More Than Fiends

by Maureen Child

  “You didn’t mess anything up. I knew about Jett,” I said, taking a drink of my now-lukewarm latte. “Thea told me.” Of course I didn’t add that she’d only told me because I’d squirted the little creep with my magic elixir.

  Which made me a little pissy, now that I thought about it. Why hadn’t Thea told me about Jett being a demon? We told each other everything. Always had. Thea and me. The Two Musketeers.

  Was one little half demon really enough to split up the team?

  I shook my head and put that question aside for later. At the moment, I wanted to find out what else Rachel knew. “Anyway, I sort of knew about the whole demon population before she told me about Jett.”

  “Really?” Rachel slumped dramatically and caught my attention. “Thank God.” She slapped one hand to her cream silk blouse and grinned. “I mean it. Thank God. I swear, it’s been so hard to not talk to you about this.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  She tilted her head to one side and smirked. “I could ask you the same thing. Jeez, how’d you find out?”

  “I asked you first,” I reminded her, since I had no idea how to answer the question.

  “I found out at work.”

  “The dental office?”

  “Why sound so surprised?” she asked. “Do I work somewhere else?”

  “Fine, fine. So, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Simon.” Rachel stuck her tongue out at her presently not-there husband. “He’s so fussy about patient confidentiality.”

  There was that roaring again.

  “Patients?”

  “Well, yeah,” Rachel said, her brows coming together over puzzled eyes. The Botox definitely was wearing off. “How else would we know demons are out there? Honest to God, Cass. You should see the teeth on some of those things. If it were up to me, we wouldn’t be working on any of ’em. But, you know Simon. He takes one look at a set of fangs and starts picturing a ski cabin in Park City.”

  I laughed. It surprised the hell out of me, but it all seemed so stupid and silly. Rachel knew about demons because her husband was drilling their fangs? “Simon is dentist to the demons?”

  “Uh-huh,” Rachel nodded and checked her watch. “He’s really popular. Gets all kinds of referrals. Yeesh. I swear, there was a guy in the office last week—he was like a shark. He had three rows of teeth! Took Sandy nearly two hours to do a cleaning. I swear he ate one of the angelfish out of the aquarium while he was waiting. He says he didn’t, but it’s not like the fish could jump out of the tank and escape, right?”

  Forget The Twilight Zone. We were skipping straight into The Outer Limits. (The old ones they play on Nick at Nite—not the newer ones. They were just stupid.)

  Yep. Way too much television.

  “God, honey, I’ve gotta go,” Rachel said suddenly, grabbing her bag and her coffee before standing up. “Mrs. Eisen should be about finished, and we’ve got people lined up out the wazoo today. Not to mention a couple of them. If I’m not there to kick people around, they’ll pick on Simon until he makes like the dentist in Marathon Man.”

  “There’s an image.” I shivered. Except for Simon, I hated all dentists. I’d rather face another red-eyed, pissed-off demon than sit in a chair—trapped—while somebody shoved a drill in my mouth. And, no, it wasn’t, as Thea once suggested, because I couldn’t talk while the dentist was working on me.

  “You okay?” Rachel asked, staring. “You don’t look so good. Are you sure you knew about the demon thing? I mean, I don’t want to get Thea in trouble or anything, and if you go home and yell at her, she’ll yell at Zoe, and then Zoe will shut me out and I’ll never know anything again.”

  Strangely enough, I followed all of that. “No, I’m fine. Really. I won’t let Thea know you’re a weak link.”

  “Good. Thanks.” She swung her purse strap up onto her shoulder, took a step, then stopped. “So, are you going to be seeing Devlin again?”

  “No way to avoid it. I am working for him now.” I knew that wasn’t what she meant, but what the hell. I can stall with the best of them.

  “Right, because I was really worried about you not getting to clean his club. Are you going out with him again?”

  Good question. He hadn’t actually asked me out again, so there was no way of knowing. Still, I flashed back to that brief moment with him in the hallway at Magic Nights and the feel of his hands on my breasts. Then in the next second I remembered demon sperm and fragile latex and had to talk myself down from a stroke.

