Demons of Christmas Past: A Hidden Novella

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “I’m sure you were nuts before I ever met you.”

  “I love it when you make me chase you, baby,” Nain said. “Mostly because I know how bad you want to be caught.”

  I gave him the finger as I kept walking and I heard him laugh again. I reached the restaurant and he hurried forward, opening the door for me with a smirk.

  Lunch was mostly him being a horny, flirtatious ass and me trying to ignore him or risk giving into the desire to ride him right then and there. It was exhausting and ridiculous and I never wanted it to end. We walked out of the restaurant, his arm around my waist.

  “So we’re going to meet Brennan’s dad next, right?” I asked, and he nodded, squeezing my waist.

  “Sean. Yeah.”

  “Brennan named his son after him. I never realized that,” I said, and Nain nodded again.

  “What’s he like?” I asked him.

  “He’s a lot like Brennan in some ways. Ridiculously good fighter. Honorable. But he doesn’t have Brennan’s laidback attitude. He’s more like a drill sergeant.”

  “And how did you two become friends?” I asked. They sounded like exact opposites. Except for the fact that they were both hardasses. Maybe that was enough to build a friendship on.

  “We were both chasing down the same werewolf asshole one night and teamed up to take him down. We worked together more often after that and just kind of started hanging around even when we weren’t working. He was on my team from the mid-twenties until the day he died. First person I trusted with who I am, first member of what became my team. I never planned any of that shit, until I started working with Sean. Then it just made sense to find other allies and work together.”

  We took a streetcar to a small apartment building not too far away and he rang the bell. A few moments later, a man that could have been Brennan’s double opened the door. He nodded and shook Nain’s hand firmly.

  “Sean McDougall, this is my friend, Molly Brooks,” Nain said. Sean gave me a small bow and gently shook my hand.

  “Pleasure to meet you, Miss Brooks,” he said. I realized that Brennan’s voice was deeper. And Bren was a little taller than his dad had been. My heart ached a little. I wished Brennan could have this experience.

  “It’s nice to meet you, too,” I told him. Sean glanced at Nain, and then back at me, and motioned for us to follow him. He offered us both coffee, and I excused myself to use the bathroom. I wanted to give Nain time with his old friend without him worrying about including me in the conversation. I could feel the sadness mixed with happiness when he’d seen Sean. I wondered if he’d try to warn Sean about how he’d die. Warn him to be careful or something like that. Death is a weird thing. The Fates explained it once: the moment of mortals’ death is set at the moment of their birth. There is no changing it. If death doesn’t happen one way, it will happen another.

  Sometimes, in the case of Nain or Brennan, when they’d had a lot of involvement with immortals, the terms of their death change. Brennan would likely never die, with all of the immortal blood in his veins. Nain… well, Nain was mine. He’d never die. I wouldn’t let him. And since I’m the god of death, I do actually have some control over that. Plus, he’d bonded to me, an immortal. He was basically one of us now. And I was glad of it. Eternity wouldn’t be long enough.

  I quietly opened the bathroom door. I would have felt guilty for eavesdropping except that I knew Nain sensed me nearby.

  “I’m saying this because I’d rather not see you die, Nain,” Sean was saying. “That woman, demon, whatever it is you think she is, she is much more than what she claims to be. You have to be able to feel that. Jesus, I feel like I’m about to vomit, just being near her.”

  “Rude, Sean,” Nain said.

  “You know I don’t mean it that way. And I would rather not say anything at all. It’s nice to see you with someone, but… I just feel like this is going to be trouble. There is no way she’ll be able to stay hidden from the rest of those in the city who can sense her. And you know they’ll see her as a threat, because she is.”

  “How do you mean?” Nain asked quietly.

  “She could destroy any one of us with a wave of her hand. Except for you, maybe. You feel… different,” Sean said slowly. “Perhaps it’s just the result of being around her so much.”

  “That must be it,” Nain said.

  “Just be careful, pal. That’s all. This city needs you.”

