by Angie Fox
“You can’t leave,” Rachmort said, the wind catching his wild gray hair as the sun set behind him. “The demon has a hold on someone. That person can’t leave now or the demon will remain with them. They’ll deteriorate, Lizzie. They’ll lose their soul.”
“So then forty other people have to stay?” They’d all be in equal danger. This was a nightmare.
“You have to make the choice, Lizzie.”
It was crazy. “How can I possibly choose?” I couldn’t.
That’s when it hit me: would I leave if Dimitri were compromised? Never. Grandma? No. One of his new clan members? I was ashamed at the direction my thoughts had taken.
“Okay,” I said, “nobody comes, nobody leaves. I’ll destroy all the markers.”
“At once,” Rachmort said. “You must destroy them all at the same time.”
He had to be kidding. “How am I going to do that?”
“I don’t know. You’re the demon slayer. Once you do that, the demon can no longer use the markers to draw power, and then all you have to do is exorcise the hell spawn.”
Oh, sure. Piece of cake.
I’d figure it out later. “We need to warn everyone,” I said, heading for the stairs.
“No.” Rachmort caught my arm. “You absolutely cannot tell anyone. Not even your fiancé. Whoever is compromised will tip off our target.”
“I’m marrying him in two days and I can’t even tell him this?”
“You can’t even tell your dog.”
I couldn’t believe it. “What if you’re compromised?” I asked.
He shot me an apologetic glance. “Then you’re screwed.”
We tromped down the stairs, my mind swimming with possibilities. I couldn’t imagine whom the demon had targeted, or when they would attack.
“Act as normal as possible,” Rachmort instructed. “Be on your guard. We must not tip off the possessed. Hopefully, we’ll catch him or her during his next attempt on your life.”
“Now doesn’t that make me feel good?”
“This isn’t about you, Lizzie. It’s about finding that marker.”
“I will,” I told him. I didn’t have a choice.
Chapter Fifteen
I searched for Dimitri and found him in his room as he was coming out of the shower. Just my luck, I didn’t even get to appreciate it.
“We need to search the house,” I told him.
He paused before he finished wrapping a towel around his waist. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“I feel great,” I said, knowing neither of us remotely believed that. “Besides, we have bigger problems. What if there are more weapons hidden in the house?”
Like a third marker.
It was a plausible explanation, without telling him anything. Hades, I felt like a jerk.
He watched me, running a hand towel over his hair, spiky wet from the shower. Water droplets clung to the strands at the nape of his neck. God, he was sexy. He also knew I was holding back on him. I could see it in his eyes.
“Let me get dressed,” he said simply, before grabbing a pair of jeans off the end of the bed. Dang. I loved that curve of muscle at his hip, the long sinewy lines of his body. He tugged on a black T-shirt. “Enjoying yourself?”
“Next best thing to undressing you.”
He gave me a saucy grin as he sat on the bed and tugged on a pair of motorcycle boots. “You’re going to pay for that when you’re feeling better.”
I watched as the muscles in his chest and arms worked. “I hope so.” I couldn’t even tell he’d been hurt.
“So you think there’s something dangerous here.” He stood, tucking in his shirt. “Is there a particular place you want to start?”
That was the trick. “I have no real leads. Only a feeling.” The knowledge that we would find the third marker somewhere in the house.
He nodded. “Then let’s start at the top and work our way down.”
We headed for the stairs Rachmort and I had used. He seemed so sure of himself and the direction we were headed. “Wait. Have you been up here before?”
“I was curious,” Dimitri said, opening the door for me. “I saw the towers from the outside, and wanted to see where they led.”
We started climbing. Dimitri and I both liked to explore new places. At the same time, I had my suspicions about his time in the towers. “You were avoiding my mother, weren’t you?”
He grunted. “Name one guy who goes to a bonbon party.”
“You.”
“Not for long.”
Touché. I struggled to keep my breath even. The steep stairs were doing a number on me since the attack. My legs ached, my chest heaved. The adrenaline I’d had while running up with Rachmort was shot. I didn’t need Dimitri to see I was struggling, lest he send me back to bed.
At last, we made it to the top.
Dimitri tried the door to the parapet. “Locked,” he said, giving the handle one final twist.
“It wasn’t before?”
“Not a few days ago, no.” He gave a final glance at the door. “I can fly up and take a look on the parapet if we don’t find anything inside the house.”
“It can wait,” I said. I’d get Rachmort to take me back up, in case Dimitri was compromised.
God, I hated to think of him housing a demon, all because of me. I hated lying to him. Damn, this whole thing was so frustrating.
“Hey,” he said, taking my hand. “What’s that look for?” His lips brushed mine. “If there’s something in this house that can hurt you, we’ll find it.”
“Thanks,” I said, hugging him tight. Hades, I wished I could be sure it wasn’t him hurting me. That would kill him.
His arms wrapped around me lightly, and he patted me on the back. I could tell he was a little confused. Oh, well. He was going to marry me. He’d better get used to it.
I drew back. “Okay, let’s see what we find.” And hope we got lucky.
