She growled, though it was one of those I’m-so-stupid growls, not a you-look-like-dinner one. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had to mimic a specific person. I guess I’m a bit rusty.”
“Oh trust me, you were very convincing,” I muttered.
A little smile quirked her lips. It was an odd expression on Erin’s face. “But not convincing enough.”
“Had it not become physical, I would have been none the wiser. Which brings me to an interesting point. How did you find out so much about Erin and my relationship with her?” My hands tightened around her wrists.
She glanced at our hands, that little smile still in place. “I could break you in two. Don’t start thinking it’s you keeping us on the floor.” And she did that thing again, that thing with the hips that made me want to forget all recent history.
“It’s okay,” I said with more confidence than I actually felt. “I know who’s in charge here. Now tell me about Erin.”
“You’re not my summoner. I don’t have to answer your questions.”
“You don’t have to, no. But I’m betting you want to.”
The demon laughed, a sound of sour joy. “What do my wants matter? No one cares about them. All I am is a tool to be used and discarded until someone else wants something.”
“Even if no one else has bothered to find out what you want, it doesn’t mean you don’t have them.” I relaxed my hold on her wrists, then let go. Getting off her, I crouched by the wall, ready to move if I had to. But something told me I would be safe… for the time being.
She stayed on the floor, staring at the ceiling. “I didn’t hurt her.” It was said quietly but I believed it. “I just skimmed her surface thoughts while she was sleeping. She didn’t even know I was there.”
“Why do it?”
“So I could get close to you.”
“To kill me?” I resisted reaching for the Cougar.
“Not tonight. My summoner gave me two more nights. If you don’t stop me, I’ll have to kill you tomorrow night.” She sat up and gave me a very frank look. “Even now the Command is stirring. You’re here and your death is my purpose.”
“You can resist it?”
Eyes glinting, she smiled again, predatory and hungry. “For the time being.”
Her words echoed my thoughts and sent a chill down my spine.
“So, if not to kill me, why are you here?”
“A command is a very binding thing,” she said, ignoring my question. “Tighter than any written contract, and far more comprehensive. My summoner commanded me to kill you, but it goes further than that. Not only does it drive me to end your life, it also stops me from doing anything that might, inadvertently, help you evade me. Did you find out about Solomon?”
“King of the Israelites and perhaps the greatest demon summoner in history. Doesn’t mean much to this situation we find ourselves in, though. By the way, what do I call you?”
She smiled, cold and brief. “Another part of the Command. A stronger summoner can break a binding placed by a weaker summoner, but the Command works to stop that. Even if I wanted you to have my name, I couldn’t give it to you.”
“But someone knows it, obviously.”
She scowled. “True.”
“And I’m guessing you won’t tell me who that person is.”
“Of course not.”
“That is one air tight command.”
“That, and the fact he keeps his face hidden from me.”
She seemed willing to talk, so I asked, “Anything else you could tell me?”
Erin’s lips pursed as the demon thought. “He’s damaged. Someone, or something, hurt him very deeply in the past. What he’s doing now is driven by pain and betrayal.”
“He told you that?”
“He didn’t have to. A summoning is a highly intimate thing. It’s the deepest part of a human psyche reaching out and digging in deep to a demon’s spirit. That sort of connection is hard to fool.”
“Just like you couldn’t fool me into thinking you really were Erin.”
The demon leaned back, stretching so her breasts pushed against her top. Erin’s hair curled over her shoulders. She looked at me and a hint of mischievous naughtiness touched her lips, as if daring me to not appreciate the effort she’d gone to.
Erin’s face and body; strange, inestimable eyes. It just wasn’t right.
“Can you change out of that shape?” I was proud that my voice was even, not showing a smidge of the strain it took to keep from being very appreciative indeed. Lust demon. Oh yeah, I believed Kermit now.
She pouted. “I could, but that would alert your pet vampire.”
Jesus. I’d spent all this time so fixated on this not-Erin I’d forgotten Mercy completely. I sent a quick query down the line.
“Nothing happening,” she replied, her sense bored.
“Nothing there, sure. Hey, can you sense anyone in this house with me?”
The link intensified for a moment and I felt her feeling about. Her snaky little thoughts coursed about the room, roaming all over me with familiarity. I felt them brush over the demon but there was no spark of reaction from Mercy.
“Do you think you’re not alone?” she asked warily.
“I know I’m not alone. Don’t worry, I’m not in danger,” I added before she could launch. “If things change, you’ll be the first to know.”
She settled down, but I could feel her attention shift from the Davis household to this one.
“It doesn’t know I’m here,” the demon said.
My eyes narrowed. “It does now. Why can’t she sense you?”
“We have the ability to condense our spirits. It’s how I’ve been following you around these last couple of days with you none the wiser.”
Okay, that didn’t exactly make me feel so good. I thought of all the things I’d done, places I’d gone, people I’d spoken to over the past two days. All the people I’d unintentionally exposed to the demon. Jacob, Tobias, Dr Jones, Erin. And Lila.
