Closing Time

34.

"Au...-ra?" Lou frowned. "That can't be right..."

"What do you see?" Mike asked, barely interested in this new turn of events.

"Uh, you..." I squinted a bit. The blurriness seemed to be persisting. "It's almost like a mist, with gold around your body, and the mist, it's like... glowing?"

Mike nodded slowly. "That seems about right. What else do you see?"

I turned back to Lou. "Black... mist? It's very fine. Not extending beyond his body."

"The human has that down right too."

"Almost." Lou tapped his glass, I reached for the bottle. "Demons do not have auras. What you're seeing is demon essence. Aura is life energy. We don't have lives."

"Essence..." I looked Lou over with interest. " What does essence look like when a demon has been hurt?"

Lou raised an eyebrow, his eyes reverting to normal. " It looks like burning paper. It glows dull orange. Why do you ask?"

"There's a demon who runs the night shift in a 24-hour cafe not far from here. He said he was hurt while fighting an angel so I was a bit curious." I paused. "Great brownies and hot chocolate though."

"Is the demon hurt bad?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. But he seemed pretty out of it when I went there a few days ago. Said it hurt."

"Good."

Mike's reply was curt. But the way Lou's essence flared up in response meant he wasn't happy with it. A chill went down my spine and it became harder to breathe. I looked down at my hands, realising that the essence had flared up a lot more than I thought. It was encompassing my body.

Mike countered as the demon essence reached him, his own essence flaring up to counter it. Curiosity passed through me. I got off my stool, ignoring the eyes on me on me as I reached out to touch Mike's... I had no idea what it was. Mike had lost the ability to speak ever since Lou had walked in.

My hand touched the golden mist. The wave of warmth from it was almost immediate, it dissipated some of the cold from Lou's essence. "Interesting." I mumbled to myself, pulling my hand back and feeling the effects of the cold once again. "Is this what you've been doing, Mike?"

Mike turned his eyes to me, nodding once. "Prolonged exposure to demon essence can be harmful to a human. It's my duty to ensure he doesn't hurt you."

"Oh." I looked down at my hand, opening and closing it once. "You arrived a bit too late for that..."

"His activities didn't seem suspicious for a few weeks."

Lou snickered. "They can't track me so they didn't know where I was. It was only when the other demons started coming here that they decided to check it out."

Mike's eye twitched in irritation. " The concentrated increase of demonic activity was indeed a giveaway."

"Hah. Pathetic."

I heard a growl from Cloud. It sounded like agreement. I chuckled to myself turning my head to look at him. " That's kind of rude."

"You talking to Cloud?"

"Kind of. It's hard to understand him. He always seems angry at me."

Lou placed his glass down. I caught him leaning forward out of the corner of my eye. "What do you see when you look at Cloud now?"

"Uh..." I shifted on my stool. "He's a bit under the counter but... he has teeth? And... eyes?" I moved to get off my stool to get a better look at Cloud. He growled at me again, sounding angry as I approached. His essence moved away from my foot.