The Unlikeable Demon Hunter Collection: Books 1-3 (Nava Katz Box Set)

by Deborah Wilde

  Incredibly, we were neither ambushed nor arrested on the drive home. The demon even shut up once I’d crossed the wards onto our property. Demons couldn’t come through on their own, but we could bring them through if we chose. Being on our side of the wards was painful and draining for them.

  “I’ll check the ground floor. If it’s clear, we’ll take him in that way.” Rohan jogged inside.

  I tried to find some music to distract me from the banging inside the trunk, while searching for an explanation in case we got caught. The others would be curious enough about us bringing this demon here without the added complication of why it had a metal spine welded to its back. Oh no, that didn’t scream sketchy.

  Five minutes later, Rohan rapped on my window to get my attention. “It’s clear.”

  Rohan snicked his blades out while I had a nice ball of electricity at the ready. We opened the trunk, bracing for an attack. The demon lay on his side, snoring.

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” I said.

  “Don’t knock it. It’ll be easier carrying him like this,” Rohan said. “Grab a side.”

  I pitched the demon’s disembodied arm that Rohan had torn off his throat and tossed into the trunk earlier into the rosebushes. The arm sailed over the dense, thorny bush, and landed on the grass. A crow hopped off a branch to take a closer look, cawed, and pecked at it, which was when I decided I didn’t need to see any more.

  We lugged the dead weight in through the ground floor door and down the stairs. Rohan had propped open the Vault’s door so we didn’t have to wait for the hand scanner.

  “Hurry.” I adjusted my hold on the gogota. “He weighs a ton.”

  We carried the demon across the room and dropped him onto the Vault’s blue padded floor. Rohan slapped his hand on the scanner for the small iron room while I shook out my arms, waiting for the light to change from red to green.

  The demon was back in our arms, the wall sliding away to allow access into the iron room, when the stupid thing woke up and started thrashing. Limbs flailed: his, mine, Rohan’s. The gogota wound various body parts around each of us. My face was stuck to his armpit, his remaining arm bouncing off the top of my head. Rohan was swearing from somewhere in the vicinity of his shoulder blades.

  “Need a hand?” Ari said. “Or is that just the demon?”

  “Fuck my life,” I said.

  Ari ripped me off the demon.

  I swore, bidding adieu to my first few layers of facial epidermis.

  Rohan cut himself free and shoved the demon into the iron room so hard that the gogota hit the far wall. With his head. He slid down onto the floor in slow motion. KO’d.

  Rohan hit the scanner again and the iron door clicked shut, the wall sliding back into place to conceal him.

  Panting, I braced my hands on my thighs. “Nothing to see. Run along.”

  “Why’d you bring a modified gogota demon here, Nee?”

  “I asked it ‘your place or mine?’” I spread my hands wide.

  Ari glared at me.

  “Since we’re asking questions,” Rohan said, “why did the ward react to your blood and not mine?”

  “What ward?” Ari asked.

  Rohan oh-so-helpfully filled him in. Two pairs of eyes lasered me, waiting for my answer.

  Being resigned to the truth didn’t make sharing any easier. “Okay, so…” I scratched my neck. “I know who the Rasha blood came from to make that ward.”

  “Who?” they asked in unison, their expressions grim.

  I scrunched up my face. “Me.”

  I didn’t expect that news to be greeted with cupcakes and a parade but it wasn’t as if I’d deliberately handed my blood over, so my brother’s many variations on “How could you be so stupid?” was not, in my opinion, deserved.

  “It was a mistake,” I said for the umpteenth time, Rohan and I following Ari into his room. Near as I could figure, Dr. Gelman had used blood that she’d gotten off me in Prague when I was injured to set the ward on her sister’s house. That was one way to create a Rasha ward. Let them bleed on your linens in the name of hospitality, add magic and voilà. “How was I to know she could extract my blood from a washcloth and save it for use at a later date?”

  “Why do you think we scour shit if our blood is spilled?” Ari sniffed a T-shirt, pitching it into his hamper in the corner. “You can’t leave any trace of your blood.”

