Мишель Роуэн - The Demon in Me

“Darrak, please,” Eden hissed. He wasn’t helping matters by baiting the kid. She’d seen Malcolm easily destroy the drifter the previous day. She didn’t know if he’d also be able to trap an archdemon in that piece of salt, but she didn’t want to find out.

“Please what?” he said.

“Don’t set yourself up to get hurt.”

He looked at her. “I didn’t think you cared one way or the other what happens to me.”

“I don’t,” she lied.

“You shouldn’t.”

“Then that’s why I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I want you exorcised.”

His jaw was tense. “I just want this over with.”

“Me, too.”

“Then let me help you,” Malcolm said. “I can end this.”

“Say another word”—Selina’s fingertips sparked with visible magic—“and it will be your last.”

Her amulet darkened another shade.

Eden grabbed Malcolm’s hand that held the salt. She looked into his eyes. “Please don’t do anything. I don’t want you hurt, either.”

He frowned at her. “Really?”

She nodded. “Really.”

“Malcolm! There you are!” Rosa entered the clearing, hobbling along on her walking cane. Eden’s heart sank. It must have been her car she heard pull up.

She should have considered selling tickets to Darrak’s curse breaking. Maybe gotten some balloons and fruit punch. It was turning into a big party full of unwelcome guests.

Malcolm tensed. “Mother, please. I can handle this.”

“Sweetie, you shouldn’t be here right now, bothering these people. I told you to leave them alone.”

She did? Eden’s eyebrows went up.

But maybe this was a good thing. Having his mommy here might help to rein Malcolm in a bit. And Rosa had been very helpful earlier, both with the apology and the refund of the exorcism money.

Rosa moved closer, shaking her head. “I apologize for my son. He’s very… overzealous. He has much to learn still.”

Malcolm scowled at her and jerked away when she went to touch him.

“It’s fine,” Eden said tightly. “No harm done.”

“I can’t work like this,” Selina said with frustration. “We’ll have to do it another day. Eden, you have my phone number, right?”

“I do. But… Selina, please—”

“No,” Selina held up a hand. “I’m all stressed out now. I’m going to call myself a taxi and go back to my hotel. Besides, I have a phone interview scheduled in an hour that I don’t want to miss. I’ll have to meditate before it to calm myself down. We’ll talk later, okay?”

Eden didn’t answer because she was now studying Rosa. Something had caught her eye. The harmless-looking short, fat exorcist had the sleeves of her coat pushed up so a strange pinkish mark on her left forearm was visible.

Strange, but familiar.

“I remembered what they call you,” Rosa said as Selina was about to pass her on her way out of the playground. “It’s the Love Witch.”

“That’s right.”

“Your books are very popular.”

“Over five million in print.”

“Amazing what black magic will net you, isn’t it?”

Selina’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t use black magic to help my writing.”

“Sure you don’t.”

The mark . Eden blinked rapidly. It was the same as what Malcolm had shown her. The brand given to members of the Malleus. Only Rosa’s was much older, less red and raw and new.

“Selina, wait a minute…” she began, feeling suddenly very nervous.

Selina brushed past the woman. “Excuse me.”

“Oh, one last thing, dear,” Rosa said.

“What?” Selina turned, annoyance plain on her face, and Rosa plunged the sharp tip of a dagger — previously sheathed at the end of her walking cane — through the witch’s chest so quickly it was barely noticeable.

Selina gasped, her eyes widening. Magic crackled erratically through the clearing as the cool breeze blew some fall leaves from the trees. The witch touched her chest, only a small mark of red on her expensive white suit to show that she’d been injured.

“I…” she began, but then fell to her knees and collapsed. The magic that could be felt around them disappeared.

Eden’s eyes widened and she staggered back from where Selina now lay on the ground.

Witches were still essentially human, Eden remembered Darrak telling her. They could be hurt. They could easily be killed.

Selina was dead. Easy as that.

“You bitch ,” Darrak moved forward, fury etched on his face. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“I killed a witch,” Rosa said matter-of-factly. “It’s part of my job. And don’t take another step closer, Darrakayiis .”

Darrak froze in place.

Eden turned to the woman and the pale shock must have been evident on her face.

“Yes,” Rosa said. “I found out his true name. Extensive research will net you many facts.”

“Mother—” Malcolm looked down at Selina with a strange expression on his face. It wasn’t joy. “She was leaving. You didn’t have to kill her.”

“Of course I did. She was a witch.”

Malcolm’s normally smooth forehead was furrowed. “Of course, you’re right.”

“I am. Now we must deal with the demon.”

Eden moved to stand in front of Darrak — currently frozen in place — and she held up her hands. She tried not to look at Selina’s unmoving body lying there on the ground. It had happened so fast it still hadn’t sunk in. She’d never seen anyone killed before. No, that wasn’t true, was it? The serial killer the other day. Ben had shot him dead. But he’d deserved it. He was going to kill her.

Selina was going to help her. And now she was gone. “You have the mark of the Malleus,” Darrak observed tensely. He could speak but not move.

Rosa touched her arm. “I do, indeed.”

“I thought that group was men-only.”

Rosa snorted. “My, you’ve been out of the loop for quite some time, haven’t you, archdemon? No, around the same time as women were granted the vote, we were also permitted to join the Malleus. By invitation only, of course.”

“It’s the same group who persecuted innocent women and burned them at the stake.”

“There were some true witches who were destroyed then as well. The collateral damage is to be expected.”

Darrak laughed humorlessly. “It’s nice that you can differentiate the evil that humans are responsible for from other types.”

“Yes it is, isn’t it?” She wiped the tip of her cane on the grass and put the wooden sheath over it again before turning it crystal side up again.

Eden took a shaky breath. “Let me guess, Malcolm. This is your Malleus elder? The one you had to speak to about Darrak?”

Malcolm nodded stiffly. “My mother has been with the Malleus for many years. She knows what to do with an archdemon.” He went to Rosa’s side. “I have the rock salt, Mother. We will exorcise his essence, trap it, and then smash it to send him to the void.”

She shook her head and leaned on her cane. “We won’t be needing that today.”

“What do you mean?”

Eden pressed back until she could feel Darrak’s tense body behind her. She turned to look at him.

“Go,” he whispered.

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving you. Besides, I can’t go that far away from you, remember?”

“Selina’s dead, and not by my hand. The curse can’t be broken, not by her, anyhow. Let them do whatever it is they want to do with me, but save yourself.”

She didn’t budge. Her brain was working overtime. She could talk to them. Convince them that Darrak wasn’t evil anymore. She’d seen something on Malcolm’s face earlier. He was ready to believe her. Just a little more time was all it would take. He hadn’t expected Rosa to kill Selina without any warning at all. Did he know what his mother was capable of before this? She seemed, on the surface, so harmless. But she wasn’t.