Harlow's Demons Complete Series

by Jen Pretty

Back out in the main room, Julian was on the phone, standing by the giant window that overlooked the city. The sun highlighted his serious features. He was probably talking to some other half-demon.

  I checked out the food available from the room service menu and almost died when I discovered that Harlow Suites offered several varieties of pizza. Including my taco pizza.

  I immediately picked up the phone and ordered two extra-large, then sat and waited for my delicious food to arrive. I doubted it would be as good as the one I made in Len's pizza oven, but I also doubted Julian would have let the chef skimp on the toppings. It would be cheesy.

  I didn't have to wait long. Within twenty minutes, there was a knock at the door. I had learned my lesson last time I answered a hotel room door and checked the peephole before I opened the door. Julian was still on the phone, so I ran and got my wallet so I could tip the kind person who brought the food up. All I had was a five and a coupon for half price manicure at any Speedy Nails location nationwide. So, I gave her that, and she thanked me, walking out and leaving the fancy serving cart behind.

  I took the top off the tray and discovered the pizza was exactly as I expected. Deep dish, ground beef, gooey cheese and that wonderful spicy smell.

  The bedroom door opened, and Rory walked out, eyes half closed. He stumbled to the food cart and grabbed a slice before I could even have one, stuffing the end in his mouth.

  "Hey, are you even awake?" I asked when his eyes closed, and he swayed a bit.

  "I don't think so. This tastes like your taco pizza, Har. Did you order it, and have it flown in on helicopter?"

  I grabbed a slice and took a bite, too. Damn. It tasted exactly like my pizza. It was perfect. I closed my eyes and swayed with a happy hum.

  "I see you discovered my surprise," Julian said, laughter in his voice.

  "How did you do this? It tastes like home."

  Julian's hand slid up my arm and across my shoulder. "I wanted you to feel at home here, so I got Len's help to make the oven. He sent specs to my contractors and instructions to my chef."

  "He told your chef how to make the crust? That is a family secret!"

  "He made the man sign a non-disclosure agreement and threatened him with bodily harm."

  I laughed. The secret was probably safe, in that case. Len was an army man; I saw him mad once when a punk kid broke the front window of the shop. He was a scary man. I wouldn't cross him.

  "I miss him," I said without thinking. I had been away for one day. It was ridiculous, but he was my family. I shook my head and pasted a smile on my face. I could call Len anytime, and he was a quick plane ride away.

  I took another slice of pizza and sat down at the table with all the newspaper clippings. "All right, lets' get down to business. Where is that demon bastard hiding?" I crossed my fingers and prayed he wasn't in the sewers. I had read all the stories about giant rats in the sewers of New York, and I was not going down there for anything.

  "He's not hiding. He has somehow taken over a goth club on the east side."

  I laughed. "Oh, they would love him. I bet all the little goth kids think he just has a ton of body modifications."

  "These aren't like your small-town goth kids, Harlow," Julian said, sitting across from me. "They are hardcore and creepy."

  I gave him a shocked look. I hadn't expected Julian to use a word like creepy. I mean, he spent all his time with half-demons who had horns, wings and scales. They were all creepy.

  "Okay, well, soon they will need a new club manager," I said, feeling confident from the cushy hotel suite. I knew I wouldn't feel quite the same faced with the demon.

  Julian smiled, and I realized he had a plate with a thin slice of pizza on it and was cutting off small bites with a fork and knife.

  "You eat taco pizza?"

  He just grinned and popped a tiny bite in his mouth. The world had gone crazy.

  "Harlow. I'm so sorry I overslept," Steven said, standing in the doorway with his head lowered.

  That was the final straw. "I am going to slaughter those Demon Division bastards!" I yelled. Steven's eyes went wide, and he took a step backwards. Shit. "Sorry, Steven. Listen. You don't have to ask permission for anything, and I don't expect anything from you. If you are tired, sleep. Hungry? Eat! I don't know who made you feel you can't do what you want or need, but you are a free man."

