I screamed, and Erasmus threw himself over me. I could feel bits of glass raining down on the bed around us, but he took the brunt of it. He grabbed me and transported me into the shop and then instantly transported back upstairs. A burst of roaring and growling echoed above. I raised my hand for the crossbow…then remembered it was still at Grandpa’s house.
I whirled toward the fireplace, grabbed a poker, and ran upstairs. From the doorway, I saw a naked Erasmus in hand-to-hand—and tooth-to-claw—combat with Andras. I was naked, too, I realized, but I didn’t suppose it really mattered.
They tumbled over the bed and onto the floor, the demon assassin’s wings spread wide, touching both walls and sending my carefully hung pictures crashing down, breaking even more glass.
Erasmus’ mouth had morphed again into that wide version with all those teeth, and he was biting down on Andras’ clavicle, trying to get closer to his neck. Andras was biting him, too. Both of them were covered in black blood. Their bodies smoldered and smoked, leaving burnt scarring across my wood floor.
Erasmus was on top when Andras suddenly flipped him around and ground him into the floor. But there was Andras’ long, unprotected back. I leapt forward and plunged the poker into him through the skin suit. He threw back his head, arched his back, and wailed.
Where the poker entered him, it burst into flame. He screamed and rolled, twisting at a painful angle to try and avoid the poker. I hadn’t even realized it when I grabbed it, but it was made of iron.
Andras rose and turned toward me. He was grimacing in agony, his eyes burning with hatred. He twisted his frame and managed to pull out the poker, dropping it to the floor with a clang. Black blood gushed over the rug. He staggered toward the open maw that was now my window and fell through. Down he went, disappearing into the night. I rushed to what was left of my window sash and looked down. No body. He must have saved himself at the last minute and flown off. Damn! I wish I had killed him.
Erasmus lay moaning on the floor. I rushed to him, not caring about the bits of glass embedding themselves into my knees.
“Kylie,” he muttered. “Dammit, woman. You’ll catch your death.”
“Are you all right?”
“In a moment. Put something on.”
“Stop worrying about me.” I began to notice my teeth were chattering.
There was a lot of blood, some of it Erasmus’. He lay on the floor as I tip-toed through the carnage for my shoes. I shook them out first to clear them of any broken glass before slipping them on. Then I hurriedly searched for a robe and shook it free of glass, too.
When I was vaguely dressed, I helped him up. There were glass shards all over him, along with scratches from debris and that ass-hat’s teeth. “What can I do to help you?”
He grunted in obvious pain. “I will heal momentarily.”
“Shall I try to pull out the glass, or—”
“No need.” As I watched, the skin around the glass puckered, spitting out the shards. The black blood soon stopped dripping from the wounds as the skin slowly cleaved together. Fast healing didn’t mean fast pain relief. He suffered. All I could do was hold his hand as he squeezed hard and silently take the pain from his crushing grip.
After a moment, he released me. I shook out my hand to get the blood flowing again. He bent forward, breathing hard. That’s when he saw my knees. “You’re hurt.”
“I guess.”
He put hands to both my thighs and instantly any pain was gone. I checked my knees and there was no glass, no blood, no scarring. Even the pain Baphomet’s claws had raked through my scalp was gone, as were the wounds Andras had made to my shoulders. I rolled them, luxuriating in the cessation of pain. “How did you do that?”
“I…don’t know.”
“You could have healed me before…”
“I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean? Erasmus, what’s going on?”
He scooted to the end of the bed and clutched his head in his hands. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” He looked up suddenly, scrutinizing me. “It’s you,” he said accusingly. “Ever since I met you, it’s all gone wrong.”
I sat on the bed beside him. “Erasmus,” I said softly. “Do you think it’s because… you might be…in love with me?”
He frowned. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Being in love means thinking about that one person all the time. Wanting to be with them. You’d sacrifice yourself for that person. You’d do anything to make them happy. It can be a nice thing.”
“It sounds horrific.”
I went back over what I had said and saw his point. “Well, mostly it means you just want to be with that person all the time and keep them safe. You…click with them. It’s a human emotion.”
He stared at the floor, and so did I…at the sparkling shards of glass that I would have to clean up. I’d have to retreat downstairs now that my bedroom was uninhabitable. More money to spend getting Barry Johnson from Moody Bog Hardware to put in a new window. More expenses I didn’t need right now. And how was I going to explain it?
Erasmus slowly turned toward me. “That’s not possible,” he all but growled.
“Demons don’t get human emotions?”
He scowled and looked away again. “No.”
“I see. But you can get mad and jealous…but not feel love?”
“Why do you continue to taunt me?”
“Because I think there’s a lot about you that even you don’t understand. How long have you been alive? You said you wake up when the Chosen Host opens the Booke and then go to sleep when it gets closed, and sometimes it’s centuries between those times. You’re thousands of years old, but you’ve only been awake for a brief part of that. How would you know? How would you really know anything about yourself?”
He stared at me now, a look of horror dawning on his face.
