The Entity Within (14 page)

“You vaporize a demon cable guy in my living room and I get a little paranoid. I lost it.”

“We can’t afford to have you losing it. As far as we know, all the loose demons are now accounted for.”

“It’s that ‘as far as we know’ part that has me nervous.”

“I have a cure for your nerves,” Damon said. “Find the missing spell book.”

*   *   *

Three hours later, Zoe was still brooding over Damon’s words. She’d spent the intervening time doing additional research on her laptop and going through her family’s Book of Spells for any reference to demons. She was also trying to figure out the connection between her talismans and the witch Damon killed a hundred-plus years ago.

So far, all she’d learned was that there was a legendary Book of Darkness said to be able to release demons—but there was nothing beyond a brief mention; no actual sighting or description of it. She kept looking online.

Gram had retired to her bedroom to take a nap while Bella was curled up on a chair, sound asleep.

Which left Zoe basically alone with Damon, who kept looking over her shoulder at the screen of her laptop from time to time, driving her crazy.

“Don’t do that,” she said in exasperation.

“The Book of Darkness, huh? What do you know about that?”

“This is the only reference I’ve found.”

“Did you Google it?” he asked.

“No. I don’t want to get inundated with tons of weird occult spam. You Google it.”

“I already did.” He didn’t elaborate but did add, “I also Googled a photo of your talisman. Our tech vamp is going through the results.”

“What did they find out about the Book of Darkness?” Zoe asked.

“Nothing yet,” he admitted.

“I told you it was better to have a librarian doing the research.”

“Or maybe you knew exactly where to look for it because you owned the Book of Darkness, or your grandmother did.”

“We never saw it before,” Zoe said.

“Then why did you open it? Do you make a habit of opening strange spell books?”

“No, we don’t. It was a stressful day,” she said. “We’d just moved here and I’d just discovered vampires are my new neighbors.”

“Your grandmother knew Nick was a vampire. She’s known for years.”

“She didn’t tell me.”

“I wonder what else she hasn’t told you,” Damon said. “Or told me.”

“Gram isn’t like that.”

“Isn’t she? Come on, who are you kidding? She aggravated those humans enough that they came all the way from Boston to find you.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe they are local followers of Powers.”

“No, they are from Boston. They flew into O’Hare this morning and came straight here. Neville checked it out. He suspects they located you through your website.”

“Who is Neville?” Zoe said.

“Our top tech vamp.”

“My website doesn’t say where I live,” she pointed out.

“Maybe not, but your Facebook page for your business has the locator indicator turned on. Neville checked your laptop and found that someone hacked into the site to download a more specific GPS.”

Zoe slammed her laptop shut and set it on the coffee table. “Who hacked my computer?”

“We don’t know yet. Neville is still following that lead.”

“Wait a minute. When did Neville check my laptop? I didn’t give my permission for that.”

“We don’t need your permission,” Damon said. “I let you keep your laptop. I never said we wouldn’t check it out remotely.”

Zoe felt violated all over again, just as she had when Damon had torn through her stuff in her workroom. Her anger rose.

“Are you going to levitate again?” Damon mocked her.

She might not leave the ground but she was about to send some fiery words flying his way when she was distracted by the sound of moans coming through the floor vents in the living room. They weren’t happy having-really-awesome-sex moans. No, these were tortured sounds. “What is that?” she whispered.

“Demons!” Bella said as she streaked across the room and dove under the couch.

Zoe was tempted to join her. Not that she’d fit under the denim couch, but still … taking cover seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately she wasn’t sure where a safe hiding place could be found.

The noise was all around them and became deafening. Zoe put her hands over her ears in an attempt to shut it out.

Damon appeared completely unfazed as he focused his attention on the screen of his damn smartphone.

The moans stopped as suddenly as they’d started.

She looked at Damon. “I thought vampires had better hearing than humans.”

“We do.”

“Then you heard that?”

“Of course I did,” he said.

“How did you make it stop?” she said.

