheel.”

“Can three people fit in that seat?”

I stopped walking and shrugged Dan’s arm off. To Aspen I
said, “Will you excuse us for a sec?”

“Sure.” She shrugged.

I pulled Dan away from her. “What the hell dude? Are you
trying to ruin things for me?”

“Nah. I’m just bored. You’re my only source of entertainment
on this plane.”

“That’s just sad, you know?”

He shrugged. “It is what it is, man.”

“What about that girl in Calgary? The one we met on our road
trip to the Stampede. Why don’t you zip over there and see her?”

He pulled out a smoke from his pack, put it in his mouth and
lit it. “Nah. She’s getting too clingy.”

“Whatever dude, you gotta go and do something, because you
are not hanging with us. I like this girl and I’m not letting you screw it up
for me.”

“When have I
ever
screwed it up?”

“
Every
time.”

Dan nodded then one brow went up. “Speaking of girls. Where
did yours go?”

“What?!” I spun around and my heart froze. Aspen wasn’t in
the spot we’d left her. And she wasn’t at the nearby hotdog vendor or the
shooting game booth either.

“Maybe she went to use the bathroom.” He gestured toward one
of the porta-potties.

Despite the growing sense of dread in my gut, I knocked on
the facility door. “Aspen?”

“Get lost jerk,” came a very masculine voice from inside.

I looked at Dan. He must’ve seen the worry on my face
because he clapped me on the back. “Maybe she just hooked up with another guy,
a better looking one.”

The unease was intensifying. I had a lot of enemies. Most of
them made during my
year-long
hiatus in Hell. If one
of those demons wanted to jack me upwhile topside, kidnapping Aspen would be
high on the list of the worst things to do to me. That and messing with my dad.

That’s when I saw the clown, the one who’d accosted us
earlier. In front of him I caught a glimpse of blond curls. He had Aspen and
was taking her to the fun house.

“Come on,” I said to Dan pointing. “Follow that clown.”

“Why would a clown kidnap your girlfriend?”

“I don’t know. Clowns are always doing something evil.”

Dan nodded. “True dat.”

We ran after the clown, weaving around the steady stream of
carnival goers, reaching the funhouse just as he, with Aspen in tow, ducked
inside.

“So, what’s the plan?” Dan asked, blocking me from rushing
in.

“To get Aspen back, duh.”

“Yeah I know that genius, but you realize if one of my kin
is wearing that clown like a meat suit I can’t interfere.”

“What do you mean you can’t interfere?”

“I mean I can’t like pulverize the dude or anything.”

“I thought you had my back?”

“I do, man, in usual circumstances, like if that clown was
just some regular old creepy molester clown. But if he’s possessed I can only
do so much.”

I shook my head.
Now he tells me
. “Well, what can you do for
me?”

As an answer, he grabbed me and we zipped through the ether
and popped up inside the fun house right in the middle of the hall of mirrors.
The clown’s maniacal reflection stared me right in the face. I swung around to
see him standing there, grinning at me, his arm crushing Aspen in a headlock.

“Caden Butcher.” The clown glanced at Dan. “And his faithful
dog Dantalion.”

Dan put his hands up. “Hey, I just brought him here. I know
the damn rules.” Then he pulled out his cigarette pack and lit up. I was
beginning to wonder if that was a nervous habit of his or if he really was that
carefree about the whole situation.

“Let her go.” I didn’t have my bag of tricks with me, my
regular arsenal of amped up holy water, blessed chalk and anise, but I didn’t
go anywhere without an iron cross blessed by the pope and a small vial of holy
water. I fiddled with the vial in the pocket of my jacket.

If I could somehow get it out, splash it on him for a
distraction, then press the cross to his forehead and recite the
Rituale Romanum
,
I might be able to exorcize him back to Hell.

The clown glanced down at Aspen struggling in his hold. He
patted her on top of the head. “Her? Really? Why? She’s not all that pretty.”

“Screw you,” Aspen grunted.

This made him laugh.

“She’s got nothing to do with this. This is between you and
me.”

“Actually my beef is with your dear old dad. He ended my
playtime in that
old
Russian man with the knife
collection. I was just having some fun. Then he comes along and poof. Sends me
back to Hell. But your dad’s usually so protected, I can’t get to him. So I
thought hey, what the heck, I’ll see if I can play with Baby Butcher. And
voila! Here you are.” He waved his red-gloved hand around and indicated the fun
house. His reflection danced around like a marionette in the other mirrors. It
unsettled me, and I had a difficult time concentrating on the real clown. I had
to tamp down the urge to turn and look at the moving images in the other mirrors.
Which was exactly what he wanted me to do.

“Well, why don’t you tell me your name so I can tell my dad
you said hi when I see him next.” Names had power. If I could get his, it would
make his exodus down under a lot easier for me.

The clown frowned. “The only person you’ll be seeing next is
the coroner.”

He tossed Aspen to the side like trash. She flew into one of
the mirrors, hitting it hard, knocking her head and cracking the glass. Like a
rag doll, she slumped to the ground. I didn’t have a chance to go to her before
the clown was charging at me.

“Dan! Get her out of here!”

I thought he was going to object, but he sighed then said,
“Fine.” He was next to her in a flash and vanishing them both into thin air in
seconds.

Just as the clown’s hands reached for my neck, I got the
vial uncorked and tossed the contents in his face. The moment the water touched
his skin, wisps of thick black smoke curled into the air, burning his demon
flesh like acid. Shrieking, the clown released me and brought his hands up to his
face, but I was faster. I had the iron
cross pressed
to his forehead before he could even contemplate what I was doing.

“Dues,
et
Pater Domini nostril jesu Christi…”