by Sadie Hobbes
Also by Sadie Hobbes
The Demon Cursed Series
Demon Cursed
Demon Revealed
Demon Heir
Chapter 1
Addie
My face pressed against a rough surface. I shifted trying to get comfortable. The same rough surface scratched against my hands. Water lapped over the edge of my fingertips. My eyes flew open. I jolted back. “Wh-“
Ahead of me waves crashed down and then ran up the shore toward me. I scrambled back to avoid getting soaked. I stared my mouth hanging open. It had to be the ocean I was looking at. It was too large to be a lake. And lakes didn’t have waves, did they?
But I didn’t recognize the beach. Where was I?
Disbelief rolled over me. What was going on?
Mind whirling my head shifted from side to side, looking for something, anything I recognized. But there was precious little light. And even that was scattered and far in the distance. The moon was full, though, allowing me to make out the outline of bleak buildings about thirty yards back. The beach itself was long, maybe fifty yards, and bracketed by a wall of rocks on either side.
There wasn’t a soul in sight.
I slowly got to my feet, wiping the sand from my hands on the side of my jeans. My hand brushed against leather. I glanced down. My knife. It was still there, secured in its sheath. I grasped the handle, comforted by the familiar presence.
Right now that was the only thing that was familiar. Water rushed toward me again, and I backed up even more. It lapped against the edge of my worn boots. Where was I? Why didn’t I recognize any of this?
I scrambled, trying to remember something, anything, that would clue me in. I didn't recognize the beach, my clothes or even know my name. I tried to scrounge up a picture of what I looked like. But there was nothing. Just a complete and total blank where my memories should be.
Panic crawled up my throat, but I shoved it away. I might not remember exactly where I was or even who I was but panicking definitely wasn't going to help.
My boots sank into the sand as I started toward the buildings slowly, keeping one hand on the hilt of my knife as I scanned the area for movement. Still nothing. It was deathly quiet, except for a small light wind.
Come on, remember something. Despite my attempts to stay calm, my heart pounded faster. I identified the beach, the ocean, the abandoned boardwalks. They weren’t familiar to me, but I knew what they were. It was just myself I couldn’t identify.
Name: nothing.
Age: nothing.
Family: nothing.
The lid I’d placed on my panic teetered. No, I couldn’t give in to it. Nothing good would come of it.
The thought brought me up short. I was sure it was right. I didn’t know if it was life experience that had taught me it, but it was something I knew. I held on to it with both hands.
The sand led to broken pavement in front of an old boardwalk, lined with abandoned storefronts. It had obviously been out of use for years. Some buildings even had scorch marks along the walls and roofs. Empty panes with only a few shards of glass made up of most of the frames.
I walked past a desolate arcade, the insides draped in shadows. Hair rose on the back of my neck. I didn’t like this. Too many shadows, too much darkness, even with the moon shining bright.
Light, I needed to head to the light. There were some small lights up on a large hill in the distance. Lights meant civilization, people. And right now, that’s exactly what I needed.
A break in the buildings appeared after about four hundred feet. The location gave me a side view of the hill. As I rounded the last building, I stopped still at the sight of the now blinding lights up on the hill. They blazed with amazing intensity.
From this distance, I could now make out multiple well-lit homes, although homes seemed like too small a word for these buildings. Mansions or mini castles were more accurate. But they had to be miles down the road. I followed the line of lights down the mountain and spotted a bridge outlined by bright lights as well.
On the other side of bridge were more buildings, although they were nothing like the homes higher on the hills. Smaller and irregularly shaped, I had the feeling they had been thrown together rather than carefully constructed.
I picked up my pace, careful on the swollen wood. The boardwalk had seen better days. I caught sight of my reflection as I passed an old storefront that still had its glass intact. Long dark hair, a slim but muscular build. Black tank top, sturdy jeans, and combat boots.
Nothing about the reflection was familiar. Not my eyes, my face, my clothes, nothing. I stepped closer to the glass, hoping maybe it would spark some recognition. But I could have been looking at anyone. I didn’t recognize the woman who stared back at me.
But how I could I not remember?
A wind blew, stirring my hair as I stared in shock at my reflection. The girl in the glass was me, and as far as I could tell, I had never seen her before.
I took a step back, my hand going to my mouth. The strange girl in the glass did the same. Why wasn’t my reflection familiar? Why couldn’t I remember who I was?
The panic that I’d chased down when I’d first awoken came surging back. I didn’t know where I was or who I was.
Oh God. Oh God.
The creak of a door cut through my panic. My heart raced in response. My eyes narrowed as my head jerked up. The sound came again. It was close. Two buildings down, maybe. It was the first sound I’d heard. The first sign of life. I didn’t need my memory to tell me that whatever was creeping out in this darkness was probably not something good.
I pulled my knife from its sheath. Goosebumps broke out along my skin as I moved closer to the buildings. The first was a brick building, its signage long gone. The second had been a café. It’s sign with a coffee cup on the end was still visible. I slipped past it, careful to avoid the cracked wood in the boardwalk and paused at the edge of the building, my nerves stretched thin as I listened.
