The Entity Within e-2

by Cat Devon

  Refusing to allow her gaze to wander over to where Damon sat in a nearby chair, she kept her eyes on her laptop screen and the grisly illustrations of demons. It was not a pretty picture. She got totally wrapped up in the history, which was why she was so stunned when she looked up and saw the front door swing open and two strange men in suits standing there, pointing at her. “There she is!”

  “Demons!” she yelled. “Kill them!”

  Chapter Twelve

  Zoe stood and glared at the pair of strangers. She had a bad feeling about them. Sure, they were wearing suits, but that didn’t mean anything. The last demon to darken their doorstep a short while ago had been wearing a cable guy uniform as a disguise. Why wasn’t Damon doing something with that dagger of his?

  “They’re not demons,” Damon whispered in her ear.

  “Then why did they come in without being invited and then point at me and say ‘There she is’?”

  Damon turned to face the two men. “Care to answer that, gentlemen?”

  “The door was already slightly open when we arrived. I knocked and the door opened even wider. We were so relieved to have found Zoe. We weren’t sure we had the correct address. You scared us by threatening to kill us.”

  “I wasn’t talking about you. I thought I saw a cockroach.” In her opinion, just walking in on her qualified these two guys as cockroaches. “Besides, you scared me by barging in without permission. Who are you?” she demanded angrily.

  “I’m sorry, I should have made the introductions sooner,” the taller of the two men said. “My name is Bob Weaver and this is Tim Simpson. We are followers of Dr. Martin Powers.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Gram said as she joined them.

  “You’re the one who is going to be sorry,” Tim said, speaking for the first time.

  “Don’t you threaten my grandmother,” Zoe said.

  “Damn right,” Damon agreed. “That’s my job.”

  “We’re not here to cause trouble,” Bob said.

  “Where have I heard that before?” Damon mocked.

  “This is all her fault.” Bob pointed to Zoe’s grandmother.

  “I hear ya,” Damon said.

  “You seem like a reasonable man,” Bob told Damon, who just smiled and nodded.

  He’s not a man at all. He’s a vampire, Zoe wanted to tell the intruders but knew she couldn’t. She had to bite her lip to stay silent.

  “I don’t know if you are aware of the fact that Irma Adams is a very disturbed person,” Bob said.

  “I am aware,” Damon said. He put his arm around Zoe’s shoulders, presumably to prevent her from hitting someone. He also put an arm around Gram’s shoulders, no doubt for the same reason. “What’s your beef with her?”

  “She came to one of the motivational seminars Dr. Powers was giving back in Boston.”

  “He’s not a real doctor,” Gram inserted. “He got his PhD in rhetoric from an online school. He claims that if you use the tools in the Powers Tool Box, you are guaranteed to find happiness. Of course, those tools don’t come cheap.”

  “Dr. Powers has the ability to transform lives,” Bob said reverently.

  “Yeah, transform them from bad to worse,” Gram said. “Unlike other motivational speakers, Powers claims that he is the only one who has the secret to living a perfect life. If you don’t buy into his shtick, you will be doomed forever.”

  Bob shook his head. “That is an extreme exaggeration and a misrepresentation.”

  Zoe had done some online research about Dr. Powers since Gram’s run-in, and it seemed to her that Gram was right.

  “Irma created a terrible scene when she stood at the microphone intended to be used to ask relevant questions of Dr. Powers and instead shouted insults at the doctor’s followers. It resulted in a huge melee,” Bob said.

  “Is a melee worse than a stampede?” Gram asked.

  “They’re about equal,” Zoe said.

  “And you’re here because?” Damon prompted Bob.

  “Dr. Powers has indicated that he will forgive Irma providing she goes online to his website and apologizes for her comments.”

  “When pigs fly.” Gram paused, perhaps realizing that she could make that happen. “No way. Not going to happen,” she said.

  “You insulted Dr. Powers,” Bob said, making it sound as bad as breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

  “He insulted my intelligence by claiming he could make your life better just by giving him money,” Gram retorted.

  “It’s not just money,” Bob said. “It’s his entire Entryway to Enlightenment program in the Powers Tool Box.”

  “It’s a Fast Track to Bankruptcy program,” Gram said. “You’re talking about thousands of dollars.”

  Bob’s expression was condescending as he looked at them all. “No one is forced to enroll.”

  “Sure they are,” Gram said. “It’s called emotional blackmail.”

  “Nonsense. Everyone has a choice.”

  “Right,” Gram scoffed. “Be miserable or pay me and be happy.”

  “You are simplifying it in an inaccurate manner.” Bob’s irritation was starting to show.

  Gram waved his words away. “You have no right to come here and bother me. How did you find me anyway?”

  “We have our means,” Bob said. “And our orders.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Zoe said, not liking the sound of that at all.

  “If you don’t cooperate, then we are taking legal action against Irma,” Bob said.

  “If you don’t leave our living room right now, then I’ll be the one taking action,” Gram warned.

  Zoe took hold of her grandmother’s hand before she could do any witchcraft. “Now, Gram…”

  “I don’t get it,” Damon said. “Surely this isn’t the first time this guy has been insulted. Why is he making such a big deal about it?”