The start of our search was less productive than I’d hoped, mainly because most of the rooms on this floor had been taken over by Dimitri’s relatives, and the doors were locked.
I was willing to bet there was nothing in the demon slayer handbook about that.
“Are you sure you can’t use your evil sensing powers?” Dimitri asked, trying yet another barred door. “We wouldn’t have time to go through every room even if they were unlocked. Besides, Aunt Zizi will beat my ass if she catches me going through her nighties.”
Frick. He was right. “Okay. New plan. How about we search the public areas?”
He gave me a sideways glance as he tried yet another locked door. “You do realize that the odds of anyone hiding a weapon in the dining room are zero to none.”
He still thought we were looking for poisons and such. This was ridiculous. “Let’s also keep an eye out for evil markers and omens,” I said, as casually as I could. There. I didn’t tell him. I hinted. He deserved a hint.
He knew something was up. Of course he did. He wasn’t an idiot. “Lizzie,” he drew it out, expecting me to say more. He waited, not giving me an inch.
“Trust me, okay?” I said, falling back on a loophole he’d used, oh, about a thousand times.
He knew it, too. He pressed his mouth closed, unhappy. But he didn’t say anything.
We searched both the third and the second floor hallways before moving down to the foyer. The wood walls in the entryway were beautiful. I hadn’t taken the time to really study them before. They were hand-carved in intricate flower and wildlife motifs. I did catch the occasional wooden spider, but that was all. No markers.
It was getting late and the sitting room was clearing out.
“I’ll take the front by the windows, and you take the area by the dining room,” Dimitri said.
So he thought. I’d have to figure out a way to search the whole thing.
Frieda and a bunch of biker witches walked over. She held a cup and saucer, and I was tempted to sniff her tea. “What’s the problem?” she asked.
“Lizzie lost her earring,” Dimitri said. The lie came from him so smoothly I almost believed it myself.
“We’ll help you look,” Frieda offered, much to the annoyance of a few of her companions. They followed Dimitri to the front of the room while I headed the opposite way. There was a card game going on in the dining room, boys versus girls. That should be fun.
“Lizzie,” my mom entered from the hallway. Her hair was flawless. She’d re-done her nails and changed her outfit. Only her eyes betrayed the impact of this afternoon. She was wary, scared. “Are you okay, honey?”
I was ready with a formulaic answer when she rushed to close the distance between us and gave me a real, genuine hug. It felt so good that I almost forgot about our mission down here.
“I’m fine,” I said, swallowing some unexpected emotion. At least I had to think I would be. I drew back to look at her. “Are you? How are you doing with the demon slaying and the biker witches and,” I searched for a way to say it, “Dimitri’s claws.”
She brought her chin up, steeling herself. “I’m going to be fine,” she said, in a way that at least told me that she was determined to make it true.
Mom took my hands, running her fingers over them and inspecting them, like she couldn’t believe I was really okay.
I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding. “I’d meant to tell you sooner.” I really had.
She nodded a few too many times. “I can see where it would be…difficult.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m worried about you, honey. Your grandmother says these kinds of attacks happen to you more often than not. I realize she’d hoped to make me feel better, but I don’t want to see you go through this. When you hurt, I hurt.”
I knew she meant well. And I hated to put her through this, but, “Mom, I can’t stop being a demon slayer.”
“I know.” She quickly wiped away a tear. “I’d never ask that.”
That stunned me. “You wouldn’t?”
Creely stood behind mom, giving me the thumbs up. I wondered exactly what the biker witches had told Hillary.
“It wouldn’t stop you anyway,” Hillary said.
“True,” I said slowly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. This wouldn’t be the end of it. Not by a long shot.
She folded her hands in front of her. “Tell me what I can do to help.”
That part was deceptively simple. “You have to keep going,” I told her. We needed everyone to stay, to have fun. My mom was great at organizing groups. “Only,” I didn’t quite know how to tell her this, but, “no more guests.”
She looked at me like I’d sprouted horns. “Your wedding is in two days. Of course there’ll be more guests. We have the VanWillens, and the Frosts. Pipsi Carmichael and her fiancé. Oh, and of course Matt Shott and his lovely girlfriend, Kimmy. Matt owns a hockey team.”
She didn’t get it.
“Look, mom—”
“Your father arrives tomorrow.”
“No, mom. Listen to me. There’s still a danger.” Heads in the dining room swiveled our way. “A slight one,” I amended. “We don’t know who or what is after me. So let’s keep this wedding small, and then we can have a nice reception somewhere later.”
A furrow formed between her brows. “We’ll talk about it,” she said, reluctantly. She knew I had a point.
“You said you wanted to help.” I was relieved to see her nod. “I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. Right now, the witches and the griffins can defend themselves, the VanWillens cannot. No more guests, okay?”
She began to argue, then simply said, “okay.”
Mom helped me search the back of the sitting room until we ran into Dimitri’s family. Then she hit up Dimitri with a load of questions on what it was like to be a griffin. I was glad for her curiosity. It meant I could covertly re-check his section and hit the dining room as well. I have to admit I did feel bad for the guy, having to answer things like:
Do you eat…food?
