Demons of Christmas Past: A Hidden Novella

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “Think we got everything, Mistress,” Zaeda said as she set her bag down on the sofa with a grunt.

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys,” I said. I started picking up some of the items. “These are amazing. How many places did you have to go to?”

  “Lost track,” Orvant muttered. Zaeda laughed and shook her head.

  I picked up a black pair of women’s shoes and smiled. “Thank you. Take the rest of the day off, please. You’re amazing.”

  They both saluted and took off. I quickly packed the clothes and shoes in a large vintage suitcase Orvant had brought, then I shoved it into a closet before going into our room to check on Nain.

  When I got there, I saw that the bed was empty. I could hear the water running in the bathroom. I sat in the middle of the bed and waited.

  A few minutes later, Nain opened the bathroom door, and steam billowed out into the room after him. He met my eyes for a second, then looked away. I sensed for him: guilt, anger.

  “What do you feel guilty about?”

  “You were probably a mess, right?” he asked. He opened one of his dresser drawers and pulled out a black t-shirt. I couldn’t help but watch as he pulled it on, the way his muscles flexed, that mesmerizing trail of dark hair from his navel to the waistband of his jeans.

  “I was not,” I said, clearing my throat and looking back up at his face.

  “Right.”

  “I was totally calm and collected. Really, by now I should be used to you doing stupid shit trying to prove how tough you are.”

  Oh. Spike of anger. I felt guilty for a second, but then I just got more pissed.

  “What were you even thinking? The vampires don’t need your protection.”

  “I do what I do, Molls. This isn’t anything new.”

  “Whatever that blade was, it messed you up.”

  “Yeah,” he said as he flopped onto the bed. He laid his head in my lap, and I started running my fingertips through his hair.

  “What happened?”

  He shrugged.

  “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone gets their asses kicked sometimes.”

  He glared up at me. “Did Ronan tell you I left them all bleeding before I finally went down?

  “Did you? Well. I was too busy trying to heal all of the enormous cuts that wouldn’t stop bleeding, because you’re what.. suicidal or something. I don’t even know.”

  “Let’s fucking not. Okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine.”

  I ran my fingernails gently over his scalp, let my fingers linger at his temples. “I was thinking… maybe we need a vacation. I want to get out of here for a few days.”

  He laughed. “Right.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Molls, you were back working the day you had Hades. I had to fight with you for two weeks to convince you to take that little vacation to Hawaii when Zoe was a baby. Remember that?”

  “We’ve been through some crazy shit the last year or so,” I said, shrugging. “I’m fucking tired, babe.”

  Nain sat up and studied me.

  “This isn’t just about me?”

  “It’s always a little bit about you,” I said with a wry grin. “You have to see it. I’m this close to snapping. Look at how I acted a few times during that undead mess. The Normals are still sure I’m going to destroy them all. There are immortals who won’t risk being in the same hemisphere as me.”

  “I don’t think that’s a negative,” Nain said, and I shook my head.

  “Come on. You, me. No work. No kids. I need a few days of not judging souls, having to sift through all the shit.”

  He still watched me closely, as if I was a foreign language he was trying to decipher. “This isn’t like you.”

  “Maybe I’m finally realizing this isn’t working. If this is my eternity…” I shook my head. “Other than you and the kids, and my mom and aunt, I hate pretty much everything. And if you want me to be totally honest, I can see that you’re not happy, either. I can feel it. Even if I couldn’t, it’s not all that hard to see.”

  He looked away. “Not because of you, though.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you really? You know that, right? You’re still the best thing in my life, and you always have been. I’d put up with any amount of bullshit to come home to you every night, even if we only see each other for a few minutes.”

  “And I feel the same way. But we need to do better. We can’t keep doing this. We’re becoming dangers to those around us. I can finally admit that.”

  He didn’t say anything. I could feel the anger, the uncertainty, the tension coming from him.

