Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

DAMON

I can't believe Bella falls asleep in the middle of my story, and it is my most exciting telling since I first told it to Scheherazade. Oh well. Much like my long-lost Princess Scheherazade, I will continue the story tomorrow night. I tuck Bella in and turn off the light to her room. As I close the door, I notice that the light to the bathroom is still on. I am surprised to see Tamzin still in there, washing her face and applying night creams.

"Oh, hey," Tamzin says when she sees me. "Is she asleep?"

"Yes," I say with a sigh. "She has the attention span of a ferret."

"I think that's a pretty average attention span for a kid her age. Thanks for putting her to bed. I had a long talk with Beverly."

"How long do you think it will take her to recover from the smarting you gave her?" I ask, leaning on the door frame. Tamzin laughs and removes the hair band she was wearing to keep her hair out of her face. I honestly don't know why she even bothers with makeup. She's a natural beauty.

"Oh, you know Beverly. No one gets a one-up on her. I think I was the one that got the smarting."

"Oh?"

"Well, what can I say. Tonight was certainly far from terrible."

"You aren't admitting Beverly was right, are you?" I ask. Though, I'm not sure if I want her to say yes or no. I mean, Beverly can't really think that my soulmate is a human, can she? I've had human lovers before, naturally, but a demon and a human can't actually be soulmates, can they? I don't think that's really possible. I don't think I even have a soul, at least not the human version of whatever they think a soul is. Maybe soulmate isn't even the right word I'm looking for. True love? Life partner? Who knows. I don't think even Beverly really knows the nature of the power she's managed to tap into.

Tamzin barks a laugh. "No, I'm certainly not saying that."

Hmm. Why am I feeling a twinge of disappointment?

"But she did say something interesting. She said that the universe has a way of sending us what we need when we need it. Maybe all I needed was a night out with a handsome devil to help me put things in perspective."

"You think I'm handsome?" I ask.

"Ha-ha," she says as she walks past me. "Don't let it go to your horns. Goodnight." She goes into her room and closes the door.

"Night," I say like an idiot, now standing alone in the hallway. "Get it together," I mutter to myself as I go to my own room where my lonely cookie jar is waiting for me. "How did it come to this?" I ask myself. And, I mean, really. How did I, one of the oldest and most powerful of the Dark Lord's creations, end up trapped in a cheap, mass-produced, movie prop cookie jar in suburbia by a ten-year-old kid, catching feels for her lonely and depressed mom?

I wander to the window and look out over the quiet street, completely dark except for the light of the street lamps. Not even a dog barks. I check my watch and see it's only eleven o'clock. Eleven! The night is only starting in most places. I should be drinking and dancing and setting my sights on a supermodel to while away the morning hours with.

Ugh, who am I kidding. When was the last time I even did that? The 70s? The 1870s? Probably. Nowadays, the biggest thrill I get is finding an intact Qing Dynasty porcelain flask at a random shop in Hong Kong that I turn around and sell for twenty million dollars at auction. Even that is a once-in-a-human-lifetime event. Honestly, tonight was the most fun I've had in many years as well. This whole week has been more of a joy than I ever could have expected. Bella is a delight and Tamzin is… Well, she's more than mere words could describe. She's dreadfully dreary, of course, but the moment I pulled a genuine smile across her lips… I felt more proud of that accomplishment than anything else I've done in a very long time. True love may or may not exist, but there might be something to what Tamzin said about the universe sending us what we need. Maybe I needed Tamzin as much as she needed me. I needed something, someone, to pull me out of my own funk as well.

I'm about to go to my cookie jar to get a bit of rest before finding out what tomorrow might bring when I see a shadow shift on the lawn. The lights haven't changed, so a moving shadow isn't normal. I watch closely and see it move again, closer to the house. It morphs from a formless shape into something more discernable. A humanoid shape. But certainly not human. I blink and go from my perch at the window to standing behind my old friend, the demoness Eisheth.

"Hello, Eisheth," I say.

Eisheth is smiling before she even turns around. "Hello, Moloch. Or should I say, Damon?"

I shrug. "I have even more names than you. What you call me matters not."

"Oh, I think your little human family would care very much who is living in their midst," Eisheth says, looking back to the upstairs window.

"They aren't my family," I say, trying to play it cool. But the way she is talking about Tamzin and Bella has me on edge. "What do you want?"

"Is that any way to greet a friend?"

"Sorry," I say. "I'm just in the middle of a job."

"But you aren't doing your job, are you?" she asks.

"What do you mean? Why else would I be stuck in this living Norman Rockwell painting?"

"The Dark Lord is not pleased," Eisheth says plainly. "You were sent here to do a job. If you don't do it, the Dark Lord will send someone who can."

