Beneath my Skin

by Brea Viragh

  I rehearsed an apology in my head as I slipped past the empty front desk and toward the office door.

  Listen, I’m sorry to burst in again, but I have defective short-term memory. Birth defect, I practiced. No, that didn’t sound right. I tried again. I was distracted and temporarily lost my mind. I’ll grab this and be on my way.

  Better? I wasn’t sure.

  I stopped just outside the office door at the sound of voices raised in an argument.

  “You didn’t bring her in when you first saw what she was? Goddammit, Parker. What do you think you’re doing? You know your job. Do it!”

  Jacqueline. Gone was the sweet-tempered and even-toned person from before. The woman speaking now was angry and hissing like a snake with a stomped tail.

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” Dax’s voice had deepened and he spoke with a soft, controlled intensity.

  I heard the resounding crack of flesh against flesh. “Of course you weren’t thinking. You moron! Maybe you assumed I wouldn’t find out about her. Or maybe you thought you could keep her for yourself. Is that it?”

  “No, Jacqueline, I—”

  “You listen to me, you djinn bastard. You’re going to go out there and talk to the girl before she leaves. You’re going to get her number, try to put her at ease, and convince her you’re sincere in your interest. When you gain her trust…you bring her back here to me. I want her.”

  There was a rustling sound followed by a pause. “What are you going to do?”

  “What do you think? She has a demon inside of her. Do you understand the raw power contained in her tiny body? She’s like a nuclear reactor primed to go off. I can use her.”

  Another pause, longer this time. “As part of your menagerie.” His voice was unemotional. Practical. Like a man repeating facts back to his boss at a board meeting.

  Which I supposed it was, in a way. I couldn’t think straight. Couldn’t understand what they were saying. Jacqueline wanted me? Why?

  What kind of sick game were they playing together?

  Whatever it was, I’d heard enough. Or too much. Forget the money. I needed to get the hell out. Fast.

  “I’m beginning to think I should find a djinn with more power. Because you are worse than useless,” Jacqueline retorted.

  “I hardly think bringing her here with a bad check was useless. You wouldn’t have known about her otherwise.”

  “Oh? You’re trying to play this off as if you planned it?”

  What? I skidded backward, my boots slipping on the cement floor of the hallway. No noise! I needed to be quiet. Unfortunately, my legs didn’t want to cooperate. They were dead set on making as much sound as possible. I slapped a hand against the wall to stop myself from going down. Breath hissed out from my lips.

  I was out of the hallway and into the main room trying to make my escape when—

  “Look who we have here.” The clerk from before stepped in front of me and blocked the exit. His eyes were as narrow as his face. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Far away,” I insisted.

  It would never be far enough. More and more, the idea of moving to a different state appealed to me. Maybe across the continent. If I had to get on an airplane, would they make me pay for two tickets, counting Cer?

  “You’re not going anywhere.” The man lunged at me.

  I ducked under his outstretched arms and grabbed hold of a silver tea tray, holding it above my head. “Don’t come any closer. I’ll slap you silly.”

  In retaliation, he slipped a golf club out from a bag leaning against an armoire. It took no effort at all to knock the tray out of my hand, where it skidded to a clattering halt against the wall with as much noise as physically possible. The sound echoed through the space.

  Seconds later, two sets of footsteps could be heard coming into the showroom. Turning my head, I caught sight of Jacqueline and Dax. One smiling. One pissed.

  Jacqueline looked like the cat who not only caught the canary but made it into a five-course Michelin-star dinner. “Look who saved us the trouble of tracking her down. You heard everything, I assume?” It was more a statement than a question.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I came back in because I wanted to tell you to keep the cash. On second thought, the accident was entirely my fault, and I should have known better than to try and con money out of you. I’m sorry.”

  Next time, I thought briefly, I’d be better prepared to defend myself. I wouldn’t let anyone sneak up on me. Or poof in behind me. I still was not sure what he did exactly. While Jacqueline held my attention, Dax dematerialized. Then suddenly I was in his arms and held against what felt like a wall of granite before I had a chance to blink.

