The Trouble with Demons Read online

  Mesmerized by her actions, Hunter hoped she would manage to save the man on her own and prove to the others how worthy she was.

  “We have a lot of things to discuss,” her uncle suddenly said, giving Alana a harsh look.

  She stopped her healing chant and looked up at him.

  “Yeah.” Hunter closed the gap and directed his words at Alana. “We do.” Why hadn’t she told him before that she was a witch?

  She raised her brows at him. Turning to her uncle, Alana said, “I told you I was half demon. You wouldn’t listen.”

  Her uncle motioned to Hunter. “What is he?”

  “Half Matusa demon,” Hunter said, and proud of it.

  “I’m Kubiteron,” Alana said, and pointing to Jared added, “he’s Elantus.”

  “Different demon types? Never heard of them.”

  “You didn’t believe in demons, period,” she scoffed, her eyes hard, but still green.

  Zoros took a deep breath and his eyes fluttered open.

  “He’s back, thank God.” Yolan squeezed the man’s gray hand.

  “What now?” Crissie asked.

  Hunter patted her shoulder. “Jared can take you home. I’m going with Alana.”

  “Like hell you are.” Stephen rose to his full height like an enraged grizzly.

  Yolan motioned to the other warlocks. “Take Zoros home and call one of our healers.”

  Hunter glowered at Stephen. “I’m going with Alana, because she asked me to. A deed for a deed. She would find my father who would cure me, then I would help her fight the Matusa who’s after her.”

  “She’s safe now in our world.” Her Uncle Stephen wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “She doesn’t need help from your kind.”

  “My kind is what will come after her. The Matusa saw her watching him when he murdered a woman. Either he will want her dead if he already has a mate, or he will want her for his own, rest assured. If you care for Alana, I’d think you’d want anyone’s offer of help to protect her.”

  Though her uncle’s lips remained fixed in a grim line, Yolan nodded and her uncle finally acquiesced.

  “What about me?” Jared sounded like he was afraid he’d miss all the fun.

  “One demon is quite enough,” her uncle said.

  Alana hmpfed. “Two, Uncle, but who’s counting?”

  Hunter slapped Jared on the back. “Watch for a Matusa’s signature. If it comes anywhere near us, let me know.”

  Jared smiled, but the look in his eyes reflected wickedness. “Will do.”

  A genius when it came to electronic gizmos, Jared could track demon signatures anywhere in the city. All he had to do was trace Hunter’s signature until he found where he settled for the night, then notify him if another came into the area.

  But before Hunter left the hospital, he had to check in with his human father, to let him know he’d miraculously recovered and would be spending some time with Alana’s family. Thankfully, his adoptive father was so grateful the “cure” had worked, he gave him his blessing and said he’d smooth it over with Mom. Hunter had to discover all he could about witches and warlocks or whatever they were though. Here he thought he’d known everything there was to know.

  Until he met Alana.

  ***

  Hunter stared in awe at Alana’s uncle’s overwhelmingly large two-story, brick mansion, which made him wonder what her uncle did for a living. Inside, every bit of furniture from the velvet pinstriped couches to the solid oak, intricately-carved tables looked brand new and expensive. The same with the Turkish carpets covering the floors and the oil paintings of fields of bluebonnets hanging on virtually every wall. Whatever he worked at, the business sure must pay well.

  Alana fidgeted with what looked like a crystal ball on the living room table as she sat on one of the couches. Fortuneteller? He shook his head, still not believing this business about witches and the like, though he couldn’t deny if Alana’s uncle and his friends hadn’t had some kind of powers they would all be dead in the demon world.

  Stephen stalked back into room, his red-bearded face grim. He gave Alana a sharp nod. “Protection spells are in place.”

  “But mine didn’t work against the Matusa.” She sounded discouraged and her shoulders sagged a little.

  “Wrong spells. The kind Yolan and the rest of us cast worked, until Zoros grew too weak. I haven’t shown you the advanced personal protection spells yet. That’s what we were going to work on when you woke this morning, but instead you ran off to the hospital in the middle of the night.”