  “I understand that now, but at the time, I was coming off almost dying by dragon and preoccupied with whether or not she could help get your stupid ass inducted.”

  Rohan smirked, but Ari was still mad at me. “You bitch about the fact that you didn’t have your whole life to train and study like the rest of us,” he said, “but that never seems to stop you from doing whatever you want instead of remembering that you know squat.”

  “Give her a break,” Rohan said.

  “Am I the only one who sees sense around here?” Ari jabbed a finger at me. “You’ve been stumbling around above your pay grade from day one and you can’t see how badly this is all going to blow up. Christ, it already has. You’ve brought that demon here.”

  “What do you want me to say? I fucked up and should have taken it somewhere else?”

  “You didn’t fuck up, Nee. You are fucked up. The past few years you’ve been this tornado of bad decisions. It’s been exhausting to live with and I figured that being Rasha, being part of something bigger might rein you in, but it’s done the opposite. You’re more hell-bent than ever on just doing things however you want.” He shook his head, trying to shove me out his door. “Forget it.”

  I grabbed onto the doorframe, throwing my weight against him. “Is this where I’m supposed to apologize for wanting to live life on my terms?”

  “This is where you leave shit alone. Hunt demons. Save humanity. Stay away from witches and for fuck’s sake, stop pissing off the Brotherhood.” Ari released me so suddenly that I stumbled. He pushed past me and stomped down the stairs.

  I jogged after him. “No. They don’t get to decide my worth and they absolutely don’t get to hurt innocent people, pulling this ‘end justifies the means’ shit.”

  We wrestled for control of the library door that he tried to shut in my face.

  “But you do?” he said. “You’re doing the exact same thing.”

  “I’m not modifying demons.” I balled my hands into fists.

  “Don’t be dense.” The two of us were nose-to-nose by this point, bristling at each other.

  “Enough.” Rohan stepped in between us and pushed Ari away from me. “Back off.”

  “Says the guy who lets her do whatever she wants. Newsflash, Ro, fucking my sister doesn’t means you know what’s best for her and it sure as hell doesn’t give you any say in this conversation.”

  “Excuse me?” A dangerous smile lurked at the corner of Rohan’s mouth.

  Ari took a step back, scrubbing a hand over his face. Had I not seen the sheepish flash as he flicked his eyes to me, I’d have clobbered my twin for that comment. His maiming was still on the table.

  But he’d be injured at my hands, not Rohan’s. I placed my palm on Rohan’s chest because as good a fighter as my brother was, Snowflake would wipe the floor with him. “Everyone take a mindful freaking moment here.”

  I wanted to wait until the tension in the room had ratcheted down a notch before I continued but Rohan shot me a sharp glance before it’d gone down even a half degree. “You going to stay and listen to this?”

  I bit my lip.

  He didn’t even give me a second to decide. “Your life,” he said in a tight voice and left.

  “Rohan,” I called after him.

  His footsteps faded away. Great.

  I shoved my brother. “For someone who kiboshed my make-out session with Audrey because he didn’t want to ‘fucking deal with the collateral damage?’” I saluted Ari. “Well played.”

  Storming off was immature and petty, but damn did it feel good.

  15

>   I barged into Rohan’s room. Unlike mine, it was painted a tasteful green with framed photography on the wall courtesy of Ms. Clara. His clothes hung in a color-coded line in his open closet and his toiletries were still neatly arranged on the counter in his small en suite bathroom. No sign of a man packing up to leave.

  “Listen,” I said. “I appreciate your concern but you have no idea what it means to be a twin. You can’t get mad at me for my decisions around Ari. Things are tough between us right now and it’s not something either of us are used to.”

  Rohan finished typing on his phone, then slid it into his pocket. “It annoyed me to hear him speak to you that way. But you’re right and I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to mix in.”

  “Thank you. Now let me see the spell books.”

  Rohan pointed at the small stack on his dresser. “There are actually very few spells in these books because Rasha don’t have a lot of cause to use them. If witches can do all kinds of spellwork, it’s not something we’re taught. That said, check the blue one on top. I marked the page.”