  “It needs her, too. More than it knows,” Nain said, and I knew that was for me more than Sean. I took a breath and stepped into the kitchen. Both men stood up until I was seated, and then they settled back in.

  “So you two have come up against the Purple Gang a few times, I gather?” I asked, taking a sip of the coffee Sean had poured for me.

  “Several,” Sean said. “It was bad enough when we just thought they were typical gangsters. A little digging, and it became clear that there are demons in charge of the operation. Bad demons, I mean,” he said, clarifying, giving me a sheepish look that was so much like his son that I found myself staring. I had to force myself to look away.

  “Are you quite all right?” Sean asked me.

  “Yes. Why?”

  “You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  I looked at him. All I could do was shake my head. Nain was watching me, and Sean shot a look at him.

  “All right. I have been patient. What in the world is going on?” Sean demanded. “The truth now.”

  “I told you the truth. Mostly,” Nain said.

  Sean stared at his friend, and when Nain wasn’t forthcoming with more, Sean blew out an irritated breath. “All right. The part that wasn’t true, then,” he said.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Nain said.

  “Try me. I also wouldn’t have believed I’d be friends with the Nain Rouge, scourge of Detroit, and yet here I am,” Sean said.

  Nain looked at me.

  “I’m from the future,” I blurted out.

  Sean looked at me as if I had just sprouted horns, and I honestly didn’t blame him.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m from the future. And so is this Nain. He wanted to see you again.”

  Sean was about to say something, and then the truth behind what I’d just said seemed to hit him.

  “See me again, eh?” he asked quietly. I felt fear from him, along with resignation. This was a man who almost expected every day to be his last. A warrior. Nain was the same way. “How?”

  “Being a pain in the ass to a cell of demons,” Nain answered quietly. “You saved a household full of humans that they were holding hostage. Stormed the house, got the humans out safely.” Nain met my eyes and he sighed. “You and your wife.”

  Sean sat back and closed his eyes and I wiped tears out of my eyes.

  “I’m not married, Nain,” he said in a shaky voice.

  “You will be. And she’ll be the best thing that ever happened to you. You’ll be willing to give your life to make her happy, and she’ll feel the same about you. And you’ll fight side by side, and you’ll die the same way.”

  The friends exchanged a glance. And then Sean looked at me. “And do I meet you in the future? How do you know me?”

  “I know your son,” I said, my voice almost a whisper.

  Sean stood up and raked his fingers through his blond hair, a gesture I’d seen Brennan make more than a few times. “He’s a good man. A warrior, like you.”

  “Shit. Excuse me,” he said to me apologetically.

  Nain gave a short laugh. “Don’t worry about it. Molly out-curses just about everyone.”

  Sean shook his head. “And what happens to my son after his mother and I die?”

  “I raise him,” Nain said. Sean looked at Nain and then he burst out laughing. He tried to stop, then started again, pointing at Nain, holding his stomach. Nain rolled his eyes.

  “Oh, you had me going,” Sean said, wheezing for breath. “That was good. You two are good at this. Demons are bizarre
.” He laughed again. Nain shook his head. We’d let him think it was a joke. We’d answered, at the very least. “Hoo, boy. That was something,” Sean said with a chuckle. He wiped his eyes and sat back down. “Let’s get back down to business. We know they’re meeting at their usual spot on the Canada side of Belle Isle. One A.M.,” Sean added. “Does that corroborate with what you’ve heard?” he asked Nain.

  Nain nodded. “That’s what I picked up, too.”

  “I heard they hit your building yesterday,” Sean said, and Nain nodded.

  “Yeah. I have to be out by the end of the month.”

  “Well, you know I have room. It’s yours if you want it.”

  “Maybe. I’ll keep it in mind.”

  Sean nodded. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening going over what they knew. They had maps, and they showed me the usual drop-off points for the liquor they smuggled over from Canada.

