Dime a Demon

by Devon Monk

  “Are those cuffs going to hold her?”

  “Yes. Until she talks one of your sisters into freeing her. And she will. Because she’s a demon. And weirdly that pink unicorn thing is really working for her. It’s amazing what being cute will get you.”

  “Yeah, you should try it sometime,” I said.

  He waggled his eyebrows. “Maybe I will.”

  “Forget I suggested it.”

  “Now, now. There is nothing I want to forget about you.”

  I blinked and stared at him because he meant that. It was the truth.

  He rolled his eyes. “You’d think I’d get used to this place and keep my big mouth shut.”

  I decided to just let it go. We had a disaster to deal with. Several disasters.

  “Let me see if I have everything straight,” I said, shoving my feet in my shoes. I was fully dressed, and he was still standing there, completely comfortable in his nudity.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong.”

  He nodded.

  “You and I are bound because of how we closed the last vortex and because your mother can’t keep her nose out of your business.” I paused for confirmation. He nodded.

  “We have a dozen or so people who turned into frogs when they hit the vortex.”

  “As far as we know. Your sisters might have found a way to turn them back by now.”

  “How long have we been in here?”

  “Time runs at different speeds for stones. They are very old and durable. They aren’t locked into time’s gears like the living.”

  “Not helpful. An hour, a day, a week?”

  He tipped his head up and put his hands on his hips. Gloriously naked, I found I wanted to go to him again, feel his arms around me, taste the sweat of his skin. I thought if I stared at him any longer, I’d do just that.

  It had to be the binding between us, drawing me to him so powerfully. I was attracted to him, yes. But I’d been attracted to men before.

  He’s not a man, my heart whispered. Not any man.

  I stared at the sky, wondering what he saw up there. All I saw was a soft turquoise-blue light that diffused around us like sunlight through morning mist.

  “An hour? Two?” he finally said.

  “All right. You need to take us back.”

  “Are you sure, Myra? This could be our life. A good life.”

  “This is just a dream.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.” And there was truth in that too. He was offering. He would give this to me, to us, if I asked.

  “You’re still holding my sister’s soul hostage. I have people to de-frog and a unicorn to kick out of Ordinary. That’s my life. My real life. And…and you. You’re going to have to leave Ordinary, Bathin. You can’t just break the rules for your own benefit.”

  “Myra…”

  “No. You wanted me to listen to you? To really listen? Then listen to me. If you don’t give her soul back. Today. I will use those scissors. I’ll have to. No matter the cost.

  “So I’m asking you. One last time. Please release Delaney’s soul.”

  His expression was a broad brush of emotion: discomfort, embarrassment, and guilt. So much guilt. And when he spoke, it was a truth I did not want to hear.

  “I can’t.”

  Chapter 19

  He was dressed, back in the jeans, T-shirt, and black leather motorcycle jacket I should not want to take off him again.

  I had waited, for every minute it took him to locate his clothes, for every minute it took him to pull them on. Had waited for him to explain his answer.

  “Can’t,” I finally said.

  “Contracts…” He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Contracts with demons are sacred. Once entered, never released. It isn’t in our nature to give up something we’ve won.”

  “You didn’t win it. She traded for Dad’s soul.”

  “Even better.”

  “So you won’t let go of her soul?”

  “I can’t. Not unless there is no other choice.”

  “There’s no other choice right now.”

  “Not for me. There is nothing I want more than to keep her soul. To stay in Ordinary. That’s…it’s a demon thing.” There was a blush on his cheeks, as if this were embarrassing to him, degrading to admit.

  “I can’t let go of it…can’t until there is something…more.”

  That truth was a blade, a river, a mountain range between us. I could push it, I should. But the things I would tell him were too vulnerable.

  That if he cared for me, he would let her go. If he cared more for me than he cared to be hiding from his father in Ordinary, he would let her go.

  That if he loved me…

  No. That wasn’t what we were talking about. That couldn’t be what we talked about.