  He looked at me like I had lost my mind but edged towards the food cart that still had most of a pizza left after Rory ate his fill.

  I nodded encouragement, and finally, the skinny half-demon picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite. His eyes kept shooting back toward me like I might attack him at any moment, but I kept the smile on my face and went back to my conversation with Julian.

  "So, we can just hop into the club, I'll freeze the jerk-face demon."

  Julian shook his head. "We can try, but don't say I didn't warn you about the goths. It opens at ten."

  "Great, so it's open now, let's go," I said.

  "No. Ten pm," Julian said.

  "Oh, God. That is way past my bedtime." At least I didn't have to get up and chase gargoyles in the morning.

  Rory laughed from the other side of the room where he had flung himself down on the couch. "Harlow is a grandma."

  "I'm not a grandma, I just need my sleep." I scowled and flipped him the bird.

  He laughed, and even Julian cracked a mile.

  "What are we doing today, then?" I asked to try to move the conversation away from teasing me.

  Julian nodded. "I thought we could look into Nick's alleged crimes."

  "Brilliant idea. I probably have investigative skills I never knew about. I'll need a notebook and pen so I can take notes when we interview witnesses and stuff. We might need an unmarked white van, too -- for surveillance."

  "Harlow is the new Nancy Drew," Rory snickered.

  I scowled at my annoying first lieutenant.

  "I know all the addresses of the murders," Steven whispered from across the room.

  We all stared at him like he just grew horns.

  "You have them written down?" I asked.

  "No," he replied. "I have a photographic memory." His voice was low like this was a guilty admission.

  I laughed, and Rory joined me.

  "You are a lot more interesting than you were a second ago," Julian said, making the younger half-demon drop his eyes and pick at the pizza on his plate.

  "Okay, so we have access to everything the Demon Division had?" Rory asked.

  "Well..." Steven blushed. "Not everything, but I might have peeked at most of the directives and memos I've filed in the last two years."

  "Two years?" I asked. "How old are you?" he didn't look over 1sixteen

  "I'm twenty-one I've been staying with the Division for the last six years, but they only let me get them food until I was nineteen."

  "Shit," Julian said under his breath.

  "Who the hell are these Division people, anyway? Were they keeping Steven as a slave?" My voice shook with anger.

  Julian looked like he was trying to pick out his words when Steven spoke again.

  "They kept me safe. I wasn't doing well with the humans."

  "What do you mean? You could pass for human." I moved across the room to sit closer to Steven.

  He bit his lip and glanced at Julian then back at me then to the floor. "I don't have many half-demon features, but I have one."

  He looked up at me, and his eyes bled to red an eerie glow spilling out that could probably light a room.

  "Shit."

  "Yeah, it took me years to control it because I'm not powerful," Steven said, closing his eyes for a moment and then looking back up at me with blue eyes. "I still mess up sometimes when I'm scared."

  I reached across the table and put my hand on his cold one. I decided right then I had to help these half-demons who didn't fit in. There had to be more that couldn't pass for human. Were they being crushed under the heel of the powerful half-demons like the Division and Ju
lian? I looked over at Julian, who actually looked embarrassed.

  "This isn't okay," I said.

  Julian knew what I meant and nodded. He knew how I felt about the half-demons trying to emulate demons. Humanity had its' problems, but demons were not someone to look up to.

  “All right, Steven. Let's go figure out who framed Nick."

  Steven almost smiled, and I grinned back at him. I could definitely channel Nancy Drew for Nick.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  That is how we found ourselves in a dark alley behind a Chinese food restaurant. I could hear scratching and scurrying around the dumpsters from the mouth of the alley.

  "Harlow, come over here. They are as afraid of you as you are of them."

  I didn't appreciate the humour in Rory's voice. "I can see fine from here. Who died in this alley, anyway?"

  Steven stood off to the side, making himself small as he had a habit of doing. "A woman named Lily. She had claws that pressed out of her fingers and was a librarian in her human life."

  "You are a handy person to have around, Steven. How did she die?" I asked.