“I thought you did something. You put your hands over your ears like you were doing some sort of witchy spell thing.”

“I do not put my hands over my ears when I conjure a spell,” she said. “I thought you knew all about witches.”

He joined her on the couch. “I know enough.”

“Clearly you don’t if you think that’s how we create spells. Is that how Eve did it?”

He glared at her. “Don’t push it, little witch.”

“Or what? You’ve already gone through all my belongings, my work stuff, and my computer. You’re already spying on me twenty-four hours a day. What more can you do?”

“This.” Reaching out, he cupped her face with his hands and kissed her.

It wasn’t gentle and it wasn’t polite. It was hot and intense and wicked. He parted her lips and enticed her with his tongue.

This time the moans came from Zoe, and they were signals of her pleasure and not her anger. So this was how vampires kissed. Awesome.

Damon didn’t try to overpower her with physical force. He didn’t have to. Her eager surrender came as a result of his skill as he took possession of her mouth with the erotic promise of delights to come.

She slid her arms around his neck and melted against him. Her tongue tangled with his. Dark passion flowed throughout her body.

She wanted more. He gave it to her by sliding his hands through her hair and then lowering them to lift her top and seductively sneak his right hand around her side to her breast. The silkiness of her bra provided no protection and instead intensified her pleasure at his caresses. She moaned softly against his mouth and felt as if she might go up in flames.

The sound of evil cackles coming through the floor vents finally brought her back to reality.

She pulled away from him. “The demons can see us! They know what we were doing and they’re laughing at us.”

“They can’t see us,” Damon said.

“How do you know?”

“Because I know demons.”

The cackles stopped. If the demons couldn’t see them, they sure had an incredible sense of timing. Zoe supposed she should be thankful they’d brought her back to her senses. Who knew where she would be right now or what she’d be doing with Damon on this couch otherwise—even with her grandmother in the other room and her familiar hiding under the couch.

“If you’re so smart then you should also know that you can’t kiss me,” Zoe said.

His lips lifted into a mocking smile. “I just did.”

“You hate witches.”

“So?”

“So?” she repeated incredulously. “So you can’t kiss someone you hate.”

“I never said I hated you.”

“You’ve accused me of unleashing demons from hell.”

“Your point being?”

“Why did you kiss me? What were you trying to accomplish? Were you trying to intimidate me? I don’t scare that easily.” She looked down at the floor where his smartphone had landed when he’d dropped it to kiss her. “Wait a second. We’re being invaded by demons and you’re playing Words with Friends? What kind of Demon Hunter are you?”

“The kind who gets things done,” he said curtly.

She picked up his phone. “By ‘things’ you mean thinking
brabbling
is a word?”

He grabbed it from her. “It was in my day.”

“How can you play games when all hell is breaking loose? You don’t see me fooling around. Other than kissing you, I mean. I’m devoting all my time and attention to this demon situation. I’m not even doing anything regarding my business.”

“It’s not like you have a real job,” Damon made the mistake of saying.

Bella cautiously came out from under the couch to jump on the coffee table and shake her feline head at him. “Bad move, vampire.”

“Damn right that was a bad move,” Zoe said. “I am an entrepreneur. I may be self-employed but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a job. I work hard creating the products for Bella Luna. And I don’t use magic to do it. In fact, my workroom is still a mess from your actions yesterday. I need to go fix that instead of wasting my time with you.”

“Sure,” Damon said with a sweep of his hand. “You go right ahead. What is saving the world compared with making smelly soap?”

“It’s scented botanical soap that is vegetable- and fruit-oil-based,” she corrected him.

“My mistake. Of course that makes a huge difference. I didn’t realize it was vegetable- and fruit-oil-based. Demons can wait. No problem.”

“My work is important to me,” she said.

“So is mine.”

“Then maybe you should focus on doing your work and let me focus on doing mine.”

“I’d love to do that,” he drawled. “But since you and your grandmother are the ones who released these demons, I need you to be involved.”

“You mean you need my help?”

“I didn’t say help.”

