Demon's Daughter: A Cursed Book (7 page)

“Besides, Dro can help with your research. She’s something the world hasn’t seen before. She can–”

“Whoa, hold on a second,” I spoke over him. “My sister is not going to be a Guinea pig.”

Max narrowed his eyes at me. “That isn’t what I was trying to suggest–”

“Then you shouldn’t have said it.”

Tension built in the room. Manny moved closer to his son, ready to defend him if I decided to get meaner.

“I’ll answer any questions you have, Manny,” said Dro.

I looked at her. “Dro…”

“They aren’t going to hurt us, Constance. I can feel it.”

Meaning she’d used her powers to take a peek into their minds. But she’d only seen what they were thinking now, at this single moment. When she wasn’t looking, anything could change. Smart people knew how to hide their true intentions, saving them for when they would do the most damage. I’d experienced it a thousand times over back in my cartel days. Everyone looked out for themselves first. The rest of us were left to choke on the dust they kicked in our faces.

I must have been scowling fiercely, because Manny’s shoulders tensed when he looked at me. Dro turned her sweetest smile on him.

“You’ll have to forgive my sister,” she said. “She’s very defensive. But I’ll be more than happy to work with you.” She paused. “I need to understand what I am.”

Manny regarded her with interest, becoming more and more intrigued by her. He didn’t look at her aggressively or without emotion. He just looked genuinely curious. I watched him carefully, waiting for that sinister gleam to come into his eyes, or the hint of fear that suggested he would call the cops. Nothing on his face changed. This must have been sincerity, something I wasn’t very familiar with. It made my fingers twitch, itching for the hilt of my hatchet to remind me that I could take control of the situation if I felt I needed to.

“All right. I’ll answer whatever questions you have. Tomorrow.”

Dro bit her lip. Max cleared his throat. “They don’t have a place to stay, Dad,” he said. “If they spend the night here, it’ll be easier for everybody. They can sleep in the basement. They won’t cause any trouble.” Max hesitated when he looked at me. “Well, Dro won’t. Constance… I’m not so sure.”

I grinned wickedly at him.

“She won’t do anything,” said Dro. “You have my word.”

My smile dropped. I didn’t like when Dro made promises for me. It meant that I had to keep them.

“All right,” Manny sighed, clearly as tired of this as we were. “You can stay one night so we can get some answers for each other.” His eyes found mine. “I will tell you everything I know about hunting demons, if that’s what you still want.”

I crossed my arms. “It is, as long as you keep your end of the bargain.”

Dro sighed heavily beside me.

Manny narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t put a lot of stock into the human race, do you Constance?” he asked grumpily.

I shrugged. “I haven’t had the best experiences with them. Kind of hard to do when almost every single one has died or stabbed me in the back.”

Another silence followed as I fell into a dark place. I tried to picture the faces of the people who betrayed me in the past, but there were more than I could remember. And I was no better than any one of them.

“We won’t betray you,” Max said, sounding very honest.

He really did seem like a good kid, and I wanted to believe him. From the endearing look in Dro’s eyes, she wanted to believe him, too. But if I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me, Dro and I wouldn’t be living in poverty.

“Both of you should get some sleep,” said Manny, the weariness still heavy in his eyes. “We’ll start first thing in the morning.”

He made it sound less than promising, but at least I could tell myself we were making progress. Hopefully.

Chapter 4

I woke up early on purpose. I was used to running on little sleep, having trained my body to wake at the slightest sound. I took the risk of having Dro sleep on the mattress next to me, like we had when we were kids. I slept near the edge of the mattress, my hatchet under the pillow and a knife on a box near my head.

After about four hours of sleep, I woke up and looked over at my sister to make sure she wasn’t having a nightmare. She seemed all right, breathing evenly and calmly. But her nightmares were unpredictable. I could only pray she wouldn’t burn down the house of the only people who had offered to help us.

I slipped out of the bed and grabbed my weapons, hooking the hatchet through one of the loops on the waistband of my jeans, sliding the knife into another. The oversized shirt I was wearing concealed the blades.

