CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVEI didn’t think I had a destination in mind, but soon, I found myself parking my bike near a rocky cove near the water. The sea always calmed me. Its homicidal anger made me feel like I was mellow in comparison.I climbed down the rocks, careful not to slip and knock myself out. The way my day was going, that was a fairly likely scenario. Something reached out with soft, black tentacles, and I kicked it with my boot.“Uninvited,” I told it. It withdrew.Mom had also loved the sea. It’s one of the only things we had in common. She was soft and delicate with a quiet, gentle voice, not like me at all. She was everything I wished I had been.She had died when Seth and I were still pretty young. Cancer. It didn’t creep up on her like you always hear about. It came hard and swift and took her almost before we realized it. So fast she didn’t have time to harden. She just wilted like a flower without enough water. Strangely beautiful and tragic at the same time.Someth
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX“So?” Seth said to me. He looked better than he had the last time I’d seen him. They must have slipped some perky meds into his breakfast. Now if only they’d give him some pants, things would be almost perfect.“So I had a showdown with Sparkles’ demon, but she wasn’t there. And Lydia wasn’t there either.”His face fell. “You didn’t see Lydia at all?”I chose my words carefully. “Well, I thought I saw Lydia, but it turned out to be a demon instead. Wearing, you know, Lydia’s form.”Seth’s face went red. I wanted to smile because it was something that used to happen to my father, and Seth hated that it was passed on to him, but I wisely abstained. This girl has some brains, I tell you.“Tell me what happened.”“Trust me, big bro, you don’t want to know.”“Tell me.”His voice sounded like rusty metal, sharp and dangerous. I told him with as little detail as I could. It still made my voice shake and my hands clench, however. I watched Seth turn red and white in
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENThey grilled me forever. Then they grilled Seth. Being the estranged ex of a missing woman made him a natural suspect.“I’ll answer any question you have,” he said, dignity rolling off him in waves. “Just let me fetch some pants first.”After they left, I grudgingly headed to work. I wanted to call out more than anything, but Seth was taking an involuntary leave of absence from his job, and the medical bills were gonna start rolling in. Besides, working with needles might sooth me.Yeah, that was a nice thought, but stabbing didn’t make me feel any better. I was kind. I slid the needle under my client’s skin with grace and decorum.It sucked. Literally.I wanted to stab something good and hard. I wanted to find a demon, knock it to the ground, and demand it take me to Sparkles. As soon as I got off of work, I was going to do some sleuthing of my own. I’ll track her down, show up on whatever doorstep she was haunting, and kindly ask for Lydia back. Who could r
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTI was sitting at the kitchen table staring at my ill-gotten vial of blood when the phone rang.“Hey,” Seth said. “I made a few phone calls today. I think we’ve been going about it all wrong. We’ll never get Lydia back this way. We’re going to have to make some changes to the plan.”I tossed the dark red vial from hand to hand. From the look of things, Bradley Guzman had an iron count that would make Nathan Stark blush. He also needed to hydrate more, but it didn’t seem in my best interest to track him down and let him and the demon know.“What plan? The fight at OK Corral plan? Where I heroically find Lydia and snatch her away from the jaws of Demonic Sparkles?”He sighed. “Yes. That plan. How’s it working for us so far?”I growled.“Exactly.”“So what does the new and improved plan entail?”He suddenly sounded very weary. “We have to look as stable as possible. Can you do that? Act like a fine, upstanding citizen? I’ll try not to kill myself, and you don’
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINEI was sitting on a carefully neutral couch, staring into the face of a carefully neutral woman.“What are you thinking?” she asked me. Her voice was, no surprise, carefully neutral.I was thinking that I hated this place. I was thinking that Seth’s idea of playing by the rules totally bites, especially since it meant meeting with a counselor to see if we’re crazycakes. I’m thinking that this broad could use a little pizazz, like some bright lipstick or highlights in her hair. That made me think of Reed Taylor, which made me think that I hate myself a little bit. And that made me mad, which made me hate everything else. A lot.“I was thinking about how my motorcycle is in the shop and how grateful I am to my kind brother for letting me borrow his car today. He’s so caring and responsible.”I tuck my combat boots neatly together and smile demurely at the woman. She almost smiles back but not really.“Luna, you know why we’re here.”“Yes.”“Why don’t you tell m
CHAPTER FORTY“Therapy must be good for you. You hardly look homicidal at all.”“Ha ha, big brother.”I threw myself into an empty chair and tossed the car keys to Seth. He was crouched over the kitchen table, doing his ceaseless paperwork. Filing for custody, filing to see Lydia whenever she was found, doing whatever he could. Truth was, I was feeling pretty good. I wouldn’t say the counselor was playing for Team Luna, per se, but she wasn’t running around with the demonic hordes. That’s a step in the right direction.I looked at Seth. “Don’t repeat this, and if you do, I’ll deny saying it, but I think that things might eventually turn out after all.”“I wouldn’t count on it.”I was out of my chair so fast that Seth nearly fell over. Papers scattered everywhere. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?” he asked.Mouth was standing in the doorway. He looked equal parts grim and angry.“What are you doing here?” I asked him. My hands were balled against my sides, but I didn’t notice. “P
CHAPTER FORTY-ONEIt took Seth about 60 seconds to come to. I was ready.“Tell me about this Tip-Toe Shadow.”He moaned, touched the back of his head where he had hit the floor. “I want a drink. Do we have anything to drink? Whisky? Vodka?”“Since when have you touched a drop? Stop stalling, and tell me about them. Now.”His face was dangerously white. Part of me said to stop riding him so hard, and the other part said to heck with it, press the guy until he squawks. I don’t know what exactly was going on with Mouth back there, but it had been major. And it had been ugly.“Did . . . did this demon really say to tell you about the Tip-Toe Shadow? I mean, did it use that name?” He turned huge eyes on me, and suddenly Seth seemed decades younger. It scared me.“Yes. What do I need to know?”He sighed, and it was such a hollow, broken sound. Chilling, really, especially from Pulled-Together Seth.“You know that name, Luna. You just don’t remember. You were too young. We both were.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWOSeth was right about the rain. It started when I was about half a mile from the house. I could feel the anger on my face, and my mascara was surely running. I had to look like a lunatic.I snorted. The irony of it was that I had been trying so hard to be normal. Not just lately but always. Life isn’t kind to outcasts, and nobody is on the fringes more than the Demon Girl. And Seth knew? Had caused it?I couldn’t think about it anymore. My head would explode, and I would murder my brother. Besides that, Seth was the only person in the world I had at the moment. No matter how angry I was, I still loved him.Although there are different levels of love and now he’s just dropped down a few hundred pegs. Bottom rung love. Subterranean love.A demon wisped by. It had the body of human and the head of a dog. Great. Just what I needed: another reminder of demonic Lydia’s wolf murderer. Like that scene hadn’t already played itself out in my head a zillion times today.Mou