A Demon Bound (Imp Book 1) (7 page)

“Have you had a problem with any bears? Maybe raiding your garbage? Or perhaps someone around here has an exotic pet? A big cat?” I felt like a total fool asking someone these questions while I was pinning him to the floor with a chair.

Imagine my surprise when, with an inhuman roar stinking of garbage breath, the guy flung both me and the chair across the room and against the wall. Things got blurry for a few seconds. As the guy ripped the chair away and went to slap me, I raised my arm in defense and was again surprised when his nails tore through my arm, raking strips of flesh and muscle down to the bone. Finally focusing, I realized that instead of hands he had claws. And an elongated jaw with sharp teeth. Very unfortunate and unattractive deformities.

I felt the claws dig into my side, and was flung once again across the room, to skid on the floor and into the couch. Pain ripped through my side, but I was relieved to realize he hadn’t punctured my liver or any other important organ. This was really enough. I wasn’t about to fight like a human while he tore me into jerky strips. I breathed in and threw a much larger bolt of electricity at him. About one hundred amps worth. It was a small amount, but still overkill when converting it through the air between us and pushing it through the skin’s natural resistance directly into his chest cavity. I was capable of producing at the level of lightening, but I didn’t feel like setting the house on fire. A billion volts and a hundred thousand amps would be hard to control too as it blew through the human and out through the wall behind him.

The guy convulsed as the current crashed his heart, seized his diaphragm, and burned out organs as it exited down his back. He danced like this for a few seconds while I was sure to keep the current going steady. In electricity, it’s important to keep a constant stream as humans have been known to survive short intermittent bursts even at very high levels. It really sucks when you think someone is dead, only to have them get up and stagger at you a few moments later. Finally, he collapsed with a smell of burnt hair and skin.

I walked over and lay my hands on the man, letting my energy explore him. He was dead, which given the oddness of my last twenty four hours I wasn’t taking for granted. He was also weird. DNA is mostly the same among all mammals, but there are slight differences. This guy had human DNA, but there were anomalies. The areas I noticed were similar to those humans with Hypertrichosis, although it was more than the X chromosome link, and he didn’t seem furry enough. Perhaps he indulged in laser hair removal? He didn’t look like he could afford that kind of thing, especially since it would have had to be extensive. Hypertrichosis also didn’t explain the extended jaw and elongated strengthened nails.

Reluctantly, I pulled away from the man. Curiosity killed the cat, but I couldn’t let it kill me. I had to get out of here. With an angel so close and presumably on the hunt for me, I was worried that my energy burst, even one so common place as electricity, would be investigated. I looked around at the wreckage of the house, and headed home.

Easier said than done. Five miles with deep lacerations on your forearm and waist, plus a concussion and bruises was not a cake walk. I jogged when I could, and walked a lot. In some spots I needed to go around entire fields as it was too much for me to get over the fencing. The whole way home I cursed Boomer, who had hid outside the door during the entire fight and was without a scratch. The trip in had taken an hour max; the trip back over three hours. I limped by Wyatt’s house at past three in the morning in considerable pain and longing for my bed. His yard was filled with cars, and his house lit up with flashing lights of video games and sounds of shooting, screaming, and laughing. People milled around the porch with the deep hum of conversation. I know I was invited, but there was no way I was popping in to visit Wyatt and meet all his friends dirty, sweaty and covered with blood and gashes. I paused and looked longingly at his house, then walked on by.

Boomer got another scolding as I locked him in the barn. There’s nothing a hellhound likes more than eating corpses, and I didn’t want him heading back out to snack on the dead guy, or getting in any more trouble. I was thinking of sending him back home for my household to care for if this was the kind of bullshit I’d have to deal with. Bad, bad dog.

Giving one more longing look toward Wyatt’s house, I headed in. Running attire went into the trash, and I showered, nearly passing out in pain as the hot water hit my wounds. I had slowly begun fixing the damaged flesh, but I was taking a very long time to avoid any excess energy use, which might give me away. I’d done way too much in the past few days as it was, and I could hardly keep frying mice or causing power surges in my house. I would just have to deal with injury and pain and make this a slow project.

