Necessary Evil

by Donald Hanley

  “Why don’t you get changed and rejoin us?” I asked her. “Olivia,” I added, in case anyone was wondering what I was talking about.

  “My dress is still in the van.”

  “I can get it for you.”

  “No, that’s okay, there’s no rush. This place is very nice,” she noted with a hint of envy. “Melissa must be rich.”

  “Well, her father is, anyway.”

  “My family doesn’t have a lot of money. That’s why I was so grateful when Lilith paid for all the medical bills.” Her shoulders slumped. “That’s why it’s my fault we’re in all this trouble.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I told her firmly. “Lilith took advantage of you.”

  “But –”

  “No buts. If you’re going to blame anyone, blame Dara. It’s her fault she has an evil twin sister.”

  Daraxandriel turned to look at me askance. “Lilixandriel was spawned afore me, Peter Simon Collins,” she protested. “Do not lay her existence and character at my feet.”

  “I was kidding,” I assured her. “Mostly.” Melissa entered the kitchen then, wearing a worried frown. “What’s wrong?”

  “Daddy’s not home,” she said, biting her lip anxiously. “His car’s not in the garage.”

  “Maybe he’s stuck at work.”

  She shook her head. “The dealership closed at seven. He’s not answering his phone, either.”

  It said a lot about how my day was going that my first thought was that Lilixandriel had somehow gotten to him in retribution for Melissa killing Bellaxragor, but I couldn’t imagine her doing that without gloating about it to us. “I’m sure he’s fine,” I said. “He probably went out for a drink with his friends or something.”

  “He’s in Vegas,” Susie said.

  “He is not,” I told her irritably. “Don’t make stuff like that up.” She silently held out a sheet of paper. “What’s that?”

  “I found it on the counter. Read it.”

  I took it, puzzled, and Melissa moved closer to look over my shoulder. Someone had written a note on it with a fountain pen.

  Honey, it said, sorry about the short notice but Lauren and I decided to finally tie the knot. We’re heading to Las Vegas tonight for a quick chapel wedding and then we’ll spend a week in Tahoe for our honeymoon. Take care and wish us luck! Love, Daddy.

  “Oh my God,” Melissa whispered, backing away from me with her hand covering her mouth in shock.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Who’s Lauren?”

  “I don’t – I can’t – oh my God.” Melissa shook her head in wide-eyed denial and then she bolted for the hallway. We heard her feet on the steps and then a door slammed somewhere upstairs.

  “What the hell?” I muttered. “How can her father just suddenly decide to get remarried without telling her?” The answer came to me immediately and I turned on Daraxandriel. “You did this, didn’t you?” I demanded, shaking the paper at her. “This is the thing you wouldn’t tell me about before.”

  “Certes,” she said, completely unfazed by my accusation. “Melissa would have interfered had she learned of this sooner.”

  “Of course she would! I would have too! You can’t just make someone up and get married!”

  “We had need of a sanctuary unknown to Lilixandriel,” she explained patiently. “Melissa’s abode is ideal and yet her father’s presence would be a hindrance. He is now out of harm’s way.”

  “He’s also getting married! You have to undo this before it’s too late!”

  “They are already united in wedlock, Peter Simon Collins,” she said, shaking her head. “Wouldst thou have me turn their hearts against each other? Would such sudden acrimony not destroy them as surely as Lilixandriel’s hellhounds?”

  “Oh my God,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead. “I can’t believe you did this. You ruined Melissa’s life just so we could stay at her house for a couple of days?”

  Daraxandriel frowned. “How is she disadvantaged?”

  “You just turned some random woman into her new mother!”

  “Thou dost not have the right of it, Peter Simon Collins,” she said archly. “Seek Melissa out and comfort her. She will understand the wisdom of this course once her thoughts are calmed.”

  “Me? Why should I talk to her? I’m not the one who caused this problem.” She just pointed to the hallway. “You need to tell her what you did.” She remained steadfast. “I’m no good at this sort of thing,” I protested. “One of you should go.”

  “She needs thy counsel, Peter Simon Collins,” she said firmly, “not mine.”

