Angie Fox - ADS 01 - The Accidental Demon Slayer

But the nymph was fast. She disappeared into the nearest puddle as the bands on Grandma’s wrists and ankles snapped and crumbled away. The imps scurried back to the shadows, save the two dead ones at my feet. “Take that!” Pirate chased the remaining imps to the edge of the clearing.

I stood catching my breath, my back burning. The coppery scent of blood hung heavy over the clearing. I wanted to collapse with relief. Or was that fear? Just because this thing didn’t kill me before didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt me now. He landed a few feet from me, settling his wings around his body like a bird. He wore a single emerald ring on one of his talons, and his feathers shone in a burst of colors.

Grandma bustled over to me. “You alright?” I nodded. “Well, then.” She flexed her hands, working to get the circulation going again. “Hiya, Impetrix Heli—” She paused. “Um, Impetrix. Thanks for saving our asses. Now, with your permission,” she saluted him, “we’re outta here.” She grabbed my arm. “Come on.”

“He’s just going to let us go?” I asked, hustling behind her.

“If we go quick enough.”

I fought the urge to look behind us. Good enough for me.

We exited the clearing, and I couldn’t hold back a gasp. The immense lake had disappeared as if it never existed. Grandma’s bike lay twisted down a steep embankment off the main road. We scrambled through some mud and pulled the hog upright. Grandma wrenched the handlebars and yanked the seat.

“Hurry,” she said quietly.

“So he’s…?”

“Trouble.” We managed to heave it halfway up the embankment, but the bike was too mangled and heavy.

“Is he worse than the imps?”

Grandma groaned as she hauled the bike with everything she had. I joined her, pulling until I felt my arms stretching half out of their sockets. For every inch we dragged the flipping thing, we sank two in the mud. It was no use.

“God damn it!” Grandma shoved the bike and it fell back into the ditch, nearly taking me with it.

I slid an extra few feet and stared down at the wreck of a bike. It was toast, and we were trapped.

She brought a bloodied hand up to her mouth. “Yeah. In a way, he is worse than the imps.”

My nerves quivered. The air felt heavy, smoky . I felt it in the pit of my stomach. Maybe my magic was finally kicking in. It was about time. “What is it, Grandma?” I asked. “More demons? Or the griffin?

“It’s not that,” she said grimly. “It’s him.” She jabbed a mud-slicked finger at an imposing, olive-skinned man who stood like royalty at the edge of the ravine.

I gripped her hand and felt my pulse leap. “Is he a monster?”

“That depends,” she said, giving him the evil eye.

My blood warmed just looking at him. He was striking. If you liked the GQ type. He wore a dark, tailored suit cut to fit his broad shoulders. His angled features gave away nothing as he watched us. I felt his eyes, hidden in shadows, sweep over every inch of my body. I blinked twice, studied him. Something inside me felt like I knew him.

That was impossible, I thought with a twinge of desire. If I’d ever met this man before, I would have remembered. He seemed so out of place on this swampy, dirty backwater road. Everything about him was polished, except for the way his thick, ebony hair curled around his collar.

His eyes flashed orange, then yellow. Holy Moses. I stumbled backward in the darkness as his eyes began to glow with a positively arresting, utterly horrifying grassy hue. My body tensed, ready for a fight if it came to that.

“Well, look who likes you, Lizzie.” Grandma rubbed at her wrists where the chains had been.

What? The automatic excitement that flared at the idea of a good-looking man finding me attractive fizzled under the dread that it was this emerald-eyed…person. Why couldn’t any normal guys like me? Oh wait. One of them might have. Tonight, at this very moment, I was supposed to be enjoying a Rum Swizzle with a boatload of friends as well as Hot Ryan Harmon from the gym. A birthday extravaganza with the stunning Mr. Harmon as the ultimate party prize. Instead, I stood here, at the bottom of a ravine, staring up at this magical enigma.

“Good to see you’re keeping your distance,” Grandma said, drawing me toward her like an old girlfriend. “That man is nothing but trouble.”

No kidding. Yet another supernatural complication I could do without. “So who is he?” I asked.

“Well, sugar beet,” Grandma said, giving my hand a firm squeeze. “He’s your protector.”

I gaped at him. My protector?

Grandma straightened her shoulders. “I took you without his permission.”

I stared at her. “My protector?”

“You’re my granddaughter, for goodness sake!” She sniffed as he tossed a climbing rope down the embankment. “Damn that man. He’s stickier than a pinecone enema.”

He’d stripped off his coat and rolled up his shirtsleeves away from his dark, muscled forearms. “Now we’re going to have to let him help us,” she said, as if we’d lost a major battle. “Whatever you do, don’t tell him about Xerxes. Don’t go anywhere alone with him, and don’t reveal too much.”

Not a problem since I didn’t have a clue what was going on.

She threw up her hand. “Stop!” she said, as he prepared to descend to help us. “We’re fine on our own.”

“Speak for yourself,” I muttered. This ditch was taller than I was. Besides, we had to get out of here before more griffins, imps or anybody else showed up. We didn’t have time to see if my seventy-something grandma knew how to climb a rope.

Grandma grabbed the line and clambered up. Her boots scratched at the embankment, sending down a shower of mud clumps, weeds and god knew what else. “Show-off,” I muttered. But my heart wasn’t in it. I was too focused on the sharp-featured man who didn’t look at all pleased. His eyes had stopped glowing, so that was something. Still, I couldn’t help wondering what kind of person we were dealing with.

My protector . I rolled the thought around in my mind. When I reached the top, he took my hand. I’d thought I was warm. He was positively toasty. I detected a trace of sandalwood cologne. His other hand was steady and strong at my back as he led me away from the edge. His very presence cut ribbons of heat down my spine. I tried my best to ignore them. Facts were facts—something brought this man here, to us, at this particular moment. I wondered what he wanted.

“Lizzie Brown,” he said, with a slight Greek accent that made my name sound almost lyrical. “Dimitri Kallinikos. It’s an honor.”

“How did you find us?” demanded my grandma, before I could say a word.

He arched a brow, deliberately unruffled by her tone. “I have my ways,” he said, dropping my hand. “Although, as I said, I would have rather gone with you.”

Grandma cocked her head up at him. “You weren’t invited.”

He leveled an icy gaze at her.

Oh, please. The wind whipped through the trees, chilling the night. “We were fine by ourselves,” I said. “Really.” Was I going to have to separate these two?

But he’d forgotten I was even there.

“I am her protector,” he insisted.

“And I am her grandmother.” She glowered at him.

Hello? I was standing right here. But if there was one thing I learned teaching preschool, it was how to pick my battles. Let them argue. I’d figure out how to get us out of here. I scanned the sky for griffins.

Pirate scrambled up the side of the dropoff, sending globs of dirt flying every which way. “What’d I miss?” Mud, and worse, slicked his fur.

“Pirate, get over here.” I winced when I saw the bloody gashes on his back. He danced away from me when I tried to inspect them closer. “Oh yikes.” We had to get out of there.