  She set the crystal ball down on the table into a four-legged brass stand and folded her arms. Hunter distanced himself from the two, watching their actions and reactions.

  Stephen cast him an annoyed look, then sat on a chair across from Alana. “Well, Alana? Tell me about this father of yours.”

  “Mom told you how I came to be. But you didn’t believe her.” Alana’s voice remained on edge, though she looked exhausted for being up so late.

  “Who was the father… your real father?”

  “She didn’t know his name.”

  Her uncle snorted, his brows furrowed.

  “Well, don’t think I’m any happier about it!” Alana snapped. She took a deep breath. “She didn’t even tell me until I turned seventeen and only then because weird things began to happen.” Alana’s cheeks colored. “One day when I was driving us home from the store, a guy nearly ran me off the road. Mom nearly had a conniption when my eyes started glowing red. That afternoon, she bought me green contact lenses. But then the strangest thing kept happening. No matter where I was—though thankfully it never happened when I was driving the car—the opening of a portal into the demon world drew me to its location.

  “Well, not exactly me, but it’s like an astral form of me, or something. What’s weird is now anyone in the area can see me as clearly as I sit before you. Earlier, I seemed to be invisible.” She let out her breath and for the first time Hunter noticed she looked drained.

  “It’s happened five times to me, not counting the times Hunter called me.” She gave him an evil look, and he cast her a small smile. Didn’t she know how much her scowls encouraged his interest in her?

  She shifted her attention away from Hunter and looked at the coffee table. “In four of the cases, summoners had brought demons other than Matusa forth. I’m not sure why they do it. Except thinking it’s a game, or maybe just playing with what they think is the occult. Witches and warlocks, well most, know better. Mom was just bored and thought it was a game. Of course, it’s possible that witches or warlocks might get hold of one of these summoning books and plan to do some harm, commanding a demon to do its bidding. In the last case, I saw three Goth-looking women summoning a Matusa, and he murdered one of them. I’m sure he killed the others, leaving no witnesses. But he saw me watching.”

  “Is this a demon trait? This ability to be someplace in your mind?” her uncle asked, his voice anxious.

  Looking for answers, she turned to Hunter.

  Hunter cleared his throat, not knowing what to think. “I don’t believe so. That’s why Jared kept saying he thought Alana wasn’t human because they can’t do that, nor can demons.”

  “Witches can’t either,” her uncle said with firm conviction. “Was it Hunter who brought you to his hospital room, Alana?”

  “Yes, by opening the portal. He didn’t summon me. But it’s as if the portal, if opened somewhere nearby, draws me forth.”

  Her uncle pondered the notion, then directed the next question to Hunter. “Can you kill the Matusa if he comes for her?”

  Hunter shrugged. “I can try.”

  Her uncle’s steely gaze tightened.

  “Jared said you’ve gotten rid of two already.” Alana sounded hopeful.

  “Self-defense. I was trying to return them to their world, but they didn’t like the idea. Of course, I could always marry Alana, then the other Matusa would have to leave her alone.”

  “Marry?” she
shrieked. “No way would I marry a Matusa who thinks he can summon me at his whim.”

  Hunter didn’t attempt to hide his amusement at her outburst. Alana had genuinely been ecstatic when he appeared in the court of records, raised from his deathbed. Unless the demon side of her had faked her enthusiasm, hoping he’d rescue her from the demon world. No, she had been thrilled to see him alive and healthy again. Not that he wanted to marry her, either. But he loved getting a rise out of her.

  Hunter straightened his back. “I didn’t say I wanted to marry you.” Her cheeks flushed anew, and he loved seeing her reaction. “What demon in his right mind would want to marry a witch? Beyond that, what self-respecting Matusa would take on a lesser demon who won’t obey him?”

  He half expected her uncle to defend her, but his mouth curved up slightly. He let his niece respond instead.

  “Lesser?” she said, her voice becoming demonically shrill. “I’m not a lesser demon! Maybe I’m not as strong or heartless as you, but I’m not beneath you!” Her eyes turned their beautiful fiery red like the blood moon on an autumn day.