“Would it kill you to say it?” she countered.

“Since I’m an immortal, clearly it would not kill me.”

“So are you going to say it? I dare you to. Go ahead,” she taunted. “Admit you need my help.”

Anger flared in his dark blue eyes. “This is not a game.”

“No? Not a Words with Friends game?”

“You’re in no position to judge me.”

“Right back at you, buddy,” she said.

“What did you do back in Boston that got you thrown out?” he demanded out of the blue.

“Where did that come from?”

“I’ve asked you before.”

“And I answered,” she said.

“Not really. You were deliberately vague and now we’ve got angry humans descending on Vamptown.”

“You make them sound like an angry mob pounding on the castle doors or something.”

“That’s not an image that vampires take lightly.”

“Witches, either, believe me. But that’s the problem isn’t it? You don’t believe a word I say.”

“That’s not true. I believe
some
words you say. Just not all of them. You have secrets,” he said.

“So do you,” she said.

“So do I,” a strange voice said. Startled, Zoe turned to find the hazy hologram-like image of … a demon? The astral projection stood there, dressed in strange clothes from another time. His skin was the color of sulfur, and his weird eyes gave her the creeps. Then he smiled at her and said, “Hello, dearie.”

Chapter Thirteen

Still amped up on the adrenaline from fighting with Damon, Zoe didn’t scream. So Damon thought she was a wimp, did he? She’d show him. Cool and collected, that was her. That wasn’t
really
a demon standing in her living room. It was just the image of one.

“What are you looking at?” Damon asked suspiciously.

“I suspect I’m looking at the astral projection of a demon. Am I right?” she asked the image.

“Spot on,” he replied in an English accent.

Damon shoved her behind him and looked around. “Where?”

She pointed to the edge of the living room.

“I don’t see anything,” Damon said.

“Because you’re not a witch,” she said. “Only witches can see this kind of projection.”

“Allow me to introduce myself,” the demon said. “Silas Milton at your service.” He bowed like someone accustomed to doing so.

“I thought you’d have a lot more scales or something,” she said without thinking.

“I’m a demon, not a fish or a dragon.”

Zoe stepped out from behind Damon to stand beside him. While the projection didn’t terrify her, she was not naive enough to think she had nothing to be worried about. Better to keep a vampire Demon Hunter close at hand when having a conversation with a demonic astral projection.

“Are you the demon in charge?” she asked Silas.

“I am.”

“Why are you here?”

“We’re not here to bring you harm,” Silas said.

“Then why are you here?”

“To right a wrong,” he said.

“What wrong?” she asked.

“It’s a long story,” Silas said. “As you may know, astral projections only last a short time.”

“What’s he saying?” Damon demanded.

“The Demon Hunter is impatient,” Silas said.

“He says you’re impatient,” she told Damon.

“It’s a major fault of his,” Silas said.

“I thought the same thing myself,” Zoe said.

“You’re agreeing with a demon?” Damon said in disbelief.

“On this one matter, yes. But let’s get back to this wrong you say you are trying to right, Silas.”

“What wrong?” Damon said.

She turned to him in exasperation. “That’s what I’m trying to find out if you’d just be quiet a minute.” She returned her attention to the demon. “Go on.”

“I am being held captive against my will along with two of my associates,” Silas said.

Zoe couldn’t resist asking, “Which one of you tried to possess me?”

“That was an unfortunate mishap. I know that you now have a strong protection spell surrounding you, your grandmother, and your familiars.”

Zoe realized he hadn’t answered her question about who exactly was responsible for her possession—but there were more important matters to discuss.

“Give me the short version of the wrong you’re talking about,” she told the demon. “Is that why you stole that demon spell book?”

“I don’t have the book, dearie,” Silas said. “If I did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“He said he doesn’t have the missing spell book,” she told Damon.

“I already figured that out,” Damon said.

“Who did this wrong to you?” she asked Silas. “Are you here to get revenge?”

“Think about it, dearie. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He tipped his head in a gesture of farewell.