Rylie Cruz 3 - How to Date a Demon (27 page)

Up until now all the demons had looked
like supermodels. But this demon was changing right before our
eyes. A swirling black cloud surrounded the demon. It covered him
like a protective bubble and I wondered what would happen if I
tried to pop it. His skin turned to a putrid gray color with raised
bumps covering his skin… skin that was now thick and scaly like a
lizard. So that was what had been hiding under that good-looking
exterior.

His nose flared and I expected to see
flames shoot from it—that or his mouth. He stared at us, glaring
and daring us to come near. His mouth spread into a devilish
smile—literally. His teeth were like yellowed fangs. His feet
turned into hooves, but he had no problems standing on them. He
probably could run pretty darn fast with them too.

Cole whipped out a laser-type
contraption and ran toward the demon. What the hell? Was this some
kind of scene out of Star Trek or what? The demon snarled and
hissed. He eyes glowed with flames. Cole pointed the thing at the
demon, then pulled back the trigger. No noise came out of the
weapon. Not even a pop or a bang. I wasn’t sure what I’d been
expecting.

Steam fizzled out of the end of his
weapon.

“
No wonder you can’t catch
any demons,” I said under my breath.

“
I heard that,” he
said.

I looked down at my hands, and hair
covered them. I was losing the hairy battle.

“
Whoa,” he said. “You’re
covered in hair.”

“
I’m a werewolf. What did
you expect?”

He shrugged.

“
Is that weapon of yours
jammed? Because I can’t see that it was doing much.” I gestured
toward his toy gun.

He smacked at the thing as the demon
stepped forward. Diabolical laughter boomed from the beast. The
demon was having a great time playing this game with us.

As soon as I was fully turned, I was
prepared to lunge at the demon. Jumping into the fire, so to
speak.

The demon fixed his gaze on me. “Come
on, baby. What’s the problem? Why don’t you come with me and I’ll
show you a good time.” He stretched his arm in my
direction.

As if I would actually touch him.
You’d think he would know how to be genuinely charming instead of
sounding like a sleazy pimp. Although was there any other kind of
pimp? Okay, now my thoughts were rambling. I had to get a hold of
myself and focus. The glare in his eyes frightened me; I couldn’t
lie. I could pretend to be tough, but it would be a complete
fabrication.

“
Let my friend go,” I
yelled.

Jennifer looked at me and laughed. She
looked like hell—not surprising since she was consorting with
demons.

“
Jennifer, it’s me, Rylie.
Don’t you recognize me?” I searched her eyes for any recognition.
An ounce of remembering me.

“
No,” she hissed.

“
She’s obviously not that
impressed with you.” The demon snorted.

He winked at me and flashed another
smile. Was he trying to flirt? Did he think I’d fall for that act
and follow him straight to hell? Beads of sweat formed on his
forehead. Why was he so hot? For once, the temperature had started
to cool. It was practically sweater weather. There was no reason
for him to be sweating like that.

“
What’s wrong? Time for you
to go back to hell?” I snorted.

“
Yes, as a matter of fact it
is, and you and your friend are coming with me.” He
cackled.

“
I’m not going anywhere with
you. I’ve already made that very clear. And neither is she.” I
pointed toward Jennifer.

The hair on the back of my neck stood
on end and I felt the zing in the air. It was like an electrical
storm was brewing. Quinton and Jack still fought with Shane. You’d
think the two of them could take down one of him. but if he’d
placed a spell on them, maybe their strength had been diminished
too.

“
Okay, I’m not waiting for
you any longer. It’s time for you to come with me now.” The demon
motioned for me to come near. We were in a showdown with this
beast.

Cole stepped forward, blocking the
demon’s path to me. Wasn’t there anything he could do? Did he have
to use the weapon on the demon? Wouldn’t something else work? There
had to be a way to take him down.

“
Why me? Why
Jennifer?”

“
Look, I take the souls that
are offered to me. I don’t care who they are as long as they have a
soul.” His voice grew deeper and more menacing, although I hadn’t
thought that possible.

“
Offered to you? What does
that mean? Like a sacrifice?” I asked, not really expecting an
answer.

“
Someone offered you up.
Your soul in exchange for another one.” His lips curled into an
evil smile.

I was pretty sure my soul wasn’t
someone else’s for the taking. It belonged to me and I wasn’t
giving it away to anyone, much less a demon.

“
Who was it?” I demanded.
“Was it Sophie?” My eyes narrowed as I waited for an
answer.

She was the only connection I could
think of because of the ring. Why else would she have had the ring
with the symbol? And the demon was wearing the ring with the same
symbol.

“
You’re not going to have
the chance to get back to hell,” Cole yelled.

I fought back panic. Now was not the
time to lose it. After all that I’d been through, what was one more
crazy thing, right? I wiped the sweat trickling down my neck. I
lunged forward, ready to thrust myself into the flames that were
the demon.

How to Date a Demon, Rule
#30

People in hell really do
want ice water.

With my feet in mid-air, Cole jumped
in front of me. “Rylie, no. Let me get rid of him.”

I fell to my side, letting out a loud
groan. That was going to leave a bruise. The demon opened his
blackened lips and hissed at us. Smoke swirled around us. We would
soon be consumed in the flames if Cole didn’t hurry. Where was the
fire department? Didn’t anyone notice the fire? People could be so
oblivious. They probably thought it was some kind of French Quarter
entertainment. I wasn’t very entertained though.

Cole focused his attention back to the
hellish beast. The demon wasn’t backing down. The hole opened in
the air and flames blazed in the circle. Cole glanced over and saw
the hole, then raised the gun toward the demon again. The gun
clicked, but still nothing happened.

