A Demon Does It Better

by Linda Wisdom

  Lili watched the dragon walk away and turned to her friend, who sat trembling in a chair.

  “I go hunting in the mountains once a month,” the Were murmured, staring down at her lap. “I’m a nurse, for Fate’s sake. I’ve seen all forms of death before. More of it horrific than gentle, but this—” she shook her head, her dark hair glinting under the light. “This was just too wrong.”

  “It was, and that’s why we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” She didn’t want to think about it happening to Jared, of his flashing into flames before her.

  “After you have the aides come in here, I want you to take a long break.” Lili rested her hands on Deisphe’s shoulders. “I don’t care if all Hades breaks loose out there; you are to stay away from here for the next thirty minutes.”

  She licked her lips and nodded jerkily as she rose to her feet and walked away with the stiff, odd gait of an elder.

  Lili turned back to Pepta’s remains. “I am so sorry, Pepta,” she said softly. “We will avenge you.”

  Then she went to her office, closed the door, and collapsed on the couch, crying as she hadn’t done since the night her mother was killed.

  She barely noticed when Cleo crept into the room—as if a closed door could keep the cat out—and curled up in Lili’s lap.

  And Lili cried even more until there were no more tears left within her.

  Chapter 18

  “What are you doing?” Cleo hopped onto Lili’s desk, watching as she dug into the bottom desk drawer.

  “What does it look like I’m doing?” Her face was set in stark lines as she laid a silk cloth across the desk surface, then carefully piled the scrolls onto the material.

  “Giving them back to Dr. Musty?”

  Lili shook her head. “Not after what just happened. There had to have been a blood spell cast into that brand for Pepta to die that way.” Her body ached to return downstairs and see Jared, but then he’d know what happened to Pepta. She doubted anyone down there would take the news well, and she couldn’t blame them. She’d vowed to protect them all as best she could, but instead she had been the cause of one’s death. She had to come up with a way to save them from harm.

  “He won’t like it,” the cat warned her. “He could get you barred from working in any hospital or even a healing center.”

  “Let him try,” she said grimly, carefully folding the silk over the scrolls so that she didn’t have to touch them. “He knew he was taking a chance in showing them to me. It wasn’t like I agreed with his methods to begin with. Besides, I’ve got Nurse Garrish on my side now.” She rummaged in the top drawer and pulled out a stick of sealing wax and a brass seal. She touched the wax with her fingertip, heating it until enough wax dropped onto the folds, effectively closing the packet, then pressing the seal on top of the wax. “Warning to all. Lest you fall. Dark contents to be sent where they belong. Be gone.” She pushed the packet that seemed to go up in smoke.

  “Eurydice?” Cleo asked.

  She nodded. “She’ll know what to do with them.”

  “You really should have strung Dr. Musty for a while longer. Put on one of those Victorian dresses you have in storage and showed him a hint of ankle.” Cleo returned to her silk pillow and curled up, her tail draped around her round body.

  “I don’t think Dr. Mortimer will be surprised that I did this,” Lili said with strong conviction. “He knows what my thoughts are about those blood spells.”

  “And maybe he’ll think of a way to use it against you.” The feline started to groom her paws.

  “He better not, not after what happened to Pepta.” She picked up her bag and coat. “We’re going home for a quiet dinner.”

  “And you are hoping the demon will show up.”

  “He will.” Please, Jared, show up. She shrugged on her coat and walked out of the office with Cleo following.

  Lili stopped in the ER first, relieved to see that Deisphe looked more like herself, even if her eyes were red and puffy.

  “I can take that away for you,” Lili offered, gesturing toward her eyes.

  The Were shook her head. “It’s a good way to remember.”

  Lili nodded her understanding. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  She felt uneasy the moment she stepped outside and found the fog lying low on the ground. The moist air clung to her skin the way she imagined shadows wound their way around Jared.

  “I don’t like this,” Cleo grumbled, walking beside her. She looked over her shoulder as they headed for Lili’s CX-7.