The anger began to rise again. I clamped it down before it got any stronger. This wasn’t the time or place to lose control. Not with the demon right here and Mercy not. Admittedly, she was only two streets away, a blink of time for a vampire, but I was sure that blink would be long enough for the demon to squish me against the floor.
I forced myself to think about what she’d just said and a few thoughts clunked together in my head.
“Your powers are condensed along with your spirit, aren’t they.” I didn’t make it a question. “That’s why you can’t change shape without alerting Mercy. And in this human form, the adverse reaction you have on vampires is gone. Apart from your eyes, you’re completely human right now.”
She didn’t answer, didn’t change her expression.
I like being right. Time to try it again. “I think it’s also an intentional move on your part.”
Erin’s thin, pale brow arched. “Really?”
“Really. You come to me like this and let me know you’re powerless. You want my help.”
That bugged her. She shot to her feet and paced, hands clenching at her sides, very deliberately not looking at me. Wow. This had to be some sort of supernatural talent I was developing—the ability to piss women off with one or two sentences.
“You don’t want to kill me,” I said. “You’ve said as much tonight. You told me I could stop you.”
“No. I said if you didn’t stop me, then I would be forced to kill you.”
I shrugged. “Same diff.”
She stopped pacing and faced me, arms crossed. Now that was pure Erin. “How are you going to stop me, then?”
“Well now, that would be telling, wouldn’t it.”
“You can’t stop me.”
Standing, I met her gaze straight on. “If I couldn’t stop you, you would have just killed me already. This isn’t you. You hate this.” I waved at her stolen body shape. “You’ve been following me around so you could judge me. Find out if I’m capabl
e of doing what you want. If I would be willing.”
The demon went absolutely still. “And what conclusion did I come to?”
I took my time looking her over. “That I’m your only hope.”
We stared at each other for a moment longer, then she changed. It began at the top of her head and rolled downward, like an old skin peeling away to reveal the new creature beneath. Her glorious wings burst forth and stretched like they’d been bound up. And perhaps they had been. I had no idea on the physics behind her ability to change shape.
On the edge of my senses, Mercy blurred. Two breathes later, she was in the doorway behind the demon. Her eyes glinted silver and her lips pulled back from her fangs. The rising vampire tide threatened to swamp me, but I gritted my teeth and held both me and Mercy in check. It was tough going. Last night, the demon had been weak, her influence not so overwhelming. Tonight, it was like someone replaced the energy saving bulb with a high wattage spotlight.
“You’d better hope you’re right,” the demon said as if Mercy wasn’t menacing at her back. “Twenty-four hours from now and we’ll find out if you are. Don’t disregard Solomon, and don’t forget your other case.”
She began to fade.
“My other case?” I demanded.
That enigmatic smile curled her lips again and then, with a little pop of equalising pressure, she disappeared.
Perhaps it was surprise, but I relaxed my hold on Mercy a touch too soon.
Mercy growled and swung a fist through the doorframe. I dodged flying plaster and shattered wood, but I couldn’t dodge the vampire flying at me, fangs bared. She hit me in the stomach and we went down with her on top and me not entirely convinced I would be able to breathe without pain ever again.
“Mercy!” I shouted, equating volume with fear.
It wasn’t the first time Mercy had attacked me, but it was the first time since we’d become so tightly bound together through the link. Even as I tried to fight her off, I could feel the irrational, animalistic need to hurt, to consume, to win, funnel down the link and into me. As in the elevator, it called to the darkness inside, a challenge that had to be answered.
Her fangs slashed at my neck and I blocked her with a backhand fuelled by berserker rage. She put a hard knee into my groin and my world turned red.
Roaring, I got my hands around her neck and squeezed. The vampire snarled and clawed at my face, willing to forgo air in favour of causing as much damage as she could. Things got very blurry then. We fought and rolled and kicked and all the while I could feel myself slipping further away, surrendering to the black nothingness of the frenzy, understanding that giving in was the only way I could win against a vampire.
No.
I wouldn’t do this. Not with Mercy, not because of some demon. I’d battled too hard and too long for control. This wouldn’t be how I lost it.
As I hauled myself back from the pit, I lost whatever edge I might have had against Mercy. My realisation was tempered by her base instinct to kill and I couldn’t keep my head clear enough in order to channel my emotions into her. She wasn’t listening on the private link. She was gone so far her eyes were like two silver orbs—utterly alien, no spark of humanity in them at all.
All my hard work, all the time spent trying to find Susan under the layers of Mercy, gone. Wiped away by a couple of seconds next to a demon.
“No!”
And I hit Mercy as hard as I could. Not physically. Psychically. Fear added strength to the blow. Not fear for myself this time, but for Mercy. Fear that she was too dangerous, too wild for me to control. Fear that she might break free once and for all and become nothing more than what she should have been—a violent, indiscriminate killing machine warranting nothing more than death. I was so scared of that prospect it broke Mercy’s hold on me and blew her across the room. Her little body smashed through a wall and tumbled into a heap on the bare dirt of the front yard.
The remains of the darkness swirled through my veins, not exhausted, not even mildly satisfied. It was close to breaking free, it could taste the wild beyond its cage and it wanted out. Now.