  He grinned and looked up at Julian before biting his lip and looking back at me. The thought he had never received a compliment before saddened me.

  "Someone stabbed her with an eight-inch long knife."

  "Oh, damn." Just like the one Nick had used in Jackson. I thought for a moment while Rory flipped over cardboard boxes and garbage. "That doesn't mean he killed her. What other evidence did they have?"

  Steven shrugged. "I only saw the autopsy and her background information." He flinched away as Julian walked past him towards me, sparking my anger again. No one should ever be afraid of the way Steven was.

  "Harlow. You should probably prepare yourself in case Nick did this. I know it's hard to believe, but he wouldn't be the first demon-touched to go crazy."

  "He didn't. I know he didn't. He might have taken more interest in combat than I did, but he didn't kill a librarian." Even the thought made me want to laugh. Nick was a good guy. A good guy with a big knife is still a good guy. "Let's go see the next one."

  "Wait," Rory said from the far end of the alley. "There are some scratches here."

  Julian and Steven moved back down the alley, and they all discussed it too quietly for me to hear.

  "What is it?" I asked. They ignored me and continued pointing and speaking low. "Fuck."

  I took a few steps, glancing around to keep an eye out for rats. Then sprinted past the dumpster that had the most scratching noises coming from it, stopping pressed up beside Julian. He slid an arm around me, and I felt like he might actually protect me from the fuzzy rodent demons. On the pavement before us was a wide set of scratches with what looked like old blood stains.

  "Did the librarian make those scratches?" I asked.

  "Probably," Julian said. "Nick doesn't have claws."

  I glared at him. "You have to look at the evidence objectively. It wasn't Nick, anyway."

  "You also need to be objective. Nick could have done this." Julian pointed to the rusty-looking stain on the ground.

  "Fine," I accepted. "We both need to be objective."

  "I can objectively say, any half-demon with claws could have left these marks," Rory pitched in. He was so helpful. I rolled my eyes.

  "Okay, can we stop using the word objective and move on?" I asked, waving my hands to try to get off this line of conversation.

  We walked back out of the alley. Well, the guys walked out. I ran out at huntress-speed and waited for them beside the limo. We were pretty obvious taking the limo, but it was handy to have a driver so we could look at maps and discuss things while he drove us around.

  I slid into the warm leather seat and waited for the guys. My phone rang in my pocket, and I took it out hoping it was Len or Lincoln, but it said, 'Unknown Number.'

  "Hello?" I said, holding the cell to my face.

  "Daughter, what are you doing?" The demonic voice slithered through the phone, reaching my ear with the echo of screaming voices. A chill raced up my spine.

  "Nothing," I said. Praying he wasn't watching me from somewhere on the street.

  A dark chuckle raised the hair on my arms. "Lying is a sin. You know what happens to sinners?" The humour never left his voice, but the screams got louder. I wondered if people were actually screaming wherever he was.

  Julian slid into the car and caught my eye with a questioning look.

  "Is your admirer there with you?" the demon asked.

  Julian froze. His extra good hearing probably caught the question from my possible father.

  "I'll assume he is. Julian, you should leave the city. You're next." The line went dead, and I dropped the phone like it had burned me. He had basically confirmed that he had framed Nick and would do the same to Julian if he didn't leave town. Or was he saying Julian would be dead like the librarian?

  Steven and Rory climbed into the limo, and the car rolled down the street while Julian held my eye.

  "You should go," I said.

  Julian scoffed. "If anyone is leaving, it's you. I don't want you brought down with me."

  "What's going on?" Rory asked.

  We ignored him.

  "He didn't threaten me." I pointed out.

  "I am not leaving you." He crossed the limo to sit beside me and pull me close to him on the bench seat. He pressed his lips to my temple. "We will get him." His voice was a soft whisper. I glanced at Rory and Steven, but they were politely looking out the window. I turned into Julian's embrace. This situation was crap.

  After a long moment, I pulled myself together. We had to focus on Nick for today. Tonight, we would go find my father and send him back to hell. That was the plan.

