My Demon (15 page)

Alex pulled her legs up, and cuddled them to her chest. The demon didn’t come any further in, choosing to peer at her through the gap.

“How am I supposed to kill?” she said after a moment’s silence. “I’m not a murderer. Look at me.”

Clive stepped into the shed, and pulled the door closed.

“I’m tiny. How could you expect me to wrestle a person to death? The whole thing is bloody ridiculous.” Alex shifted a little to give the demon space to lean against the potting bench.

“There are many ways to kill, babydoll, sometimes you don’t even need to be in the same room.”

Alex snuggled up to Clive, and on impulse, stretched up and kissed him.

Clive’s lips remained soft for a moment, as if he were surprised into inaction. Then he pressed back, kissing her mouth, her neck, tickling her ear with his tongue before returning to her lips. Alex ran her hands over the soft velvety fabric that made up Clive’s cat suit. The tone of his physique seemed so real under the thin cloth.

Funny. Was this real?

Clive moved from leaning on the potting bench to her front. He parted her legs as warm hands seized her bottom and pulled her up to the edge. His body touched hers, pressed against her, down there. With another pull to her rear, his groin met her own. He rubbed the length of his erection in a slow grinding motion on the crotch of her trousers, all the while kissing her, parting her lips and touching the tip of his tongue to hers.

“Ohhh..,” Alex groaned, her hands on his rear, she forced him closer, and rolled her hips to greet his thrusts. For a fleeting second, Becky came to mind, her advice to fuck the demon. He wasn’t real, this wasn’t real. She probably had a hand between her legs, all alone in the shed.

“I can’t do this.” Alex pushed at Clive’s shoulders. The demon sealed her mouth with his own, his arms solid and unmovable around her as Alex wiggled to get away.

“Stop! Please, let me go, Clive.” She wedged a knee against the side of his stomach, and pushed hard. He gave her one last kiss, this time rough, almost toppling her onto the dirty window as he finally let go.

The demon backed off to the other side of the shed, two paces back, so he stood amongst some stacks of plastic plant pots.

“Sorry Clive,” she said, and wiped her mouth dry.

His erection twitched, his cat suit outlining the bulge. For a second, Alex thought he might jump her again. A throb erupted in her groin. From the half-lidded expression on Clive’s face, he knew her thoughts. Hastily, she pulled her legs closed, a blush rising on her cheeks.

“I’m not that kind of girl. Honestly.”

“You’re sure?” Clive pressed a hand against his pecks, then ran his fingertips down his body until they touched the tip of his erection. He squeezed and let out a groan of pleasure.

“Yes,” she said, and turned to the side slightly, her eyes on the shed door.

“If you say so.”

“So what do we do now?” In her peripheral vision, Alex watched the demon cross his arms. “Oi, what happens next?” She turned back to Clive.

He was touching his lips now, and to Alex it seemed like he was savoring her taste. “Well, I suppose if more exciting things aren’t going to happen…” He ran a hand over his chest and down to his waist.

“Stop it would you.”

“Fine.” The demon straightened up and put his hands on his hips. “Mr. Duggan,” he said. “That’s where we need to start. There’s an exceptionally fertile Podis in there, about to spawn enough beings to take over your whole street. He’s already been to visit your mother. I’ve got a feeling he was sizing her up.”

“What, my mother?” Alex sat forward. “No … can’t be.”

“He’s sensing danger. He’s already suspicious of you, I reckon he’s figuring it all out—you and me—and the easiest way to control you would be to get your mum on his side. And it would only be a matter of time before you were infected.”

“My mum. Infected? You’ve got to stop him!”

“I can’t do things in this dimension, you know that.” The demon nodded towards the house. “And I can’t protect Lily from him.”

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, and wished all the madness away.

“Alex, pay attention.”

Nothing had changed. “How do I do it?” Alex asked, her voice low. “How do I kill him? Knife, poison? Tell me what to do.”

Clive leaned against the wall. “The old man leaves his back door open at night because he’s afraid he’ll get locked in.”

“Why would he do something so insane? Isn’t he worried about robbers?”

“He’s got a phobia from when he was a POW.”

Oh God. Mr. Duggan was a veteran. But that didn’t matter. She would not let him get her mother. She’d do anything, anything to keep her mother safe.

The demon smiled, his smug expression worrying. He continued, “All you have to do is set a fire going in his kitchen, lock the back door and go. Nothing more need be done. I told you your presence would hardly be required.”

A
lex woke up to a gentle shake from Clive. He leaned over her, his eyes half-lidded and almost dreamy. The demon ran his fingertips down one of her arms then cupped a breast. The thin fabric of her night shirt did little to mask the sensation as his fingers pinched at her nipple.

“Leave me alone,” she said in a sleep-slurred tongue, but her back arched, her hips pulling her towards him.

“Time for Mr. Duggan,” he replied with a smile, showing off his sparkly white teeth in the dark room. He came closer and kissed her, nipping her bottom lip before removing his hand from her breast. “You need to be quiet. Your mother’s still awake.”

Alex lay in the semi-darkness for a few seconds, enjoying the tingling of her nerve ends. This has to stop, Alex thought. She rubbed at her boob to try and get the residue of his touch off her. More awake now, she rolled over to check out the time on her alarm clock.

“The time’s two-thirty. I don’t know what you’re worried about. Mum’ll be drunk as a skunk.”

