“You’d trust a she-demon with a mission this important?”
Without warning, black smoke belched from Satan’s horns. “I’d trust any demon down here before I’d trust you.” His face turned burgundy with rage as he leaned across the desk.
“What’s the problem?” Belial assumed his most clueless expression.
“You don’t think I bought that pathetic performance, did you? I knew when you were here the last time you were scheming to betray me.” Satan seemed to grow in size, but Belial refused to cringe.
“You fell in love with her.” Satan’s words were a howl of rage. Love, in any form, was forbidden in Hell.
Belial didn’t try to deny it. “So what happens next?” He didn’t much care, but he did want to stick around long enough to know Dara would be all right.
“It depends on how this wager turns out,” Satan said. “If I win, you’ll start over at the bottom. And by ‘start over,’ I mean you’ll lick dung off the asses of dirt demons for the rest of eternity. If I lose, I’ll rebuild morale by letting all of Hell watch your execution.”
Belial rolled his eyes in pretended terror, but on the inside, he drew a breath of relief. It was everything he’d hoped for.
Satan pushed a button on his desk, and two hulking demons came through the door. “Put him in the spider hole.”
When Gabby buzzed to say Lilith was at the front desk, Dara was ready. She needed to determine once and for all whether Lilith was a demon. In the top drawer of her desk was a baggie of demonweed, a spray bottle of holy water and Granddad’s Bible. She also had her ruby cross. Surely one of them would expose Lilith’s demon side.
She laced her fingers and hoped Gabby would remember what she was supposed to do next.
The tip-tap of stilettos sounded in the hall. Lilith appeared in the doorway.
“Are you all right?” Her voice oozed concern.
Whether Lilith was a demon or not, Dara really didn’t want to open up to her. “Thank you for managing the press this morning.”
“That’s my job.” Lilith shrugged the shoulders of her silk suit. “It’s also what friends are for. And despite whatever’s been going on between us lately, I still consider you a friend.”
“And I appreciate that.” Dara gave her a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, putting the ball back in Lilith’s court.
Lilith drove it straight back at her. “You’re angry at me for lying about Ben.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Lilith said. “I handled things badly. You were so infatuated I didn’t think you’d listen to my real concerns about him.”
“And what were your real concerns about him?”
“That’s the problem. I was never able to formulate them into anything that made any sense. Something about him felt off.”
“Where was all this women’s intuition when I was trying to get you to back me in keeping him out of the clinic?” Dara injected just a touch of bitterness into her voice, amazed at her own talent for guile.
Lilith spread her hands. “You’re right. You tried to tell me. But it wasn’t until that night that he got you so drunk and tried to take advantage of you that I saw him for who he was.”
Dara stopped just short of snorting. “You were the one who set those drinks in front of me.”
Lilith’s cheeks flushed. “After that first drink, I ordered virgin iced teas for you. Ben must have bribed the bartender to spike them.”
That night was a bit of a blur, but Dara was pretty sure she’d been drunk long before Ben arrived. She pasted on the foolish smile of a woman who will accept any behavior from her boyfriend. “He probably did.”
“Whatever happened that night?” Lilith hovered in the doorway, too far away for tossed demonweed or sprayed holy water to reach her.
“I threw up all over his shoes.” Dara let a gleam of amusement pierce her somber expression, hoping she wasn’t overplaying it.
Lilith laughed out loud. “Good on you.”
“He really was a jerk back then,” she Dara said.
“Back then?” Lilith looked outraged. “What about now? Almost killing that old lady and leaving you to face the consequences. That’s pretty bad.”
“How do you know he’s gone?” Because you’re a demon, that’s how.
“It’s all over the hospital that he isn’t responding to phone calls or texts.” Lilith held out her hands in spurious sympathy. “Oh, Dara—I’m so sorry. After the poker tournament this weekend, I thought you two might make a go of it. He seemed different when he was around you.”
“He was different.” Dara shrugged. “Just not different enough.”