  “Okay, now that we’ve had demonology lesson 101, start talking about this little business about your being a witch.” Hunter’s gaze bored into Alana’s.

  “Only family knows of such a thing,” her uncle said. “Being that you’re not family, if you learn too much, we would have to kill you.” Her uncle’s mouth quirked up.

  A little demon-type humor? Hunter was already beginning to like Alana’s uncle. He definitely had demon potential.

  “You could try,” Hunter replied. “Think of me as family. You know I’m half demon. Now I know you’re witches and the like. But I need to know what skills you possess that could help us against the Baltimore Matusa. I hate to mention it, but Ferengus will also probably try to slip into our world. When a human attempts to call forth a demon in the city, I’d lay odds he’ll be waiting.”

  “That’s the other thing I don’t understand,” her uncle said. “How are people getting the spell to open a passage to the demon world? Alana’s mother is a witch and so were her college girlfriends, so I figure they might have stumbled across a book of summoning in a shop. But your mother wasn’t a witch. Where are these people getting the summoning ritual?”

  Hunter thought back to the summoning book in the box of trash. He had to destroy it before anyone else got hold of it, though he would ask his mother first if she’d gotten the portal spell from it. And if so, where had she gotten it from? Why hadn’t he thought to question her before?

  Well, he was barely alive when she first came to him, which probably had something to do with it. Then he had to rescue Alana, and after that, her uncle. No wonder it had slipped his mind.

  “Jared’s been trying to track down the source, while he watches for signatures of demons entering the area. As soon as he locates one, I send them back. With the lesser ones, it’s no problem. A human attempts to enslave one to do his bidding, so the demon is grateful to be released. I thought that was Alana’s case and wanted to free her from her summoner.”

  She lifted a brow.

  “What was I to think? In most cases, the demon is glad that I free them and send them home. The summoner is so terrified of me, they don’t attempt to summon again. On the other hand, I destroy the summoning book they’ve used so that helps to stop them, too, if they haven’t memorized the spell. But we need to find where the summoning books are coming from.”

  “You said in most cases the demons are happy to return to their home world,” Alana said.

  “Except for the Matusa. They want to control the human populace, and no one will rule them. Which makes me think a Matusa is at the root of all of these summonings. The more Matusa demons he can have brought into this world, the more havoc he can cause.” Hunter took a deep breath. “There was another who didn’t want to return to the demon world. She cried when I sent her back.”

  “Why?”

  “I guess she wanted to stay with her summoner. But she didn’t belong here. We’re here because we’re half demon. She needed to be with her own kind.”

  Alana didn’t seem convinced. “What if they truly loved each other? The summoner and the demon? What if she had a miserable existence in the demon world and her summoner offered her something better? Are we playing God?” She didn’t say it as if she was including herself.

  He would not be baited, though he clamped his teeth down to avoid grinding them.

  “What about Jared?” she asked, her chin lifting.

  “That’s different. He’s lived all his life in the human world. He’s still searching for his real parents, but until he finds them, he’ll remain here. He’s not enslaved, unless you call his adoptive parents making him take out the trash or mow the yard slave work. But I have another question for you. Why couldn’t Jared locate your signature in the city?”

  “Maybe because of my uncle’s protection spells on the house to prevent burglary attempts?”

  Hunter’s cell phone buzzed at his belt, and he pulled the phone from its pouch. “Jared, what’s up?”

  “I’ve taken your mother home, but she wants to know if she can have your cell phone number so she can keep in touch.”

  “Sure. Let me talk to her, will you?”

  “Just a sec.”

  “Yes, Hunter?” his mother said, her voice worried.

  “Where did you get the summoning book to open the portal?”

  She gave a disgruntled laugh. “My brother sent it to me as a joke for my twenty-fifth birthday. Said since I couldn’t find a man that would make me happy, maybe I could summon one. He could be a real bastard sometimes. Everyone had left after the birthday party, and I was feeling morose. I couldn’t sleep. So I played around with the summoning spell. And out of a whirlwind of a portal steps your father.”

