The Demon Inside Me by Nelson Christopher

Author:Nelson, Christopher [Nelson, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Outside the church, it wasn't snowing yet. I had felt it on the way inside, smelled it on the air. More snow was on the way. More snow to add to the two feet of glittering white hell on the ground already. The window rattled, the wind picking up. It was cold. Too damn cold.

"Here," Jase said. He handed me a steaming cup of hot chocolate, a candy cane already melting into it. "Looks like you could use something warm. Been a rough few weeks, hasn't it?"

I clutched the cup between my hands and soaked in the warmth. "Rough. That's one way to put it, I suppose."

"How would you put it?"

I pushed the candy cane out of line with my eye and took a sip. "Tense. When you have that much attention focused on you, it's tense."

Jase took a seat across from me and wrapped his hands around his own cup. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly.

"That's why I came here," I said. "Don't look so surprised. I trust your judgment and your intelligence. I wanted to get your thoughts on this before I went home. I feel like I'm missing something."

"There's more to it than that."

"You're right. I wanted to talk with you without others overhearing," I said. My fingers tightened around my cup. "Not Caleb. Even if we get along, he's still an angel. I can't tell him about some things. I don't want other demons listening in either. That's why I came here for sanctuary. Peace. Quiet. Warmth. Especially warmth."

"What about Anna?"

"I'll tell her later." Not bloody likely.

"All right." I could tell by his tone, he didn't believe me. He wouldn't press me on it, though. That was why I came here in the first place. "So, you defeated the Duke?"

It had been a month and a half since that fight. "Caleb, Tink, and I fought him. We surprised him with our secret weapon, but he barely survived it. Becky stepped in and shot him in the back of the head before he could recover. It was funny. A Duke of House Lucifer, brought down by a mere human with a gun. How the mighty fall, eh, Pastor?"

"A David and Goliath story, so to speak?"

"With Becky, it was more like Goliath versus Goliath."

He smiled. "I'd like to meet her at some point. What happened after that?"

"We piled into Becky's truck, drove back to my apartment, and licked our wounds. Tink was exhausted, Caleb was burned, and I was cut up and lost a lot of blood. I think they were waiting for something like this to happen. They came for me within a day. An imp phased in the next evening and announced that I was summoned to trial, charged with the death of Duke Deshavin of House Lucifer."

Jase frowned. "They simply called you to trial? They didn't arrest you?"

"Where would I go? If I hadn't gone to the trial, they would have sent a troop of imps right to me to drag me off.

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