  “You could let her go,” I said, voice even. “And you could leave Ordinary. We could find you a safe place to exist. We have supernatural connections, gods who owe us favors.”

  “But there is no other place I desire to be,” he said softly. “Ordinary has ruined me for every other place.”

  Something about that was not quite the truth. He smiled sadly. “Or perhaps it is just a Reed sister who has done so to me.”

  There was the truth.

  “Oh.”

  It was sweet, and the soft fire in his eyes made me want to kiss him. But that was over now, that was done. This love affair, if that’s what it was, this fling, couldn’t continue.

  Not in the real world. Not in my real life.

  “You know I’m going to find a way to force you to let go of her soul,” I said.

  “Oh, I’m counting on it.”

  “I’ll use the scissors. Her soul is already damaged in your keeping. What’s another little tear?”

  “Another little tear could kill her.”

  “Yeah, well. Favors, gods, and all that.”

  His smile tightened and his eyes narrowed. “I do love a challenge,” he murmured.

  I knew he wasn’t talking about my sister’s soul. Or at least that wasn’t the only thing he was talking about.

  I opened my mouth, and then…

  …the world slipped, sweet as melted candy, the sky washing down in a tingling rush to pool at my feet. Everything was quiet, and in that silence, I felt Bathin’s arms around me, felt his presence like a blanket cloaking me, holding me near and precious.

  And then his voice, soft, low. “Easy now. This step can be jarring.”

  The world crashed and flashed and clattered. Too many sounds, too much color, so many scents coating my nose, my throat, my tongue, I felt like I was going to throw up.

  “Myra, gods, are you all right?” That was color, candy, laughter and hope, with a ribbon of fear, dark and deep as hard licorice: Jean.

  “Get the fuck away from her.” That was water and earth and sky, clean, raging storm and the salt birds calling through the cracks of a forest fire: Delaney.

  “Asshole.” That was a paint stroke, a hard-ruled line, the cut of a saw, the hot metal strike of hammer on nail: Ryder.

  I knew them, could sense them, but couldn’t see them. Until I could.

  Jean and Delaney were both at my side, Jean pulling me out of Bathin’s arms, Delaney spinning to face him, an unbreakable wall between me and him.

  Ryder, surprisingly, shoved in front of Delaney and hit Bathin with a hard right I hadn’t even seen coming.

  Bathin hadn’t seen it coming either. He took it square on the jaw and stumbled to the side. “You ever take one of these sisters out of this town or this reality without their permission again, and I will unstring your bones and feed you to the dragon like spaghetti noodles. Understand?”

  It was. Wow. I didn’t think I’d ever seen Ryder this angry unless it had something to do with Delaney’s safety. Although this did. Bathin was in possession of her soul. If he left, so did her soul.

  Holy shit. He must have been terrified.

  “It’s okay,” I said.

  “Shh. You
don’t have to defend that asshole,” Jean said.

  “I’m not. It’s just. We’re okay. I’m okay. He didn’t do anything.”

  Bathin rubbed his jaw and glared at Ryder. “That’s not entirely true.”

  “He didn’t do anything to hurt me,” I amended.

  Delaney pulled at Ryder’s arm. Probably a good thing because Ryder looked like he was just warming up and wanted to go another round. Maybe ten.

  “Words, Bailey,” she said. “Then dragon chow.”

  He looked like he didn’t want to listen, but dropped his clenched fists and stepped back. I noted he remained angled so he could reach Bathin before any of the rest of us.

  Protective Ryder was a good look on him, and I had a quick moment to be happy that he and Delaney had finally stopped dancing around each other and had settled into a life together.

  They complemented each other, and I was pretty sure there’d be wedding bells any day now. Maybe when Delaney got her soul back.

  Maybe when our lives went back to normal.

  “Frogs,” I said. “Where are we at with that?”

  Everyone stared at me.

  “You disappear out of thin air and out of Ordinary…” Delaney started.

  “Not out of Ordinary,” Bathin said.

