Demon Ex Machina: Tales of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom (13 page)

She tossed her head back and groaned as only a put-upon teenager can. “For crying out loud, Mom, why didn’t you tell me? We’re supposed to be all open with the demon stuff now, remember?”

“I remember, and I was going to tell you as soon as I had the chance.” I managed a half-shrug. “It’s Stuart I’m keeping the secret from.”

Her brows lifted. “You’re going to be in so much trouble.”

“Probably,” I admitted. “But it’s my decision. Don’t rat me out, okay?”

She lifted her hands in surrender. “You’re the boss. I only work here.” Her eyes narrowed. “But that’s it, right? It’s only Stuart who’s secret boy? I’ve got the full deal? Because if you want me to be able to do research I need to know—”

The phone rang, and I jumped up, thrilled to avoid answering that particular question. I snatched the cordless, then sagged with relief when I heard the dulcet tones of Father Corletti’s thick accent. “Katherine,
mia cara
, can you speak?”

“Fran! Hey, yeah, it was quite a trip today, wasn’t it? Listen, can you hang on? I left that paperwork you gave me in the bedroom.”
And the lies, they just keep on coming.

“Of course,” he said.

I signaled to Allie and Laura, both of whom looked uninterested, then took the phone with me as I jogged up to the master bedroom, locked the door, and then, for good measure, headed all the way through the room and into the bathroom. I knew Allie wouldn’t listen in on an extension—why would she eavesdrop on a conversation with Fran—but if she passed by my room, I didn’t want her to overhear anything incriminating.

Secrets within secrets within secrets again . . .

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” I said once I was perched on the closed toilet lid, the phone pressed to my ear. “Did you learn something? About this Odayne dude?”

“I did,” he said, and I could tell from his voice that it wasn’t good.

“Tell me,” I said. “Just tell me and get it over with.”

I heard his long sigh, and could picture him taking off his cap and massaging his fingers over the downy tufts that covered his mostly bald head. “Odayne is one of the oldest demons, and unique among the demon realm,” he began. “For one thing, his origin is shrouded in mystery.”

“His origin? I don’t get it.” As far as I knew, no one really knew where demons came from, though they had to come from somewhere since we knew that some were older than others. But the
where
and
how
of demon creation had never been satisfactorily explained.

When I said all that to Father, he grunted in agreement. “This is true. But there are suggestions in the ancient texts that whatever the normal birthing procedure for a demon is, Odayne circumvented it.”

“Okay,” I said, accepting that tidbit even if I didn’t understand it. “So that makes him different. Maybe that’s why he’s keen to bind up with Eric. What else?”

“We’ve discovered a most disturbing fact,” Father said. “Even killed in his true form, Odayne will not die in the manner that other demons do.”

“But—” I began, then immediately closed my mouth, realizing I didn’t know what to say. Father’s pronouncement went against everything I knew about demons. When they were in a human body, a demon could be stopped but not actually be killed. When you pierce them through the eye, the demonic essence is sucked out of the body. The body turns back into a corpse, but the demon himself isn’t dead-dead. Instead, it’s simply returned to the ether, hovering silent and invisible as it waits for the next unwitting newly dead body to open up.

Since the process of body occupation isn’t simple—and since time moves differently in the demonic realm—the dead demon can’t just turn around and two seconds later pop into another dead body. Instead, a demon has to wait, bide his time. Which means that although there is a certain amount of futility to my job, the benefits of destroying corporeal demons outweigh the downside that the demons will eventually come back.

But it’s not all an exercise in futility. The holy grail for a Demon Hunter is to kill a demon in its true form—when the demon walks the earth not as a human, but as the scaly, slimy monster that populates Hollywood films. The movies, in fact, do such a good job representing demons that I have to believe a few Hunters have moonlighted as Hollywood consultants over the years.

Kill
that
beast, and the demon is really gone
. Poof
, end of story. There’s no coming back for a demon killed in its true form.

