Demon Soul

by Christine Ashworth

  "That's it? No recriminations, no yelling, no telling me how I broke Dad's heart?" Gabriel kept to his feet, not yet able to relax.

  Justin shrugged. "Guilt trips? Not my style. Fill me in. Ten years is a lot to catch up on. Start with her."

  "Yeah, start with me." The redhead wrapped her arms around her knees. Her wary gaze darted from Gabriel to Justin. "I'm Rose Walters. I've been sent back from the dead to save Mr. Studly there." She gestured to Gabriel.

  Justin smothered a startled laugh.

  "Not that I did a good job just now,” she added. “Some warrior chick I'm turning out to be. Oh, and there’s this thing at the bottom of your staircase. It was really smelly.”

  “Smelly?” Justin’s eyebrows rose.

  "It was an Uupka demon.” His brother didn’t look impressed with the foul addition to his stairwell. “Should I have let it kill her? Fine. Tell me where you want me to dump the demon, and I’ll do it." He felt ten again, after batting a baseball through the kitchen window.

  "You don't have to dump the demon. I just asked."

  "And I told you." Gabriel paced the length of the conference room and back, trying to catch his breath. There were too many people in the room, damn it. Family and togetherness had all been left behind years ago. He never should have come home. Not after all this time.

  “Tell me why you two are here. If you want me to help, I’ll need some details.”

  “I don’t know why she’s here,” Gabriel declared. “I’ve been headed this way for a while. Two nights ago it became imperative that I come home.” He turned back to Rose. "Don't change the subject. You're here to save me from what, exactly? It's time to explain."

  * * *

  Rose licked her suddenly dry lips. "I’m to prevent your death, I guess." She looked from Gabriel-the-arrogant to the other man, just as devastatingly attractive in his colorful wardrobe. They had to believe her. She had nowhere to go, nothing else to do in this world.

  "You guess?"

  She glared at him. "Looking at you, yeah I’m kind of wondering what the hell I’m doing here, too. In the meantime, my ankle hurts. Hell, my whole body hurts. I’ve been walking for hours. Can I get some aspirin or something?" She looked from one man to the other. “Well?” These big guys talked about demons as if it were normal. What’s wrong with this picture?

  "I'll take care of it." Justin knelt at her feet and took her injured ankle in both his hands. "So tell me, what will happen if Gabriel here ups and dies?” His hand warmed against her foot. “This shouldn't hurt, but if it does, give a holler."

  Rose bit her lip and struggled to keep still. A pale blue light flowed from Justin’s hands into her ankle, soothing the throbbing there as energy tingled along her skin and sank deep. She sighed in surprised relief as the pain disappeared.

  He picked up her other foot. “I smell blood.”

  “Yeah. Blisters.”

  Justin’s eyebrows rose. Soon the throbbing in her heel subsided, and the lack of immediate pain had Rose melting into the couch.

  "Those are some hands. Thanks. All better." She tucked one leg under her. Her gaze flickered over Gabriel, but she couldn’t find open wounds. “Did you heal him the way you healed me?”

  “Yes. Sort of.” Justin winked and stood easily, his hands in his pockets. "The only thing to do for the exhaustion you feel is sleep. So before you pass out, if Gabriel dies, what will happen?"

  She eyed him, trying to keep her thoughts in a tiny black box so they couldn't be overheard. If she told them everything, they'd just pat her on the head and send her away. At least, that's what she'd do. Close ranks. Why should they believe her? Then again, they did believe in demons…

  "Okay. If he dies? I don't know." Rose took a breath and turned from Justin's open face to Gabriel's closed, suspicious one. "I made a deal, okay? I get to live, and the only thing I have to do in return is to save you."

  "What are you supposed to save me from, and who did you make a deal with?"

  She shrugged. "It seemed like the right thing to do under the circumstances."

  Gabriel shook his head, clearly exasperated. "I don't have time for this. Justin, you take care of her, see her home. I've got a job to do."

  "No!" Both Justin and Rose spoke at the same time.

  "I have to stick with you." Rose stood. "Anywhere you go, I'm going, too. No offense," she said to Justin.