"What, someone like you?" I ask, trying not to show the panic building in my chest.

"You wish," she says. "You'll be lucky if he doesn't send Beelzebub himself after you."

"He'd call Beelzebub to possess a soccer mom? Isn't that a bit below his pay grade?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Something about all this doesn't smell right."

"What do you mean?"

"I was there when the order came in. But it didn't come from usual channels."

"The usual channels?"

"You know how it is. Usually, a human will connect with a demon to make such a request through a ritual or incantation or something. Humans rarely ever connect to the Dark Lord himself nowadays. What human knows how? Those rites are long lost."

I nod, but I haven't really thought it about it. Time passes so quickly and yet so slowly at the same time, it's almost irrelevant. But now that I think about it, I suppose it has been a few centuries since I last received a request from the Dark Lord to take on a possession. Usually, I would be asked by whoever performed the spell. It actually is very strange that even I don't know who it was that wanted Tamzin to be possessed.

"So, how did the request actually come through?" I ask.

"It was…" She sighs. "Is it even possible? The request seemed to come telepathically."

"What?" I ask. I can hardly believe my ears. Is this some sort of joke?

"Yeah. That's what I thought. We were just talking, the Dark Lord and I, when he sort of cocked his head, like he was listening to something. Then he sent for you and gave you the order."

"I didn't even ask where the order came from," I say, rubbing my chin. "I had just assumed everything had been done properly. But that's all that happened? Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. I saw the whole thing. I even asked him about it later, but he just waved me off. Who on earth would have the kind of power that would allow them to contact the Dark Lord himself so directly? And why would the Dark Lord listen? He is not bound to the will of humans. At least, he never was before. He rejects requests from them all the time. Humans are so ridiculously petty, you know."

"Indeed, I do know. But if the request didn't come from normal channels, why is he so hellbent on having the request completed? I'm doing the best I can here."

"I think he is far more unnerved over the whole thing than he is letting on," she says.

"So, what am I supposed to do?"

"Your job, Damon," she says. "Your job. Possess the woman, torture her, and get out of here." She shudders. "This whole town gives me the heebie-jeebies. So much supernatural energy in one place isn't natural."

"I can agree with you on that point. Something strange is at work here. Beverly is trying to find the source of the curse, but this might be beyond her."

"Beverly Barnes? The human witch? Believe me, this is far beyond her keen."

"How much time do I have?"

"Days, weeks at the most. You know how Beelzebub is. If he thinks he can curry the Dark Lord's favor by doing this, he will be more than eager."

"He always was a kiss ass."

"You don't want to be a stepping stone on Beelzebub's path to the Dark Lord's right hand."

"Beelzebub will never unseat Lilith."

"Never say never. Even Lilith cannot soothe the Dark Lord right now. You are lucky she allowed me to be the messenger. If she were here, you'd probably be on your way back to Hell right now. Your little cookie jar staycation would be over and Tamzin Jones would be terrorizing the town."

I let out a sigh and rub the bridge of my nose. "Okay, just buy me some time, okay? Tell them that I am playing the long game here. That I'm just gaining Tamzin's trust so that the torture will be even more painful."

"Is that what's happening?" she asks.

"What do you think?" I ask, and I instantly regret it. Who knows how long she has been watching me. It must be clear as day to her that I have absolutely no power over this situation.

"I think you have forgotten who you are," she says. "I think you've become distracted by the idea of being mortal—for whatever reason—and creating this perfect little family for yourself. I don't know. Maybe you are bored and this is new and shiny. Maybe you are actually falling for this woman. Maybe you are trying out a new technique of torture without possession. Whatever you are doing, it's a dangerous game you are playing. You don't want to get on the Dark Lord's bad side, do you hear me?"

"Yes, of course," I say. "I know the risks."

"Do you?" she prods. "You've been gone a long time. I think you have been living the easy life here on earth for a while and have forgotten what it really means to be a demon."

I let out a roar and show my true form, which is far more terrifying than I let on to Tamzin. I'm big and mean and fire and brimstone and horns and claws.

"I am a demon!" I yell to her as car alarms wail and dogs howl and lights come on. I shrink back to my human form before anyone can see me. I grab Eisheth by her shirt. "I am still a demon. And I know what it means to be one. Don't forget, it was I who taught you everything you know about being a demon. Do not insult me."

Eisheth scoffs and shoves me away. "I came here as a friend. Don't make me regret it." And with that, she turns back into a shadow and melts into the ground.

This is not good. None of this is good. I need to find out what is going on. I turn to go back into the house and see Tamzin standing at the upstairs window, looking down at me.

How much did she just see?