Truth or Demon

CHAPTER 16

“Poppy?”

Confused, Poppy sat upright, looking around her. She was in her bedroom, her manuscript pages strewn across her duvet cover. Daisy stood in the doorway, her brows drawn together with confused concern.

“Oh, sorry,” Poppy said, still feeling heavy and languid. “I must have fallen asleep.”

“Are you all right?”

Daisy came closer, her dark eyes worried. Poppy wasn’t the type to nap, unless she was sick. And even then, she wouldn’t sleep through Daisy’s getting home from school. Poppy never liked the idea that Daisy might not come home and no one would know for hours she was missing. Poppy was an unbridled worrywart. Daisy knew that.

“Yes,” she reassured her little sister. “I’m fine. Just sleepy.”

Daisy sat down on the edge of the bed, her eyes still reading her. Poppy, self-conscious, touched her hair, brushing wisps that clung to her warm skin back from her face.

“You don’t look right,” Daisy said. “You’re all sweaty, and your cheeks are really flushed.”

Poppy touched her face. She did feel hot, but she knew that was because of her dream and her own embarrassment.

“I’m fine,” Poppy repeated, gathering up her work papers, then crawling off the bed. Her legs quivered as she stood, as if she’d really participated in the act of her dream. Even the sensitive spot between her legs felt different, heavy and moist as if Killian had really …

She blushed. But then she cleared her throat and forced a wan smile. “You know, maybe I do feel a little off. I think I’ll take a quick shower.”

She grabbed her robe off the back of the door and started down the hall toward the bathroom, only to stop when she realized Daisy was following right behind her.

She turned back to her sister, this time regarding Daisy closely.

“Is everything okay with you?” Poppy asked.

Her own residual reaction to her dream and her embarrassment disappeared as soon as she realized Daisy looked—anxious.

Daisy fiddled with her ring, one she always wore: a gold band with a garnet stone, her birthstone. A gift from their mother.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Daisy said with a smile, but Poppy got the feeling she still wanted to say more.

Poppy raised an eyebrow expectantly. She knew her little sister. Something was on her mind.

Daisy made a what? sort of face, but then asked, “So did you do anything today?”

For some reason that wasn’t what Poppy had expected her to say. Not that asking Poppy about her day was so out of the ordinary. But there was a strange paradox between Daisy’s fidgety body language and the casual—the almost too casual way—she asked that just didn’t seem normal.

“Why? Should I have done anything?”

Daisy shrugged, again the movement a practice in mild indifference. But not total indifference. The ring was still being twirled. Daisy wanted to know something.

“I did go out to lunch with Killian,” Poppy finally offered.

“Killian? Really?”

Around went the ring again. And again.

Oh, there was definitely more to this line of questioning than her sister was revealing. But Poppy simply nodded, waiting to see where Daisy’s questions would go now.

“So you really like Killian. I mean as a friend.”

“Sure,” Poppy said, trying not to think about her other, more-than-friendly reactions to him.

“Did you go somewhere nice? Where did you go?” Daisy asked, her finger moved from her ring to her hair, twirling a strand by her temple. Another nervous habit.

“We went to Smiley’s,” she said.

“Oh, that’s good.” Daisy nodded, her expression approving. But Poppy got the distinct feeling it wasn’t because Daisy loved the food there. What did Daisy expect to happen today?

Poppy nodded back, deciding maybe the best thing to do was just go take her shower. Maybe she was reading too much into Daisy’s behavior.

“Well, I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Okay,” Daisy said, turning to head into to the living room. But then she looked back. “Did anything—you know, interesting happen? At Smiley’s, I mean.”

Poppy didn’t answer right away. What was she trying to find out?

“Not really,” Poppy said, which wasn’t exactly a lie. All the excitement, such as it was, had happened after lunch.

Just briefly her dream replayed through her mind.

“Did you have fun?” Daisy asked.

Poppy shrugged; this time she was the one to play casual. “It was fine. Just lunch.”

“Oh, okay,” Daisy said, her expectant look fading.

She left then, but Poppy got the distinct feeling her little sister had been disappointed.

“Why are you in bed?”

Killian sat upright, startled out of the warm cocoon he’d been lost in. What the hell?

Then he saw whom the demanding voice belonged to, and all vestiges of anything remotely dreamy fled.

