by Amber Lynn
Not wanting to deal with this, but never being afraid of the inevitable, I follow it.
Jonas catches up to me quickly in full combat stance. “This isn't good, Princess.”
“No shit, Sherlock. I imagine you have picked up on something foul smelling.”
The smell has totally worked its way up into my nostrils and just as I think I must be getting close, I spot Felicity and Harvey watching the carousel for their bags.
“Neither one of them is supposed to be a demon,” I say stating facts that, obviously, are false.
“Nope, but that doesn't mean one of them cannot be possessed by one. Ten to one odds it's the dude,” Jonas predicts as we arrive at our destination.
“Excuse me,” I say trying to get their attention. Before I even get the words totally out, Harvey Smalls, or at least the body belonging to him, turns to me and his eyes flicker red.
Shit. That isn’t a standard eye color for any species, except one.
Why when all roads pointed one way, did I find this unexpected and why in the world is Demon Harvey smiling like he just opened his Christmas present and it was the one thing he had wanted all his life. Since he is looking straight at me, I guess I am that present.
Chapter 12
Mom, he’s looking at me
Glaring back at DH, Demon Harvey is too long and it would not be right to just call him Harvey, I continue saying what I was going to before red eyes interrupted me. “Felicity Willard?”
Aside from the red glow in DH’s eyes, both of them look like the images I have already seen. Her long blond hair is tied back with a cutesy purple ribbon. She is wearing a somewhat baggy, red sweater and some designer looking jeans with purple designer pumps. Purple and red together don’t do it for me, so I am not impressed, and all the designer stuff is a little overkill for me.
DH is pretty much dressed to the nines, without the suit jacket. Sharp, black pants that fit as if they were made for him adorn his lower half. A freshly pressed dress shirt is on the top. His black hair is smoothed back a la douchebag. He isn’t really muscular, of course hanging out with guys like Jonas and Jake makes most men seem emasculated.
She turns around and smiles. “It's Felicity Smalls, now. What can I do for you?”
DH wraps his arm around her and grins, evidently, finding it impossible to look at anything but me. I feel Jake and Jonas both stiffen at my sides at the obvious interest.
“My name is Nyx Slaughter and I was hired by your parents to find you. They have worked themselves up into a tizzy thinking you have been kidnapped. If you could please call and tell them you are okay, I can get back home.”
Her expression turns pained. “They didn't call in the National Guard, did they?” It sounds like this sort of thing may have happened to her before.
“Sorry, I don't really get involved with human procedures, but I do know the FBI is involved.”
“So, you aren't human?” she asks looking a little startled. Well Hell, she has a demon standing next to her. My being a paranorm should not be all that surprising. His eyes have been red from the moment I first saw him. I don’t know how she could miss that.
“No,” I reply simply. I don't think I need to go into the details about the possibility that human genes are playing around in my already too full pool.
I watch as she instinctively reaches down and caresses her barely protruding belly. Two pregnant women as roommates, I can just imagine how fun that apartment is going to be in the coming months.
“Congratulations,” I say, again trying for politeness. Being out in the human world must have given me some sort of disease that causes me to be civil.
“Oh,” she says not realizing what she is doing. “Thank you. We are so excited. I didn't even know I was pregnant, before we went away this week. Then just bam, all of a sudden the baby bump is there.”
Well that explains her roommate’s hysterical pregnancy. The demon is clearly involved. Realizing that, I turn to glare at him again, only to find him grinning. Then, he has the gall to give me a seductive little wink. He seems pretty proud of the fact he is knocking up humans.
This is totally jacked up. I try to give him my “don't you get any ideas” look, but I think it just intrigues him.
“Anyway, Jillian is somewhat indisposed, so we volunteered to give you a ride home. If you can grab your things, we can get out of here and you can make that call for me,” I explain hoping to get this over with immediately. “Also Harvey,” I say not really wanting to talk to the thing, “you should probably be forewarned that her dad wants you dead.”
