Protect Her: Part One Read online

  The situation with Paige put me square in the middle of a place that I knew I shouldn’t be. I wasn’t sure what to do, and until I figured out what Paige had that the demons wanted, I was reluctant to make any sudden decisions.

  After she disappeared into the bathroom, I shook my head ruefully and slipped a t-shirt over my head. I made her uncomfortable, and there was a part of me that enjoyed that feeling. She was attracted to me, and that could prove useful too.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket. It was already six am, and Sheriff Halpren would be expecting my call. I wasn’t sure what I was going to tell him about Paige yet, but I couldn’t put it off any longer. My check-in was already overdue.

  I dialed his number. It was answered on the first ring.

  “Where the hell have you been, Stone?” Halpren wasn’t known for his gentle bedside manner. “That demon give you a hard time?”

  “I lost track of time. The interview was the usual,” I said, refusing to rise to his bait. I knew it rubbed at him, but I was the best Necromancer in the business, and we both knew it. That’s also why I didn’t come cheap.

  “So what did he know?”

  “It was the same story as the others. Except this time, it was Eckland who sent him.”

  “We’ve got a goddamn demon convention going on,” Halpren said. His displeasure was evident. “That’s the third demon official in the last week who’s sent a beast across the water.”

  “Looks that way.” This was the point where I should come clean and tell him about the Tiphon demon and finding Paige. But even as I opened my mouth, the words wouldn’t come out. I’d known Halpren for years, and everything I knew about him was that he was a good and fair man. But he worked for Benjamin, and I couldn’t qualify the archangel the same way. Not after I heard about what happened in Seattle.

  “Did you find any leads on this broad they’re after? I mean, I’m not surprised if she’s run amuck of the demons that she came here to the island, but it must be pretty bad if they’re willing to risk Benjamin’s wrath to retrieve her.”

  That was the understatement of the year.

  “It said that there was a picture, just like the last ones. It might be worth checking with the Wiccan to see if you can modify the demon traps so everything isn’t burned to a crisp when a demon falls into one. It destroys our evidence.”

  “Beggars can’t be choosers,” Halpren said. “You’re supposed to be the best private investigator and Necromancer in the Underworld. It’s hard for me to believe that you can’t find one little woman.”

  In other words, I was expected to justify the massive fee that the police department was paying me. I wasn’t going to get a lot of help from Halpren. In any other case, that would piss me off, but for this one, I was more than happy to go it alone. Especially since I had already found her.

  The bathroom door opened, and I saw Paige bathed in the dim light. She leaned against the doorframe and had a determined look on her face. My stomach sank. She was going to tell me that she was leaving, and unless I was planning on actually kidnapping her, I was going to have to let her go.

  “I’ll check in with you when I have more news.” I hit the end button and hung up. “You look better.”

  Paige nodded and pushed a strand of her long blonde hair behind her ear. I could see her bare shoulder where the Tiphon demon ripped open her shirt. It was healing quickly, which was good.

  “Look, Riley, I appreciate whatever it is that you did for me tonight. Really. But whatever it is that you’re mixed up in, I don’t want to know about it. It took me a really long time to get to this place in my life, and it’s not a bad place. Most days, it’s even pretty good. I can’t let anything upset that.”

  I didn’t understand half of what she was saying, but I did understand the theme of what she was trying to tell me. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t her choice. Clearly she had been through a lot, and I was curious about that too. But right now, she was in more danger than she could realize, and I couldn’t let her walk out the door without understanding the risks. It was something that I wished someone had done for me.

  I didn’t want to appear threatening to her in any way, so I took a few steps backward and sat down in a chair that was next to a small table. There was another chair across from me. “I get it. I really do. But you are in trouble, Paige. You need to understand that, and what that means.”

  “It was a freak accident,” she said. Her tone wobbled. She was afraid. I didn’t blame her. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me. So telling me something like that just sounds like you are trying to frighten me. I don’t scare easily, and I certainly am not going to buy a line of bullshit from a guy I just met.”

  She had a backbone. I liked that, but it also meant that she was going to make this conversation difficult. “It wasn’t a freak accident. It was a very deliberate attack.”

  “How do you know that?” I saw her eyes darting toward the door. She was calculating if she could make it there before me.

  I leaned back in my chair with a heavy sigh. “I know that because I’ve talked with three…men over the last few days and all of them have been looking for you.”

  Fear flashed in her eyes, but her chin rose slightly. “Bullshit.”

  “Look. I understand that all of this seems crazy, and I wish that I didn’t have to tell you the things that I need to tell you. But your life is in danger, and if you don’t listen to me, I can almost guarantee that you will die. Or worse.”

  A bubble of high-pitched laughter erupted from her mouth. “Worse than death? What could possibly be worse than death?”

  I thought of the Klybor demon I interrogated earlier. I was pretty certain that he’d agree with me. I needed her to listen to me. “I told you that I will answer all of your questions. Please, sit down. Give me ten minutes. Then if you want to go, you can go, and I won’t stop you.”

