Chapter 11
eleven
. . .
The fire didn’t burn me except that it was Dorian, and he wrapped around me in the most delicious and sublime way imaginable, like getting a full body massage, relaxing in a jet tub, and cuddling with the love of your life, all with a bite of ecstasy that made it very difficult for me to want to climb up the chimney.
I’d just stay here wrapped in Dorian’s heart flames for the rest of my life which would hopefully be short because my trajectory wasn’t looking very good.
I closed my eyes, relaxing into the endless warmth and delicious life, but the little monster pulled my hair, dragging me up, which hurt my neck almost like it hadn’t appreciated holding up my body the last time a monster had held me up by my head. Thanks, Lucy.
I found purchase on the inside of the stone chimney, making my way slowly up the inside while Dorian’s flames curled around my feet, toes, until finally, I was too high, and there was no happiness or comfort in the world. Only madness. So much madness.
“Hurry up!” Mixl called from high above.
I didn’t recall there being a chimney on the abandoned-looking warehouse, and I was right.
There was a vent with a metal grate over it that the baby demon was chewing through.
I braced myself and kicked the vent, sending it out with a clatter.
I poked my head out next to Mixl and looked at the ground far below, slick metal siding beneath us.
I sighed. “Well, that was fun. I guess I’d better go back down to the fire.”
“We didn’t come this far to go back now. Where do you want to go?”
I frowned. That was a good question. I couldn’t go to the store or a vampire or demon would get me. What I needed to do was get a look at Tom’s book about demons and find out what was going on with me. “There’s an old movie theater on the east side, close to the river. That’s where I want to go.”
“Great. When I tell you to jump, jump!”
“I’m not going to—”
“Jump!” He grabbed my arm and dragged me headfirst out of the vent.
I didn’t scream, no, because I’d been in the process of taking a breath, so I just gasped. He wrapped his arms and legs around me and spread his wings the split-second before we hit the asphalt and died, bringing us up in a glide away from the warehouse and demons, and into the dark night.
For three blocks, I stayed like a petrified log with the young demon wrapped around me, and then his wings gave out, and we went down, hitting some garbage cans before rolling across the pavement.
I stumbled to my feet and then dragged the downed demon out of the road before the oncoming truck made a pancake out of him.
“Are you okay?” I asked breathlessly, leaning over him and grabbing his shoulders while his eyes fluttered.
They opened and he stared at me, his eyes brighter than ever as he grinned, showing fanged canines. “I can’t believe that actually worked.”
I sighed and dropped him then staggered over as the whole dizzying flight caught up to me. I grabbed a sign post with my stomach churning while Mixl went through the garbage cans until he came back with a pair of men’s boots that were at least four sizes too big for me.
“So you don’t cut your soft baby feet on the glass,” he said helpfully.
“Thanks,” I said, staring at those shoes for a long time before I sighed and slipped my bare feet into them.
I mean, I’d eaten a demon. Was this the time to be squeamish about foot bacteria?
I shuddered and started walking as fast as I could in hopefully the right direction with the demon darting around me like a fish in shallow water.
He was interested in everything, exhaust ducts, sewer grates, piles of rubble, and old paper towels.
I just hoped he didn’t cut himself and need a tetanus shot. Did demons get lockjaw?
I definitely had blisters on my feet by the time we got to the street with Tom’s movie theater.
It was dark, the sign out, because he was probably at Gloria’s house asleep.
That was fine. I just needed to get to the top floor where he kept his books and things.
I went around the building, down the back alley and then looked up at the fire ladder where it’d broken off so close to the roof.
“What are we doing?” Mixl whispered right in my ear, making me jump and whirl around while my heart raced.
His grin was the most irritating thing in the world, but I found myself smiling back at him. “I’m going to break in. I used to climb the brick wall when I was a teenager. I probably still remember how to do it.” Was that optimism or blatant untruth? Not really a question there.
I took off the boots and started feeling around for a handhold.
“Come on,” Mixl said, already halfway up the wall.
I looked up as he leapt up and caught himself with his claws against the wall so easily.
And he was a young demon? Scary. Dorian could probably just run through the wall if he got a good speed.
I slipped and barely grabbed a narrow windowsill.
I was maybe three feet off the ground. That was the bathroom, right?
