outer demon wars 01 - comic book demon

• Title Page
  
• Dedication
  
• Copyright
  
• CHAPTER ONE
  
• CHAPTER TWO
  
• CHAPTER THREE
  
• CHAPTER FOUR
  
• CHAPTER FIVE
  
• CHAPTER SIX
  
• CHAPTER SEVEN
  
• About the Author
  
• DId you enjoy this book?
  

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

About the Author

DId you enjoy this book?

For Allie and Lacey

I could do nothing with out the love of friends.

Special thanks to my editor Kristina Circelli

Thanks for always cleaning up the messes I make. 

Copyright © 2016 by Emily Cyr

Cover Designed by J.N. Sheats - Author & Illustrator
http://www.jnsheats.com/

Editing by Catherine Stovall

Editing by Red Road Editing / Kristina Circelli (www.circelli.info)

Proofreading by Jolene Buchheit

Formatting by Felicia Starr

Though some of the places are real this is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and situations in this work are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead, or situations are merely a coincidence.

No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, other than a brief quote in a review or article without the written permission of the author.

All rights reserved.

Chapter One

AFTER BRUTALLY MURDERING A YOUNG boy’s parents, a madman asks if the child has ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight.
  This scene from
Batman
always seemed poetic to me. As a comic book nerd and avid movie watcher, the line always struck a chord with me. Especially right now. 

  Pale moonlight? I turned my face upward. Check. Devil? I turned my attention to the man lying next to me, his limbs intertwined with mine. Check. Dancing? Well, we did a lot of things last night, but, dancing was not one of them.
What the hell was I even thinking to get involved with him?
I ran my hand through my sweaty, matted hair. 

The man, or should I say demon, next to me stirred. I froze, praying my subtle movements didn’t wake him. How had all of this gone so wrong, or right? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed last night, but I would have never in a million years guessed my life would end up here in the arms of this demon. When I first saw him, my heart had nearly stopped because I felt as if my body knew him. I closed my eyes and relaxed into him, letting my mind go back just a few short days and thinking of our first meeting. It seemed like a lifetime ago. 

Chapter Two

“ANNABELLE!” 

DID HE HAVE TO say my name as though it were a cuss word every single fucking time he needed me? 

Yes, fuckwit. How may I help you, oh dear overlord?
I didn’t say it, but oh how I wanted to. 

  “Ann-a…”

  “Holy
Millennium Falcon
, Carl! I’m right here! What do you want?”

 Carl was my boss. The unfortunate truth of the situation was he was also my cousin. Carl was a level Mighty Morphin Power Ranger kind of creepy. I was that hard up for a job that I had to work for my cousin Carl in his comic book shop. He was a thirty-five-year-old who still lived with his parents. My uncle was desperate to kick him out, but my aunt Diane would never let him do it. Poor schmuck. At least, he had a home. I had a couch at my ex’s, Jamie’s, place. I was a twenty-one-year-old college dropout who was slightly obsessed with Star Wars. I was so close to finishing my art degree, but my world had shattered into millions of tiny glass shards. 

  “Annabelle, you cannot be serious. You put a signed first edition
X-Men
in with the newer
X-Men
's. Annabelle let me break this down for you. All of the new comic books go right here,” he pointed to the large rack in front of him, “and all of the signed editions go over there under the glass. Come on. This was the first appearance of Jubilee.” His whole face was slick with sweat. It even dripped off his bulbous nose. 

It was taunting me. Drip, drip, drip. I could nearly see the droplets slow down as they fell. I widened my eyes and tried to focus on Carl’s face. Not a pretty sight. He needed to brush his teeth and hair—his everything. He was just standing there with his mouth agape. His brown gaze weren’t focused on me. His eyes were on me, yes, but they were distant. He was frozen in place. I waved a hand in front of his face. Nothing happened. No one home. I snapped my fingers only an inch from his nose. Again nothing. I turned and glanced over my shoulder. It was about eight pm and the shop closed at nine, with closing time approaching, I couldn’t have been happier. I scanned the store. Nothing. I scanned the windows. The only thing I could see beyond the glass was the red glowing pavement from the neon open sign. I turned back to face Carl. 

  “Carl?” 

As his name fell from my lips, his mouth shut, and he shook his head. “What was I talking about?” he asked, blinking in utter confusion. 

  “Uh, the comics. I put them in the wrong spot.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
What the hell just happened?
 

  “Oh, yeah don’t do it again.” He looked shaken.