“No, she’s sober. Lily was serious, she’s not drinking anymore.”

“Bullshit!” Alex said, but in a whisper.

“Hurry up, there’s no time to waste.”

Begrudgingly, Alex rolled out of bed, and took a dark pair of jeans from her wardrobe and a long-sleeved black shirt. “Look at me. I’m a bloody cat burglar.”

“Come on, come on.” He opened the door, and ushered her through.

Alex stopped by the living room. The door was cracked open, and the soft voice of her mother came drifting through. “Oh yes, I’ll put my mouth slowly on your enormous cock, and rasp my teeth down the edges…”

Alex backed away. “Did you bloody hear that? Holy shit, my mum actually is a telephone whore.”

“She’s very good, you know. Apparently she’s making a bundle with returning customers, and the hours suit her.”

“You her bloody pimp or something?” Alex whipped around to confront him.

“Not me, honest,” Clive said with a laugh. “Tell you what, though. She makes
me
randy.”

Clive lunged at Alex and pressed her up against the wall, knocking the breath out of her. Alex allowed him one long kiss before pushing him away. Clive reached down and squeezed her bum.

“Full and round, like a cherry. Yum, yum.”

“I thought we had work to do.” Alex shoved his hand away, her fingers lingering on his for a moment. The demon leaned in and lowered his face to her neck, where he inhaled slowly. A shiver tore through Alex as Clive’s breath caressed her skin. “Enough, enough, enough,” she said, and stepped away from his side.

Alex grabbed her house key, stuffing it inside one of her jeans’ pockets as she left.

The street outside was quiet, the early morning finding people in their beds, all windows dark except for that of her own living room. Keeping her head down, Alex made her way to the end of the terrace, and turned down the dirt path to the back gardens. The gate opened with a slight creak, and Alex slipped inside and into her garden. She only realized she’d held her breath coming up the alley when the shed door closed silently behind her.

Alex pulled out a packet of latex gloves. “Don’t get your fingerprints on the outside of the gloves,” Clive warned as she pulled open the packet. She slid them on, touching only the rims. That was all she needed for the mission. The time had come to go to Number Seventeen.

The moon shone bright in the night sky, muting out the surrounding stars. A pale yellow glow lit Alex’s way as she left her garden, and crept down the dirt path. After passing a few gardens, she stopped by the gate that led into Mr. Duggan’s. Her heart fluttered in her throat. Was she doing the right thing?

“Think of your mother,” Clive whispered in her ear.

She glared at him. “You shut up about her.” Alex closed her eyes and saw visions of blue mist. Somehow, she had to stop them taking her mother. She had seen the smoke, seen the way the Podis or whatever they were singled her out. She could now see them, and apparently they knew. They’d be after her mother, Clive was right.

Fantastic. That meant she
had
to kill Mr. Duggan. Maybe he was planning on doing her in—or infecting her next. That made things more urgent, she didn’t want to die. Worse, be murdered. Or have her soul sucked out while she slept. She shivered.

“Stop procrastinating and get inside.” Clive prodded her in the back, and she finally put a hand out and opened the gate. The hinges creaked softly, and Alex slipped past. The wood slid from her fingers, the springs in the hinge pulling the gate closed with a bang that sounded like a gun firing in the silence of the night.

“Bloody hell!” Alex blurted out in a harsh whisper, holding her chest where her heart beat explosively hard. She backed up against the fence and searched the overlooking windows for twitching curtains.

“Get going.” Clive pushed at her and forced her onto the garden path. She couldn’t hesitate or think with Clive insistently prodding her back. “And keep off the grass.”

Her feet moved hesitantly forward on the round stones that led to the back door. Her mind wandered to their embrace in the shed. Clive was ancient, so he must know exactly what to do with a woman by now. What a time to be thinking of sex, she reprimanded herself, and refocused on the gruesome task she was about to take part in.

“Open the door gradually, then the hinges won’t squeak so much.”

Alex obeyed, amazed to find the door actually was unlocked. Carefully, she pushed it open.

She found herself in an antiquated looking kitchen, with a few filthy storage units and an old Belfast sink. The oven was a freestanding model, the type with a grill that hung over the top like a dirty hat. The metal heating coils were coated in the crusty black remains of spilt food. A pan remained on one of the rings, and Alex glanced inside to find some congealing milk in the bottom. A freestanding counter was next to the stove.

“He likes warm milk at night with a drop of brandy,” Clive explained as Alex’s eyes found the bottle next to the stove. “Grab the tea towels.” Several tea towels where piled on a small round table that had been pushed up against a wall. A solitary chair sat beside it.

“Everything’s so dirty. How can anyone live like this?” Alex reluctantly picked up the towels, despite the protection her latex gloves offered. Her shoes made sticky sounds as she moved about.

“Scrunch them up and put them on the counter, draping one corner onto a heating element.”

Alex did as Clive ordered.

“Now pour the brandy onto the towels.”

Alex looked over at him, uncertain. “I don’t want to.”

“Do what I say!” Clive yelled.

“He’s just an old man, what harm can he do?” She reached out for the demon, but he slapped her away.

“Your funeral. Shame I liked you. Your mother amuses me. The world will be a duller place.” His image shimmered for a second, as if he was about to disappear.

“No! Don’t go, don’t leave me here!” Alex grabbed him and held on.

Clive came back into focus. “He will spawn, and soon. Are you willing to kill him—to protect your mother?”