That was one of the basic truths of my world, and now Father Corletti was telling me it wasn’t true at all. “Explain,” I said, needing to hear him walk me through it so I could get the ramifications straight in my head.

“Odayne can live among the ether with his brother demons,” Father began. “And our archives include records documenting his entry into the newly dead.”

“Okay,” I said, dubiously. So far, Father hadn’t cited anything unusual. “But that’s not what’s happened with Eric, right?”

“Eric is experiencing the manifestation of Odayne’s true form.”

I cocked my head. I didn’t much like the sound of that. “Start at the beginning,” I said. “And go slowly.”

To his credit, he did. Apparently, Odayne’s true form gestated within a human host, merging and binding with it over the years as host and demon aged and grew. In youth, the demon’s influence was minimal, segregated within the host’s body and soul as a sort of demonic embryo. Then, in youth, that embryo could even be controlled—frozen, as it were—and the demon would remain in stasis. But if the stasis was broken, as happened in Eric’s case, the demon would gain power with each passing day, becoming harder and harder to push back or control.

As its demonic adulthood approached—as was apparently happening with Eric—the demon manifested more and more until it merged completely with the human, creating a vile and dangerous hybrid.

“To be trapped and tied up with evil,” Father said, his voice infinitely sad. “I do not think there could be a worse fate.”

“No,” I agreed, my throat thick as I spoke the word. “I don’t either.”

Neither of us said it, but we both knew that Eric was on his way to that very fate. I wouldn’t—
couldn’t
—let it get there.

And if I failed? If I couldn’t find a way to bind the demon or banish it from Eric’s body?

I shivered, knowing only too well what would have to be done.

I closed my eyes, and I asked the question I had to ask. “Why didn’t you tell me? All these years, and I never knew.”

“Katherine,” he said, releasing my name on a sigh. “How I wish things had been different. I cannot say why you were not told at first, other than it was Eric’s wish. I was not told either, and I am having my own troubles coming to terms with the decision of my superiors to leave me uninformed. I find strength in my faith, of course, but I am still human, and to certain things I would like practical answers.”

In my bathroom, thousands of miles away, I nodded agreement.

“I was never told the name of the demon—I am not sure that anyone, even Eric himself, knew the beast’s name. So your information tonight was essential. As for the more basic question of why I did not tell you once I knew the truth? I can only say that I at first withheld the information because I believed the demon to be bound. And later, when you gave your life to another man, there seemed no point in telling you things about a man who was dead and gone, and whose memory you cherished.”

“And when he came back?”

“When he came back, you had another family, did you not? And Eric’s secrets then were truly his own.”

It was my turn to sigh. I didn’t like his answer at all. Didn’t like it, but I did understand it. And I still had questions about how the demon got into Eric in the first place, and about who at
Forza
knew it was there.

“Again,” Father Corletti said, “those are questions for Eric himself. You and I will work together to eradicate the problem at hand. The problems of the past? Those are between you and Eric.”

I closed my eyes and nodded, once again not liking the answer. But I knew I couldn’t change Father’s mind, which meant I had to take what I could get. “Okay, then. Let’s talk about now. How will I know?” I said. “How will I know when the line’s been crossed and the demon’s out and there’s no coming back for Eric?”

“Ah,
mia cara
, that I cannot tell you. The most recent archival account of Odayne’s growth was recorded in the year five hundred and twenty-seven. It is sketchy at best.”

“They always are,” I said wryly. “You said Odayne doesn’t die when killed in his true form. What did you mean by that?”

“Apparently, he returns to an embryonic state,” Father said. “And he will find a new host.”

“New,” I said. “You’re certain?”

“Nothing is certain, but that is what the archives suggest.”

I started pacing my room, trying to get this all straight in my head. “I can live with another host,” I said, probably selfishly. “It might never happen, right? Or he might float around in never-never land for three centuries before landing in someone.”

