In the Demon's Company (Demon's Assistant Book 2) (10 page)

Gabriel nods stiffly.

“Excellent.” She claps her hands together and stands. Her eyes find Anna behind me. “Cut her throat.”

Anna hesitates. Her hand shakes so hard she almost drops the knife. “I won’t let her die,” the demon says, trying to reassure Anna. It sure as heck doesn’t reassure me. “I will bind her soul, like I did for you.”

Ice runs down my spine. My throat is a desert. “No, please.” The words escape my lips like a gasp, a tiny plea for my life. Anna’s hand is still except for the shaking. Then the knife drops and clatters to the ground. Gabriel dives for his sword and is up again, blade extended at Anna’s chest. Anna falls to the ground and sobs. I stand, rigid, heart slamming into my ribs, afraid to move.

“I can’t,” she says. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to die but I can’t…”

The demon woman tsks, tongue clacking against the roof of her mouth. “I do hope all humans aren’t this weak-willed.”

“Get out,” Gabriel says, thrusting the blade toward the demon. She sighs, like she’s horribly disappointed but not scared.

“Suit yourself,” she says. “But once I find a few mortals who aren’t pathetic, simpering fools, I will tear your throat out with my teeth.”

Gabriel walks her to the door at sword point. She puts her hands up, smiling, like it’s all a game. “Tell Azmos Vessa is in town,” she calls to me. “He’ll want to know.”

Gabriel slams the door and bolts it shut. I race to the back of the house and find a back door. It’s locked. I don’t know if locks will keep her out but at least she’s gone. I let out a breath before I kneel besides Anna. She’s crying and holding her stomach. The sweatshirt is pulled up slightly and I see through layers of gauzy bandages wrapped around her middle and secured with electrical tape. A line of blood has soaked through the fabric, making the dots into a line.

“She attacked me,” Anna says, when she sees me looking. “She asked to come in and use the phone, and then she grabbed a knife while my back was turned.” She lets out a shuddering breath that rattles her body. “I shouldn’t have let her in. Emily is going to kill me. She’s always warning me about strangers, says I’m too nice.”

“Why did she stab you?” Gabriel asks. His sword is down at his side but I notice he’s not putting it away.

“She said if I didn’t agree to do what she said, she’d let me die. I was bleeding everywhere. It’s all over the kitchen.” She starts crying and tries to get to her feet. “I need to clean it up before my girlfriend gets home. I need to…” She stops and flops down on the sofa. “She’s going to kill me.”

“Your girlfriend?” I say. “I’m sure she won’t. You were attacked. She’ll just be glad you’re safe.”

Except as I piece things together, I realize that Anna isn’t safe at all. Vessa, the demon lady, mortally wounded her so she could offer her a deal. So she could do what Azmos does and give her more time…which doesn’t make sense.

Anna shakes her head. “Vessa. She said if I didn’t do what she said, she’d kill me. That only her ma-magic is keeping me alive.”

My stomach churns as I glance back at the kitchen. Blood is splashed on the white fridge, and there’s a pool of it creeping out from behind the counter. It looks like a murder scene. Which, I realize with a sudden sickness, is exactly what it is.

“We need to take her to see Az,” I say to Gabriel. To Anna, I add, “He can help you.”

I hope to god that’s true.

We take a cab to the warehouse and bang on the door because no one answers the buzzer. Anna is dejected, her shoulders stooped and her arms hugging her midsection. Her eyes are bloodshot and her face is puffy.

Xanan finally opens the door. He’s wearing an apron covered in clay dust and holding a pick. Anna makes a strangled sobbing noise when she sees it. He glances from her to the tool in his hand and then back to me. “This isn’t a place to bring friends,” Xanan says. “It’s a place of business.”

“We need to see Az. Is he here?”

Xanan huffs out a breath. It hangs in the air. It’s cold outside in the wet, gray fog, but it doesn’t feel any warmer inside. He inhales through his nose and then his gaze falls on Anna, his eyes narrowing.

“Upstairs,” he finally says.

I push past him. Anna follows me, and Gabriel takes the rear. Azmos is in his office. I open the door without knocking. He closes his laptop and pushes it aside, shoving his sunglasses back down over his eyes when he spots Anna.

She glances at me, unsure, and I pull out a chair for her.

“Dare I ask?” Azmos asks. The adrenaline has faded out of my veins, leaving me shaky and tired. Gabriel flops down into the seat next to Anna, who asks where we are. No one answers her. A cold gust of air brushes over me and I see Xanan leaning in the doorway, his apron discarded. He wears only a black t-shirt and black jeans, and his blue eyes are fixed on Anna. I shiver and pull my coat tight, zipping it up all of the way.

I explain about Gabriel’s muddied vision and how we hoped to find this other demon and ask some questions. I tell him about Anna, and how the other demon attacked her. Anna folds her arms over her wounded middle. Azmos remains still, hands folded over his desk, expression inscrutable.

“This demon woman knows you,” I say. “Her name is Vessa.”

Azmos sucks in a breath, hands sliding over the shiny wood surface. He doesn’t speak but he also doesn’t look surprised.

“She has eyes like yours,” I say.

He shakes his head. He’s gone a little pale and his finger taps on the desk. “I suspected as much. Though until recently, I had believed there was no way she could be alive.”

“Who is she?” Gabriel presses. Azmos doesn’t answer. He stares behind us, at Xanan. I turn in time to see Xanan shrug in response to some unvocalized question.

Azmos stands.

“Wait, you have to help her,” I say, gesturing to Anna. “This Vessa person didn’t make a deal with her to help. She attacked her. She wouldn’t have died without demonic intervention. Doesn’t that make her an exception?”

