by Rose Pressey
His nose flared and I expected to see flames shoot from it—that or his mouth. He stared at us, glaring and daring us to come near. His mouth spread into a devilish smile—literally. His teeth were like yellowed fangs. His feet turned into hooves, but he had no problems standing on them. He probably could run pretty darn fast with them too.
Cole whipped out a laser-type contraption and ran toward the demon. What the hell? Was this some kind of scene out of Star Trek or what? The demon snarled and hissed. He eyes glowed with flames. Cole pointed the thing at the demon, then pulled back the trigger. No noise came out of the weapon. Not even a pop or a bang. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting.
Steam fizzled out of the end of his weapon.
“No wonder you can’t catch any demons,” I said under my breath.
“I heard that,” he said.
I looked down at my hands, and hair covered them. I was losing the hairy battle.
“Whoa,” he said. “You’re covered in hair.”
“I’m a werewolf. What did you expect?”
He shrugged.
“Is that weapon of yours jammed? Because I can’t see that it was doing much.” I gestured toward his toy gun.
He smacked at the thing as the demon stepped forward. Diabolical laughter boomed from the beast. The demon was having a great time playing this game with us.
As soon as I was fully turned, I was prepared to lunge at the demon. Jumping into the fire, so to speak.
The demon fixed his gaze on me. “Come on, baby. What’s the problem? Why don’t you come with me and I’ll show you a good time.” He stretched his arm in my direction.
As if I would actually touch him. You’d think he would know how to be genuinely charming instead of sounding like a sleazy pimp. Although was there any other kind of pimp? Okay, now my thoughts were rambling. I had to get a hold of myself and focus. The glare in his eyes frightened me; I couldn’t lie. I could pretend to be tough, but it would be a complete fabrication.
“Let my friend go,” I yelled.
Jennifer looked at me and laughed. She looked like hell—not surprising since she was consorting with demons.
“Jennifer, it’s me, Rylie. Don’t you recognize me?” I searched her eyes for any recognition. An ounce of remembering me.
“No,” she hissed.
“She’s obviously not that impressed with you.” The demon snorted.
He winked at me and flashed another smile. Was he trying to flirt? Did he think I’d fall for that act and follow him straight to hell? Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Why was he so hot? For once, the temperature had started to cool. It was practically sweater weather. There was no reason for him to be sweating like that.
“What’s wrong? Time for you to go back to hell?” I snorted.
“Yes, as a matter of fact it is, and you and your friend are coming with me.” He cackled.
“I’m not going anywhere with you. I’ve already made that very clear. And neither is she.” I pointed toward Jennifer.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I felt the zing in the air. It was like an electrical storm was brewing. Quinton and Jack still fought with Shane. You’d think the two of them could take down one of him. but if he’d placed a spell on them, maybe their strength had been diminished too.
“Okay, I’m not waiting for you any longer. It’s time for you to come with me now.” The demon motioned for me to come near. We were in a showdown with this beast.
Cole stepped forward, blocking the demon’s path to me. Wasn’t there anything he could do? Did he have to use the weapon on the demon? Wouldn’t something else work? There had to be a way to take him down.
“Why me? Why Jennifer?”
“Look, I take the souls that are offered to me. I don’t care who they are as long as they have a soul.” His voice grew deeper and more menacing, although I hadn’t thought that possible.
“Offered to you? What does that mean? Like a sacrifice?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.
“Someone offered you up. Your soul in exchange for another one.” His lips curled into an evil smile.
I was pretty sure my soul wasn’t someone else’s for the taking. It belonged to me and I wasn’t giving it away to anyone, much less a demon.
“Who was it?” I demanded. “Was it Sophie?” My eyes narrowed as I waited for an answer.
She was the only connection I could think of because of the ring. Why else would she have had the ring with the symbol? And the demon was wearing the ring with the same symbol.
“You’re not going to have the chance to get back to hell,” Cole yelled.
I fought back panic. Now was not the time to lose it. After all that I’d been through, what was one more crazy thing, right? I wiped the sweat trickling down my neck. I lunged forward, ready to thrust myself into the flames that were the demon.
Chapter Thirty
How to Date a Demon, Rule #30
People in hell really do want ice water.
With my feet in mid-air, Cole jumped in front of me. “Rylie, no. Let me get rid of him.”
I fell to my side, letting out a loud groan. That was going to leave a bruise. The demon opened his blackened lips and hissed at us. Smoke swirled around us. We would soon be consumed in the flames if Cole didn’t hurry. Where was the fire department? Didn’t anyone notice the fire? People could be so oblivious. They probably thought it was some kind of French Quarter entertainment. I wasn’t very entertained though.
Cole focused his attention back to the hellish beast. The demon wasn’t backing down. The hole opened in the air and flames blazed in the circle. Cole glanced over and saw the hole, then raised the gun toward the demon again. The gun clicked, but still nothing happened.
“Give me that!” I yanked the gun from Cole’s hand.