An unsuspecting child,
I thought, then fought a shudder. I needed to concentrate on the problem in front of me, not a potential problem that might not even be an issue for centuries.

“So we get it out of Eric,” I said. “We focus on that. Forget binding, that’s a dead end. We get it out, and we kill it, and we send it back to the demon nursery to start all over again.”

It was a solid plan, I thought, except for the getting it out of Eric part. I was determined to remain confident, though, telling myself that we would find a solution despite the fact that
Forza
had been working on that very problem for decades, and so had Eric. After all, we had a kick-ass team now. Me, Eddie, Laura. Even Allie if I could figure out a way to set her up as a research drone without letting her know why. And we all worked well under pressure.

“Katherine—”

“Hang on, Father,” I said, in my groove. Eddie had to have contacts from his old days. Maybe some of them would have an idea. At the very least, it was worth investigating. And then I could—

I blinked. “Yes?”

“There is a way.”

“What?”

“A way,” he repeated. “There is a way to kill the demon in its true form. Forever dead, never to leech upon another human. Never to grow within another innocent child.”

I bit back a curse, remembering just in time who I was talking to. “But that’s great. Why didn’t you say so before?”

“It is a weapon,” he said, “though we have as yet been unable to locate it. We are hopeful, and our research and archival teams are searching for it. Priority one,” he said, and I drew in a breath, duly impressed.

“A weapon,” I repeated. “What kind? How does it work?”

“A dagger with a dual blade, the hilt in the middle. One thrust from either blade and the demon truly dies.”

I felt a little trill of excitement that we had a solution, but that quickly burst when the horrible ramifications tumbled down around me. “Wait,” I said. “What a minute.
The body.
”

“This demon must not be allowed to continue. If the means exist to eradicate it, we must do so before it claims another innocent.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, pacing frantically now. “Just a damn minute. What about the body? The demon is inside Eric’s body.”

“Yes,” Father said, his voice infinitely sad. “Use the dagger to destroy the demon, and you will destroy the man as well.”

“Dear God,” Laura said,
then lowered her voice to a whisper. “If what you’re saying is right then there’s no way to get Eric clear without killing him.”

I nodded miserably as I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them tight against me. Allie had gotten bored with waiting and had gone upstairs to research. Since I wanted away from prying ears, Laura and I had adjourned to the back porch. While we sat in the nylon-woven lawn furniture, Timmy dumped handfuls of pea gravel from underneath his Playscape into little plastic tubs.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find another way,” I said. There had to be an alternative. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that in order to save Eric I had to kill him.

“Did Father say there was something else you could do?”

I shook my head. “The archival references are so old that it’s hard to get any real information, but he did say that some of the really ancient documents actually reference stories of Odayne walking the earth.”

“People like Eric,” she said.

“Yeah. But they got clear somehow. They managed to break out of this entanglement. And that’s key,” I said, “because we already know that Odayne and Eric are attached spiritually, not physically. So even if I kill Odayne—really kill him—there’s no guarantee that’s gonna break Eric free.” Just the opposite: I feared that if I truly killed Odayne, then Eric would be trapped in some sort of dead-demon realm for all eternity.

And that was a reality I couldn’t comprehend.

Laura leaned over and gripped my hand, hard. “If those people got free, then Eric can, too. I mean, they didn’t even have the Internet. We’ve got Google. We’ll figure it out, Kate. I promise.”

I managed a smile. “I like the sound of that. Where do we start?”

“With what we know.” She got up and started pacing. “We know the demon’s name is Odayne. And we know that some missing dagger takes him totally out of commission.” She frowned, a little vertical crease appearing above her nose. “Actually, how does he know this dagger’s going to do the trick? I mean, it can’t have been tested, right? ’Cause if it had been, then we wouldn’t be worrying with this Odayne demon today.”

I conjured up a wisp of a smile. “Faith, Laura. Plain, old-fashioned faith.”

One elegant eyebrow raised. “Personally, I’d rather have a warranty.”