Demon Marked

Their bargain and his soul be damned.
    Ash didn’t respond. Nicholas thought she was still looking at the mirror, but no. She was watching him. Probably assessing everything he’d said, cataloguing his weaknesses. Fuck this.
    “Drive,” he repeated. “Now.”
    With a shrug, she reversed out of their spot. “Did your dog know what she was?”
    “What?”
    “Did he sense that Madelyn was a demon? Is that why she killed him?” She flicked on the radio and adjusted the heat, turning the temperature all the way to high. “She did, didn’t she?”
    Goddammit. It was his fault, though. He had to do a better job of guarding his responses. “Yes.”
    “She killed more than one?”
    “No.”
    Not that he knew of. One had been enough—and she’d milked it for years. I don’t think it’s a good idea to buy another pet, love, until I’m certain you’ve learned to care for your furry friends a little better. You don’t want him to end up like poor Ringo, do you?
    “Was she afraid it would reveal her true nature? Did he bark at her, like in Terminator ?” Ash frowned. “They don’t bark at me.”
    “That’s because you’re a demon, not a killer robot.” Though Nicholas had to admit he’d once wondered the same thing. He wouldn’t have ever used a dog to help him find Madelyn, not after what she’d done—but he’d wondered why animals didn’t know. He’d only learned the answer after Rosalia had told him. “What is a dog supposed to sense? They don’t have psychic abilities. And you don’t even have an odor, nothing to warn them.”
    So they’d come up to her, lick her, and look for love until she broke their necks. Humans didn’t fare much better when they trusted demons, but at least their bones remained intact. Nicholas assumed that the only reason demons didn’t go around killing animals for the fun of it was because they needed to do the same thing Ash wanted to do: appear normal. Too many dead animals would raise suspicions.
    That point apparently swept right past the demon. She looked down at herself, as if in confusion. “I don’t have an odor?”
    “No.”
    She didn’t take his word for it. Tugging out the front of her hooded sweatshirt, she dipped her nose beneath the neckline and sniffed. Jesus Christ. Suddenly, Nicholas didn’t know whether to laugh or to go for some pansy-ass, horrified reaction. What the hell was that? If she wanted to appear normal, sniffing herself in public wouldn’t help her cause.
    She didn’t seem to notice his struggle any more than she’d been aware of her gaffe. “I do have an odor,” she said. “But I can barely smell it. It’s nothing like yours.”
    His odor? God. He wouldn’t ask. She didn’t give him a chance to, anyway.
    “Are all demons that obvious, then?”
    He didn’t follow. “What?”
    “Killing dogs. It seems cliché.”
    “Tell that to an eight-year-old boy, and see how much a cliché matters. They do what works—and they do it again and again.”
    And he’d said “they,” as if Ash wasn’t included in their number. Maybe that was her game: making him believe that she was different, putting him off guard.
    It wouldn’t happen.
    “I didn’t say it wouldn’t be effective. It’s just not original. And if I think it’s cliché, when my only experience with demons is what seems familiar from books and movies, then the whole ‘killing a boy’s dog’ thing must be really tired.”
    An odd way to come around to it, but she wasn’t wrong. “So it is,” he agreed.
    “I’d rather be a clever demon. Perhaps that’s why it is taking me so long to come up with a plot against you. My standards are too high.”
    Nicholas bit back his laugh. Damn it. How did she turn his anger and suspicion around so easily? In all probability, she was plotting to destroy him. He ought to be preparing for it, not finding humor in it.
    “Have you been trying to think up many plots?”
    “Not really.” She gave him a sideways glance. “It ought to be simpler now, knowing that I should think of something cliché. And you never answered me: Are demons all so obvious?”
    “It’s not so obvious,” he said. “Not when there are so many humans doing the same things that you demons do.”
    “Oh. So what’s one more bit of evil here and there?”
    “Yes. They hide in plain sight.”
    “Then how will we find Madelyn? How can you tell demons from humans unless they give themselves away?” She paused. “How did you realize she was