Devil's Soul

Chapter 44 (be wary of the promises you make)

About a week and a half after following around the stupid cult, Remy and I had almost descended into eye-twitching madness. Almost. She'd been avoiding Desmond, in fear that he would see her exposed circumscribed tattoo on the back of her neck, while I'd been keeping him updated on my location, everywhere I went with the cult. He didn't always seek me out in response to my texts, but I felt safer when he knew where I was. Not that safety was ever really an issue. The closest we had come to finding the demon was the bat sighting in the bathroom. Hence the eye-twitching madness.

Presently, we were lying on my family room floor, limbs spread out like star fish and eyes aimed toward the ceiling. The boys were sleeping in magic blood circles at night, which kept them safe from demon attacks. This meant that night time was our only time off duty. Of course, with only two of us, it had been impossible to follow all fifteen of them 24/7. Normally we at least followed Clarence when we could, since he was the ring leader, but sometimes neither of us were available to follow anyone. They all had us on speed dial, though, and I'd rushed out of class on more than one occasion to aid a paranoid cult member that was jumping at his own shadow.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," Remy said to the ceiling.

"I know. I don't think I can run out of class another time without my professors asking questions. They've already begun giving me worried looks. And don't get me started on how hard it is to do homework while simultaneously scanning the room for demons."

"I mean all that sucks too," Remy commented. "But I was talking about the part where we can't absorb souls. I've gotten careless with showing my demon eyes in public just because I can't stop staring at the soul fragments as they slip off to feed some other demon. I feel uncomfortable in my own skin. This week, I sent sketches to the wrong client, and, let me tell you, she did not appreciate the lewd drawings."

"What were you drawing lewd sketches for?" I asked, rolling onto my side to look at her with questioning eyebrows.

She waived me off. "It was for a record cover for this metal garage band I know. It goes with the image they've already established, and I promised them I'd help out if they ever got their act together enough to finish their new record."

"Fair enough," I said, and I wished we could just end the conversation there and go to sleep. Unfortunately, Remy had brought up a valid point. The fact that we couldn't collect souls was eventually going to be a big problem. I wasn't feeling the symptoms like Remy was because I had a whole soul to keep me going. It was a gross, tattered soul, but it was enough. For now.

I sighed and sat up. "I think we need to draw her out at night. Bats are nocturnal, after all."

Remy nodded, still gazing at the ceiling. After a moment, she finally said, "Well, we can't do it tonight. The boys are already safely tucked into their blood circles."

"Tomorrow night?" I suggested.

She sat up, excitement and energy filling her eyes. "Yes. And we'll kill two birds with one stone. Tomorrow night, you can fulfill your promise to me."

"Promise?" I asked cautiously. I knew what she was talking about, but I'd kind of assumed that our current disaster would put the promise on hold.

She grinned. "We're going to do my version of fun."

"Sleep?" I offered, but she just laughed.

"How would we draw out the demon by sleeping?" she asked in a mocking tone, rolling her eyes.

"I mean, I was kind of thinking we would all just sleep in one room, without the blood circles."

Remy made a face at the idea. "Tomorrow's a Friday night. It would be too suspicious for us to have a satanic cult slumber party."

"Fine," I relented. "So what were you thinking of doing?"

She grinned. "Call up the boys and tell them we're going clubbing!"