  Bob pointed to Irma. “Bad things have been happening since she started the melee. For some reason, a number of followers have left.”

  Damon gave Gram a suspicious look, but she shook her head in an indication that she wasn’t responsible.

  “That’s the only bad thing?” Damon asked. “No unexplained sightings or strange events?”

  Bob frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “That’s a good thing,” Damon replied. “Consider yourself lucky. But since it appears that Irma is not ready to apologize at this point, it would probably be best if you left now.”

  “This isn’t over,” Bob said as he and his mostly silent partner headed out. “You’ll be hearing from us again.”

  Zoe took great pleasure in ducking out from Damon’s imprisoning arm and slamming the door after them.

  Damon did not look amused. “Great. Not only do we have demons to deal with, now we have cult-following humans as well.”

  “Powers is a motivational-guru con man, not a cult leader,” Zoe corrected him.

  “Five minutes ago you wanted to kill them,” Damon reminded her.

  “Because I thought they were demons.”

  “Which is why you should leave the thinking to me,” Damon said. “At least where demons are concerned.”

  “I thought we agreed that I could do research on the subject,” Zoe said.

  “We agreed to no such thing,” Damon said.

  “You don’t think there is a connection between Powers and the demons, do you?” Gram asked. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

  Nothing would surprise Zoe at this point. She turned to face Damon. “And what’s with you telling them that you think Gram is disturbed? Your comments were very insulting.”

  “What? Now you’re going to take a page out of Powers’s book and demand an online apology from me? Not going to happen, little witch. We have more important things to talk about.” He fixed her with an intense stare Zoe could feel clear down to her toes. “I thought your grandmother was the one who started the stampede at their gathering.”

  “Tha
t’s right.”

  “Then why did they recognize you, Zoe?”

  “How should I know what they were thinking?” she said. “They clearly weren’t acting logically.”

  “Says the witch who called them demons.”

  “That’s your fault,” Zoe told him.

  “How do you figure that?” Damon said.

  “You vaporize a demon cable guy in my living room and I get a little paranoid. I lost it.”

  “We can’t afford to have you losing it. As far as we know, all the loose demons are now accounted for.”

  “It’s that ‘as far as we know’ part that has me nervous.”

  “I have a cure for your nerves,” Damon said. “Find the missing spell book.”

  * * *

  Three hours later, Zoe was still brooding over Damon’s words. She’d spent the intervening time doing additional research on her laptop and going through her family’s Book of Spells for any reference to demons. She was also trying to figure out the connection between her talismans and the witch Damon killed a hundred-plus years ago.

  So far, all she’d learned was that there was a legendary Book of Darkness said to be able to release demons—but there was nothing beyond a brief mention; no actual sighting or description of it. She kept looking online.

  Gram had retired to her bedroom to take a nap while Bella was curled up on a chair, sound asleep.

  Which left Zoe basically alone with Damon, who kept looking over her shoulder at the screen of her laptop from time to time, driving her crazy.

  “Don’t do that,” she said in exasperation.

  “The Book of Darkness, huh? What do you know about that?”

  “This is the only reference I’ve found.”

  “Did you Google it?” he asked.

  “No. I don’t want to get inundated with tons of weird occult spam. You Google it.”

  “I already did.” He didn’t elaborate but did add, “I also Googled a photo of your talisman. Our tech vamp is going through the results.”

  “What did they find out about the Book of Darkness?” Zoe asked.

  “Nothing yet,” he admitted.

  “I told you it was better to have a librarian doing the research.”

  “Or maybe you knew exactly where to look for it because you owned the Book of Darkness, or your grandmother did.”

  “We never saw it before,” Zoe said.

  “Then why did you open it? Do you make a habit of opening strange spell books?”

  “No, we don’t. It was a stressful day,” she said. “We’d just moved here and I’d just discovered vampires are my new neighbors.”

  “Your grandmother knew Nick was a vampire. She’s known for years.”

  “She didn’t tell me.”

  “I wonder what else she hasn’t told you,” Damon said. “Or told me.”

  “Gram isn’t like that.”

  “Isn’t she? Come on, who are you kidding? She aggravated those humans enough that they came all the way from Boston to find you.”

  “You don’t know that. Maybe they are local followers of Powers.”

  “No, they are from Boston. They flew into O’Hare this morning and came straight here. Neville checked it out. He suspects they located you through your website.”

  “Who is Neville?” Zoe said.

  “Our top tech vamp.”

  “My website doesn’t say where I live,” she pointed out.

  “Maybe not, but your Facebook page for your business has the locator indicator turned on. Neville checked your laptop and found that someone hacked into the site to download a more specific GPS.”

  Zoe slammed her laptop shut and set it on the coffee table. “Who hacked my computer?”

  “We don’t know yet. Neville is still following that lead.”

  “Wait a minute. When did Neville check my laptop? I didn’t give my permission for that.”

  “We don’t need your permission,” Damon said. “I let you keep your laptop. I never said we wouldn’t check it out remotely.”

