Demons of the Rich and Famous (Demon Whisperer book 1)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3                                                 

            It had been four a.m. when I caught a cab back to my hotel, grabbed my gear, checked out and headed for the airport to catch my eight o’clock flight out of L.A.X. to Toronto.  I knew Dan would meet me back at my place.  He didn’t have to travel by airplane.  He could just zip through the ether of the next plane of existence.  I didn’t envy him though.  I knew what that plane was like.  And I wouldn’t go back to it for anything in this world or the next.

            The flight had been uneventful and I landed at the Lester B. Pearson International Airport on time and in one relative piece.  I didn’t much like to fly.  Made me uneasy not to have my feet firmly on the ground.  But since it was early in the morning and there wasn’t anyone sitting near me, I just put my iPod on shuffle, shut my eyes and drifted in and out of conscious thought.  Much like what I had done in school, what little of it I managed to go to.

            Dad had pulled me out after grade eight to fully apprentice with him. It wasn’t as if I was learning anything that I would use later in life anyway.  There was no Exorcising 101 or How To Draw a Protection Circle 103.  It was just all math and history and really, when I was going to ever use that?

When I walked out of the airport to catch a cab, a gust of hot sultry air blasted me.  It was four in the afternoon in Toronto and still over one hundred degrees.  Summers were often hot and muggy in the port city.  It was like living in a hothouse some days.

I was thankful for the humidity though.  I’d been out West to take in the Calgary Stampede last July with my dad and Dan on one of the rare occasions we’d had down time to have some fun, and I thought I was going to suffocate from the dry heat.  That was like being in a furnace.  The beer had been good though.  It had been worth the trip just to party at the Ranchman’s every night.

Dan and I had snuck out of the dingy motel room to party and spent a couple of nights at the bar.  Dan had been in his element during those nights.  Who knew the demon could two-step so well?  And sing?  We did karaoke for a couple of nights.  By the second night, he had his own little following hooting and hollering for him.  It was the first and only time I’d seen him extroverted.  Most times, he was solemn and brooding. I think he even gained himself a really eager fan.  One I was sure he visited every so often since that July. 

 It was almost five by the time the cab pulled to the curb along Parliament Street in the Distillery District, and I got out, tossing the driver the fare.  Adjusting my bag, I started down the road to the apartment, but stopped to go into Balzac’s Coffee located at the old pump house.  I needed some caffeine and I didn’t think we had any in the cupboards.

When I walked into Balzac’s, I inhaled the rich aroma of coffee.  It was always thick in the air.  I crossed the tiled floor, happy to see Saleisha helming the counter.  There was only one other guy in the place, and he sat on one of the stools at the counter talking to her.

She smiled when she saw me approach, her big brown eyes sparkling.  We made a habit of flirting every time I came in.  But it was just that—harmless flirting.  I never let it go further than that.  She was too nice and too innocent to get involved with the likes of me.  Besides, I was thoroughly taken with a girl who would pound me into sand if she knew I was flirting at all.

“Hey Caden.”  Her voice was laced with a slight Nigerian accent.

“Hey Saleisha.”

The guy at the counter turned.  “Hey, yourself, big boy.”