I padded toward the stairs, glancing back at Dro one more time to make sure her sleeping hadn’t changed. She still looked fine, so I walked up to the basement door, pulled it open and left the room. I ran a hand through my hair to shake it out, stopping by the digital thermostat on the wall to check the time.

5:00 AM.
Ugh.

I regretted not taking the time to check the rest of the house before we’d gone to bed. Still, now was just as good a time as any. Only crazy people were up this early.

I made my footsteps as light as possible as I walked into the living room, which was way bigger than I expected.

It was a living room, a dining room, a library, and a den all in one. Across from me by the window was a small white table with matching plastic chairs. In the middle of the room was a dark brown sofa and a matching love seat, a fake oak coffee table in front of them littered with magazines, coasters, and remotes for the TV across the wall. On the left of the TV was a huge bookshelf with hundreds of books. Beside me was a wide desk with a two leather chairs, one front of it and one behind. On the wall beyond the desk were framed certificates in psychology, theology and of course, demonology. The desk was covered with a computer, stacks of paper, a stationary set, and framed photos. I walked over to the desk and grabbed one of the photos.

The one I’d picked was a family portrait that was a few years old. On the left of the picture was Manny, his arm over Max’s shoulder. Max looked like he was about ten years old, a huge smile on his face. I glanced at another framed photo that was the portrait of a lovely woman with deep eyes and a kind smile. Max’s mother, I assumed. I wondered where she was. I hadn’t seen if Manny had a wedding ring. It was something I would look for later.

I put the framed photo back onto the desk and walked over to the books. There were a couple fiction works, but most of them were texts on demons. I read the titles on the spines, but they didn’t mean anything to me. I was a fighter, not a scholar. All I wanted to know is how many stabs it needed before I killed it. Or where it should be stabbed. When it came to research, I didn’t even know where to start.

“I didn’t think you were a morning person,” a voice said from behind me.

Half way through his sentence, I had whirled, my hands going to my hips. My shoulders tensed, as did the lazy smile on Manny’s face when he saw the dangerous look in my eyes.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Then don’t sneak up on me,” I said.

Manny frowned. Normally I would have kept staring him down, but I remembered that I needed his help. Dro was always saying we had to be nice to people who were trying to help us, and right now I wasn’t giving Manny any reason to. I relaxed, but kept my hands loose at my sides.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

He took a careful step into his office toward his desk. “You should go back to bed. You look tired.”

I stifled a laugh, glancing at the books. “My sister tells me that all the time.”

“With good reason, I’m sure.” I looked over at Manny, who was regarding me carefully. “You’re safe here, Constance. No one is going to hurt you.”

I crossed my arms and leaned against the bookcase. “Forgive me if I don’t believe that.”

Manny sighed. “You don’t like to make things easy, do you?”

That got a sarcastic smile out of me. “Wouldn’t have lived this long if I did.”

“So you’ve fought demons before,” he stated.

I nodded, but didn’t elaborate. I wasn’t about to share my horror stories with him, even if he was a demonologist. He was patient with me.

“Usually I can perform an exorcism and expel a minor demon, but fighting a physical one…” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine how hard that must be.”

I pulled my arms tighter around my chest. “Trust me. You don’t want to.”

Manny caught on that I didn’t want to keep talking about it, and changed the subject. “I take it you’re an armed woman.”

I held his eyes and nodded.

“What do you use?”

I hesitated answering him. Manny and Max didn’t seem to know I was a fugitive who used to belong to one of the most dangerous gangs south of the border, and I wasn’t rushing to tell them.

Then he said, “I have a double-barrel shotgun under my desk filled with blessed rock salt and sage. Unless you’re carrying a bazooka with you somewhere, there’s nothing you can say that will frighten me.”

I chuckled a little. I appreciated his honesty. Not only had he told me that he was armed and where to find his weapon, he said it as though he didn’t care that I would be armed to the teeth.

He was earning my respect, if not my trust.

“I have a hatchet and four throwing knives.”

“A hatchet?” Manny said curiously. “Not the sort of weapon I would have expected a future demon slayer to have.”

The humor left my eyes. “It was my father’s.”