At this point, I wouldn’t mind killing the demon, but the poor sap he is using wasn’t at fault. I guess I don’t know that for sure, but I don’t imagine he said, “Oh please mister demon take over my body and shlup my girlfriend.”
“Oh no,” she says in clear pain from the idea. “Hopefully, with the baby on the way I can convince them that is a bad idea. They cannot expect me to raise the baby on my own.”
“I don’t know, you and your roommate could open a home for fatherless children,” I say rudely staring at DH.
I hear a gasp and look back to Felicity. “He wouldn’t kill my baby’s father,” she says softly. Sounds to me like she is trying to convince herself more than anything else. I wonder if good ol’ Harv is going to remember the honeymoon once DH has vacated his body. She may find herself in for a rude awakening.
“You will have to be the one to get him to call off his dogs. I told him I wouldn’t do it if you weren’t kidnapped, which you obviously weren’t, so you are safe from me,” I tell her giving a meaningful look at DH.
“Thank you, for that. We have our bags,” she says pulling her fancy suitcase to her side. “So, if you are ready, I would love to get home and see Jillian. When we left, she was driving us insane with all the talk of feeling like a whale. I guess it won’t be long before I am saying the same.” She rubs her bump lovingly again.
Where is my spoon when I need it? I am totally gagging on one right now.
“This is Jake and Jonas,” I say introducing the pair. “They will be riding with us.”
She glances over, just now noticing the guys. I watch her physically pale. I may be the deadliest out of our trio, but those two, especially Jonas, look the part.
“They work with you?” she asks softly.
“Something like that. Their main job is keeping me out of trouble. Most days they actually succeed.” I don’t think either of them could envision this case turning out the way it did, but I am not in trouble, just yet.
“They weren’t asked to kill Harvey, were they?”
“No, you are safe there. They follow my orders anyway, so if you aren’t worried about me, there is no reason to be afraid of them. You might say they are giant puppies,” I say chuckling a little at my own joke.
After she relaxes, I move my hand to indicate her and Harvey should walk in front of me. There is no way I am having a demon behind me. This is my first encounter with one, and already I know it is going to be painful.
“Jake, do you mind leading?” I ask hoping Jonas decides to fall back with me. He does, but just shrugs his shoulders. Really there isn’t much to say. After a thirty minute ride, we will be done with this and heading back to base.
At the Suburban, me and Jonas take the front, the Smalls relax in the middle and Jake rides in the third row. The demon should be pretty well covered. What any of us will do if he tries anything, I have no clue.
I start the truck, turn to Felicity, and hand her my phone. “Call your parents. I don’t care what you tell them as long as in the explanation you include that you are with me and I am delivering you to your apartment now.”
“Okay. I can do that,” she replies dialing. I go ahead and put the car in drive and start towards her apartment.
“Ms. Slaughter,” I hear her father answer. “I am hoping you have good news for me.” Dude must have programmed my number in his phone. I love having super hearing, so I can hea
r both sides to this conversation.
“No, Daddy, it’s me.”
“Angel, you are in one piece I assume,” he replies changing his tone drastically.
“Yes, Daddy. Nyx is taking us home now. Daddy, you really shouldn’t have worried. Everything is just great. I have all sorts of things we need to talk about, but I prefer to not do them with the current audience. “
“You cannot expect me not to worry when you fall off the face of the earth and we knew that you were off with that pond scum Harvey.”
“Daddy, that is part of what I want to talk to you about, later. For now, just know that I am fine and very happy. I will call you in an hour and we can discuss this further.” I bet she is one of the few people in his life that Mr. Willard isn’t able to walk all over.
“Okay, Angel. I will wait for your call,” he tells her before disconnecting the call. She hands the phone back up towards Jonas who takes it and sets it in the console between us.
I look back in the rearview to see what my passengers are up to. Felicity is snuggled into DH, DH is staring back at me in the mirror and Jake is scowling at DH. It occurs to me DH hasn’t said a word in the fifteen minutes he has graced our presence.