  “You should have listened to me,” he whispered in my ear.

  I twisted and tried to break his impossible hold. The room spun. My throat felt like it was closing up. “You’re a liar and a jerkoff.”

  “You should really be careful how you act in public. You gave yourself away,” Jacqueline stated in a sickening parody of concern. She stalked forward, and at once she wasn’t beautiful. She was deadly. She was something better left alone. “If you hadn’t given in to the desire to scratch, I would have never suspected about your demon.”

  I glanced over at Jacqueline and she bared her teeth in a smile. Trying to bare mine in return didn’t work out the way I wanted.

  Dax shoved me toward his boss. I stumbled forward and something slammed into the back of my left knee, knocking my leg out from under me. I went down shrieking. Crashed against a desk and rebounded off. Landed on the floor hard.

  It took time to catch my breath, panting in shock, my palms flat. My heart raced madly and tried to crash through my ribs under the rush of adrenaline. When I slowly got to my feet and looked up, both sets of eyes were on me.

  Jacqueline raised one glossy eyebrow. “I don’t know how you acquired one, your demon. But I want her.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not sure if you know anything about me. I’m a collector.”

  “I thought you were an antiques dealer,” I muttered.

  “Some days. Other days, I procure the interesting and fantastical. Power, my poor Mariella, is the only currency worth possessing in this world. And power comes from being the best. Being the strongest. You have something I want. I will have her.”

  “You want me in your collection?”

  “I want your demon,” she replied. “You either give her to me willingly or I will cut her out of you.”

  The room went gray as a wave of bone-deep terror slammed into me. It sucked me under, pulled me down in an icy hold until I was gripped by it. Possessed. Drowning.

  “I don’t understand,” I gasped.

  A frightened voice in my head told me to run. But my legs had turned to lead.

  Dax stood in the showroom watching us. His eyes were hooded, glowing, hard with an unspoken emotion. A fierce anger rose to war with the terror I felt. He’d played me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.

  Slowly, Jacqueline held out her hand. “Shall we do this the easy way or the hard way? I’ll be honest. I prefer the hard way. It brings with it a certain excitement.”

  I looked at her, sick at heart. I really must be cursed. This was what the end looked like. I struggled to control my breathing before I became lightheaded. But inside I was screaming and begging and pleading for someone to tell me what was going on. To save me when I couldn’t save myself.

  Unable to move, I waited for the stillness to break.

  Jacqueline was done waiting for an answer by then. Her outstretched hand became a fist and she slammed it into my face.

  I went down too fast. “What the hell?” I spoke through a rush of blood dripping out of my nose.

  “Answer me,” Jacqueline demanded.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say!”

  She dusted off the front of her suit. Before I had a chance to speak again, she kicked me in the gut. The breath
left me in a whoosh. My ears rang.

  “Do you think I enjoy this, Miss Revely?” she wanted to know.

  “…Yes?”

  Another kick. This one had me seeing stars.

  “Do what she says,” Dax said emotionlessly. I couldn’t see him anymore, but I could hear him. Close. Why the hell wasn’t he doing anything to help me?

  “What will it be?” Jacqueline pushed.

  A demon or a prison sentence—which one did I prefer? Or were they both the same? My mind fractured while I tried to put together a plan. My hands rose to protect my head, wanting to hold it together against the fear and the pain. Jacqueline kicked me again, this time sending the tip of her alligator-leather pump straight into my already bruised nose.

  This is what happens when I go outside, I thought dimly. What happens when I simply go to the store and try to act normal. How could I trust myself to recognize safety anymore? There was no one out there to help me.

  A sharp burning different from the rest of the pain had my attention drifting to my right forearm. It was too late to hide the message. They knew about me.

  A small sound escaped when I saw the words.

  Let me in.

