Part XVI

"Darshan!" Callisto yelled as she burst through the door, Xander following more sedately.

"In the kitchen," came his reply.

Cee grabbed Xander's hand and dragged him through the house and into the kitchen.  Darshan was seated at the large, oblong kitchen table, sipping a cup of tea and poring over an ancient-looking book.  "Darshan, the Roene demon has been following Xander."

He almost spit out his tea.  "What?"

"It's been following him.  He's had two encounters with it."

"Tell me," Darshan said, his face grave as he pushed the book to the center of the table.

Callisto related the incidents at the mall and in the food court to Darshan, Xander growing more and more humiliated with each word that she spoke.

"Is this accurate, Xander?" Darshan asked him.

"Um, y-yeah."

"We'll have to put you under surveillance, then," Darshan said.  "One of us will be with you at all times.  We can't risk something happening to you."

"Is that really necessary?  I mean, it didn't do anything to me..."

"Don't you understand, Xander?  It's been preparing you; making you so ashamed of yourself that your soul is positively ripe for harvesting.  Unless, of course, none of what it said bothered you?"

Xander blanched.

"I thought so.  Ling and Ken are out right now, looking for signs of the Roene demon.  I'll have to contact them and tell them that it was sighted at the University's food court late this morning.  I hope they'll be able to pick up its trail.  In the meantime, you are welcome to stay here, Xander."

"Can I just go back to my dorm?" Xander asked, rubbing his temples.

"Well, I suppose I could go with you.  Scratch that, I want to be here when they get back so we can discuss a plan of action.  Cee, would you...?"

"Of course!" she replied happily.

Xander grimaced.  He'd wanted to go to the food court and get something to eat.  It was nearly 5:30, and he hadn't eaten anything since that morning - he was starving.  But he couldn't do that with Callisto in tow.

"Of course you can, silly," she interrupted his thoughts.  "It's no trouble at all.  Let's go."

Darshan and Cee exchanged a few more words, and then she and Xander exited the house and got back into Xander's car.  "So," Cee asked, "what are you going to get for dinner?"

"I-I don't know..."

"Do they have good food at the food court?"

Mental images of Sheriece's cooking flashed through his mind as he turned a corner.

"Mmm, I'll take that as a yes.  Who's Sheriece?"

"She's a lady who works at the food court."

"You like her."

"Yeah, she's nice," he said lamely as he pulled into a parking space.  Cee hopped out of the car and waited as Xander slid his mass out of the driver's seat.  Xander was pleased to see that there were no other cars parked in the food court's lot, and the place looked mostly empty.

"None of your friends are staying here over break?" she asked him as they walked into the building.

"Um, no," he responded distractedly.  The delicious smells of the place had overcome his senses.  He eagerly made his way up to Sheriece's counter.

"There's my favorite customer!" she exclaimed as she emerged from the back room.  "How you doin', honey?  And who is this?"

"Oh, um, this...this is Callisto..."

"Call me Cee," she said pleasantly as she extended her hand for Sheriece to shake.

"Pleasure to meet you, Cee," Sheriece said, beaming.  "Now, Xander, you didn't tell Sheriece you had a lady friend!  And ooh-ee, is she ever pretty!"

"I - she's not -" Xander sputtered. 

But Sheriece was talking to Callisto again.  "I've never seen you here before, darlin', are you a student?"

"Yes, but only part-time.  I have a full-time job, so I don't have the time to come to the food court too often."

"Well I am glad you made the time to come down here with your honey and meet me.  You two are so cute!  Now, sugar, what can I get for you?"

"I'd like a cheeseburger and fries, please."

"Alright, sounds good.  And what can I get for you, Xander?"

"I..."  Xander hesitated.  He was so hungry, but he didn't want to order his usual ton of food in front of Callisto.  Why not? he wondered.  She already knows what a pig you are.  Ah, screw it.  "I'd like four pieces of the spinach and cheese lasagna, three supreme pizzas, two cheeseburgers, and three orders of fries.  Oh, and some onion rings, too."

"Okey dokey, I'll have it right up for you."

Xander stared down at the counter, avoiding Callisto's eyes.

"Hungry?" she asked him innocently.

He ignored her.

A few minutes later, Sheriece was packing up their dinners in a large brown paper bag.  "There you go, sweethearts.  You have a nice, romantic evenin'!" she called after them after she swiped Xander's card.

"She is really nice," Cee commented as Xander drove away.

"If somewhat misguided," he replied testily.

"Aww, come on, Pudge, that was pretty cute that she thought we were together."