Maybe it was unlocked. I clearly wasn’t going to be scaling up the entire side of the building at the rate I was going.
I worked on it, but it wasn’t budging. I sighed heavily, pulled back my arm and smashed my elbow through the window. Ow. So much ow.
“What are you doing?” Mixl hissed while he shunted the glass out of the frame and then boosted me through the window.
I was still stunned from my stupidity while my arm throbbed.
Brain damage. Being bitten by a vampire, or having her hold my head like that had given me brain damage.
And then Roberta. That explained the eating a demon thing I also wasn’t thinking about.
Brain damage. I wasn’t insane, just mentally impaired.
“Why are you laughing?” Mixl whispered while he came out of a stall with a long trail of toilet paper coming after him.
“I’m not…” I snickered. “Laughing.” But if I was, it was because he looked so funny with a tail of toilet paper.
He shook his head and started wrapping it around my arm. “You’re going to get yourself killed, and then Drigo will kill everyone and then…” He gasped and crouched, grabbing a large piece of glass that he held up while he stared at the doorway like he heard something.
I stopped laughing. Hm. I guess I had been laughing. Weird.
The door opened and in leapt Tom, knives in his hands and a cold gleam in his eye. He threw a knife at Mixl, but the demon blocked it with his piece of glass. He returned the throw, which Tom sidestepped, then finally looked at me and my toilet paper wrapped arm.
“Sandra? What are you doing?” the cadaver-like figure asked, frowning at me, and the mess I’d made.
It was like being fourteen again. Oh the shame. “I broke your window. Sorry. I’ll pay for it, I just couldn’t climb the building after all. I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“And your shoes? You’re standing in glass. How bad’s your arm? Do you need stitches?” He sighed heavily. “You’d better come upstairs. What’s the demon supposed to be doing?”
Mixl puffed up his chest. “I’m her bodyguard.”
“You’re clearly doing a stellar job.”
Mixl made a face at Tom then darted through the window, throwing the boots through, one of which hit Tom in the head.
He grunted and then put the boot down so I could step into it.
“You’re clearly living your best life,” he muttered while Mixl climbed back in, looking heroic, because he’d remembered boots to protect my baby feet.
“Thanks. You too. Why are you here?”
“You broke a window. I had an alarm on that window.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.”
He shrugged. “You’ll pay for it. You’re a very responsible soul. Let’s move this party upstairs.” He studied my arm again for a second, shook his head, and then walked with me up the narrow stairs to the small apartment next to the movie room.
“Demon, what you instinctively want to do is unwind all of those tapes, but if you do that, I’ll cut off your tail. Your choice. Sandra, sit here. Demon, grab that lamp and bring it over. Not by the cord.”
Mixl tossed the lamp and caught it by the lampshade that time. “Why are you such an old human?”
“Plug it into the socket. Why are you such a young demon? These things happen.” Tom sat me down in an old metal chair with a ripped yellow vinyl seat and cut the toilet paper and Dorian’s shirt off my arm.
“You’ve got a lot of glass in here,” he said, pulling out one of the big pieces with his slender fingers.
“Ah, that’s why humans wear the leather jackets, to protect arms from the glass,” Mixl said, nodding soberly. “Next time I will remember. Boots and jackets.”
“Next time, you do that,” Tom murmured before he went and rummaged around, coming back with his old medical kit which had a lot more than band-aids and antibacterial ointment.
I sat there kind of blank until he pulled out a really deep sliver of glass and I yelped.
Mixl snarled at Tom and landed on the desk where we were sitting, digging his claws into the wood. “You can’t hurt the human,” he hissed.
“I can, easily, but I won’t. This is one of my humans. She’s my wife’s sister, and my own old friend. The glass has to come out, or her body will just keep bleeding, and it looks like she already lost a lot of blood recently.”
“I did. Lucy bit me.”
He tsked. “That’s a pity. She must have gotten lax around humans. She hasn’t made a mistake for some time.”
“The Grand Master’s bride?” Mixl asked, sounding slightly interested, but he was still right there, his face inches from my glass-embedded arm.
“Fairly fresh. She’s adapting well to her new state, other than this unfortunate recent accident.” Tom patted my shoulder and then pulled out another piece.
I jerked and then forced myself to hold still. “Sorry.”
“I’m sure you are. Hopefully you use your demon’s head to break windows next time.”