  “You understand, I don’t care about the booze,” Sean said to me. “Neither does Nain. People can do what they want. I don’t care. Our issue is that the money the Purples take in funds some of their other activities in the city, and that isn’t okay. They strong-arm small businesses, they put hits out on anyone who stands in their way. They’re murderers, when it comes right down to it. If it was just the liquor, we wouldn’t bother with them.”

  “Hell, we’d probably help them,” Nain added, and, after a moment, Sean nodded his assent.

  “Murder, extortion, kidnapping… they’re in every bad business in this city. Drugs, too,” Sean added.

  “Do the demons often show up for these drops?” I asked.

  Sean shrugged. “Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. They know what Nain is, so it seems like they bring them along more often now as insurance in case Nain shows up. I usually handle the humans and Nain deals with the demons.”

  I nodded.

  “They’re watching this place,” Sean said after a few moments. “If we want to surprise them, we should play this off a little.”

  Nain nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. “Well. Let’s make it look like we’re having a night out, then. I’m introducing you to Molly. We can all go out to eat, hit one of the clubs. We can sneak out and get to the docks when they let their guard down.”

  “They’ll be tailing us.”

  Nain glanced at me and smiled. “They won’t be able to follow the way Molly travels.”

  Sean gave me a confused look. “What, do you fly or something?”

  “When I want to,” I said. “But I can also just kind of appear where I want to be. And I can bring people with me.”

  Sean looked at Nain, who nodded to affirm what I’d said. He sighed and shook his head. “Okay, then.”

  “Meet us at my place at eight or so then, right?” Nain said to Sean, who nodded. He saw us out, and we took a streetcar back to Campus Martius, then a cab to Nain’s apartment. I’d offered to rematerialize us a few times, but Nain had just shaken his head.

  “I want to see as much of it as possible while we’re here,” he said when I pushed instead of waiting for a taxi at Campus Martius, and I let it drop. I understood. It was like he was saving every sight, every detail, and I couldn’t blame him. In the cab on the way home, he held my hand, and when we got back to his room, he turned the lights on the tree on and pulled me down on the couch next to him. He held me and I could sense that he was nervous, a little sad.

  “It was hard seeing him again, huh?” I asked, and he nodded. He ran his fingertips up and down my spine, between my wings. I took this opportunity, while we were alone, to drop the glamour that had kept my wings and eyes hidden. It took a little extra energy and I wanted to be at full strength if we ran into any trouble later. “He seems like a good guy.”

  “He is,” Nain answered.

  “I’m sorry I blurted that out. I felt like an asshole lying to him,” I said.

  He gave me a small smile. “It’s okay. I felt the same way. He deserved the truth, even if he doesn’t believe it.”

  We held each other and relaxed. Eventually, I heard Nain start snoring. Despite how energetic he’d seemed at times during this little trip, I could tell he was still feeling more tired than normal. I wondered if Heph had figured out anything about that blade yet. This had to be the result of those injuries.

  I looked up at him. His brow was furrowed, and I fought the urge to smooth it with my fingers. Seeing his friend, thinking about what was in Sean’s future, had been a sobering experience for him. I wished he’d had more time to be flirty, frisky Nain instead of having to immediately slip back into being serious and tense.

  Eventually, I dozed off as well, and when we woke up, the apartment was getting dark. We got up and started getting ready for the night ahead. In the bathroom, I pulled on the black dress the imps had found for me, a flirty, flowy dress of an almost sheer, silky fabric. It left my arms bare, dipped low enough in the front to show just a little cleavage. The waist was cinched with a sash. Nylons on my legs again, and I stepped into a pair of black Mary Janes. I debated about the bucket hat the imps had included, but in the end I decided to put it on.

  When I stepped out, I found Nain waiting for me in a dark suit and I shook my head.

  “That should be illegal,” I muttered, and he smirked and bent to kiss me.

  “You look good enough to lick. Again and again and again,” Nain murmured in my ear and I shook my head.

  “Just think how turned on you’re going to be after we kick some gangster ass later,” I told him and he snorted.

  “Might have to use those nylons to tie you up and have my way with you.”