  “You do it,” I begged Olivia. “You’re a girl, you know what to say.”

  “Nuh-uh,” she refused with a vigorous shake of her head. “I just met her this afternoon.”

  I looked Susie over speculatively and immediately rejected that idea. No sane individual would ever consider sending her in to defuse an emotional situation. “Oh, come on! Why do I always have to do stuff like this?”

  “Lilith says that people who avoid conflict never accomplish anything in life,” Susie pronounced. “Conflict is the stone that sharpens opportunity.”

  “What does that even mean?” She just shrugged. “What if Melissa doesn’t want to talk to me? What are we going to do, just leave her here by herself?”

  “She will heed thy counsel,” Daraxandriel assured me. “We shall abide here for thy return.”

  “I’m no good at this,” I grumbled but I trudged down the hall and climbed the steps to the second floor. Melissa’s bedroom door was closed and I pressed my ear against it, listening. I heard something that might have been a muffled sob but I couldn’t be sure. I cleared my throat nervously and tapped gently on the door. “Melissa? It’s Peter.”

  “Go away!” I heard that clearly enough. Her voice sounded raw.

  “I just want to talk.”

  “I said, go away!” Something thumped against the door and slid to the floor, probably a pillow. “Leave me alone!”

  That seemed pretty definitive but I wondered if this was another one of those situations where what she said wasn’t what she actually wanted. The problem was, if I guessed wrong, Melissa would probably throw something a lot harder than a pillow at me and she had a pretty good arm. I steeled myself and cracked open the door.

  “I’m coming in,” I warned her. Please don’t hit me. Nothing happened, though, verbal or otherwise, and I slipped inside, nudging aside the aptly-named throw pillow lying on the floor.

  Melissa’s bedroom was filled with a haphazard array of cardboard boxes, some taped up and others still open. Her bookcase was empty and her cavernous closet was decimated. Melissa herself sat on the edge of her bed hugging another pillow and looking miserable, snuffling and wiping at her reddened eyes.

  “I guess this was a bit of a surprise,” I said quietly. She sniffled again and nodded jerkily. I spotted a box of tissues on her vanity and carried it over to her.

  “Thanks,” she whispered. She took one and blew her nose noisily. I carefully sat down beside her and she didn’t shift away, which I took as a good sign.

  Do I throw Dara under the bus for creating this mess, I wondered, or try to help Melissa deal with it? “Do you have any idea who this Lauren person is?” I asked finally.

  She looked at me oddly, like I should have known that already. “Lauren Maurantonio. She’s Daddy’s sales director.”

  “Oh. So they know each other, then.” That was something, at least.

  “Of course! They’ve been dating for two years now.”

  “Really?” That wasn’t what I expected to hear. “Did they ever talk about getting married?”

  “Daddy bought the ring a couple of months ago.” She hugged her pillow so hard I thought it was going to pop and spray feathers everywhere. “He said he was waiting for the right moment.”

  “Wait, so you knew they were going to get married?”

  “Yes, of course. He asked me if I’d be okay with it.”

>   “And are you?”

  “I like Lauren a lot. She’ll be good for Daddy. I don’t want him to be lonely after I move out.”

  I blinked a few times while I tried to make sense of all this. “So you’re saying that your father eloping isn’t really a surprise and you like your new stepmother.” She nodded. “So why are you upset?”

  “I don’t know!” she burst out. “It just hit me all at once, after everything that happened today with you getting killed and me killing that demon and you killing that thing in the street and then Daddy running off and getting married without telling me. It was too much, I just couldn’t deal with it.” She buried her face in her pillow and I could have sworn she said, “Aidan thin keep row bosun till laughter I move doubt.”

  “What?”

  She lifted her head a fraction of an inch. “I didn’t think he’d propose until after I moved out. That’s why I wanted my own place as soon as I turned eighteen. I didn’t want Daddy to have to wait to be with Lauren but I didn’t want it to look like I was leaving because of her.” She looked around at her half-packed room. “And now everything’s all messed up.”