  I flipped open the book. “This is what we need but the list of ingredients have been redacted.”

  “I know. We could search the database? See if we find the spell there.”

  “The search would be logged. No point sending up a flare saying “Yoo hoo! Over here! Your least favorite Rasha knows what you’re up to.”

  There was no way around it, I needed Kane’s assistance. If anyone could comb through the database and not leave a fingerprint, it was him. Except bringing him in to this would mean sharing my beliefs. Trusting him not to turn around and tell the Brotherhood what I was doing. I was safe trusting Rohan, even before he’d had his own doubts, and Ari, no matter how much he disagreed with me, would never compromise my safety. Had this been Drio, I wouldn’t have risked it, but Kane was still an unknown in a lot of ways to me.

  I was pretty certain he’d do this if it was for Ari, and while he didn’t actively wish me harm, that was different than going behind his Brotherhood’s back on my behalf.

  I stood there, book in hand, weighing the risks. In the end, I could see no other way of finding a spell for detecting magic traces in a timely fashion. Being able to prove Rohan wrong about me not ever bringing in others to help was merely an added bonus. “We need Kane.”

  “Asking for help, again? I’m rubbing off on you,” Rohan said.

  “Ha. Ha.” Loath as I was to admit it, he was right. I couldn’t do this on my own. I went in search of Kane, my mind in overdrive at the best way to share minimum information and achieve maximum results.

  I’d checked his bedroom, the entire main floor, and the Vault, and had hit the offices on the ground floor in case he was talking to Ms. Clara, when his Porsche roared up. I sprinted upstairs to greet him.

  Kane stepped into the foyer, dropped his large, leather carry-on bag on the ground, and shrugged out of his coat.

  “You were away?”

  “And evidently desperately missed.” He hung his coat in the front closet.

  I smooched his cheek. “I pined.”

  He swatted me off of him. “Troweling it on implies you want something.”

  I followed him up the stairs. “Where were you?”

  “Mongolia.” He stopped inside his doorway, causing me to walk into him. He rolled his eyes with an aggrieved sigh.

  “Why?”

  “Caught some rays in the Gobi Desert, kicking my Seasonal Affective Disorder in the ass.” He tossed his carry-on onto his bed. “Why do you think?”

  “If you’re going to be sarcastic, dude-who-isn’t-supposed-to-be-on-active-duty, I won’t give you this prize mystery to solve.” I shut the door.

  Kane raised an eyebrow at that, then went into his bathroom to unpack his toiletries bag. “Mongolian Death Worm.”

  I planted my hands on my hips. “They shouldn’t have sent you. Do you feel okay?”

  He dismissed my concerns with a wave of his hand. “My poison trumped his. They needed me and I was happy to get back in the field. Besides, my salt levels tested back within normal range.”

  “So it’s less coding, more killing, now?”

  “I like coding.” He rubbed a hand over the back of neck. “Offsets the high burn-out rates with our bunch, but, yeah. Something like that. Now, what’s the mystery, Velma?”

  Had he called me Daphne, I’d have protested, but I’d always liked Velma. The show had just caught her at an awkward stage. “Keep an open mind.”

  Kane walked back into the bedroom. “You’re up to something involving either witches or the Brotherhood and you don’t want either aware of what you’re doing.”

  My mouth fell open.

  Kane chuckled. “Tell me if I’m getting close.”

  I crossed my arms. “Lucky guess.”

  “Aww.” He patted my head, then continued unpacking, tossing clothing from his bag into his hamper. “Pique my interest or leave.”

  I searched his face, my gut saying it was okay to trust him, but my paranoia forced me to swallow a few times before I was able to get the words out. If I was crossing one of Kane’s lines with this, what would he do? Jettison me or throw me to the wolves? “You need to come down to the Vault.”

  I would have really enjoyed the dumbfounded look on Kane’s face at the sight of the gogota had there not been so much on the line.

  The demon sat placidly in the corner. Between his already-weakened state and all the iron in here, we didn’t even need to strap him into the iron chair.

