The Entity Within (20 page)

“Was she a hybrid, too?”

“No, she was human. I was adopted. But that didn’t make her any less my mom.”

“Of course not.”

“She was very smart. Had a lot of common sense, you know?”

Zoe nodded.

“What was your mom like?” Daniella asked.

“People say we looked alike. She was very smart, too. A big history fan. But then the demon that possessed your employee claimed that my mother sent him to hell. The demon, not your employee,” Zoe said. “I’m just having a really hard time with all of this.”

“I wanted to thank you again for coming so fast to deal with that situation.”

“I don’t know how well I dealt with it.”

“I do,” Daniella said. “You were great.”

“You weren’t in the room.”

“Damon texted Nick that you did great.”

“He did?”

“You sound surprised.”

“I am,” Zoe admitted. “Damon isn’t exactly generous with positive feedback. Is that a vamp thing?”

“It’s more a Damon thing,” Daniella said. “Nick wasn’t great at it in the beginning, but Damon is worse than Nick ever was.”

“You remember that cameras are watching our every move in here and listening to our every word, right?” Zoe said.

Daniella nodded, indicating she got Zoe’s unspoken request that they change the subject. “Where do all these soaps go?”

“On the shelves here.”

“What made you want to become a soap maker?”

“I’ve always loved aromatherapy.”

“Me, too. There’s nothing like the smell of baking cupcakes. Or lemon frosting.” Daniella paused to sniff one of the wrapped soaps in her hand. “Mmmm, lemon.”

“You can have that one if you’d like. I have a matching body cream.” Zoe opened the elegant jar and held it up for Daniella to smell. “I only use pure botanicals. Fruit and vegetable oils. And no magic.”

“These smell divine. I love the way you’ve cleverly wrapped each soap in muslin. I can’t get over how many different varieties you have here. Orange and vanilla. Cucumber and melon. Mountain spruce. Sunshine. Revive.”

“Along with Sunshine, Revive is one of my most popular scents in the soap line. It helps restore energy with a combination of grapefruit, lime, and lemon as well as a hint of cucumber.”

“
Revive
sounds like the perfect name for it. I like the name of your brand, Bella Luna, too. That’s Italian for ‘beautiful moon,’ right?”

“Yes.”

Daniella looked around and shook her head. “So Damon made this mess when he was searching your place yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“You should have had him clean it up. He can move at vamp hyper speed, you know.”

“I know. I saw him do just that today when he scooped me up and took me to the funeral home.”

“It was for a good cause. Phil is a really good guy,” Daniella said. She grabbed another handful of soaps from the floor. “I notice you’ve got labels on the shelves all ready for the soap scents.”

“My gram did that when she used a spell to set everything in here up for me. She was trying to save me work.”

“I also notice the soaps are in alphabetical order.”

“Yeah, I keep the bottles of essential oils in alphabetical order, too. Blame it on my library degree,” Zoe said.

“You’re an ex-librarian?”

“A former librarian, yes.”

“When I was in middle school, I used to think that would be my dream job. Sitting around and reading books all day.”

“I don’t know of any librarian who gets to do that,” Zoe said. “It’s a tough job. Especially now with people questioning the need to even have a public library when they can use the Internet. American libraries are having a rough time in these economic times. Cities are cutting back hours and staff.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

“No. That’s a long story.”

“One I hope you’ll tell me sometime when we’re not under observation,” Daniella said.

Zoe smiled. “Deal.”

“Notice I did not ask you about the ex-fiancé of yours that Damon mentioned downstairs.”

“I appreciate that,” Zoe said.

“You can tell me about him some other time, too.” Daniella paused to look around the room. “This is a beautiful space. You know, legend has it that this house was built to copy the layout of Al Capone’s house.”

“He lived here?”

“No, but one of the members of his gang owned this house and the one next door. Or that’s what I heard growing up. You know about the tunnels, right?”

“That’s where the demons are.”

“Correct. The tunnels were originally built during the Prohibition era to move bootleg liquor from place to place. They were updated with better lighting thanks to the Vamptown Council.”

“Have you ever been down there?”

“Yes.” Daniella’s normally cheerful voice changed, turning quiet. “I was abducted by the head of a rival group of vampires and held captive down there.”