  “Where’d your brother get the book from?”

  “Some weird incense shop, he said. I gave it to the people who adopted you. I told them it was your family’s and you should keep it. I thought if you ever wanted to open the portal and see your father, you’d need the summoning book. But I memorized the spell just in case I ever got up the nerve to call your father back. I… I can’t believe we’ve found each other. Thank Alana and Jared for making it happen.”

  “Uh, yeah, I will.” He wasn’t about to tell his mother he’d discovered the summoning book in the box of trash and that his adopted parents had never told him about it. Though he could understand their reservations. They probably thought it was a book on devil worship. Though why they’d kept it so long, he hadn’t a clue. Unless it was because it was so old and maybe they thought it was valuable, then changed their minds and dumped it into the box of trash. “You wouldn’t happen to know which incense shop your brother got it from, would you?”

  “My brother died in a car accident a few days after he’d given me the book, driving drunk as usual. At least he didn’t injure anyone else that time. So no, I don’t know where he got it exactly and now we can’t ask him. Hunter, I… I don’t want us to be strangers. I’d like for us to get to know each other.”

  He wasn’t sure how he felt. Still a bit rejected, maybe, that she’d given him up to complete strangers. Annoyed that she hadn’t bothered to search for him for the past eighteen years. Reserved, and not willing to give up the grudge. “Sure, we’ll have to do that.”

  “Do you think Bentos will come back to see me again? Now that he knows you exist?”

  What was he supposed to say? If he was fully demon, he would have told her the truth.

  Chapter 14

  Alana watched the expression on Hunter’s face, first serious, then concerned while he talked to his mother over the phone in her uncle’s living room. She’d never thought a Matusa demon could have any feelings of disquiet, but she guessed it was Hunter’s human half showing through.

  “I wouldn’t get your hopes up concerning Bentos, Mom,” Hunter warned. “You know what he said. He’s one of the Dark Ones. You need to find someone else.
I’ve got to go. Call me anytime.”

  He snapped his phone shut and glared at Alana. “Why don’t you have a cell phone? If you had one it would have made it so much easier to keep in touch with you. And while we’re on the subject, why didn’t you telepathically contact me and say you and Jared were still safe at the hall of records?”

  “For your information, Dark One, my mother didn’t want a cell phone. We telepathically communicate when we need to. And I wasn’t sure you could hear me anyway when I was in the demon world. Besides, I was kind of distracted.”

  Hunter turned his attention to her uncle, who immediately looked annoyed.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t have a cell phone? I’ll get you mine.” Her uncle stalked out of the room.

  Alana crossed her arms. “You know, you could speak to me more nicely. And to think you want to marry me.”

  Hunter gave a sinister laugh. “In your dreams.”

  She raised a brow. “I’d say it was more likely in yours. So, what are we going to do about this Baltimore demon?”

  Hunter stretched his legs under the coffee table. “Wait for him. It’s safer than if we searched for him in Baltimore. If your uncle’s protection spells work—and they appeared to when they were battling the demons—we need to wait here until he comes.”

  Alana didn’t want to wait. Her motto was to take charge and get a thing done. Never procrastinate. She sighed. But she figured she couldn’t do it without Hunter, as much as relying on someone else to help her didn’t appeal. At least if she screwed up, she had only herself to blame.

  Uncle Stephen returned to the living room. “Here’s my phone.” He glanced at Hunter. “You can sleep in the guestroom next to my bedroom. And don’t mess with anything in there while you stay with us—I keep it clean for anyone that pops in for a visit. One further thing, I’ll be using a protection spell to cloak Alana’s room, so don’t get any ideas.” Her uncle gave Hunter a piercing look. “Why don’t we all get some rest? It’s already past—”

  “The bewitching hour,” Hunter said. “Witches, warlocks.” He shook his head, but the darkly amused look he gave Alana warned her he didn’t think her uncle could protect her from him at all.