  “I don’t know,” I finally said and picked up my own camel brown fabric Fossil bag and stood up. “But I’ll keep you posted.”

  I hit the grocery store next, since we were seriously out of all of life’s staples. You know, cookies, salad in a bag, Pop Tarts and milk to drink with ’em, of course. I actually can cook, and do a couple of times a week, but Thea and I both prefer just dumping salad dressing into one of those bags of lettuce and veggies and calling it dinner.

  Before I went into the supermarket, though, I took the time to refill my little purse-sized spritzer from the big bottle of liquid I kept in the car. Once inside, I grabbed a cart and wandered up and down aisles, filling my cart with whatever looked interesting. There was something almost soothing about the Muzak spilling out of speakers and the ready availability of food.

  Right about then, I needed some soothing. There was too much to think about. Everything I’d ever believed about my sleepy little hometown was just not true. How had I managed to live thirty-two years without ever noticing a demon, for heaven’s sake?

  “What’re you thinking?”

  A deep, really familiar voice spoke up from behind me, and I slowly turned to face Devlin, holding one of those little baskets with the wire handles.

  “You shop?” I asked, glancing into his basket to notice a bottle of chardonnay, some crackers and a wheel of cheese. Somebody was going to be having a good time, and I seriously wished it was going to be me.

  “And eat. And dance. And…other things,” he said, giving me one of those all-too-rare smiles.

  Oh man, I knew all about those “other things” he did. Wasn’t I still having dreams about that one night with him every time I closed my eyes? Good thing I had the cart to hold on to. The man wielded some serious sexual power. At least over me.

  Despite the excitement jittering through me, that annoying voice in the back of my mind started whispering again. He’s a demon, it said. He’s admitted to working for Jenks. The guy who crashed into your car works for him. Sure, he’s sexy as hell, but is he after your body? Or your death?

  Stupid inner voice. I so didn’t want to listen to it. I wanted to believe that Devlin was trying to help me. Mostly because protecting Thea would be a hell of a lot easier if I had some help I could trust.

  Yes, I could trust Logan. But he had laughed at me when I told him about the demon situation, so he probably wasn’t the go-to guy when it came to fighting one of them.

  Boy, I needed a vacation from my life.

  “You look worried.” He stepped up closer, and I could actually feel heat rippling off of him in waves so thick I could hardly breathe. It was like he was sucking all the air out of the store.

  “I am,” I said and locked my knees, just so they wouldn’t give out and leave me sprawled in the bread aisle. Grocery-shopping women have no mercy. They’d have rolled their carts right over my prone body in an attempt to get the chore of food shopping over with as soon as possible.

  “About what?” he asked and lifted one hand to smooth my hair back behind my ear. Did he deliberately stroke my earlobe with a long sweep of his finger? Did he know what he was doing to me? Of course he knew. It was probably some weird-ass demon power—any minute now I’d start walking like Frankenstein’s monster and follow him anywhere.

  His lips quirked. “You’re thinking about something else now. Me?”

  I gulped and took a quick look around. Down the aisle from us, two women were grappling over the last box of Cheerio
s, but that wouldn’t last long. Turning my gaze back to him, I said, “I was thinking about you and the judge. And how I can protect Thea.”

  Okay, so I lied.

  Big deal.

  At least it would get the subject changed to one I could deal with a little easier.

  “I told you I would help you with that.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said, scooting my cart over as the two women walked past us, both of them giving Devlin looks hot enough to set him on fire. “When’re you going to start that helping?”

  He blew out a breath. “I told you it wouldn’t be easy. The judge has a lot of friends—human and demon.”

  “Yes, but I’m the Demon Duster, right?” I whispered, not sure who might be in the soup aisle right behind me. “I don’t see why I can’t just go to his courtroom and take him out.”

  “You’d never get close enough,” Devlin assured me, moving in so that I could practically feel the buttons on his blue shirt pressing into my chest. “As crazy as it sounds, I don’t want anything happening to you.”

  Oh boy. I really wanted to believe that.

