Jeff backed up. If the Fury was here, then he needed to leave. One demon did not interfere in the affairs of another. He stammered something about coming back for the money tomorrow and made a beeline for the door.
Jasmine bounded after him and slipped through the door as it rebounded against the wall. She followed him, dogging his footsteps until he left the yard. She watched him wrench his car door open.
Jeff leaned back in his seat and breathed a sigh of relief. He’d managed to get away from the fury. He gave a weak laugh and rested his head against the headrest.
“Are you going to put this thing in drive or are you waiting for Leona to yell at you for kidnapping her cat?”
“Fury Jasmine?”
The cat grinned at the horror on his face. His eyes looked like dinner plates and his mouth did a fair imitation of a tunnel of doom. “Shut your yap and drive.” She looked out the passenger window and saw Leona running for the car with her arms waving above her head.
Jeff hit the gas pedal and laughed in-spite of himself at the cheeky way Jasmine waved out the back window. “You are so evil.”
Jasmine climbed back into the front seat. “Yeah, and?”
“I’m just saying that was a mean thing to do to her. Hasn’t she got enough to worry about without adding you to her list?”
“What has she got to worry about? Other than owing you money, that is.”
“She doesn’t owe me money,” Jeff said quietly.
“What?” Jasmine winced as her screech bounced back at her from the dashboard.
Jeff looked at her out of the corner of his eye but didn’t say a word. He focused on the road and ignored her continued efforts to get his attention. He turned left at the next corner and headed back to the beach.
A few miles along the road, he pulled into the parking lot at the jetty and put the car into park. He saw Jasmine open her mouth to ask him something and he had a pretty good idea what she wanted to know. There was no way he was going to tell her his business so he opened the car door and slid out. When he heard the other door slam shut, he lengthened his stride, trying in vain to out distance the cat.
“Jeff, you are going to tell me exactly what I want to know.”
Jeff shook his head and kept walking. If he could only get enough distance, she couldn’t compel him. A blast of air washed over him, blowing his hair into his face. Determined to not look back, he clapped his hands over his ears, bent forward slightly and began to run.
Jasmine looked at the running figure from her new perspective somewhere around ten feet higher than she had been. She arched her back and hissed at the fleeing demon. Swiping a paw along the ground, she jerked his feet out from under him and watched him tumble to the ground. As he rolled on the sand, she helped him along with her paw, stopping him just at the waterline.
Jeff kept his hands firmly over his ears hoping he could shut out what he knew was coming.
“Jefftik, lower first class retrieval demon, come here. Do not make me pull rank on you.” Jasmine snarled down at the crouched demon. At the first syllable of his name, his disguise faded, leaving the reddish-brown skin and curling horns most humans thought a demon look like.
“Should have known you wouldn’t play fair,” he grumbled as he stood up. He shook his head slightly, trying to stop the ringing in his ears. He didn’t even fight the compulsion his name gave her. He let his feet carry him to her.
“Fair? You thought I would play fair? Did you forget what I am?” Jasmine sneered. “When I get through with you, you won‘t have to tuck your tail between your legs because I will have already ripped it off.”
He cringed and held his hands up in surrender. “Okay. I’ll tell you what you want to know. Can you please, maybe…” he waved his hands vaguely at her.
Jasmine sniffed and looked down her nose at him. She blinked slowly, stared at him and waited. The only sign of her impatience was the flipping and twitching tip of her tail.
“You know, it’s kind of hard to talk to you when you’re ten feet tall.” He winced away from her glare and threw up his hands in defeat. “Where do I start?”
Jasmine crouched down so she was eye level with the demon. “Start with why she doesn’t owe you money but you are collecting it from her anyway.”
Jeff decided to take a chance. The cat technically was a demon, but as a Fury she had a streak of decency. She just wasn’t evil enough. If it wasn’t for this flaw, she would have made a great demon. He decided to try appealing to her flawed side. “It all starts with Kevin. I’ve been following his trail for five years. Every time I get close enough to collect on his contract, he dumps it on whichever dame he’s shacking at the time. Leona is just the latest in his sordid tale.” Jeff’s temper climbed with each word. On one hand he admired the guy’s gall, but on the other hand, it was making his job harder.
