The Last of the Demon Slayers ds-4 Read online

  He took my hand and drew me close. “I always knew you were special,” he said, caressing the soft spot at the base of my palms. “But angelic?”

  “Bona fide,” I said, running a finger down his arm. Maybe that’s why I’d always been so keen on following the rules.

  We began walking down the hall toward our room. We had the third on the left, according to Grandma.

  “Now tell me,” I said, “What do you know about angels?”

  He seemed to search for the right thing to say. “I’ve never met one.”

  “Until now,” I teased.

  He tried to appreciate the joke, but was still too shocked. “Most view angels as agents of the divine, representatives of everything good.”

  I snorted. “Instead of the things we usually run into.”

  His mouth twisted into a smile. “You could say that.”

  “Grandma says dad is a fallen angel,” I added.

  ”A being who has willfully turned away from the light.”

  He came up with that a bit quickly. “Wait ‘till you meet him.” And until I was through with him.

  We stopped in front of our room.

  “It’s extremely convenient that your dad didn’t tell you what he’s done,” Dimitri said.

  “He said he’d tell me in person. He didn’t want any supernatural eavesdroppers.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Dimitri, he’s my father. I have to help him.”

  And if I couldn’t, if I failed, would I have the courage to slay him?

  “Your father tried to compel you to go see him,” Dimitri said.

  I really didn’t want to talk about this. “What a power,” I said, trying to lighten things up. “It’s every parent’s dream come true.”

  Dimitri didn’t take the bait. “You understand what’s at stake here, Lizzie. He wants you badly. He’s holding the threat of his damnation over your head.” He paused, as if he didn’t want to say the rest. “He didn’t search you out until he needed you.”

  “I know.” It hurt to admit it even to myself: if my dad truly wanted me, he would have found a way to see me during the last thirty years. “But maybe this is a fresh start, a way to re-connect.”

  Dimitri frowned. “I hope so. I want that for you, Lizzie. But just remember, he may be your dad, but that doesn’t mean you’re similar souls.”

  “It doesn’t mean we’re not,” I reminded him.

  For as long as I could remember I’d wondered what my real dad was like. I’d given up on the idea of perfection a long time ago. I wasn’t a child.

  I’d also learned in my time as a slayer that things weren’t always as they appeared. Sure my dad hadn’t been there for me in the past, but he needed me now and I owed it to him and to myself to at least give him a chance.

  Dimitri’s expression remained dark. He’d gone into full protection mode. Heaven help us. “It also says something about him that he’d rob you of your free choice,” he said.

  “Kind of like the time you chained me to a tree?”

  He looked unimpressed. “That was for your own good.”

  It sure didn’t feel like it at the time.

  I flicked the light switch in our room and was disappointed when the room remained dark. Grandma must have forgotten to hex our place. Or maybe the light-em-up spell didn’t have an off switch.

  “Lizzie.” He brushed a lock of hair from my forehead, “I’m always behind you. No matter what.”

  He truly was my rock, my other half.

  “But I wonder if it is a good idea to get involved with your father.”

  He was the bane of my existence.

  I leaned against the door jamb and looked up at him. “You did it for your family.”

  Dimitri went to hell and back to end the curse on his sisters. Then he fought a rival family’s army in order to keep them safe. He’d sacrificed years off his life to train me as a demon slayer, even when he barely knew me, so I could help the people he loved. He wasn’t in any position to tell me what I could or could not do for my estranged father.

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. He realized it too, even if he refused to admit it. “I want more for you,” he said, towering above me in the narrow doorway.

  “Believe me.” I ran a hand down his chest, stopping above the place where the creature had bitten. “I have everything I need.” Despite the mess with my father and the banshee, I was happier than I’d ever been in my life. For the first time, I knew what I wanted – this life, him.

  Did he even know what having him meant to me?

  His eyes narrowed down to tiny slits as he weighed the options. “If we do this, I want to protect you.”

  “You already do.”

  “It’s not enough,” he said, moving closer.