  “So you’ll try and stop me if I don’t,” she countered.

  “I won’t do anything to hurt you, and I’m definitely not holding you here against your will. That’s not what I’m doing. I’m trying to help you.”

  I said nothing else. She was either going to listen, or she was going to run. The choice was up to her. She stared at me, and I stared back, deliberately crossing my arms. A moment later, she crossed the room and sat down in the chair. She mimicked my pose, which would have made me laugh if I didn’t feel the seriousness of the situation.

  “You said I didn’t have ID on me. That means my phone and wallet are missing.”

  That wasn’t what I was expecting her to say at all. “I didn’t see anything like that when I found you.”

  “I must have lost them then when that thing knocked me to the ground,” she said.

  I had a very bad feeling about that. “Or it took them. Which means it knows who you are and where you live.”

  Her eyes widened, and she shot to her feet. “Christopher!”

  Who the hell was Christopher? I managed to soften the question before I said it out loud. “Christopher is?”

  “My roommate,” she said. “I need to call him to be sure he’s okay.”

  I reached across the table and took her hand. She didn’t pull away. “They are looking for you, and not anyone else. They are tracking you.”

  “It would make me feel better to know he’s okay.”

  Whoever Christopher was, he was important to her. I wasn’t sure why that bothered me. “Let’s talk. Then I’ll take you home, and you can check on him. Don’t forget, it’s still really early in the morning. He’s probably not awake yet.” She bit her lip, and I could tell she wasn’t convinced. “Shouldn’t you know what you’re dealing with before you bring anyone else into the equation?”

  That’s what got her. She sat back down.

  “I don’t want to know anything more than what I need to,” she said. “Keep it short. And if I find out that you’re bullshitting me, or that my friend is actually in trouble while I’m sitting here list
ening to this, I’m going to hold you accountable.”

  Yep. This woman had spunk.

  CHAPTER SEVEN - PAIGE

  I already determined that no matter what Riley said, I was out of there as soon as it appeared that he felt as if he had said his peace. It was obvious that it was important to him, and I figured I owed him at least a listen since the guy saved my life. But I wasn’t buying what he was selling. There was a logical explanation for what I saw. There had to be. I just hadn’t figured it out yet.

  “What I’m about to tell you is going to sound strange and probably a bit crazy,” Riley started.

  I blew out a frustrated sigh. “Keep it to the ‘need to know’ stuff. This isn’t story time.”

  “Everything I am about to tell you is relevant,” he said with a wry shake of his head. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. That small movement put him dangerously close to my personal space. Thank goodness he put on a shirt. Physically, the man was a total distraction. “Everything that you know about the world is actually only half of the story. There are things that happen all the time that bridge your world, and the one that exists beside it.”

  I pushed my chair back a few inches. This was already sounding far-fetched, and we hadn’t even gotten to the meat of it yet.

  “Okay, parallel worlds. Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “Not parallel worlds. Two different streams of life that exist in the same space, but one has no awareness of the other.”

  “Why would that be?” The question came out before I could stop it. I had to remember that I didn’t care.

  “Because it would cause chaos and anarchy if people like you were aware of how close to the edge you lived to the things that go bump in the night, and you thought only lived in your nightmares.”

  “Those are the demons that you mentioned.” I was going to humor him, if nothing else so he’d hurry up and get the story out so that I could go home.

  “Primarily demons, but there are many other subcultures of beasts and creatures that also exist. They are weaker and less prevalent, so when it comes to most of the bad things that happen in my world, it’s coming out of demon business.”

  “Your world? So you’re one of them too?” That got my attention.

  Riley shook his head. “No, I’m human like you. I just have special…skills that make me useful.”

  That was the second time that he had mentioned something about specialized skills. He wasn’t opening up about what those were yet, which made me wonder what they could possibly be.

  “Get to the point, Riley.”

  “Calamata Island is a demon-free zone. It has been for a long time.”

  “You said it was a demon that attacked me last night.”

  “That’s right, and that’s what makes whatever is going on potentially more dangerous. It isn’t pleasant for demons who are caught trespassing here, and there hasn’t been an incident of one crossing over from the mainland in over ten years.” He paused. “There have been three demons apprehended here in the last seven days.”

  That didn’t sound good at all, not that I believed for one second that it was true. “Sounds like you’ve got a problem with your security system.” It was a clumsy comparison, but I had no idea how to talk about demon trespassing with a crazy stranger.

  “Or, what they are doing here is so important that they’re willing to die to do it,” Riley countered.

  I didn’t need him to spell it out for me. “You think they are all showing up here now because of me. Demons are out to get me.”

  Riley rocked back up on his hands. “Yes. And I don’t think that’s the reason. I know that’s the reason.”

  “How and why?” Those were the two big questions in my mind, if I was willing to buy into his story.

  “How do I know that, and why would they be willing to sacrifice life and limb to find you?”

  I nodded.

