by C. L. Coffey
Book One
of the
Hellfire Academy Series
C. L. Coffey
Axellia Publishing
Demon Born
Copyright © 2020 C. L. Coffey
All rights reserved.
First edition, November 2020
Published by Axellia Publishing
Print ISBN: 978-1-912644-93-3
eBook ASIN: B08J465P6K
Cover design by Bewitching Book Covers by Rebecca Frank
Edited by Aethereal Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval systems, in any forms or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, unless for the purpose of a review which may quote brief passages for a review purpose.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locations are used fictitiously. Other characters, names, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, locations, or persons – living or dead – is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
ALSO BY C. L. COFFEY
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MICHAEL’S WARRIORS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WAYS TO CONNECT
ALSO BY C. L. COFFEY
THE HELLFIRE ACADEMY SERIES
Demon Born
Demon Hunter
Demon Legacy
Demon Shadow
Demon Fury
THE LOUISIANGEL SERIES
Angel in Training
Angel Eclipsed
Angel Tormented
Angel in Crisis
Angel Exalted
Angelic Schemes
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DEDICATION
For Rebecca,
Thank you for guiding me and providing me with so much support.
CHAPTER ONE
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
I wasn’t alone.
Listening over the noise of the street’s traffic for anything that would give me a clue as to who was watching me, I tried to focus on the space close behind me. In front of me, I carried on with my task at hand, hoping I would be able to catch whoever was there off guard so I could get the first hit in.
Placing the empty boxes into the dumpster rather than tossing them, I kept my actions as quiet as possible. Doing so meant the thick stench of rotting food in the bottom of the dumpster surrounded me for much longer than I wanted it to, but my sense of smell could take a hit if that meant my reaction time was quicker.
I turned, clenching my fists instinctively, preparing to swing … but there was nothing there.
That made no sense. My hair was still standing on end, and because it was summer in Phoenix, I didn’t think my unease had anything to do with the temperature.
My gaze scanned the parking lot of the diner I worked at. It was late afternoon, and I had been at work since before breakfast. There was a lull in customers before the dinner rush, and the parking lot only had a few cars in it.
But this was also Phoenix and being alone was impossible. The street the diner sat on had a constant stream of traffic, and yet the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach wasn’t being caused by that, either.
I looked around, taking my time scanning the area once more before I walked back towards the kitchen door.
Great … my mom’s paranoia was rubbing off on me.
I pushed open the kitchen door only to be pounced on by Shonda, one of the afternoon waitresses.
She was shorter than me, but what she lacked in height, she made up for in volume and weave length. “Girl, have you been holding out on me?”
I stared blankly until she pulled a familiar item out of her pocket. The results from my GED had arrived before I left home for work, and even now, I was unable to bring myself to read it. “Shonda, stop going through my locker,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to grab the envelope from her small hands.
“I will when you woman up and open the damn thing. You’ve been waiting on this for ages.” She handed the envelope over, but not before using it to smack the back of my head. “Open it.”
Irritated that I had to now do this with her watching, I started to open it.
In an instant, Shonda was beside me, trying to read over my shoulder. Before I pulled the letter out, I paused and pressed my lips together. “Do you mind?”
“No. Are you going to read it?”
I pulled out the sheet of paper and stared at it, reading the words in disbelief. I had to have inhaled too many dumpster fumes.
“You passed. That’s amazing.” Shonda’s screech was so high pitched, it had me wincing.
I continued to stare at the results.
Since the age of thirteen, I’d attended nine different schools across the country. I wish I could say the reason I’d been to so many was because I was an Army brat or something cool like that, but the truth was far from cool. The last move happened in the dead of night, just days before finals. When we arrived in Dallas, with the end of the school year and my lousy transcripts, I’d been unable to graduate.
I needed to take care of my mom, but I really wanted to go to college. In middle school, we were living just blocks from the University of Richmond, Virginia campus. That was just before things started to go wrong with my mom’s health. Walking across campus with mom, telling her I wanted to go there, was one of the last happy memories I had.
By the time I was a junior, I knew going to college wasn’t as easy as wishing for it. My grades were plummeting from all the moves, and my mom was barely holding it together.
High school might have ended up as a wash, but three years later, I arrived in Phoenix. One of the first things I had done was register for and take my GED. College might have been off the table, but I still wanted some form of certificate. Now twenty-one, I had done it … even if the certificate didn’t mean much to anyone other than me.