But I wasn’t that selfish. If I wouldn’t let Mercy out to play, I couldn’t give in to my inner demon. As I had with Courey, I forced it down, squashed into a ball and hid it away.
Muscles zinging with the echo of the need to hurt something, I clambered to my feet, all the aches and pains of the fight easing past the retreating berserker rage to announce themselves. My face stung where Mercy’s nails had gouged my skin, my knuckles were raw and bruised, my neck ached from straining away from her fangs and my balls were a huge basket of misery I’d rather not contemplate.
I staggered to the wall Mercy had blasted through and peered at her.
She hadn’t moved, sprawled in a broken mess on the dirt. What little damage I’d managed to inflict on her was already closing up, so at least she was still alive. But the sheer stillness of her scared me.
Had I saved her from one of my disabilities only to kill her with another?
Hesitantly, I reached down the link. It seemed I had to go further than usual, but eventually, I touched her. Or at least, felt the blank wall of Mercy during the daytime, when her vampire mind retreated from the sunlight as her body could not, going so far back into itself it may as well have not been there at all.
Somewhat relieved, I gathered up my stakeout gear and packed it into the car. It was pretty clear Chris and Rufus were safe for now. I was the main target of the demon and her summoner, and after what had just happened, I wanted nothing more than to go home and not deal with any of it ever again.
Mercy, limp and completely unresponsive, was light enough for me to pick up and tuck into the passenger seat of the car and belt in. The Moto Guzzi, however...
I settled for wheeling it into the garage of the house next door. The smashed front wall of this house would draw far too much attention in the daylight and finding a motorbike in the garage would be a big freaking clue as to who had caused it.
Ready to go, I sat in the car beside my unconscious vampire and considered my next move. It was pretty easy to decide. A hot shower, antibiotic cream on the cuts and a good sleep.
Then what?
Turning the key, listening to the smooth purr of the engine with less than my usual amounts of appreciation, I knew that whatever my next step would be, I had to do it alone. Mercy was too much of a liability with the demon lurking about.
Chapter 25
Erin flicked through the TV channels until she found the morning news, and while the sports presenter rattled off the footy scores, she lifted the cover on her breakfast. Two bits of toast, one burnt, one barely browned, scrambled eggs with watery edges and three very thin slices of tomato. None of it looked appetising so Erin pushed the tray aside. The nurses would bug her about it, but that was a problem fifteen minutes away.
Settling back against the pillows, she breathed shallowly so as not to strain her ribs. There was a dull ache in her arm, but the ribs were the worst. Bandages bound her chest just beneath her breasts and took away some of the incidental discomfort, but something as innocent as a yawn could send piercing pain through her torso.
Damn Hawkins. It was his fault. He was the one who attracted these strange and dangerous things into her life. In the months since they’d had their first, disastrous meeting, there had been nothing unusual in her life. All mundane, boring cases about cheating spouses, background checks and dubious accountants skimming the top off their employer’s profits. Home life had been normal. Caring for William, watching while he moved through the troughs and peaks of his illness and agonising over each set back—secretly and horribly wondering when it would all end.
If it hadn’t been for Hawkins, that would still be her life.
But, a traitorous little voice murmured in the back of her head, wasn’t he also right? The dark, violent things he exposed were always there. He didn’t make them, he just shone the torch on them. Even if Ivan had come to her directly regard
ing Geraldine Davis, that wouldn’t change the fact a demon had been involved. It would have just meant the truth behind the murder would have remained undiscovered. Would it have put her in hospital, though? Again?
Who knew? How could she even begin to guess what might have been?
So much easier to dwell on what was. Namely, Hawkins and his pesky ability to bypass all the social niceties and dig into the guts of a matter.
What made him think she owed him anything? It was her life, her problems. He wasn’t a part of it.
But maybe… just perhaps… if she gave him what he wanted, he would leave her alone.
“Mornin’, darl.” A nurse came in, a cordless phone in hand and a twinkle in her eyes. “You have a phone call from a mystery man.”
Erin scowled. Speaking of the devil? She held a hand out for the phone.
“You haven’t touched your breakfast.” The nurse held the phone hostage.
“I will, after I talk to this guy.”
Lips pursed in disbelief, the nurse handed over the phone. “Just see you do.”
Erin waited until the nurse had left, then snapped into the phone, “What now?”
There was a short silence. “Sorry?”
Bugger. Not Hawkins.
“Hey, babe,” she said, forcing more joy into her voice. “Thought you were someone else.”
William chuckled. “At least you weren’t happy to hear from this other man.”
“Don’t get to thinking I’m very happy to hear from you, either. What are you doing calling me? You should be resting.”
“And you shouldn’t be in hospital.” His tone hardened. “That’s my shtick.”
“Drama hog. I can have a car accident whenever I want.”
Her attempt at levity didn’t work.
“And not tell me about it? I had to find out from Ivan.”
Erin grimaced. “He’s been to see you again?”
“No. He confessed yesterday morning. I thought I’d give you some time to tell me yourself.”
“Remind me to dock his pay,” she muttered.
“Erin.” The annoyance faded, replaced by same weary exasperation.
Night Call (Book 2): Demon Dei Page 22