“What will you do? They’re saying one of the medical students said Ben was drunk last night.”
They had reached a critical juncture. Dara’s hand closed on the drawer handle. “He hadn’t been drinking. Ben has a condition that causes undigested food in his intestinal tract to make alcohol.”
She told the falsehood as coolly as if she lied all the time. Anger flashed from Lilith’s eyes, quickly replaced by sympathy.
“Did he tell you that? Because of the hospital’s exposure, I did a background check on him. He’s had two DUIs over the past four years.”
Dara let go of the drawer handle. She didn’t need demonweed or holy water or a Bible to tell her Lilith was a demon. Her instinct told her that.
“I guess it will all come down to what Andrew has to say,” she said. “Fortunately, he’s a member of my grandparents’ church. He visits Nana all the time.” She tapped her lip, as though suddenly remembering something. “In fact, I think he’s scheduled to go there this evening after the clinic.”
“Well, that’s good.” Lilith looked relieved, but that was just another lie. “Sounds like you’ve got everything covered.”
Dara smiled. “I think I do.”
When Lilith arrived at the nursing home, Dara would be there with Nana, waiting. Together they would take this she-demon down.
As soon as Lilith walked out the door, Tia came into Dara’s office.
“What in the world happened last night?” she asked.
Dara looked at the clock. Lilith’s safest bet for catching Nana alone was after dinner, when the staff were occupied settling the residents into their rooms for the night, but Dara didn’t want to take any chances.
She gave the nurse practitioner a brief summary of events and picked up her purse.
“This will all blow over,” she said. And it would, assuming Nana was successful in convincing Andrew of the demonic attack. “Can you start triage for me?” she asked. “I need to run over to Mercy Care and check on my grandmother.”
Tia left to start triage. Dara drew a sigh of relief, but she only made it as far as her office door before she encountered another obstacle.
The president of her board of trustees blocked her way. He talked for five minutes without drawing a breath.
“Why did you let him see patients when you knew he’d been drinking?” he finished.
“He wasn’t drinking.” Dara checked her watch. “I don’t know how that rumor got started.”
“Several people have come forward to say they heard Andrew tell you Ben Lyle was drunk.”
The demons were way ahead of her. Dara gritted her teeth. She’d figure that out later. Right now, her top priority was getting to Nana’s before Lilith did.
She edged her way around the man.
“I just got a call from my grandmother’s nursing home,” she said. “I have to go.”
He looked annoyed but moved out of her way.
She hurried out the door, only to find a dozen reporters milling around outside.
“That’s her!” one yelled, and they swarmed her.
Her increasingly frantic “no comments” probably made her look guilty, but she couldn’t think about that right now.
She had to get to Nana.
Chapter 46
Lilith considered waiting until dinner at the nursing home
was over and the residents settled back in their rooms before making her move, but she decided she couldn’t afford to chance Dara showing up. She waited until a couple of aides who had come out to smoke went back in, leaving the back door ajar. She slipped through the gleaming hallways like a wraith until she arrived at Esther’s door.
There she paused. This task required delicacy. She needed to trigger a stroke in the old bitch, one severe enough to keep her from talking to Andrew, but not bad enough to kill her. At least not for another week. The Enemy had been crystal clear on that when he laid out the rules: their side was not permitted to kill anyone close to Dara within the time frame of the wager.
Like a wraith, she opened the door to Esther’s room and stepped inside.
“I wondered when you’d get here.” Esther sat in a recliner ringed with crumbled herbs. Her Bible was open in her lap.
Lilith viewed the demonweed almost with pleasure. She’d waited years for her revenge. The memory still rankled—Esther’s broom striking her head and back until she ran from the room, naked. The herbs would sting, but the pain would make her eventual victory that much sweeter.
A bigger problem was the bottle of what she presumed to be holy water Esther held in her hands. Holy water burned like the fires of Hell. It was impossible to stay on task if you got it in your eyes.
