Page 95 of Cookbooks and Demons

Helena nodded her thanks to Éliott, who had proved as reliable a head waiter as his cousin had proved a failure as a chef. He nodded back and gestured for the back. “Get him out of here. Rest. I will handle whatremains.”

She nodded and took Rafferty’s arm over her shoulders. Her demon moved alarmingly slowly, and she was just relieved that he let her help him. Together, they navigated out of the back into the dock area, which was far more deserted now that most of the business of the ball had been takencare of.

Only a security guard looked up from his paperback with a bored, disinterested expression on his face that became more acutely interested at the sightof them.

“Is he alright?” he called.

“Yes, we’re fine. It’s just been a big night,” Helena called back.

“There’s an alcove over that way with some chairs if you need to sit down,” the guardoffered.

“Thank you. We’ll do that,” she agreed, waving and smiling for all she was worth.

But they didn’t make it far toward that alcove before Rafferty began to stutter. Helena noticed it as the thrumming wrongness flipping on and off like a toddler with a light switch. Glancing up, she saw his wings flit in and out of existence, along with his horns and gray skin as his face remained a contorted mask of pain no matter what form he was in.

“Oh, no, please Rafferty. Hold on just a little farther,” Helena begged.

“Hey! What’s going on there?” the security guard called after them.

Helen tried to compel their steps faster, but Rafferty bucked again, groaning in pain as his legs gave out underneath them. He fell onto his side, catching one of his wings beneath him. A sharp snap bent his wing wrong, and he howledin pain.

“Rafferty!” Helena shouted as she pulled on his arm to try to get him off his own wing, which instantly disappeared, only to reappear again as he rolled onto his hands and knees on the ground. The wing was clearly bent at a wrong angle.

“What the hell?!” the security guard exclaimed from too close.

She looked up to see him standing only a few feet away, staring wide-eyed down on the anathema beside her.

“Get… get the hell away from it!” the guard shouted, his hands shaking as he went for his enormous flashlight at his belt. Holding it in both hands, he hefted it like a billy club, then took a hop-skip step toward them.

“No, don’t!” she tried to shout, but she couldn’t get to her feet in time to step in front of him as the guard aimed for the demon’s head.

Instead, Rafferty flexed his wings back mightily. Theywomphed the guard, upsetting his already precarious balance to knock him back onto his butt. The flashlight fell from his hands and Helena scrambled to grab it. As she did that, Rafferty turned on his knees and seized the guard’s head.

“Forget,” he growled out.

“Rafferty! Don’t!” Helena cried, throwing the flashlight away before pulling on his arms to force him to let go of the guard. “Don’t hurt him, please!”

Rafferty yielded to her, releasing him weakly, but the guard just kept staring aheadblankly.

“What did you do?”

“I ate his memory of the last few minutes,” Rafferty said, turning away so he could use the wall to regain his feet, shifting back to human as he did so. “He willbe fine.”

“Rafferty, what is happening to you?”

“The price needs to be paid,” he said, leaning against the wall, his arms tucked against his sides. “Take me back to the circle.”

“But … it was my price to pay.”

He shook his head. “No. I won’t do it. I won’t take your life.”

Using the wall to help himself, he continued to walk down the hall toward the forbidden door. Helena stared at him as she realized what he was saying. “You … never intended to make me pay fortonight.”

“No, but you thought I was going to, didn’t you!” he shot back. “The second things got hard, you turned to your demon.”

Suddenly, his coldness made a different kind of sense. He wasn’t tricking her. He was angry and disappointed in her.

“I reached out toyou,not ‘my demon.’ I needed help. I didn’t know what to do!” She stood up to go after him. “So I reached out to the person I trusted most, my… my boyfriend, if we even are in that relationship.”

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