The Demon in Me (3 page)

“Trust me, after the day I’ve had, I’m glad to be back.”

Andy was a man who’d definitely had the potential of being attractive and charming at one time, but life and circumstances had gotten in the way to make him pinched and squinty. An FBI agent until fifteen years ago, he was pushing fifty, still solidly built, pale blond hair and eyebrows, and warm and friendly green eyes.

“How did the thing go?” he asked. “With the cop?”

Well, he did ask. “I was attacked by a serial killer who said he was possessed by a demon. I almost died. A gorgeous cop who’s a dead ringer for Brad Pitt asked me out for dinner but then reneged and I’m not sure if I should call him. Do you think that would make me look like a stalker?” She sighed. “I may actually throw up at any moment. Just a warning.”

He stared at her. “Are you serious about the serial killer?”

“I’m not in a good enough mood right now to joke.”

“But you’re all right? You’re not hurt at all, are you?”

It was sweet of him to care. “I’m okay.”

“That’s good to hear.” He pursed his lips. “Listen, I’d stick around for moral support or whatever, but I have to split. Are you staying long?”

Well, maybe he didn’t care that much. “For a while. I’m trying to take my mind off what happened, actually. This place is oddly soothing, despite the décor.”

“Well, if you’re looking for something to do… can you enter this all into the computer? I’d appreciate it.”

Eden looked at the stack of files he had his hand on. Andy liked to handwrite everything. Eden was one of the only people in the world—she thought—who could decipher his penmanship. Typing was good mindless work and would definitely help her brain focus on something else before she went home. “Yeah, sure. No problem.”

He grinned and actually patted her shoulder, placing the folders on top of her desk. “Super. You’re a peach, especially after everything you’ve gone through. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow, okay?”

She nodded. “Sure. Have a good night.”

He threw his coat over his shoulder and walked out the front door.

Eden watched him get into his leased red Porsche and drive away. The sky was turning pink and purple and orange as the sun slowly began to sink beneath the horizon.

She walked over to sit at her little desk, feeling oddly despondent about everything after her brush with death.

If she was really 100 percent psychic, would she be able to see into her own future? What would it hold? Excitement and romance? Or more of the same?

“Place your bets,” she murmured. “My money’s on more of the same. Bring it on.”

She’d recently made a promise to look on the bright side of things after reading
The Secret
. Five times. She owned the book, the audio book, and the DVD. If she believed that good things were going to happen, then they would. But the belief had to be complete. She had to clearly imagine what she wanted in life in order to make it happen.

Sure. It was possible.

I’d love more money so I could move out of my crappy apartment
, she thought.
That would be super.

She’d also love a great job that fulfilled her and would also help others in some way. All she knew was that she hadn’t found it yet.

Finally, she’d love to find a wonderful man who loved her for who she was inside.

Believe it. Feel it. See it. Be it.

Her stomach still growled with hunger. And the universe provided an immediate solution. There was a big box of Hot Stuff donuts and pastries over on Andy’s desk. There was also a pot of coffee that actually looked remotely fresh.

She picked up a Boston cream and devoured it in about five seconds, very glad there was no one there to witness it. She then grabbed an apple fritter, put it on a paper towel, and fixed her coffee—two creamers, two sugars. She tipped the mug back and swallowed a mouthful.

The warm liquid swished around in her stomach as she felt something else. A strange tingling sensation began to spread through her body and down to her arms and legs.

She put the mug down and held her palm over her stomach.

“Maybe that coffee wasn’t as fresh as I thought,” she said aloud.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

The male voice made her turn around to see where it came from, but there was nobody in the office except for her.

“Hello?” she responded cautiously.

She felt a small lurch in her gut.
Indigestion so quickly?
Perhaps she should have had a salad. The nutrition gods were trying to tell her something.

“Who are you?” the voice spoke again.

Eden’s gaze darted around the room. What was going on? Her body immediately tensed and her heart began to pound—hard. She was still feeling the effects from being grabbed by the serial killer earlier, and it was likely she’d do so for a while.

