Cat Adams - Demon Song

I parked the car in my reserved space and locked the door. I had to get a handle on my hunger before I walked into the office. I could feel the heat of the day sliding into cool darkness … as slow and delicious as easing your body into a pool. It was a sensual feeling that made my muscles come alive with the need to flex and chase. Hunt and feed.

My eyes snapped open when a tentative tap sounded on the window. Dawna was on the other side of the glass, but I couldn’t see her face past the bright band of pulsing red energy that lit her up from the inside. She held something up to the window and it pulsed, too. “You’re going vamp, Celia. Drink this.”

Drinking was exactly what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t the cup I wanted. Still, I held on to my sense of self long enough to lower the car window. I grabbed the Styrofoam container from her hand and raised it to my lips. Thankfully, I’d left my seat belt on.

She stepped back quickly, went into the building, and locked the door—I could hear the bolts snap home.

Smart woman.

The lid of the container defeated me for a moment, which told me just how badly off I was. I stabbed at the lid with my fangs until it finally gave way and wonderful warm bloody juices began to flow down my throat. It was a large container and I had no idea where she’d gotten it or how she’d known I needed it. But thank heavens she had. It was just what I needed. By the time I’d finished what must have been a quart or more I was feeling nearly normal. I’d even managed not to spill anything down the front of my shirt.

After I sat there long enough to see the sky edge to velvet, my hands felt like normal and I could see without a haze of red over everything. I didn’t shake when I stood up, and when I went into the office Dawna looked like Dawna, not like dinner. She was working on bills, which was typical of this time of the month. While best intentions ruled and all of us tried to get bills out by the fifth, it was usually the tenth before they were approved and ready to mail. “All better now?” she asked as I walked up to her desk.

“Don’t know where you got the au jus, but it was perfect. Right temperature, good spices. Yum.”

She looked up at me and smiled. “Found a new source, that barbeque place down on Third. I stopped there for dinner the other night and they were pulling out this huge pan from under the grill, filled with juices that dripped down during cooking. Beef, chicken, and pork, and they were just pouring it down the drain, so it didn’t take much effort to convince them to pour it into a bunch of containers for a few bucks. They’re in the freezer, so all it takes is a few minutes in the microwave. But don’t forget to do a shake chaser. Meat juice might feed what’s still alive in there, but you need vitamins, too.”

Good point. I went into the small kitchen and opened the fridge. Ooh! Chocolate caramel. That was new. I popped the top and took a sip as I walked back to her desk. “Sorry I flaked out on you earlier. It was sort of an emergency. And thanks for restocking the fridge.”

She nodded but didn’t look up from her data entry into the computer. “It’s not the first time we’ve missed lunch,” she said, and laughed. “The seminary called. They picked up Maria’s folks and everyone’s safe. What’s going on?”

Dawna’s a member of my team, so I didn’t hesitate to fill her in about the girl and the balloons and the unexpected exit down the toilet.

“Omagawd! You’re kidding!” She howled with laughter and I finally got to smile about it. “Oh, the poor thing. She must have been frantic. Is it all sorted out now?”

“Not by half, unfortunately. Fingers crossed, though.” I held up my hand to show Dawna that I’d done just that. I didn’t want to go into detail in case we hadn’t gotten all the bugs out of the office. “Hey, you want to get out of here for the night? I really need someone to bounce some ideas off and I’m still a little nervous after Justin’s visit.”

A little snort escaped her. “You and everybody else. Ron wants to bring in someone for a second opinion. He’s threatening to move out if the owner can’t guarantee him some client confidentiality. Hard to blame him, y’know?”

I sighed. “Terrific. You know who the owner is, right?”

She furrowed her brow and cocked her head, sending dark hair spilling out of her tasteful bun to land on her shoulder. “C and S Corp. Do you know the contact there?”

I pointed a thumb at my chest. “Moi. C and S was Vicki, and I’m the new owner once the probate goes through. Haven’t you received your letter from the attorney yet?”

“You’re kidding! She left you a building ? Wow. Yeah, I got a letter saying that Vick had left me something but that it was being held up in the lawsuit her mom filed. I figured it was a few bucks. I hope it’s enough to pay off my credit cards.”

I smiled. It really had been a while since Dawna and I had had a normal conversation. “It probably won’t pay off your cards, but it’ll free up your rent money.” At her questioning look, I patted her hand. “She owned your building, too. That’s your inheritance. In a year or so, you’ll own an apartment building and will get all the headaches thereof. Just like me.”

Her jaw was open so far a bird could have flown in without pulling in its wings. When she finally recovered, I’d nearly finished the shake. “There’s like forty apartments in my building! How the hell am I going to take care of them all?”

“Join the club. At least Ron’s not one of your tenants.”

She rested her elbows on the desk and dropped her chin onto her hands just as the lights flashed twice and the temperature dropped enough that I could see my breath. I looked up at the sparkling formation near the ceiling. “Hey, Vick. Glad you’re feeling better. Thanks for your help last night. Kevin’s okay.” I waggled my hand. “Mostly.”

No prob. S’up? The words appeared on the front window in frost.

“I need to find his Vaso. He’s in pretty bad shape. Needs to drain his energy. Any ideas?”

Nooo. But … I waited while she thought and then watched as white cursive letters appeared while the glass snapped and popped from the sudden temperature shift: Work, sleep, eat. All he did.

“True that,” Dawna added with a nod. She’d noticed her undone hair and was putting it back into the bun by stabbing it repeatedly with the ornate chopsticks she used as hair ornaments. “We had to drag him out of the computer lab when we went out somewhere. Half of the time he wouldn’t come because someone on campus had a broken computer. His Vaso must be someone he knew at school. He never went anywhere else.”

“Makes sense to me. But it was a big university. Could be any of a hundred people.”

No. Day or night? The words were hurried, like the ghost had an idea.

I knew so little about Vasos. I pointed to the computer screen. “Bring up the Internet. See if there’s a time of day that a werewolf has to drain his energy. I’ll bet Vicki’s right. She usually is.”

A few clicks later I was reading over Dawna’s shoulder, feeling a chill on my neck as my dead best friend did the same thing. “Ooh, look at this. The best time is right before bed. But Kevin never went to bed until late. What’s open on campus at night?”

“Infirmary,” Dawna offered.

Security appeared on the window.

But I was the one who got it and we all knew it the minute I wrote the word on the pad on Dawna’s desk. Library. I wrote it to protect her identity from anyone listening or watching, just as Kevin had asked. The university library was open until midnight every day except Sunday.