Accidental Demon Summoning

Time, Love, and Demons

There was a demon killer in town, and Daisy had brought a demon into the town. A demon that she might possibly care about, and a human who definitely cared about him. And he wasn't going to leave.

They'd booked two rooms in a small hotel, one for Daisy and one for the husbands and Lily. Daisy's room had a TV and a fan, theirs had a double bed. Asmodeus had clicked his fingers and made a thick wad of hundred dollar bills appear, and told Daisy to order whatever she wanted. Technically, there wasn't room service, but the pretty young waitress was easily persuaded to get Daisy a donut when a hundred dollars had been waved under her nose.

Daisy rummaged through her bag, the third ring of chocolatey goodness hanging out of her mouth (the other two were smeared around her face, eating wasn't easy when she was going through the hotel and looting everything she could). She'd already been down to the car and gotten the pack she'd thrown together, put her phone out to charge, and not gone into Al and Asmodeus' room. Potential health hazard, the cuteness could be vomit inducing.

She hadn't brought much, a hoodie, some clean underwear, her favourite ripped jeans, and two band shirts. Her iPad, a twelfth birthday present, had enough books for her to not have had to bring them with her. Hopefully, her mum wouldn't have canceled her Netflix over something so trivial as running away.

She'd loved her mum, yeah, but she hadn't liked her. She'd been selfish, and always concentrating on Daisy's hideous big brother and baby sister. The middle child had, as the cliche promised, slipped through the cracks.

When Daisy had been younger, five or six, she'd been cast as the little old lady in the gingerbread man. She'd told her mum the day that she'd been cast, before anyone else had even applied for the little old man role, and marked the date in the family calendar. Her brother had been cast as a tree.

Her mum had promised to come, she'd promised to clear everything in her schedule. No dates, no 'working late', and she'd even be sober. Mostly. (She'd told Daisy that 'mummy needed a little bit of special water to sit through three fücking hours of five year olds prancing around doing the macarena.')

The day of the show came. Daisy had been wearing the god-ugly maroon dress that the music teacher had chosen, she'd threatened extreme bodily harm upon the little old man - if he messed up her performance he'd never walk again. She came marching onto the stage to bake a gingerbread man.

"Hi mummy!" She'd yelled, waving in the vague direction of the crowd. It was a cheap budget, some chairs at one end of the school hall, and she could see every face. "Mummy, wave!"

No one waved.

"Mummy?" Her voice had trembled, she'd balled her hands in the god-ugly maroon dress that the music teacher had chosen. "Mummy are you here?"

The music teacher had hurried onto the stage and patted Daisy's shoulder. "Can Daisy's mum please wave her hand." He'd looked down and winked. "I'm sure she's here somewhere."

But Daisy already knew. She'd burst into tears and run off the stage, and Annabelle Jackson had been squeezed into the god-ugly marrow dress that the music teacher had chosen. Her brother hadn't come to find her, but he'd called her an idiot for blowing her chance - now she'd never make it into the films and meet Cate Blanchett and introduce Ms Blanchett and him so they could get married. His crush had never really left.

Her mum had, of course, been at home. Drunk of her ass and with the drama teacher, who'd called in sick the day of the play. She'd come in, only a bit tipsy, seen the bloody guy, and left straight away.

Daisy had lost faith in her mum. She was never there when she needed to be, and Daisy was damned if she was going home. She'd known Asmodeus for a few days, and Al even less than that, but if the way she felt about them was some demon magic then let the curse reign on.

If Asmodeus had any sense, he would have bumped up the wifi connection. If he was too busy being in love with Al, then she had two seasons of Orange is the New Black downloaded and demon lore to look up.

Also, she should probably tell Ash that she was alive, and find out some more about the girlfriend - most likely the closet case cheerleader lesbian, Annabelle Jackson.

She flopped back onto her bed, iPad in one hand. Three days ago, she'd been a normal girl. The biggest problem in her life had been her friends dating people and getting harassed on Tumblr by exclusionists. Then a demon had been summoned to her attic, because she'd tried to open the wrong box with the wrong blade.

Her bed shook. Fuck, was she crying?

Lily howled from the other room. Daisy reached up to touch her face. No, it was dry. And she was still.

Earthquake? You were supposed to get under the bed, or in a doorframe, right? Did the middle of America even get earthquakes? Wasn't that LA?

She flopped towards the side of the bed. Fuck, it was comfy. Was it better to have to squeeze under the bed or die comfy and with a gay demon overlord and his husband in the next room?

"Daisy."

Daisy fell off the bed. "Ow!" She yelled. Wait, wasn't she supposed to be stealthy? Had she rolled over her donut? Those are questions that we'll never know the answer to. Daisy yanked the blanket. It slithered off the bed and she tied it around her shoulders. Who knew what items were magical? "Berir?"

She peered over the edge of the bed. The demon was just as beautiful as she remembered, dark skin and silver feathers and razor sharp horns. Her form danced and flickered like a candle. "Daisy." There were two voices speaking at once when Berir moved her mouth, a light, human voice. And a darker, uglier, hiss. "It's been hard to track you, but Asmodeus let his guard down."

"Fuck off!" Daisy yelled, scooting back. Berir laughed.

"I'm not here to kill you, human." She purred. She spread her arms. "I could take your life with a single thought if that was my intention."

"Fuck off!" She was pressed into a wall now, there was nowhere to go and it was too hard to punch through. "Don't touch them!"

Berir sighed. Her eyes flashed gold for a moment. "I just need to talk to you." She said. "About time and love and your parents. Those two have been holding things back from you."