“Who are
you
?” she asked. “
Where
are you? Andy’s gone for the day.”

“You’re a woman.” Whoever this was sounded surprised by that.

“Good guess. Now you’re going to have to tell me who you are and where you’re hiding or we’re going to have a problem. I’m not a big fan of hide-and-seek.”

“You can hear everything I’m saying?” He sounded surprised.

She swallowed hard. “Of course I can.”

“It’s just that the others… well, most of them haven’t been able to hear me at all. And the ones who could didn’t hear everything clearly.”

She curled her hand around the baseball bat she kept under her desk. One could never be too careful. Triple-A wasn’t exactly in the city’s best neighborhood.

“What others?” she asked.

“My other… my other
hosts
. Look, I don’t want you to be afraid—”

“It’s getting a bit late for that, whoever you are.” She gripped the bat tightly and stood up from the desk. Nobody else was going to sneak up on her. One serial killer a day was her limit.

She nudged open the door to the small bathroom with her foot. The office was completely empty. She began to tremble. Even if someone had been hiding, their voice wouldn’t be so loud in her ears. So loud that it sounded as if it was coming from—

Inside of me.

“You’re the woman with the long, reddish hair, aren’t you? He wanted to kill you. And then—” He paused. “Then I don’t remember much—it’s fuzzy right now. Was he killed? Of course, he had to be or this wouldn’t have happened.”

“How do you know about that?” she demanded, and began to shuffle backward into the far corner by Andy’s bookshelf. “I’m going to call the cops if you don’t leave me alone.”

“There was a cop there. A tall man with blond hair. He had a gun.”

“How do you know what happened?” She glanced under Andy’s desk, which would have made a good hiding spot. But other than three balled-up pieces of paper that hadn’t hit the trash can, there was nothing there. “I just want to be left alone. Honestly, I’m not really as psychic as people seem to think. Checking the coat closet was a lucky guess. It’s called
coincidence
and it happens all the time.”

“You’re psychic?” he repeated. “Right, he mentioned that. He thought you might be able to help him get rid of me.”

Eden frowned deeply. “Get rid of you? The killer said he was possessed by a demon he desperately wanted out of him.”

Her head spun just thinking about it. Demons didn’t exist. Of course they didn’t. That was crazy.

Besides, a demon wouldn’t sound like this, would it? Her newly discovered inner voice was deep, warm, and calm. She would have expected a demon to sound scary and, well,
demonic
. Her hands began to ache as she clutched the bat tighter.

“The important thing is not to panic,” the voice said.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Really,
demon
is a bit of a derogatory word, isn’t it?” he continued conversationally. “I promise I mean you no harm at all. I did what I could to keep my former host from hurting you and luckily it all turned out okay. Well, sort of okay. Now if we can just talk about—”

“You… you’re a d-demon?” she stuttered.

“Well… technically, yes I am. But just try to relax. I know this is a bit of a surprise, but everything’s going to be fine.”

No, it wasn’t possible. Not a chance. Demons didn’t exist. She must have had some kind of mental breakdown. Now,
that
was possible. It had been a very traumatic day. Something deep in her psyche must have cracked open wide enough for her to suddenly hear a voice in her head.

“Everything’s going to be fine?” she repeated through clenched teeth. “I don’t think so. I need to go to the hospital. I need a psych evaluation. I’ve obviously gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”

“No, you haven’t. I’m sorry, but I can’t survive without a human host, otherwise I’ll dissipate into the air like smoke. I had no choice. There were two of you there, you and the cop, and it was a fifty-fifty chance that I ended up with you—although, I’ve got to say, you’re my first female host ever. This should be very interesting.”

She licked her dry lips. Her muscles were so tight she thought they might snap like overused hair elastics. “Did you say smoke? Like
black
smoke?”

Black smoke had left the dead killer’s body and flew through the air toward her. She’d since dismissed it as a figment of her traumatized imagination, but now…

“You’re a
demon
,” she said it so quietly even she had trouble hearing it.