  I surveyed the room as well but I clearly wasn’t seeing the same thing she was. “How, exactly?” I asked.

  “Because now he’s gone and I’m still here and we still have to find someplace to hide from Lilith until –” She stopped with a gasp. “Oh my God,” she breathed. “This is perfect.”

  “What is?”

  “Everything.” She stared out at nothing and I could practically see the gears spinning in her head. She stood up abruptly, letting her pillow tumble heedlessly to the floor. “Don’t you see, Peter?” she said eagerly. “We can stay here. Daddy’s gone for a week so it’s just us and Lilith doesn’t know where I live. This is perfect!”

  “Right.” I wondered if I should tell her that Daraxandriel already figured all that out and made certain her father took an extended leave of absence. It took me no time at all to decide to leave well enough alone. “Well,” I said instead, getting to my feet, “I guess everything worked out, then.”

  “Okay,” she murmured absently, clearly not listening to me, “everyone’s going to need a place to sleep tonight.” Her eyes strayed thoughtfully to her bed and her tongue left a moist trail across her lips.

  “How many bedrooms do you have?” I asked uneasily. It looked like her mental tachometer was already revving into the red.

  “Enough. Let’s go.” She shoved me towards the door and marched me back down to the kitchen where everyone else was sitting around the table.

  Susie glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Six minutes,” she said sourly. “You win.” Daraxandriel nodded with a satisfied smile.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “They were betting on how long it would take you to get Melissa back down here,” Olivia said. She was still in ghost form.

  “I didn’t think you’d be able to cheer her up this quick,” Susie grumbled. “Dara said you’d be back down in less than ten minutes.”

  “Thou hast far exceeded my expectations, Peter Simon Collins,” Daraxandriel told me. “Well done.”

  “Thanks, I guess. What were the stakes?”

  “Naught that the waif cannot settle with me,” she assured me.

  “But it’s not her soul, right?” I asked, just to be sure.

  “I have sworn to take no more souls,” she reminded me, “unless it is needful. I am not certain she even possesses one,” she added doubtfully. Susie just smiled to herself.

  “All right, that’s enough chit-chat,” Melissa said briskly, clapping her hands together. “We’ll be staying here until we deal with Lilith so let’s get organized.”

  “I think I liked her better when she was upset,” Olivia muttered.

  “First, the sleeping arrangements. Dara, you’ll be in the guest room closest to the garage. You’ll like it, it has a great view of the pool.” Dara nodded with a pensive frown. “Susie, you can have the sitting room at the far end of the hall upstairs. It has a day bed that’s pretty comfortable.” Susie shrugged indifferently. “Olivia –” Melissa hesitated, glancing around the room. “Is she still here?” she asked me quietly. I silently pointed to her chair and Melissa cleared her throat. “Olivia –” She stopped again. “Do ghosts need to sleep?”

  I didn’t think so but I looked to Olivia for confirmation. She spread her hands with a shrug. “I haven’t been sleepy,” she said, “but I might need to if I stay human long enough. I need a place to change anyway,” she added.

  “We’ll say yes until proven otherwise,” I told Melissa.

  “All right. There’s a spare bed in the room beside Dara’s, but we’ll have to move the boxes off of it. Okay, next we’ll –”

  “What about Peter?” Susie asked. “Where’s he going to sleep?”

  “He’ll be in my –” If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed the slight hesitation in her voice. “– father’s bedroom.” I couldn’t help but notice that everyone except me would be sleeping as far from Melissa’s room as possible. Before I could question that, she forged on. “Next, Peter needs to get onto Lorecraft and see if he can upgrade his spells.”

  “It probably won’t work,” I predicted.

  “We won’t know unless we try,” she insisted. She clapped her hands again. “Let’s get moving, people. There’s work to be done!”

  Five minutes later, everyone leaned over my shoulders as I pulled up my Lorecraft character settings on Melissa’s computer. Everyone except Susie, anyway. She declared herself bored as soon as the splash screen popped up and she laid down on Melissa’s bed instead, pretending to draw shapes on the ceiling with her wand.