 Hell, I felt shaken.
What the hell just happened? Did he just freeze?
The whole situation rattled me. 

 Carl walked back to the cash register and grabbed a nearby bottle of water. He downed the container and met my concerned gaze. 

  “Hey, Carl why don’t you head home and I’ll close up the shop?” 

He nodded, grabbed his keys, and walked to the door. Just as he reached it, he turned and called, “Thanks, I feel weird. I think I’ll let you open tomorrow too.” Then, without another word, he left. 

  I shouldn’t have been surprised when weird shit like that happened to me. Because it happened all the damn time, but still, that had been strange even for me. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I shouldn’t even care. Carl was an asshole. A creepy asshole even. He looked as though he were the love child of a bridge troll and gnome. He was short, round, and very, very hairy. As in, dear sweet baby Chewie, is that a yeti or Bigfoot, kind of furry. I should not be feeling bad. He tried to pass me off as his girlfriend all the time. I should be elated that something weird had happened, and that it had freaked him out. Yet, I felt bad, as if I had been the one who did it to him. 

I glanced up at the clock. Eight-fifty.
So, close!
I just wanted to go home, well Jamie’s home, and not think. Not think about Carl, not think about Mom. Even the brief thought of the word mom made my walls come crashing down. It had been six months since she’d died. 

Everything was so raw, so new. I felt as if I was some kind of unfeeling automaton. I walked and talked as if everything was normal, but it wasn’t. Inside, I was made of acid. I was boiling and seething, ready to spew or explode at any moment. I was alone now. My dad had left when I was six, and my mother refused to tell me anything about him. I didn’t really remember much. So, it had just been her and me—the two of us taking on the whole world. Or at least it had been. 

The sound of the small bell dinging brought me back to the present. I glanced in the direction of the new customer and nearly tripped over my tongue as it rolled out onto the counter. The man was tall. Wowzers, kind of tall. NBA tall. I was only about five-foot-four on a good day, so this guy had to be six foot six, easy. However, it wasn’t his height that really made him stand out. It was his fiery red hair. I had always wanted ginger hair, but my thick black mane made coloring, other than non-natural colors, impossible. Hence why, at the moment, it was black fading into blue then purple. 

His eyes were nearly a glowing blue, and they met my bright green ones. He walked right over to me as though he had known I would be there. 

No, that can’t be right
. I had never seen him before in my life. I sure as shit would have remembered if I had. 

“Are you Annabelle Franklin?” 

I winced at my father’s last name. I had sworn my whole life I would get the money to change it to my mother’s, but had never gotten around to it. Red’s first language was not English, or at least I didn’t think it was. What it was I had no idea, but the way he spoke led me to believe he had practiced the four-word question. 

“Uh, yeah. And you are?” I was mystified.
Who is this ape?
 

He didn’t answer, just smiled. A predatory smile that sent a shiver up my spine. I took an instinctive, save-your-ass step back from the counter. Again, my attention flipped to the small bells dinging on the front door. Red’s gaze was also on the door. In walked a god. I mean, I seriously had no other way to describe him. He was slightly shorter than Red, maybe six four. What he lacked in height, if you can call it that, he made up for in brawn. I bet he could bench press Red. 

The new man had chocolate brown, shaggy hair, but in that I-just-slept-with-you kind of way. He had bright green eyes much like mine. The angles of his face were sharp, and his jaw was set in a hard white line. His lips were angled down, but oh man, they were plump. I felt my hand rise to my mouth wondering what his would feel like brushing against mine, but I dropped my hand as soon as his eyes connected with my own. My heart beat wildly in my chest. I felt as if I knew him.

“Gregus, back away from her,” the new man called to Red—Gregus.

“I do not fear you, guardian,” he spat the words as though they were something distasteful. 

The guardian grew more incensed, if that was possible. His sun-kissed skin seemed to grow darker, and he grew bigger. Gregus backed up until his ass hit the counter. He was way too close, so I sidestepped several steps to put some much-needed distance between myself and the men. 

“Um, look, this is my cousin’s store. So if you two have beef with each other, you need to take it outside.” My voice was small, but at least it didn’t shake like the rest of me. 

Both men looked at me, and nearly at the same time, dismissed me. I put my hand on my hip and stuck out a foot. It wasn’t the picture of force I had hoped for, but it was all I had. 

Just as I was about to lay into the two with the force of a tsunami, the guardian spoke to me.