Demon Soul

by Christine Ashworth

  He scowled and a street bum moved hastily out of his way. And then tonight, there’d been too many personalities, too much fighting. He hadn’t had that many conversations in one night in years. Plus, she reminded him he’d been responsible for way too many deaths in less than twenty-four hours.

  Gabriel kicked at a rock in the street. She scared him. That’s the real reason he left. She carried Mephisto, yes, but also because she tugged at him. Whatever she was—demon carrier, Soul Chalice, or something else they didn't know to look for—she'd made him care. So fast, so very fast.

  Was it any wonder she had him reeling? Emotions he'd thought safely burned out of him were springing up like tree seeds the spring after a wildfire. He'd spent more time with her in the last twenty-four hours than he'd spent with any one person in over a decade, and he'd certainly talked more than he had in a decade. He’d tried to keep his distance from her, but how could you protect yourself against a sunbeam?

  He sighed. If he never retrieved his soul, he’d build a cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He’d have the wide open spaces, the wildlife, mother nature at her best. A place where he couldn't reach out and kill someone.

  Funny how little appeal his long-cherished dream now held.

  Anxious and yearning for something he couldn't put his finger on, Gabriel stopped on the sidewalk, not too far from Justin’s house, and searched for Rose in his mind. Just a double check, he assured himself. Just so he could make sure she was safe.

  A tall, shiny brass door firmly shut against him blocked his access to her mind.

  Chapter Nine

  "You want to tell me about it?" Maggie flipped through her doctor's bag, searching for the tools she'd need. One look at Rose had her nerves strung tight. Doc Cavanaugh had taught her well, though. She could do this. She would do this.

  Rose curled up on the kitchen table, unable to stop crying. "I'm so cold. I don't know why. I've been hot most of the night, but now I'm so cold. We went to this sleazy club to find Satine, and I was helping with recon. I kept bugging him to let me help. Oh hey, I leaped onto a balcony!" Rose smiled through her tears. "It took me a couple tries, but I managed to follow him. Thought he was so smart," she sniffed, and wiped her eyes. "This demon stuff is amazing."

  "Where was the club? And why the recon?"

  "In the not-so-good part where Santa Monica and West L.A. meet. Gabriel wanted to check it out before he met with Satine. At any rate, he didn't get his soul back." She shivered as memory took over. "It's a sick place. They have torture rooms." Rose shivered again. "I could smell it."

  Maggie felt her forehead and frowned. "You're running some fever, girl."

  "We killed a couple demons in the club, I remember that. There was something about a werewolf, too, and I think she was pregnant. And then he left, and I was somewhere dark and cold, doing drugs again. I killed Kevin." She shook her head in confusion. "Though I'm pretty sure that part was a dream. But then, bam! Satine's biting me. Then he’s protecting me, and we’re fighting more vampires, and then we’re free and moving fast through the city.”

  "Sounds like a nightmare," Maggie said. "Unreal."

  "It was real, all right. The kitchen keeps twirling around," she complained.

  "You just close your eyes, then. I'm almost ready." Maggie cast a worried glance at Rose. Her face had lost every drop of color, leaving her freckles to stand out against the pallor. The bite marks on her body seemed to pulse even as blood welled thick in the holes. Not good. The vamp didn't have time to seal off the wound like they normally would. She poked at Rose's neck, noted the jagged edges of the bite, and sighed.

  "Are you sure this was a vampire, and not a werewolf?" Maggie measured Rose's pulse. It was slow and sluggish, her skin hot as well as pale. Rose shivered under her hand.

  "Satine did this. Family always knows how to make you hurt. Gabriel rescued me. Then he left. I don’t understand, Maggie. I don’t get it.”

  Maggie silently cursed all men. "I don't know. From what Justin has said, Gabriel has always lacked the social graces."

  "He hurts. I hurt, too."

  "I know." Maggie clucked her tongue as she prepped the vials.

  "He rescued me. He didn't have to." Her voice had dropped to a mumble. "Well, yes I guess he did have to, since I hold part of his soul. I shouldn’t have pushed him to talk about his demon powers. I just wanted to know."

