One Handsome Devil (15 page)

"They were fine wishes. You knew what I meant and you ruined all of them on purpose. You made little snaky twists to them so they didn't work out."

Jack blew out one of the candles, brushed aside the rock salt, and stepped over what had once been a ward. He sprawled himself on Sara's couch and looked for all the world like the bad-boy dreamboat Sara had fantasized about all through high school. “Snaky and twisty is what demons do."

She stared at him. “The wards didn't keep you in."

He reached behind him and plucked the one surviving feather from his leathery wings. “No. They kept you out."

Katra wanted to cry, wanted to scream, wanted to go running away from here before she went completely insane. Only the thought that Derrick might still be driving around looking for her kept her going. “Well, you could have put on your angel hat for me too. Easy or not, you've got to come up with some way of banishing Derrick from my life."

Jack rubbed one of his horns ands his wings so they touched the opposite walls of Sara's living room. “It isn't that easy."

"I know you want to do the right thing, Jack,” Sara urged.

Jack frowned, then slowly shook his head. “That's not it."

Katra wanted to scream. Sara wanted everything to be perfect and saw everything that way. As if she could wish a demon into being the perfect date.

"I don't care about that,” Katra explained. Her voice was getting a little ragged and her temper was real close to the breaking point. “I've got a stalker chasing after me, following me around the school where I work, and threatening to lock me up and train me like a puppy. You turned him on, so you turn him off."

"You don't understand. Derrick was going to do this anyway. When I granted your wish, I didn't change anything about Derrick, I just reminded him of you. I can't un-remind him. I can't change the way he is."

"You can't do squat, is that it? Why is it I'm having such a hard time believing this.” She smacked her head. “That's right, now I remember, you can pick who wins the lottery, you can reach into a car's engine with your bare hands, and you can turn into an angel at will. I guess handling a creep like Derrick is too far beneath you."

Jack stood, walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. Steam rose from the glass when he touched it and more came from his mouth. He drank deeply, then refilled the glass and returned.

"Well?"

"I could possess him and have him jump off a bridge or run his car into an abutment. That way it wouldn't look like murder."

"No killing,” Sara declared.

"Don't be hasty,” Katra objected. Sara hadn't been in the car when Derrick had threatened her. “The guy is a jerk."

"If you killed all the jerks in the world, who would we date?"

"There's a matter of degree. Except there really wasn't. She wouldn't lose any sleep if Derrick chose to jump from Reunion Tower, but she didn't want to be the one who pushed him.

"Only certain things are within my power,” Jack reminded her. “Making Derrick forget you is impossible."

"Is that a compliment?"

Jack growled at her. “Take it any way you want."

"We'll have to think of something,” Sara sounded decisive. “If three intelligent beings can't outsmart a pervert like Derrick, we're not trying very hard. In the meantime, we'll protect you, Katra. I promise."

Chapter 9

Sara woke up with a terrible sense of wrongness. The breathing shape next to her didn't feel right, didn't look right, didn't sound right.

For an instant she panicked, imagined Derrick had somehow penetrated her apartment. Then she remembered. Katra had refused to go home. Jack had taken the couch and she and Katra had shared her bed.

Even before she did it, she felt guilty for the nudge she gave Katra. The poor girl deserved her sleep after what she'd been through over the past couple of days.

"Huh?” Even in the best of times, Katra could be a bear in the morning.

"Time to get up."

"I think I'll call in sick today. I'm pretty sure if I told the school psychologist that I'd been seeing demons, she would tell me to take a mental health day. Or fifty.” She giggled hysterically. “Except Derrick already called in sick for me."

Sara nodded. This whole thing was insane. “Speaking of crazy, let's see what Jack's cooked for breakfast."

Katra looked suspicious. “A male who makes breakfast? Are you sure you didn't sign away your soul?"

That was the question, wasn't it. “Well I'm not completely sure. Anyway, come on, I'm hungry."

She was even hungrier when Katra finally emerged from the bathroom. Despite, or maybe because of her ‘wrong side of the tracks’ upbringing, Katra had inherited the Texas tradition of spending hours putting on makeup and dressing just so.

