The Demon Inside Me

by Christopher Nelson

  Caleb was first on his feet. "Take Anna and run!" He held a hand up and a silver shield shimmered into place. The intolerable heat immediately lessened. In his other hand, his sword appeared, swinging into line with the Duke.

  "Wait!" Tink screamed as I scooped her off the ground and sprinted toward the other end of the house. "Stop! We can't leave him!"

  I kicked a door down without pausing, finding myself in another hallway. To our left, the kitchen, to our right, the foyer. What was at the opposite end of the house? I heard glass shatter behind us. Tink swore viciously. "He can take care of himself," I said.

  "You god damned coward!"

  "Shut up," I snapped. "He's buying time for you. Do you really think I'd leave him if he hadn't told me to save your ass?"

  "You'd-"

  "No, I wouldn't!" I kicked another door down. Large garage. Expensive cars. Whoever owned this place was going to get one hell of an insurance settlement. "Why don't you trust me for once?"

  "Because you're a demon!" she shrieked.

  I stopped and put her down on her feet, then jabbed a claw at her forehead, right between her eyes. "Fine. I give up. I'm a demon. Call me whatever you want, Tinkerbell, but remember one thing. I'm your partner. Contracted and bound."

  She swelled up, but then her eyes went wide. I grabbed her hand and dove sideways, pulling her with me. Hellfire roared past her, slamming into the far end of the garage. If that ignited a gas tank, things could get ugly. I pulled her with me and blew the garage doors open with a spark of my own hellfire, then threw her through the opening.

  "Your Choir friend is not going to be of any more assistance in this fight," the Duke said as he strode into the garage. Ichor was dripping from his face, a long slash scored across his cheek. There were other wounds on his chest and arms, but nothing that seemed serious. "Halfbreed, this fight is over. You can't stand against me alone, and you certainly cannot stand against my partner as well. This is your last chance. Step away. Take the girl. I have no desire to kill either of you. You show remarkable promise. An audacious halfbreed could be useful in the coming conflict. We cannot weaken the Host with internal conflict, not when the Choir stands ready to bring war."

  "You didn't show much restraint when killing her conclave," I pointed out. "From the way you slaughtered them, it looks almost as if you enjoyed it."

  "A necessary sacrifice. I had to remove those who could stop us."

  "How could they have stopped you? You! Your power! How is a conclave of human mages a threat?"

  "Knowledge," he hissed.

  "Well, I know, and she knows, and you're willing to let us live, aren't you? Why couldn't you suffer them to live?"

  His eyes flickered for a second. Just for a second. "That was not my decision."

  "Wait, you're someone else's bitch?" He puffed up. I kept talking. "You're obeying someone else? You, a Duke of House Lucifer? Isn't pride one of your hallmarks? Where is your pride, your Grace? Where is your pride in obeying someone else?"

  He roared and I decided it was time to cut and run. I had been holding another spark of hellfire in reserve, and I tossed it toward one of the cars, aiming to cut right through to the gas tank. I succeeded and flames burst from the car, thick gasoline smoke flooding the garage. I charged for the gap in the garage door, but my instincts told me to hit the deck before I got there. Hellfire streaked inches over my head, taking another chunk out, giving me even more room to escape.

  Tink was shouting something at me as I dove out through the smoke. I waved her off and coughed. Even demons needed air. Well, I did. I hoped the Duke did as well.

  "Did you get him?" she shouted at me again. I looked at her. Was she nuts? The house burned behind her, flames clearly visible through the windows. Where was Caleb? I heard a crash behind me and put him out of my mind. The Duke had just clawed his way clean through the remnants of the garage door, cutting through steel like paper.

  "I tire of this game," he growled. "Will you accept my terms, human? Your halfbreed doesn't appear to entertain the concept of independent thought."

  "Fuck you, demon."

  "Your spirit is admirable. Truly, I will regret killing you."

  She responded with a phrase in demonic that I had never taught her. It even took the Duke aback for a moment. "Did I get that right?" she muttered to me.

  "Perfectly," I assured her.

  The Duke roared with laughter. In the distance, I heard a siren start to howl. Someone had noticed the smoke and fire. "Girl, I regret the need to do this."