  "I'll be right back." Maggie hurried out of the kitchen to the living room, grabbed the plaid stadium blanket tossed over the couch. Back in the kitchen, she draped it around Rose and took a deep breath. "Okay now, let's get you down on the floor, chica," Maggie said, and took out an eyedropper. "I don't want you passing out sitting up."

  Maggie helped the shivering girl down to the floor, wrapped her body as warmly as she could. "Now, this will hurt. Are you sure you don't want anything? I can put you into a really pleasant dream while we get this taken care of," she added, and brushed strands of damp hair gently away from her forehead. "I'm really good at that."

  "No, no drugs, please. Let's just do this." Shivering violently, Rose turned her face to the floor, leaving the marred side of her neck open to Maggie's gaze.

  "Here, then," and Maggie put a towel in Rose's hand. "Twist that up and bite down on it. Unless you want to scream."

  Rose took the towel without a word, twisted it and closed her eyes. "Just do it."

  Maggie dipped the dropper into her small vial of holy water, and drew some up. "Here we go." Carefully, she dropped two drops of holy water on the jagged wounds in Rose's neck. The water hissed and bubbled, drew blood, and she saw Rose's eyes squinch tight as she bit down onto the towel.

  Maggie wiped away the blood and water, and dropped two more drops onto the wounds with the same results. She knew the cleansing of the wound could take hours and many vials of holy water. After the third set of drops, however, the bubbling lessened. Rose's body relaxed. Maggie sighed in relief. It wasn't going to be a bad recovery.

  The scream took her by surprise. Rose screamed again, stiffened in pain and clutched her belly. The wound in her neck gushed.

  Swearing a blue streak in Italian, Maggie grabbed the towel from where it had fallen and pressed it against the vampire bite. In all her years as a witch, she'd never seen anything like it. Rose screamed again and curled around Maggie in a half-moon shape, sobbing and writhing.

  Maggie struggled to stay calm. She stroked Rose's back, her legs, anywhere she could reach, alarmed at how cold she felt when not even a minute before she'd been on fire. "Rose. Talk to me. What hurts? Why are you screaming? Come on, honey," she pleaded.

  "Fire, it's on fire, Maggie, oh God," Rose panted, her strength waning. "Thirsty," she said. "So thirsty."

  "What's on fire? Rose, damn it, don't pass out on me now," she warned. "You've got to help me. Find the strength, Rose. Find the strength to help me help you."

  Rose fought out of the blanket, grabbed the hem of her tee shirt and raised it a bit. "Here," she said on a sigh. "Damn, Maggie. It's bad. The demon's moving and it hurts." Cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

  Still holding the towel against the neck wound, Maggie stared at the design on the girl's stomach. The red, yellow and black runes swirled and glowed in a spiral pattern, rippled beneath the skin as if it were alive. Flickers of flame dodged through the runes.

  Maggie sucked in a shocked breath. "Demon." Carefully, she traced the spiral of the inked skin with a finger, trying to make sense of the design. She frowned. It looked familiar, but wrong, somehow—as though the symbolism had been...reversed? "Uh oh."

  "What? Why uh oh? Maggie - I - I don't - feel so good," Rose said, and with another sigh her head rolled to one side, her eyes blank, staring at the ceiling.

  Maggie swore and checked her neck. The bleeding had almost stopped, but the towel was soaked and Rose's pulse was weakening. She only wavered for a moment before jumping to her feet and making two phone calls. One to Dr. Cavanaugh and the other to Justin Caine.

&nb
sp; Sighing, Maggie punched in the number to his cell, counted the rings until he answered, his deep voice sending shivers through her.

  "Justin? It's Maggie. You need to get home right away." She looked down at Rose, abnormally still on the floor in the kitchen. "It's Rose. Satine bit her, and Gabriel’s gone. I need help getting Rose to Doc Cavanaugh." Maggie flinched when Justin let loose with invective. She hung up, pushed her cell phone in her pocket, and sat once more with Rose.

  "Stay strong, Rose. You can do it.”

  * * *

  Guilt consumed Justin. He sat at one end of the small waiting room, watching as Maggie paced. He should have been at the house the night before. Instead, he’d gone surfing. The ocean always soothed him and his last encounter with Magdalena had left him anything but. Not that he’d tell the witch the truth.

  He cleared his throat. “I don't believe Gabriel would willingly put her in danger."