Finally clean, I dug around in my bathroom and carefully bandaged my side and arm. They were healing nicely, but I didn’t want to take the chance of anything breaking open and oozing blood on my sheets. I have absolutely no experience in first aid, and the tape pulled uncomfortably on my skin. I tossed and turned in bed for a while before giving up and heading down to doze off watching TV.

Chapter 6

S
unday was another scorcher. I was in my usual spot by the pool with fluffy towel and a mug of hot sweet coffee. It had been a rough night of sleep, partly due to the invasion of Anime from the TV into my dreams. My injuries were healing, but were still angry red welts across my arm and waist. Ugly, even if they did match the red kiss marks on my bikini. Not that it mattered. No one was likely to see me sweating alone by the pool.

Taking a swig of the hot coffee, I rolled onto my stomach. The heat on my back was intense, even this early, and drops of sweat tickled as they rolled across my back and down my sides. James Brown shouted in my ears and I just let my mind wander. That guy last night was so weird. And not just his mental state either. I wished I could have brought him back here and taken him apart at my leisure; tease apart his genetic sequence and see what his body told me. I toyed with the idea of going back and seeing if I could stuff his body into the Suburban. I’d need to hide it from Boomer while I played with it though. Otherwise he’d eat it.

I wondered what the authorities would think when his body was discovered. Electrocutions did happen, although you’d usually expect to see a fire, or at least a burnt out socket or appliance. It clearly looked like there had been a fight in the place too. House trashed and resident apparently killed with a burst of electricity to the chest. I’d probably left some of my blood behind and that would be puzzling too. I can hold my blood to strictly human parameters, but under stress or when I’m using energy, my own signature mixes in along with energy. It would totally fuck up their analysis, I thought with amusement.

A shadow touched my thigh and moved up to block the sunlight on my back. I rolled over and thought how incredibly sexy this was to be lying here sweaty and nearly naked, squirming as I shifted on the lounge with Wyatt standing over me. Wyatt’s eyes roved and I adjusted the bikini top making sure to give the girls a good jiggle. My eyes roved too and I really liked what I saw at this angle.

Wyatt’s eyes stopped and he frowned.

“What on earth did you do to yourself?” he asked, horrified at the raised red welts in slashes across my body and arm. At least they weren’t oozing any more. “Did you have a fight with some barbed wire last night? Or that bear that tore up Boomer?”

“I should have stuck with the treadmill,” I said, skirting the topic.

“They look awful,” he continued, clearly not willing to let go of this one. “I know how quickly you heal; you must have been practically cut in half to still look like that.”

“I’m fixing them very slowly,” I confessed. “I kinda need to lay low and watch it, so I’m going to look nasty until later tonight. It wasn’t that bad, really.”

“Why do you need to lay low?” he asked.

Ugh. Why couldn’t he just stand there and look sexy?

“I’m a demon, Wyatt. If I make my presence here too obvious, there are things that will come to take me out.”

That scared look flashed across his face, again. My gut tightened in reaction; here we go again.

“What things? You’re a demon, what in the world would be able to take you out?” he asked.

“I’m not immortal. Damage this body enough and I won’t have time to fix it or create another before I die.”

“Humans wouldn’t come after you for healing yourself,” he persisted. “What would?”

“Angels,” I admitted. “If they detect us, they come and kill us.”

Wyatt stared at me a moment. “Angels.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just let the word hang in the air.

“So, how did you get these injuries?” Wyatt finally said, breaking the silence.

“Barbed wire,” I lied. No sense in making him an accessory after the fact.

Wyatt studied the cuts in silence and nodded.

“Do I need to burn up another mouse for you? Or something larger, like a squirrel perhaps?”

Ha, ha. Very funny. Actually I was relieved that he was somehow beginning to take all this horror film weirdness in stride.

“Nah, I’m good. I’ve got fresh coffee in the kitchen. Grab yourself a mug and pull up a chair.”

Wyatt looked amused.

“It’s got to be one hundred degrees out here and you’re drinking hot coffee?”

“I like it hot.” I told him. “Throw some ice in it if you want though.”