  “The lot is protected,” she reminded the cat.

  “That doesn’t mean anything, and you know it.” She started to weave her way around Lili’s ankles, careful not to trip the witch.

  “What are you doing?”

  “They always say not to be an easy target. A zigzag motion is your best bet.”

  “Yes, well, you’re doing it around me, making me the target.” She clicked the remote for the locks, and they got into the vehicle. Lili turned on the engine and adjusted the heater. She didn’t admit she had the same uneasy feelings and still did. She knew even a locked SUV couldn’t keep out most creatures, especially when they had fangs and claws meant to tear into metal as if it were paper.

  “Can we go out to dinner first? Some nice salmon perhaps?” Cleo peeked out the passenger window.

  “Jared might be at the house.”

  “And he seems to have a way of tracking you down,” she reminded her. “You need to be somewhere with others right now. I don’t mean you have to laugh and drink and badly sing in a karaoke bar, but it’s not too late to go out for a bite to eat.” Her stomach rumbled to add credence to her words. Lili’s stomach soon followed suit.

  “We’ll go to Inderman,” she said, turning left instead of right and head for the ocean’s edge, where the supernatural community thrived.

  Cleo was right. She needed to be among others, and at least the Inderman Health Department wouldn’t have a fit about a cat dining in the restaurant.

  ***

  “Well, that was fun. Not,” Cleo rumbled as she followed Lili into the house. “I thought we were going out to relax and have a nice meal.”

  “We did.” Lili tossed her leather bag on the kitchen table, the keys clattering alongside it.

  “You barely ate a bite while you looked around, waiting for the demon to show up.” The cat headed for her kitty kibble dish and began crunching down. “The totally cute waiter flirted with you, and you didn’t throw him a bone.” She threw her head back, laughing hysterically. “Throw him a bone! And he’s a Werewolf.” Her laughter turned into a sigh. “No one appreciates my humor.”

  “What humor?” Lili pulled a bottle of her favorite Chardonnay out of the refrigerator and poured herself a glass. She kicked off her shoes, nudging them into a corner, and padded barefoot into the family room while Cleo continued to grouse that witches didn’t understand the need for a sense of humor.

  Lili stopped short at the sight of a familiar body lying asleep on her couch. She almost dropped her glass as she ran to the couch and knelt down.

  “Hey,” she said softly, whispering her fingers across Jared’s brow.

  He opened his eyes halfway and smiled.

  “How long have you been here?” She hated the idea she hadn’t been in the house when he arrived.

  Jared glanced at the clock. “A couple hours.” His voice was rusty with sleep. “You weren’t here, so I made use of your couch.”

  “You should have used the bed and been more comfortable.” She was pleased to see all of his wounds were fully healed. Even his broken jaw was fine now. She threaded her fingers through his, relishing the warmth of his skin. Then she remembered the afternoon’s events. “Pepta’s dead.” She knew better than to try to sugarcoat the words. Jared would prefer the stark truth.

  His eyes darkened to a blue that mimicked the bottom of the ocean. “I was afraid of that. Because of what they did to her?” His lips thinned in anger.


  Lili shook her head. “Because of me.” She picked up her wineglass and drank deeply. Jared took it from her fingers and finished the contents.

  “It’s the brand. It has what you’d call a kill switch. I was treating her, and all of a sudden…” she gulped at the memory, “the brand burst into flames, and she was reduced to ashes in seconds. No wonder she was so afraid of leaving the asylum,” she finished in a whisper. She lightly traced her fingertips over his shirt front where the brand would be. “I have no idea how you manage to escape such a fate. After seeing what happened to her.” She paused. “It was awful.”

  “Poor Pepta,” he murmured. “But maybe she was better off. She hurt inside and out.”

  “The Hellion Guard took Turtifo and Coing into custody,” she told him. “Nurse Garrish wanted them gone as much as I did.” She pointed a finger at the wineglass and raised the digit slowly until wine filled the glass again. She took a sip, then handed it to Jared.