  "People change, Justin." Her face had a remote, waiting look to it. With her hair pulled back into a knot on her head, her profile caught his breath.

  "No. Not my brother."

  The door to the waiting room opened and Dr. Cavanaugh came in still in her baby-pink surgical scrubs.

  She was a small woman in her thirties, her white-blonde hair pulled back and hidden underneath a paper cap. She reached for Justin with both hands, her eyes twinkling.

  "Justin. It's good to see you." They kissed, both cheeks, before the doctor turned to Maggie. She put a hand out, rubbed Maggie's arm. "You did everything you were supposed to, Magdalena. If she hadn't called you, she probably would have bled out."

  Maggie visibly relaxed. "Thank you. How is she?"

  The doctor gave them a weary half smile. "Intriguing. I haven't seen skin art like that…well, ever."

  "Rose seemed to think it was the demon, and I believe she’s right. I keep thinking the spiral is something I know, but subverted in some way. I can't grasp the significance of it. Irritating," Maggie added.

  "The spiral could very well be housing the demon. There's something about the design. It's common, but not so common, and not in the ordinary way." The doctor shrugged.

  Justin broke in, impatient. "But she'll be fine, right? She's getting better?"

  Dr. Cavanaugh turned to him. "Yes. She's getting better, but if she's bitten again, don't use holy water on her."

  Maggie frowned. "Why not?"

  "She's not totally human."

  "But holy water shouldn't hurt her. It doesn’t hurt us tribreds, as a rule anyway."

  The doctor shot a surprised look toward Justin. "Oh, no. That's not it. She's a Soul Chalice. Holy water doesn't do anything for or against the tribreds, but a Soul Chalice—llet's just say it's almost an overdose of holy. You can get a reverse reaction, which is what happened to Rose. Plus, she's not a demon by blood. She's a demon by possession, so toss that into the equation, and you get a double bad reaction." She turned to Maggie. “I never taught you about Soul Chalices. I didn’t know you’d need it, and I’m so sorry.”

  Maggie and Justin both stared at the doctor. Justin finally got the words out. “Damn it. We had thought she might be, but it didn’t seem…how…it’s a myth, Megan. A myth.” His heart thumped hard.

  "It is a myth. Like a Soul Stealer." The words burst out of Maggie in protest.

  Doc Cavanaugh shook her head. "No myth. A Soul Chalice is a carrier of souls. They are the opposite of a Soul Stealer." The doctor rubbed her lower back and gave them a tired smile. "Very few people are Soul Stealers. The numbers have dwindled in the past centuries. But wherever there's a Soul Stealer, you'll find a Soul Chalice, doing whatever she can to rescue the stolen souls. Balance. Good and evil or yin and yang, if you wish. Usually the two Soul Entities end up killing each other."

  Justin frowned. "So the marking on her stomach is that of a Soul Chalice?"

  "No. I think Maggie is on the right track, that it's a house of some sort for the demon. I have some research to do on this."

  "I'll help," interjected Maggie.

  "Then you'll need copies of the digitals we took. I'll email them to you before I go home."

  "Thanks, Megan. I appreciate it."

  The doctor continued, "There is a lot we don't know. But I do know that the cells in her body are mutating. I just don't know why, whether it's the demon or the Soul Chalice kicking in. I have textbook knowledge of Soul Chalices, not practical knowledge. All I know is she'll definitely be coming into her own powers, and soon. She'll need to be watched."

  "Rose was a drug and alcohol addict but recently clean." Justin shoved his hands in his pockets.

  Doc Cavanaugh stifled a yawn. “Her exam shows her as perfectly healthy, no organ deterioration that would be typical of a drug addict. But that brings out another issue. Using demon powers can be quite a rush." She looked from Maggie to Justin. "For an addict, it can be a death sentence. Toss in whatever comes with being a Soul Chalice, and you've got the possibility for an even greater disaster."

  Maggie cleared her throat. "But if we can figure out what spell was used to put the markings on her, do you think we can force the demon out of her?"

  "If it's a spell, then theoretically it's possible. The question is could she survive it?" Dr. Cavanaugh shook her head. "I just don't know. I wouldn't want to take the chance, frankly."

  "When can we take her home?"

