The Demon Beside Me (10 page)

“Excellent,” Opheran murmured.

“It seems that you are not negotiating from a position of strength any longer,” I said to the Cherub. “May I make a suggestion?”

His eyes narrowed and he spat on the ground. I sighed, rolled my shoulders, and then kicked him in the face. He thumped backwards, bounced, and came up with a snarl. His snarl cut short as Caleb’s sword touched the tip of his nose. “Have respect,” the angel said softly. “Respect your betters, Bartholomew.”

“You-”

“Did you not hear me?”

The Cherub looked to me with nothing but hate written large on his face. “What is your suggestion?” he snapped.

“I suggest you accept the original offer.”

“I will make it easier for you,” Caleb added. “I will take the parole of the halfblood as an assurance that he does not use his powers as Gatekeeper to betray the Choir’s interests. At this point, he is more trustworthy than you yourself, I think.”

“You are a traitor,” Bartholomew snarled. “Don’t think that your past will save you from this level of treason.”

“I am a Gatekeeper,” Caleb replied. “I serve the Choir in assuring that we have a home to return to. If anyone is a traitor here, it is you. I’m offering you the chance to save face. Hurry and decide, Bartholomew. If you reject this, you will die. You won't die by my hands, but at the hands of a horde of demons. Not even you can defeat a regiment, let alone in this condition.”

The Cherub’s expression twisted even further. I was repulsed. According to human tradition, these creatures were supposed to be beings of honor and justice. If this was what the Choir was made of, I didn’t understand why Caleb still belonged to them. “Acceptable,” Bartholomew finally snapped.

Caleb’s sword vanished. “Then be gone,” he roared. Angelic magic blinded me for a moment, and when my vision cleared, both Bartholomew and Victor were gone. “And that is that,” Caleb said.

“I was hoping for a good fight,” Opheran said with a sigh. In the distance, the skies grew dark as a regiment of demons arrived, just seconds too late.

I lifted my hand as Tink entered the restaurant. She caught sight of me and hurried over, the waiter following at a more sedate pace. I let a lecherous grin cross my face. She was wearing a sleeveless dark blue dress with a heart-shaped cut out and long slits up the sides, showing off the occasional flash of leg as she stepped around tables. White heels gave her the inch or two of extra height that she so desperately needed, and her golden hair was drawn up and back, held in place by that butterfly charm she never went anywhere without these days.

I stood as she reached the table and stepped around to seat her. “Looking good there, Tink,” I said as I sat back down. A second menu and fresh glass of water appeared on the table as if by magic. “One might say you actually look of average height tonight.”

“Thanks so much,” she said. “Asshole.”

“Really though, you look great.”

She picked up her menu and started to glance through it. “Thanks so much. Asshole.”

“I’m serious. Caleb doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

“Caleb wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this,” she said. “That idiot thinks that going to a family diner counts as classy. He gets nervous any time he can’t wear jeans. I haven’t been able to dress up like this in years. All of my old dresses didn’t fit quite right, so I had to buy a new one.”

“Didn’t fit? What happened, did you grow taller?”

Her eyes finally flicked up to glare at me over the top of her menu. “One of these days, I’m going to create a spell that causes people to grow or shrink. We’ll swap places and you can look up to me for a change.”

“Seems like a lot of work for little benefit.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Oh?”

“Don’t get short with me, Tink.”

She put the menu down on the table and covered her face with her hands. “You’re lucky this is a public place. I’m this close to stabbing you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Where do you keep the knife in that outfit?” She lowered her hands and gave me a glare that could have been fatal. I lifted my hands in surrender. “All right, I’ll stop. Still, you surprised me when you suggested going out to dinner. Our contract negotiations have certainly changed since the beginning. For the better, of course.”

“You’re telling me,” she said. “Now that it’s been three years, I think I can finally admit that I was scared out of my wits. How’d you put it? Catastrophic bladder control failure? Yeah, that was about right.”

“I figured as much,” I said. “I had no idea how to deal with you, so I thought if I put the fear of dismemberment into you, I’d stand a chance of surviving the contract without incident. In retrospect, I should have pressed for more concessions, after what we went through. I probably could have talked my way out of the whole thing.”

