Rylie Cruz 3 - How to Date a Demon (28 page)

I guessed I had some explaining to do,
but I hoped she’d understand that I’d taken it because I had to.
Plus I’d taken care of the book, except for that one torn page when
I was escaping the vampires. Minor detail.

Cole looked down at my
clothing.

“
Sorry about scaring you
with the shifting thing. I figured it was the only way I’d be able
to fight the thing off. It was my only chance.”

The hair had started to fade, but my
clothes still looked as if they’d been mauled by a dog.

“
Hey, it’s fine. I’m
surprised you were able to hold off for as long as you did.” He
looked down at my clothes again.

I brushed the sweat from my forehead.
It had been so hot it felt like we’d jumped into the middle of a
fire. That was the toughest fight I’d ever been through.

Quinton and Jack approached. I wasn’t
sure what they’d say to Cole now.

“
Thanks a bunch, man.”
Quinton stuck out his hand toward Cole.

“
Yeah, we wouldn’t have been
able to do it without you. Thank you for sticking by Rylie,” Jack
said.

“
She’s an awesome girl,”
Cole said.

I swore he blushed a
little.

“
So what made the vampire
connected with the demons?” I asked Quinton.

“
This was all Sophie’s
doing,” Quinton said. “She sold her soul to the devil years ago
before becoming a vampire. She was trying to save herself by
feeding these demons with new souls. As long as she could provide
more for him then she was safe.”

“
But she’s not around, why
did these demons do this now?” I asked.

Quinton shook his head. “This was
something that she did after she was taken away. She wanted revenge
against you. The vampire who’d come after Jack noticed that
Jennifer was an easy target for demons and he told
Sophie.”

“
That all makes sense now.
That explains why Jennifer was acting so strangely when I returned
home with Jack that day. So the symbol on the ring was connected
with the demons after all.”

“
It is their symbol. That
was why Sophie had the ring,” Quinton said.

Like I said, I’d found the ring in the
old abandoned warehouse that Sophie had taken Jack to when she
wanted to drain his blood. Who knew it would cause so many
problems. I should have known Sophie had been connected to demons
back then because she was pure evil. A demonic vampire—not a good
combination.

“
It’s a good thing you
recognized that symbol,” Cole said.

“
After we found the symbol
in the book, Cole figured out which demon had Jennifer. Of course
we ran into a little problem there.”

Jack looked down. “Sorry again about
that. We didn’t know what we were doing. Shane had us under a
spell.”

“
Yeah, I noticed. You two
were creeping me out acting like a couple of zombies. Anyway, when
I was at the conference, I saw the symbol on Shane’s ring. I
overheard him talking about the demon. I had the book with me, so I
looked up the name and decided to come here, thinking this might be
the connection.”

I left out the part about the soul
collector giving me the location. I already seemed crazy enough, no
reason to add fuel to the fire.

“
And of course as you can
see, it was.” Cole flashed a smile.

“
Lucky for Jennifer.” I
looked at her.

She rubbed her temples and gave a
half-hearted smile. The glint in her eyes had returned and I knew
she was back with us now. Thank goodness this was over. Would she
forgive me for almost getting her butt dragged off to hell? I owed
her a few shopping trips for this.

“
Yeah, lucky for her and us.
That demon wanted to take us all with him.”

“
That doesn’t surprise me.
They are very greedy. They especially love revenge.”

“
I’m sure when Sophie told
them her plans they were delighted. The fact that she was taken
away made this even more urgent for them.”

“
I thought I’d gotten rid of
her, but she had managed to worm her way back into my
life.”

“
Well, she’s gone for good
this time.”

“
I hope so,” I said around a
sigh.

Jennifer looked as if she was still in
a daze, but so far she was speaking like her normal
self.

“
She’ll be drained of her
energy for a while. But she’ll start to feel better tomorrow. It’ll
probably take her a week to get back to her old self one hundred
percent,” Cole said, flashing Jennifer a sweet smile.

“
Do you think you can
stand?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, I just feel like
someone zapped all my energy.”

Jack grabbed one arm and I grabbed her
other as we hoisted her to her feet. Jennifer’s legs gave way and
we held her up. Her legs shook for a second then she was able to
stand on her own.

“
Do you remember anything
that happened?” I brushed the hair from her face.

She attempted to run her hand through
her hair and nodded. “That’s the bad part. I remember everything.
Being held at that demon’s place. He told me where we were going
and I remember thinking that it sounded like fun. I don’t know what
came over me.”

“
You were possessed by the
demon. He was slowly taking your soul away from you. He was going
to take you to hell and you’d be a demon for life,” Cole
said.

“
Rylie, why don’t you get
out of here? Take Jennifer home,” Quinton said.

Quinton and Cole exchanged a glance. I
assumed that was their way of acknowledging that there was no bad
blood between the two anymore.

Cole nodded. “Yeah, there’s nothing
more for you to do right now. We’ve got everything under
control.”

I wasn’t sure what exactly that meant,
but I assumed it had something to do with the vampires and the
demons. Since it wasn’t werewolf business, I wasn’t going to get
involved.

Jennifer looked down at her outfit. “I
wish I had something else on. I’m embarrassed to walk around like
this.”

“
Don’t worry about that.
Come on. Let’s get you home.” I wrapped my arm around her
shoulders.

My clothing didn’t look much better
after my shifting. My pants were ripped and my shirt had split down
the back. It was so awkward to change shapes so quickly. The fabric
just couldn’t hold up to the shifting.  