  "Let's go to the next site," I said.

  Steven gave the address to the driver, and I sat back against Julian to watch the city go by. The traffic was heavy, and people scurried around, crossing the streets and moving in and outbuildings and shops. The city had a certain beauty when you looked past the dark corners and deep, dirty alleys.

  I felt so removed from it. Not like Humber Falls where I felt a part of the knit fabric of the town. This city moved without me and around me. I wondered if everyone felt that way, but I didn't have long to think about it because the limo pulled over double parked in front of a bodega.

  "This is it?" I asked. Steven nodded and slid out the door, followed by Rory. Julian stopped me before I could step out.

  "I need you to know I'm with you, Harlow. If you say Nick didn't do this, I believe you. I trust you."

  I sighed and pressed back against Julian. "Thank you," I whispered before leaning in and capturing his soft lips with mine. His hand slid up to cup the back of my head, and my muscles melted against him till I was all jello.

  He pulled away and gave me a smile that made my heart skip a beat. I would do anything to keep that look on his face.

  I took his hand and pulled him out of the car with me. Rory and Steven stood in the doorway of the small shop, peering in. Police tape still fluttered across the front, but it stopped none of us.

  "Hello?" Rory called in the door as we approached from behind him and Steven.

  A scruffy bearded man hustled down from the back of the store and met us at the door. "We aren't open again yet," he said, wiping sweat from his brow.

  "Could we just see inside? We are investigating," I said.

  "I don't have time for this unless you are with the police, you have to go."

  Julian stepped forward and placed his hand on the man's shoulder, causing his face to smooth out from angry and impatient to calm and quiet.

  "We will only be a moment," Julian breathed.

  "Okay, sure." The man smiled up at Julian and pulled the door open to welcome us in. I had experienced Julian's power before, but it never made me change my mind like that. He made me feel calmer or safe, but he had a lot more power than I realized. I tucked that information away to think about later. Julian wasn't a demon.

  The
small store was half destroyed. Cans and boxes were spread around with chips and sticky pop caked to the floor. I tried to step around the worst of it, but it was everywhere. It wouldn't be the worst thing I had stepped in. Old lady Gertrude back in Humber Falls had a Pomeranian, and the woman's eyesight wasn't great. So, when she walked the dog in the park sometimes, she left the little piles of poop unscooped. Dog poop was definitely the worst thing to step in. Zero stars. Do not recommend.

  The man had cleaned and scrubbed one back corner. This job would easily take days. There was no way Nick could have made this big a mess either.

  Rory led us to the other back corner where there was a visible blood stain. The smell was foul like old pennies and rusty nails.

  "There," Steven said, pointing to the wall. Claw marks dug deeply into the wall. "This victim didn't have claws." He whispered the last part as the bodega owner was standing nearby. Rory was distracting him with questions.

  I took Steven's cold hand and gave it a squeeze. He gasped and then smiled a moment later and dropped his eyes to the floor. I could already see a difference in the young half-demon as if the small amount of praise was bringing him out of his shell.

  Rory finished asking questions, and we thanked the man before stepping around the mess and back into the limo. I had something unrecognizable on my shoe and tried to decide if I could wipe it on the floor. Too late to wipe it off on the curb.

  I glanced around, but Rory was watching me with a smirk on his face. Obviously, he had been watching me consider my options. I didn't really want to wipe it on the floor in the limo, but I didn't want stuff on my boot either. The longer it was there, the more likely I would get it on the bottom of my pant leg. Then there would be no hope.

  I carefully sat with both feet on the floor.

  "Do we want to go to another location?" I asked.

  Julian looked up from his phone. "It's getting late, we need to change before we go to that club tonight. I don't own clothes suitable, so perhaps we should go shopping."

  I sighed. There was no time to order online, so the mall was our only option. Maybe I could stop in and visit Roderick at Ties 'n Things and his secret stock room with hunter supplies. I fingered the opal Julian had given me. It was an unfamiliar weight against my collar bones so a constant reminder of the gift he gave me. Its surface was smooth and cool.