Wyatt disappeared into the house. I loved that he was so comfortable around and inside my place. Like he belonged here. He’d know right where the coffee mugs were, where in the fridge I kept my special stash of cream. I wished he was as familiar with the upstairs portion of my house as the downstairs.

I heard him return with his coffee and the scrape of the lounge chair he pulled up.

“I’ve got to go over to Mom’s this evening for a family dinner,” he said conversationally. “Amber’s home from college. Her birthday is Tuesday and we’re celebrating.”

“Amber is your younger sister, right?” I asked. I could never remember human family relationships. Back home, no one knew or cared who their parents or siblings were. We were raised in group homes and didn’t have these complicated family trees to keep track of.

“Yeah, she’s nineteen,” he paused for a moment as if considering whether to continue. “I did have an older sister, but she died before I was born. Rachel was three when she drowned in a neighbor’s pool. I wasn’t born until five years later, and Amber was born five years after me.”

“Your folks are divorced?” Humans always seemed to get divorced. I couldn’t figure out why they got married at all.

“No, Dad died when I was ten. He was installing a two–twenty line in the garage for a dryer hookup, and he somehow electrocuted himself.”

Okay, that was really freaky, given all the electrocution occurring yesterday. Clearly, it was a coincidence since it had happened fourteen years ago.

“Anyway,” Wyatt continued, “have any ideas on what to get a nineteen year old girl?”

I moved down my sunglasses so he could clearly see my raised eyebrows.

“Okay, I guess it’s gift card time.”

“How about those stuffed animal pillows I see on TV?” I suggested with amusement.

Wyatt laughed. “Amber isn’t the cheerleader, pink, cutesy toy kind of girl. She’s more geeky– Goth wannabe.” He paused and grinned. “A gift certificate for body piercing and a tramp stamp?” he laughed. “Mom would kill me.”

In the end, he decided the gift card was the safest option.

I enlisted his help in giving Boomer a much needed bath, and then we brought the horses in from the heat and made sure water buckets were fresh and hay bags were full. Wyatt headed off, and Boomer and I ordered pizza and settled in to watch TV. Watching one show at a time was pretty boring, so I had installed four TVs next to each other on the wall in a square arrangement. Wyatt said it looked like something from
A Clockwork Orange
.

I watched each channel’s news simultaneously, but there was no report on a dead man found in his house in eastern Frederick County. The guy did look like a vagrant, so it could possibly be weeks or even months before anyone discovered his body. He didn’t look the type to have social commitments where his presence might be missed. I decided I should just forget about it and relax.

Chapter 7

M
y Monday morning always starts with the six o’clock Zumba class at the gym. It’s packed because the instructor looks like a Latin god. Everyone loves to get in their early–morning eye candy, and they desperately try to attract his attention with their spasmodic hip thrusts. I try to never miss the Zumba class since I believe comedy is a great way to start your week.

This class, I positioned myself amid a group of tittering soccer moms. It was great fun, although I had to hold myself back from turning it into a giant mosh pit slam dance. Last time I did that, they kicked me out for a month. Today, I enjoyed watching an eighty year old lady — with a cane no less — shimmy, her boobs flying like weapons around her waist.

After the class, while everyone else lined up to flutter their eyelashes and thank the hot instructor in rusty high school Spanish, I headed out and did my real workout. There was a flyer for a Judo class and I fantasized for a moment about taking it and beating everyone into a bloody mess. I’m so competitive though that I know I’d be sparring and lose control and pop someone’s head off. That would be a lot of fun, but it wouldn’t be a good thing for my continued life in this realm. No Judo for me.

I was joining Michelle for lunch and meeting her at an end–of–lease walk through, so I actually showered and pulled on the clean shorts and tank top from my bag. I just watched while she inspected the oven, fridge and carpet. I can’t remember the last time I did a walk through. Usually Michelle only called me in if she thought the tenant might get violent. This guy was harmless. Short skinny balding guy on government disability supplements. He was moving in with his daughter. His eyes flickered to me every few seconds, and if I moved, he jumped in alarm. It was kind of funny actually, so I made a point of moving a lot.