“So Harvey,” I say holding his gaze, “what did you do to get on Daddy Dearest’s bad side?”
He lights up seemingly just from the fact that I addressed him, which causes me to cringe.
“Oh, Daddy just thinks Harvey is beneath us because he isn’t from one of the families in the neighborhood,” Felicity answers for him. He scowls slightly as she speaks. “It isn’t like Harvs doesn’t have money; he just doesn’t have a prestigious enough last name for Daddy. He will come around, especially with the baby.”
“Of course he will, darling,” DH says, finally, allowing us to hear his voice and it isn’t anything to write home about. It is actually a little bit high for a man’s voice, if you ask me.
“Do your friends ever speak?” Felicity asks realizing they haven’t spoken either.
I look over to Jonas and he just raises his shoulders. “I haven’t removed their tongues, yet.”
“Please don’t give her any ideas,” Jake pleads from the back.
“See, my puppets speak. Don’t expect much from Jonas, though. He is the strong, silent type.” I look over at him and wink. He just smiles and nods. I think he is in overtime observing mode. I know I don’t have a ton of experience with demons and I imagine the guys don’t either.
“You all seem pretty quiet to me. Most of my friends cannot stand a lull in the conversation, so we are all a bunch of talkers.” Just what I didn't want to spend thirty minutes in a vehicle with. Thankfully, we are halfway to our destination.
“Yeah well, most things Jake says piss me off and, like I mentioned, Jonas only speaks when he has something important to say, so we try to keep the chatting to a minimum.”
“That is too bad,” DH says. “I am sure you have a lot of interesting things to say yourself. Why don't you tell us about you?”
I meet his eyes and the mirror, while grinding my teeth I say, “Not happening.” His face lights up showing me his pearly whites.
“Maybe another time.”
“Not happening,” I reiterate. God help me, if I have to deal with either of them after today.
“We'll see,” he says softly. Probably even too soft for the woman sitting next to him to hear, but since he knows I am a paranorm I hear him loud and clear. Evidently, my two guard dogs do as well because they growl softly.
DH thinks it is funny and laughs out loud causing Felicity to look over at him. “What's so funny?”
“Oh nothing, sweetie. Just remembering a joke Roger was telling me at work the other day. I will tell it to you later. Look we are already home.”
Thank God, he is correct and I pull into a parking spot ready to throw them out.
“Great. I cannot wait to tell Jillian our news,” she says opening up the door. “Thanks for the ride and I am sorry for any trouble my parents caused you. If you are ever in the neighborhood, do stop by.”
“Fat chance,” I mumble under my breath. Aloud I say, “Actually, you probably don't want to have to deal with me after today. I managed to take my medicine this morning, so I was nice. Most days I am a real bitch.” Figuratively and literally, I add to myself.
She looks taken aback briefly, but her good manners win out and she says, “The offer still stands.”
With that, Demon Harvey escorts her out and into the building. Good riddance, I think before backing out of the parking spot and hitting the road.
Chapter 13
Things that piss me off…demons
Once we get back on the highway, I pick up my phone to call Sebastian. It is still early afternoon, so he may still be in bed, but I imagine he will take my call.
“My love, to what do I owe this pleasure?” he asks after the third ring.
“We are on our way home and I wanted to hear your voice,” I say while I switch lanes to pass a car. Slow ass human.
“You know I find this call odd because I am the mate that allows you to, more often than not, go freely with your guards and I am pretty sure it is your other one that was expecting a call like this.”
“And you wonder why my fingers hit your speed dial number and not his. Plus, he can just reach out to my mind, if he wants to know what is going on.”
“I imagine the fact that he can do that makes you want to rebel against him even more, love.”
“You are correct, oh wise one. Not being able to lie to you and not being able to keep anything at all from him is quite annoying.”