“What are you going to do now?” Shonda asked. “Girl, these results are good enough to get you into community college”
I shook my head, folded up the letter, and stuck it into the back pocket of my jeans. “I can’t afford it.” That and I also can’t leave my mom alone for too long.
“Order,” Harvey hollered from the dining room.
I made my way back inside and looked at the check. Two burgers medium-rare, with all the trimmings. I pulled the patties out of the fridge and slapped them on the grill.
“How do you do that?” Shonda opened the fridge door and stuck her head inside, fanning her face.
“Do what?” I asked, barely paying attention.
“Stand in front of the grill all day without passing out from he
at exhaustion.”
I moved over and pushed her head out of the way. “You’re going to raise the temperature of the fridge.” I slammed the door shut. “And I don’t know. Good genes?”
The temperature outside didn’t begin to compare to the hellfire inside the kitchen. However, while Shonda was practically melting, I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. The heat never bothered me and despite my pale skin, it rarely got burned. There could be a heatwave, and I could still comfortably wear a hoodie.
“Your father must have been Jack Frost.”
I shrugged, returning to focus on the burger. The truth was I had no idea who my father was.
But I did know what he was.
My dad was a jackass who had abandoned my mom when she was still pregnant with me. Jack Frost, my ass.
My mom told me the story of how they’d met and fallen in love so many times when I was younger. At first, the stories seemed believable. My mom made them out to be fairytale love stories about her and some beautiful, nameless warrior.
By the time I was thirteen, we were moving around the country attempting to avoid the man who had become dangerous in Mom’s memories. City after city, we hid in plain sight so my father couldn’t find us.
After that, I tried to get more information out of her about my father, but she would never tell me anything more than he was one of the Fallen.
Not that she had told me what that was, either.
Eventually, I’d just assumed he was a member of a gang.
Some days, I was curious. Today was not one of those days. I finished up the order and handed it to Shonda.
“Kennedy?” Harvey’s stomach appeared in the kitchen moments before his head.
I was busy cleaning the counter but looked up at my boss.
“Carly called in sick. Can you cover?”
“Sorry, Harvey. I have to get to the pharmacy, then I have my other job.”
“I keep forgetting about that.” He waved his arm as he disappeared into the back office.
I glanced at the clock, exhausted. I only had an hour to get to the pharmacy and pick up my mom’s medication. She was the reason I worked two jobs. Over the years, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dissociative identity disorder, pathological lying … there had been a number of diagnoses I was sure the doctors were plucking out of the air, but the medication for the paranoid schizophrenia was the only one that seemed to help her.
Rubbing at my lower back, I cracked my neck. My body ached and I smelled of burger fat. All I wanted was to sink into a bath, but my mom’s prescription had nearly run out and the pharmacy was closed tomorrow. By the time I’d finished cleaning up, the evening cook had arrived to take over. The last thing to do was take out the trash. I clocked out before leaving, taking the trash with me.
Slinging the bag into the dumpster, I turned to leave, but instead, I jumped when I saw the person staring from behind me. I firmly shook my head. “Not today, Duncan,” I muttered, trying to duck around him.
He stuck his arm out. His hand connected with the wall with a loud slap, halting my escape. “You still haven’t given me an answer, babe.”
I took a deep breath and stared. “I have given you an answer. I’ve given you the same answer several times, and the answer hasn’t changed.”
Duncan was a regular at the diner. He was a relatively good-looking guy, though not my type, and worked across the street at the local garage. Every day for the last four weeks, he’d gone out of his way to ask me out on a weekly basis. And for four weeks, I turned him down.
Until now, he’d been nice enough. Persistent and maybe even a little annoying, but it wasn’t like there was anything wrong with him, exactly. I’d learned from Shona that he had a photo album on his phone dedicated to all his conquests, and although that hadn’t done him any favors, it wouldn’t have turned me off.
Simply put, the reason I said no was my mom. When she was in a bad place mentally, like now, any change from my routine was enough to send her spiraling. I didn’t like leaving her alone for longer than I had to.
“I’ve told you before, I’m busy tomorrow night.”
This time, I swerved to his other side and made it past him. Or at least, I made it another few steps before his words stopped me, turning my blood cold.
“Busy looking after your loony tunes mom?”
I turned, slowly, very aware that there was just him and me in a deserted parking lot. Keeping my head high, I glared back him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I tried keeping my tone nonchalant. “I have another job which I’ve also told you several times.”
“So, you’re not in a hurry to get out of here to get back to your mom?” His grey eyes took on a vindictive glint.
