“No,” Asher said as Lucifer walked away. “Yes.” He turned back to the mortal. “I know her. She’s my aunt.” The demon was right; even if the doctors could save this woman, she would have no real reason to repent. “It was so cold last night I came looking for her.” The mortal was watching him as if he weren’t quite sure he believed him. Asher breathed into the woman’s mouth again, and the man started the next set of compressions. In the distance, he could hear the ambulance. “I hope I’m not too late.”
“No,” the mortal said, smiling at him, his eyes full of trust. “I promise she’s going to be fine.”
Detective Lucas Black
Kelsey knew she was dreaming. She was standing in the middle of a sandy dirt road in the country that wound up a steep, grassy hill. All along the road were live oak trees hung heavily with Spanish moss—the trees of home. The sun was shining overhead, making the road look gold.
Just ahead of her and to the left was a shaded clearing in the trees. It was a roadside park, just one concrete picnic table with a pair of broken concrete benches and a rusted fifty-gallon drum for trash. Her mama’s wood-paneled station wagon from the seventies was parked there with the back hatch standing open. Drawing closer, she saw her mama’s daisy-printed tablecloth spread over the table. As she stepped off the road, she saw her mama straighten up from the back of the car, holding a lemon meringue pie. A platter of fried chicken and a big bowl of potato salad were already set out on the table.
“There you are,” Mama said, smiling at her. “Get that cooler of drinks out, would you, honey? I’m about to thirst to death.”
“Where are we?” Kelsey said, surprised to hear herself sound so perfectly normal. Mama looked beautiful. Her hair was piled up on her head the way she’d always worn it in summer, pinned up with a tortoiseshell clip. “What are we doing here?” She looked down at herself and saw she was wearing a church dress and stockings, the kind of dress-up clothes she hadn’t worn since she and Jake had left Savannah.
“Having a picnic, of course,” Mama said, ripping open a package of paper plates. “Isn’t it a nice day for it?” She was dressed up, too, in a lavender floral print dress with a lace-edged collar, Kelsey’s favorite when she was a child.
“It is.” She knew it was a dream, that none of it was real, but she still felt like crying. She could smell the pie and the warm wind blowing through the moss. “Mama, you look so pretty.”
Her mama stopped setting out plastic cups and turned to her. “Sweet baby,” she said, caressing Kelsey’s cheek. Her hand smelled like pure white soap, and her nails were clean and neat. “So do you.” She seemed to see someone over Kelsey’s shoulder, and she smiled. “Oh good. Here he is.”
Kelsey turned around…and woke up in her apartment in New York to brilliant, glittering sunlight. She was lying on the couch in the living room under a blanket where she’d fallen asleep in Jake’s arms…Jake. Jake had been here, or his ghost, or something…or had that been a dream, too? You didn’t do it, he had said, holding her close. It was never your fault. He had told her he was not in Hell.
She shivered. It was freezing, even under the blanket with the radiator clanking in the corner. It must have been brutal outside.
“Oh God!” She jumped out of bed and started throwing on her clothes.
Asher stood beside the hospital bed, looking down at the woman who’d been possessed by the demon. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully; one bandaged arm was folded over her stomach on top of the blankets. Her once-pretty face still looked careworn with dark circles under her closed eyes, but her expression was serene. He brushed a lock of hair back from her cheek, and she stirred, barely smiling for a moment.
“She’s doing very well, considering,” the nurse said from across the darkened room. “Your aunt is very lucky.”
He smiled at her. “Not so lucky, or she wouldn’t be here.” How many other humans would be sleeping in the snow tonight, possessed or ill or in despair? How could all the angels of Heaven hope to save them?
The nurse smiled back. “Lucky to have you.” She made a notation on the woman’s chart. “She’s making great progress. She might even be able to go home in a day or two.”
“That’s great.” He had ridden with her in the ambulance, then used his phone to track down her identity while the doctors worked. She was Marilyn Mitchell, a native of the city with no known living relations. He had given the billing office a credit card number that would take care of all her medical expenses and more. But what would happen when she left the hospital?
“Her doctor will probably want someone to pick her up,” the nurse said. “Unless you’ve made some other arrangement.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Surely he could find some sort of private hospital that could take her in and care for her until her mind could be healed and she could take care of herself.
“I’m sure you will,” the nurse said, smiling again. “I’ll be right down the hall if you need me.”
Asher touched the woman’s hand as he heard the door close. Lucifer’s voice spoke inside his head. Careful, brother. Touching these monkeys can become a habit.
He slowly realized he was being watched. The woman’s eyes were open. “You,” she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “You’re real.”
He put his hand over hers. “I am.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I’m sorry.”
He could barely imagine the agony she had lived in all these years, possessed of an evil she had stupidly invited in. It must have seemed so unfair, so randomly horrible. But he saw no bitterness in her eyes, no anger. “He knows.” He felt her relaxing under his touch. “You don’t have to be afraid.”
Her hand closed over his. “Don’t leave me.”
He held her hand tight. “I have to.” Her lower lip trembled, making her seem very young and very fragile. “But I promise I’ll come back.”
She smiled through her tears. “Okay.” Her e
yes fell closed again. “I’ll be right here.”