Yes. I wanted to ask her if she remembered the time he fixed breakfast for us.
Exactly why do you want to fly?
Because he’s fricking griffin, mom.
And, What happens to your clothes when you shift?
Mom went red after that one. Some things, you don’t want to know about your daughter’s fiancé.
Dimitri, bless his heart, was unfailingly polite. I could tell mom felt better talking about it. Maybe the truth wasn’t so bad after all.
We searched the kitchen together, my mom trying to make us snacks the entire time. I settled for an artesian cheese sandwich but forgot it on the counter as Dimitri and I readied ourselves to descend into the basement.
I kept a hand on my switch stars and he took the stairs before me. They were incredibly steep. Narrow as well. A chill seeped up from the cavern, along with a pungent, musty odor. A single bulb above lit the stairs, its light dying as it reached too far underground.
“Let me go first. I’m a demon slayer.”
“You’re injured,” he said, starting down. “Don’t think I don’t see how you keep leaning up against the wall.”
He had me there. My entire body ached. “I have the weapons.”
Dimitri reached up and pulled the chain for a second, dangling bulb. This one lit parts of a gray floor that stretched out into the darkness.
“You know,” I continued, worrying a bit when I began getting light headed, “demon slayer. Demon attack.”
He cursed and stepped aside to let me pass as we neared the bottom. My palms were clammy and my knees were weak.
“Ready?” He asked, pausing to search for a light switch.
I drew a switch star. “Ready.”
Light bathed the space at the bottom of the stairs. The walls were made of stacked stone, painted white. The floor was concrete. And that was it. No storage. No ping-pong table. No demons. As far as I could tell, whoever was in charge of renting out the place didn’t seem to use the basement.
“I don’t get it.” There had to be another room, a secret space with those faceless statues and maybe a few minions of the devil.
Dimitri and I followed the basement around a U-shaped bend and came to a door to the right. I nodded at him, switch star in hand, and he threw it open.
“Ha!” I drew my star back, ready to throw, until I realized it was a utility room, lit by the same ceiling lights as the rest of the basement. “This is way too normal.”
Dimitri glanced at me, then back inside the room. “We might as well check it out.”
We thoroughly searched the small utility room because, well, where else were we going to look? But as I expected, I didn’t find any demonic markers behind the water heater.
I didn’t understand it. The house had been a bust.
My entire body ached.
Logically, there had to be something down here, or maybe upstairs or somewhere. I severely doubted we’d find a demonic marker hidden in a random bedroom. But those were the only places we hadn’t searched. That and the parapet.
“Maybe it’s in the garden,” Dimitri said, taking one final look behind the furnace.
“No,” I said, heading for the stairs.
All I wanted to do was crawl into bed.
His footsteps were heavy behind me. “You asked me to trust you. I get that. But this will go a lot easier if you told me what the hell we’re looking for.”
“I’m too tired to argue.” My legs ached. My chest and arms still felt tight from the poison’s effects, and I’d swear I hadn’t slept in a year.
I didn’t even protest when Dimitri led me into his room instead of mine.
“It’ll be the least of your mom’s shocks for today,” he said, closing the door behind us. We eased our shoes off and he drew me into bed.
It was so soft. Perfect. I curled into the warmth of his arms. “I love you,” I said, and before he could answer, I was asleep.
***
The next morning, Dimitri and I made up from
our tiredness the night before. He was acting perfectly normal, although he certainly made love like a man possessed. Very refreshing.
Afterward, I curled next to him, naked, wishing I could tell him what was happening with the marks. Of course, it was impossible, for his sake and for mine.
I purposely kept my head tucked against his chest. I couldn’t look at him as I said, “my mom wants me to make wedding doves today.”
He drew back, trying to look at me. I kept my head down.
“Lizzie, we’re in the middle of an attack.”
“I know, but I promised. She wants us to glue sequins onto the backs of these fake birds she got at Michaels.”
He forced me to look at him then. “Are you okay?” He searched my face, looking for evidence of an addled brain. I didn’t blame him a bit.
I pasted on my best smile. “Sure. In the mean time, can you and the griffins make sure the grounds are secure?” I did worry about what was out there in the garden, and what could be approaching from any direction. We weren’t safe in this house, not until I could find and destroy the markers. Dimitri may not be able to help with that, but if I had the griffins protecting the house, I’d feel a lot better while I looked.
He ground his jaw tight. “Fine. But I know you’re not gluing doves.”
Okay. Caught. “What if I said I was making rose petal sachets?”
His eyes were steel, his expression hard. “Be careful.”
Easier said than done.
We showered together and dressed with our backs to each other. I felt for him. I really did. I knew what it was like to have your partner, the person who is supposed to love and trust you above all others, go rogue with no explanation or apology. But I didn’t have a choice here.
He left to gather the griffins while I set out to investigate what we could have possibly missed inside the house
This place was old, with plenty of nooks and crannies. Well, everywhere except for the basement. I stopped at the second floor landing and closed my eyes. I reached out, trying to feel the energy of the house, to sense any disruptions that may lead me to the third marker.