Xander felt himself blush in the darkness as he pulled into his dorm's parking lot.  "Sure," he said, "cute.  You didn't do anything to dissuade her."

"She was so happy, though!"

"Right."  He slammed the car door and sighed. 

A few minutes later, he was collapsing onto his bed, breathless and hot from the climb up to his room. 

"Hey," Cee, who was standing at his desk, rummaging around in the bag from the food court, said, "there's a lot of food in here."

"No shit," he breathed sarcastically.

"No, I mean there's more than you ordered in here.  There are like seven burgers."

"Oh.  Um, well...Sheriece...she gives me extra...sometimes..." he responded sheepishly.

"Extra?  Like, she doesn't charge you for it?"

"Yeah."  He felt his cheeks burn.

"Oh, well, that's nice of her," Cee said nonchalantly as she unwrapped one of the burgers and then bit into it.

Xander couldn't respond.  He snatched the bag of food off into his desk and dug out his lasagna.   "So, um," he said between bites, "what else do I need to know about these Roene demons?"

"Well, they're middle class demons, capable of consuming a moderate amount of soul energy at one time.  In their natural form, they're about four feet tall, thin, kind of spindly.  And you already know that they're shapeshifters.  They can only stay in their shifted form for about four to five hours before they turn back, and they need a piece of the person they're turning into in order to shift.  Their eyes are always black, no matter what form they're in.  They can exude something like a pheromone that makes the people around them turn against their target.  They're terrified of water, even though all it does to them is burn their nasal passages.  Which, I guess, isn't all that pleasant, so their terror is kind of warranted," she said, examining a french fry.  "They're pretty rare; in the time I've been doing this, this is only the second one I've come across."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"Since I was eleven."

"Eleven?  Seriously?"

"Yeah.  My parents are demon hunters, too, so I've been learning my whole life."

"Oh.  Wow."

"Yeah, we're not exactly the Cleavers," she said conversationally.  "That's how I met Ling.  Her parents and mine are good friends."

"Are they...demon hunters...too?"

She nodded.  "It's a small community, everybody knows everybody.  Darshan and Ken are first generation, though.  I guess you could say that we recruited them the same way we recruited you.  Demons were following them, and we took them in."

"So where are your parents?"

"Back in the city.  There's less activity here, so we're allowed to run stuff on our own."

"So...all demon hunters have special talents?"

"Yup.  Telekinesis and the sight are the most common, but there are a few who read minds, like I do.  No one else who can smell energies like you can, though.  Our parents would love to get their hands on you."

Xander shifted uncomfortably, chewing his pizza.  "Why?" he mumbled around a mouthful.

"Because of the prophecy, of course."

"What exactly is this prophecy?"

"I can never remember it exactly," she said breezily.  "Ling can tell you."

"How come Darshan's the one in charge if you and Ling are the ones with the family history of, uh, demon-hunting?"

"Well," she said, wrinkling her nose, "his sight makes him the best choice for leader, since he can sometimes see the consequences of our actions.  Plus, our parents love him."

"Oh."

"Don't get me wrong, Darshan's a great guy, but he's a little bossy," she explained as she seated herself close to Xander on the bed.  Xander shoved another bite of his last pizza into his mouth and tried to move over a bit.  "I don't have cooties, y'know," she told him.

He felt his round cheeks redden as he swallowed.  He reached into the bag only to discover that all his food was gone.  He looked dejectedly at the mountain of containers and wrappers that lay on the other side of him.

"Why don't we go get some ice cream?" she suggested.

"No."

"C'mon, you're still hungry," she reasoned.

"Would you get out of my head?  You know how close I am; you know that I shouldn't," he burst out.  "You know that I shouldn't have eaten any of that."  He stared at the floor, ashamed.

Cee was silent for a few moments before responding.  "It really bothers you, doesn't it?"

"I'm the size of a fucking house, what do you think?" he spat sullenly.

Cee sighed, and Xander saw her shrug out of the side of his vision.  "It suits you," she said.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, it suits you.  You'd look weird if you were skinny."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You'd look weird if you were skinny," she repeated insistently. 

He snorted.

"I'm serious.  Some people were meant to be skinny, and some weren't.  You weren't.  You look good bigger."

"What is wrong with you?"

"Wow, you really know how to talk to the ladies," she said sarcastically.  "I'm here trying to compliment you and you ask me what's wrong with me?"

He shook his head.  "You can't tell a 400 pound guy he looks good in any way and expect to be taken seriously," he muttered.

She sighed again.  "Come on," she said.  "I want ice cream.  Let's go."