  “No. You’ll take over completely and I’ll be gone.” I shivered and shook my head. There would be nothing left.

  Swelling panic gripped me and I tried to focus. Tried to drown the emotions out before they dragged me down into a sea of confusion. Desperately, I clung to the hope that if I could just have a little time to figure this out, I’d make a dazzling escape and somehow make sense of this chaos.

  “Mariella, I’m waiting for an answer.” Jacqueline tapped her foot impatiently. “If you keep groaning, I’ll think you want the hard way after all.”

  Wait a minute… This was the easy way?

  “Screw you,” I yelled up to her.

  Pain flashed clear and bright. Jacqueline kicked me the instant more words and curses pressed against my skin in large, looping demon script.

  Let me in!

  Darkness swirled in front of my face and my heart was heavy. What choice did I have? I was out of options at the moment. I’d die anyway, with or without her. There was no fight in me. No strength left. If I was going to do this, I had to do it now.

  My teeth chattered against the effort of staying conscious. All right. “Cer, I let you in.”

  I cringed in terror at what I’d just done.

  My words, spoken in a whisper, echoed in the room. Disturbed only by the muffled hum of the people standing in a half circle around me. I stared wordlessly up at them. Jacqueline had her lips pursed. Dax…he looked disappointed.

  Finally.

  The last word I didn’t feel in my blood. I heard it in my ears. In the open air around my body. My vision blurred and the world swam through a zigzag-like heat wave. The last thing I felt was my insides physically rising.

  “Wait a minute! What did she say? What did she do?” Jacqueline was asking. Hazy and distant.

  My head jerked back on a gasp, and with Cer’s maniacal laughter echoing, the world went white.

  CHAPTER 4

  Consciousness was a long time coming. At least, I think it was a long time. Hard to be sure when your soul is crushed into a miniscule box in your mind and you no longer have control of anything. It wasn’t painful so much as lonely. There was nothing there, nothing to keep me company. No sound or light or movement.

  I came back to myself slowly, and it was like swimming upward through cement. Wiggling one finger at a time and feeling the cold floor beneath me.

  “What in the…” I trailed off on a groan, tasting blood in my mouth.

  A sharp pressure on my elbow brought me fully awake. My eyes blinked through layers of grit to focus on a dark-skinned man. An angry one to boot.

  “Get up,” Dax demanded. His fingers tightened on my arm.

  How could I get up when I couldn’t move?

  “Mariella, now! You have to get your ass in gear before she wakes up.”

  Before who woke up?

  I let him drag me into a standing position. Unfortunately, my balance was shit, and I stumbled against him. Where I’d been lying, the floor was black in an outline of a woman’s form. Mine?

  “Give me a second to get my bearings, will you?” I had enough wherewithal to run a hand over my front to check for injuries or wounds. To check and make sure I’d come back together in one piece. “I just let a demon take me over.”

  “Yeah, I know what you did.” His tone brooked no argument. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I was saving my life! Obviously. Or did you miss the part where your boss tried to kill me? In fact—” I slammed my hands into his chest with as much force as I could. Which didn’t amount to much. I was still too swimmy-headed. The movement tipped me to the side and I would have fallen if he hadn’t retained hold of my shoulder. “Don’t touch me, you prick. You were in on this the whole time. Was the accident even an accident? Or did you run into my car on purpose?”

  He dropped his hand to run both through his hair in agitation. “Are you dense? I had the situation handled. Damn, this is bad.” He stared around at the devastation, and only then did I focus on the repercussions of what I’d done. Of what she’d done.

  What had Cer done?

  There was nothing left in the room. Furniture was reduced to splinters and toothpicks. Smoke drifted lazily toward the open hole in the ceiling, and the only light still attached swung in a crazy circle.

  “Oh my God,” I murmured. My stomach tilted, unsettled.

  “Yeah, you made a crater. Good for you. Happy?”