  “I only know the answer to the first question. I’ve spoken to each of the three demons that were apprehended, and each one indicated that they were here searching for a woman. They didn’t have a name, but they had her picture.”

  “You’ve seen this picture?” I felt a chill down my spine. I hated to admit it, but Riley’s story was starting to get to me.

  “I didn’t need to. Right after talking to the last demon, I found you being attacked by the Tiphon demon in the graveyard. Tiphon demons are specifically bred and trained for tracking. They have a single-minded focus. Retrieve.”

  “Whatever it was, it bit me. That felt like a single-minded focus on death.”

  “If, for whatever reason, the Tiphon demon is unable to retrieve its target, it will mortally wound them so that the target can be found and retrieved while receiving follow-up medical attention.”

  Now I understood why Riley refused to take me to the emergency room.

  “I interrupted its mission. It will return to its Master and report what happened.”

  “Then what?” My heart beat painfully against my chest.

  “Then it will try again. This time though, it doesn’t have to try to randomly track you. It knows who you are. It will be waiting for you to come home, or go to work, or just go about your life. That’s why you can’t go back to your apartment. There is a good chance that it’s already there.”

  “I have to warn Christopher,” I said.

  “No!” Riley’s voice grew hard. “Single-minded focus, Paige. It wants you. It won’t bother anyone else. But if you tell Christopher about anything that I’ve told you, you will put him in danger. The lines between our worlds are very clearly drawn. You can’t be exposed to the darkness of my world without it sucking you in.”

  “So I guess that means I’m out of luck then,” I said with a shallow laugh.

  “Why do you think the demons are tracking you?”

  I looked at him in surprise. “How the hell would I know? My awareness of demons, or whatever, has been for all of what, three hours now? I know you think I’m the one they are looking for, but that doesn’t make any sense. I work in a floral shop. I pay my taxes on time. I’m practically invisible in my world. Nobody would be interested in me. I’m a nobody. I don’t know anything about these things you’re talking about.”

  Riley sat back in his chair. I sensed that he was as confused as I was, which wasn’t reassuring at all.

  “You’re not a Calamata Island native,” he said. “You told me last night in the car that you moved here three years ago.”

  “That’s right,” I said. The feeling of dread in my stomach reappeared. I didn’t recall telling him that, and I wondered what else I might have spilled in my drug-induced stupor.

  “I asked you where you lived before that, and you had a strange answer. You said Park Ridge General Hospital.”

  The knot in my stomach tightened. The conversation was heading in a direction that I didn’t like at all. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

  Riley leaned forward again, and his green eyes flashed as they caught mine. “You aren’t telling me something, Paige. Something important.”

  “I told you that I have never heard of demons or any other fairy tales like this,” I said, jutting out my chin. “My past has nothing to do with any of this.”

  He reached out and put his hand on my knee. I stared at it. The contrast of his tanned skin to my pale skin tone was obvious. I felt the heat from his palm radiate out and spread across my skin. There was something soothing about it. “Paige, I’m trying to help. You don’t need to be afraid of me. You can tell me.”

  There was a war going on inside of my mind. I spent the last three years trying to make peace with what happened to me and build a new life. Hopefully, it was a better life than before, but I had no way of knowing that. So I avoided talking about it anymore. That past was past and from all indications I’d had, I was never going to get it back. But I was drawn in by the earnestness on Riley’s face. Could he help me? If I let myself believe him, then I had to consider the po
ssibility that what was happening to me now was connected with the black hole that was my past.

  “I saw a help wanted ad in the paper for the floral shop,” I started. “On the other side of the crease, there was a huge tourist advertisement for Calamata Island. The views of the bay and the pictures of the town looked so serene and idyllic. I thought that was a place where I could find the time and the space I needed.”

  I paused, but Riley motioned for me to continue. “I called the number in the ad, and that’s how I met Christopher. He owns the floral shop and lives in the apartment upstairs. As we were talking, I mentioned that I was considering a move to the island, and he asked if I had found a place to stay yet. Then he mentioned that he had an extra room for rent if things worked out and I wanted the job. It killed two birds with one stone for me. I needed a job and a place to live.”

  “There must be something else,” Riley said. “Something we’re missing.”

  There it was. Time to fess up my secret. But I couldn’t do it. I refused to believe that it was about me. I couldn’t. I stood up. “Look, I listened to what you told me. I’ve answered your questions. I’d like to go home now.”

  Before he could argue with me, I crossed the room and opened the door. Then I screamed at what I saw standing outside.

  CHAPTER EIGHT – RILEY

  Paige’s scream propelled me to action. I didn’t even think. I crossed the room in two long strides sending my knife hurling through the air at the demon ducking its way across the threshold. My aim was true, and the knife hit squarely between the demon’s eyes.

  The hulking form straightened to its full height before collapsing at Paige’s feet. She started to scream again when I grabbed her elbow and pulled her to me, cupping my palm over her mouth.

  “We don’t know if it’s alone,” I breathed in her ear. “Quiet is better, okay?”