Demon Lover, Part Four

“There’s flesh here.” Desi walked into the house. “Lots of it.” She licked her lips. “And this one made me a deal.”

            The two demons with her were at least seven feet tall. I couldn’t count the number of horns on their heads.

            Webb reared up. “Out!” His voice was a roar. “My house! Get out!”

            I held my stun gun up. I wasn’t sure if Desi knew what it could do, but it was all I had.

            “Let’s all just calm down and take a breath.” I followed my own suggestion with a deep gulp of air as my heart pounded behind my ribs.

            Rachel moved to my side. “Now what?”

            Webb growled as he got to his feet. “I will not let you eat any skin here. If we have to fight, I’ll eat yours.” He licked his lips. “I’m sure it’ll taste juicy. Especially the good parts.”

            The good parts? Yuck.

            “She made a deal.” The snakes on Desi’s head squirmed. “Anything. That’s what she said.”

            Webb lifted his claws. “She’s the mother of my child. Only I have claim to her skin. And if I don’t eat it, no one does.”

            “And they say romance is dead,” I whispered. Rachel jabbed my ribs.

But Katrina looked over her shoulder at her ex-husband with something like relief. “Okay,” she said. “Thank you.”

            “For Nikki.” His nod held menace. “Not for you.”

            Desi laughed. “Okay. We’ll leave your home. But we’ll be waiting outside.”

            She and her two demons left, slamming the door behind them.

            Meghan slapped her sister’s arm. “I told you not to say that!”

            “I had to find Nikki!” She dropped to her knees again, sobbing. “You don’t understand, you’ll never . . .”

            “Don’t cry, mom.” Nikki put a hand on her mother’s shoulder. “You can’t cry. It makes you weak.”

            “What?” She looked up. “Is that what he taught you?”

            “You can’t be weak.” Nikki’s horn rose behind her head. “It’s the only way to survive.”

            Katrina slapped her hand. “Get away from me!”

            Nikki stumbled back, confused. “I just said—”

She jabbed a finger at Webb. “You did this to her! You made her this way!”

“I taught her to be strong.” Webb smiled at his daughter. “And she’s learned.”

“You asshole! What have you done to her?” Katrina staggered, trying to stay upright. “If you’ve hurt her, I will—”

“Kat.” Meghan put a hand on her arm. “We’ve got bigger problems.”

            Yeah. I lifted a hand. “You guys have to work out your custody issues without any lawyers, which is fine with me no matter what happens.” I didn’t really think leaving Nikki in a demon realm where people ate skin was best for her, but maybe it was better than some neighborhoods in Chicago. “The real question is, how do we get back to the portal with Desi and her goons out there?”

            Webb stalked to the window, leaned down, and peered out. “I can protect you.”

            Meghan shook her head. “I don’t know. Those two guys with her were pretty big.”

            “They’re stupid.” He wheeled around. “They’re her latest. She keeps two around between mating seasons. Then she eats them, ruts with a champion, and chooses two more to keep her . . . satisfied for two years. So she has to pick dumb.”

            “Oh . . . my . . . god.” Katrina’s eyes widened on her daughter. Then she leaned over, gasping, and vomited on Webb’s carpet.

            Meghan put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. But she stared at Webb with enough hate in her eyes to make me nervous. “This place is where you want your daughter to grow up? There’s nothing normal about this—”

            “My mother died because she lived in a human realm.” Webb clenched his jaw. “We can’t live in both worlds. It has to be one or the other.”

            “So you want Nikki to grow up in a world like this? Is she going to eat skin and wait every two years to rut with a, a champion? Didn’t you figure anything out when you lived as a human?”

            “That I can’t live as a human!” He lifted his arms. “Look at me! This is what I am! This place is where I have to live—if I want to live.”

            “But Nikki . . .” Katrina coughed. “She was born at home. She doesn’t have to live like this.”

            “I’ve seen it all, mom.” Nikki stood in a corner. Not frightened, but uncertain. She clutched at her horn. “The rutting, the skin eating, everything. It’s how we live here.”

