The Demon in Me

“Let me up, demon,” she growled.

Eden skittered back until she hit the kitchen counter. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Your cat is a shapeshifter,” Darrak explained. “Although I would assume that is obvious now. But I wasn’t sure if she was a born shifter or a made shifter. That’s why I had to heal you. Otherwise, with a scratch like that, you might be looking for a groomer and a garden of catnip of your own in the next few days.”

“I’m a born shifter,” the woman said unpleasantly. “She would have been fine.”

“Do you normally con your way into unsuspecting homes and then mooch off the kindhearted people who let you in?”

She smiled thinly. “Do you?”

“Touche.” He removed his foot and she scrambled up to her feet. She looked over at Eden guiltily.

“Please don’t make me leave.”

Eden’s mouth was open but no words came out for a moment. “I can’t believe this. You… were a cat.”

The woman’s expression was tense. “I was. And I will be again. I promise if you let me stay I’ll be very quiet. I won’t make any trouble. I won’t scratch you again — but just don’t grab me when I’m not expecting it. That’s not cool. I don’t have any money right now but I can keep your apartment clean—”

“You’re the one who cleaned up?” Eden asked, stunned.

She shrugged. “It was the least I could do. But don’t go thinking I’m your maid and you can boss me around. That’s not going to happen. This is just my way of bartering. I keep your place looking good… hell, I can even cook a bit… in return for you letting me crash here for a little while.”

“No,” Darrak said.

The woman glared at him. “I wasn’t asking you, demon.”

“The name’s Darrak.”

“My ass it is. And I’m watching you, hellspawn. Don’t think I’m not.” Her attention turned to Eden. “You need me. I can help protect you.”

“Protect me?”

She nodded emphatically. “Demons are repelled by shifters.”

“I thought I was just allergic to cat fur,” Darrak said dryly.

“If he tries to hurt you or suck out your soul, or whatever, I can stop him.”

“I’m not going to hurt Eden,” Darrak said. “If I wanted her hurt then why would I have used any of my stored-up power to heal her?”

An excellent point. Eden looked at Catwoman, who regarded the demon with obvious distaste.

“Because if she’d been infected and was a shifter then you wouldn’t be able to use her body anymore.” The woman glared at him, then smiled. “You’d have to find a new home then, wouldn’t you?”

Darrak’s expression had turned stony. “I didn’t even consider that.”

“Sure you didn’t.”

“Is that true?” Eden asked.

Darrak met her eyes. “A shifter can’t be possessed. It’s true.”

That was food for thought. Food she’d rather shove into the fridge until later when she could pick through the leftovers a bit more thoroughly.

A glance at the clock confirmed there was less than a half an hour before Ben arrived. It was one supernatural disaster after another today.

“What’s your name?” she asked the woman.

“Kathleen Harris.”

“And let me guess,” Darrak said without any friendliness. “You go by the nickname Kat, right? That’s almost as adorably predictable as a fairy named Fay.”

“Sure. As much as you go by the nickname asshole. Actually, you can call me Leena.” She turned back to Eden. “Please. Please. You have to let me stay here.”

“Why here?” Eden asked helplessly, her mind drowning from the flood of information.

She wrung her hands and her eyes shifted nervously around the small apartment. “I’m hiding from somebody who wants to kill me. I’ve been wandering the streets for weeks and eating out of Dumpsters, which blows even more than it sounds like it would. I can’t go home. I’m desperate. Then last night I sensed you — I felt you were different. That you’d be able to protect me.”

“Me?” Eden pointed at herself. “Protect you from somebody who wants to kill you? That’s ridiculous. You need to go to the police and explain this to them. They can help you.”

She shook her head. “They can’t. They won’t believe me, anyhow. I just need to lay low for a while until all the shit I’ve been going through passes. Then I’ll be out of your hair. A week or two tops. I promise.”

“I don’t know…”

“Please.” Leena looked at her with such open desperation in her gold-flecked brown eyes that Eden knew she couldn’t possibly kick her out. Not yet, anyhow.

She spread her hands. “I don’t have any room. This apartment is barely big enough for one person.”

“I can stay in my cat form.” Leena’s eyes lit up with hope. “I’m seven pounds that way. Tiny! And I don’t eat much. I’ll shift back to human form when you’re out. Come on! I make a really amazing lasagna.”

Well, Eden was a fan of homemade lasagna.

Ever since Darrak had come into her life it seemed as if she was a magnet for paranormal beings — demons, fairies, and now… feline shapeshifters? And everyone seemed to be dealing with a life-or-death scenario. Including her.

And she’d thought working for Psychic Connexions had introduced her to strange, desperate people.

The least she could do was help out a bit. She would hope that somebody might help her in return. She was all about the karma. The universe looked kindly on that sort of thing.

“Fine. Two weeks,” Eden said. “And that’s it.”

Leena smiled widely. “Thank you!”

“Just keep your claws to yourself.”

“Well, you do seem to have a walking/talking first aid kit currently in residence.” Leena shot an unfriendly glance at Darrak.

“That was only a scratch,” he said, his arms now crossed in front of him. “Anything more serious could have drained me completely.”

She looked at him skeptically. “Pretty weak for a demon, aren’t you?”

“Luckily, I have a nice personality.” He smiled thinly. “Didn’t you say something about turning back into a furry, nontalking animal again? Any time would be good.”

She pointed at her eyes and then at him. “I’m watching you, demon.”

“I do enjoy an audience.”

Leena grabbed Eden and gave her a big hug. “Thank you. You totally rock.”

“Oh… okay.”

“You’ll have fun on your date. It will be nice for you to spend some time with a real man,” she said pointedly. “Humans make for the safest lovers. Trust me on that.”

Before Eden could reply to that, Leena shifted and shrank until she was a small black cat again that scooted into her bedroom.

Did that just happen? She turned to Darrak.

“Her clothes disappeared when she shifted,” he said and shook his head. “Did you notice that? So convenient.”

“I…” she began. “I… just… I don’t know what to do right now.”

“If you’re taking suggestions, you really shouldn’t think too much about the paranormal paradise of your life and instead go get dressed. Time is a fleeting thing.”

He looked very pale, and he leaned against the wall by the wall unit her flat screen TV was on and a picture of her mom and her when Eden was ten years old.

“Are you drained again?” she asked.

“I’m at a level where I can recover on my own.”

“Well, no matter what your intentions were, I appreciate you… uh… healing me. Thank you for that.”