Angie Fox - ADS 03 - A Tale of Two Demon Slayers

“When was that?” I asked.

“Not long enough ago for them to forget,” he said wistfully.

Dimitri stole the corner of my Hershey bar and slid it into his mouth. “The first shift happens during puberty,” he said, “and—like everything else at that time—it can be awkward.”

Was my big sexy griffin blushing?

I cocked an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

“Suffice it to say, a few parts didn’t make the transition.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed myself to him. “Seems all there now.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you want to double-check,” he said, his voice rough against my cheek.

“Let’s get to Greece first.” I gave him an extra little rub, just to tease.

Dimitri booked us first-class seats, which thrilled me to my toes because I’d always flown coach, and usually with a super-saver ticket, which meant I was in the last boarding group. The bin space, blankets and pretty much everything else were usually gone by the time I got to my seat. No more.

I even asked for double snack mix.

“They’re not serving food yet,” Dimitri said against my ear as he fastened his seat belt.

“I know,” I said, adjusting the window shade. I couldn’t see much besides the lights of the airport, but it was still a window seat. And I was happy. “I figured they’d want to know early.” I eyed Pirate’s doggie carrier underneath the seat in front of me.

“He’s doing pretty well for his first flight,” Dimitri said.

“Yeah, well we haven’t taken off yet.” And Dimitri hadn’t witnessed Pirate’s first ride on a motorcycle. Suffice it to say, Pirate didn’t always take well to new modes of transportation.

But Pirate was the least of our worries. “Take a look at this,” I said, retrieving the box from under the seat in front of him. I showed him the bar and leaned in close to tell him what I’d seen.

He nodded thoughtfully. Worry clouded his eyes. “We’ll take it under advisement,” he said simply.

Whatever response I’d expected, that wasn’t it.

“You sound like a lawyer,” I said, hurt he wasn’t taking my imagined death more seriously.

Dimitri kissed me on the head, his warm breath lingering on my forehead. “What do you want me to say? That I’m scared every day something is going to happen to you?”

I pulled back, surprised to find him as tense as I felt. “Yes. No. I don’t know.” I burrowed against him again.

He squeezed my hand. “Look at me, Lizzie.” His sharp features were almost too sincere. “I’ll protect you. I promise.”

My modern woman sensibilities wanted to protest. I could take care of myself. I was a demon slayer. Besides, I think that on some level, every one of us needs to believe we can hold our own against the monsters in life—especially the ones we were put on this earth to conquer.

Still, I loved Dimitri for wanting to swoop in and rescue me. I ran my fingers down his strong jaw. “Thank you.”

Of course, now that I had him warm and fuzzy, I had to figure out a way to tell him I’d not only complicated his homecoming with visions of my own death, but now I was adding biker witches and demon slayer training. In the end, I figured the direct approach was best.

“Grandma is coming,” I said, running my fingers down his arm. “She wants to start my training on Santorini as soon as she arrives.” I’d give us less than a week alone. Tops.

“She told me,” he said with a slight edge to his voice. Dimitri and Grandma hadn’t always seen eye to eye. “In light of the circumstances, I can’t think of a better way to spend our time together.” A slight wariness entered his voice. “Did she mention what I was doing when she interrupted me?”

“Surprisingly, no.” Grandma wasn’t the best at keeping secrets.

He seemed relieved. “Okay, well then it’s best I explain when we have some time in private.”

Wait a second. “So it would be okay to tell me if Grandma already spilled part of it? What did she catch you doing?”

He fiddled with the airflow knob above us. “I’ll explain later.”

“Lovely. Can I at least have a hint?” All I knew was that it was important enough to keep him from going to the airport with me.

He made sure his tray table was in the upright and locked position. “Everything has checked out so far.”

“Famous last words.” I hated when he tried to take care of things for me. And I had a feeling that whatever this was, I wanted to know. “So are you going to tell me or…oh!” I gasped and gripped his arm. “There’s a creature on the plane,” I hissed. “Th ere!”

I pointed to a small, brown, scaled thing scrambling in circles on the cockpit door. It was a lizard with immense pointed ears and a tail as long as my arm. Its feet were like a monkey’s, complete with tufts of brown hair at the wrists and—holy cow—the creature turned to stare at me, its weathered face breaking into a crooked sneer that showed off a set of jagged teeth.

I gripped the seat in front of me and craned my body up for a better look as I reached for a switch star.

Dimitri stilled my hand. “Hold it, Lizzie. It’s only a gremlin.”

“What, like that Twilight Zone episode? ‘Nightmare at Twenty Thousand Feet’?” We hadn’t even made it off the runway.

“You do realize you have a flair for the dramatic,” Dimitri said, keeping his eyes on me while the creature wiggled its eyebrows at us.

I looked around the cabin. The other passengers were still settling in, some of them grazing the monster as they passed. It gave them slimy kisses and reached into their pockets.

Dimitri leaned closer. “Gremlins like to cause trouble, especially with electrical systems, but they’re not going to bring a modern plane down. They sneak onboard all the time. And believe me, you want them here rather than on the ground switching around your luggage tags.”

The stewardess brushed right past the creature as it stood on the cockpit doorknob and began what I could only describe as a most obscene dance.

“She’s not going to do anything?”

“That’s right,” Dimitri said, as if he understood what I couldn’t possibly comprehend. “You haven’t flown since you gained your powers.”

“I’ve been busy,” I snapped.

“She can’t see him,” Dimitri said. “No one can. Well, unless they have magical tendencies. Even so, one would have to be looking for problems.” He made sure to emphasize that last part.

“Well excuse me.” Yes, I was a demon slayer, and so far, it had brought me nothing but trouble. Now with this added death threat, I’d be crazy not to keep an eye out. As much as I would have liked to make this a private vacation for just me and Dimitri, I was glad Grandma would be there to begin my training. Maybe then I’d know more of what to expect.

The creature popped its head out of the galley. It ripped open a bag of snack mix and began chomping it loudly, with its mouth open.

“Of all the nerve.” That was probably my snack mix.

“Don’t interact with it too much,” Dimitri cautioned, “or it might follow us.”

“Onto our connecting flight?”

“They like cars too, although not as much as planes. It’s basically anything mechanical.” Lovely. The last thing I needed was a gremlin on my Harley.

I yanked my gaze off the creature. Instead of giving in to the urge to take one more look, I took a small notebook from my purse and focused on a new entry in what I was hoping would become a guidebook for demon slayers. So far, I had way more chapters than I’d ever planned.

To be added to The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers , Volume Two, subsection C: Magical creatures, benign.

What the gremlin lacks in aggression, it makes up in its unflagging desire to sabotage and disrupt. Teeth are long and jagged, although the one creature I’ve witnessed seems to prefer biting into Gardetto’s Original Recipe snack mix as opposed to anything else. His striking blue eyes and