“If Leona holds his contract, why didn’t you collect her soul?”
“I can’t. Her soul is too pure. If the Big Boss got her soul, it would burn him.”
“She owns the contract so her soul is forfeit. It shouldn’t bother daddy to collect a pink dot.”
“It’s only in her possession; she doesn’t actually own the contract. What do color dots have to do with anything?”
“The lighter the color of the dot on my map, the purer the soul. I wouldn’t try to collect a white or pink soul unless the owner signed it over. Even yellow is pushing it sometimes.”
Jeff shrugged. He didn’t care much about the color of a person’s soul. He just went where he was assigned. All he knew was contract collections. “Anyway,” Jeff continued. “When a soul can’t be collected, the Big Boss offers a payoff system. We get money and the girls go free.” Besides, if I tried to take her soul home, it would get the attention of the other side and then the big boss would probably jam the soul down my throat and let it burn me up from the inside out.
“But that let’s this Kevin off, too.”
“No helping that, Fury.” Jeff shrugged. It wasn’t his concern. He did the collecting, not the thinking.
Jasmine sneered at Jeff. He was a two-bit thug and proud of it. She turned away from him and walked back to the car, shrinking at every step. When she reached the car, she lifted her paw to tap the emerald. A ghost of a map sprang out from the gem; a holographic image of No-where, Oregon. One house shined pink; that was where Leona lived, but the purple motel about a block away confused her. “Jeff? What’s at this Motel?”
“Motel? I’d guess that’s where Kevin is holed up.”
“Why is he still here? Didn’t he disappear when Leona took his contract?”
“Well, see, um...” He coughed and stuttered. No one liked a creative demon.
“Spit it out.”
“A clause was added to the contract when he was signing it.” Jeff smirked half-heartedly. He could get into a lot of trouble, but was tired of this guy getting away. “It states that the subject instead of the holder can’t leave town until the contract has been closed.”
“He didn’t read it?”
“He’s signed so many of them; he thinks he’s got everything covered.”
“Fine. Take me there.” The car door opened without the help of any hand and she jumped back into the car.
Jeff jumped for the driver’s side door when the engine roared to life. He looked down in dismay at the keys still clenched in his fist. Yanking the door open, he slid into the seat.
“Wipe that stupid grin off your face before we get to the motel. I want him to take me seriously and I have enough problems with the cat suit. I don’t need a grinning thug.”
* * *
The motel was about as nondescript a place you could find that still stuck out like a sore thumb.
The cracked and peeling white-washed walls barely held up the sagging, patched roof. Empty flower boxes clung to windowsills, holding on against the next light wind. Most of the windows sported plastic held up with duct tape and the few that still had glass were warped; le
tting in the slightly salty air.
The only thing that kept the place from squalor was the stately forest of old Christmas pine trees growing in the back parking lot.
Over the driveway, a sign hung from rusty chains missing more than a few links. The faded and chipped paint saddled the decrepit building with the inglorious name ‘No Where Inn’.
“Someone thought really hard on the name for this place,” Jasmine snickered.
“They thought harder on that sign.” Jeff pointed at the freshly painted wooden square outside his window.
Jasmine jumped between the front seats and leaned against the door behind him. She snickered again when she could finally see what it said. Cast off hope all ye who enter here. “It’s almost like they knew we were coming.”
Scowling as he drove down one side of the building, Jeff turned slightly in his seat so he could see the cat in the rear-view mirror. “Does your fancy collar show you which room he’s in?”
Jasmine sat back and touched her paw to the emerald. A map of the inn sprang into the air with a purple dot shining in the center of room number four. She leaned forward and yelled four as the car rolled passed.
Jeff slammed on the brakes and the car jerked to a stop. He threw it into park and jerked on the door handle. As it swung open, Jasmine jumped to the back of the driver’s seat and launched herself smoothly out the door.