  “Trust me,” I said on a deep breath, lifting my gaze to his. “I’ll get close enough. Nobody threatens my daughter.”

  “I know.” Devlin lifted one hand again and cupped the back of my neck. His fingers were warm and strong, and damned if I didn’t remember exactly how talented they were. How he could make me feel, just by skimming those fingers over my skin with a featherlight touch.

  Damn it.

  As his hand tightened on my neck, I remembered something else. Devlin was a demon. He had plenty of strength, and if he wanted to, he could snap my neck like a twig right here and walk away. There was no one who could stop him. No one to catch him. If he killed me, there wouldn’t be another Duster until Thea came of age, and then she would have to deal with him—or someone just like him.

  “You’re a strong woman, Cassidy,” he said, his voice little more than a hush. “And I find that really sexy.”

  “Lucky me?” Oh God. I moved away from his touch and he let me go. I just was so not prepared for him or for anyone like him. As much as I had enjoyed that night with him, and as much as I daydreamed about trying out a few of those rooms he had at the club, I had to keep reminding myself that he was a demon. Technically, the enemy.

  “You look worried again.”

  “Shouldn’t I be?”

  “About the judge?” he asked. “Yes.” Then, as if reading my mind, he said quietly, “About me, no.”

  I wished it were that easy. But it just wasn’t. I didn’t really know Devlin. His demon power could be lying convincingly for all I knew. And Thea’s safety was at stake here. I couldn’t afford to trust the wrong person—er, demon.

  “I want to believe you,” I admitted.

  He bent down, and I opened my eyes to look directly into his. His black eyes swam with emotions—some I could read; some I couldn’t—and maybe that was just as well. I was having enough trouble sorting out my emotions at the moment.

  “I already told you, Cass. I really like you. And I’d like to see you again.”

  Oh boy.

  I swallowed hard and fought down my urge to shout, Yes! Great idea! When? Where? Every single one of my hormones was jumping up and down and demanding I pay attention. But…“I can’t think about that. About us, until Thea’s safe.”

  “I understand,” he said grimly, his gorgeous face turning to stone. Even his eyes shone with a glassy, stoic glimmer. “We’ll take care of it. Together.”

  “When?” I asked when he let his hand drop away and took a step back.

  “Soon,” he promised. “It’ll have to be soon. He’s losing patience with you, Cass.”

  Another woman clattered past, pushing a cart with a broken wheel, making a whacketa whacketa kind of sound. Enough to shatter whatever was left of the sensuous moment I’d been having. Maybe that was for the best.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve been getting rid of too many demons lately,” he said. “The last couple of days, you and your squirt bottle have been pissing off the demons, and word’s getting around that La Sombra’s not the safest place to be anymore.”

  I should have known that all of my squirting the last couple of days was going to make some waves. But, hey, I was just doing my job.

  “There are a lot of demons unhappy about it. They want the judge to take care of you. He’s promised to do just that.”

  “How’s he going to do it?” I asked, and silently congratulated myself on the steadiness of my voice. I mean, it’s not every day somebody tells you that there’s a hit out on you.

  These weren’t your ordinary, everyday mafia-type hit men we were talking about here. These were demons. Instantly, I flashed back to Rachel telling me about Shark Boy and his three rows of teeth.

  Yikes.

  I so didn’t want to run into that guy.

  “Not sure yet,” Devlin admitted, and he looked irritated by that fact. “I’ve been asking around, but there aren’t many willing to talk about the judge. Don’t want to risk pissing him off. Like I said, he’s been the big man in La Sombra for decades.”

  Which meant I was in deep shit.

  A brand new Demon Duster going up against a guy who’d been alive for who knew how long? With all kinds of connections? Not to mention lots of minions willing to fight me to protect him.

  Even as I thought that, I knew it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but making sure Thea was safe. If that meant I had to go up against the demon big shot, then so be it.

  “Will he come after me himself?” I asked, tightening my hands around the handle of the cart, just for something to hold on to.