  Yum.

  “I’m always willing to accept more emerald necklaces,” I teased.

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said, gruffly.

  “Leather jackets?” I asked as he nipped at my neck.

  He brought his body flush against mine. Double yum. Heat pooled in my belly. “Well if this is some kind of one-on-one body guarding, then I’m all for it.”

  He touched the emerald at my throat. “Will you accept more of my protection?”

  “I can’t.”

  Dimitri’s powers were different from mine. While I could levitate, he could shift and fly. When I slowed down time, he could speed it up. It made us formidable. But it also made us weak. When I’d fallen, he’d gone down with me.

  It gnawed at me that I could expose him and get him killed.

  “We need to each maintain our own strength,” I told him.

  “Don’t risk, don’t get too close,” he said, completing my thought with a scowl.

  I flattened my back against the hard wooden door jamb. “It’s not like that.” I could see he was hurt, and I hated it.

  It wasn’t fun, but it was the responsible thing to do.

  And there was also a deep, dirty secret I didn’t even like to admit to myself: when our relationship ended – and I knew it would – I didn’t know what I’d do without Dimitri. I didn’t need to make it any worse by entwining my powers with his.

  “You think I’m going back,” he said, accusing, but not denying he was needed elsewhere, away from me.

  “Your destiny is in Greece with your sisters.” No head of a griffin clan had ever left their homeland for long. Griffins were conquerors. They craved land and security, and Dimitri had left his holdings wide open. Even being here could leave his sisters open for attack. I cared about him, and them, too much to ignore it.

  He ran his hands through my lavender hair. “Why don’t you let me decide what’s best for me?”

  Stubborn man. “You always do.”

  Then he leaned in and kissed me and for a second I wanted to pull back and have our conversation. I wanted to tell him I did know what’s best and I could handle myself and I didn’t really need him but instead I yanked him closer and ground my body against him and never wanted to stop.

  His arms wound around me with a resolute, almost bruising strength. He slanted his mouth over mine, deepening the kiss, pulling me against him until suddenly I was on top of him and we were inside the door and on the bed.

  “Are you okay?” I tried to move away from his injured side.

  “Hush.”

  He lay over me, heavy and strong and I kissed him wildly. He had way too many clothes on. I nipped his lower lip and he groaned. Yes, yes. He was mine.

  I slithered away from him long enough to help ease his shirt off and toss it over his shoulder. Then I went to work on his belt buckle, a little too eager for my own good, but who cared? My body was on fire. Everything in me screamed for this man. For the second time tonight, I knew exactly what I wanted.

  And I’d have it as soon as I could master the buckle. “Is this thing welded on?”

  Meanwhile Dimitri was at work on my neck, layering hot kisses until I feared I’d melt from it all. “You’d
think you’d have enough practice by now.”

  I gave up and ran my hand along the hard ridge below his buckle. He groaned into my ear.

  “And you’d think you had an incentive to help.”

  “I was busy,” he gasped, solving my problem with two tugs and a tumble out of bed.

  He landed with a thud.

  “Are you okay?” I sat up to see my powerful griffin on the floor.

  “You’d better be naked by the time I get back up there.”

  I happily obliged.

  He rewarded me with a wet mouth on one breast and then the other, his tongue tugging at my nipples, hot, hungry and oh so skilled. I didn’t care if he dragged me down with the dust bunnies as long as he didn’t stop.

  His cock strained hard against my thigh and I shifted and curled, bringing it into contact with my sex.

  “Patience,” Dimitri groaned against my breast. He kissed up my chest. “Or I’m not responsible for what happens next.”

  Silly man.

  I kissed him long and deep.

  It had been a rough night. I needed him. Now.

  “Come here,” I said, easing the tip of him into me.

  “By the gods.” He strained his entire body away from me, but couldn’t quite bear to move himself from between my legs.

  “Got you now,” I whispered, nipping his neck.

  He swore in Greek.

  I had him. I knew it from the way he moved over me, hungry and wild. “Give it up, griffin.”