All was silent again.
Maybe it had been the wind blowing on the door, although that seemed to have died down. Or maybe it was just a cat. I looked around with disgust, or more likely a rat.
For a moment, I debated whether to even stay. Then the scrape came again. Part of me screamed that I should run the other way. And yet I found my feet headed toward the sound, almost of their own free will.
I slipped around the side of the café. A former T-shirt shop was on my other side. The alley between them was ten feet wide and surprisingly free of any obstructions.
At the end of the alley was a warehouse with three immense garage doors. A faded sign read Bob’s Yacht Service. A few large boats lay on their sides in the parking lot next to it. But the sound hadn’t come from the parking lot—it had come from inside the building.
I wanted to know what had made that noise, but I wasn’t willing to step inside that dark garage to find out.
I walked along the front of the building, careful to check for movement at each window before slipping by. By the time I’d covered the front, I had no more answers than when I’d begun.
The town down the road beckoned. Answers seemed more likely there. Whatever was inside this place was probably not something that I wanted to—
“You need to be quiet.”
“I am being quiet,” a small voice replied.
I flattened myself against the wall as the voices drifted out through the broken windows.
“I can’t see anything.”
“Come on.”
The voices were too low to make out gender, although they sounded young—really, really young. And definitely not a threat. For a moment, I considered walking away. But only for a moment. Something about those two small voices called to me.
I
’d make sure they were safe, and then I’d see what I could find out.
It was easy to track the kids’ movement. As stealthy as they were trying to be, their steps echoed. I walked along the outside of the building, parallel to their movement.
I rounded the corner. A chain-link fence blocked my way. There was a rip along the bottom that I could squeeze through. Was it even worth the effort? I hadn’t heard anything but the kids. I could probably just walk around the other side and –
A heavy footfall sounded from somewhere down the alley. I craned my neck, trying to see. Maybe it was one of their parents of the kids. The kids probably had someone looking out for them. They sounded too young to be out here alone.
But the hair on the back of my neck suggested otherwise.
A girl’s scream filled with fear pierced through the night. “Micah run!”
Without a conscious thought, I dove for the fence. The hole at the bottom wasn’t as large as I’d first thought. I pulled at the bottom of it and squirmed through. Wire slashed at my shoulders, but I didn’t care.
I’d only gotten halfway through when another scream sounded. My head jerked up. Two shapes sprinted past the end of the alley. With the dim light, all I could make out were that they were small and moving fast.
Squirming, I turned on my back to wiggle my hips through. But then I went still as the person following the two kids came into view.
Or should I say, the thing.
My eyes went wide and even my breathing seemed to cut off. The creature had to be close to seven feet tall, with muscles that bulged unnaturally from its shoulders and back. But that wasn’t the most disturbing part.
No, the most disturbing part were the curled horns that extended from the top of its head.
Chapter 2
The sight of the horned creature momentarily paralyzed me. It had pale green, marble-streaked skin. Then images of other creatures just like that one swarmed through my mind.
“Noel!”
The boy’s scream cut through my paralysis. And suddenly I couldn’t move fast enough. I yanked my legs the rest of the way through the hole, ripping my jeans at the thighs on the ragged fencing. Scrambling to my feet, I sprinted to the end of the alley just in time to see the creature disappear around an enormous, crumbling brick building. I sprinted after it, my knife gripped in my hand.
A scream came from somewhere behind the building. I put on a burst of speed while simultaneously wondering what the heck I would do once I caught up with the creature.
Despite my fear, my steps didn’t slow. I careened around the corner and sprinted down the alley. The alley dead-ended in a small parking lot surrounded by wooden fencing. The two children stood facing the creature, backing away slowly.
The girl stood in front of the boy. She had long blonde hair with eyes sunken into her face. Her jeans were threadbare, and her sneakers had more holes than her shirt. She was too thin, and the top of her head only reached about halfway up the creature’s chest.
Yet she stood defiantly in front of the creature, a rusty knife clutched in her right hand. Her legs braced, she tried to protect the small boy peeking out from behind her. Black skin and dark eyes, he was barely four feet tall. He couldn’t be any older than eight, ten at the most.
The girl waved the knife back and forth. “Get back demon,” she ordered with a shaky voice.
The creature laughed, deep and full throated. “What are you going to do, little girl?” he taunted in a deep, gravelly voice.
The boy, his eyes growing even larger as he took in the demon, tugged on the back of the girl’s shirt. “Noel …”
Noel gripped her knife tighter, not taking her eyes from the nightmare in front of her. “Run, Micah.”
She tried to step forward, but Micah wouldn’t let her go. “Not without you,” he said.
Noel didn’t have time to reply because the demon darted forward, reaching for her. Noel pushed Micah to the ground as she rolled out of the way. Micah darted behind her again, but they were now in the lot’s corner.
The demon laughed again. “Children, you can’t escape. But this game is fun.” He reached for them again. The girl lashed out with her small knife. As it came in contact with the creature’s skin, the tip broke off.
