Not for the first time, Kyle wished he could read lips. Between Ryka’s inability to butt out of a conversation and his sleep-talking, Kyle had discovered there were far too many instances when anything but the demon was completely blotted out. This time, he was mumbling in a language Kyle couldn’t recognize. Unable to hide his frustration, Kyle sighed. “Sorry, what did you say?”
Adam just smiled. “I was asking what you ended up telling your Mom.”
A week earlier, Kyle’s mother had left after a fourteen day stay at his house. Things had gone about as smoothly as they could, but he had still ended up summoning Ryka in order to explain why his soul was a lost cause. And why he could never see her again.
“As much of it as I could. There are some things I couldn’t admit.” A growing number of casualties chief among them. Informing her his own chance at eternal peace was forfeit was still nothing compared to just the prospect of divulging Ryka’s goal, or how he went about achieving it. Kyle could barely justify the murders to himself, nevermind to his mother.
“Makes sense,” was Adam’s only initial comment. Before turning a sly grin to his friend and continuing, “Did you tell her about you two?”
“Fuck no.” Ryka had been amazingly unbothered by this fact. “I’m pretty sure she misunderstood what Ryka meant when he said he loved me. Or she just couldn’t believe what she heard and forced herself to forget it. Either way, it was all shocking enough – I didn’t think elaborating would do her any good.”
“Probably not.”
“I kept things as PG as possible in general.”
Given that Ryka’s baseline level of lust was off-the-charts high for most everyone else, it had been truly incredible that he’d managed to control himself enough not to get caught doing anything that would have embarrassed Kyle. The only desire he hadn’t been able to fight was the one for a good meal. Mary had nearly fainted catching the demon devouring a plateful of leftovers only two days after first learning of his existence.
Ryka had only mumbled something about a worthy dessert as she’d backed, shaking, out of the kitchen. For his part, Ryka had licked his plate clean and retreated.
“I wouldn’t imagine you’d do otherwise.” Out of the corner of his eye, Kyle saw Adam look over at him before refocusing on the traffic. The highway was at a stand-still, and what had likely started as a minor snarl had now backed up the road for miles. A short trip to pick up some supplies for the upcoming school year was turning into an all-day adventure. “I guess no one else works summers, either,” Adam muttered, checking twice before slowly crossing into another lane.
“It’s probably because it’s a Friday and everyone’s heading to or from the beach.”
“True. Kate wanted to go. I’m not really into sweating out in the sun all day, though.”
Maybe Ryka’s ability to know exactly what others were thinking was affecting him, or maybe he had just spent enough time with Adam to pick up on these things, but Kyle quickly realized that Adam didn’t really want to be discussing Kate, traffic, the beach or school. With a sideways glance at his friend, Kyle asked, “But there was something else you wanted to know, right?”
As much as Kyle had improved at reading him, Adam was becoming accustomed to the other man’s sometimes shocking intuition. “He’s rubbing off on you, huh?”
Kyle shushed him. “Sh! Don’t say that.”
“Are those the magic words?” Adam teased.
“I wouldn’t go that far. But unless you want to watch it, I’d be careful about what you say.”
“Then I’ll try to refrain from saying anything that could even be remotely misconstrued as innuendo; I’ve seen the X-rated version.” Catching them in the act once had been enough. Smartly returning to the previous subject, Adam continued, “I mean, by now I feel like I know quite a bit. You gave me the short version after Salem, so I guess I’m asking what it was like making the contract in the first place.”
Since he relived it every night, Kyle had no problem relating to Adam exactly what had happened to him. By the time he finished, they had moved up a little in the highway-cum-parking lot. Their exit was finally in sight.
For a few moments, Adam said nothing. Once he had absorbed everything, he asked, “So, was he as shocked by all of this as you were?”
“Yes and no,” Kyle replied, after some thought. “He had some idea what was supposed to happen, but I think just being here was a little overwhelming at first. TV, snow, cars … the things we take for granted were all new to him. And for the first few years, he was just like a little kid, trying to take it all in and amazed by all of it.” Before continuing, he checked to make sure Ryka was still out cold. “Ry?”
Even though it seemed to pain him to wake just long enough to reply, Ryka did just that. Fuck off.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Charming,” Kyle returned, although Ryka had already resumed his nap. “Anyhow, since he went from being kid-sized to adult-sized in one night, he was really clumsy. Every time I summoned him, he broke something. Still does sometimes - you’ve seen him do it. But it was actually kind of cute; he used to get so embarrassed.”
It was impossible for Kyle not to think fondly of those early years. Not that he disliked how things were now, but it had been fun being Ryka’s teacher while he had learned about life among mortals.
“Not so much anymore, huh?”
“Now I’m the one that gets to be embarrassed.”
“True. But there are benefits, right?”