  “Yes,” he said, thrusting home.

  He dug into me hard and I savored every second of it, urging him on. Whispering his name in short, frantic breaths. He was so whole and so good and so alive it made me want to scream.

  My heels dug into his back, his fingers clutched my butt, holding me, positioning me just so. It was rough and hard and exactly what I needed.

  I jolted into a spine-bending orgasm. He shuddered hard groaning as he spent himself inside me.

  Afterward, he lay on top of me, holding just enough of his weight away on his elbows. I felt possessed, protected and wonderfully tingly as he planted a precise line of tiny kisses along my collarbone.

  “You must accept more,” he murmured.

  I ran my hands through his thick black hair. Perhaps. But not yet. Right now, I just wanted to savor the moment.

  This man made me feel safe. And needed. And loved.

  At present, that was more than enough. As for tomorrow, well, we’d see what happened beyond the old brick walls of Big Nose Kate’s.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning, I headed downstairs with renewed confidence. Dimitri had helped me forget my troubles two more times, with spine-tingling results. My, I loved dating an overachiever.

  He’d brushed my lavender hair and he’d even helped me rig up a flashlight holder on my demon slayer utility belt. The Maglite hung heavy on my waist.

  Downstairs was deserted, save for a grumpy fairy bent over a ginormous fold-out map.

  Sid could have been Danny DeVito’s brother. He was shorter than most and balding. What was left of his hair circled his head like a wiry black halo. He’d tried to cover his natural bubblegum scent with Brut for Men. Trust me, it wasn’t a good combination.

  “What?” he demanded without looking up from his map.

  He’d flung the enormous thing over two bar tables. It still lopped over the edges. The Martha Stewart in me didn’t know how he was going to fold it all up again.

  We’d picked up Sid in Las Vegas a few months back. Actually, Ant Eater had swept Sid off of his little sparkly feet. They were like Ozzie and Harriet on a Harley.

  “What’s going on?” I asked the fairy.

  Dimitri had headed out back to double check our bikes. I could hear the witches in the back store room, loading up everything they’d unpacked yesterday afternoon.

  “Do you mind?” Sid scowled at me as if I’d eaten the last Oreo. “I’m getting us out of here.”

  “Good.” I scooted in to get a better look.

  Highways and smaller connected roads zigzagged across Sid’s map. They ran between major cities and smaller towns and seemed perfectly normal - until you added a network of winding green fairy trails, with names like Hobblers Knob and Limey Crook’s Shaft.

  Maybe I hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night. “Nether Wallup Way? You’ve got to be kidding.” I pointed at a particularly nonsensical route that wound in corkscrews between Trenton and Philadelphia.

  “Cut it, Lady Gaga.”

  He didn’t have to bring my hair into it.

  Sid glared at me. “Nether Wallup Way happens to be the fastest path out of here.”

  “Path,” I repeated, taking a second look at the map while at the same time resisting the urge to touch my head. “Oh no. We’re not taking any paths. We need the interstate.” I had to get to my dad as quickly as possible.

  His bushy brows shot up, deepening the cascade of wrinkles etched into his forehead. “Last I heard you weren’t in charge of trip planning, demon slayer.”

  I snorted. “I am if you’re going to lead us down Willy Wallup Way.”

  “Nether Wallup Way,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “Whatever.” It was ridiculous no matter how you said it.

  Ant Eater cracked an egg into a glass of tomato juice and handed it to Sid.

  “Your boyfriend is trying to lead us down the primrose path,” I protested. “And what’s with the eggs?”

  “Protein,” she answered. “And what’s the deal? You think Sid doesn’t know his stuff?”

  The short, stocky fairy gulped at his power drink and slapped Ant Eater on the rear. She tittered and wiggled her hips at him, which I really didn’t need to see.

  I ran a finger down the corkscrews and round-abouts that made up the fairy path in question. “What I’m saying,” I said, assuming my teacher voice, “is Nether Wallup Way would mosey us about two hundred miles south instead of west,” and mostly in circles.