            Katrina wiped an arm over her mouth. “I’m sorry.” She stood up again, with Meghan’s help. Then she closed her eyes, as if she couldn’t look at her daughter while she asked the question: “Do you really want to stay here?”

            Webb turned away—as if he didn’t want to hear her answer either.

            Nikki shook her head. “No.”

            Webb groaned.

            Katrina rubbed her eyes. “Are you sure?”

            Nikki tapped a clawed heel on the floor uncertainly. Then she walked slowly to her father. “I’m sorry, dad.”

            I wondered what I could do if he lashed out at her. But Webb only lowered his head. “Go.”

            Rachel glanced over her shoulder at the window. “That leaves us with the first question—how do we get back to the portal?”

            I grinned. “Maybe we don’t have to.”

            She blinked. “Oh. Right.”

            “Webb?” I was nervous talking to him, but this was our only good option unless we wanted to fight our way past three skin-hungry demons. “You know how to open a portal, don’t you?”

            After a long moment, he nodded. “Yes.”

            “Will you do it for us? Please?”

            A longer moment. “If I’m allowed to see Nikki. A day or two, once every month or so. It’s . . . about as long as I can stand it.”

            Katrina nodded. “All right. As long as . . .”

            Her words echoed off the walls.

            Still without looking at us, Webb lowered his head. “I am . . . sorry I hurt you, Kat. I won’t hurt Nikki. Again. Ever.”

            Nikki took her father’s hand. “I’m sorry, dad.”

            He squeezed her arm. “It’s better. This is a hard world.”

            “I’ll be strong.”

            He stroked her horn. “I know.”

            Finally he turned to us. “This will take a few minutes. And it may not come out in the same place.”

            “As long as it’s close.” I looked at Rachel. “And not 30 feet in the air.”

            He held a hand out to Katrina. “Give me something that belongs to you. I can use it as an anchor to your home.”

            She dug into her jeans and pulled out her keys. “Thank you.”

            A rock crashed through the window. I jumped. Rachel whirled, yanking her pepper spray again.

            From outside Desi’s voice murmured, “I’m waiting!”

            I looked at Webb. “Hurry.”

Rachel and I argued, but she went through before me. I took one last look at Webb. I was the last. “Thanks again.”

            He snarled. “I never want to see you again. Go.”

            The feeling was mutual, but I didn’t say that. Instead I stepped through the portal of swirling colors—

            —and fell through a cold sea of nothingness until I hit the hardwood floor of Katrina’s condo.

            Rachel helped me get up. Meghan offered me a bottle of water, and I drank half of it down in one gulp.

            Katrina was in a chair, and Nikki slumped on a couch, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Already the horn in the back of her head looked smaller. She sipped a box of apple juice.

            “You okay?” Rachel patted my shoulder.  

            “F-fine.” I shivered, then finished the water.

            Meghan looked at her niece. “You hungry, Nikki?”

            “Yeah.” She set the juice box down. “Could I have . . .” She paused, as if trying to remember what she could eat here. “Are there cookies?”

            “In the kitchen.” Katrina looked at her daughter as if she didn’t want to let her out of her sight. “Meg?”

            “Sure.” She headed off.

            I looked at Rachel. “We should be going.”

            She nodded. “Right.”

            “Thank you.” Katrina stood up on wobbling legs. “I didn’t think . . . it would turn out like this.”

            I shrugged. “You never know.”

            She reached out to shake my hand, and Rachel’s. “Send me your bill.”

            “He will,” Rachel promised.

            I looked at Nikki on the couch. “Good night, Nikki. Good luck.”

            Nikki nodded without looking at me. “Thanks.”

            Out in the hallway Rachel slugged me. “Now I see why you stay away from child custody cases.”

“Yeah.” I patted the stun gun back in my pocket. “Thanks for helping out there.”

            “Only I get to hit you.” And she punched my arm. Gently.

“What about Nikki? Is she going to be okay?”

            She closed her eyes for a moment. “Maybe. She’s . . . torn. But who wouldn’t be? I was—I mean, you know.”

            “Yeah.” Rachel’s parents had gotten divorced. At least neither one of them had been demons. “Let’s go home.”

            “Right.” We walked toward the elevator. “As soon as we get a cab to find my car.”

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