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“It only lasted an hour or two but it seemed like forever.”

“Did Nick come rescue you?” Zoe asked.

“Actually, I kind of rescued myself, but I don’t want to go into it. I’d rather talk about St. Patrick’s Day.”

“It’s a big day in Boston,” Zoe said.

“In Chicago, too. They even dye the Chicago River green,” Daniella said. “And the spring equinox is soon. Isn’t that important for witches?”

“It’s not as important as the solstices, and even then the importance depends on your coven. I haven’t celebrated it since my mother’s death.” Zoe paused as an ancient belief came to mind. The equinox represented equal hours of light and dark. A science teacher in high school had informed her that there was actually still a difference of a few minutes, but in a witch’s perspective the vernal equinox—also known as the spring equinox—represented the advent of light starting to overcome darkness. Her witch’s intuition told her that the date was an important one for obtaining the Book of Darkness. Her train of thought was interrupted by Daniella.

“You said the demon at our funeral home blamed your mom for him being in hell?”

“Yes, but he refused to give me any details.”

“Do you believe him?”

“I don’t know what to believe.”

“I know what’s that like,” Daniella said sympathetically. “When Nick told me he was a vampire, I refused to believe it at first. I thought I’d hit my head and was in a coma or something. At least you knew Nick and Damon were vampires when you first met them. As for your mom, well, from what you’ve told me about her, I don’t see how she would send anyone to hell unless they deserved to go there. The most likely thing is that the demon lied. They’re not exactly known for doing good deeds.”

“I know. It’s just that hearing stuff about my mom—”

“Brings the pain of her loss back,” Daniella said.

Zoe nodded, blinking back tears. “Sorry to be a wimp.”

“You are not a wimp.” Daniella gave her another hug. “And neither am I.”

“No way. You are a kick-butt druid hybrid who can protect herself from evil vampires. I wish I could do that with these demons.”

“That’s Damon’s job,” Daniella told her. “As for me being a kick-butt druid, I’m really just a cupcake maker living with a vampire in an apartment above my cupcake shop. Maybe it seems normal to me now because I grew up living above the funeral home,” Daniella said.

“Was that strange? Living above the funeral home, I mean.”

“Not really, no.”

“I don’t think I could handle that.”

“Why?”

“I have a thing about funeral homes.”

“What kind of thing?”

“An avoidance thing,” Zoe said.

“It’s not a fave hangout for most people.”

“Unless they are vampires.”

“Even then,” Daniella said.

“Damon doesn’t like me asking questions about the funeral home.”

“I can understand that. But what do you have against funeral homes?”

“I guess it goes back to my dad’s funeral. He died in a fire when I was a little girl.” Zoe remembered the whispers about the family curse, that no man would be good enough for an Adams woman. “I thought funeral homes crushed you into little pieces. He was cremated. My mom spread his ashes from a sailboat in his favorite cove off the coast per his wishes. But at the funeral there was this urn that someone had put my father in, like an evil genie locking him in there. I’m sorry, but funeral homes kind of freak me out.”

“I understand,” Daniella said. “We don’t have to talk.” Reaching for a pad of paper she wrote
What’s with you and Damon? I sense sparks there.

Nothing going on,
Zoe wrote.

Do you want there to be?

No way.

Because you’re a witch?

Because he’s impossible.

Impossible but hot.

So?

So aren’t u tempted? Don’t lie.

Bella jumped onto the worktable. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Zoe said, turning the pad of paper over so Bella couldn’t read it. “I was just telling Daniella how aromatherapy centers on the way natural fragrances affect our thoughts and feelings. Lavender is well known as a calming scent. That’s why it was often used in sachets or small pillows to help people sleep.”

Bella yawned. “Bo-ring.”

“It looks like we’ve taken care of most of the mess,” Zoe said.

“It does look much better than it did before,” Daniella agreed. While they’d been talking, they’d managed to restore order to the workroom.

Zoe and Bella accompanied Daniella downstairs. “Thanks again for everything,” Zoe said.

“There may be just enough time before Nick comes for me to run back to the shop to pick up dessert. I forgot to bring it.” Daniella opened the front door. “Oh look, it’s Mrs. Seely’s Chihuahuas Princess and Coco. She’s dressed them up with Irish bowler hats and green bow ties for St. Patrick’s Day. Aren’t they cute? I wonder what they’re doing on your front porch, though.”