  “All right. Not technically out of Ordinary, and you want to talk about frogs?”

  “Last I heard, that was still a problem. Did you already turn everyone back?”

  “You’ve been gone three hours, Myra,” Jean said. “We turned everyone back hours ago.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Good. I’ll make us some coffee, and you can tell me how that went down.”

  “Sit,” Jean said. “You too, Delaney. And Ryder. And you,” she pointed at Bathin as she strolled to the kitchen. “Better stick around, big boy, or you’re not going to like the consequences.”

  “I wouldn’t care to be anywhere else,” he said blithely.

  He strode to the fireplace and lowered himself to sit on the hearth. He looked tired, and that was not something I was used to seeing on him.

  He must have felt me looking at him, or maybe he caught me thinking about him. Was that a part of the bonding his mother had done to us? Could we read each other’s minds now? I thought about ice cream and roller coasters and little yappy dogs that people thought were adorable when they dressed them up.

  Bathin gave me a quizzical look. “What?” he asked.

  “Can you read my mind?”

  “Not here.” The smile he gave me, along with the slow lowering of his gaze as he took in every curve of my body, was absolutely scorching.

  “Cool it, lover boy,” Delaney said. “Talk to us. What happened?” That last was for me.

  “I had the scissors.” A sudden panic filled me. “You did retrieve the scissors? Tell me you didn’t let Xtelle have them.”

  “We have them,” Ryder assured me.

  “You pulled the scissors,” Delaney encouraged. “We saw that. Then from our perspective, you disappeared.”

  “Bathin took me into another place. A stone.”

  Delaney’s breath caught and she nodded. “Right. I didn’t think about that. Of course he did. One of the stones here?” she asked the demon.

  “No. Not in her house. One that I have tucked away in Ordinary. Like I said,” he nodded at Ryder, “I did not step outside of Ordinary. There are reasons why I won’t do that.”

  “Oh?” Delaney asked. “Why?”

  “Ask Myra. I’m sure she’ll be happy to fill you in on every detail of our short escape from this madhouse.”

  I fought back a smile. I didn’t know I would like broody and moody Bathin this much. Poor baby, all his evil plans thwarted by a girl.

  He must have caught some of that because he slid me a very private smile.

  “So?” Jean said, strolling back into the room with four mugs, a two-liter of soda, and my coffee carafe in her hands. “You were off getting stoned with Bathin.”

  “In a stone with Bathin,” I corrected.

  She winked. “Riiiight. In a stone with Bathin. That’s why your cheeks are all pink and the rest of you looks all relaxed and healthy glow-a-fied. Why, if I didn’t know better I’d say someone was getting a little possessed-by-a-demon on the side.”

  “Shut it,” I said.

  “Wait,” Delaney frowned.

  “Air five, you dog, you,” Jean said.

  Bathin just held his palm up over his head, and Jean did the same. They both slapped the empty space between them at the same time.

  “But you know, if you hurt her, I will shove you into a hole you’ll never dig out of and pour gasoline over your burning corpse for all of eternity,” she added.

  “You won’t live for all of eternity,” Bathin noted.

  “I know people.” She grinned.

  “Point taken. Not that anyone wants to listen to me, but I give you my word I didn’t take Myra from here to harm her. In fact, the only reason I left was to keep her from committing harm to herself and to Delaney. You’re welcome,” he added snidely to Ryder.

  “Don’t push me, Bathin. There are more ways to get rid of you than reasons to keep you.”

  “And there’s the trifecta. Everyone’s had a chance to threaten me. Now can we get on with solving the problem?”

  “Which one?” Delaney asked. “We took care of the frogs.”

  “Just curious,” I said. “What was the solution?”

  “Crow came up with it.” Delaney didn’t sound happy.

  “Crow?”

  “He showed up looking for you, looking for Bathin. You know how he has a knack for appearing whenever trouble is going down.”

  “Okay, so what did Crow tell you to do?”

  “Kiss them,” Delaney said.