Manny nodded, as though he understood. “I’m guessing that none of those weapons are silver or blessed.”

“Honestly, Manny, what my weapon is made out of is the last thing on my mind when I’m fighting demons or whatever the hell they are. I’ll use a fucking garbage bag if it means I can kill them.”

“Hm. Well, faith and silver are your strongest weapons. Pure silver will injure any demon severely, but faith will repel them and keep them away from you.”

“Right. I think I’ll stick with the silver.”

He tilted his head at me. “You want to fight demons but you don’t want to have faith?”

“I’m a cynic. I don’t have any reason to believe in a higher power.”

He frowned. “Then you’re only being difficult.”

My face was stony, but inside my respect for him grew even more. I didn’t mind being called difficult, since Manny had the guts to say it to my face. He was the type of person I could trust. I just wished my brain would let me.

Maybe I could try that nice thing Dro was always going on about.

I grinned wickedly. “Oh, this isn’t me being difficult. This is me being practical.” He gave me a dry look, but I ignored it.

“So. Rock salt and sage kill demons?”

Manny steadily moved back on topic. “Yes. It’s even more powerful if it’s blessed.”

“Huh. Well, I guess since you’re a demon guru, you would know if it would work. Rock salt is pretty easy to come by and make shells for, but what’s so special about sage?”

“Demons are repelled by the smell. When it’s burned it can cleanse and purify a house of evil spirits, but mixing it with salt and using it in a gun can make the shot extra powerful.”

Which is why his whole house smelled like it. I glanced at the desk, then back at him. “Why not silver bullets? Or holy water or something? Wouldn’t those work?”

Manny hesitated. “They do, but they are hard to come by, and very few people use them.”

I stifled a laugh. “Not a lot of werewolf-hunters out there?”

“No. Not enough demon slayers.”

I blinked at him. “Wait, there really are demon slayers out there? Actual, legitimate demon slayers?”

Manny took a deep breath, turning back around to walk over to his desk. He sat down in his chair, the framed photos facing him. I took one of the chairs across from him.

“I’ve only ever met one of them. It’s not a profession with a long life expectancy.”

“How do I get in touch with them?”

“You don’t. His number is only dialed for emergencies. It’s like 9-1-1, a number you pray you never have to use.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’d say that my sister and I being hunted by demons qualifies as an emergency.”

“Please, Constance, if I thought he could help you, I would give you his number. But unless the situation is absolutely critical, I don’t contact this man. He has other, serious problems to deal with. He doesn’t have time for an apprentice.”

Part of me wanted to keep pressing. Manny couldn’t train me physically, couldn’t give me the weapons I needed to fight demons, but a demon slayer could. The other part of me knew I wouldn’t get anywhere, because there was nothing more Manny could tell me.

I leaned back against the chair, letting out a frustrated sigh. “Well, if I can’t get help from a demon slayer, what help can I get from you?”

I asked it as politely as I could. Manny’s eyes twinkled. I think he was starting to get used to me.

“Have you ever heard the saying that the pen is mightier than the sword?” he asked with a sly smile.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “But I prefer the sword. It’s more efficient.”

Manny didn’t give me the hard, cold look I had expected. Instead, his eyes smiled.

“All demons have different powers. I can teach you how to exploit them. I’m not a demon slayer, but I have learned how to protect my family.”

We sat in a quiet understanding for a minute or two. Manny wasn’t that different from me, after all. When it came down to it, he would do anything to keep his son alive. The shotgun under his desk was proof enough of that. My thoughts strayed to Dro.

“What about my sister?” I asked quietly.

Hesitance built in his eyes. Then he laced his hands together and looked at me over the desk. If it hadn’t been for the softness and wisdom in his dark brown eyes, he would have looked like a teacher ready to scold a bad student.

“Tell me about her powers.”

Christ, where am I supposed to begin?
I thought.

Dro had powers as incredible as they were impossible. I didn’t know if there was a way I could ease Manny into knowing about them. If he would even believe me when I told the truth. I took a deep breath. Manny was a demonologist who knew a demon slayer. He was being patient with me and willing to help my sister. She was desperate to find out what she was. I was desperate to keep her alive.