A second problem was the nurse call button draped over Esther’s chair arm. It was one thing to attack a helpless old lady. It was another to be charged with that crime. In the interests of maintaining demonimity, Satan had a strict policy of non-interference. If human law enforcement caught a minion in a crime, they were on their own. And American prisons were worse than at least the top three rings of Hell.
“The years haven’t treated you well, Esther.” Lilith took a step closer. “You look like a plucked chicken.”
“The years have treated me the way God intended.” Esther didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, she wrinkled her nose and sneezed. “And you still smell like a two-dollar whore.”
Rage sizzled through Lilith’s veins.
“I could smell your stink clean out in the hall,” Esther added, taking aim with the bottle of holy water.
Lilith feinted to the right. “You don’t like my perfume? Lonnie loved it. I’ve had a lot of fun the past ten years, torturing Lonnie. I think the worst part for him has been seeing how he wasted his time up here.”
“Lonnie’s in Heaven, enjoying his reward.” There was not a shade of doubt in Esther’s voice. Pious old bitch.
Nearby, a cane leaned against the wall. Lilith picked it up and tossed it from one hand to the other, checking it for heft. She couldn’t use it to bash Esther’s skull in, the way she’d like to, but it might serve another purpose. She raised it over her head threateningly.
When Esther lifted her arms to shield her face, Lilith caught the cord to the nurse call button with the head of the cane and dragged it off the chair arm. She kicked it under the bed before darting back out of range.
“That’s better. We wouldn’t want to be interrupted.”
Esther grabbed a handful of herbs off her table tray and tossed them, but they fell harmlessly short. She took a deep breath.
“Demon, I command you to return to Hell from whence you came. Lord, I call upon you to send your presence to banish this evil spirit.” She launched into a long, chanting prayer that was like ten thousand fingernails on ten thousand blackboards.
Lilith gritted her teeth. She would not be vanquished. Only one of them could win this confrontation, and it would be her. A win here, tonight, would show the boss she had what it took to succeed where Belial had failed.
“Your slut of a granddaughter has grown quite cozy with her demon boyfriend,” she said.
A tiny flicker of Esther’s eyelids was the only sign that she’d heard. Her prayers grew more intense. She slipped into the hypnotic state that was the hallmark of an open conduit to the Enemy. Lilith felt herself being pressed back, back. Without knowing quite how it happened, she found herself pinned against the wall, barely able to move.
“He bought her, bedded her and corrupted her.” She pitched her voice to be heard over Esther’s prayers, but the old woman didn’t shut up. Lilith needed to get closer, to make skin-to-skin contact, so that she could fire a stream of images of Dara having sex with Belial into Esther’s brain. The crude pictures would do the trick.
Esther’s voice strengthened as she said, “Lord, smite this she-demon. Smite her, hip and thigh.”
What felt like an axe handle slammed into Lilith’s hip joint. Her leg crumpled beneath her. Esther grunted with satisfaction. A typhoon of fury gusted through Lilith. She would not let this old hag best her again. Not with so much at stake. With the help of the cane, she dragged herself back to her feet.
She needed to get closer. “Dara will spend eternity roasting in Hell for opening her legs to a demon,” she taunted Esther.
Esther’s lip curled. “If every woman who ever slept with a bad boy was sent to burn in Hell, Satan would have run out of fuel long ago.”
“This isn’t just any bad boy. This is Belial, Satan’s right-hand man, the chief executive demon of Hell.”
“He’s changed since he’s been with Dara.”
Lilith rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Spare me the fairy tale of the scoundrel redeemed by a good woman’s love. Every woman who ever fell for that did wind up in Hell, and it’s cost us a fortune.”
Esther returned to her prayers. “Heavenly Father, please care for my granddaughter and make her an implement of your will.” As she chanted, her eyes closed.
That was all Lilith needed. She lunged forward with the cane and sent the bottle of holy water flying. Esther’s eyes flew open at the sound of the bottle hitting the floor.