The girl let out a small gasp, her mouth falling open as she stumbled back.
I bolted across the parking lot. With a leap, I plunged my knife into the demon’s back, shocked when it sank into the thick skin. I yanked the blade out just as the creature howled. It whirled around, it’s fist, which seemed to be the size of my head, struck out.
Wind blew past my head as I ducked out of the way, moving to the creature’s side. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
It grunted turning to face me as I backed up. The girl had called the creature a demon, and nothing about him suggested that she was exaggerating. His hands ended in sharp dark claws. His frame was so muscled that the lower half of his pants had shredded, exposing calf muscles the size of my thighs.
“You’re not my size,” it growled in that deep voice of his.
With a stranglehold on my terror, I spoke without tripping over my words. “Nope. But I’m a lot closer than those two.”
The demon smiled, showing off its mouth full of sharp teeth. “So nice of you to offer to take their place. At least for now. I’ll save them for dessert.”
An image of a human leg disappearing into this thing’s maw tripped across my mind. A shiver ran up my spine as I sized him up, looking for weaknesses. Ears, maybe, definitely the eyes.
I smiled, throwing as much cockiness into my voice as I could manage. “Then come and get me, big boy.”
The demon darted forward.
It was incredibly fast for something that big. But I managed to sidestep, swiping out with my knife and catching it in the ribs. I tensed for a moment, expecting my knife to break just as the girl’s had.
But instead of breaking, my knife sliced cleanly into skin.
The demon let out a howl of outrage. “Not possible. No human can hurt me.”
“That wound in your side would beg to differ.”
A massive claw darted toward me. I managed to slip out of the way, feeling the wind of it as its claws just missed my face. I shot a glance at the kids. They were still in the same spot. The creature and I were blocking any exit for them.
I needed to move this thing away from them. I reached out and slashed at its forearm. The demon roared again and struck out incredibly fast, catching me on the cheek with a back fist.
Pain exploded across my face. I flew off my feet, landing in a heap against an abandoned car.
Stars danced across my vision. Laughing, the demon walked toward me, apparently not even a little bothered by the blood dripping from its back, arms, and side. “Not so strong now, are you?”
I curled my right leg under me, leaning back and faking fear.
Which was not that hard.
It leaned down toward me. I dove in between its legs, slashing up as I did so. It cried out, this time a high-pitched squeal.
Wasting no time, I slashed at the back of its knees. Blood poured from the wounds. The ground shook as it crashed to its knees.
On automatic pilot, I leaped to my feet, grabbing it by the back of the head. I plunged my knife over its shoulder and right into its heart.
Then I twisted the knife.
The demon’s eyes jolted wide, complete shock blanketing its face. Its mouth gaped and its chest went still before it fell forward.
I released my hold on its head to keep from getting yanked forward . My breaths came out fast as I waited, staring at the creature, hoping it was dead. Carefully, I moved forward and rolled it over, surprised it didn’t take much effort. The creature’s mouth was slack, showing off a row of pointed teeth.
I stared at the creature, waiting for it to move. It had fallen with my knife still embedded in its chest. Only about an inch of the handle was now visible.
I thought abou
t leaving the knife there. But as far as I knew, that knife and my clothes were all that belonged to me. I grabbed the end of it. By the time I wiggled it free, my knife and hands covered in blood.
“Is it dead?”
I whirled around. The girl let out a little gasp before taking a step back. The boy once again ducked behind her.
Heart pounding, I lowered my knife. “I think so. Are you two okay?”
The boy peeked out from around the girl again. “You killed it?”
“It looks like.” It was once again silent all around us. It didn’t seem like anyone had heard the fight. Which begged the question, “Do you guys live around here?”
Micah opened his mouth as if to answer and then quickly shut it at a shake of Noel’s head. “Why do you want to know?” she asked, her eyes narrowed and her whole body tensed.
Man, even saving a kid from a demon didn’t win any points with this kid. I respected that. “Just want to make sure you get home safe.”
Micah stepped out from behind the well. “We don’t live anywhere.”
I glanced around, still not recognizing a thing. “I don’t think I do either.”
Chapter 3
Two years later
Hushed voices in the kitchen woke me. I stared at the water spot on the ceiling above my bed. It was getting bigger. I’d have to do something about that one of these days.
“Should we wake her?” Micah asked in his attempt at a whisper. It wasn’t even close, but he was trying.
“Give her a few more minutes. She had a tough night at work,” Noel answered.
“She’ll be late if she doesn’t get up soon,” Micah said.
I smiled as I listened to the two of them. Noel, Micah, and I had lived together since that night we met down on the beachfront. The first few days, we’d stayed down by the boardwalk in an empty former liquor store. After that, we moved from spot to spot while I looked for a job. The town of Blue Forks didn’t have a lot to offer then. It still didn’t.
Blue Forks, of course, wasn’t the town’s official name, but no one remembered what that was anymore. Its name came from an old rundown factory on the edge of town. On the roof was a giant billboard with a huge smiling blue fork. It was the first thing people saw when they came into town.
