Kim Harrison - Dates From Hell

“Sorry.”

“Not as sorry as I am.”

I dragged the back of my hand across my mouth and got a good taste of plastic glove. At least it made me stop tasting Eric.

“Look at the bright side,” Chavez said. “At least you didn’t screw a dead guy.”

Hey, there was a silver lining to every cloud.

“If Eric was dead on our date, how could he seem so alive?”

“When demons animate a body, the postmortem changes are frozen. Once the demon exits, the decomposition begins.”

He lifted Eric’s arm, or tried to. Eric was stiff as a…corpse.

“By the state of rigor mortis, the demon has been gone less than eight hours.”

“Why bother to exit at all? He’d found a perfectly good body.”

“Several reasons. One—I’d seen his face, and he knew I’d be searching for it. Two—decomposition can only be stopped for a few days. Demon reanimation or not, dead is dead.”

Chavez stood, but continued to stare at Eric, thinking out loud. “A demon inhabiting the newly dead makes me think night wanderer—a Rakshasas.”

“Hindu,” I said.

His gaze flicked to mine. “How do you know that?”

“I have a degree in ancient civilizations.”

“Why?”

A question I’d often asked myself.

“I was interested.”

“So am I. What else do you know about Rakshasas?”

“Squat. I remember the name, but I didn’t spend too much time on ancient religions. I was more concerned with the rise and fall. Weapons and wars.”

“I wouldn’t think that would be up your alley at all.”

I shrugged. “I do recall that one thing most civilizations have in common is a belief in a greater good, as well as a greater evil.”

His gaze sharpened. “Exactly. Demons by any name are still demons.”

“And God is still God. If you search long enough you can find a similarity even in the most disparate societies.”

“Too bad no one ever takes the time to look.”

“Too bad,” I echoed. “Now tell me about the Rakshasas.”

“A Hindu demon that reanimates corpses. Except the Rakshasas isn’t interested in sex. Unless it’s with the dead. Or maybe they eat the dead.” His lips tightened. “I can’t remember. Either way, fire is how you kill them, and it didn’t work on this one.”

“You didn’t use fire on Eric, that was on the other guy.” I frowned. “Whoever he was.”

“Has to be the same demon inhabiting different men. Otherwise why did he come back for you? Why did he say, ‘We aren’t finished’? Why did he know me?”

I shrugged since I didn’t have a clue. “Why do demons inhabit people anyway? Why don’t they just come to earth and do their thing?”

“Demons in their natural form are so hideous, humans can go mad from the sight. Their voices are so god-awful, eardrums rupture. People can die from the shock before a demon ever gets its jollies. As terrible as possession is, the alternative is worse.”

We went silent for several moments just contemplating it.

“Any other ideas on what kind of demon we’re dealing with?” I asked.

“No. Every one that I know of would turn to dust at the touch of salt, fire, or silver.”

“Which means?”

Chavez lifted his gaze to mine. “We’ve got a demon I’ve never heard about.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

He lit a cigarette and took a drag.

“Never.”

“Never?” My voice rose so high, he flinched.

“Here.” He held the cigarette to my lips.

I jerked back. “I’m not so hysterical that I need to start smoking. But thanks anyway.”

“Smoke keeps the demon from possessing you.” He glanced at the body. “I think this one’s gone, but it never hurts to be cautious.”

He stuffed the unlit end between my lips with a little too much force. The filter smashed against my teeth. I shoved him away, then took a drag. I wanted to avoid demon possession as much as the next person.

“There.” I let the smoke trail out through my nose—hey, I’d gone to college. “I thought this demon only inhabited dead people.”

“Since I don’t know for sure what type of demon this is, it could do just about anything.”

“Terrific,” I muttered.

“Mmm.”

My curiosity was piqued by something else he’d said. “Possession really happens? That isn’t just in the movies?”

His face went still, his eyes hard. “Demons inhabit anything and anyone they damn well please.”

I’d been curious, but suddenly I didn’t want to know what he’d seen, what he’d done, what he’d killed. His eyes were haunted for a reason.

Chavez stared at me for several seconds, as if he planned to say something else. Then he took the cigarette, pinched the lit end between his fingers in a macho display that I refused to acknowledge, and placed the butt into one of his pockets.

Without another word, Chavez trailed around the apartment, picking through the mail, then moving on to the phone messages. Not wanting to be left alone with dead Eric—I had the nasty suspicion he’d open his eyes and try to seduce me again—I tagged along.

“We need to find the other guy,” Chavez murmured.

“According to you, he’s already dead. What’s the rush?”

“Maybe the demon is still inside him. We could save the next poor sap on the dead dating parade.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Which was why he was the demon hunter and I was the one being hunted by the demon.

We left the apartment, and Chavez glanced at the security camera on the wall.

“We may as well call the police,” I muttered. “They’ll be calling me soon enough.”

“I checked it when we came in. The light’s not on. Whoever was here before us disabled the camera.”

“That was nice of him. I think.”

“I doubt nice had anything to do with it.” Chavez headed for the service entrance. “This demon’s a lot smarter than most.”

“Are they usually stupid?”

“No. But they’re not exactly savvy with the ways of the world. Kind of like a bull in a china shop—flailing around, obsessed with getting whatever it is they came here for. They don’t worry about security cameras, police, or demon hunters. They think they’re invincible.”

“But they aren’t.”

“Not invincible, no, but hard to kill. Only one, maybe two, methods will work, and the trick is to figure out what before the thing kills you.”

The trill of excitement returned. Life and death. Good versus evil. The stuff of really great books—and Chavez was living it. Too bad I might be dying from it.

“You must be very good at your job,” I said.

“I’m the best.”

“How did I get so lucky?”

Chavez checked the alley, then motioned for me to follow him. “Lucky?”

“How did you find me?” I paused. “Actually, I guess you found Eric. Is there a demon hunter hotline?”

“No.”

He didn’t elaborate, just stalked off so fast I had to move double time on my short legs to catch up. His face, when I reached him, was stonelike, unwelcoming. Wrong question, I guess, so I tried another.

“Are there a lot of demon hunters? You have a club or something?”

The look he shot my way would have scared me several hours ago. Now it intrigued me. There was a whole world out here I’d never known about. No one did.

“Rogue means I don’t play well with others,” he said. “I don’t like rules.”

“There are rules?”

“I’ve heard there’s a society of monster hunters. Had a few approach me about a demon-hunting unit. I guess they’ve got government funding.”

“The U.S. government?”

“Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

“After being kissed by a dead man dating, not really.”