CHAPTER THIRTYMan but kicking Reed Taylor Demon in the head felt good. It revved up the anger in me, and I had a feeling that anger more than anything else was going to save my life today.The room was different than the others. It was large and cavernous, made completely of stone, both the floors and the walls. A mist blew through it like we were down at the dock. Come to think of it, it smelled alive, like forest and trees and something older than time.I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.There was a chuckle that made the hair on my arms stand up. I recognized it immediately.“Mmm, Luna,” the voice purred. My head rocketed around the room, looking for the source of it, but it wasn’t to be found. This was my least favorite demon trick ever, I swear. It got old, fast.“Mmm, Sparkles. Where are you hiding, you coward? Are you saying you’re afraid to face little ole me?” I batted my eyes. “I’m flattered. I didn’t realize I was such a powerhouse.”The voice laughed, and I h

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWOI thought I had experienced despair before. Finding my father swinging inside of our very own home nearly broke me. Finding Seth in the bathtub drove me closer to the brink than I had ever been. I didn’t think it could get any worse than that, really. I thought your mind had a threshold, and once you hit it, you were somehow immune to the horror. Like the universe would somehow say, “Congratulations, my dear, you have officially hit your allotment of misery. Now destruction will pass you by.” I thought if I was tough enough, and dealt with everything well enough, and kept a positive attitude, well, as much as possible, then somehow I would be rewarded. Everything would end up all right. Evil will fall and good will prevail, and there will be some glorious shining prize at the end of this terrible game, something that will make it worth the constant struggle that we call life.But I was wrong. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. No reward for living a good l

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURMouth flowed up to me as soon as I was off the property.“Luna, I’m so glad to see you.” He ran his eyes over me, lingering on the cuts, scrapes, and the blood. “You made it out.”“Barely!” I doubled up my fist and swung right for his face. My hand passed through, and I was batting harmlessly at the air.“What’s your problem?” Mouth didn’t even sound like himself. “I feel horrible you had to go in there alone, but I hoped you’d understand that once I go in, I can’t come back out. I couldn’t . . . and then this troublemaker shows up.” He jerked a thumb toward the beautiful redhead at my side. “Here, of all places. I would have kept him out if I could’ve, but . . . ”I swung at him again. Anger is so much safer than pain. “You sent me into a frickin’ nightmare! I saw such horrible things, and for what? Nothing! I’m still no closer to finding Lydia. I hoped she’d be there, but she wasn’t even in that awful house!”Mouth suddenly looked sick. I didn’t think that w

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-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’