“Yes.”

“And you’ve possessed me.”

“If you put it that way it sounds a bit ominous, doesn’t it? I’d rather think of it as ‘sharing living space.’”

It was true. She’d seen it with her own eyes when the serial killer had been killed. The black smoke hadn’t just been smoke—it was
the demon
he’d claimed to be possessed with. The demon that was now
inside of her
.

For a moment she was positive she’d faint. The feeling passed, but the steadily growing fear that filled her remained.

“Get out of me,” she said softly.

“That does sound like an excellent plan, but you need to understand, this isn’t my choice. I haven’t been able to exist outside of my host since—”

“Get out right now!”
Eden clutched the baseball bat so tightly she was sure she’d get splinters. She put every ounce of energy she could summon from the universe into those four words. She’d never felt so fierce or certain about anything in her entire twenty-nine years of life—and that included kicking her cheating jerk of a fiancé out six months ago. Although, it was still a close second.

She felt rather than heard the demon gasp inside of her—inside her head, her chest, her entire body. As if she’d been punched in the stomach she let out a wheezing breath and doubled over as the black smoke exited through her mouth in one dark, tasteless, odorless stream. She scrambled back from it until she hit the wall behind her and held the bat up as if that would be enough to protect her from Hell itself.

The smoke hung there like a small black rain cloud, unmoving, five feet in front of her, for a few more moments. Then something changed. She watched, stunned, as it began to take on a recognizable shape. The entire process took less than thirty seconds, but it was as if time itself had stopped. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All she could do was watch—waiting for a large, red, hulking, horned hell-beast to appear and devour her whole.

When he finished, he was tall, but not red or beastly—and
he looked like a man, not the monster Eden was expecting.

He raised his wide-eyed gaze to hers and blinked. He looked as shocked as she felt. Then he looked down at his hands, holding them out in front of him, before reaching up to touch his face, mouth, cheeks, ears, and finally running his fingers through his black hair.

Full lips peeled back from straight white teeth and he began to laugh.

But it wasn’t a demonically evil laugh. It sounded more like one of sheer joy.

“I can’t believe this,” he said after a moment. He stretched his arms over his head as if he’d just woken up from a long sleep and his muscles were stiff and needed stretching.

“That makes two of us.” She was surprised she could even speak considering how beyond freaked-out she was. Her legs were too weak and rubbery to even consider running. She felt like the girl in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. The one who just stood there, frozen in place, screaming like a helpless twit while her date slowly turned into a werewolf.

Eden didn’t think she had enough air to scream like a helpless twit.

He ran his hands down his sides and across his stomach and chest. He closed his eyes and sighed happily.

She eyed him with trepidation. “Do you want to be alone?”

His eyes snapped open and he looked directly at her. “More than you could ever possibly know.”

The demon had ice blue eyes framed with dark lashes. The blue was a sharp contrast to the darkness of his shaggy hair that was almost long enough to brush his shoulders. He was pale, as if it had been a very long time since he’d felt the sun on his skin. He wore generic black clothes on his tall frame—pants, T-shirt, boots—however, if she’d seen him on the street she might have checked him out. He was inarguably attractive, but that little observation did nothing to help her relax. If anything, it made her tense up even more. His handsome exterior had to be a façade, a trap of some kind—like a Venus flytrap luring its prey to be consumed slowly and painfully.

She tried to see evidence of horns growing from his temples or black, leathery wings stretching out behind him, but visually there was nothing that alarming.

He pushed the unruly hair back from his eyes and smiled at her. “I haven’t been able to take solid human form in over three hundred years. I can’t tell you how much this—hey, watch it—”

He ducked out of the way just before her bat swung through the air where he’d been standing. When she swung again, he caught the bat and easily pulled it out of her grip. She stepped backward, scanning her immediate surroundings for another potential weapon.

His dark brows drew together. “What part of ‘I mean you no harm’ didn’t you understand?”