“Demons!” Bella hissed and tore upstairs as if the beasts of hell were after her.

Chapter Seventeen

“Demons?” Daniella repeated, nervously looking up and down the block. “Where?”

Growling ferociously considering their size, the two leprechaun wannabe dogs raced inside and took off after Bella up the stairs.

“Come back here!” Zoe cried, rushing upstairs after them.

She entered her workroom to find Bella on the worktable. The feline was arching her back and hissing. She looked like a porcupine with her fur standing on end while the dogs scrambled below, jumping up and trying to get at her.

“Bad dogs,” Zoe said.

“Demons!” Bella hissed again.

The two dogs turned in unison to face Zoe. They bared their teeth, and their eyes took on an evil glow. “We are the Hounds of Hell.”

After the day Zoe had had, there was no way she was backing down from this standoff. She recognized the voice coming from the little dog. “Guy, is that you? Are you possessing Chihuahuas now?”

“I told you this wouldn’t work,” another voice said through the other dog.

“Who is that?” Zoe asked.

“The other guy.”

“I know you’re Guy,” she said. “I was asking the name of the other demon.”

“I’m Guy and he’s the other Guy. We’re both named Guy.”

“But I’m the smarter Guy,” the other one said. “I said we should wait until the pit bulls went out for their walk but noooo, you couldn’t wait. You possess the first dogs you see.”

“You should both be ashamed of yourselves for taking possession of a pair of poor animals like that,” Zoe said.

“Actually, they are very pampered,” Daniella said from the doorway.

The dogs focused their attention on her.

“Damn, she’s got a protection spell around her, too,” Guy number one said.

“Get the cat,” the other one said.

Bella howled and leapt from the table to a higher shelf, knocking down soaps as she did so.

“Damn,” Guy number two said. “Even the cat has a protection spell around it.”

Damon was there in the blink of an eye. “What the hell is going on in here?”

“We are the Hounds of Hell,” both Guys growled.

Damon frowned. “Why are they dressed like leprechauns?”

“It’s St. Patrick’s Day,” Zoe explained.

“They’re demons,” Damon said.

Zoe grabbed Damon’s arm. “Don’t hurt the dogs. It’s not their fault demons temporarily possessed them.”

Damon sighed. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you.”

“Why are you here?” Zoe asked the first Guy. “And what are your last names so I don’t get you messed up?”

“We’re here to deliver a message,” he said.

“Another one? I just saw you earlier this afternoon,” Zoe said.

“I’m Guy Pettigrew and we were supposed to be more intimidating as pit bulls.”

“What’s the connection between you two guys?” Zoe said. “Aside from the fact that you are both possessing Chihuahuas.”

“We’re cousins. And we were both sent to hell by your mother.”

“In error,” the other Guy said. “I’m Guy Worley, by the way.”

“How did my mother send you to hell in error?”

“With her black magic,” Guy Worley said.

“Was she trying to send someone else to hell instead of you two?”

“Yes,” Guy Worley said.

“Who?” Zoe demanded.

“Our time is up,” Guy Worley said.

The dogs froze and then collapsed onto their sides.

“Oh no!” Zoe rushed over but by the time she got to the dogs, they’d stood up and started shaking themselves as if they’d been in a dirty mud puddle.

“Are the demons gone?” she asked Damon.

“Yes. For now.”

“Get those dogs out of here,” Bella ordered from the top shelf.

Zoe scooped up one dog while Daniella took the other. “They really are sweet dogs. Mrs. Sweeny loves Princess and Coco to bits.”

“If she did, she wouldn’t dress them up that way,” Damon said.

The doorbell rang. “Now what?” Zoe muttered as she took the dog downstairs with her. “Is this one Princess or Coco?”

She opened the door to find a middle-aged woman with spiky pink hair and a nose ring there. She was wearing a
KISS ME EVEN IF I’M NOT IRISH
green sweatshirt and jeans. “You found them! I don’t know what happened. One second they were on their leashes and the next they just took off. I’ve been going door to door all along the block to see if anyone found them.”