I slammed my palm against the gun several times, then pointed it at the demon. My hand shook as I pulled the trigger and a beam of light shot from the gun, landing right in the middle of the demon’s forehead. I’d made contact. And gotten the gun to work! Yeah, it took a woman to get the job done.
When I struck the demon with the gun, he let out a scream that echoed through the alleyway. It sounded like a thousand cries. The creature instantly turned to a gooey substance and the goop landed on the ground with a big kerplunk.
I stared at the red substance with disgust. “That’s the grossest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah, but he won’t be bothering us anymore, will he? Nice work.” Cole took the gun out of my still shaking hand and shoved it back into its holster like some kind of paranormal cowboy.
I couldn’t argue with his statement; it didn’t look like that demon would be bothering us anymore.
“Unless he can come back to life? Can he?” I asked.
Cole shook his head. “Not a chance.”
Jennifer sat on the ground. I knelt down and brushed her matted hair back from her face.
“Do you need an ambulance? I think she needs to go to the hospital,” I called out to anyone who would listen.
“I’m fine.” She waved off my concern.
“Hey, you’re back.”
“Yeah, what the hell happened?” She rubbed her head.
“Ugh. Don’t say the word hell ever again,” I said.
She gave me a confused look.
“That pile of goo over there is what’s left of the demon who was trying to take you for a staycation in forever damnation. He was this close to getting your soul for good,” I said, pinching my index finger and thumb together.
Now that the danger was over, my whole body shook from the release of the adrenaline. I didn’t know how Cole did this all the time. How many demons had he wiped out? Now I’d always be looking over my shoulder for demons. I needed one of those weapon things he had in case another one came around.
I whirled around to find Jack and Quinton. They stood side by side, looking down at the ground. Quinton had a stake in his hands. A pile of ashes rested at the
ir feet. Leave it to Quinton to have a backup stake for such occasions.
“So how did you know where to find Jennifer?” Cole asked, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“I found which demon had her and where his portal was. Duh. Yes, it was that easy.” I gave myself a mental pat on the back.
“I guess I should have listened to you,” I said as Jack approached.
“I guess you should have.” Jack wrapped his arms around me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I wiped the stray hairs away from my eyes.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more.” He caressed my cheek.
“Well, you kind of had your hands full with the vampire.” I gestured with a tilt of my head.
“Yeah, I can’t believe Quinton had to stake him.”
“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Quinton said from over my shoulder.
“Well, he was trying to push us all to hell, so I don’t blame Quinton,” I said as I stared down at the pile of ashes. “What do we do now?”
“I’ll call the vampire clan.” Quinton stepped away as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.
“I’ll be back in a second,” Jack said, kissing me on the cheek.
“This is quite a mess.” I pointed to the goo on the ground.
“It’ll evaporate soon,” Cole responded to my look of disgust.
“It’s a good thing because I really didn’t want to have to clean it up.”
Cole chuckled. “Yeah, me either.”
“Does this mean that other demons will be after us now?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer.
“It’s a constant battle. You never know when they will pop up, but you may go the rest of your life and never encounter one.” He gave a faint smile.
“That would be fine with me. I’m glad you were able to get rid of him.”
“It’s all in a day’s work.” He smiled.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I brushed the hair out of my eyes.
“Cole, I have one more question,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow as if he was afraid of what I might ask.
“I went by Anna Maria’s place and she wasn’t there. Her house was a mess, not all neat like it had been when we were there.”
“What were you doing there?” His voice raised a level.
“That’s when I borrowed her book.” I looked around trying to avoid his scrutiny.
“The one she told you that you couldn’t have?” His brow scrunched together.
“Yeah, that’s the one.” I shuffled my foot.
“So you stole her book?” he asked with frustration in his voice.
“Do I look like a thief to you? I just told you I borrowed it. It was a life or death situation. You know that. Plus, I was planning on returning it.” I nervously tucked a strand of hair behind my hair. Did he have to look at me so intensely?
Obviously, he had been rendered momentarily speechless.
“Anyway, do you know what happened to her? I called the police.” My heart beat faster just remembering the condition of her home. I hoped she was okay.
“Yes, I know you did. I got the call from them to go check it out.” He watched for my reaction.
“What? So you knew I took the book?” I lifted an eyebrow.
“No, I didn’t know you’d rifle through her home.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“I didn’t!” My voice was a little louder than I’d intended, but maybe he’d get the point.
“A demon had been in her home, but thankfully, she escaped.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.
I shuddered, remembering what the nasty beast we’d destroyed looked like. Thank goodness Anna Maria had gotten away. “So she’s okay?”
“Yes.” He nodded.
“Then I guess I’d better get this book back to her.” I grimaced.
“Yeah, I guess you’d better. She probably won’t be too happy with you either.”
I guessed I had some explaining to do, but I hoped she’d understand that I’d taken it because I had to. Plus I’d taken care of the book, except for that one torn page when I was escaping the vampires. Minor detail.