“My poor baby. I will have to come up with a way to make it up to you. How did your trip go? If you are coming back so soon, I imagine you didn't have any problems.”
“No problems, per se. The case did involve a demon, though. What exactly the demon's endgame was, I don't know or care. The girl called her dad so the case is solved as far as I am concerned,” I claim.
“I am sure Alex already knows, but you should probably let fang face know about the demon's interest in you,” Jake pipes in from the back seat.
“Thanks, I think you just did,” I say glaring at him in the mirror. Why he thinks he needs to drive my perfectly innocent conversation is beyond me.
“What does he mean by that?” Sebastian asks taking on a tone with a hint of anger laced through it. Great. Now look what Jake has done.
“Nothing. The demon just kept staring at me. From the moment we met, there was maybe five minutes he wasn't looking at me. No worries though, we dropped them off a while ago and should be home within twenty minutes, or so, based on my speed. I doubt he would come looking for me once I am back within your stronghold.”
“Demons are not known for being logical. I am guessing you don't have any herbs or oils handy to ward him off. I am going to have an amulet waiting for you when you get home. You will have to wear it at all times so he cannot find you. I already share you with Alex, I don't want to have someone else to worry about,” he says.
He is getting really worked up on this issue. My guess would be, with all the years he has spent on this planet, he has run into a demon a time or two. The edge to his voice makes me think he wasn’t very happy about the outcome.
“You two are bonded with me, he isn't, so I don't think you have to worry about my attentions being diverted. I already have two cocky alphas; I don't need to collect any more men.”
“I am glad to hear you say that. I have to go get that amulet ready, so I will let you use both hands to drive. I will see you in a few minutes. Be careful until then.”
“I will be. Love ya.”
“I love you, too, Nyx,” he says and hangs up.
“Ahh. Love, true love,” a deep, unfamiliar voice says from the back of the truck.
“What the …” I say swerving slightly as I look back in my mirror to see unfamiliar purple eyes staring back at me from the very back seat. The jerk has the nerve to wink at me. What is up
with guys winking at me today?
The eyes are attached to a face with dark olive skin. The man has dark brown, wavy shoulder length hair. Obviously, he is not human. I can imagine the rest of his body is appealing to most afflicted with the female persuasion. The biggest issue I am having right now is the fact that I have never seen him before in my life and the fact that he just popped into my vehicle bodes extremely badly. The strawberry smell filling the car also would appear to point the situation into the unpleasant direction.
“I am pretty sure I mentioned you would be seeing me again. It took a little while to get disconnected from that weasely meat suit I was wearing because I actually left him conscious for the duration, but I did it just in time to see you before you got home. From the sounds of things, that was good thinking on my part,” says the demon that I am starting to believe is the D from DH.
The only good thing I heard from his little speech is that Harvey will be aware he is going to be a papa and not go total ape shit on Felicity for ending up pregnant. I just hope he doesn’t blame her for not realizing he was possessed. Some guys might be sensitive to that fact.
I look over to see why Jonas and Jake haven't gone on attack to find them both frozen. They look kind of funny stopped mid motion. It looks like me and Demon Boy are the only things moving in the vehicle. Not only that, he seems chatty. I didn’t like riding with a chatty Felicity, just imagine my joy at a demon with the disposition.
The way this day is going, I should have just rolled back over after my rude awakening this morning and stayed in bed. Maybe if I promise not to get out a bed for a week, things will start looking brighter.
“What do you want?” I ask pissed about the situation. “Don't you have some babies to go tend after? It was you that impregnated those two girls.” Not only that, he advanced their pregnancies by months, probably just for his own amusement.
“Do you know how hard it is to have a child as a demon? I imagine you don't, so I will tell you. Demons pretty much have no chance of procreating. There has not been a new demon born in a few millennia. Maybe even longer, no one really knows. Demons these days are created from already existing beings, similar to vampires, but we cannot create children the old-fashioned way,” he explains.