  He stepped toward her, but I stepped between them and spread my arms. "I won't let you do this, your Grace. You're making a mistake."

  The Duke didn't waste breath arguing. He swiped at me with his claws, expecting me to dodge, to let him move past me. I didn't move. I didn't flinch. I didn't even blink.

  I was on the ground. My chest felt warm, uncommonly warm in the cool night air. I wanted to lift my head and survey the damage, but refrained. Instead, I concentrated on bringing ichor to the wound. "I am sorry, halfbreed," the Duke said. He didn't sound terribly put out. The insults must have gotten to him. "And now, for you, girl."

  "Wait!" I felt Tink kneel next to me. "Demon, are you going to live?"

  I heard glass shatter from the direction of the house and the renewed roar of flames. The sirens were getting closer. Maybe another five minutes before they got here. Plenty of time. "Don't think so. It's getting dark. Quiet. I can see a tunnel and a light at the end of it."

  "Are you kidding me? You can't die from a couple of scratches."

  I smiled up at her. "Remember how we met?"

  "Sure. I stuck a knife in you."

  "I bled for you."

  "And?"

  "I'm bleeding again."

  The Duke stepped toward her. "Girl, your time is up."

  She placed her hand on my chest and pushed herself up. I grunted. That hurt. Was that really necessary? Damn bitch. A crafty bitch, but a bitch nonetheless. "No, demon. Your time is up."

  I pushed myself up on my elbows and glanced down. Ichor rolled down my chest, steaming and stinking. My transformation was already fading away, the ichor circulating through my system not enough to keep it up. When I looked up, Tink had her hand wide in the air, steam rising from the ichor coating her fingers and palm. She was drawing a symbol with her entire hand, leaving a glowing green trail. The Duke had paused, not aware of what exactly was about to happen.

  For my part, I didn't know what was about to happen either, but I was sure it was going to be spectacular. She finished the runic pattern, the same one she had used on Caleb. With her free hand, she drew her knife. "That's for him," she said, indicating me with the point. "This is for me, for my friends, for my family." She slashed her palm open, letting her blood mix with my ichor.

  "You think your magic will save you, girl?" the Duke asked. He tapped his chest. "Then try it. Take your best shot."

  She didn't say anything. That wasn't her style. She drew the flat of her palm back and then slammed it into the rune floating in midair. Her blood and my ichor mixed, linked, amplified, powered her spell.

  The night lit up with a swirl of green and red energy and a stream of power flashed out, as wide as a tree trunk, as bright as the sun, fury given voice. The roaring torrent slammed full on into the Duke, splashing red and green sparks in all directions. A blast of wind, horrifying hurricane force, blew back at Tink. Her golden hair whipped out, straight backwards, flying wildly and threatening to take her away, but she stood her ground and forced more power into the spell. The colors intensified, filling the night with unnatural color and sound.

  The Duke roared, not in anger, but in pain. The roar pitched higher and higher until it was an agonizing shriek. If it hadn't been for the roar of the magic drowning out some of his scream, it might have been fatal for her. Still she kept her stance, though I could see her trembling. I had to dig my hands into the ground in order to keep myself in place.

  Movement. I turned my head
. Caleb walked toward her from behind, one arm raised against the terrible wind. Step by step he walked toward her, the sword clutched in one hand, the other hanging limp by his side. I tensed as he reached her, but his sword vanished and he put his good hand on her shoulder. From my position on the ground, I couldn't see clearly, but I thought I saw her smile.

  The force pouring from her hand doubled, tripled in intensity. The Duke's agony reached a crescendo before falling silent. She kept the spell powered for another handful of seconds, then clenched her fist. The rune sparked and died between her fingers. The wind blew itself out and her long blonde hair fluttered back in place, her hairband still hanging on somehow. Sirens still filled the night and we could still hear the roar of flames behind us, but in comparison, it seemed almost silent.

  Then a roar split the night again and hellfire flashed to earth in front of Tink and Caleb. The concussion sent them flying and I rolled on my side to avoid any stray sparks. Heat and rage washed over me. "That's not enough. Not enough!"

