Demon's Daughter: A Cursed Book (11 page)

Chapter 6

Manny struck a new deal with me after Olivia’s exorcism. We would stay in the basement for a few days while he went through every book he owned and called every contact he had to find clues about what my sister was. In return, I would go with Manny to exorcisms to kill any demon that might try and attack him or the person they were possessing. It turned out Dro’s generosity and my willingness to talk back to a demon had changed his mind. He wanted to know what Dro was and why she was so hotly desired by demons almost as bad as we did.

Since Manny wouldn’t put me in touch with the demon slayer and I couldn’t pay him, it was all I could offer to earn our keep. Dro had chosen to cook and clean the house. She liked doing because it made her feel normal, and she’d always been a hell of a cook. It almost made me feel guilty that I hadn’t done anything but study and train since the Kenway exorcism. No one called Manny or came in for serious consultations. The only person who came in was Mrs. Dawson for her bi-weekly palm reading and doting on Max.

Not that I was about to complain. A day without demons was a day without demons.

Days turned into weeks as we learned everything about demons, memorizing every book on Manny’s shelf. He didn’t seem to be tiring of us. He was determined to figure out what my sister was, professional curiosity getting the better of him. He asked Dro questions and had her test minor powers, though they never tried hypnotism again. Once was enough, and we had no desire to press our luck.

Manny could tell me how to properly kill demons but he couldn’t train me in combat. He let me set up a small gym in his basement where I trained with my knives and hatchet using dartboards and two-by-fours. I taught Max some self-defense moves while Dro got the more advanced training. She always beat Max when they sparred. But I don’t think he minded very much, since sparring with Dro gave him an excuse to be close to her.

From dusk until dawn, everything was demon-related. I was getting bored of it, but at least I was learning. Every religion had their own kinds of demons, and Manny had information on all of them.

Possessors were what Manny dealt with on a regular basis. They were the demonic spirits that searched for a human body they desired, then latched onto its soul and took complete control of the victim. Even though they couldn’t take a corporeal form and were weak outside of a human vessel, they were volatile and dangerous. It was tricky to stop them unless you damaged the person they were inside, which was almost never an option.

The red monsters Dro and I described were a crossbreed variation of Japanese
oni
and Greek
eurynomos
, but we stuck with simply calling them Reds. They were beings brought out directly from Hell by a summoning. While they could be controlled, they were savage and could easily turn their summoner into a snack. They didn’t have any powers and were among the lowest demons in Hell, but they were not to be brushed off as an idle threat.

Demons came in a wide assortment of murderous varieties. Vampiric
lamias
. Malaysian
hantus
. Enormous Leviathans. Savage hellhounds. Too many to list, and way too many to kill on my own.

Faith was the strongest weapon apparently, a very powerful tool in exorcisms, but it wasn’t something I could rely on. Mostly because I didn’t have any.

Luckily, there were a variety of methods for killing demons. Holy water, blessed silver, salt, sage. Holy water was the only thing we had in abundance, but I was determined to get silver weapons somehow. Trapping a demon was possible, but you had to assume the demon wasn’t too powerful to escape, and that it was going to speak English. Most demons only spoke demon-tongue.

Surprisingly, Hell had a ranking system. It started with lowly peons and imps, moving up to Knights, Presidents, Dukes, and Princes of Hell, and of course, the King himself.

Satan. The Morningstar. Lucifer. The one that nobody, human or demon, ever wanted to cross.

While we found out information on demons, we learned of the existence of cambion, the offspring of a demon, usually an incubus, and a human woman. Cambion could inherit certain demonic powers from their fathers, like super senses and strength. They could see other demons and if they became powerful enough, they could manipulate dreams and create hellfire, the blazing white flames that Dro burst into.

We were ready to call it then and there, until Max said one day, “Dro can’t be a cambion. I would have sensed the evil in her. Besides, she seems to have divine powers, and cambion don’t have those.”

So it was back to the drawing board, where we stumbled upon the Nephilim, the children of angels and humans.

They were more rare than cambion (it was no secret that demons liked to fuck more), but perhaps more powerful. Nephilim could read minds, heal injuries, and create bursts of nearly blinding light. That sounded a bit more like my sister.