“Not a chance. I knew having some inside information would help me track down Azriphel.” Her mouth twisted as she said his name. “I guess now I’m the heroine of the family. Wish more people were alive to care about that.”

I didn’t say anything to that. Her hands tightened on the menu, warping it slightly, then put it down on the table and laid her hands flat down on top of it. “Sorry. Don’t want to get carried away. We’re here to celebrate another year of partnership, right?”

“That’s right, but don’t say it too loud, you might give the waiters the wrong idea.”

“I’m not worried about giving them the wrong idea,” she said. “I’m more worried about what Hikari would say if she found out about this. Tell me you gave her a good cover story.”

“I gave her a great cover story,” I said. “I told her we were meeting to negotiate renewing our contract. She said, and I quote, ‘Fine’”.

She drummed her fingers on top of the menu. “And told her we were going out to dinner as part of it?”

“She didn’t ask for details. I didn’t volunteer them.”

“You really are a fucking idiot, aren’t you?” Her voice was quiet enough so as not to attract attention, but the waiter who was approaching seemed to catch the gist of it and prudently decided to give us more time. “That girl’s got some deep seated paranoia concerning the two of us, and you’re just feeding it. You know how I feel about the way she treats you. I like her, you know that, we’ve had some great times together and she saved our collective asses back in the day, but there’s just something wrong with that girl.”

“Let’s not talk about her.” I didn’t think I had snapped, but Tink flinched as if I had. “Sorry. I know, Tink, but our problems are just that, our problems. Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle myself.”

“I’m sure you will,” she said. “But if you need any help, you know what to do.”

“Ask Caleb to hide me? The Choir has to have some sort of witness protection program for wayward demons.”

She didn’t crack a smile. “No. Come to me.”

I forced myself not to laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Conversation turned to lighter topics after that. We ordered our dinner and our drinks arrived, and we both furiously attempted to avoid all topics relating to my dear girlfriend. As I had few friends outside of our little circle, and Tink saw plenty of Hikari at their conclave meetings, we were soon wandering far afield and leaving plenty of dead air between us. I didn’t mind. Anything that left her uncomfortable amused me.

She finished off her first drink and signaled the waiter. “Another Jack and Coke,” she ordered, then turned back to me and raised her eyebrows.

I just stared back at her. “No.”

“Don’t be such a-”

I turned to the waiter. “I’ll stick with water from here out. I think I’ve been elected driver.”

The waiter said nothing, inclined his head slightly, and vanished. I looked back to see Tink making a face at me. “It’s not like you have a problem with drinking heavily,” she said. “You could at least keep me company while I do. Get something that’ll smash you out of your mind. I’ve never seen a drunken demon.”

“Sure you have,” I said. “At my birthday party, last year.”

“That wasn’t you, that was your cousin. Or was it your mom?”

“They are somewhat indistinguishable when that drunk, yes.”

“Whatever. I meant that I’ve never seen you drunk.”

I gave her a smile. “I’m not comfortable getting drunk in public. I’ve got reasons to keep my inhibitions firmly in place.”

She glared at me. “Pervert.”

“Not those inhibitions.”

“Exhibitionist.”

My chance to return the volley died as the waiter returned with her drink, as well as our food. Conversation died again as we turned to demolishing what was on our plates. For such a tiny girl, she could pack it away. Her plate was clean long before mine, and she spent the rest of that time alternatively glaring at me and checking her phone. The waiter gave me a glance the next time he passed by, his head tilting fractionally toward her, his eyebrow twitching. I gave him the barest shrug. He lowered his head and I heard him sigh. I wanted to cover my face with my hands, but resisted the temptation. Too many assumptions. This had been a bad idea from the beginning and I should have resisted the temptation, but free food was so hard to pass up.

“Aren’t you done yet?”

She was glaring at me again. “Eating too fast is bad for one’s digestion,” I said.

“Don’t give me that shit, demon. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Halfblood,” I said. “It’s not like I’m completely immune to common human sicknesses, you know. I catch colds, too.”