“Are you coming?” She called over her shoulder as she sauntered toward the door.
Jeff grumbled but slammed the car door shut behind him. He stomped up to the motel door and pounded his anger into the wooden plank.
It swung open after the fourth pound. Jeff reached in and grabbed the shirt collar of the man he knew so well.
“Hello, Kevin. I’m having a bad day and decided it’s entirely your fault. Say hello to my boss. And don’t you dare laugh. She doesn’t like that.” He wrapped his huge hand around the back of Kevin’s neck and pushed down until the man was kneeling on the threshold.
Kevin found himself on his hands and knees staring into the blue eyes of a Siamese cat. He idly thought she was kind of cute but vaguely familiar.
Jasmine was shocked speechless. She knew this man. From his miss-buttoned shirt and baggy shorts to his tangled brown hair and muddy brown eyes, everything was familiar. “You!” she howled. Springing forward, she aimed for his head, claws first.
Kevin didn’t know what surprised him more: a talking cat or one attacking him. He tried to dodge but the hand on his neck held him still. He raised his arms intending to protect his face as he was lifted into the air.
Jasmine collided with Kevin’s forearms and tumbled to the ground, leaving angry red scratches from his wrists to his elbows. She leapt to her feet, spitting and hissing. “I’m going to claw your eyes out and scratch off your face. I’m going to yank out your soul so hard your father will feel it.” She sputtered on and on until even Jeff was impressed with her list.
“What did you do to her?” Jeff inquired.
Kevin turned his wide eyes on the demon holding him out of the cat’s reach. He didn’t know the answer, but he was ready to grovel if it would get him out of trouble. “S-sorry, s-sorry,” he stuttered, hoping that would sooth the fury-filled furball.
“Sorry? You’re sorry? You nearly ruined my life and all you can say is sorry?” She saw Jeff wince as her voice hit soprano range. Taking a deep breath, she began to prowl around Kevin’s dangling feet.
“What did you do?” Jeff asked, giving Kevin a little shake.
“He pushed me into a brick wall so I missed my portal home. He cost me too much time,” Jasmine hissed, spitting at the air beneath his sneakers. Her tail lashed and twisted, curling one way and then the other. “Do you know how mad Father was? He does NOT like to be kept waiting. Why do you think I’m masquerading around as a cat? Leona wasn’t an assignment until Father got mad.” She stopped in front of Kevin. Sitting down, she curled her tail around her paws and smirked up at him. “Well, you can see for yourself.”
Kevin squirmed out of Jeff’s grasp. He slowly backed into his motel room, not taking his eyes off the weird duo in his doorway. These two were crazy. If he managed to get through this, he was not signing another contract with the demon. He knew what Jeff was after, but the cat was a bit harder to figure out. Now that he’d heard the cat’s story, he vaguely recalled pushing someone out of the way as he fled from the last girl he’d tricked. But he’d never bothered a cat. They were too unpredictable.
Stopping just over the threshold, he gripped the knob, ready to slam the door shut. “You two are crazy,” he said and then closed the door with a resounding thud.
Jasmine and Jeff listened, straining their ears, trying to hear what kind of lock was on Kevin’s door. A series of dull thuds and the rattle of a chain reached them.
“Three dead bolts and a chain? Paranoid much?” Jasmine snickered.
Jeff just laughed. Relieved Jasmine wasn’t a spitting fur-ball anymore, he just shook his head, stepped off the curb and reached for the car door. Swinging it open, he turned and bowed to her. “Your chariot awaits, Milady.”
Smirking, Jasmine jumped into the car and settled herself in the passenger seat. She sat back and waited for Jeff to start the car.
The engine roared to life and Jeff shifted the car into drive. He glanced at the cat out of the corner of his eye. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“What’s next?”
“I suppose I’d better get back to Leona. She might call the police.”
“Maybe she won’t want you back after the way you waved at her as we drove away.”