It always seemed to me that Dro was more angel than demon, and it made sense that demons would be out to kill her. Demons and angels didn’t exactly make best friends. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were missing something. Some of her powers still edged to the demonic side, especially the fire. I kept going back to what she had said under her hypnotism. Angels didn’t usually talk about murder and carnage with glee. At least I hoped they didn’t.

I doubted we’d tell Dro what she’d said during the hypnosis. She seemed content believing that she was half-angel instead of half-demon, so we left it at that.

After our brains were filled with demonology-induced headaches, I usually trained alone. Manny bought me a punching bag and training swords. I was surprised, and told him he hadn’t needed to do that. He just smiled and said I was getting too tough for dartboards and two-by-fours.

He wasn’t wrong. Over the next few weeks, I got stronger, faster, more efficient in my strikes. There was no such thing as too much training. When came time to killing demons, I wasn’t going to get a second chance. They weren’t exactly charitable.

My sister, thankfully, didn’t have any episodes. She drew herself closer to Max, something that made me wary and a little depressed. There was no way we could keep staying here. We were gambling Manny and Max’s lives with the demons chasing us. The longer we stayed, the more we would care, and the harder it would be to leave.

But she was still a teenage girl with a crush on a cute boy, and Max wasn’t the type to betray her virtue. Probably because he knew I would kill him if he did.

While they got closer to one another, I spent more time with Manny. He wasn’t a replacement for my father, but he still treated me like a daughter. He was more like me than I originally thought. He didn’t delve too deeply into the past, and he never held many assumptions over my head. He also refused to quit on me, no matter how dismissive and stubborn I was being. Even when we argued, he made me break my own rules, and become more attached.

I liked being around them. I liked waking up in the same place every morning. I liked Max’s witty attitude and the affection he showed my little sister. I liked Manny’s patience, intelligence, and unrelenting determination. It was like I had gained a cousin and an uncle.

Which is probably why Manny lost it when I decided it was time to put my skills to the test, and summon a demon.

“No,” Manny said flatly. “Absolutely not.”

I crossed my arms under my breasts and looked at him evenly. “What’s the problem? It’s not like I haven’t killed them before.”

“The danger is too great, Constance,” he said. “Six weeks in demonology doesn’t make you an expert in it. You don’t know what you can let through. You could become possessed.”

“We’ll put it in a trap until it’s time to kill it. I’m just going to ask it a couple questions,” I insisted. “And I thought you said that Possessors can’t be summoned because they choose their victims. I’m not going to let a demon run through the streets, if that’s what you’re really worried about.”

His dark grey eyebrows knit together furiously. “I’m more worried about your heart being torn out of your chest,” he said.

I worried about that too, but I tried not to let it show. Manny’s fear for my life was touching, and I was grateful to know he cared about me, but I had to do this. Books weren’t getting us anywhere.

“Manny,” I said, taking a step towards him, “I need to confirm that Dro is a Nephilim. If I get a Red, it might be able to understand English enough to tell us if we’re right. We can’t keep guessing and hoping for the best, any more than we can stay here forever.”

Hurt filled his eyes when I suggested that we were going to be leaving. The same hurt stung my own heart, but we couldn’t stay. Not if we wanted to keep them alive.

“I can do this,” I assured him, “but I need your help. Please.”

By now, he knew me well enough to understand that ‘please’ wasn’t a common word in my vocabulary. I used it around Dro when no one else was listening, but I had been raised hard. I didn’t beg for anything, from anyone. Not unless I was truly, crushingly, desperate.

Manny exhaled. “You’d better tell your sister what you plan on doing, because I don’t want to face her wrath.”

Despite it all, I managed a weak laugh. Manny gave me a reassuring smile, then walked off to get the supplies for the summoning.

***

Dro was even more upset than Manny when I told her what I was going to do a couple hours later.

“You’re insane!” she said. “You can’t do that! You
won’t
do that!”

“It isn’t a matter or can’t or won’t, Dro,” I said calmly. “It’s something that has to be done. We have a pretty good idea of what you are now, but we need to figure out why the demons are chasing you. At least then we might have a chance at figuring out how to stop them.”

