From his recliner, Eddie let out a long-suffering sigh. “I stepped in as youralimentatore, but that don’t mean I do your thinking for you, girlie. You know how it works. Don’t pretend like you don’t. Because you’re right, she’s not dead, not what we consider dead, anyway.”
“Right,” I said, tacitly admitting I did know this, even if I didn’t understand the science—or theology—behind it. “When a demon is expelled from a body, they go back to the ether,” I recited, feeling like I was nine again and presenting to Father Corletti. “The only way to kill a demon is to kill them in their true form—their true, nasty, monstrous form that manifests in this world. That takes them out completely.”
“You cutting corners in your explanation there, girl?”
I made a face. The way it works—simplistically speaking—is that a demon expelled from a human body goes back to the ether. If killed in its true form, however, it’s sucked back into a completely different dimension.
The ether is an accessible dimension. Not easily, but it’s possible for human souls to get diverted there even though the heavenly dimension is a much better place. That’s what happened to Eric’s soul after he was killed in San Francisco. He was floating formless out there, surrounded by throngs of equally formless demons.
The thought still made me shiver.
And, of course, there’s a hell dimension. That’s where demons hang if they just want to live their little demon lives intheir own demonic neighborhood. The ether is like a way station. Demons leave hell and go there if they’re planning on coming here.
Regular demons tend to hang out in hell or the ether, and when they die, that’s where they return.
High Demons have more power, but that also means it’s harder for them to manifest in our world, even inside a human body. They just radiate too much demon-ness, and burn through the body quickly.
When they’re killed in a human form, they’re weakened. Instead of the ether, they return straight to the hell dimension to regain their strength. Which is a good thing, because it keeps them out of commission for a while. Usually years and years in earth time.
But once you kill a demon in itstrueform, it goes someplace else entirely. Call it Uber-Hell, though I’m sure the Church has another name for it. It’s another dimension altogether from which there’s no escape. At least, not as far as I know. A truly dead demon is the brass ring for a Demon Hunter, because it means that’s one beastie that really isn’t coming back.
I’ve taken a few High Demons out in my time—more than the average Hunter, that’s for sure. In fact, I’d sent one to Uber-Hell right before the trip to Rome—Lilith’s consort, Odayne. He’d burst out of Eric in his true form, and I’d nailed his demony little ass.
Lilith, though … well, I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened to her. She’d created Odayne, and that meant they were connected. When Odayne died, she had, too.
But had I sent her back to Uber-Hell, there to be trapped forever? Or had she merely gone back to the regular hell dimension to regroup?
I didn’t know. Icouldn’tknow. But if she hadn’t followed her lover into that deepest, darkest hell, that meant that Lilith—one of the most ancient and powerful of all demons—was off somewhere licking her wounds and regrouping.
Not the happiest of thoughts, but so long as she’s not on earth, I can live with that.
“Exactly” Eddie said, after I told him all of that. “You two kicked her mighty ass to the curb, and more power to you. And if she’s injured, it’ll take a while to heal in human years. Bitch probably won’t make it back until Allie’s got grandkids.”
“I hope so,” I said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t more demons coming out of the woodwork.”
”Eh.” His shoulders rose and fell in a Gallic gesture. “There’s always demons coming out of the woodwork.”
“True. But there were three tonight,” I added, getting back to my original point. “Three.”
“You think that means they’re up to something? Phhhbt. I think it means that there are more demons because you weren’t here reading the papers, chasing down the dead bodies that aren’t really dead. Not you or your snooky-wookums.”
I cocked my head to the side and stared him down. “Eddie…”
“Just calling them like I’m seeing them.”
The fact is, he was probably right. Allie said the same thing. I hugged the pillow tighter. “I’m just worried,” I said. “She may be fifteen, but she’s still my baby.”
His shoulders sagged, and for a moment he looked ten years older. Finally, he nodded slowly, lifting his head to meet my eyes. “I never had kids you know.”
“I know.”
“But I do think of you as a daughter. Or at least a granddaughter. And you know how I feel about Allie.”
My smile reached all the way to my toes. “I know. Us, too.” And then, because between the two of us, we could only handle so much sappiness, I added, ”What about Stuart and Eric?”
He snorted. “Guess I’m more like a father than anyone could have anticipated, because as far as I’m concerned neither one of them is good enough for you.”
“Eddie,” I said with a hint of warning in my voice. But at the same time, I couldn’t hide my grin.