  “Probably not. He doesn’t usually go out in the field himself. Doesn’t have to,” Devlin said and took my elbow to get me walking. We strolled down the bread and cereal aisle and looked like nothing more than a couple, shopping together.

  “He’s got enough demons and humans on his payroll. He never has to get his own hands dirty.”

  “Humans?” I repeated and stopped dead, staring up at him like he was suddenly speaking Russian. I could almost feel my eyeballs skittering in my head. I’m sure I looked lovely. “He has humans on his payroll? People work for a demon? On purpose?”

  He dropped his basket into my cart, then grabbed me and held me close, murmuring in my ear. “Keep your voice down, Cassidy. The people in this town who work for the judge wouldn’t be happy to hear you know about them.”

  My own voice was muffled against his chest, and it was all I could do to concentrate on the problem at hand rather than focus on the feel of his broad, hard chest pressed up against me. “Fine. I’ll be quiet. But who are these people? And why would they do it?”

  “Why else?” he muttered, his breath brushing my ear, his words dropping like stones into the pit of my stomach. “Money. Power. Greed for more of both.”

  “And you don’t want that?” I had to ask. Yeah, I know. Pretty stupid. Like he’d admit anything to me if he was working for the judge against me.

  He pulled his head back, dropped a quick, hard kiss on my mouth, then smiled. “I’ve already got money and power. I don’t need to kiss the judge’s ass to get them.”

  I winced. “Thanks for the visual.”

  He grinned. “Damned if I don’t enjoy the hell out of you, Cass.”

  “Glad somebody’s having a good time,” I said and reluctantly stepped out of his arms.

  He steered me on again, walking right beside me. “Once we get rid of the threat to Thea,” he said, his voice dark and filled with promise, “we’ll both have a good time.”

  Woo-hoo!

  “And until then?”

  “Until then,” he said, lifting his own basket out of my cart, “we’ll do what we have to do. We’ll keep Thea safe, and we’ll find a way to take out the judge. I’ve got a line on his lair.”

  “His lair? He has a lair?” I shook my head and stopped in front of the dairy case. Lifting o
ut a jug of milk, I set it in the cart and shot him a look.

  Devlin shrugged and nodded. “Down on the beach. One of the caves out near the point. The judge is old-fashioned. He doesn’t do meetings at his house. He prefers taking care of business from his lair.”

  An old-fashioned demon.

  Swell.

  Devlin left me in the frozen food section, and I took that as a sign. I grabbed a few pints of Coney Island Waffle Cone ice cream; then, still shaken, I headed for the cookie aisle.

  The last of my frozen Samoas were gone, and I was going to need some cookie therapy. Fast. I grabbed some Double Stuf Oreos and a bag of pink and white iced circus animals, then turned to snatch a giant bottle of chocolate syrup off the shelf behind me.

  My stomach was jumping, and my head pounded hard with every beat of my heart. It felt like I’d been scared and/or worried now for days. Probably because I had been. Thea’s sweet face floated to the front of my mind, and fear washed over me like an incoming tide.

  “Excuse me.”

  The pissy voice came from right behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at a woman in running clothes, her long, black hair in a ponytail, pushing an empty cart. Ah. A woman who started her shopping in the cookie aisle. I liked her style. “Sorry.”

  She glared at me as I yanked my cart out of the way. As she came up alongside me, I’m not really sure why I gave her a good squirt. Instinct? Now, wouldn’t that be nice? But most likely, it was because of the surly look she gave me.

  Anyway, I shot her dead in the forehead, and she hissed as smoke curled around her head like a lazy Olympic wreath. Then she swept out one hand, trying to gouge my eyes out with her French-manicured nails.

  “Whoa!” I leaped back, hit the shelf behind me and knocked down what felt like an avalanche of chocolate, strawberry and caramel syrups, not to mention boxes and boxes and, oh, boxes of ice cream cones.

  The clattering noise almost covered up the woman’s voice saying, “He can’t help you. No one can.”

  He who? Devlin? She had seen Devlin and me talking? Great. Demon spies in the grocery store. Well, screw needing Devlin’s help to dusting this bitch.