Dates from Hell(118)
“Didn’t you get my hint?” He/she/it swung out Samantha’s hands to encompass the gray, silent crater. “The beginning of the end. My time is coming. Mark of the beast. Six-six-six. Four horsemen. Is any of this ringing a bell?”
“End of days,” I whispered.
“Now you’re talking,” Samantha said in a voice that I was starting to believe was Satan’s. “Anyone up for an apocalypse?”
8
“I ’m Jewish,” I said. “We don’t do the apocalypse.”
Samantha’s body swayed to the side and something very un-Samantha peered back at me. “Armageddon is nondenominational. What falls on one falls on all. Besides, you’re not completely Jewish. You don’t go to Temple and you eat Gyros.”
“That’s lamb.”
“Damn.” She smacked herself in the head with the heel of her hand. “I never could keep those cloven-hoofed animals straight.”
“And you with such nice ones, too.” I glanced at Chavez. “Does she always channel the Prince of Darkness?”
“Smart girl,” said the sonorous voice. “Too bad she has to die.”
“Enough,” Chavez snapped. “I want to know what you’ve sent and how I kill it.”
“He’s Satan, the inventor of lies,” I said. “We can’t trust him.”
“When he inhabits Samantha, he has to tell the truth.”
“Fucking Ouija board rules,” Satan in a Samantha suit muttered.
I’d never done the Ouija board, being easily freaked out, but I’d heard stories. The spirits who chose to answer were compelled to tell the truth. However, the truth could be told in many different and confusing ways.
“What did you send?” Chavez ground out from between clenched teeth.
“There’s no name.” Samantha’s head tilted. “This demon is very hard to kill. Hard to detect, too. No one cares these days about gratuitous sex. Promiscuous behavior on a first date has become the norm.”
She peered at me, and I ordered myself to stare right back. I refused to feel guilty about what I’d done while I’d been under the influence of a demon.
“A few things need to be tweaked,” Samantha continued. “I combined an incubus with a Rakshasas, which requires a dead body. But they don’t last very long, and all those dead bodies are going to pile up. Now, if I could have the demon take the form of a human—”
“Possession drives a human being insane,” Chavez said.
“You should know.”
I looked toward Chavez just as he flinched. Then his mouth tightened, as did his fists. I touched his arm. Slugging Samantha would do us no good.
“But you’re right,” the deep, slithery voice flowed from Samantha’s pretty mouth. The longer I saw it, the creepier it became. “Too many stark, raving crazy people would tip off the white hats, as well. What I need is for the demon to be able to look human, but not actually be human. That would work.”
“Focus.” Chavez clapped his hands in front of Samantha’s face. “How do I kill the one you already sent?”
Samantha smirked. “You’re going to love this.”
“Somehow I doubt it.”
“The demon feeds on sex with virgins.”
“Been there, know that.”
“In the good old days they sacrificed virgins to appease the beast. Man, I miss those days.”
Chavez made a whirling motion with his index finger—Get on with it—but I already knew what was coming.
“All right, all right. To save her from a fate worse than death, all you have to do is sacrifice her.”
A rumbling began. At first I thought there was a train coming, maybe a tornado, a tour bus. But the sound was coming from Chavez’s chest. Pure fury.
“Get out,” he shouted. “Leave this place.”
“Too late.” Samantha’s eyes rolled back. “I’m already here.”
He caught her as she tumbled, but only a few seconds later she struggled upright. “I’m okay.”
Her voice was her own again. So were her eyes. I was so glad she couldn’t see me. I was shaking and no doubt as pale as the pavement. I didn’t want to scare her. Then again, she’d been the one speaking with the devil’s voice.
“What did I do?” she asked.
We were both silent and she sighed. “The devil?”
“Yeah,” Chavez said.
“I hate it when that happens.” She stuck her tongue out and made a face. “I can taste the brimstone for days.”
“I’m sorry I had to ask,” Chavez murmured. “But I had to.”
“What did I say?”