  If we were going to get to Pasadena any time soon, we needed to take the most direct route, which meant interstate highways. “Look,” I said, bending over the map, “we take I-80 all the way to Sacramento. Hang a left at either 99 or 5, preferably 5…”

  Sid shook his head, sprinkling silver glitter onto the map like a bad case of dandruff. “That’s all fine and dandy, but the fairy paths run through Philly and then down south.” He pointed to a series of winding trails through Virginia and Kentucky. “We’ll take a short detour down Filligan’s Rut into Nashville, and then head west from there,” he said, as if it were obvious to anyone with a touch of otherworldly intelligence.

  Not happening.

  “The interstate works just fine.” I was all for magical hoo-ha. It had saved my rear plenty of times, but, “we have banshees on our tail and time issues to consider.” Magic for the sake of magic was just plain foolish.

  He looked at me as if I had a screw loose. “About those banshees, I had to clean up the mess you left outside. Poison skin, poison fangs, poison spit. I’ll bet those suckers even have poison poop and you just want to rocket down the highway and see if they can catch up to us. Not me. I’m going with fairy magic. If you want to be stupid about it, then you can go by yourself.”

  “Oh sure, let’s break up the group,” I said, realizing just how serious he was. What was with this guy? We needed speed as well as safety in numbers. “We’re in a race to save my dad’s soul. We don’t have time to fool around.”

  “Lizzie –” Grandma clapped a hand on my shoulder.

  But I was on a roll. “Give me a fast Harley and a belt full of switch stars.”

  “Now you sound like a biker witch,” Grandma said, her gravelly voice ringing with pride. “I hate to tell you that in this case, Sid is right.”

  Oh please. “Did you hit your head on something pointy?”

  “We’re talking about ancient protection here.” She shrugged. “Fairies have been running these routes since George Washington was in d
iapers.”

  “Try Ramses,” Sid smirked.

  Grandma ignored him. “Every fairy that travels a route deepens the magic. We’re talking generations and generations of strength and protection.”

  Okay, well, Sid hadn’t bothered to explain that part. “Have you done this before?” I asked.

  “Hell, no,” Grandma said. “We never knew where they were. Now we do.”

  Frieda handed us both a glass of tomato juice. “Drink up.”

  I took a sniff. It held the bitter tang of something besides tomatoes. Of course knowing the biker witches, it could mean they’d added anything from vodka to vitamins.

  Nothing could be simple. “Will fairy magic protect us against banshees?” I asked.

  And anything else that might be hunting us?

  Grandma took a long drink, considering the question. “It’ll muddy up the waters, make it harder for them to track us. And hopefully we’ll run into lots of other magical folks who can tell us what’s ahead.”

  When she put it that way, it wasn’t such a bad idea. I could use some extra knowledge about what we were facing, especially after the attack outside, and what my dad had tried to pull.

  Sid threw his stubby hands out in front of him. “Do you trust me, or not? Because I don’t have all day to sit around and decide who’s going to lead this parade.”

  “Okay, fine,” I said, depositing my tomato juice surprise on the bar.

  If Grandma trusted him, so did I. We were heading out into the open, and if the fairy magic could act as a shield, we’d be crazy not to take advantage.

  Besides, I had a feeling Ant Eater would use my head as a bongo drum if I harassed her main squeeze.

  “Let’s leave in ten,” I said, pulling my gloves out of my back pocket. If all else failed, we could always head back to the main highways.

  “No problem.” Sid shook a bit of dust from his sleeve. The map shivered and began folding itself.

  Nice trick.

  * * *

  We assembled the witches in less than five minutes, which never failed to amaze me. I strapped Pirate to my chest in true biker dog style and adjusted his Doggles riding glasses.

  “You’d better lay off the puppy treats,” I said, knowing the problem was probably donuts. I scratched Pirate between the ears. He’d eaten two this morning and we were on our last notch on the black leather baby-style carrier.