  She was staring right at me, and I knew she wasn’t lying. “Kiss them,” I repeated. “Like the fairytales?”

  “Slimier,” Ryder noted. “Smelled like mulch. And not a single prince in the bunch.”

  “All of you kissed them?” The idea of that, the image of that was something I was sorry I’d missed. “Tell me someone took pictures. I need photo evidence of this. Of the whole thing.”

  “No one took pictures,” Ryder said.

  “Crow took some.” Jean handed me a cup of coffee with just the right amount of cream and sugar in it.

  “Thank gods.” I took the cup from her gratefully.

  “That’s what I said. I mean, we can’t exactly publish it in the local paper, but still, it was a day for the Reed scrapbook for sure.”

  “Totally want to see them,” I muttered to Jean over the top of my coffee.

  “Got your back,” she said with a wink.

  “Anyway,” Delaney said, dragging us back on track. “We took everyone to one of the rooms at the hospital, kissed frogs, then told them they’d been hit by a microburst and been knocked out, but that none of them had suffered concussions, so they were fine, and should go home.”

  “No lingering side effects? They still have their souls?”

  “We had a witch—Jules—check them out. We asked a couple other people just to make sure. Turns out getting frogged by Hell doesn’t really stick with you for long. But just in case, we’re keeping an eye on them.”

  “Good. Really good. So why are you all in my house?”

  “We were looking for you,” Delaney said. “This seemed like the best place to begin.”

  “Where is the unicorn?”

  “We locked her in the spare room.”

  There was a clatter from somewhere down the hall, a crash, and a muffled curse.

  “Did you tie her up?”

  Jean smiled. “It’s amazing how useful duct tape can be. And those fancy golden cuffs? Bueno.” She gave Bathin a thumbs up.

  Funny how quickly she could forgive and forget. It was something I’d always admired about her.

  I took another gulp of coffee, because I needed it if I was going to get through this conversation.

  “So h
ere’s what I know.” I cupped the mug between my hands and savored the warmth. “The unicorn is Bathin’s mother, a demon who has taken the shape of a unicorn.”

  “We heard him when he said it. Is it true?” Ryder asked.

  “It’s true. And if she really can open a vortex into Ordinary, like Bathin thinks she can, it’s only a matter of time before more demons do the same.”

  “Can we do anything to shore up our defenses?” Delaney asked Bathin.

  “Against demons?”

  “Against vortexes. People turning into frogs. Unicorns that aren’t unicorns. And yes, demons.”

  “Ordinary is already nearly impossible for my kind to breech,” Bathin said. “I can’t imagine what else could be done to make it even more impenetrable.”

  Delaney took a deep breath and tucked her hair behind her ears. “Okay. So we have vortexes to think about, demons…”

  “…with yellow eyes,” Jean added.

  “…with yellow eyes,” she agreed. “We have the unicorn, and we have you, still holding my soul in trade…”

  Ryder muttered something that I didn’t catch, but which I would probably agree with.

  “…plus, we have two new officers we’re training and the Slammin’ Salmon Serenade coming up tomorrow.”

  “What does the parade have to do with anything?” Bathin asked.

  “Busy tourist days. Everyone comes to town for the food and wine and beer and parade. A last hurrah before autumn really kicks in. So we’re about to be up to our collective necks in people. How are we going to keep them safe if another vortex opens up? Or multiple vortexes?”

  We were all silent, because, yeah, we might have more hands on the force now, but we couldn’t be everywhere at once.

  “We need more data,” I said. “I say we grill the unicorn.”

  Bathin snorted. “Good luck.”

  “Oh, I didn’t say I was going to do it. I think it’s time you pulled your weight around here.”

  “I’m sure I’m going to love this idea.”

  “If she’s really the one who opened the vortexes, I want to know why. And I want to know why she helped us close them.” I headed toward the guest room. Bathin took a step, but Jean made a short sound.

  “Nope,” she said. “You stay here. Last time you got too close to Myra, you stone-napped her.”