  "None taken. What kind of job?" Justin turned back to his brother. "What's more important than family? Stay. It’s been too long for you to just leave."

  Gabriel turned on him with a snarl. "I can't. I'm tracking my soul."

  Rose swallowed. "You – you're what? No. No way. This can't be happening." He lost his soul? Demons weren’t bad enough? Talk about hopping into the fire.

  "Explain. Now." Justin pointed his brother to a chair. "Sit."

  He slammed the chair into the conference table and faced them both.

  "Some chick on the beach ripped most of my soul out of my chest. Happy now?"

  "How?" Bewildered, Rose watched as Gabriel prowled the room like a tiger in its cage. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you, I just don’t understand.”

  Justin folded his arms across his chest. "Details."

  "Two days ago, while I slept, this vampire I once knew dug into my chest with magic and her hands and pulled out my soul. I fought her for it, managed to keep a part of it but she got the lion's share. Can't get clearer than that."

  "Vampires don't steal souls. That's a legend. It's not real, Gabriel." But Justin's voice held more than a bit of doubt.

  Vampires? Rose rubbed her arms as the tension in the room rose. Demons, stolen souls, and now vampires. Terrific. What’s next, flying monkeys?

  "If that's a legend, then I'm fucking crazy. Do I look crazy?" Gabriel demanded. "What else could possibly bring me back here? I tracked Satine back to L.A. I want my soul back, and I’m counting on you to help."

  "Okay. Okay, let's just be calm, okay?" Rose jumped up. "Maybe this is all the same puzzle. If Gabriel's soul is missing, then maybe I'm the person who needs to find it for him. I can do that, I know that much. It was part of what they told me while I was in the waiting room. Not that I believed it, because, hey, how do you lose a soul? It didn’t make sense to me until now. Not that it makes sense, really, and okay, shutting up now." Rose sat back down as the two Caines stared at her.

  "What, just in the nick of time we get a Soul Chalice?" Justin frowned. "Isn't that a huge coincidence?"

  "Soul Chalices don’t exist,” Gabriel protested.

  “You can’t have it both ways. If Soul Stealers exist, which you say they do, then so do Soul Chalices. But still, big coincidence.”

  “Maybe too much of a coincidence." Gabriel scowled at Rose. “I’m beginning to understand. You made a deal, all right. But you made it with Satine. You’re here for the rest of my soul. Well, you’re not going to get it.”

  “Gabriel, I swear I’m here for you. I’ve been sent back to help you. I spent a lot of time in the waiting room and I was sent back here, instead of forward to death, for only one reason, and that’s to help you in any way possible.”

  “Forget it. Don’t say another word, because who knows when the next thing out of your mouth will be a spell? Justin, do you have anything to bind her with?”

  “Like truth-silk? Nope. Take a couple steps back, Gabriel. Don’t accuse the child—she’s shaking,” he chided.

  Gabriel rounded on his brother. “She’s in league with Satine. That’s the only explanation that makes sense. She wants to destroy me. You want me to trust her?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said to step back. She’s obviously exhausted, and you’re obviously not thinking clearly.”

  A healthy dose of anger surged through Rose and cleared her head. “Stop it, both of you, and listen to me.” They looked at her, Justin with annoyance and Gabriel with hostility. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what a Soul Chalice is. I don’t know who Satine is, and to my kno
wledge I’ve never killed anything except myself and that was technically an accident. I don’t know how I’m supposed to save you, Gabriel, but you don’t seem to care that you might be in serious danger.”

  She took an unsteady breath. “I asked you for a few minutes, and you gave that to me. But you don't believe in me or in my mission. So unless you tell me to stay, I'll go now, and if I'm lucky I won't die right away since I'm not upholding my part of the bargain. But pushing me away will be most likely the last mistake you make. Well? What’s it gonna be?" Rose locked gazes with Gabriel.

  Justin moved and would have said something, but a quick wave of her hand shut him up as she kept her gaze on the man she was sent to save for a full minute.

  Rose gave him a brief smile. “You’ve made your choice. Good luck with getting your soul back.” She left before she began pleading with him. She didn’t have much any more, but she still had her dignity.