Cole looked down at my clothing.
“Sorry about scaring you with the shifting thing. I figured it was the only way I’d be able to fight the thing off. It was my only chance.”
The hair had started to fade, but my clothes still looked as if they’d been mauled by a dog.
“Hey, it’s fine. I’m surprised you were able to hold off for as long as you did.” He looked down at my clothes again.
I brushed the sweat from my forehead. It had been so hot it felt like we’d jumped into the middle of a fire. That was the toughest fight I’d ever been through.
Quinton and Jack approached. I wasn’t sure what they’d say to Cole now.
“Thanks a bunch, man.” Quinton stuck out his hand toward Cole.
“Yeah, we wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. Thank you for sticking by Rylie,” Jack said.
“She’s an awesome girl,” Cole said.
I swore he blushed a little.
“So what made the vampire connected with the demons?” I asked Quinton.
“This was all Sophie’s doing,” Quinton said. “She sold her soul to the devil years ago before becoming a vampire. She was trying to save herself by feeding these demons with new souls. As long as she could provide more for him then she was safe.”
“But she’s not around, why did these demons do this now?” I asked.
Quinton shook his head. “This was something that she did after she was taken away. She wanted revenge against you. The vampire who’d come after Jack noticed that Jennifer was an easy target for demons and he told Sophie.”
“That all makes sense now. That explains why Jennifer was acting so strangely when I returned home with Jack that day. So the symbol on the ring was connected with the demons after all.”
“It is their symbol. That was why Sophie had the ring,” Quinton said.
Like I said, I’d found the ring in the old abandoned warehouse that Sophie had taken Jack to when she wanted to drain his blood. Who knew it would cause so many problems. I should have known Sophie had been connected to demons back then because she was pure evil. A demonic vampire—not a good combination.
“It’s a good thing you recognized that symbol,” Cole said.
“After we found the symbol in the book, Cole figured out which demon had Jennifer. Of course we ran into a little problem there.”
Jack looked down. “Sorry again about that. We didn’t know what we were doing. Shane had us under a spell.”
“Yeah, I noticed. You two were creeping me out acting like a couple of zombies. Anyway, when I was at the conference, I saw the symbol on Shane’s ring. I overheard him talking about the demon. I had the book with me, so I looked up the name and decided to come here, thinking this might be the connection.”
I left out the part about the soul collector giving me the location. I already seemed crazy enough, no reason to add fuel to the fire.
“And of course as you can see, it was.” Cole flashed a smile.
“Lucky for Jennifer.” I looked at her.
She rubbed her temples and gave a half-hearted smile. The glint in her eyes had returned and I knew she was back with us now. Thank goodness this was over. Would she forgive me for almost getting her butt dragged off to hell? I owed her a few shopping trips for this.
“Yeah, lucky for her and us. That demon wanted to take us all with him.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. They are very greedy. They especially love revenge.”
“I’m sure when Sophie told them her plans they were delighted. The fact that she was taken away made this even more urgent for them.”
“I thought I’d gotten rid of her, but she had managed to worm her way back into my life.”
“Well, she’s gone for good this time.”
“I hope so,” I said around a sigh.
Jennifer
looked as if she was still in a daze, but so far she was speaking like her normal self.
“She’ll be drained of her energy for a while. But she’ll start to feel better tomorrow. It’ll probably take her a week to get back to her old self one hundred percent,” Cole said, flashing Jennifer a sweet smile.
“Do you think you can stand?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I just feel like someone zapped all my energy.”
Jack grabbed one arm and I grabbed her other as we hoisted her to her feet. Jennifer’s legs gave way and we held her up. Her legs shook for a second then she was able to stand on her own.
“Do you remember anything that happened?” I brushed the hair from her face.
She attempted to run her hand through her hair and nodded. “That’s the bad part. I remember everything. Being held at that demon’s place. He told me where we were going and I remember thinking that it sounded like fun. I don’t know what came over me.”
“You were possessed by the demon. He was slowly taking your soul away from you. He was going to take you to hell and you’d be a demon for life,” Cole said.
“Rylie, why don’t you get out of here? Take Jennifer home,” Quinton said.
Quinton and Cole exchanged a glance. I assumed that was their way of acknowledging that there was no bad blood between the two anymore.
Cole nodded. “Yeah, there’s nothing more for you to do right now. We’ve got everything under control.”
I wasn’t sure what exactly that meant, but I assumed it had something to do with the vampires and the demons. Since it wasn’t werewolf business, I wasn’t going to get involved.
Jennifer looked down at her outfit. “I wish I had something else on. I’m embarrassed to walk around like this.”
“Don’t worry about that. Come on. Let’s get you home.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.
My clothing didn’t look much better after my shifting. My pants were ripped and my shirt had split down the back. It was so awkward to change shapes so quickly. The fabric just couldn’t hold up to the shifting.
“Quinton’s car is right around the corner. He’ll be here for a while and said he can get a ride from a clan member,” Jack said.