  Zoe felt violated all over again, just as she had when Damon had torn through her stuff in her workroom. Her anger rose.

  “Are you going to levitate again?” Damon mocked her.

  She might not leave the ground but she was about to send some fiery words flying his way when she was distracted by the sound of moans coming through the floor vents in the living room. They weren’t happy having-really-awesome-sex moans. No, these were tortured sounds. “What is that?” she whispered.

  “Demons!” Bella said as she streaked across the room and dove under the couch.

  Zoe was tempted to join her. Not that she’d fit under the denim couch, but still … taking cover seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately she wasn’t sure where a safe hiding place could be found.

  The noise was all around them and became deafening. Zoe put her hands over her ears in an attempt to shut it out.

  Damon appeared completely unfazed as he focused his attention on the screen of his damn smartphone.

  The moans stopped as suddenly as they’d started.

  She looked at Damon. “I thought vampires had better hearing than humans.”

  “We do.”

  “Then you heard that?”

  “Of course I did,” he said.

  “How did you make it stop?” she said.

  “I thought you did something. You put your hands over your ears like you were doing some sort of witchy spell thing.”

  “I do not put my hands over my ears when I conjure a spell,” she said. “I thought you knew all about witches.”

  He joined her on the couch. “I know enough.”

  “Clearly you don’t if you think that’s how we create spells. Is that how Eve did it?”

  He glared at her. “Don’t push it, little witch.”

  “Or what? You’ve already gone through all my belongings, my work stuff, and my computer. You’re already spying on me twenty-four hours a day. What more can you do?”

  “This.” Reaching out, he cupped her face with his hands and kissed her.

  It wasn’t gentle and it wasn’t polite. It was hot and intense and wicked. He parted her lips and enticed her with his tongue.

  This time the moans came from Zoe, and they were signals of her pleasure and not her anger. So this was how vampires kissed. Awesome.

  Damon didn’t try to overpower her with physical force. He didn’t have to. Her eager surrender came as a result of his skill as he took possession of her mouth with the erotic promise of delights to come.

  She slid her arms around his neck and melted against him. Her tongue tangled with his. Dark passion flowed throughout her body.

  She wanted more. He gave it to her by sliding his hands through her hair and then lowering them to lift her top and seductively sneak his right hand around her side to her breast. The silkiness of her bra provided no protection and instead intensified her pleasure at his caresses. She moaned softly against his mouth and felt as if she might go up in flames.

  The sound of evil cackles coming through the floor vents finally brought her back to reality.

  She pulled away from him. “The demons can see us! They know what we were doing and they’re laughing at us.”

  “They can’t see us,” Damon said.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I know demons.”

  The cackles stopped. If the demons couldn’t see them, they sure had an incredible sense of timing. Zoe supposed she should be thankful they’d brought her back to her senses. Who knew where she would be right now or what she’d be doing with Damon on this couch otherwise—even with her grandmother in the other room and her familiar hiding under the couch.

  “If you’re so smart then you should also know that you can’t kiss me,” Zoe said.

  His lips lifted into a mocking smile. “I just did.”

  “You hate witches.”

  “So?”

  “So?” she repeated incredulously. “So you can’t kiss someone y
ou hate.”

  “I never said I hated you.”

  “You’ve accused me of unleashing demons from hell.”

  “Your point being?”

  “Why did you kiss me? What were you trying to accomplish? Were you trying to intimidate me? I don’t scare that easily.” She looked down at the floor where his smartphone had landed when he’d dropped it to kiss her. “Wait a second. We’re being invaded by demons and you’re playing Words with Friends? What kind of Demon Hunter are you?”

  “The kind who gets things done,” he said curtly.

  She picked up his phone. “By ‘things’ you mean thinking brabbling is a word?”

  He grabbed it from her. “It was in my day.”

  “How can you play games when all hell is breaking loose? You don’t see me fooling around. Other than kissing you, I mean. I’m devoting all my time and attention to this demon situation. I’m not even doing anything regarding my business.”

  “It’s not like you have a real job,” Damon made the mistake of saying.

  Bella cautiously came out from under the couch to jump on the coffee table and shake her feline head at him. “Bad move, vampire.”

  “Damn right that was a bad move,” Zoe said. “I am an entrepreneur. I may be self-employed but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a job. I work hard creating the products for Bella Luna. And I don’t use magic to do it. In fact, my workroom is still a mess from your actions yesterday. I need to go fix that instead of wasting my time with you.”

  “Sure,” Damon said with a sweep of his hand. “You go right ahead. What is saving the world compared with making smelly soap?”

  “It’s scented botanical soap that is vegetable- and fruit-oil-based,” she corrected him.

  “My mistake. Of course that makes a huge difference. I didn’t realize it was vegetable- and fruit-oil-based. Demons can wait. No problem.”

  “My work is important to me,” she said.

  “So is mine.”

  “Then maybe you should focus on doing your work and let me focus on doing mine.”

  “I’d love to do that,” he drawled. “But since you and your grandmother are the ones who released these demons, I need you to be involved.”

  “You mean you need my help?”