Ignoring the peppery sting of the herbs, Lilith broke the circle with her shoe. She wrapped her fingers around Esther’s frail wrist. Before the old woman could pull free, Lilith fired a stream of images straight into her cerebral cortex—images of Dara having sex with Belial in the most wanton ways possible.
Esther gasped. She touched her throat, as though searching for something. Whatever it was, she didn’t find it.
Beneath Lilith’s fingers, the old woman’s pulse jumped and raced. Lilith willed the blood thundering through Esther’s veins to find an age-weakened vessel in her brain and burst through. Instead, Esther tore her wrist free from Lilith’s grasp, rubbing it as though to wipe away the demon’s touch. She was frightened, but defiant.
Lilith needed something more, some coup de grace that would send Esther over the edge.
“Do you know why Belial is here?” she asked. “Why he targeted Dara specifically?”
Beneath the fear on Esther’s face, curiosity flickered. She’d evidently been giving this question a lot of thought.
“He’s here on a bet, between your lord and mine, to see if he can destroy Dara,” Lilith said.
Esther folded her arms. “The Lord would never do that to his child.”
“He did it to Job,” Lilith said.
Esther laced her fingers. “Lord, please protect Dara from the forces of evil.” She tried to reopen the conduit, but fear wouldn’t let her focus. Lilith’s plan was working.
“He can’t protect her. That would be against the rules.” Lilith smiled as she delivered the final blow. “Your beloved Lord chose Dara as a pawn in a wager with Satan.”
She hovered, waiting for Esther to crumple, but Esther straightened her spine like she was being drawn by an invisible force.
“God chose my Dara?”
“That he did.”
Joy suffused Esther’s face. “Just like he chose Job; just like he chose Mary. He chose my Dara because he knew she was his faithful handmaiden.”
Lilith was so frustrated she wanted to scream. What would it take to break the old bat? She lifted the cane and brought it down in a slashing arc. She planned to whip it sideways at the last minute, missing Esther entirely, but Esther surged from her chai
r and met the stroke head-on. Under the momentum of the slashing cane, her fragile skull shattered. Blood flew everywhere.
Horrified, Lilith checked her swing, but it was too late. Esther slumped to the floor. A quick check revealed no pulse.
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Satan would be furious. Lilith would be lucky if she escaped with a century in the maggot pit. Word on the rings was that he was threatening to execute Belial if he screwed up this mission. And he liked Belial.
In the circle of pooling blood, Esther’s Bible lay, face up, open to Psalms. All demons were familiar with the contents of the Bible—to subvert the law, you had to know the law. Relief washed through her as she spied her way out. She wiped down the cane, placed it in Esther’s stiffening hand and slipped back out the way she’d come.
Dara drove to Mercy Care like a madwoman. When she didn’t see Lilith’s Miata in the parking lot, her shoulders sagged in relief. She inhaled the first full breath she’d taken since Lilith left her office.
What would be the best way to approach Andrew when he arrived? Nana was convinced that, since his family attended Deliverance Mission Church, he would be on their side, but Dara wasn’t sure it would be so easy.
Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw nurses and aides hurrying toward Nana’s room. She ran down the long hallway. An aide tried to hold her back, but she pushed her way past. Inside, Nana lay face down on the floor in a pool of blood. Dara’s heart seemed to stop in her chest.
“Nana!” she screamed. Gathering the old woman’s shoulders in her arms, she tried to roll Nana over so she could see her face. A pair of aides grabbed her by the arms and dragged her away.
“She must have fallen and hit her face on her cane.” The nurse touched Dara’s wrist gently.
The nurse was at a loss to explain why Nana’s call button was under the bed. She was at an even greater loss to explain why a mixture of dried herbs ringed Nana’s chair and why a bottle of what appeared to be tap water lay on the floor. In one spot, the water had soaked the herbs, leaving a faint scent of anise in the room. The staff couldn’t explain these things, but Dara knew exactly what they meant.
The Demon Always Wins: Touched by a Demon, Book 1 Page 31
