In the Demon's Company (Demon's Assistant Book 2) (13 page)

“Yes, ma’am,” I say.

“Good. Mr. Sorrentino, if you’d give me your e-mail address, I’ll subscribe you to our PTA newsletter. And this is for you.” She pulls out a giant folder, one of those fat ones that fans open. It’s so full that it has to be kept closed with a rubber-band. I take it from her. It’s as heavy as two textbooks. “This is your homework for the rest of the week, as provided by your teachers, including make-up work and extra credit to help you get those grades up. It’s advised you also contact classmates for notes, after school hours of course.”

With that, we’re dismissed.

“This is ridiculous,” I say, once we reach the parking lot.

“How have you missed that much school?” Dad asks.

“I told you, I get restless. I wasn’t built to sit all day.”

“You have no problem sitting in front of the television when there’s a horror movie marathon.” Point, Dad.

I shove the giant homework binder in the backseat with my bag. “That’s different. Those movies are awesome. School is stupid.”

“Your education is not stupid.” He rubs the back of his neck.

“It
is
stupid. I sit in classrooms for fifty minutes while teachers ramble and then they give us two hours of homework we could have at least started during that time.”

“Nic, those lectures are—”

“I’m not good at it. I should just quit.”

“You can’t quit school. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.” We hit a stoplight and he turns and looks at me. He doesn’t look disappointed, just overwhelmed. I want to tell him I know the feeling.

“I could do the online school thing. Or get my GED.”

“You only have a year and a half left. And you don’t want to miss out on the fun parts of high school, do you?”

“Dad, there are no fun parts. That only happens in movies.”

Dad sighs. After a long pause, he says, “At least now you have plenty of time to catch up.”

“Yeah,” I mutter, and look out the window. Sometimes I wish music in cars didn’t make me itchy because I could really go for some angry death metal right now.

“I mean it. I don’t want you leaving the apartment without me, except to check the mail. Got it?”

“I have a date tonight,” I say. “It’s the first time Cam and I get to hang out alone in forever.”

“You’re going to have to cancel. You’re on lock down.”

“You’re joking. You’re grounding me?” My dad has never grounded me, ever. In fact, the last time I was in trouble, my mom sent me to my room. This is unprecedented, but then so is having him dragged to the school to be updated on my ‘academic crisis.’

“This is about your future. I know you’re going to Seattle Central after graduation, but that doesn’t mean you can just blow off your classes now.” I have already resigned myself to the community college. With my GPA, there’s no point in applying to big colleges. But if Cam does go to Stanford, I might switch to a community college down there. Or possibly give up on school all together and work as a barista in some fashionable and trendy little coffee place. Which might not even be necessary if Azmos keeps me on his payroll.

“I don’t have a future,” I say, looking at my reflection in the window. At least not one he’d approve of. I’m pretty sure being a demon’s errand girl is not a career a guidance counselor would advise.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Dad says, with another sigh. “Of course you have a future.”

I glance over at him, his eyes focused on the road and his knuckles almost white around the steering wheel. No matter what my future holds, it’s going to involve a lot of deception where he’s concerned.

Dad drops me off back at the apartment building and walks upstairs to get his suitcase. “I wish I could cancel and stay here,” he says. “But Terri needs more training before she can do this on her own. So I’m trusting you to stay out of trouble. I’ll be back.” He hesitates in the hall. “Do I need to call a babysitter or something?”

“Oh my god, Dad, no.” I think he’s joking but the thought is horrifying. “I promise I won’t go anywhere.”

Dad sighs. “I’d take your keys but if there’s an emergency…” He trails off. I’ve never seen him look so lost, not about me. My stomach clenches. “I fly home Monday night. I’m trusting you to behave for a couple of days.”

I’m a little offended, given that Dad is out of town more often than not. True, I’ve never been suspended before, but I’ve never burned down the apartment building, either. “I’ll be here climbing Homework Mountain, okay?”

“Fine. But I’m going to call at random intervals. If you don’t answer, you’re going to be in a lot more trouble than you imagine.”

“What if I’m in the shower?” I ask.

He looks at me, tired and uncertain. “Shower quickly.” And then he leaves.

I flop onto the sofa. I already had too much homework. Now I have three days of classwork on top of it, and no desire to do any of it. But I can’t get into more trouble or my life will get infinitely more complicated. Says the girl working for a demon.

Both Cam and Melissa text me to make sure I’m okay when I’m not in Spanish class. I tell Mel I’m fine but it’s complicated, and then ask Cam to come over after school.

Cam arrives right after school. I let him in—Dad didn’t say I couldn’t have people over and while that was sort of implied, it’s not like I’m going to turn my boyfriend away. I get him a soda. Cam leans against the counter, flicking the tab on the soda can, and listening to me speak. I tell him all about going with Gabriel yesterday, how Az has a sister named Vessa who’s trying to amass an army, and how we stopped one of her would-be cronies. My voice cracks a little as I tell him about Anna, and how callously Xanan handled the situation. Cam puts his arm around me. Then I tell him about the weapons den behind the bar, the missed calls from my dad, and then the meeting with Mrs. Chander.

“You got suspended?” Cam asks when I finish, his voice going up an octave.

“You sound more horrified about that than when I got stabbed,” I say.