  “You don’t need to tie me up to do that,” I reminded him.

  “Yeah, but it could be fun anyway.”

  I shook my head and he helped me into my coat. There was a cab waiting at the curb for us, and Nain held the door open for me.

  “Cadieux Cafe,” he said to the driver, who nodded and pulled away from the curb. On the ride over, Nain put his arm around me and spent most of his time whispering filthy things into my ear.

  “Keep it up and the driver’s gonna get a show,” I warned him. He laughed, low and dangerous.

  “I want to show you something. Open your mind for a minute,” he whispered. I looked at him, unsure about this idea in general, but I did it.

  He showed me, in detail, what he wanted to do to me. There were… quite a few things we hadn’t done together yet and some of them were goddamn filthy.

  My entire body was uncomfortably warm and tight. I closed my mind to him.

  “You’re damn dirty,” I whispered.

  “Is that a ‘no?’” he asked.

  “Did you hear me say no?” I asked, and he laughed.

  He went on with his filthy teasing, but he kept his hands to himself and I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or annoyed. I nearly cried with relief when we finally reached the Cadieux Cafe and I was able to climb out of the back seat and away from him for a moment. It wasn’t that I didn’t love every second of it. It was that we weren’t in the type of situation where we could act on it, and every word, every look, every touch set me even more on edge.

  “I love it when you’re like this,” he murmured as he hooked my hand in in his arm and we started walking toward the entrance.

  “Like what?”

  “Ready to give me anything I want as long as I’ll give you some relief,” he said in a calm, neutral tone. “If I told you to bend over right now for me, you would.”

  “I would not,” I argued.

  “Do you really want to test that right now, Molls?” he asked, a dangerous note underlying the pleasant tone he was using. And, like everything else, that made me want him even more.

  “You’re a pain in the ass.”

  “Hm. We haven’t done it that way yet,” he said quietly and I didn’t answer, determined to ignore him. He chuckled and we walked into the club.

  In our time, the Cadieux Cafe was a popular bar famous for serving mussels and European
beers. Now, in 1927, it was one of the city’s thousands of speakeasies. The interior was dark, smoke-filled, and crowded with men and women. There was music coming from somewhere, barely audible under the sounds of talking, glasses clinking, laughter. Nain and I looked around, and I saw Sean stand up and wave us over. We made our way over to him and sat at the small table he’d claimed.

  We spent the next few hours talking and drinking. Well. Nain and Sean talked and drank. I nursed a too-strong drink and watched the people around us. It was like being in a scene from The Great Gatsby. The women were gorgeous and elegant, and the men were both classy and somehow roguish at the same time.

  I paid a minimum of attention to what Nain and Sean were saying. I was glad again that he had this time to catch up with his old friend. Eventually, Nain leaned toward me.

  “Go to the ladies room, at the back of the building. We’ll be back that way in a minute, and then we can take off,” he said in my ear. I nodded and got up. Both men stood when I did, and I gave them a small nod, then headed toward where Nain had gestured.

  I stood in the plush ladies’ room for a couple of minutes before I heard a light tap on the door. I opened it and saw Nain and Sean standing there. They looked around when I took their arms and focused on where I wanted us to end up: the south side of Belle Isle, not too far from the beach. We could stay hidden a bit back until they showed up for the pickup.

  I closed my eyes, pictured the island, and felt the familiar sensation that comes with rematerializing, as if I was being torn apart and then quickly pushed back together again. When we showed up on the beach, Sean bent and gagged.

  “It’s a rough way to travel,” Nain said to him, and Sean waved him off. He stood up a few seconds later and studied me.

  “What the hell kind of demon are you?” he asked, and I shrugged.

  It was hardly any time at all before we saw headlights heading toward the beach, then a light coming from a boat on the river.

  “Give them a minute to gather, then it’s time to play,” Nain murmured. I nodded, glanced at him, then at Sean. I saw the same look on both their faces: excitement, apprehension. Sean loved this just as much as Nain did.