  I sat back up. The Duke was still on his feet. I didn't know how. His flesh was blown away. His red eyes burned in dark sockets, his bones were blindingly white, and his wing stumps were skeletal frames of what they had been. Even without skin and muscle, infernally reinforced ligaments held his bones together. Ichor streaked down his skull from his glowing eye sockets, as if he was weeping blood. He was burning any ichor he had left in order to survive. "Not enough," he said. "Never enough."

  "How could you live through that?" I pushed myself to my feet. My hands shook. This was a nightmare given life. If that sort of power hadn't killed him, what could?

  "Halfbreed," the Duke rasped. How could he even speak? He didn't have a throat! "This power. You planned. A trap."

  "This isn't possible," I said.

  "Leave you alive. To teach us. This power." He took a step forward, toward where Caleb and Tink lay stunned. "Our victory. Understand. Halfbreed. You will. Be exalted."

  I didn't even consciously do it. I just found myself standing between him and them, my arms spread wide, ichor mixed with blood running down my chest, my body returned to its fully human state. "I don't care about being exalted," I said. "You'll have to kill me to get to her. I won't let you."

  The Duke stood still for a moment, then pointed bleached white claws at me. His halting speech cleared somewhat, as if his organs were already regenerating. Something was going on behind his ribcage. I could see movement. "If you insist. I know what you did. I know your secret now, halfbreed. It will lead us to dominion."

  "Not likely." I heard a bang, the sound of a gunshot, a crunch. The Duke's eyes darkened and he fell to his knees. I hadn't expected to be saved. I hadn't seen anyone approach. Considering who it was, I would have expected to have seen her from a mile away. Becky's pistol was pointed right at the back of the Duke's head, a foot or so away. Even as I watched, she pulled the trigger again. Even demonic bone, reinforced to be many times denser than human bone, breaks under enough force. Hitting it repeatedly with a .45 caliber handgun round was more than sufficient. I heard his skull shatter and he slumped forward to the ground.

  "Becky?" I asked. "Why didn't you get somewhere safe? Like I told you?"

  "You upset?"

  "Not particularly."

  She planted a foot on the Duke's spine, holding him in place. I winced as I saw his arms claw forward, as if he was trying to crawl toward me. "I thought you might need some help. Looks like I was right. How do I kill this thing?"

  "Keep shooting?"

  She ground her foot down and lowered the barrel. She put another three rounds into the skull, lining up each shot at point blank range. The clawed arms twitched, then lay still. For good measure, she aimed lower and put a final shot right where the spine met the base of the skull. "Good enough?" she asked, as if shooting a demonic Duke to death was just a mildly interesting new pastime.

  I limped over and tapped the skull with my foot. The glow in the eyes was gone. If he wasn't dead, he was doing a damn good job of hiding it. "I think you might have gotten him."

  "Move your foot and I'll put another in the skull, just to be sure."

  I did, and she did. We stood there for a minute, listening to sirens grow ever closer, watching the skeleton of the Duke smoke. "Where's your truck?" I asked.

  "Parked a couple of houses over," she said. "Can you make it?"

  "I'm fine," I said. I had already stopped the bleeding and numbed the pain. "I'm more worried about them."

  We walked over to where Caleb and Tink lay. Caleb was stirring, but Tink looked like she was out cold. That spell had taken a lot out of her. Even as we stood over him, Caleb looked up. His eyes were bright silver and purity dripped down his face. His wings and clothes were blackened, but nowhere near as badly as a day before. "How are you feeling?" I asked.

  "I'm growing to dislike being burned," he said. "The Duke? Anna?"

  "The Duke's dead," I said, gesturing to Becky. She held her gun up with a grin. "Anna looks like she's ok. Poor girl probably just needs a rest. God knows I do."

  Caleb chuckled and started to get to his feet, then staggered. Becky moved to help him, but he waved her off. "Let's get out of here. I don't want to answer questions."