  Beyond the conference room door, Rose broke into a run, a wild pain deep in her heart. She gave it a shot. Not her fault. It's not like the world needed someone like her. Death would be a relief, after all. So she never had true love. So she never had a child. Big deal. Her family was nothing to brag about.

  Rose shut the door of Caine Investigations with a sense of utter failure.

  Chapter Two

  Gabriel let out a breath. "She's gone." His hostility evaporated. “Hell.”

  "Yeah. And you did nothing to stop her."

  "Neither did you,” he retorted. “Besides, she looked like the vamp that stole my soul. I'm supposed to cozy up to her? Get real." Doubt twisted through him.

  “She didn’t want me to ask her to stay, she wanted you to ask.” Justin shrugged. "But she didn’t smell like a vamp to me. Hey, it's your soul. I don't think I'd let a surface resemblance bother me if she could help. But I'm not you. Hell, it’s been so long I don’t even know you anymore." He settled on the couch and leaned his head back.

  Gabriel moved to the window and brooded. "She didn't smell totally human, you know. You’re right, she didn’t smell like a vamp, but there was something extra about her."

  "Wondered if you'd caught that. Demon, perhaps?" Justin shrugged. "Or something else? Maybe she's a hybrid."

  "Maybe. Or maybe she really is a Soul Chalice. Did you feel her pull?"

  “Yeah. But for me it was more of a protective pull. You?”

  Justin’s knowing gaze made Gabriel shrug and turn away. “It’s pretty strong, whatever it is.” Movement in the misty mall below caught his eye and he watched as Rose dropped to her knees. He tensed. Was she hurt? Without thinking, he reached for her mind, slipped in, and listened.

  Oh God. I'm sorry I failed you. Can you take me quickly? Without pain? I'd even be happy to sit around the waiting room again, if that's what's needed. I just – I can't do this. Okay, I can, I know that. I'm not sure he's worth it, though. Oh, what the hell. Oops, sorry. I mean, I really don’t want to die just yet. I like feeling healthy, you know? Forgive me for screwing this up.

  Gabriel shut down the connection with her and left the conference room at a run. He had to get to her before she left. If she was right and she died it would be his fault. If she was wrong, well. He’d deal. His pulse pounding, he took the stairs three at a time and leaped over the dead demon at the bottom, catapulting to the outside.

  She was still there, still on her knees, her arms wrapped around her stomach. He noticed for the first time how thin she was, and began to wonder about her past.

  "Rose?."

  She scrambled to her feet. "What do you want?"

  "You." He crowded her. "I mean – hell, I'm not good with words." She didn't respond, so he tried again. "Don’t leave."

  "Why shouldn't I? You don’t want me here. You don’t trust me."

  "I changed my mind."

  "Why?"

  "Why?" The question threw him. "Does it matter why?"

  "Yes, it matters. If you're just pretending to believe in me, then we're both gonna die."

  Gabriel stared into her eyes. "I snooped, okay? In your mind, I mean. And now I believe. More or less. So don't leave."

  Her eyes cleared. "You believe I've been sent here to save you?"

  "Yeah." Not that he was all warm and fuzzy about it, but he believed. "Somehow."

  "You'll work with me to find your soul?" she pressed.

  His fist tightened. Everything deep inside him argued against that course of action, but she held the cards. If he wanted the rest of his soul back, he'd need to concede. "Yes. I'll work with you." But I don't have to like it. He saw, with some satisfaction, the shock on her face when she heard him in her mind.

  Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "The first thing I need to learn is how to create a barrier to my thoughts."

  He rocked back on his heels and pretended to consider. "I need to see if I can mentally locate the bitch-vamp that has my soul. Somewhere in there, I need to learn exactly what happened to you in the waiting room while your life hung in the balance. Then I’ll teach you to barrier."

  She stared him down. "I won’t go back to my old life. I have no home, no clothing other than what I've got on my back, and no living relatives I care to claim. If you truly believe, then you’ll know we need to stick together."

  From the way she looked ready to bolt, he understood it was an either/or situation. "We'll take care of you. No worries." He held out his hand. "Come back upstairs."

