And as her mind grappled with this new tidbit, she thought of what Alexion had told her about Ash and Artemis's relationship. "That's why Artemis needed us, huh? She can't just command another god without some major leverage."
"No, she can't."
She had to say that it sucked to be said leverage. Poor Acheron, to be controlled by them. It was a wonder he didn't hate every one of them. But for them, he would be free. "So we are her pawns while she and Acheron play games with each other."
"No," Alexion said, his sincerity burning into her. "Acheron never uses human life as a pawn. Ever. He doesn't find anything entertaining about playing with people."
He sighed. "But Artemis isn't so kind. She doesn't understand humanity the way Acheron does."
"How is it he's so fortunate?"
"He lived as a human," he said simply. "That's the cursed part Xirena refers to. He was born as a human baby and he died brutally as a human man."
That didn't make sense to her. "But he's a god."
"A cursed god."
"Why was he cursed?" Danger asked.
The veil fell over his face. "That is something best left undiscussed. He'll be angry enough over this little bit having escaped. Let's not tweak him any more, shall we?"
Xirena's attention pricked up at that. "Is he an angry god, like the Destroyer?"
"No," Alexion assured her, "he's remarkably calm ninety-nine percent of the time. It's that one percent, though, that's a killer… literally."
The demon nodded as she poked at the television. "Your warning is taken."
"So what are we going to do with her?" Danger asked, indicating the demon with a tilt of her head.
"That's a really good question and I have absolutely no answer for it. I'm completely open to suggestions of any sort." Alexion sighed. What could they do with the demon? Simi had spent a lot of time around humans and she was still less than civilized.
Xirena…
He paused that thought as she shattered the television.
Xirena stared at it in horror. "Why did that break?"
"You can't slam your fist into the screen," he explained.
"Why not?" she asked in a voice that sounded eerily close to Simi's.
"It breaks," Danger answered.
"But why?"
Danger placed her hand against her temple as if she were beginning to feel a pain there. "Is this normal demon behavior?"
He nodded. "Just wait. This is very mild. It gets a whole lot worse."
"Great. I'm really looking forward to it."
Xirena picked up the remote to place it in her mouth. Alexion grabbed it away from her. "Plastic isn't good for demons."
Xirena glared at him. "How do you know?"
"It gives Simi a bellyache every time. Trust me. It's just not a good Charonte snack."
As Danger watched the demon explore the hotel room, a thought occurred to her. "You know, I think we can return to my house now."
"How so?"
She tilted her head toward Xirena. "We have our own demon now, right?"
Alexion smiled as he understood her meaning. "If the other one is still there, she can wrangle him out."
"Yep. Let's check out of here and go on a demon hunt, shall we?"
The drive back to Tupelo was positively boring, except for when the demon discovered the radio. She almost caused Danger to wreck as she leaned over the front seat, playing with the stations.
With every new song, Xirena tried to sing the words, which she didn't know.
Worse, she couldn't sing on key at all.
Danger glanced over to Alexion who took it all in stride.
"Aren't you going deaf?" she asked him.
He shook his head. "I'm used to it, though to be honest, Simi is at least on key most of the time. She lives to sing."
After a while, the demon shrank in size and then lay down on the seat with her feet up in the air and her head hanging off the cushion, toward the floor board.
Danger frowned. "What's she doing?"
"Resting. They sleep like that."
"Really?"
He nodded. "Simi props her feet up on the wall most nights. I have no idea why."
"It's comfortable," Xirena said. "You should try it."
And two seconds later, the demon was asleep.
Danger cringed at the horrendous sound of her snoring. "Don't tell me Simi does that as well?"
"No, she's louder."
"And you tolerate her?"
"Considering she is the one thing Acheron loves most in this world, yes. I honestly think he would literally die if anything happened to her."
"What about you?"
"I would kill or die to keep her safe."
Danger smiled at that. "There aren't many men in the world who would die for a demon."
"That's only because they don't have one to love."
Maybe, but it would take a special kind of man to look past the scaly weirdness of such a creature and be able to love it. "You must have been a good father."
Sadness creased his brow an instant before he turned away from her to look out the window.
Danger mentally kicked herself for saying that out loud. "I'm sorry, Alexion, I didn't mean to—"
"It's okay," he said gently. "Simi tells me that all the time—whenever she's not pissed at me for trying to teach her manners." He gave a light laugh. "She says I'm the best 'other' daddy a demon ever had."