  He closed his eyes. A few words of his language left his lips before he drank.

  “I wanted to take everyone out of there,” Lili said, feeling defeat color her words. “To bring them upstairs. I can’t do it now. They’d all end up like Pepta. And while you can leave, your time is limited.” She inhaled his scent, drawing it deep into her lungs. While she was here, she couldn’t smell the rotten stench of the asylum, the reek of unwashed flesh, or the sickness that seemed to permeate the air down there. She saw the male he was before he was thrown into a cage. “I sent Dr. Mortimer’s scrolls detailing the blood spells to Eurydice. She’ll know what to do with them. With her connections, I’m sure she can help me find a way to safely release all of you.” She rested her forehead against his shoulder, feeling the buzzing sensation of magick under his skin.

  “I always thought you were one of the less-troublesome students. It appears I was wrong.”

  Lili jumped to her feet and spun around but kept her body in front of Jared, protecting him. He immediately sat up and pushed her to one side, keeping an arm around her.

  The elder witch sat in the same chair she had the last time she visited Lili. The only change was her Chanel suit was now a heavy silk gown the color of fresh blackberries. There was nothing threatening with her manner as she gazed at one of her past students then moved on to Jared.

  “I see.” Her knowing smile flickered on her lips. “You are Sinsia’s firstborn.”

  He nodded.

  “Lovely woman, but she cheats at canasta.”

  Lili’s silver tea service appeared on the table with three filled cups. Eurydice nodded in their direction.

  “We all need clear heads.”

  Lili handed out the cups and sat down next to Jared, savoring the warmth of his thigh resting against hers.

  “Is that witch back?” Cleo hollered from the kitchen. The cat’s yelp was sharp and sudden as a poof of smoke appeared and the bedroom door closed.

  “They only get worse as they grow older,” Eurydice said by way of explanation. She turned to Lili. “The scrolls you sent me were very illuminating. And dangerous.” Her emerald eyes glinted with her strong power. “Did Hieronymus tell you how he obtained them?”

  She shook her head. “I gathered that he’d collected them over the years. He tried to tell me that the spells will help the patients, but I can’t believe that. I think they somehow work on his behalf. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he had something to do with Sera’s and the others’ disappearances.” Her voice broke. “I know there’s no way of finding them, but I want to know what happened to them.” She sipped the tea, not surprised that the hot liquid was calming. It seemed everyone wanted to use tea as a comforting mixture.

  Eurydice nodded before she looked at Jared. “You thought your mother abandoned you, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t have to think,” he bit out the words. “She did.”

  “No, she made sure you were well protected. Those shadows that allow you to leave also protect you.”

  “Protect me?” Jared barked a laugh. “She left me in a cage like a wild animal.”

  “She did what she could to keep you safe,” the Head Witch corrected him. “Her enemies wanted you executed. Her plan ensured you would remain alive until you could be healed. And it appears, my boy, you have been cured.” She smiled at Jared then turned to Lili.

  “Jared may have been healed emotionally before I saw him, but he has been badly treated physically,” the younger witch told her, but her tension rode high, giving her voice a hard edge. “He has been branded, beaten, sliced and diced, bled, and Fates know what else. We preternaturals pride ourselves on being highly evolved, and yet we treat the mentally ill the way they were treated in the Early Days of healing. They’re still considered nothing more than animals.” She paused, blinking rapidly to keep the tears back, but she could still feel the hot damp drops trickle down her cheeks. “How could this have happened without anyone knowing about it? I have worked in a number of hospitals over the years, and I know the Physics Council keeps a close eye on how care is delivered. That doctors and nurses can even be monitored to show they are giving the proper care. Yet, the ones imprisoned here were… were abandoned,” she finished in a breath of air. She blindly reached out, resting her hand on Jared’s thigh. His hand covered hers and squeezed tightly. Their “guest” didn’t miss the act of comfort and solidarity. “Why are they forgotten?”