  The doctor turned to Justin. "Later this morning, when she wakes. I'd rather keep her here for a couple of days for observation, but I also don't have the staff." She shrugged. "We gave her a transfusion of human blood and she didn't have an adverse reaction to it, so she should be fine in a few hours. She was very dehydrated, and her blood pressure was in the basement, so she’s on an IV to build up her fluids." Doc Cavanaugh frowned. "That's going to take some time. If you want to wait, feel free, but you'll be more comfortable elsewhere I'm sure." The doctor stepped back and would have disappeared down the corridor, but Justin's sharp voice stopped her.

  "But what about the vampire bite? How do we rid her of its call?"

  Dr. Cavanaugh turned around and grimaced. "You know the answer to that as much as I do, Justin," she said, reproof in her voice. "There is nothing we can do. She will need to learn to resist it, to wall it out for the rest of her life, or she will be at his mercy." She turned to Maggie. "I'll email those pictures to you in a few minutes."

  "Thank you."

  Dr. Cavanaugh waved at them on her way out.

  "This is so not fair."

  Justin took a deep breath. "Yeah. I know. Let's get to work, shall we? By the time we get to the office, you should have those photos."

  Maggie turned to him with a sneer. "I'm a floozy, remember? A nobody in Kendall Sorbis' floozy train. I can't be trusted and I can't do anything to help you. You don't even like me. Why in hell would you want to work with me?"

  After the guilt and strain of the morning, Justin snapped. He walked purposefully toward her, taking a dark satisfaction as she backed away from his energy. He kept coming until she pressed against the waiting room wall. He put his hands on the wall on either side of her shoulders, caging her there but not touching her. "I've made mistakes," he began through gritted teeth.

  "Oh, goody, confessional time," she gibed. "Seriously?"

  All thought of talking to her fled his mind. Justin bent and kissed her, a hard, punishing kiss of frustration. The softness of those pink lips, the taste of her almost undid him and he fought to keep his hands on the wall, fought not to take her in his arms and claim her. He inched closer to her heat and reveled in it.

  After a momentary hesitation she softened against his chest. Her arms slipped around his waist and her lips opened, allowing him inside. Her hands stroked his back and he lost himself in her taste, in the lush curves pressing up against him.

  His mouth gentled as he realized she trembled beneath his kiss. He slowly eased back from her and studied her face. Her eyes were closed, her lips parted as she struggled to take a breath. He kissed those perf
ect lips again once, gently, and tried not to smile when her lips clung to his.

  This time he pushed himself away from the wall. He took a breath to steady his world. "See? I make mistakes. Judging you too quickly was obviously another one."

  Maggie's eyes fluttered open and for a moment he saw the vulnerable side beneath the bluster. Then her brown eyes blazed in anger. "Don't you ever touch me again, or I'll knee you right in the balls and turn you into a donkey."

  Justin shrugged. "Don't tempt me and we'll both be able to walk freely. Meet me at the office in half an hour."

  Maggie drew herself up, her eyes frosting over. “I will check my schedule and arrive when I have some free time. Unlike you, I have a real job.” She switched to Italian and let out a stream of rapidly spoken words. Her long black hair shimmered in the overhead lights as she stormed out of the hospital, hands gesticulating, still speaking in Italian.

  Justin watched her go and wondered how he'd ever manage to think straight with her around. He heaved a sigh and made a mental note to pick up coffee from CaféGo.

  Lots and lots of coffee.

  * * *

  Gabriel brooded his way across town until he made it back to Twisted. Glad to have something to take his mind off Rose, he circled the place. It was early enough for the legitimate business to be closed and light enough for the vampires to have gone to sleep for the day.

  He gave a quick look around, noted the lack of an alarm system, and frowned. No alarm meant they had guards. He really didn't want to get into another fight. After changing from his demon aspect back into the human one, he'd had one hell of a headache that was just now ebbing.

  But maybe... He went to the back parking lot and gave a quick look around before leaping up and over to the second floor balcony. The window he'd used the night before hadn't been re-secured. Sloppy work.

  He slipped inside the building and stood, eyes closed, listening with one part of his mind to the mental rumblings beneath him. The vampires, of course, were silent, but he could feel at least a dozen of them down below. Dangerous to have a basement in the alluvial soil of Santa Monica, but he figured vampires could pretty much survive anything, claw their way out of absurd situations. If he were vampire...