“There are,” Kyle said slowly, anticipating Adam’s next question. “He’s done things to my body that -” Before Adam could even open his mouth, Kyle cut himself off. “That came out all wrong. Can I try again?”
“Please do.”
Avoiding his friend’s gaze, he caught his own in the side mirror. He wondered if it would be possible for Ryka to make him blush all the time. It would certainly save his body the trouble of shifting all that blood around every time something humiliating happened, which was quite often.
Kyle shook his head to clear his thoughts, and gave his explanation another go. “What I was trying to say was that he’s altered my body a lot. Aside from the obvious, like not aging or getting sick, and him finally fixing my eyes.”
“Like what, then?”
“I used to be three inches shorter.” With a grimace, Kyle recalled the pain associated with his unnatural growth spurt. Even after the muscle aches and bleeding had ceased, his bones had hurt. An intense throbbing deep inside that had resisted all of modern medicine’s strongest painkillers.
“Seriously?”
“Yup. My Mom thought she was shrinking until I explained it to her.”
“I guess I can finally stop thinking I’m crazy, then.”
“What do you mean?”
“We met during interviews, remember?”
Sometimes, Kyle felt like his pre-Ryka memories weren’t as sharp as they should be, but thinking back, he did recall first meeting Adam during his final round of interviews. Which was only a few short months before he’d made the contract. “We did.”
“I thought I was losing my mind when that first day of meetings rolled around and you not only suddenly had much longer hair, but were also definitely taller.”
“Shit. Sorry? But now I wonder who else was thinking the same thing.”
At that, Adam shrugged. “There was no chatter in the lounge about it that I ever heard, so … I’m just wondering why it happened, I guess.”
“Ryka said that it wasn’t anything he could control. Just something about it being the only way for us both to be able to use my body. Which I guess means he’d be taller than me.” Not only had Kyle been forced to replace everything in his bedroom after the bloody joining of he and Ryka’s souls and bodies, he had also had no choice but to replace his entire wardrobe. An unforeseen consequence of demonic possession, to be sure.
There was something else Kyle stupidly hadn’t expected from such a young, innocent-looking creature. “Aside from that, um, well, you said to keep it PG.”
“Unless you really need to get it off your chest. I’m sort of a captive audience, and I did ask in the first place.”
“You did,” Kyle reminded him with a smirk. Adam shook his head, but couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. “I, um, was shorter elsewhere … I mean, I’m not trying to sound like I’m bragging or anything, but -”
“No, I’ve seen it, if that’s what you mean. You could certainly brag. It’s just my fragile ego you’re crushing, but go ahead.”
“I’ll leave it at that, then.” They sat in silence, the only sounds the whirr of the AC and the idling of the traffic around them. Kyle studied his hands, imagining the long claws that Ryka could grow out at will. And a sudden horrifying thought occurred to him. “He could kill me.”
When Adam slammed on the brakes, Kyle at first thought he was to blame. Then he noticed an SUV trying to sneak in front of them in the seemingly endless line of vehicles stretching down the highway. Still, Adam wore a rather bewildered expression. “W-What?”
“He can control everything in my body. I can only feel hot and cold when he lets me. If he works at it, he can take away pain. But in the same vein, couldn’t he just stop my heart, or give me a stroke or something?”
“I think you’re about to give yourself a heart attack. Relax. He would never do that to you.” The reassurance seemed to stem the rising tide of panic he detected in Kyle. And after a few deep breaths, Kyle was calm once more. “Better?”
“Yeah, sorry. It just never occurred to me.”
“Why would it? He -”
Adam’s words, however, were obscured by Ryka’s sudden question. Is he upsetting you? Your blood pressure went up.
“No, dear, I’m fine,” Kyle told him, making it as obvious as possible who he was talking to. Adam smiled, nodded and focused all his attention on the brake lights of the car in front of him. “We’re just chatting. Go back to sleep.”
Tell him to be careful, Ryka warned, somehow sounding groggy and homicidal at the same time. Kyle supposed it was something only demons could manage.
“He already knows.” Not meaning to, but unable to stop himself, Kyle cast a nervous glance in Adam’s direction. And he saw Adam shudder. “Really, Ry, I’m fine. You know I’m not lying.”
That put a quick end to Ryka’s threats. Yeah, yeah. I’m going back to sleep, then. Stop being such a damn pussy.
Interpreting this last remark as something closer to “Please, don’t worry so much,” Kyle replied, “I’ll try. Sweet dreams.”
Mm. As always, it took only a moment for Ryka to slip right back into a peaceful slumber.
Still, Kyle made sure he could hear Ryka’s quiet snoring before resuming his conversation with Adam. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem. But hey, if it makes you feel any better – he’ll give me a heart attack a lot sooner than he’ll ever give you one. And we’re not even in the same body.”