  “Do your spells match?” Melissa asked eagerly.

  I lifted my left hand and my main spell bar appeared, hovering between me and Melissa’s triple monitors. I flipped through my control and support spells as well. “Exactly,” I reported.

  “Perfect,” Melissa breathed in my ear. “Now change something and see what happens.”

  I opened Coronox’s spellbook and perused my options. The thirty-six spells that were already loaded up – memorized, in game parlance – were my more powerful and generally useful ones. The rest were either less effective in battle or had some specific use that didn’t come up all that often. I picked one at random – Beast Mastery, used to temporarily turn wild animals into pets – and swapped it with Blind in the control set.

  “Did it change?” Melissa asked eagerly. Her grip on my shoulder was probably leaving bruises.

  I lifted my hand again, holding my breath in anticipation, and checked my control spells again. Blind was still there. “No,” I said, slumping in disappointment.

  “Thou didst not save thy adjustments,” Daraxandriel observed, pointing at the screen. “Lorecraft is not yet aware of thy will.”

  “Oh, right.” I clicked the Save button and checked the set again. “Oh my God.” Now I had Beast Mastery. “It’s there!”

  “This is perfect!” Melissa exclaimed. She grabbed my head and planted a sloppy kiss on my forehead. “Now we just need to come up with the best build to fight demon lords with. Do you have Soul Spear?”

  “That’s a sorcerer spell,” I reminded her. “I’m an enchanter.”

  She tsked under her breath. “Enchanters are only good for blowing things up. Sorcerers are much better at killing things. Wait a minute.” She nearly broke my fingers snatching the mouse from me. “What happens if you switch characters?” She flipped through my knight, my rogue, and my cleric. “Why are all these girls?” she asked doubtfully.

  “Yours are all girls,” I argued.

  “Because I’m a girl! Oh, never mind, let’s just try this one.” She selected the cleric, a petite redhead named Halana Lyresong. “Did that do anything?”

  I checked my spells again. Half of the spell slots were empty and most of the rest contained various blessings and heals. “They match hers now,” I told her. “That’
s incredible.”

  “This should not be possible, Peter Simon Collins,” Daraxandriel said uneasily. “How can the force that returned thy powers to thee know what thou hast selected within the game?”

  Amy’s doing it somehow, I wanted to tell her. For all I know, she’s standing right behind us under a cloak of invisibility watching everything I do. “Who knows?” my mouth said instead. “Let’s just make the most of it while we can.”

  “Halana’s only level 6,” Melissa complained. “She’s useless. Don’t you have anyone better than Coronox?”

  “He’s my main,” I said testily, a bit irked at her disdain for my characters. “I haven’t played as much as you.”

  She tsked again. “If you were a demiurge, this fight would be over already. Move over, let me see what spells you have.” She bumped me with her hip and squeezed into the chair almost before I stood up. “What would be good against demons?”

  “Lightning Strike worked pretty well.”

  “The cooldown’s too long.” She switched back to Coronox and peered at his spellbook. “How about Earth Bind?”

  “Such would slow a physical attack,” Daraxandriel mused, leaning in closer, “but would offer no protection against magic.”

  “He has Arcane Shield.”

  “Arcane Armor is superior.”

  “He won’t get that until level 30.”

  “True.” Their heads were nearly touching now as they contemplated the options.

  “How about Iron Skin?” I suggested. “That might have helped against the hellhound.”

  “The best defense is a good offense, Peter,” Melissa told me absently. “He should keep Flame Lance and Frost Lance, those have high DPS.”

  “Certes, yet he needs quick attacks whilst they recharge,” Daraxandriel said thoughtfully. “Windwhip, mayhap?”

  “That’s multi-target,” Melissa argued with a twist to her lips. “Is he likely to face multiple demons at once?”

  “Unlikely, yet not impossible.”

  “Hmm. We’ll keep that in reserve.”

  “Neither of you plays an enchanter,” I reminded them. “I know what works and what doesn’t.”

  “Mm-hmm. Immobilize might be handy,” Melissa suggested to Daraxandriel. “He can get in an extra attack.”