  “I don’t know, but I will do my best to find out.” The witch’s eyes sharpened with the same anger that boiled in Lili’s blood. “We are not perfect, Lilianna.”

  “And Pepta died because of that neglect,” she spat out. She accepted the cup Jared pushed into her hands and urged her to drink.

  “Then we ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Eurydice finished her tea and set the cup down. “Hieronymus will have to answer for his actions.”

  “The brands need to be removed,” Lili stated.

  She nodded. “I will speak to the Council this eve. Is there anything else?” She smiled.

  Lili suddenly gulped. She’d just given orders to the Head Witch! And so far, still had her fingers and toes.

  “Ummmm… I didn’t mean to be so assertive.”

  “You are thinking of others, not yourself. It is a valuable trait to have. Do you have any idea where Dr. Mortimer is?”

  Lili shook her head. “He comes and goes. Unlike other heads of hospitals, he doesn’t have a secretary or even an assistant. The staff schedule only shows when he’s in the hospital or out of it. Director of Nursing Garrish doesn’t appear to be fond of him, and after what happened today, I’d say that dislike has increased.”

  “Yes, I can imagine Arimentha would despise him,” she mused. “Knowing her, I’m certain she has also filed a complaint against him.”

  “She said she was going to.” Lili leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees. “I still feel whatever Dr. Mortimer is up to has to do with Sera and the others. Either they discovered the blood spells and he had to”—she shook her thoughts off—“to get rid of them or send them to a plane they can’t return from.”

  “I only wish I knew how he managed all of this,” the elder witch murmured, shaking her head.

  “The blood spells,” Lili told her. “What else can it be?”

  “You still don’t know why,” Jared said.

  “What treatments did you have?” Eurydice asked him.

  He shook his head. “I can’t tell you other than the sense of blood and pain. If I try to think about it, my head feels ready to explode.” He winced at the memory.

  “A blocking spell,” the witches said in unison.

  “Have you tried to release him?” Eurydice asked Lili.

  “I’m afraid I could make matters worse,” she replied. “And after what happened to Pepta…” Her voice drifted off.

  “True.” She conjured up a silk pouch and handed it to Lili. “A pinch in any liquid you choose to each patient. It won’t release any previous charms on them, but it will protect them from anything
further. If I can arrange it, Dr. Mortimer will be immediately removed from his duties.”

  “We can’t.” Lili grimaced at her protest. “Not until I can find out what he’s done.”

  “And you don’t think he won’t be furious with you for what’s already happened?” Jared asked.

  “I’ll handle that,” she said with a confidence she didn’t entirely feel. “I just want one week.”

  Eurydice considered her request and finally nodded. She turned to Jared. “Your mother has never forgotten you. I am sure she will prove this once things have settled down.” With that she was gone, leaving only a faint hint of Chanel No. 5.

  “So she’s the big boss of witches?” Jared asked, finally breaking the charged silence.

  Lili nodded. “I can’t believe I gave her an order,” she said with wonder. “And I’m still in one piece.” She fingered the silk pouch, untying the strings and checking the contents. “I think you should have some tonight.”

  “Then I’ll take it in wine.”

  Lili and Jared picked up the tea service and carried everything into the kitchen where she quickly washed everything up.

  “You seem more relaxed,” he commented.

  “Relieved is more like it. Having Eurydice on my side is a very good thing,” she replied, putting everything away.

  She filled two glasses with wine, adding a pinch of the powder to Jared’s glass. She handed him his wine and took his free hand, pulling him toward the back of the house.

  “Are you going to have your way with me?” His interest, along with other parts, perked up.

  She looked over her shoulder, flashing him a bright smile. “Absolutely.”

  Chapter 19

  “Tell me about blood spells,” Jared said. He felt sated from extraordinary sex, Lili whispering how much she loved him, and the idea, which grew stronger by the second, of having a true future with his beautiful witch. He’d claimed her, and he wasn’t giving her up.