“
Give me that!” I yanked the
gun from Cole’s hand.

I slammed my palm against the gun
several times, then pointed it at the demon. My hand shook as I
pulled the trigger and a beam of light shot from the gun, landing
right in the middle of the demon’s forehead. I’d made contact. And
gotten the gun to work! Yeah, it took a woman to get the job
done.

When I struck the demon with the gun,
he let out a scream that echoed through the alleyway. It sounded
like a thousand cries. The creature instantly turned to a gooey
substance and the goop landed on the ground with a big
kerplunk.

I stared at the red substance with
disgust. “That’s the grossest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“
Yeah, but he won’t be
bothering us anymore, will he? Nice work.” Cole took the gun out of
my still shaking hand and shoved it back into its holster like some
kind of paranormal cowboy.

I couldn’t argue with his statement;
it didn’t look like that demon would be bothering us
anymore.

“
Unless he can come back to
life? Can he?” I asked.

Cole shook his head. “Not a
chance.”

Jennifer sat on the ground. I knelt
down and brushed her matted hair back from her face.

“
Do you need an ambulance? I
think she needs to go to the hospital,” I called out to anyone who
would listen.

“
I’m fine.” She waved off my
concern.

“
Hey, you’re
back.”

“
Yeah, what the hell
happened?” She rubbed her head.

“
Ugh. Don’t say the word
hell ever again,” I said.

She gave me a confused
look.

“
That pile of goo over there
is what’s left of the demon who was trying to take you for a
staycation in forever damnation. He was this close to getting your
soul for good,” I said, pinching my index finger and thumb
together.

Now that the danger was over, my whole
body shook from the release of the adrenaline. I didn’t know how
Cole did this all the time. How many demons had he wiped out? Now
I’d always be looking over my shoulder for demons. I needed one of
those weapon things he had in case another one came
around.

I whirled around to find Jack and
Quinton. They stood side by side, looking down at the ground.
Quinton had a stake in his hands. A pile of ashes rested at their
feet. Leave it to Quinton to have a backup stake for such
occasions.

  “
So how did you
know where to find Jennifer?” Cole asked, wiping sweat from his
forehead.

“
I found which demon had her
and where his portal was. Duh. Yes, it was that easy.” I gave
myself a mental pat on the back.

“
I guess I should have
listened to you,” I said as Jack approached.

“
I guess you should have.”
Jack wrapped his arms around me. “Are you okay?”

“
I’m fine.” I wiped the
stray hairs away from my eyes.

“
I’m sorry I couldn’t help
you more.” He caressed my cheek.

“
Well, you kind of had your
hands full with the vampire.” I gestured with a tilt of my
head.

“
Yeah, I can’t believe
Quinton had to stake him.”

“
You gotta do what you gotta
do,” Quinton said from over my shoulder.

“
Well, he was trying to push
us all to hell, so I don’t blame Quinton,” I said as I stared down
at the pile of ashes. “What do we do now?”

“
I’ll call the vampire
clan.” Quinton stepped away as he pulled his cell phone out of his
pocket.

“
I’ll be back in a second,”
Jack said, kissing me on the cheek.

“
This is quite a mess.” I
pointed to the goo on the ground.

“
It’ll evaporate soon,” Cole
responded to my look of disgust.

“
It’s a good thing because I
really didn’t want to have to clean it up.”

Cole chuckled. “Yeah, me
either.”

“
Does this mean that other
demons will be after us now?” I asked, almost afraid of the
answer.

“
It’s a constant battle. You
never know when they will pop up, but you may go the rest of your
life and never encounter one.” He gave a faint smile.

“
That would be fine with me.
I’m glad you were able to get rid of him.”

“
It’s all in a day’s work.”
He smiled.

“
Yeah, I guess so.” I
brushed the hair out of my eyes.

“
Cole, I have one more
question,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow as if he was
afraid of what I might ask.

“
I went by Anna Maria’s
place and she wasn’t there. Her house was a mess, not all neat like
it had been when we were there.”

“
What were you doing there?”
His voice raised a level.

“
That’s when I borrowed her
book.” I looked around trying to avoid his scrutiny.

“
The one she told you that
you couldn’t have?” His brow scrunched together.

“
Yeah, that’s the one.” I
shuffled my foot.

“
So you stole her book?” he
asked with frustration in his voice.

“
Do I look like a thief to
you? I just told you I borrowed it. It was a life or death
situation. You know that. Plus, I was planning on returning it.” I
nervously tucked a strand of hair behind my hair. Did he have to
look at me so intensely?

Obviously, he had been rendered
momentarily speechless.

“
Anyway, do you know what
happened to her? I called the police.” My heart beat faster just
remembering the condition of her home. I hoped she was
okay.

“
Yes, I know you did. I got
the call from them to go check it out.” He watched for my
reaction.

“
What? So you knew I took
the book?” I lifted an eyebrow.

“
No, I didn’t know you’d
rifle through her home.” He crossed his arms in front of his
chest.

“
I didn’t!” My voice was a
little louder than I’d intended, but maybe he’d get the
point.

“
A demon had been in her
home, but thankfully, she escaped.” He shoved his hands in his
pockets.

I shuddered, remembering what the
nasty beast we’d destroyed looked like. Thank goodness Anna Maria
had gotten away. “So she’s okay?”

“
Yes.” He nodded.

“
Then I guess I’d better get
this book back to her.” I grimaced.

“
Yeah, I guess you’d better.
She probably won’t be too happy with you either.”