I moved to face him. “Maybe it’s not so bad. Love can be a wonderful thing.”
“No.”
“Yes, it is. Especially…” I took a breath. “Especially when both parties feel the same way.”
“No.” He rose, still naked. I looked away. There was something too raw about him, and I didn’t mean the unclothed part. He strode across my ruined floor, waved his hand, and vanished. As he disappeared in a puff of black smoke, the glass shards rose up from the floor and off the bed. The remnants of my window rose, too, all heading toward where the gaping hole where my window used to be and carefully stitching themselves together. I watched, with dropped jaw, as each piece found its place again and painstakingly repaired itself, until every tiny shard had found its home and been sucked into position, and there wasn’t a hairline crack to be seen. When all the pieces had made it back into place, even the gentle tinkling sound of the glass sealing itself back together stopped. The room fell silent again…except for the ticking of my alarm clock.
I ran to the window and looked it over, running my hand over the smooth surface of glass and muntin. When I glanced through it, there was only darkness outside, except for a lone figure in a black duster, pacing through my back garden and refusing to look up to the window.
Something nudged my hip. The Booke. I reached down and grabbed it, holding it to my chest like an addict. I nearly swooned at the sensation of its nearness. It kept me company as the lone figure below paced and paced.
* * *
In the late afternoon, everyone showed up to the shop. Nick was there, and even Deputy George in uniform. Everyone but Ed. And Erasmus.
While they were all serving themselves tea and cake, I pulled Doc aside. “Doc, I need to ask you something in confidence.”
“That depends, young lady. Is it something that the rest of us need to know?”
“I—hmm. I’m not sure. But I have to ask anyway. It’s about…demons.”
“Does this have to do with the absence of a particular demon?”
“Sort of. Erasmus seems to have more powers than even he thought he had. When Andras attacked us last night—”
“Andras attacked you?”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll tell everyone all about that…in a moment. But he seems to have more power than he thought he had. And I think it’s because he’s…well. In love. With me.”
His brows snapped up his wrinkled forehead. “I see. And why do you think that is?”
“The closer we’ve gotten—and you might as well know we’ve gotten pretty darned close, if you haven’t already guessed—the more magic he can perform. But he keeps surprising even himself. He doesn’t know where it’s coming from. And it can’t be the Booke because he’s been with it all his life. It seems that the more he experiences human emotion, the more things he can to do.”
“I’ll have to check with Jolene. She’s the expert these days. But it does seem that he is getting to know more about himself as the days wear on.” He tapped his lip for a moment before looking up at me. “Just as a matter of curiosity…are you in love with him?”
Sighing, I leaned back against my table. “I don’t honestly know, Doc. Sometimes, I feel I could be, but then he gets all demony and animal-like…and it scares me. There are long stretches where I’ve forgotten entirely that he isn’t like us at all. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to forget that.”
“No, my dear, it isn’t. I’d caution you to be careful but…we seem to be beyond that now.” He put his arm around me. “I think you’d better tell us all about your encounter with Andras.”
We both walked back into the main shop, and I told my story, leaving out the intimate details. But Doc was already whispering to Jolene, who snapped her head up to look at me and then pushed her glasses up her nose. When she dove back into her tablet, I knew she’d have an answer soon.
While everyone was busy with some sort of task, I found a moment to sit next to Nick. It was one of the few moments when George wasn’t fawning over him. The deputy was in the kitchen with the others.
Nick blushed and looked down at his fidgeting fingers, at the chipped black polish on his nails. “It’s funny how this is still there, even after they’ve become claws,” he remarked.
I took his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
He sighed. “It’s not your fault. No, really. None of this is.”
“It sure feels like it, though.”
“Dude, how could you have known? And honestly.” He looked back toward the kitchen. “Deputy Mustache really stepped up to the plate.”
I laughed in spite of how guilty I felt. “Yeah, he has. I’m not sorry I told him. He needed to be told.”
“I was all ready to break up with him. Now he’s all over it. Suddenly out and proud. Well, at least to the coven. And he’s not even making those veiled comments about Wicca anymore. Seems he’s embraced that, too.”
“Love can do that.”
He blushed again. “Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “I guess it can. You have chutzpah, I’ll give you that.”
“Speaking of out, what have you told your parents?”
His mood dimmed. “I had to tell them I was moving out, that I got a roommate and stuff. I’m going to have to go over there and get my things. But I’m scared, Kylie. What if I change? I don’t want them to know. I don’t want to hurt them.”
“How’s the adjustment going?”
“Jeff’s been great about schooling me. And if I get frustrated and angry, he does some kind of alpha thing, and I fall into line. It’s weird.”
“Kinky.”
He shoved his shoulder into mine. “God, no. Not with Straight Wolf.”
“But it helps, right? Helps you control yourself?”
“I only shift a little when something sets me off, but even that’s getting better. It’s a learning curve, but it’s going fast. Like…once you learn to ride a bike, it’s as if you’ve been doing it all your life.” He quieted, mulling it over. “All your life,” he muttered, looking down at his hands again. His sudden cloud of gloom seemed to disappear just as quickly as it arrived. “The wolfsbane tastes horrible, but it really helps. Though the smell of blood is something that riles me up.”
