Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
ELLISON
I wake in the middle of the night and slowly stretch. The pain is creeping in, so I reach for my meds before remembering that I’d left them on the kitchen table. A part of me debates whether getting up is worth it, but I put on my glasses, then push myself up and head through the door.
As I walk by Asmodeus’s room, I notice the door is cracked open, so I give it a gentle push, knowing if I do too much, he’ll hear me and have a gun pointed at me, claiming I’m an intruder.
Instead, I find his bed empty, other than the ferret curled up on his pillow.
How could he let that disgusting thing on his pillow?
We will obviously need to have a talk about proper hygiene and why animals are not meant to be inside this household. Especially ones like that.
Walking downstairs, I grab the pills, but I don’t see Asmodeus downstairs, either.
I head up to my room and take a pill before sinking into my bed.
Then I send an illusion out to find Asmodeus. Closing my eyes, I put myself into the illusion as it wanders through the house. After checking every room, I head outside and walk around the perimeter.
He wouldn’t have left, would he?
I stand out in the moonlight and look around, but his car is still here. So he either walked off… or is somewhere else.
I look up and see him sitting on the roof, feeling quite confident that I can only see him because he chose to let me. He’s hugging his rifle to himself while I contemplate how he got up there before erasing my illusion and having it reappear on the roof.
“How long did you watch me wander around looking for you?”
“I wasn’t aware it was me you were looking for,” he says.
“You think I wander around in my yard for no reason at all?”
“I do. I mean… it’s rather fun, is it not?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Fun to wander around in the dark? Why aren’t you asleep?”
“The demons fuel my body; I no longer need sleep.”
“I’m going out on a limb and saying that no part of that is true,” I grumble.
Asmodeus grins at me. “I’ve come to a new conclusion.”
“Yeah?”
“There were two people in the woods. One who was following us and the other who attacked you.”
I hesitate before raising an eyebrow. “You really think there were two? Was one invisible or something? Why did none of us notice?”
“I can see people who turn invisible, though. My eyes let me see things that no one else can see.”
“As long as you can’t see through clothes, I’ll just roll with it.”
He looks thoughtful. “If I could… I could see all of your tattoos.”
“You’ve already seen them when Lex burned the clothes off my body and at the hospital.”
“Yes, but I was not permitted to peruse. Am I permitted to now? We can play doctor. I will examine you closely.”
“The longer you speak, the more I wouldn’t mind pushing you off the roof,” I say as I debate how hard it’d be.
“You can try all you want; I will not tumble from this roof. Why is it so flat? So fancy. You’re a very fancy boy, Ellison.”
“Let’s go to sleep.”
“Is me being out here disrupting your slumber? You do need your beauty sleep or I’m afraid you’ll turn out like your mother.”
My lips quirk. “My mother is missing a lot more than sleep. Maybe one of your demons can find a heart for her.”
Asmodeus cackles. “I will ask for one.”
Then he freezes and I look in the direction he’s facing, but his expression is unreadable as he stares.
“Did you sense that?”
“No… I didn’t sense anything.”
He lifts his rifle and peers through the scope before lowering it. “Whatever it was, it was there for only a moment.”
“You saw someone out there?” I ask.
“For just a moment.”
I stare into the darkness, wondering how the hell he could see anything. I sure can’t. “I can send an illusion out to look.”
“It’s gone now, but if you’d like. I don’t want to leave the area with your body here.”
“Okay.”
I jump from the roof, landing on my feet since height can’t hurt me.
I head out in the direction he’d seen something, but I don’t see anything out here.
I make it about thirty feet from the house before I get a stabbing pain in my head and the illusion flickers before I’m slammed back into my own body.
“Fuck,” I mutter as I rub my head. Did… did someone just… kick me out of my illusion?
Asmodeus pushes the bedroom door open and looks at me. “Did you see something? What happened?”
“No, it just felt like someone pushed me right out of my illusion. It threw me a bit.”
“You’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Asmodeus stares off in the direction he’d seen someone, but it’s not like he can see through walls no matter how good his eyesight is. His blue eyes flicker over to me. “I’m going to keep watch.”
“The house has a security system in place.”
“You think supers can’t get through security systems?”
I ease myself up. “I don’t know, Asmodeus, but we can’t just have you leave yourself in danger while I slumber away.”
“Sure we can.”
“Well, we’re not going to.”
“What are you going to do about it? Are you going to climb onto the roof yourself and knock me down?”
“I might!”
“I’d like to watch you try.”
He heads for the door, so I use an illusion to slam it shut.
Asmodeus looks at it with a raised eyebrow. “They can manipulate objects?”
“When I concentrate hard enough, they can.”
“How fascinating.”
He then grabs my illusion in a headlock and throws him over his shoulder, tossing him away and scurrying off, leaving me in the room alone.
My illusion is lying on the floor, probably having given up on life after the assault.
“Good lord,” I mutter, realizing that with this man, I’m never going to win.