  “I did what I had to do to survive.” I swallowed over the boulder blocking my throat. “Cer saved me. Don’t you understand? This is a good thing.”

  “No, you don’t understand. You made the situation ten times worse. Do you have any idea of the kind of danger you’re in? How could you come in here and let that thing out?” Dax asked, looking as though he wanted to strangle me. I wasn’t so sure he’d resist the urge. “Now she knows.”

  “Knows what?”

  “How powerful your demon is. This was a test, and let me tell you, you passed. Jacqueline will do anything to get her hands on it now. You thought she was bad before? You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

  That took me aback. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. At least I’m upfront about what I am,” I whispered.

  “I’m not going to pretend everything is okay. It’s not the kind of man I am, and I won’t make an exception for you. We don’t want to risk anyone else getting hurt because Jacqueline wants you.” Dax shook his head solemnly.

  “Here’s the plan, okay?” I backed away from him in slow, measured steps. The dude was obviously a nut. I swiped my sleeve beneath my nose and it came away smeared in rust-colored blood. Dried and crusted. At least it wasn’t broken. “I’m going to leave here and forget about this. Like you said earlier, remember? Let’s say our goodbyes and I’ll be seeing you.”

  Dax reached out to grab my shoulder before I had a chance to bolt. “You’re coming with me.”

  “Oh, come on,” I cried out. “We both know you’re the worst villain ever. Let go of me and I won’t have to use my demon on you. This time, I have a feeling, she’ll manage to kill you.”

  He brought his face close to mine. “No, you come on, Mariella. You walked into something much larger than you. Much larger than me. We’re nothing but pawns, and at the moment, the queen is out cold, thanks to you and your guardian.” He said the word with enough sarcasm to have my hair standing on end. “When Jacqueline wakes up, she’ll be furious. If either one of us is within ten feet of her when that happens…” He snapped his fingers.

  “That…doesn’t sound good.”

  “No, it’s not good. Which is why we need to scram. Pronto.”

  My eyes bugged out. “We?”

  “Yes, we. No time to pack a bag, sweetheart. We’re getting out of here.”

  “I suppose you have a con
venient getaway and a plan to take us there?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Not at all. But I can buy us some time. I know a place she can’t access. You’re not going to like it.”

  “I don’t like any of this,” I screeched.

  His eyes crinkled at the edges in an amused reaction to my response. “Trust me. This is worse.”

  “How can I trust—” My words cut off when a vacuum sucked the air from my body. I gasped, trying to breathe and finding it impossible.

  Luckily, the sensation lasted less than a second. My feet landed on the ground again and my lungs inflated. Head spinning, I dropped to my knees, coughing.

  “I’m sorry,” Dax said, walking in the opposite direction. “If I gave you any time to think about it, you wouldn’t come. I needed to get you here fast without any opposition.”

  “You could have told me I’d nearly suffocate,” I managed.

  “It’s a djinn thing. I wasn’t sure how it would affect you because I don’t entertain. Ever. You’re the first mortal woman I’ve ever brought back to my house.”

  When I opened my eyes, I saw white. White walls, white carpet looking more at home in a seventies porno flick, and a bed draped in pale sheets and blankets. Nothing else. Wherever we were, it wasn’t good.

  “I use mirrors to make the place look bigger.” Dax flashed an amused look at my obvious panic.

  If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was making a joke. “You brought me…where, exactly?”

  “To my bottle.”

  “Your. Bottle.”

  “Yes. Well, not technically a bottle. It’s the chain Jacqueline keeps around her neck. It looks like a regular medallion to the untrained eye. She found me on an antiques hunting expedition to Jordan. I’ve been in her employ ever since.” He was maddeningly calm about the whole thing.

  “Dax,” I said, “please explain to me how any of this matters?” Maybe it was lingering dizziness from letting Cer grab the reins. Maybe I was finally out of my mind and my body had caught up. I was still on my knees, and if I hadn’t been close to the floor already, I would have dropped.