Angie Fox - ADS 01 - The Accidental Demon Slayer

Dimitri ran his thumb along the blade of the knife. “Remember this favor, Lizzie.”

Somehow, I didn’t think he’d let me forget. Frieda was right. It seemed Dimitri’s help did come with a price tag attached.

“Let’s not forget you owe me too,” I told him. If he hadn’t kidnapped me, I would have been able to get Pirate out on my own, before the house started smoking from every nook and cranny. I was about to get into that when I felt my wrist go disturbingly heavy.

“What the—?” I looked down. The wisp of a bracelet had thickened into a manacle. Of all the things I might have expected to happen tonight, I hadn’t even dreamed of this.

Mother fudrucker!

I watched in horror as thick chains snaked from the cuff around my wrist. They slithered down my leg and captured my ankles. Fear slammed into me. “What is this?” I clutched at Dimitri. He stepped back, empty of emotion.

“What are you doing to me?” I cried. The chains wrapped around my waist and wrapped around the battered walnut tree. “Stop!” I struggled with everything I had, but the chains were relentless, twining around my body, trapping me like a fly in a spider’s web.

That liar! Dimitri had betrayed me in the worst possibly way. My heart slammed in my chest. “What are you doing?” I demanded, my voice cracking with emotion.

Dimitri’s gaze traveled the length of my body, sending a rush of hot anger through me. His mouth tugged into a smile, but there was no understanding or warmth. As he advanced on me like the predator he was, I struggled against the chains, dreaming what it would be like to slap the smile off his face. Dimitri leaned in close, his face inches from mine. He radiated heat and a raw power. “I’m doing what needs to be done.”

His eyes burned with something that wasn’t quite desire, although there was a lot of that too. He cradled my head in his hands. And curse my mutinous body, red-hot anticipation shot through me like wildfire.

“Don’t even think about it,” I told him, my voice not as steady as I would have liked.

“I’m protecting you,” he said against my mouth.

He had to go there. As far as I could see, his protection was one of my main problems right now. “Yeah?” I thrust out my chin and ignored the heat spiraling through me. “Who’s going to protect me from you?”

He pulled away, which was what I wanted. Still, it seemed like I’d missed out, which made me even angrier. I hated games.

Dimitri brushed my forehead with his lips, strong and confident. I felt his touch all the way down to my toes. Arrogant jerk. He seemed to enjoy taunting me. And I hated myself for buying into it. He’d be better off facing Vald than enduring one minute of what I’d do to that high-handed, good-for-nothing, two-faced brute. I never should have trusted him. Never. If I had to do it again, I’d take his teardrop emerald and shove it up his nose.

I struggled against the manacles at my feet. See, this is where trust got me. My whole life, I put my faith in people who paid me back with half-truths and downright lies. Now one of them had lashed me to a tree. He’d better hope he found Pirate, Grandma and the Hope Diamond in there. Maybe then, after a hundred years had passed, I’d consider speaking to him again.

I yanked at the chains. The teardrop emerald whipped against my wrist. Never. Never again.

Dimitri gave me a long, dark look before he headed into the house, alone.

He stayed inside the house too long, way too long. With every passing moment, it grew less and less likely I’d ever see him again. Blast it. I struggled until I felt like I’d run a marathon. The chains didn’t budge. A trickle of sweat ran down my back. What if he didn’t find Pirate? Or Grandma? What if he ran into a ticked-off Vald? He’d carried one ancient knife inside, and even though it was sharp as all get out, it didn’t look very sturdy. What would I do out here, chained to a walnut tree, if Dimitri didn’t come back?

Dawn approached, bathing the world in shades of gray. Still, not a bird chirped. Not one car drove down the road in front of the bar. It felt like we’d landed in purgatory. A drain pipe on the side of the house clattered as it began to shake.

Dimitri burst out the front door— without Pirate . His black T-shirt hung in bloody shreds, and he looked like he was running for his life. He leapt behind his overturned SUV as the house exploded. I would have given anything to duck. Windows shattered with the force. Smoke poured from the house as it sagged in on itself.

My chains coiled away from the tree. I lurched forward, catching my balance as they wound away from my ankles and up my legs. It was the worst feeling in the world, like something living had attached itself to me. But I had bigger things to worry about.

Dimitri bolted for the nearest motorcycle still standing, a silver Harley with red skulls painted on the side. “Get on!” he hollered to me. He slid onto the seat, rolled the throttle and hit the ignition. The engine roared to life. I ran straight for him, my oxfords crunching against glass and debris.

For a split second, I thought about grabbing my own bike and getting as far away from here as I could. But I didn’t know how to ride. Worse, I had no idea where to go.

“Now!” he yelled.

The bike didn’t even have helmets. Some protector. I caught a glimpse of a pink helmet, half buried under a collapsed bike. It was mine now. I grabbed it and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the chain around my wrist had morphed into body armor that stretched across my chest. Intricate carvings wound up the armor, with the teardrop emerald centered above my breasts.

Dimitri slammed his bike to a stop in front of me, spitting rocks and dirt as I shoved the pink helmet on my head and climbed behind him. I wanted to ask him if he’d found any sign of Pirate, if he’d seen anything else inside the house and if it was pure stupidity or a death wish that had made him tie me up. Before I could get a word out, he jumped on the gas. My back smacked against the metal safety bar as we peeled out into the dawn.

We drove for at least an hour on dusty, unpaved back roads. Dimitri made sure to hit every pothole and anthill. I’d never realized what a smooth ride Grandma delivered. I closed my eyes as we hit another bone-rattling dip in the pavement. Please be okay, Grandm a. I didn’t know where we were going, but wherever it was, I hoped she’d be there. There were so many things I needed to tell her.

Dimitri slowed in front of the first sign of civilization we came upon, an old broken-down Shoney’s restaurant. Weeds crowded the parking lot, fighting for space between the cracked concrete with its faded yellow lines. The Big Boy himself lurched to one side, in bad need of a paint job and a can of Rust-Oleum. Darkening shades draped the picture windows, their window boxes filled with faded plastic geraniums.

The bike swayed as we rounded our way to the back parking lot. I could feel every muscle and tendon in Dimitri’s back as I gripped him tightly. The blood on his T-shirt had dried, making the material crunchy. The gashes on his back had already begun to heal. Impossible, yes. But I’d been staring at the proof for darned near an hour. Well, hadn’t I known he wasn’t quite human?

I eased away from Dimitri as the bike slowed. This place gave me the heebie-jeebies. A minicity of beaten-down trailers huddled at the edge of the lot. Near them stood a haphazard carport with a dozen bikes stashed inside. We pulled up to the end of the row.

As soon as Dimitri killed the engine, I poked him in the back. “Did you find any sign of Pirate?” If he saw my doggy in that awful house, if something had happened to Pirate, I needed to know.