  Rose let out a breath and wiped her eyes. She closed the distance between them, but put her hands behind her back. "The minute I feel used, I'm gone."

  Her eyes met his and he saw her determination. "I understand." He did, too. More than she'd expect him to understand. For one moment, an overwhelming need filled him to crush whoever had abused her in the past. He led the way back to Caine Investigations, his headache now approaching massive proportions.

  Justin greeted them cheerfully as they filed back into the conference room. "I found an old sweatshirt for you. Saw you were cold. Hope you like UCLA." He pushed the faded blue sweatshirt toward her.

  Rose took it. "Go, Bruins." Gabriel watched as she headed back to the couch. She curled up on one end. "Now what?"

  "Think we could get some coffee up here?" Gabriel met Justin's curious gaze. "Probably safer here than going out."

  "Sure. CaféGo is just down the mall a bit. I'll go pick up." Justin left the room, leaving Rose and Gabriel alone.

  He sighed and turned to the girl. "Tell me about the waiting room."

  "This big black woman came in and pitched a fit about me being there."

  "Would you let me see what happened? Take me there, in your mind?"

  "I thought you said my mind was wide open?"

  "It is. I thought I’d ask this time." It was the closest thing he could get to an apology.

  Rose bit her bottom lip. "If you have to."

  "Thanks." Gabriel sat on the coffee table across from her. "Now close your eyes and relax. I don't think you'll fight me, but if the instinct to fight is there, try to ignore it for now. We'll get to that part later. Ready?"

  She gave him a wan smile. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Gabriel slid into her mind and smiled at her wonderment. He sifted through her most recent memories of their first meeting, re-living the sexual reaction she'd had to him. Reliving his reaction to her, and her burning need to save him from the demon in the stairwell.

  He moved past that quickly, bringing to light the last few hours. A nurse had dropped her off at a restaurant in Culver City. Rose had looked into the window of the restaurant, then turned and headed west. She walked the eight miles of city streets all the way to Santa Monica and the Third Street Promenade.

  The picture jumped, and he saw her long recovery in the hospital. Before that, there was darkness, full of waiting and a sense of…happiness? The picture changed again and there she stood, looking down at her body as a medical team frantically worked over her.

  Time seemed to pass. She spent what felt to him
like a long time in the waiting room. Colorful lights zipped by her in the gray room, souls not confined to any human body. She was the only human there. Constantly looking down at her body, lonely in the hospital bed. Her only visitors were medical staff.

  Then a big black woman with a clipboard came up to her and started furiously gesticulating. The two talked, but he couldn't hear a word. A shadowy female figure hovered just out of his vision.

  Another step had them up against a mental blank wall that didn’t feel organic. It was almost as if someone else had put that barrier up, walled out her past. But why?

  Gabriel slid out of her mind. The scent of coffee filled the air. "God, I need coffee."

  "On the table. You okay, little brother?”

  “Good. Tired.” Gabriel moved to the conference table.

  Rose joined them, a frown pulling her lips down. "Didn't find much, did you? Didn't really think you would."

  "You did fine." Justin handed her a cup of coffee, and passed one to Gabriel. "Drink up. It’s a girly drink, just for you. Lots of chocolate."

  "How long did that take?"

  "Thirty minutes. No big deal. But you'll need the caffeine and the sugar, so drink up," said Gabriel. She believed, completely and totally, that she was there to rescue him. He knew it from the way she’d approached the demon, from the way she’d thought about it. But why?

  “Why do I need the caffeine and the sugar?”

  “Memory reads can be very draining. Caffeine and sugar help. Sleep helps more, but we’re a bit away from letting you sleep.” Gabriel shrugged, dragged his gaze from her. “I don’t know the science behind it. Sorry.”

  He turned to Justin. "She’s telling the truth about all of it. As far as she knows, at any rate.” He turned, caught her staring at his mouth. She flushed.

  He lifted a brow, a smile twitching at his lips. Thinking about kissing me, are you?

  "Stop it," she hissed.

  Justin looked from one to the other. "What did I miss?"

  "She needs a barrier, a shield. Doesn't have one now, and tends to broadcast everything she thinks," he explained. "I'll work with her on that."