“And then you just burn it out.”

“It’s not quite that easy. A viral infection is as tough for us to root out as it is for humans, maybe even worse. Since it’s so rare for a virus to actually get a foothold, they tend to be really badass. Last time I had a cold, I was a sniffling, drippy mess for a week. Ask Hikari if you want to hear about how terrible it is to take care of a miserably sick demon.”

“Ask Hikari?” Her voice suddenly went soft. Big mistake. My guard immediately went up. “Sure, I’ll ask her next time I see her. How’d it feel to baby the poor whiny demon?”

“Baby the demon? She was merciless. It didn’t matter what I said, she’d just dose me with some sort of evil medicine. I swear she made it herself, told me it was exactly what her mother did to her when she was a kid, and it worked for her, so it would work for me. I can still taste it in my nightmares. I do my damned best to stay healthy just to avoid that type of abuse.”

The look on her face made me clamp my mouth shut. “Abuse, right?” Her voice started to rise in volume and I frantically racked my memories for a spell to muffle the area so she didn’t get us kicked out. “That bitch doesn’t know shit. What’s her problem? Can’t she have a shred of sympathy? She’s fucking you, can’t she at least pretend to care about you?” She opened her mouth, then slammed her jaw shut with an audible clack and raised her hand to signal the waiter.

“Look, she means well,” I said. “It’s not like she expects me to take care of her when she’s sick. Just leave her alone until she’s better, that’s all she wants.”

“Another Jack and Coke,” she told the waiter. “More Jack.”

The waiter gave me another look as he left. This time, his look was full of despair. For which one of us, I wasn’t quite sure. “You’re overdoing it,” I said.

“Shut up, lightweight. You’re still a complete coward.”

“I thought you had changed your mind on that topic years ago.”

“I thought I told you to shut up.”

“What’s your issue here, Tink? I’ll deal with my problems on my own, all right? You don’t need to get yourself so worked up over the little problems Hikari and I have. Don’t you have your own problems to deal with? Like tricking Caleb to fall into bed with you?”

“I don’t want to sleep with Caleb,” she snapped.

“You don’t?”

“No!”

The waiter slapped the glass down in front of her, with a little more force than was necessary. “Sir, ma’am, your problems are your own, not for everyone to share,” he said through a very fixed smile. I glanced around and saw several heads swiveling rapidly away from us.

His mission complete, the waiter wandered off to safer tables. As soon as Tink opened her mouth again, I held a hand up. “Let’s just finish up here and leave,” I said. “You want dessert? I hear this place makes some killer tiramisu.”

“I’m full, thanks, but order it if you want to. I’ll just enjoy my drink.”

I was used to that sort of passive-aggressive argument. I ignored Tink and ordered two servings of tiramisu to bring home. I knew Hikari was a fan, and I hoped a small gift would defuse any pending explosions. Tink finished her drink, paid for the dinner, graciously allowed me to leave the tip without any significant argument, and staggered as soon as she stood up. We made it out to the parking lot without any major incidents, though I did have to grab her arm to make sure she didn’t fall off the curb.

“If you get sick in my car, I’m going to make you have more than an imminent catastrophic bladder control failure,” I told her as I pushed her into the passenger seat.

“I’m perfectly capable of driving myself,” she snapped.

“Your dress is hiked up to your waist.”

I slammed the door shut while she immediately looked down, then ran around to the driver's side. “You lied,” she said as I got in. “You lied to me!”

“The product of an overactive imagination.”

“You’re imagining me with my dress hiked up to my waist? What? Are you going to start imagining me without it?”

“You’re making it hard to avoid imagining that.”

“Maybe I’ll tell Hikari about that.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t.”

She giggled. I looked over at her in alarm. “What?” she demanded.

“You just giggled.”

“I did not.”

“I was hoping I’d imagined that.”

“Bitch, I do not giggle.” She scowled at me, then started making strange noises, as if she was trying her best to avoid giggling more.

“So, am I taking you back to your place?”

“You don’t even know where my place is,” she said. “And I’m not sharing. Nope. I’ll sleep on your couch. Hikari can suck it.”