Madison leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed, her mouth set in its usual disparaging smirk. Emma stood behind her, nothing visible but her round face, huge eyes and pale Shirley Temple curls. It was a bit like a two-headed teen monster.

And neither was the female he’d want to find in his bedroom doorway. At least there was no sign of their ringleader. He supposed that was a small blessing. And they were perhaps better than either the cat or the possessed version of the cat.

“So did you take out Poppy today?” Madison asked, either not aware, or not concerned, with the fact he’d been asleep and wasn’t fully awake now.

“I did,” he answered, running a hand through his hair, trying to clear his head enough to comprehend what was going on.

“Where?” Madison asked, her tone as staccato and no-nonsense as a drill sergeant’s.

He grimaced. He didn’t remember, and he didn’t want to think about it frankly. He’d been rather enjoying a nice, deep sleep after his highly sensual dream.

Talk about a buzzkill here.

“I don’t know. Some coffee place that actually served food. The name didn’t match the décor at all. It had good waffles and lots of gilded decorations.”

“Smiley’s. That is a good place.” Emma nodded with approval.

“Well, clearly Poppy chose it,” Madison said with her usual disdain.

“How would I choose it? Not from here. From Hell. Remember?” Killian said, irritated with himself that he was even bothering to be defensive.

Madison rolled her eyes. Emma’s eyes grew wider, if that was possible. At least one of these girls was smart enough to be unnerved by an aggravated demon.

Small consolation, that.

“So did you find her a guy?”

Killian supposed he should be as pleased that they were as antsy as he was to get this mission done. But answering to sixteen-year-olds didn’t please him. At all.

He was quickly learning that teenage girls had one-track minds. And they said it was boys who were the ones prone to that affliction. Well, he was here to tell the world, “Not so.”

“There were guys, but do you really want me to pick just anyone?” he said.

Emma shook her head, while Madison spent more time considering the question.

“Shouldn’t you just get a feeling or something about who would be the right guy for her? I mean there has to be a reason the spell chose you to come do this. Right?”

He couldn’t agree with Madison more, but as of yet, he just didn’t see any signs of why he was the chosen one.

“It’s going to take a little time,” he said. And he wasn’t just referring to finding Poppy the right man. He’d have to somehow smooth over things too. But he wasn’t about to tell the teenage harpies he had to re-befriend Poppy. Yet again.

“I’m working on it,” he said instead.

“Not if you’re sleeping,” Madison pointed out.

Killian gritted his teeth.

“I’m working on it,” he repeated, this time his voice low, taking on a growling quality.

A little of his demon showing.

Madison stepped back, bumping into Emma. Both girls looked stunned, scared. And Killian would like to say he felt bad, but at this moment—nope, he didn’t.

Then Madison rallied, although he noted she didn’t step back to her original position in the doorway proper.

“You aren’t taking your time on this because you’ve got a thing for Poppy, are you?”

“Oh, hell no.” All bodily reactions and dreams to the contrary, but they didn’t need to know that.

“Okay. Just—just making sure.”

The two girls turned then and hurried through the apartment. He heard the door slam moments later.

Killian stared at the door, not totally sure what the girls had wanted from that conversation. Was it to see if he was doing his job? Or to see what his intentions were concerning Poppy? After that dream, he wasn’t sure about either one himself.

With a sigh, he swung his legs over the bed, only to snatch them back up just as a grayish paw shot out and curled toward his foot, sharp claws extended. The paw fished around a few seconds longer, then disappeared back under the bed.

“Damn beast,” he muttered. The girls must have let the evil cat in when they opened the bedroom door. With another sigh, he vaulted away from the bed. Then he grabbed the bags with his new clothes and toiletries and headed to the bathroom, making sure the door was tightly closed behind him.

But just as he began to rinse his sudsy hair, he heard the bathroom door rattle. He pulled back the shower curtain, blinking through soap bubbles.

The knob rattled again. Great. Now the teen queens were attempting to interrupt his shower. Was there no privacy?

“Go away!” he shouted. “You can grill me more once I’m done.”

He slammed the curtain closed and returned to the hot spray.

“I do rather like that one girl,” a distinctly male voice said from just outside the bathtub.

Killian whipped back the curtain to find the cat sitting on the closed toilet lid.

“You know, the one with all the attitude. The Kewpie-doll blonde I could do without, though.”