  He sighed and shook his head. “We can’t do it, Molls. We can’t even manage to spend more than one night a week together most of the time because they need us all the time. We’re gonna go away for days? And what about Zoe? Your mom gets on my last nerve sometimes, but I wouldn’t even wish Zoe’s current mood on her.”

  “My mom handles Zoe better than just about anyone. Maybe we need to make them figure out how to handle shit without us. We don’t have to be involved in everything. I want my goddamn life back.”

  He was about to say something and I shook my head, charging on. “I never wanted my dad’s throne. I never wanted to be the face of the fucking immortals. I never wanted to be the one who has to deal with the constant fear the Normals have about us. All I ever wanted was to save people. I’m not doing much saving lately.”

  “I am.”

  “Yeah. I know,” I said. “But that’s not even the same as it used to be and you know it. Is this what you pictured, back when we started up?”

  “Baby, nothing that’s happened is what I imagined it would be, other than you and me. As long as we have that, I can handle anything else.”

  Now it was my turn to go silent. He reached out and took my hand, and we twined our fingers together.

  “But I can see I’m losing you,” he said quietly. “Not that way. I know you’re not going anywhere. You need me as much as I need you. But it’s like you’re a little farther away every day, even when you’re right here with me.” He gave a quick nod. “Okay. Let’s do it. Where are we going?”

  I smiled at him, and the pang of love I felt for him, the wave of emotion I felt from him at that moment, nearly made me lightheaded. “Let me handle it. I need to do a few things. We can leave later.”

  He nodded.

  “You should rest some more. Asclepius said so,” I said before he could argue.

  “Okay. But I don’t plan on letting you sleep later.”

  “Why do you think I’m insisting on you resting now?” I asked. I started to get up, but he reached out and hooked an arm around my waist, pulling me back down to him. He kissed me, that possessiveness, that desire that had first thrilled me still there, stronger than ever. I felt something loosen inside me, as if there had been a tension there I hadn’t recognized until just then.

  “Me and you, Molls,” Nain murmured when he finally pulled away from me. “If we have that, we have everything.”

  I nodded, and gently nipped his lower lip, and then I left before I crawled back into bed with him.

  I had plans to make, and a time god to track down.

  I found Dahael, and she took me to Aion, who was staying with Hephaestus and Meaghan and their family. Since they’d gotten together, their house had become the place to stay — they always had at least a couple of guests. When I walked into Hephaestus’s cluttered shop, which was in the two-car garage behind the house, both Heph and Aion were leaning on the workbench, inspecting something.

  “Never seen anything like this before,” Heph said. “You have, right?”

  “…No. No I have not,” Aion answered.

  “What the flying fuck?” Heph muttered.

  I cleared my throat, and they both spun around. The fact that they hadn’t been distracted by my presence was proof of how focused they are on whatever it was they were muttering ab
out.

  “Molly!” Hephaestus said. He hurried over to me and wrapped me in one of his customary rib-crushing hugs. I couldn’t help laughing.

  “Hey. What are you two so interested in over there?”

  “That blade that was used against Nain. How’s he doing?”

  “He’s okay. Much more tired than he should be, still, but at least he’s not bleeding anymore.”

  He nodded, and he and Aion exchanged a look.

  “This blade… we’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

  “I heard. Meaning… what? Maybe there’s a poison of some kind on the blade, or it’s empowered or something.”

  Aion shook his head. “We know every method of empowering or enchanting items. He’s invented most of them,” he said, nodding respectfully toward Heph, who nodded.

  “And the weapon itself. I don’t even know what kind of metal that is, or if it’s even metal at all. It seems like it, but it has a plasticity to it and the weight is all wrong for its size,” Heph said, brow creased as he looked at the blade.