“Yeah. I saw that happen to Jeff. But that was because he hadn’t taken his potion.”
“Yes, Mother, I’ll remember.” Absently, he picked at the chipped polish. “You know, last night, when George was asleep, Jeff and I went out to the woods and shifted. He wanted me to be all wolf, to not be afraid of it. So I did, practicing shifting back and forth. And then, as a wolf, we ran together. Kylie…it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. I can’t even describe it. The…freedom. The…” He shook his head. “It was just so dope. So…”
Something brilliant flashed in his eyes. He still feared the change, but it gave him something, too. I almost envied him.
“But,” he said, the light in his eyes dimming, “there are things out there. In the woods.”
“Jeff said something about that, too.”
“Wild things that have always been there. I don’t know what they are. If I had to give them a name, I guess I’d say…sprites? Forest creatures? They aren’t quite benign, yet they aren’t quite dangerous. But I know as a former human—”
“You are still human.”
“Okay. As a human/wolf hybrid, I can see them now when I couldn’t before. They don’t really seem to care about us, but…they know about us. They looked right at me last night.”
“But they aren’t dangerous?”
He shrugged. “Not sure. I’ll have to further explore that. Just…be careful out there. As if you aren’t already.” He hunched toward me. “So, tell me exactly what happened when you jabbed Andras with the poker.”
Back to business. “I hit bone, I think, so it didn’t go in too deep. It started to burn and smoke. But he was able to pull it out. I really think a bolt is what we need. Something he can’t pull out. The more embedded it is, the more harm it will do. He was hurt but I don’t know how much. A lot, I hope.”
He got in closer. “So…were you and Erasmus in the middle of doing it?”
“Nick!”
George returned and sat on Nick’s other side. He seemed to hesitate for a second before tentatively putting a hand on Nick’s knee. “Nick tell you how he’s coming along?”
“Nick’s said a lot of things.”
Nick chuckled.
“Thanks for being there, deputy.”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to this guy.” He leaned in, hesitated again when his eyes flicked toward me, but eventually tilted in further and kissed Nick’s cheek.
Nick looked at me sidelong, gesturing with his head toward George.
George then edged in toward me. “I couldn’t help but notice the necklace that Jeff is wearing.”
“Ruh-roh,” muttered Nick.
Getting into deputy mode, George raised his chin. “It looks suspiciously like the locket Ruth was asking about.”
“Does it?” I might have batted my eyelashes.
He cleared his throat. “If it is her locket, I might have to ask for it back.” Then his shoulders relaxed and he glanced once at Nick. “But if it’s a supernatural thing,” he said quietly, “and you really need it, maybe I didn’t see it after all.”
I smiled and rose. “You’re okay, deputy. I’ll leave you guys to it.”
“Actually,” said Nick, getting to his feet. “I feel kind of left out. I think I need to be in the kitchen with the others.”
“Are you sure, Nicky?” asked George. Ed had been right that George was a whole different person when he was with Nick.
“I don’t want to be treated like an invalid. I’m not. I’m ready to join the coven again.” He caught sight of George’s look of disapproval. “I mean the… group. Shall we?” He pushed his way into the kitchen. “Jolene, how are we doing on demon lore? It’s time to kick Andras’ butt.”
* * *
We needed a piece of iron small enough to serve as a bolt for the poisoned arrowhead Erasmus had created to fit on top of. But none of us were blacksmiths.
“I bet Barry Johnson could do it,” said Seraphina. “He does some metal work.”
“How do you know that?” asked Nick, examining the poisoned head of the arrow.
“I know a little about Barry.”
Nick slid a mischievous glance in her direction. “Oh ho! Seraphina gets biz-ay with Mr. Hardware Store!”
She gave him a withering look, but she still blushed.
“But that’s actually an idea,” said Nick. “He might already have some iron dowels or, I guess, rebar.”
“Rebar is steel,” said George.
Everyone looked at him.
“Hey, I know things.”
Nick nodded. “Then that won’t work. We need pure iron.”
“Because…?”
“Because, deputy, demons can’t abide iron or silver. But since I can’t work with silver anymore—werewolf thing—iron’s my best bet. I think we should go to the hardware store before it closes. And then…maybe head over to my folks to pick up my stuff.”
He looked at George hopefully. But George seemed worried. “You don’t want me to go, do you?”
“Only if you want to.”
“Maybe your folks don’t want to meet me.”
“But they’ll have to at some point.”
“But…”
“Oh, for god’s sake!” said Jolene over her tablet, head down and tapping away. “Man up, and just go with him, deputy.”
Chastened, they both left together in Nick’s car.
I stood at the window watching them drive away, thinking what strange couples we had: A werewolf and a deputy, a shopkeeper and a demon…when Ed pulled up in his Interceptor. And he wasn’t alone.