The Demon in Me

“Despite that cross he wears around his neck, golden boy doesn’t want to know any of this exists. Even when he sees it right in front of his own eyes.”

“That makes two of us,” she muttered under her breath.

“Well, you might not want to believe it, but he flat out refuses to. There’s a difference.”

“You need to go home now,” Ben said. “We’ll have to grab dinner some other night.”

“What?” She was distracted, and she turned toward the cop.

“Go home, Eden. Get the restaurant to call you a taxi.” He moved toward Malcolm and looked at her over his shoulder. “I’ll take care of this.”

“Are you going to arrest him?”

Ben cleared his throat. “No, but I sure as hell plan to tell him when he wakes up that if he comes near you again he’s making a huge and regrettable mistake.”

She felt completely powerless. It wasn’t as if she really knew what to do in this situation. Malcolm knew that she was possessed. He wouldn’t give up. She’d seen it now.

“Do what he says,” Darrak said. “It’s the first thing he’s said tonight that I agree with.”

“Okay,” she said out loud. “And I’m… I’m sorry, Ben. For everything.”

He shook his head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

“Now you’re just being nice.”

“I don’t do nice so well. But I do truthful great. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

She nodded. Ben didn’t make any move to come near her again. After the slapping incident she couldn’t very well blame him. Without another word, she left. The maitre d’ called her a cab, and she took it back to her apartment.

She was quiet the whole way there. For that matter, so was Darrak, who hadn’t said a word since leaving the restaurant. But she knew he was still there. She could feel him.

Leena was curled up, in cat form, sleeping on the couch. She raised her furry head, blinked once, and went back to sleep.

Eden threw her keys on the kitchen counter and went directly to her room. She shut the door.

“I can’t deal with this,” she said out loud.

“Which part?” the demon replied.

“All of it. I’ve been trying to be patient, but this isn’t working.” She sniffed and realized with a sinking feeling that she was crying.

“Hey.” Darrak sounded disturbed by her outpouring of emotion. “It’s going to be fine. Really.”

She grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. “No, it’s not. You’re ruining my life.”

“We’ll fix this.”

“Tell me how to dampen you.”

“Pardon me?”

“Tell me how to get some privacy from you. It’s the only thing that will help right now. I need to be alone.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Please.”

“Even if I wanted to tell you, I can’t. It goes against my nature to give someone power over me, even something small like dampening.”

She collapsed backward onto her bed. “I hate you.” “Harsh words, Eden. I think you should be focusing that hate toward Malcolm the exorcist. Not me.”

“I hate both of you.” She pushed the tears off her cheeks and sat up again, gathering a pillow against her chest and hugging it firmly. “What’s the Malleus, anyhow?”

“A bunch of assholes who banded together to make the lives of Others complete torture. Sometimes literally. They took their name from the Malleus Maleficarum—that’s Latin for ‘the hammer of witches’—which was the book used to prosecute and punish witches back in the day.”

“I thought you said you weren’t a walking encyclopedia.”

“Some things I know about firsthand without doing any extra research. The Malleus has been a pain in the Netherworld’s ass for ages — at least, for any of us who try hanging out on the human realm of existence for more than an hour or two.”

Her head hurt just trying to wrap itself around what he was saying. “So they were around during the Salem witch trials?”

“Among other human atrocities. Because, of course, those weren’t really witches they were executing. Not all of them, anyhow. They were regular women who pleaded for their lives right until their last breath. If the Malleus had come face-to-face with a powerful black witch they would have been the ones on fire. These men — because there are no women allowed in their exclusive gang — have no mercy for anyone they consider an enemy.”

A chill went down her spine. “And now they know about me.”

“Well, Malcolm does. Not sure if he’s told his new buddies yet. I get the feeling he wants to take care of this little problem all on his own. He wants to save your immortal soul.”

“Lucky me.”

“No, you’re definitely not lucky. I don’t want you at risk because of me. This asshole won’t leave you alone. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She crossed her arms. Shouldn’t he be more concerned with his own well-being? Darrak was what Malcolm was after. Not her.

She got up, walked into the bathroom, and started brushing her teeth. “Can’t somebody talk to the… the Malleus organization? Explain that all… Others or whatever, aren’t that bad?”

“A lot of Netherworld citizens are pretty bad, actually.”

She spit out a mouthful of toothpaste and looked in the mirror. “Define ‘pretty bad.’”

“Completely and unrepentantly evil.”

She paled. “Oh.” She’d started to believe that all demons might be like Darrak. But they weren’t. He was obviously the exception to the rule.

“So,” Darrak continued, “even if you did tell Malcolm that our situation is different, not to mention temporary, he’d never believe you. He’s obsessed now.”

He sounded disturbed by this again.

“Ben said he’d talk to him,” Eden said.

“I don’t have much confidence in that conversation.” His voice turned sour.

She clenched her fists at her sides as her thoughts turned to the earlier festivities. “I still can’t believe you slapped him.”

“Believe it.”

“You ruined everything.”

“Are we going to go over this again? Yes, I slapped him. I couldn’t help myself.”

“Don’t give me that. You easily could have helped yourself. It’s things like that that make me want you to go away and never come back.”

“I thought we were forging some sort of friendship here.”

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We’re not friends.”

“But, Eden—”

“We’re not friends,” she said it louder. “And every time I forget about that little fact, you do something to remind me.”

“If I say I’m sorry, will you forgive me? Pretty please?”

She turned away from the mirror and crossed her arms. “No.”

“I know I wasn’t much help tonight.”

“I thought you wanted to help me get on Ben’s good side.”

“I thought I did.”

“So what happened?”

“I think I…” His voice in her head trailed off.

“You think you what?”