Page 36 of Baking and Angels

“Is he a demon now? Because of what he did?”

Rafferty straightened in his chair. “If you wish me to tell you, I will tell you. But you will not like any of it.”

Scarlet’s jaw stiffened as she lifted her head imperiously. “What you have to say cannot be worse than what I am imagining in my head,” shedeclared.

He wasn’t going to argue about the validity of thatstatement.

“Yosef… is in pain now. Feeling all the emotions that a body insulates you from. There is no buffer now. And he is alone. Completely alone. No one is going to care for him or be safe for him. If he tries to reach out to the others, they will only take what little of him remains for themselves.”

She pursed her eyebrows together hard. “But what are they taking?” she asked, fear in the undercurrent ofher voice.

“First, they will take his memories. The good ones will be the most prized. They will have the most energy. If he can’t fight them off, they can consume him entirely until there is nothing left; nothing will remain of him. But if he figures out how to fight back, he’ll realize he needs to do the same to the others around him or everything he ever was will be goneforever.”

“And there is no way we can help him?” Scarlet asked, her voice cracking with her urgency to act. “Couldn’t we summon him, at least? Get him out of there and hold him here increation.”

Rafferty gripped the edge of the table hard, keeping control of his own emotions. Bile kept threatening at the back of his throat. “His presence would slowly consume everything around him, corrupting the world as the price continues to eat at creation. He would also need to be bound to a living being here as an anchor, or creation will try to forcehim back.”

“What if we closed the circle? Minimize the damage?” she asked, her eyes darting back and forth as she thought hard about solving the problem.

“That would only last as long as you, his summoner and anchor, hold out. It wouldn’t buy you time, it would lessen it. The circle cuts down the cost. He could eventually drag you back with him sooner.”

“Then I would go,” she said firmly, tears breaking ranks from her eyes. “Then he wouldn’tbe alone.”

Rafferty shook his head. “It wouldn’t work like that. You would eventually try to consume each other, just to resist the pain. Whatever love you had for each other would be destroyed.”

A strangled cry of pain escaped her. “My poor Yosef,” she cried, and pressed a fist against her mouth, thinking about the hopelessness of thesituation.

They sat there quietly like that for several long minutes, each plagued by their thoughts. Rafferty had the passing thought that he wondered what was taking Helena so long, but then Scarlet lifted her head again, calmer now, her grief tucked back into its box.

“I knew another demon once. An incubus,” Scarlet suddenly said.

Rafferty smirked. So here it was, the answer he had been wondering. “Did you summon him?”

She shook her head as she took her napkin and dabbed at her wet face with it in a vain attempt to preserve her makeup. “No. My sister did. I watched as that thing ate her up from the inside out. When she died, my parents covered it all up and used their money and influence to bury the whole mess.”

“Then you know what I say is true,” he said.

Scarlet nodded, her jaw stiffening again. “I also saw the thingsshedid tohim. My sister had always been a selfish, hateful bitch. And while I know it is thought to be wrong, I don’t know if I can fault him for what he did to her, considering what she took in return.”

Rafferty didn’t need to hear more. He knew. Again, they sat in the heavy silence. While they did, he studied the grief hanging over Scarlet’s being as she stared off intomemories.

“I never saw this part,” he said aloud, the words slipping from him like thieves stealing histhoughts.

“What part?”

It was too late to deflect his misspoken words. And he didn’t really wish to. Something was happening to him, something he hadn’t expected from anyone who wasn’t Helena. He gestured between them. “This. The hurt, the suffering. The grief. This is all demons do. Even if you were to call him back, he wouldn’t be your Yosef anymore, he may not even remember you, but he’ll tell you anything you want to hear, simply so he can consume you to alleviate his own suffering. And it won’t work. Nothing will ever alleviate it.”

Scarlet studied him a moment. “Is that what you did to Helena?”

He didn’t get to answer that question, and he was glad for it.

Just then Helena returned carrying hercomputer.

“I found it, I’m mostly sure,” she said excitedly. “Here, look. This is a schedule of all the places where there is a food battle and, look, this is the next one.” She pointed to the screen, holding it out so that both of them could look. “It’s tomorrow, and see here, it’s near Cindy’s house in the far reaches of the suburbs. We can go, and I can check on her, too. It’sperfect!”

She looked between the two of them.

“Are you both alright?” she asked, finally reading the mood inthe room.

---