Page 49 of Succubus

How many people have you killed?

Ella wails. “Something cut me! Is it bleeding? Is it bleeding?”

I look at Dee. I can’t deal with Ella right now; I have things to do, angels to defeat.

“Mom!” Dee snaps, muting her work call from her lounge chair. “Aren’t you supposed to be on this?”

A tiny blond boy nearly knocks Ella over as he erupts out of the water, laughing with his mouth wide open, mucus streaming from both nostrils. I move reflexively forward, but Dee shakes her head at me. Go, she mouths.

I nod and turn away, lifting my phone to my ear. “West Windsor Family Practice, how can I help you?” says a receptionist at Joel’s office. I googled: It’s him and one other doctor, only fifteen minutes from our home.

I step behind an enormous plastic palm tree and explain that I’m a new patient. She explains in return that there are no appointments available for three months. My shoulder brushes a stiff frond and dust drifts down. A kid is scream-crying, and his mom is yelling at him to please just give her a break for one friggin’ second. Or maybe it’s his aunt. I shouldn’t assume.

I call a different number. No answer.

I call again.

“What?” Dick Face growls. He sounds like I woke him up.

“Do you just sleep all the time?” I snap at him.

“I told you—fallow! You dense? Slow in the head?”

I ignore this. “I have a chance to kill the hunter and— ”

He grunts in a more positive tone. “Still trying to hunt the hunter? I like it. Ballsy.”

I hate that I am minorly pleased at his approval. What a psychological cliché. “He’s right here in my town. I already know him.”

He wakes up at that. “Why didn’t you say before?”

“I asked how to kill him. That’s like saying.” I can’t remember exactly what I said; I haven’t been at my most logical. “And anyway— ”

He talks over me: “What are the chances? He’s onto you. Shit. He’s coming for you next, then. You know that, right? Man, it’s me. It’s like he can smell me. He knows which ones I saw last or something.”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with your scent. But yeah, he’s definitely going to come for me now.”

“Well, fuck. Good luck, kid. Did I already tell you to act fast? You don’t want to give him any time. Aw, fuck, someone’s here.” I hear banging in the background. “Shit, they’re always bothering me. Harassment. It’s harassment. I gotta deal with this.”

“Wait—is there anything you can do? You said something about summoning something?” I’m desperate. It’s the only thing I can remember that might help.

“I said that?”

My heart sinks.

“Shut up! I’m busy! I’ll be there in a minute, dick rag!” This is clearly not to me. And then in a more normal voice: “Oh yeah. Sure, sure. You want me to summon the . . .” He says one of his indecipherable words.

“What?” I demand.

He says it again angrily.

“Say it so I can understand,” I order. “In, um, American.”

He makes a screechy sound of annoyance. “You stupid, stupid people! Uh. Pain . . . demon. Sure. Pain demon. I would go for fire, y’know, but I actually forgot that ritual somehow. I think I was doing shrooms at the time, when my buddy was teaching it to me. Shrooms have been around a long time, kid. You know that? I’m educating you right now.” He chuckles. Then screams: “No, you can go fuck yourself! You think I’m a lazy old man? Well, wait until you meet me, fucker!”

“Pain demon?” I say.

“Like I said, not the perfect one for the job, necessarily, and unpredictable as fuck. That’s why I don’t like to do it. I shoulda done it, though, earlier. When it might’ve helped my boy. My Fabian.”