“But you always thought that people who summon demons are idiots! You’re contradicting yourself!”

“I know. But unlike them, I intend to be a lot more careful,” I showed her the small bottle of holy water, my throwing knives, and my hatchet. The holy water was added on Manny’s insistence, though I doubted I would use it. Blades were my specialty. The weapons weren’t silvered yet, but they would still work on the demons. They were the best things I could use since I didn’t have any faith.

None of it made Dro any happier. “Constance, please don’t do this. It’s too dangerous.”

I shifted across the mattress in the basement to be closer to her, putting my arm around her shoulders and giving her a reassuring shake. “It’ll be okay, sis. The demon will be trapped, and Manny will be backing me up. I’ve killed these bastards before. At least this time I’ll have a head start.”

Dro put her head in her hands. “Stop it, Con. I can’t let you do this.”

“Why not?”

She looked at me. “You’re going to get hurt. I can’t live with myself if something happens to you, Connie. I can’t.”

Ah. So that’s what this is really about.

“All that’s going to happen is me summoning a demon, questioning it, then killing it. Nothing else, Dro. I promise.”

“You can’t promise me anything. You don’t know what will happen. This is a bad idea.”

I paused. “You’re right. But I’m not going to let anything hurt me, or you. Just trust me, all right?”

Dro bit her lip and looked away from me. She hunched herself over her knees and made a hurt noise. I almost gave in right then, but there was no way we could keep running if we didn’t know exactly what the situation was. I squeezed Dro’s shoulders.

“I won’t hold it long, Dro. But you should stay inside. I don’t want it to see you.”

She shook her head. “I want to be out there with you. If something happens.”

“Manny will be there. He’ll look out for me. Stay with Max, okay?”

Dro sighed again, and I was grateful to have mentioned her not-quite-boyfriend’s name. He was the only other person I mostly trusted around her, and the only one who could keep her distracted while I was gone. I started to push myself up.

“I’ll be back in a little while. I promise,” I said, leaning down to kiss the top of her snow-white head.

Dro nodded, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop me. I thought about ditching the idea, but then I remembered how scared she was when a demon appeared and tried to kill us. I wanted her to be free from that fear.

So I pushed off the mattress and started walking to the stairs, hoping that I hadn’t just told a huge lie to my little sister.

***

Summoning the demon wasn’t hard. Keeping it contained was.

As the town exorcist and expert demonologist, Manny Garcia knew what it took to summon a demon.

I looked at the chalk pentagram drawn on the driveway, grateful that it was midnight on a Wednesday and no one would be awake to see what we were doing. It would certainly cause a fuss.

The circle was made of thick salt lines that had been sprinkled with holy water and peppered with sage. When the demon was summoned, it was going to be trapped, and really,
really
pissed. I had one hand on my hip, the other on the hilt of my hatchet.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” I asked.

Manny laughed sarcastically. “Don’t tell me you’re backing out now,” he teased.

“Let me rephrase. Have you done this before?”

Manny flipped through his Bible, glancing up from the silver, half moon reading glasses he’d placed on his nose. “Of course not. I’m an exorcist. I don’t summon demons. No sane person summons a demon.”

I sighed, running my hand over my face. “That’s reassuring.”

“The theory is simple,” Manny continued. “I can contain the demon until you’re ready to destroy it, but I don’t think you’ll be looking forward to that. It won’t be in the best of moods.”

“I figured as much.”

Manny looked at me seriously. “You can still change your mind, Constance. No one will think any less of you. We all understand why you’re doing this.”

That should have made me feel better, right along with the comforting look in Manny’s eyes. But it was too late. I had been running blind for far too long.

“Thanks,” I said. “But let’s just get this over with.”

Manny nodded solemnly, disappointed that I hadn’t backed out. He stepped behind me and began the summoning. My Latin sucked, so Manny did the chanting. About midway through, I reached for one of my knives. Throwing knives had been a skill I’d learned during in my time with the Blood Thorns. I had excellent hand to eye coordination, and I’d only gotten better as I practiced. But that wasn’t why I was taking the knife out now.