“It’s not that simple, Nicolette,” Az says. Anna makes a sound that’s between a whimper and a sob. “I am sorry but I can’t help her.”

“But she’s going to kill me,” Anna says softly.

“She already did,” Az says, voice equally soft. He nods at Xanan, who steps toward Anna.

Even before he reaches for her, I know what he’s going to do. I push myself in front of her chair, spinning to face him, and stand there, arms extended like a human shield. “No. She’s an innocent victim. Vessa isn’t waiting for people who are about to die. She’s putting them in that position herself.”

“It can’t be helped, Nicolette,” Xanan says. He even sounds sort of sad about it. Behind me, Anna lets out a sob.

“There has to be a way. Have Azmos take over her contract. Have him use his power to save her.”

“That’s not possible,” Xanan says, softly but firmly.

A memory nudges at me. “You said you’d let Mrs. Crane live if she gave you info!” I protest. “Anna gave you intel.”

Azmos raises an eyebrow in... what? Disbelief? Surprise? My heart plummets to my feet.

“That was before we knew who was behind this,” Xanan says, “and before the balance was so far out of whack. I’m afraid circumstances have changed.” Xanan’s voice is as cold as his icy breath. “Now move.”

I stand my ground, as though a squat, short teen girl is any match for Xanan, who’s tall and muscular, and probably older than I can imagine. “
Please
,” I say again. Anna is crying, shaking so the chair rattles against the floor.

Xanan gently pushes me out of the way. He puts his palm on Anna’s neck, and then brushes his palm up to her cheek, and the life drops out of her. Her body goes limp in the chair. Just like that. One touch and it’s over.

Now it’s my turn to sob. Gabriel grabs me around the shoulders and pulls me to his chest. His sweater vest smells like incense and baby powder.

“You couldn’t wait until she was out of the room?” Gabriel demands.

“It’s her job to understand the severity of the situation,” Xanan says calmly. I can’t speak through my sobs to tell him that I definitely do.

I pull out of Gabriel’s arms. He gives me a sympathetic look. I dig a tissue out of my messenger bag and wipe my nose and eyes. Az is out of the office. He’s standing at the door to their living quarters, holding it open. Inside the door is a spiral staircase that leads to yet another door.

I duck inside with a nod. There’s another door upstairs and Az swipes his keycard again. He goes straight to the kitchen area and turns on the sink. He sets his sunglasses down on the counter. He lets water run over his fingers and then splashes it on his face.

The apartment is a huge flat that seems to take up the entire third floor. I didn’t even know it had a third floor, but there you go. It’s swanky and modern, minimalist but not empty. The main room is one large space with a kitchen to one side and a massive picture window that opens onto Puget Sound. From the outside, this window set high in the building doesn’t look like much but from the inside, this is an incredible apartment. I don’t know what I expected: fire and brimstone, maybe.

Azmos turns and leans against the granite counter. For the strangest second, he reminds me of my dad. The two have nothing in common physically—Azmos is shorter, his hair is brighter, and while my Dad’s skin could maybe be called olive, Azmos’ is a shade or two more tan. And yet his mannerisms, the way he leans back, hands in his pockets as if he doesn’t know what to do with them, are similar.

“Vessa?” he asks, as if he might have heard the name wrong. I nod. He brings his hand up and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Who is she?”

“My sister.” The ground falls out from beneath me. My heart slams against my ribs. The air is sucked out of my lungs and I’m falling. I steady myself on the counter in front of me.

“You have a sister?” I finally manage.

“She’s dead. Or rather, I believed her to be dead.” He rubs his eyes. “Clearly I was mistaken.”

There’s a long silence. Awkwardness permeates the room like Seattle mist. I knew they were the same kind of demon but there isn’t much in the way of family resemblance. The eyes, sure, but even those are a different color.

“She made a deal with my teacher. The one who killed herself. I think she wanted Mrs. Crane to… hurt people. So she could make deals with them. She killed Anna.” Azmos stares past me, to the wall. “What does she want?”

Azmos doesn’t answer but I can tell he’s considering what to say.

“What do you take? When you offer people deals?” He still doesn’t speak. I want to shake him until words come out. I take a deep breath, trying to keep the frustration at heel. “What do you take from them?”

“Nothing,” he says sharply, shaken out from whatever rabbit hole of memory he’d gone down. “The old stories of making deals with devils are fictions, of course. Occasionally I ask for a favor. Mostly I save people whom I feel will do some good in the world. In your case, I gave you a job, but that was for my own selfish reasons, and you were different. You required only a touch of magic to live, which is why you are not constrained the way others have been time wise.”

“But you didn’t give me a job until three years later.”

“Sixteen marks you as an adult in my world. The souls of children are heavier.” I blink at him. None of that makes any sense to me. This is like sitting in the back of one of Cam’s math classes. He sighs. “Xanan would have been furious. You did not come as close to death as most I save, so your spirit failing to cross didn’t harm the balance, but he may not have seen it that way. I couldn’t let him know about you until you were an adult and he’d have no reason to hurt you.”

I shiver and glance over my shoulder, but Xanan isn’t here. The chill in the apartment is from the December cold permeating the stone building. But I remember the scrutinizing way Xanan looked at me the first time we met and a cold chill runs down my back. Was he trying to determine if I should be allowed to live?

“But if I didn’t almost die…” I can’t even formulate a question because I flat out don’t understand. What I know about Azmos is that he saved my life and gave me a job in exchange. If none of that is true, then I’ve been standing on sand believing it to be stone this whole time.