I licked my lips, trying to disguise the fact that I was seconds from losing it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
With a purposeful stride, he closed the distance between us and cocked his head. He was tall, but so was I, so our eyes were at the same level. “It doesn’t surprise me. I’ve heard craziness runs in the family.”
Despite myself, my fingers curled into fists beside me. “If I were you, I would drop this subject now.”
“I don’t blame you for being ashamed of her,” Duncan continued, either oblivious to, or ignoring my warning. “I wouldn’t want to talk about my mother if she had spent her life in and out of mental asylums.”
My breath caught in my throat at the spite in his tone.
Mom had never stayed in a psychiatric hospital. She’d come close once. There was that one time that if we hadn’t left Atlanta when we did, she may have ended up in one. Or prison.
He closed the gap between us, running a hand down the side of my cheek. “Don’t worry. Even if you’ve inherited her craziness, I’m not scared. They say the crazy ones have the best sex.”
The roar of rage I suddenly felt quickly drowned out the part of my conscience that was desperately pleading with me to walk away. Half aware that the roar was as vocal as it was mental, I pulled my fist back and swung.
Like a scene from a comic book, my fist bashed into his nose, forcing blood to spurt everywhere as his body flew through the air.
About the same time as Duncan’s body landed on the ground a few feet away, my mouth fell open. My eyes moved from his unconscious form to my fists.
How the hell did I do that?
The right reaction would have been to see how he was doing. Not me. I turned, ready to bolt, but ran headfirst into Harvey.
“What the hell, Kennedy? “He grabbed me by my shoulders. “Get inside and wait in my office. Now.”
Defeated, I exhaled a breath and went back inside.
Calling the room an office was a little extreme. It was more like a storage area with a desk half buried beneath boxes. Still staring at my hands in shock, I sat in one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs and waited for Harvey.
I was there a while before he came in. There were a few spots of blood on his shirt, and I could only assume he had been helping Duncan. Harvey closed the door behind him and stood in front. “What the hell was that?”
Still dazed, I shrugged.
My second job was working security at a nightclub, and I’d broken up my share of fights, but that fight was something else. I knew how to look after myself. Sometimes, things like that happened. What I could only describe as a cloud of rage would settle over me, and I would react in the most extreme way possible. But I’d never been able to send a person flying like that.
I lowered my head and stared at my hands. Rage and adrenaline? I had no answer for Harvey.
Harvey let out a long sigh. “You’re a good worker, and until now, I’ve never had a problem with you, but I can’t keep you on when you attack a customer. You’re lucky he didn’t call the cops.”
Pressing a hand to my cheek, I nodded. In all honestly, I was expecting this.
Harvey pulled out a crumpled envelope from his back pocket and handed it over
. “Here’s your pay.”
I took the envelope from him, not bothering to check the amount. Harvey had never done me wrong with paying me before now. I was lucky he was paying me at all.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, meaning it. Although this wasn’t the most glamourous of jobs, nor was it something I wanted to do for the rest of my life, it wasn’t a bad job. Plus, I liked who I worked with here.
Harvey stepped to the side to let me get up and leave. I stayed long enough to collect the few things I had in a small locker and added them to my bag, then left through the back doors. Duncan had long gone.
The late evening Arizona sun bore down on me as I walked to the bus stop. I took refuge under the worn shelter, slouching against the metal frame. The bus schedule showed me that I had just missed my bus, and the next one wasn’t due for almost an hour.
I’d need to get to the bank then the pharmacy to pick up my mom’s prescription.
Wait.
Now that I had cash in my hands, the bank wasn’t needed. I pushed myself away from the wall, slung my bag back over my shoulder, and started walking. Thankfully, the pharmacy wasn’t far.
I picked the medication up, browsing the notice board while I waited. I needed another job. Mom’s medication wasn’t cheap, and we didn’t have insurance. If the biggest chunk of my money went on rent, then the next went on her pills.
Leaving the diner would take a huge financial hit on us if I didn’t get another job soon.
At least I had my second job: a couple of nights a week, working security at a nightclub. It was open every night. I’d ask if there were extra shifts I could pick up while I was there later.
I knew when I pushed open the door that my mother was having a bad day. Our apartment was on the second floor, with another building opposite. Consequently, the lights needed to be on from about three in the afternoon if I wanted to see anything clearly. Today, they were off.
I flicked them on and sighed as I spotted the bowl of cereal I had left out for her before I went to work. I set my bag down on the table next to the uneaten breakfast and opened the fridge.