Мишель Роуэн - The Demon in Me

Darrak, now clad in the same simple, magically conjured black outfit he’d had on yesterday, was peering into the fridge.

She felt a fresh swell of stress at the sight of him. However, she was happy he wasn’t naked anymore.

“Coffee?” he asked.

She crossed her arms tightly and glanced at the coffeemaker. “You know how to make coffee?”

“I’ve been a keen observer of all things human.”

Yesterday, she’d been way too freaked out to take a really good look at him, but today, in the daylight of her apartment, she’d never guess at first glance that he was a demon made of black smoke. Or second glance, for that matter. He just looked like a man. A tall, attractive one. Drinking coffee out of her favorite Snoopy mug.

Anxiety flowed over her. Coffee wasn’t going to help the situation at all. The cat who’d conned her into letting it stay for the night rubbed against her leg.

Darrak nodded at it. “You don’t seem to have any litter so I shredded some newspaper and put it in a shoe box. I’m very industrious.”

She rubbed her temples. Cats and demons and makeshift litter boxes. Maybe she was still asleep and having a nightmare.

The toaster popped. Darrak grabbed the piece of toast and spread a thick layer of chunky peanut butter on it before taking a large bite.

“Do you know, this is the first thing I’ve tasted in three hundred years?” he asked. “It’s fantastic.”

“I hate peanut butter.”

“Then why do you have it?”

She shrugged. “Because it’s something people are supposed to have in their cupboards.”

“Peanut butter is total ambrosia.”

She grabbed the edge of her counter and squeezed. “Demons can eat?”

“Obviously.”

“Learn something new every day.” Her voice was tight. She glanced around the kitchenette to see the complete mess the demon had made in his quest for breakfast and grimaced.

Despite her questionable décor choices, she was a neat freak.

This was going to be yet another problem.

“We don’t have to eat, but we can,” he said and smiled at her. A glob of peanut butter fell off his piece of toast and splatted onto the floor. “Just like other things, it’s more for pleasure than necessity.”

Her cheeks burned again. “Just to make things perfectly clear between us, you can have my peanut butter, but my bed is off-limits.”

He shrugged. “Sorry. I took form at sunrise and you grabbed on to me immediately. I didn’t want to disturb your sleep or I would have moved.”

She was about to debate the sheer unlikeliness of that when the cat rubbed against her leg again.

“So that’s two unwanted guests I have to deal with,” she said. “Great.”

Darrak leaned back against the counter and took a sip from the coffee mug. “Other than the litter situation, I also fed your furry friend already and put down some water for her. You’re welcome.”

“Come on, kitty,” Eden said, leaning over to grab the cat. “This hotel is officially overbooked. You’re out of here.”

The cat hissed at her, slipped out of her grip, and ran into the bedroom.

“Terrific.” She sighed with frustration and looked at the clock. Her eyes bugged. “Is that really the time?”

She hadn’t noticed it was nearly nine o’clock. Was she that distracted?

Well, yes, she was. Most definitely.

“No time for coffee?”

“My job is right next to a coffee bar. I think I’ll manage.”

“Come on, Eden. Turn that frown upside down. There’s no reason for bad moods. It’s a beautiful new day full of possibilities.”

“Maybe for you.” Eden turned toward the door. She grabbed her light coat from the closet and left the apartment. Before she could fit her key into the door to lock it, Darrak opened it and was at her side.

“Don’t forget, I have to come with you.”

For a moment she had forgotten that they were currently a two-for-one deal. How was she supposed to function like this? She locked the door behind her. “How close do we have to stay to each other?”

“I have no idea.” He crammed the rest of the peanut butter on toast in his mouth and swallowed a mouthful of coffee from the mug he still held.

How could he be so blasé about something so important? If he had to follow her everywhere, then she wanted to know how close he had to be. She needed her space.

She walked down the hall to the elevator and pressed the button. A moment later it opened and she got in.

Darrak looked over his shoulder at the locked door of her apartment. “I need to put your mug back.”

“No time.”

“Okay, but if you—”

The doors on the elevator closed before he had a chance to get in. Eden jabbed at the ground floor button. She heard Darrak yell her name, and a bang as he pounded on the elevator door, and then a crash.

Had he dropped her Snoopy mug?

The elevator began to descend slowly and she stifled the immediate feeling of guilt that swelled inside of her.

She wanted to see how far apart they could be. The opportunity had just presented itself nicely.

By the eighth floor she began to feel a bit light-headed. She brought a hand to her forehead and inhaled shakily. She didn’t remember feeling that way when Darrak tried to walk out of the office yesterday.

The impromptu experiment was working.

Six floors at approximately ten feet per floor? That was sixty feet.

Seventy feet.

Eighty.

A sharp pain wrenched through her stomach. She doubled over and staggered back until she hit the wall of the elevator. A moment later, thick black smoke slithered in through the crack at the top of the elevator door. It moved to pool on the floor, then slowly took form.

Just before the doors opened on ground level, Darrak had fully rematerialized. He crouched on the floor at her feet, his chest heaving. Sweat beaded his forehead. His current expression was anything but that of the pleasant and amiable Darrak she’d begun to expect. In fact, he looked furious.

She’d wanted to see what would happen — to test their boundaries and perhaps find out that they didn’t actually have any, but now the guilt returned to replace the pain that she’d felt before.

“Don’t do that again,” he said darkly. “Please.”

She swallowed hard. Well, at least he said please.

“I just wanted to see if we could—”

He rose to his feet, grabbed her upper arms firmly, and pushed her up against the mirrored elevator wall. In human form, he was very tall. And big. And strong. She suddenly felt extremely intimidated by him — especially by that angry look in his blue eyes that for a split second she swore changed to a strange, flickering amber.

“You want to get rid of me.” Despite the fiery look in his gaze, the words were as sharp and cold as icicles. “I get it. We both want that. Do you think I want to put up with you every hour of the day, either? Think again. But right now we can’t do anything but try to make this work.”

“Let go of me.”

“First I want to make sure you understand me.” His eyes narrowed. “And just so you know, being forced to lose form like that hurts like hell. And I know what Hell feels like.”

“I understand,” she said through clenched teeth, before her own swell of anger faded. She’d only wanted to test a theory, not cause him any more pain. “I felt something unpleasant this time, too.”

“Of course you did.”

She frowned at his quick agreement. “But yesterday I didn’t feel anything when you tried to leave the office. And even during the exorcism… I only felt a twinge. But today it was actually… painful .”

“Lucky you.” A cold, humorless smile curled his lips. “It means we’re bonding.”