  I’m nowhere near as experienced with weapons as Heph is, but one look made it clear this wasn’t something we had ever come across before. The first thing was the shape, kind of swoopy and fluid-looking, almost sculptural. It was mostly blade, a short, textured grip made of the same material as the blade itself. And then there was the color, a kind of bronzy green. The edge of the blade was so thin I knew it would cut like a razor — you wouldn’t feel that cut until it was too late.

  “What the hell?” I muttered.

  “That’s what I said,” Aion said.

  “I’m gonna keep trying to track this thing down. Who were they fighting?” Heph asked.

  “Rogue vampires, a few werewolves,” I said, remembering what Ronan had said. “Ronan and Zero were there, too. They’d be the ones to ask for descriptions, or if they know anything else.”

  Heph nodded. I looked away from the weapon. It was stupid how unsettled it made me feel. Heph is on the case, I reminded myself. If anyone could figure it out, he was the guy.

  “I was looking for you, actually,” I said to Aion. He nodded and followed me out of the garage after I gave Heph another hug. Aion and I walked down the driveway. “Do you have the amulet ready?” I asked him.

  He nodded and reached into his pocket, then held his hand out to me. I opened my hand and he dropped something cool, small, but heavy in my palm. The amulet was all silver. A delicate silver chain with a lobster clasp, nothing out of the ordinary. Dangling from it was a tear-shaped charm, also silver, engraved with a design of twining, tangled vines around the edges. In the center was a faceted black stone. I was almost sure, if I looked closely enough, I could see flecks of pink, purple, gold in the depths of the stone.

  “Yeah, they’re there,” Aion said. I glanced up to see him watching me. “They were powerful. Usually the amulet needs to be a bit bigger. I was able to make it smaller with the concentrated power in those ornaments you gave me. I almost feel bad for having to use them. It’s clear you loved them a lot.”

  I shrugged, trying to ignore the fact that I kind of wanted to cry. How stupid. “I love my husband more,” I said. “How does it work?”

  “Okay. Get where you want to be when you wake up tomorrow morning. Before you fall asleep, press the stone. When you wake, boom! You’ll be in the time you asked me to set this to. When you’re ready to come back, press it again. It’ll be destroyed upon that use. Don’t lose it. Don’t take it off,” he warned sternly.

  “I won’t.”

  I started to walk away, and he put a hand on my arm. I looked down at his hand, then back up at him with a raised eyebrow and he took a nervous step back. “Um. One more thing, Mollis,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Look, time is weird. There’s no way to describe it. It’s weird. When Nain goes back to that time, the version of himself that lived then will kind of… just cease to be, and this Nain will be the only Nain in that time. When you’re in the past, you aren’t in this time. At all. Does that make sense?”

  “Will my family forget me?” I asked, alarmed.

  “No. No nothing like that. But you don’t have to worry about a hotel maid stumbling over you or something, is all I’m saying.”

  “Oh. Well that’s a relief.”

  “Also,” he said, taking a breath as if steeling himself. “I… you’re going to see some of your enemies back in this time. Okay? Some of the spirit daemons. Some of the vampires you’ve fought and killed in our time. A demon named Astaroth ran Detroit back then,” he finished quietly.

  I froze. Astaroth. He’d been the first to come after me, working with Hermes and the Guardians to get rid of me before I realized who I was. In destroying him, I’d killed Nain. My life changed that night, in more ways than I ever could have realized.

  “You can’t go after him. You can’t kill him. No matter how much you might want to. And you have to make this very clear to Nain, too.”

  I opened my mouth, closed it again. “So I’m just supposed to let him do whatever shit he does back then?”

  “You can fight him if you want to. You can’t kill him. If you kill him in the past, he’s not going to be around later.”

  “Like that’s a loss,” I growled.

  “Think, Mollis. Don’t let your hatred turn you stupid,” he said. I glared at him and he took another step back. “Um. Sorry. No great loss. I agree with that.”