“
Quinton’s car is right
around the corner. He’ll be here for a while and said he can get a
ride from a clan member,” Jack said.

“
You guys are close enough
now that he’s letting you drive his car?” I raised an
eyebrow.

“
He’s an all right guy, I
guess.” Jack shrugged.

“
I’m shocked. I thought you
guys would never get along.” I looked from Jack to
Quinton.

“
Hey, I’m not saying we’re
best friends or anything,” Jack said with laughter in his
voice.

“
Of course not.” I smiled.
“We wouldn’t want anything like that to happen.”

“
I guess I’d better be
taking off. More demons to catch.” Cole smiled sweetly.

The sad look in his eyes made me melt.
I wanted to tell him not to go; to find another, less dangerous
profession. But what business was it of mine? We’d had a business
relationship and that was it. Or was it? I guessed I could consider
him a friend now. After all, he’d saved my best friend.

“
Don’t be a stranger.” The
sadness in my voice was hard to hide.

Cole stepped closer and kissed my
cheek. I felt Jack’s eyes on us, but he didn’t say
anything.

How to Date a Demon, Rule
#31

Follow all these rules and
you'll have one hell of a date.

We made our way down the alley toward
the street with Jennifer. She was still wobbly, but doing
remarkably well for someone who had been through such an ordeal.
When we reached the end of the alleyway, I glanced back at Cole. I
felt his gaze on me. What was he thinking? Would I ever see him
again? I felt bad for giving him a hard time.

He stared, then held his hand up in a
wave. I waved back. Maybe someday I’d get a chance to thank him and
repay him for saving my friend’s life. I knew I couldn’t have done
this without him. Jack helped Jennifer in Quinton’s car and I slid
in the passenger seat. She laid down in the backseat.

“
I’m sorry for not trusting
your instincts,” Jack said as he turned the ignition.

“
I can’t say that I wasn’t a
little disappointed in the way you guys acted. But I know why it
happened now. Is that a vampire thing? Do they place spells on
other vampires often?” I asked.

“
Only the bad ones,” he
said.

“
Well, that explains it,” I
said, holding back my smile. “I still can’t let you off that
easily. I have to give you a hard time for a while.”

“
I deserve it.” He flashed a
boyish grin.

“
Just as long as it never
happens again,” I warned with a wave of my finger.

“
I hope we never have to
fight off demons again and then we won’t have to worry about it.”
He let out a slow breath. “I’m glad that’s over.”

Jennifer was sleeping in the backseat,
the gentle sound of her breathing breaking the silence. When we
pulled up to a light, she sat up in the seat with a panicked look
on her face.

She wiped her forehead. “I forgot
where I was for a minute.”

I frowned. “That’s
understandable.”

Jack pulled the car into a parking
spot and jumped out, opening the door for Jennifer and
me.

“
I’ll help her upstairs,”
Jack said as he helped Jennifer out of the car.

As we approached my building, I
spotted Lily waiting for me with that huge wedding planning book
clutched in her arms. She had a hopeful look in her eyes. I
groaned.

“
Well, thank goodness that’s
over with. Now maybe you can help me finish planning the
wedding.”

“
Lily, I just fought off a
demon. I have demon guts all over me and I need a shower. Don’t you
think this can wait?” I asked as I breezed past her on the
sidewalk.

She followed me up the front steps to
my apartment. “I don’t have anyone else to help me, Rylie.” Lily
batted her eyelashes and gave an innocent smile. She knew exactly
where to hit me where it hurt the most.

Why was I always such a
sucker?

I looked at Jack and he gave me a
knowing smile. He knew I wouldn’t be able to turn her down. Even
with demon guts on me.

I sighed. “If you come up can I at
least take a shower first?”

She waved her hand in front of her
nose. “Yes, please do. You stink.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“
Temper, temper.” She waved
her index finger.

I didn’t need to shift again
tonight.

“
I’ll just go get my bridal
magazines and my binder. It has all the information I’ve collected
so far.” She rushed back down the stairs.

I turned around. “Hey,
Lily.”

She turned around to look at me.
“Yeah?”

“
We’ll make this the best
damn wedding this town has seen in a long time.” I waved my hands
for emphasis.

“
You’d better,” she huffed
as she waltzed out the door.

I groaned. “She really starts to grow
on you after a while.”

“
You are something, you know
that?” Jack asked.

“
I hope that’s a good
thing.” I smiled.

“
I would kiss you again, but
Lily’s right. You stink.”

I shoved him. “You don’t exactly smell
like roses.” I laughed.

“
I’ll meet you at your
apartment after we’ve both had a shower. Unless of course you’d
like to join me in my shower?”

I sighed. “I would, but I have a
wedding to plan.”

“
Right.” He nodded. “Is
there anything I can help you do?”

“
Pick out which type of meat
we should serve at the reception? Apparently we’re supposed to have
a large variety.” I gave a pleading smile.

He laughed. “The things I do for
love.”

Jennifer stood beside me. We both wore
brown taffeta gowns that didn’t fit right. I tugged at the sleeves
and waist of my hideous gown. Our dresses had puffy shoulders and
big gigantic bows on our butts. At least the color was a nice shade
of chocolate, although now I was craving a Hershey’s bar. The
reception hall was bathed in shades of brown. Lily had carried a
black bouquet and now I was standing with a group of female
werewolves and Jennifer waiting for my chance to catch the ugly
thing.

With any luck, it wouldn’t come within
a hundred miles of me.

“
I can’t believe you talked
me into this,” Jennifer whispered over the last tunes of Kool and
The Gang’s Celebration.