Jack, considerate devil that he was, timed breakfast to coincide with Katra's emergence from the bathroom. When Sara had complained, he'd handed her a piece of dry toast and a cup of coffee.

"So what are we going to do about Derrick?” Katra had covered her scrapes and put makeup over the bruise that marred her cheek. Still, despite makeup and big hair, she looked worse for the wear.

"I've been thinking about that,” Jack said.

"You can't kill him,” Sara broke in. She hadn't called Jack back for him to go off on some rampage, no matter how completely the prospective victims might deserve it.

"Right. You overrode Katra and me on that."

"So what's your plan?"

He pulled bowl of fruit from the refrigerator, each morsel chopped, shaped, and arranged to create a colorful mosaic. “I'm just finishing the crepes now."

"Where's the cholesterol?” Katra complained. “I'm working on a heart attack and can't go healthy."

Jack glared at her. For an instant, Sara wondered if he was going to over-react to her friend's comment.

When he reached a hand toward Katra, Sara stepped between them. “Hey, she was just kidding."

"She wasn't kidding. She needs me to fix something.” Jack's voice was low and intense.

Katra turned a sheet-white shade. “Wh-what's wrong with me?"

"This won't hurt."

Famous last words. Jack's hand penetrated Katra's chest like it had penetrated her car engine the previous day. “Got it."

"Oh my g—"

Jack pressed a hand across Sara's mouth. “Please don't say it."

She hadn't thought Jack could be afraid of anything but his eyes were filled with fear now. A drop of sweat beaded on his forehead. At least the hand was clean. She'd been halfway afraid it would have been covered with gore when he pulled it from her friend.

"What did you do?” Katra seemed more curious than panicky.

"You had a little blockage. I fixed it."

"Why?” Sara demanded.

Jack had taken his hand from Sara's mouth. Now he raised it to her cheek and stroked it lightly. “I have no idea. Funny, that's the strangest thing I ever did."

Katra poured herself a third cup of coffee and went to sit in the living room while Sara and Jack cleaned up. It was pretty obvious they needed some smooch time and she felt a little guilty for imposing the previous night.

A few minutes of giggling assured her she'd been right. “Can I borrow your computer?” she called through the closed door to the kitchen.

A brief silence. Finally Sara answered. “Sure. Uh, I'll be out in a minute."

It took longer than a minute but not much—the computer was still booting up. Sara's belt had missed one of its loops even though Katra would have sworn it had been properly threaded earlier. Maybe the two had done more than smooch. In the kitchen, too.

All of a sudden, Katra felt old and alone in the world.

"Reverend Bob said he could find out if Derrick was a stalker,” Katra said. “I thought maybe we could research him. Who knows, maybe he's wanted for some crime. Knowing that Derrick is safely in some maximum-security prison would do wonders for my sense of self-confidence."

Jack stared over her shoulder with increasing interest. “You mean if he was on one of these lists, he would be arrested."

"That's what the lists are. These are people who have jumped bail."

"So all we have to do is add him to the list. Piece of cake."

"Don't even think about it,” Sara warned. “You can't just put an innocent man in prison to get him out of your hair."

"He's guilty,” Katra insisted.

Tears welled up in Sara's eyes. “I know and I'm sorry, Katra. But I just can't make myself go along with doing something unethical just because he's a scum."

"Well, keep looking.” Who knew? With a lot of luck, they wouldn't have to do anything except point out Derrick to the authorities.

Jack clicked through the lists, his demon eyes absorbing everything on the page in an instant, then continuing. “I fear this will take forever,” he concluded after pulling up what had to be the hundredth page of perverts.

"Reverend Bob searched his lists in less than a minute."

"Perhaps you should ask this Bob to help you then.” Distrust overlaid Jack's voice like syrup on pancakes, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. Jack had to be suspicious of a minister.

"Do you think we can trust Bob?” Sara asked. She was being protective of her pet demon again. Maybe it was just as well that Katra's wish hadn't panned out. She wasn't sure she would want to be so gaga over any male.