He gives me a dark look. “You know that’s not true. I’ve been worried sick about you at every turn, ever since that demon showed up. And now he’s screwing up your whole life. How can you not see how bad this is getting?”

“It’s not that bad. My grades just need a little work, that’s all,” I say. It’s not like Cam doesn’t know I’m a horrible student. We’re opposites in so many ways, it’s a wonder we get along. “And apparently I hit some limit on number of acceptable missed classes.”

Cam sets down the soda and flops onto the living room sofa. He rubs his temples above his glasses. I want to say something but no words come to mind that won’t start another fight. So I lean against the counter and watch him as he struggles to form words of his own.

“I love you. And I understand that you’re not…” He hesitates and I feel something icy worm in my middle.

“Smart?” I offer.

He meets my eyes, his expression darkening further. “Meant for mundanity.” I feel my eyebrows lift in surprise. That was not what I expected. “Right after we met, I remember this one day in class when you and Mel were talking about your futures, about how she wanted to go to art school and how you didn’t have a plan. I remember being stunned that it was even possible. I’ve had a plan for college since I could read. But I’ve always liked that about you. You don’t do things just because you’re supposed to. You want to figure out who you are and what you want.”

I sit down next to him and he puts his arm around me, pulling me close. “That appears to be working with demons.”

He shrugs. “Not gonna lie, I don’t love it but I get it. I just wish you’d step back once in a while and really examine everything before plowing forward. Maybe this suspension is your chance to get some perspective. Really think about what you’re giving up. Make sure it’s worth it.”

Goosebumps erupt on my arms as a chill runs through the apartment. I half-expect Xanan to appear but this time of year, the apartment can turn into an icebox without demonic help. “I can get through another year and a half of school,” I insist. “Take a year off before thinking about college. Work for Az in the meantime. I’m not giving up much.”

“If you really think that, then I think you really do need to take some steps back and consider.” His voice is soft, almost sad. He touches the ring on my finger. “I hate that he gave you a ring before I did.”

The words are mild but they hit me like a slap. “When were you going to give me a ring?”

He shrugs and pulls me onto his lap. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a specific plan or anything. I just…wish I’d beaten him to the punch, that’s all.” He sighs. “Doesn’t matter.” It does, matter, of course, or he wouldn’t keep staring at the ring like a personal affront. “Just promise me you’ll try to get an objective view of the demons and where you fit. If afterward, you still feel good about working for Azmos, then I’ll stop complaining. Hell, I’ll be your personal driver for all of his errands.”

I smile at that. “I’ll try.”

He smooths my hair and kisses my neck, his lips featherlight against my skin. “Good.”

“It’s bad timing though, with this other demon.”

“What’s Azmos doing about it?”

I shrug, annoyed that I don’t know his exact plans and am not invited to be in on them. As scary as Vessa is, she’s hurting innocent people and I want to help stop her. “He says he’s taking care of it. That he’s going to talk to her or something.”

“You don’t sound convinced.” Cam watches me carefully, eyes intense behind his glasses, as if trying to weigh something.

“I’m not,” I admit. “I mean, I think he’ll try but…I don’t know. I got the impression he feels sorry for her.”

“But he has to stop her, right?”

“What if he fails? She’s vicious, Cam. Like, she enjoys hurting people. Az is the opposite. What if she kicks his ass?”

There’s an uneasy feeling sloshing around my guts that I can’t pin down. Part of it is just the stress of being in trouble. I haven’t been in trouble with my dad, or even really the school, for a long time. But part of it is from the vast uncertainly I feel about everything. Two months ago, I understood demons as I knew them: Azmos has never been evil and though Xanan gives me the creeps, he’s never tried to hurt me. They both do a job, perform a function. But now I know there’s way more to the arcane world than I could have imagined. Instead of feeling privy to a secret world, I suddenly feel like I know nothing at all. Cam’s insistence that I take a microscope to that world and examine my place in it seems like an impossible task when I can only see a tiny slice of whole arcane pie. How do you know where you fit in a giant house when you can only see the front room?

“I hate feeling useless.”

“You’re not useless, Nic,” he says, resting his chin on my shoulder. “You can’t expect to run out and save the day right after you’re bitten by the radioactive spider. Even Peter Parker had to learn what he was capable of.”

I smile. “It didn’t take Spider-Man almost a year to figure out his place.”

“It took time.” He kisses my neck again and my desire to talk ebbs. “You’ll figure it out. And like Spider-Man, you’ll do the right thing.”

I love that he’s so sure of that. I wish I was.

An hour later, after Cam leaves, I sit at the kitchen table sorting my homework in piles, trying to determine which stuff I can knock out now. But after an hour of staring at algebra problems, I get up to make a snack and a glint of silver on the carpet catches my eye.

The silver envelope sits on the carpet by the door. My heart races. It looks exactly like the silver letters I used to deliver for Azmos, and those were not exactly good news. I take a deep breath. Azmos doesn’t send those anymore and there’s no expiration date to my contract. Az has reassured me of that several times.

Still, my hand shakes when I reach for it. I have to take a deep breath before I tear open the card stock. Inside is a silver card. The message is typed rather than penned in Azmos’ calligraphy. It lists an address and a time: nine o’clock.

I call Azmos. He doesn’t answer.

It could be from him. After all, who else has a supply of silver card stock hanging around? Then again, if someone wanted me to think it was Azmos, the silver paper would be a neat ploy.