Angie Fox - The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers

Ezra halted and I had to make a quick stop myself to keep from barreling straight through him. “Joe does like to wander,” he said with an apologetic glance over his shoulder. “Fortunately, he’s not going too far.”

Yeah, well those two might have all the time in the world, but I didn’t.

“You ready, babe?” I dug Pirate, warm and snuggly, out of the bag.

“Hee-yah. I was born ready!” Pirate’s nails scratched at the concrete as I eased him down next to me. He took the curve of the tunnel NASCAR-style.

Pirate took a quick left, with Ezra and I right behind. I cringed as the soles of my sandals hit a hollow metal grate. “Hold up, everybody.” My voice echoed down the round passageways. “How sturdy is this?”

“It’s hard to say,” Ezra said. “But I’ve seen inspectors in here.”

“What? In 1952?” I said, fighting a twinge of panic. I could see it now. Lizzie Brown, survivor of multiple demon attacks, taken out by a tunnel. This Joe person had better be worth it.

“Come on, Lizzie.” Pirate took off, his tags jingling. “Follow me. I can take the pressure. I was bred to take the heat.”

I pried my hand off the wall. The eerie red light revealed a metal grate with nothing underneath. The emptiness under my feet seemed to stretch into oblivion.

We took a series of twists and turns, more than I wanted to think about. Still, I tracked them like my life depended on it—which it would if Pirate lost his way.

Near the end of a shaft that I swear curved unnaturally to the left, Pirate hitched up on his back legs. “Hey! Nice hat.”

Ezra let out a whoop. “Joe, you clown!” He clapped at a glowing, yellow orb. “I’ve got visitors for you.”

The orb lengthened and grew into a lanky construction worker in dusty 1930s-style overalls. His white shirt stretched around muscular arms streaked with dust and sweat. He wore a crude-looking hat covered in what looked to be black goo.

He lifted his head and grinned as if he hadn’t seen a woman in years. Joe had a rawboned, friendly face, with a hooked, Roman nose and a dimple at the chin. “Well, dang, aren’t you a sight?” he said, eyeing me a bit too appreciatively.

“Joe,” Ezra said, embarrassed. “She’s about seventy years too late.”

Joe shook his head, as if to clear it. “My apologies, ma’am. It gets lonely down here. Add that to the fact that nobody can see me, hear me, talk to me. ‘Cept Ezra here. And Mad Mertle, who jumped in ‘62.”

“And Farsworth,” Ezra added.

Joe rubbed his hand against his chin. “Nah. He gave up. Went to the light.” His eyes searched as if we were outside instead of in a narrow tunnel deep in the dam.

“Aw, now that’s too bad,” Ezra murmured.

“I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me,” I said to Joe. “I have an uncle who works here. Phil Whirley. I’m not sure what he does, but whatever it is, he’s got demons after him.”

Joe winced at the mention of demons. “Used to be I could go years without even smelling one. Now I have to work to avoid them.”

“At the dam?” Now we were getting somewhere.

“How much do you like your uncle?” Joe asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked slowly.

Pirate wound his stubby little body around my legs. “Enough that she got the devil’s mark,” he said.

Joe’s gaze swept over my body and rested on my glowing palm. “So I see.” The muscles in his jaw worked. “In that case, you’d better act fast. Your man is sabotaging the dam’s turbine timing system.”

A shiver ran through me. “Not Phil.” He wouldn’t.

Ezra shot me an apologetic glance. “You said he married a she-demon.”

“I said?” I hadn’t told Ezra anything. “You’ve been telling him our business?” I asked Pirate.

He shot me an innocent doggie look. “Oh, this and that. In between high-stakes, winner-take-all Scrabble trash talk.”

Ezra cleared his throat. “It’s unnatural, a succubus marrying a half fairy. She probably hooked the human side of him, but with her ability to enhance people’s powers, I’m willing to bet your uncle could do some serious damage.”

Oh frig. I hadn’t thought about the succubus giving Phil power.

Joe nodded. “He’s got something going on. I’ve seen it myself. Now I’m no engineer, but I’ve been around long enough to know Phil Whirley’s working on a massive power outage. This place lights up a good chunk of the West Coast.”

We still didn’t have all the facts. “Why would the demons want Phil to knock out the lights?”

“Beats me,” Joe replied. “But it gets their rocks off. Word is the succubi have been hacking the power system out West for decades. They’re the ones responsible for most of the rolling blackouts. And the 2003 blackout that hit the East Coast.”

“Okay,” I said. It still didn’t make sense. “I hate to think what could happen to Uncle Phil after they’re done with him.” Their needing him was probably the only thing keeping him alive.

“You’d better figure it out quick,” Joe said. “The way he’s been running it, the turbine timing system could blow.”

“Soon?” I gaped. We needed time on this.

“It could have gone today. As it stands, he’s got another shift tomorrow,” Joe said.

“Tomorrow?” I braced my hands on the sides of the tunnel. It was too soon. I couldn’t fix this by tomorrow. Even if I could get to the DIP office before six o’ clock, they’d be so tangled up in their bureaucratic hoo-ha, they’d wait for an actual demon invasion to step up. And the nonmagical authorities weren’t going to believe me, at least not in time to get an inspection crew in here tomorrow. And what could I possibly say to convince them?

Hey, I’ve come to tell you that two ghosts warned me that a half fairy is tinkering with the Hoover Dam to the point where we’ll lose power. It’s all part of a demonic plan to trigger Armageddon when the lights are out.

“It’s too soon,” I said.

“The West Coast will be the first to go, right after some kind of concert,” Joe said, hovering close enough for me to smell the dampness on him. “I heard him talking with his lady friend on the phone.”

Joe looked immensely sorry as he shrugged.

I had to figure out how they planned to bring the demons in. I had to shut off their power source, if you will. The problem was, Phil held the answers and he was brain-warped.

Serena had been clear. I could still feel her rage. Leave us alone, demon slayer, and I’ll only kill him when I’m finished. Push me and I’ll take his soul .

My stomach dipped when I realized it wasn’t even a matter of rescuing his soul anymore. Sacrifice one for the many . I just wish I wasn’t the one who had to make that choice.

Well, I refused let her win. I braced a hand on my switch stars and asked the ghost, “How good are you at getting into places most of us can’t?”

He nodded thoughtfully. “I can hold my own.”

“If we can find Phil…” I began.

Joe grinned. “They’ll be at Club Viva.” He said, “Phil’s been talking about it all day.”

“Okay,” I said, letting out a breath I’d barely realized I was holding. “Let’s go save the world.”