Page 76 of Baking and Angels

Helena walked Chris all the way to his car and sat him on the driver’s side. She stayed, one hand on the door and one on the roof of the car, talking to Chris. Rafferty didn’t look away, deluding himself that he would be ready to spring up if Helena should need him, until Cindy knelt beside him. She set a black bag on the ground next to her and unzipped it but didn’t remove anything. Instead, she took his face and turned it up toward the porchlight.

“Relax your head,” she encouraged. “Let me see.”

He obeyed, submitting himself to her scrutiny. She probed his eye very gently, encouraging the lids to pull back. The lower one hurt to do that, but he resisted pulling away.

“You’re definitely going to have a nice black eye. Eyeball looks fine, if a little red,” she pronounced, then reached into the bag to pull out a small flashlight. She shone the beam into each of his eyes, one at a time, though he wasn’t sure what she was looking for when she did that. Whatever it was, she seemed satisfied as she traded the flashlight for a plastic packet.

Giving the packet a quick twist, she shook it out, then held it out to him. “Hold this to that eye until it goes numb,”she said.

He obeyed that order, too, surprised to find the packet turning cold. Wanting to ask if it was some kind of magic, he resisted. Every time he returned to this plane of existence, there was some new technological advancement that shocked him. He learned it was best not to ask questions about them unless necessary. This cold packet was something he could simply accept.

“I used to be able to take punches better than that,” Rafferty complained.

Helena’s doctor friend cracked a grin. “A lot of fistfights in the culinary world? Need help standing up?”

“No, I’m fine,” he insisted, but even as he got up under his own power, Cindy offered a steadying hand until he was clearly, solidly onhis feet.

“I would sit on the porch,” Cindy suggested, already turning to go to Helena and Chris, who were still talking at the car. She muttered to herself, “I can’t believe I’m going to go patch up that asshole’s hand.”

“Then why are you?” Rafferty asked as he dropped onto the second step from the bottom, still holding the cold packetin place.

“I swore an oath about it,” Cindymurmured.

Rafferty wondered what sort of oath that could be, but she had moved too far away to make asking easy without shouting the question. It could wait for later, if ever.

“I’m so sorry about this,” Charlie said, and it took Rafferty a second to realize the apology was for him.Helena’s other friend remained at the door, watching what was happening outside while still shielding himself withinher house.

The former demon grunted. Helena’s friends were a lot of trouble.

“Still, I can’t believe he did that. Chris has never hurt anyone before in his life. I didn’t even think he knewhowto throw a punch.” Charlie pressed his fingertips to his lips as if he were tempted to chew on them and he was trying to resist, all while shaking his head. “I don’t know who he isanymore.”

“Charlie?” Helena asked, suddenly much closer as she walked up to the porch, holding her phone out toward her friend. “Do you know Chris’s brother’s number? I don’t think Chris is in a state to drive himself safelyanywhere.”

“Uh… yeah,” Charlie said, taking the phone to type thenumber in.

As he did that, a police car rolled up, its lights spinning though its siren was silent.

“Did you call them?” Helena asked, alarmed.

“No, no. Cindy talked me out of it,” Chrisconfirmed.

“Oh great. Someone must have called 911,” she muttered, crossingher arms.

“Helena, I’m so sorry. This is all going to bring the BDI back on you, isn’t it?” Charlie interjected, even as his thumbs worked across the phone screen.

A second car pulled up and two familiar agents got out.

“You aresurethat this… incident… has nothing to do with the demon?” Agent Archon asked for the dozenth time.

“Yes,” Helena said with tiredassurance.

Rafferty and she had been talking to the agents for about an hour, and a light wintery sprinkle of snowflakes washed over them all. Chris sat in the back of one of the police squad cars while his brother, who had arrived twenty minutes ago, talked to the officer standing guardover him.

Charlie stood just within the door, talking to Agent Sophia. Cindy sat on the porch with her medical bag, staring off into space.

Helena indicated toward her friends. “This has been an”—she blew out a sigh—“ongoing issue, long before we had… any concerns about this demon.”

Agent Archon sniffed. “And you don’t want to press charges?” she asked, directing the question toward Rafferty, standing by Helena’s side.

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