  I could see flashing lights down the road, sirens blaring. Becky stooped down to pick up Tink, but I grabbed her shoulder. She looked up at me, then backed off and walked to Caleb. I could hear her muttering something to him, then they set off across a field. I knelt down next to Tink and turned her onto her back. Her eyes were closed and her cheek was bruised, and there was dirt all over her. I brushed some of it off and scooped her up. "Silly girl," I said, even though I knew she couldn't hear me. "This wasn't what you expected when you stabbed me, was it?"

  The sirens fell silent. The cops were here. I jogged off and melted into the shadows.

  Chapter Twelve

  Outside the church, it wasn't snowing yet. I had felt it on the way inside, smelled it on the air. More snow was on the way. More snow to add to the two feet of glittering white hell on the ground already. The window rattled, the wind picking up. It was cold. Too damn cold.

  "Here," Jase said. He handed me a steaming cup of hot chocolate, a candy cane already melting into it. "Looks like you could use something warm. Been a rough few weeks, hasn't it?"

  I clutched the cup between my hands and soaked in the warmth. "Rough. That's one way to put it, I suppose."

  "How would you put it?"

  I pushed the candy cane out of line with my eye and took a sip. "Tense. When you have that much attention focused on you, it's tense."

  Jase took a seat across from me and wrapped his hands around his own cup. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly.

  "That's why I came here," I said. "Don't look so surprised. I trust your judgment and your intelligence. I wanted to get your thoughts on this before I went home. I feel like I'm missing something."

  "There's more to it than that."

  "You're right. I wanted to talk with you without others overhearing," I said. My fingers tightened around my cup. "Not Caleb. Even if we get along, he's still an angel. I can't tell him about some things. I don't want other demons listening in either. That's why I came here for sanctuary. Peace. Quiet. Warmth. Especially warmth."

  "What about Anna?"

  "I'll tell her later." Not bloody likely.

  "All right." I could tell by his tone, he didn't believe me. He wouldn't press me on it, though. That was why I came here in the first place. "So, you defeated the Duke?"

  It had been a month and a half since that fight. "Caleb, Tink, and I fought him. We surprised him with our secret weapon, but he barely survived it. Becky stepped in and shot him in the back of the head before he could recover. It was funny. A Duke of House Lucifer, brought down by a mere human with a gun. How the mighty fall, eh, Pastor?"

  "A David and Goliath story, so to speak?"

  "With Becky, it was more like Goliath versus Goliath."

  He smiled.
"I'd like to meet her at some point. What happened after that?"

  "We piled into Becky's truck, drove back to my apartment, and licked our wounds. Tink was exhausted, Caleb was burned, and I was cut up and lost a lot of blood. I think they were waiting for something like this to happen. They came for me within a day. An imp phased in the next evening and announced that I was summoned to trial, charged with the death of Duke Deshavin of House Lucifer."

  Jase frowned. "They simply called you to trial? They didn't arrest you?"

  "Where would I go? If I hadn't gone to the trial, they would have sent a troop of imps right to me to drag me off. We can't hide from them." Kibs had barely shown his face for the entire trial, the coward. I couldn't blame him, though. He was too involved.

  "I see. And so, you went?"

  I nodded. "It was a simple charge to dismiss, but it was only the first one. No one actually believed that I could have done it. A halfblood doesn't stand a chance against a full demon, let alone a Duke. He didn't try very hard to kill me, he kept trying to talk me down. House Lucifer didn't want me dead. They didn't want to provoke hostilities. So, they pushed on that charge for a while, trying to get me to reveal some sort of power source. I told them to look at his remains. Look how he died, shot in the back of the head. I didn't do it."

  "I assume they didn't buy it."

  I shook my head. "They bought it completely and raised new charges. Now they claimed I had revealed the War to Becky without cause, breaking the Pact."

  "Ah, yes," Jase said. "Information, a capital crime."

  "Is that sarcasm?"

  "Perhaps. Did you tell her?"

  "No," I said. "She didn't know a damn thing about it. They didn't believe me, so they had to get a statement from her. They sent me with the House Lucifer inquisitor and a trio of imps from the Consortium to ask her. That was an interesting conversation. The inquisitor had to dance around the topic, since if he had asked her straight out, he could have been found guilty of revealing the information to her. I knew it, he knew it, the imps knew it. She took it all in stride, even told them she shot the Duke. That ended that."