  “He was going after me. He was a nightmare and he—”

  “If you’d never been forced to face Astaroth, you never would have found out what you truly are,” he said, speaking over me. “You would have stayed as you were, a vigilante, always wondering where that rage inside was coming from, wondering what drove you to do the things you did. You never would have met your mother. Your father. Hephaestus, Eunomia… none of them.”

  “I’d just be a vigilante,” I said quietly, remembering what I’d said to Nain earlier that morning. How I’d wished for that exact thing.

  “You wouldn’t have Zoe, because the only reason you have Zoe was because you were tracking a spirit daemon and happened upon her. You wouldn’t have Hades. Get it? Everything you have, you have because Astaroth made a move on you at Hermes’ behest—”

  “Can you see the future?” I asked him.

  “The future doesn’t exist yet. There is no seeing it,” he said. “I can travel the present, the past. Times that have existed and already been lived, or are currently being lived. The future doesn’t exist until we create it.”

  “Oh. Too bad,” I said.

  “Tell me about it,” he said. “Don’t forget what I said. Please,” he said.

  “I won’t. Thanks,” I told him. Before he could say anything else to me, I rematerialized back to the loft. When I got there, I clasped the chain around my neck, double-checked the bag I’d packed for myself and Nain. I checked in on him to find him still sleeping. I double-checked our hotel reservation and found that my mother had sent me several photos of Zoe and Hades with her, E, Brennan, and Sean in Paris. I kissed the screen, typed a quick message to my mom, then turned the phone off.

  Time to wake Nain up and get this weird trip started.

  Chapter Six

  After I woke Nain up, I waited for him to get dressed, feeling like a kid on Christmas morning. I’d quickly glamoured myself so he wouldn’t see the amulet. I wanted this to be a surprise.

  “So where are we going? What should I pack?” I asked him.

  “I already packed for you,” I said.

  “That’s… very domestic of you, Molls,” he said with a smirk.

  “I’ll be baking cookies before you know it.”

  He snorted and shook his head. “I thought we ruled that out last time the oven caught fire.”

  I grinned and flipped the bird at him, and he laughed again. “Are you ready? Can we go now?”

  Nain nodded and I hopped up and down on the balls of my feet a little. “Let’s go!”

&nb
sp; He grabbed the two vintage suitcases I’d packed and left by the door, commenting about how nice it was that I like old shit.

  We left the Netherwoods, my demon guards watching us unhappily as we walked away. I’d forbidden them from coming and guarding us. They listened, of course, but I could feel how much they disliked it. I took Nain’s hand and led him down the path that would take us just out of the Netherwoods. There was a secured parking garage there, and my car, my black Barracuda that I’d gotten long before I’d ever met Nain, was parked, gleaming under the garage lights.

  “Are we going far?” Nain asked as he opened the trunk and put the suitcases in.

  “Not too far.”

  He peered at me over the roof of the car as he opened the door on the passenger side. “You’re being weirdly mysterious.”

  “Surprises can be fun sometimes.”

  “Usually not, though.”

  “This time, it will be. Now stop being a grumpy old man and get in the car.” I slid into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. Nain climbed in beside me. I turned the radio on and nineties rock blared from the speakers. Nain shook his head and I laughed. I roared out of the garage and soon we were heading toward downtown Detroit, skyscrapers in the distance.

  This was so weird. Driving anywhere was rare enough, because we can just rematerialize wherever we want to go. Going somewhere and knowing that no one there was waiting for me or Nain to save the day, and going somewhere without the kids or my family or my demon and imp guards with me… it was like a whole new world.

  I’d forgotten how easy it was to move around when no one gave a shit what I was doing with my time.

  I snaked through the streets, and soon we were in our old neighborhood. We both craned our necks so we could see the upper floor of our building, the one where the loft Nain had lived in for so long was located. The windows of the loft were lit up; Ada, Stone, and the new team members were still living there.

  “We can stop in if you want,” Nain said, and I shook my head. He was silent but I could feel him looking at me. I turned to glance at him.