"He's a minister, for g—for goodness sake.” That had been a close call. Both Sara and Jack had flinched like they'd been socked in the stomach when that word had nearly crossed her lips.

"He is awful nice to Nana,” Sara said but her face showed continued concern. “I guess it won't hurt to talk to him."

Jack shook his head firmly. “You have no idea what danger you are putting all of us in."

"You can stay here and whip us up some lunch.” Katra's grin almost split her head. Talk about a role reversal, the male staying home cooking while the females go out and adventure. Things were looking up.

"But—"

"I think Katra and I together can take care of a pervert like Derrick,” Sara said coming in on Katra's side for once.

It was obvious Jack wanted to disagree. It was also obvious he was plain out of luck. “Well, if we're going to be back in time for lunch, we'd better get a roll on,” Katra said. “Oh, since I walked here, you get to drive."

"Jack and I were talking about going into business together,” Sara said as they headed down Tyler Street. “Between us, we can identify can't-miss petroleum fields. All my dreams are coming true."

"That's nice.” Katra didn't sound like she meant it—not at all.

Sara looked at her friend in dismay. Here she had gone on prattling about how wonderful her life was with her beautiful new lover while Katra had major problems.

"I'm sorry, sweetie.” She patted Katra's shoulder. “We'll figure out what to do about that pervert, don't worry."

"Oh, I'm all right. It just seemed like everything was going to turn out perfect for once and instead, like always, it turned to mud. I don't mean to rain on your parade."

Sara turned into her grandmother's driveway. “I'm playing it a day at a time."

The black Lexus in front of Maura's house looked familiar but it took a second for Sara to make the connection. “Looks like Reverend Bob's here again."

"Yeah. I guess it's taking him longer to train her on the computer than he'd thought."

Sara laughed. “Better him than me. I spent three days and just about drove myself crazy. I couldn't teach her a thing. I couldn't get her to hold the mouse still when she clicked it. She thought I was teasing her."

"You've never been known for your patience,” Katra reminded her. “Maybe there's a reason one of us went in for teaching and the other went in for drilling and dynamite."

Maura greeted them at the door and tried to force coffee cake on them. After eating Jack's delicious breakfast, Sara didn't even want to think about food. Katra helped herself to a slice and heaped on the rum sauce.

"Nana, even though we're always happy to see you, we really wanted to talk to Reverend Bob,” Sara said. She'd taken the cup of coffee her grandmother forced on her in time to prevent a complete breakdown. Sometimes Maura could only express her love through food.

"Your date didn't go well, dear?” Maura asked Katra.

"He locked me in his car and tried to kidnap me,” Katra answered. “A very bad date."

"Terrible. Back when I was a girl, people were more polite, less nasty."

When Maura had been a girl, Hitler had been slaughtering millions—which was why Maura's family had fled to America in the first place. Sara didn't think bringing that up would help the discussion any. Maura wanted to believe that the world was getting worse.

"Evil takes different faces but it is always present,” Reverend Bob intoned.

He was just echoing what Sara had been thinking, but she didn't feel comforted.

"We thought if Derrick had some sort of a warrant out against him or he'd jumped bond or something, we'd notify the police,” Sara explained. “Except we couldn't find any information on the Internet. Katra said you had some private databases."

"Indeed we do. The church has come a long way in correcting its former blind eye to abusive males."

"Well. Can you help us?” Katra was always impatient with long-winded talk and Reverend Bob, for all of his concern for others, had a way of talking like he thought he was being recorded for posterity.

"I didn't see anything in the records that would indicate Derrick is currently being sought by the law,” Reverend Bob said. “Still, I will search more diligently now that I have heard your story. This Derrick sounds like a menace."

Maura's computer was already booted and connected to the Web. Bob took a last bite of coffee cake and walked to the computer. “We were just downloading a Bach organ recital,” he explained. “You cannot believe how rich the Internet is as a source for all sorts of inspiration."

"I'd like to inspire Derrick,” Katra said darkly.

"I'm afraid you already have, my dear,” Bob replied.

Something in his tone made Sara take notice. She had always thought of Reverend Bob as Maura's friend, but the man was still in his thirties and wouldn't break any mirrors.