Angie Fox - The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers

Serena brushed her breasts against Phil’s arm and nibbled his earlobe. He stiffened and sighed as her nails dug into his neck, leaving bloody scrapes in their wake. “Phil, darling, you know you shouldn’t have left me.”

Phil seemed confused for a moment. He shook it off, a trace of doubt lingering in the creases on his forehead. “My goddaughter called. I had to go.”

“Not anymore.” With a flick of her French-tipped nails, garlands of black jonquils sprouted from the four corners of the room. Sickly sweet and unlike any cemetery flowers I’d ever seen, the slender vines surged up the walls and across the ceiling. Greasy green leaves twisted with twinkling red lights, in a sort of macabre wedding canopy.

A scraggly bone wedged its way out of the apex of the canopy. I didn’t know if it was alive or attached to something or what. Bits of leathery flesh clung to the tip as it heaved and hitched itself into place. More disjointed parts snapped and scurried together to form a grisly chandelier, complete with six bloodred candles.

Flames burst from the candles on the chandelier, igniting stray bits of flesh like spider webs. “Oh that is disgusting,” I murmured.

“Do you like it, darling?” she asked my uncle. “I made it from the bones of my enemies.”

Enough. I wanted to reach through the blood-smeared mirror and throttle the woman. “That’s insane.”

“She is the bride,” Grandma said, her face lit in the red glow from the mirror. “If she wants a chandelier made from the bones of her enemies, well…”

I couldn’t believe it. “How are you okay with this?”

Her jaw twitched. “I’m not. But I don’t see what we can do to stop it.”

Yeah, well maybe I did. I’d called Phil once before.

I focused my emotions—scattered as they were. Now was the time to prove to everyone, including myself, I could do this. I concentrated on Phil. Even though I’d barely met the man, I could picture him perfectly. I imagined his heavy-lidded eyes, his laugh, the smell of cinnamon.

Please work.

“I need my fairy godfather now .”

Phil’s ears perked. I saw it. At least I thought I did. He gave no other indication he even sensed me. Serena laid a possessive hand on his arm.

Oh no, she’d better not. I tried again, calling up every bit of power I had.

The flames in the candles danced as I focused on my fairy godfather. I watched him with her. Black smoke swirled and a squat-figured man with gray dreadlocks appeared. He wore red, flowing robes and held an ancient book. It was a demon. I knew it without even smelling the sulfur.

Phil took Serena’s hands in his and spoke as if he were in a daze. “I take you as my bride. I am yours.” He reached for her with the ring, stopping only inches away. I could almost feel him fighting it.

“No!” I yelled, my voice echoing off the tile. “I summon you now!”

Nothing happened.

“Now!” I hollered, heart pounding, head swimming.

Serena jammed her finger into the gold band. So much for free will.

Her beautiful face twisted into a sneer of pure triumph. “I take you, Phillip Rosewood Clausen Whirley. For eternity.” She grabbed his hand and screwed the ring onto his stubby finger.

I felt the energy build. Heard it in the way the bones on the chandelier clacked together. A sulphurous wind blew through the fortress of a room, sending jonquil leaves and petals cascading down.

“Man and wife,” Serena grated. I felt the rush of power as she wrapped her fingers around the back of my uncle’s head and yanked his mouth onto hers.

The red candles blazed high. “Are you sure this is real?” I asked, not really wanting to know.

“Yep,” Grandma said hoarsely.

Serena released Phil’s lower lip with a long, lingering suck. She stole energy from him, from the marriage, from her unholy victory. She curved her chin, shoving Phil backward with a finger to his chin.

Her crimson eyes settled on me.

Holy hellfire, could she see us?

I could feel her rage, her hate. Triumph burned in her eyes. “Leave us alone, demon slayer,” she spat, “and I’ll only kill him when I’m finished. Push me and I’ll take his soul.”

My stomach lurched. “What am I going to do if I can’t go after him?” I asked Grandma. I couldn’t be responsible for Phil surrendering his soul. Or for what the demons would do with his power, or…

Grandma clutched my arm and said something I’d never heard her admit before. “I don’t know.”

The candles snuffed themselves, leaving us in a freezing, pitch-black bathroom. It was the least of our problems. In my short time as a demon slayer, I’d dealt with renegade witches, black magic and the wrath of corrupted souls, but nothing had prepared me for a choice between letting my godfather die, or risking his eternal damnation.

Dead if you don’t. Damned if you do.

I couldn’t let them have him, could I?

Even if I did, I didn’t honestly believe the succubi would leave us alone. Something big was going down in Vegas and I had a feeling this was barely a glimpse of the horrors we’d face if we stuck around.

“You ladies ever coming out of there?” Pirate sniffed under the door. “Cause Phil already left.”

With that, the door swung open. “Pirate!” I scooped up his impossibly warm little body. At least they didn’t get him. “Are you all right?”

“Oh, I’m fine. I was all set to bite the guy in the shiny pants, but he gave me these.” He whipped his head toward a bag of half-eaten Doritos on the bed. “And Phil seemed to know him and I felt sorry for him, you know, being a succubus love slave and all.” Pirate paused to study me. “Gee, Lizzie, you look stressed. You want to rub my belly?”

I buried my face in the scruff of his neck. “Just give me a second.” I couldn’t believe things had gone downhill so fast.

“Aw, now that’s nice,” Pirate said, licking my hand.

“How many were there?” Grandma asked.

Pirate’s expression fell. “You know I can’t count.”

Grandma launched her backpack at the wall. “Dammit!” She stood, fuming. “I would have bet my bike the wards wouldn’t let succubi up on this floor,” Grandma said. “I forgot they had slaves.”

“Great,” I growled. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and Grandma forgot.

“We really screwed this up,” I said, we meaning her.

Here we were, fighting for my uncle, trying to save him the way he saved me; not to mention clearing the way to get out of Vegas before something even worse happened. I’m laying everything on the line and Grandma gets sloppy. Worse, I had no idea how to fix it. I didn’t have the knowledge. She did. And it looked like I couldn’t always count on her to think things through.

Her eyes narrowed. “You want to tell me something, sport?”

Oh yeah, I did. Lucky for her, we didn’t have time to argue.

“They’re not just sucking energy. They’re killing people,” I said. Uncle Phil would be next as soon as they got what they wanted from him.

“How does it work?” I asked Grandma. “We know their power is growing. What we don’t know is if that’s attracting demons from other places, or,”—I really didn’t want to think about this—”if they’re using that power to draw more of their numbers straight out of hell.”

Could they even do that? It would take a lot of energy. But I couldn’t begin to imagine how else their numbers could increase so rapidly.

“I don’t know,” Grandma said, clearly not wishing to dwell on the topic any more than I did. Well tough. We had to figure this out. I hunkered at the foot of the bed and rubbed Pirate’s ears as if that was going to give me any ideas.