“She won’t remember that. Humans are funny like that. If the facts are unlikely or inexplicable, then they make up a story to explain it or ignore it right out.”
“Like it never happened?” Jeff scoffed.
“Watch. She’ll accuse you of cat-napping me and won’t mention my actions at all.”
Jeff snorted but didn’t argue with her. The rest of the drive passed in silence. About a block from Leona’s place, Jeff pulled into the parking lot next to the playground. He leaned over, opened the door and pushed Jasmine out.
Lying in a heap on the sidewalk, Jasmine stared at him.
“This is as far as I go. Miss Leona is scary-mad when it comes to her cat.”
“Scared of a little girl?” Jasmine snickered. She couldn’t imagine anyone the demon couldn’t handle.
“Hell, yes. You can walk from here.”
“What kind of enforcer are you?”
“One that doesn’t tangle with Miss Leona.” Jeff stamped on the gas and skidded out of the parking lot.
Jasmine watched him disappear, an amused smile plastered on her face. Heaving a sigh at his spinelessness, she started picking her way across the playground.
* * *
Jasmine prowled around the house, her tail jerking with every step. She’d memorized the layout of the house hours ago and now she was bored. She stopped in the living room and stared at the couch. Last night, when she’d returned, Leona had shrieked with excitement and then spent the next hour smothering her with attention.
This morning, Leona had left for work, locking the windows and door on her way out. Yowling in displeasure, Jasmine raced for the window just in time to see Leona’s car disappear down the street.
Hours later, Jasmine was still bored. Maybe it was time to start working on her assignment. How do you collect a soul that didn’t want to be collected? Maybe a bus could run him over and save her the trouble. No, that wouldn’t work. The only way to collect Kevin’s soul would be to have him and the due contract in the same room at the same time. But that meant getting Leona involved.
Jasmine headed for the kitchen. She needed to talk to Jeff and the only phone in the place was on the kitchen counter. Leaping on the counter, she knocked the phone to the floor. Dropping after it, she crouched next to the cordless and willed it to ring.
She punched the glowing green button as the
phone vibrated across the floor. “Meow?”
“What do you want, Jasmine?”
“Meow?” An evil grin twitched her whiskers. She was going to have some fun today, even if it killed Jeff.
“Cut the cat act, Fury Girl. Why are you giving me a headache?”
“I have an idea. How much do you want Kevin’s soul?” A Fury never asked for help, but tricking the demon into it was okay.
“I’m listening.”
Jasmine out lined her idea and by the end of the phone conversation, Jeff was grinning from horn to horn. He told her he’d be there in fifteen minutes and hung up the phone. She raced into the den at the back of the house, jumped on the desk and nudged the computer. It sprang to life faster than it ever did for Leona. She stared at the monitor until words scrawled across it. The printer rattled to life and the note she’d magically written began to print.
Jasmine grinned in satisfaction as the paper stuffed itself into an envelope. She loved having magic at her fingertips, so to speak. She grabbed the envelope and squeezed through the mail slot on the front door. Squealing in something close to joy, she flipped the letter into the mailbox and sat back to wait for Jeff. The only regret she harbored was that she wouldn’t be here when Leona read the note. This is going to be fun. Being evil had its moments.
* * *
Jasmine picked her way over the sand dune and through the beach grass. This was the first place she had met Furry and her emerald told her that the cat was here again. She touched the green gem again and a map sprang to life. She located the purple dot that was Kevin. He was still in the motel. The pink dot that represented Lorna was moving. She was almost home. But there was no sign of the yellow dot that represented the cat. Jasmine needed to find Furry in a hurry. The cat was essential to her plans.
She scoured her map, looking for the cat‘s marker, but didn’t see it anywhere. The closest she could come was the green dot where she was standing. Frustrated, she let the map close. She was going to have to find the cat the hard way. “Furry? Furry, where are you?” she hollered. Her tail swayed with every step as she made her way down the dune. Three steps down the dune it occurred to her that her dot was blue, not green. She turned around, intending to go back and came face to face with her twin.