Page 7 of My Demon Mate

“It’s fine,” I tell her after I swallow and sip the lemonade she ordered for me. “Everything is good.”

Giving me a soft look, she covers my hand with hers. “If you need help, anything at all, just ask. Help is where you least expect it.”

An unbidden bitter laugh bursts from my throat. Her words remind me that the voice in my head has been offering me help for years. Now Danae is telling me help is in unexpected places. Maybe it’s a sign that I need to ask someone for assistance.

“Whenever you are ready, listen to the instructions and I’ll be there.”

I still have no idea what ‘listen to the instructions’ means, so I ignore it.

“Um, yeah,” I sputter, “I might need some help.” Danae nods, looking earnest as she grabs my hands. Maybe she’s my lifeline? I can’t say for sure, but I’m grabbing on with both hands. “I’m not sure how you would go about helping me. Or why you would want to. You hardly know me.”

“That means nothing,” she says seriously. “I’m always willing to help someone that needs it. Now, what do you need help with?”

I swallow roughly, not believing I’m going to spill the beans to a practical stranger. Ducking my head so she doesn’t see the pitiful look on my face, I say, “It’s my dad. It’s Mitch. It’s… pretty much everyone. The people I went to school with, people I work with. I’m treated like trash everywhere I go.” I quickly wipe a lone tear that slides down my cheek without permission. “I just want someone that’s there for me. Someone that can help me feel less alone.”

“Oh sweetie,” Danae mutters. “I know just how you feel.”

I look up at her sharply. “You do?”

She nods. “Oh yeah. Big time. Before I met my boyfriend, I didn’t have anyone. Sure, I had casual acquaintances, but no real friends. Wanna know what I did?” Her eyes sparkle and as if in a daze, I nod robotically. “I asked the universe to send me my partner. The one that was meant for me.” I give her a look, and she laughs, patting my hand. “It sounds weird, I know, but it was quite simple. I had just gotten the shit kicked out of me by my ex-fiancé. I was in the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror, wondering how I got myself in the situation I was in. My face was swollen and my nose was bleeding. I tried to make it stop, but it kept coming faster than I could wipe it. That’s when I broke down. I slid to the floor and cried, angry and sad that I had no escape.” Danae stops talking and pulls her lips in, as if he’s fighting back tears.

She’s only silent for another few seconds before she continues. “I had been praying, you know? Not like to God, but to anyone that could hear me. I was in a bad situation with my ex, but I wanted to find that one special man that the universe had to have for me. I knew he would be the one to save me. So through my tears, I repeated three times a chant I read about in this self-help book I was browsing through.”

For some reason, I lean forward, entranced by her story and what I think could be a way to get out of my current situation. “What did it say?” I ask before I give it much thought.

“It was a simple chant. ‘By the powers that be, send me the mate you made for me.”

“That’s it?”

She shakes her head. “No. It’s like my body went rigid, and my bloodied hand traced this intricate pattern on the floor. It’s all a haze, like wool over my eyes. Like my hand had a mind of its own.”

That’s not what I expected. At all. Is it some sort of blood magic? What the fuck am I thinking? There’s no such thing as blood magic. There’s no such thing as summoning the man that was meant for her. She just got lucky.

Trying to keep the disappointment from my voice, I ask, “And what did your perfect man do? Bust the door down?”

Her laughter is high and sweet. “Hardly.” She lets my hands go and bite into her sandwich again. “I met him in the hospital after I stabbed my ex.” I gawk at her, and she laughs again. “God, you’re too easy.” I smile shakily, though I’m not sure if she’s joking or not. “I did meet him in the hospital, but he was the emergency room doctor that helped me with my broken nose after I was able to sneak away from my ex. He gave me the card to a homeless shelter for domestic abuse survivors, and I went. He came to check on me the next day and we’ve been inseparable. He moved here when he got offered a new position, and it made it easier for me to start a new life without looking over my shoulder for my ex.”

I nod, riveted by her tale, even though it sounds a little fantastical. Not sure how it can help me in this piece of shit town. We have no homeless shelters, and if I go to the cops or the small clinic in town with my injuries, I know they’d just give me ice packs and send me home to my abuser. “I’m glad you got out of that situation,” I tell her earnestly. “I need to gather the courage to do the same. But not in this town. The people here are vile. If I could, I would have left by now, but I’m trapped.”

“Follow those instructions, and you should have what you need. It worked for me and I have the shittiest luck in the world.”

Alarm bells ring in my head when she says follow those instructions. Was that what she was giving me? Is that what the voice in my head meant by instructions? Are they instructions through Danae? But how?

For the first time since I can remember, the voice in my head doesn’t answer my inquiry. I’m not sure if I should take that as a yes or a no.

“Enough of that heavy shit,” Danae almost shouts, taking my hand again. “What do you have planned for tomorrow? Wanna hang at my place?”

“Will your boyfriend be home?”

“Possibly. He works twelve hours shifts, so if he’s home, he’ll be asleep.”

“Would I be imposing?”

She waves me away. “Hardly. He likes that I made a new friend in a town where I know only him. What do you say?”

“Yeah. Yes,” I amend. “I’ll hang out with you tomorrow.”

My heart is light as I walk home. The last time I was invited to someone’s home was when I was six, and it was a birthday party Joey Michaels invited the entire class to. Thinking about him puts a sour taste in my mouth, as Joey tormented me every day from when I was seven until we graduated high school and he went off to college.

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