“Vepar,” Killian muttered. “I find it hard to believe you don’t have better things to do than possess a cat and pester me.”

“I’m just checking to see if you are on task. Satan is getting testier by the minute.”

Killian stepped out of the shower, unconcerned with his nakedness. “I’m working on it.” Not as expediently as he could, but he was working.

“In the way that girl said? By falling for this mortal yourself?”

“Hardly,” Killian said, reaching for a towel. “And do you mind—?” He gestured to his nakedness.

Vepar curled back the cat’s lip in disdain.

“Hmm, I hope for your sake that’s true. And I’m serious, you better speed this up. Or else,” his coworker hissed.

Vepar disappeared again, leaving him yet again with the psycho beast. Killian wasted little time escaping the bathroom. He had too many important parts bared to risk another attack.

As he dressed, he realized, as much as he hated it, Vepar had a point. Between his awareness of Poppy, the erotic dreams, the beleaguering teen girls, the fusty floral apartment and the sometimes possessed, always evil cat, it was really time to get down to business.

Mission Boyfriend for Poppy was officially on. Whether Poppy liked it or not.

Whether he liked it or not.

Something terrible occurred to Poppy as she showered. What if Daisy had somehow set up Killian to ask her out? Her little sister had mentioned more than a few times over the past couple years that she thought Poppy should be dating. Daisy worried that when she went off to college in the next two years, Poppy would end up living alone.

“You’ll be a crazy cat lady,” she’d say.

“I’m allergic to cats,” Poppy had pointed out, but her little jokes never convinced Daisy that Poppy wouldn’t end up alone. Without even a cat.

That was it, Poppy realized, toweling off. Her little sister was playing matchmaker. And her chosen match was Killian, of all people.

Poppy pulled on her robe and headed to her bedroom. So her sister wanted to see her date Killian. Odd choice, but she supposed Daisy wasn’t immune to Killian’s amazing looks either. But that match wasn’t going to happen.

And Daisy had to get that crazy notion out of her head. She considered telling her little sister just that. No. She didn’t want to hurt or embarrass her sister. But she did need to nip this cockamamie idea in the bud.

Then the obvious solution came to her. Poppy would help Killian find a girlfriend.

If he was involved with someone else, Daisy would give up this silly plot. And Poppy would stop having dreams like she’d had today. After all, she was not going to be interested in an attached man.

So that was it. She’d play matchmaker herself.

Feeling better and more in control, she found a comfy T-shirt and jeans to put on and, as she dressed, she found herself smiling. Still she supposed it was rather flattering that Daisy thought Killian could be interested in her. But she ignored the warm tingle that idea sent through her.

“Well, we have one good thing here,” Madison reported to Daisy, when they had assembled in the basement laundry room, a place they often went if all the authority figures were home. “Killian is not in the least bit interested in your sister. I asked him outright, and he acted like it was the craziest thing he’d ever heard.”

Daisy lifted herself up onto one of the top-load washers, and nodded her head. “Yeah, Poppy isn’t at all into Killian either. She acts like she barely notices him. So that is one thing we don’t have to worry about.”

“But I don’t think we’re making any headway on this boyfriend thing either,” Madison said.

“No, Poppy sounded like the whole outing was pretty dull. Not that I think she’d tell me right away if she met someone. But I’m sure I would know.”

“You would,” Emma agreed. “She’d have a sparkle in her eyes. Or a secret little smile that only she understood.”

“You gotta lay off the romance novels, babe,” Madison said.

Emma made a face.

“No, I agree with her,” Daisy said, referring to Emma. Although Emma did read an abundance of romance novels. Usually ones lifted from her mother’s bedroom bookshelves.

Still, Emma gave Madison a so-there look, then said, “I think Killian has a point. He can’t rush something like this. You don’t want Poppy just dating any old guy. He has to be special. Isn’t that the point?”

Daisy nodded. “Definitely.”

She wanted her sister to find her soul mate, if that was possible. Could a demon find that for her? He did deal in souls, right? Of course, not exactly like this.

“Maybe we need to help him out,” Emma suggested. “You know, tell him places where men she might like would hang out.”

“That is a good idea,” Daisy said.

Even Madison nodded.

Apparently, this wasn’t going to be as simple as the Jenny Bell book made it sound. Their demon clearly needed a little direction.