  Kane crouched down beside him. “How did they get the spine on him?”

  “That’s part of what I want to find out. These modified gogotas were used in two attacks that I know of. One on me and one on Dr. Gelman, the witch who gave me Ari’s induction ritual. If I’m correct, the Brotherhood was behind them and the spines are how they’ve gotten the demons to do their bidding.”

  “You think they’ve figured out how to bind demons?” Kane whistled. I was profoundly grateful that he didn’t question the idea that the Brotherhood would stoop to such a thing. “When were you attacked?”

  “In Prague.”

  He crossed his arms. “So Ro and Drio know about this?”

  “Just Rohan.”

  “And Ari?” His voice was a tight as his jaw.

  “He’s not a fan of my theory.”

  He didn’t speak for a very long moment.

  I wiped my sweaty palms on my thighs. Twice. Fuck it. If I couldn’t trust anyone, I was going to go insane. “Get everyone and meet me downstairs. It’s time for a debrief and I need you all there. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  I only crossed two sets of fingers that I didn’t live to regret this.

  Looking around at the four of us in the kitchen: me, Ari, Kane, and Rohan, I was reminded of the quote about how three people could keep a secret only if two were dead, and wondered if maybe I needed to take some of them out.

  “Nothing goes farther than this group.” I trusted the nods I got.

  Marginally.

  I started with Ari’s first failed induction ceremony and Rabbi Abrams getting me to contact Dr. Gelman, through trying to find the witches and up to Baskerville and the spell with the missing ingredients. I’d brought a bottle of blue nail polish with me so I’d have an excuse not to look anyone in the eye as I spoke, but the story took so long that I was finished painting all of mine and was on to Rohan’s second hand before I’d caught everyone up.

  “Oy vey,” Kane said, sitting on the counter and swinging his legs. “You’ve been busy.”

  I nudged my brother’s foot. He’d apologized to me for his earlier comments but I wanted a clear declaration of his standing by my side. “You onboard?”

  Ari toyed with the handle of his coffee mug. “I won’t interfere. For now.”

  How magnanimous.

  “Kane, I need you to find those ingredients,” I said. “Check the database.”

  “I’ll whip up an algorithm.”

&nbs
p; “Okay?” I nudged Rohan.

  He nodded, examining his nails. “Needs a second coat.”

  I shook the polish up, giving Kane a stern look. “No one can know that you’re looking into this.”

  “I’ll be a ghost in the system.”

  “No showing off and leaving a sneaky signature or Easter egg or something in there either,” Ari said.

  Kane waggled his fingers at my brother. “Ooooo,” he said in a scary voice. He did it two more times until Ari laughed and called him an idiot.

  Ari wasn’t laughing when he spoke to me. “Even if you find a spell to test the spine and it shows what you’re hoping, that’s not proof that the Brotherhood is behind it.”

  “Let’s worry about that when we come to it,” Rohan said. “Nava, promise me you won’t do any spells without me there.”

  Every fiber of my being screamed “no.” It didn’t matter that still believing this goal was mine to prove and mine to handle was immature, especially considering that I’d called this meeting. And sure, there was something really comforting about having all these guys in my corner, not to mention that this thing had spiraled beyond my capabilities. It’s just that the self-reliance and self-protective instincts I’d honed over the past couple of years were hard to shake.

  “I promise,” I said. “Meantime, Ari and I will stick with our investigation.” It was doubly imperative if the Brotherhood was keeping tabs on my and Ari’s progress.

  The meeting broke up after that. I pulled Rohan aside. “You and Ari okay now?”

  “He apologized.” That didn’t answer my question but whatever. They were big boys.

  “Don’t smudge your nails,” I called after him, answering my phone without checking who was calling. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Avon.”

  I lowered my voice. “Hi, Cole.”

  “Did I catch you at work?”

  “Yeah.” I headed into the farthest back corner of the kitchen, one eye on the door. “What’s up?”

  I turned on the tap so the water would drown out the conversation.

  “Just wondering if you wanted to get together tonight.”