Blood of the Demon (Afterlife Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  About the Author

  ONE

  When Harper Hawthorne woke up, she felt groggy and uncoordinated. At first, she didn't realize why her head was pounding and her mouth was so dry. Then she remembered that she'd spent most of the night before partying in the Afterlife Nightclub with her friends Chloe McAllister and Brittney Conley.

  They'd been celebrating the fact Chloe could once again walk without the aide of crutches. There had been long island ice teas, jello shots, and fizzy drinks that had made her head spin. They'd spent most of the night on the dance floor. Brittney had bought her a new outfit for the occasion, and now the tiny little black dress was in a ball next to the bed.

  Brittney had more money than she could spend, so Harper hadn't been too upset about letting her buy her a new dress. Sometimes it was easier to just agree and go along with what Brittney wanted; they'd been best friends since they were little girls.

  At first she thought her head was just pounding, but then she realized someone was rapping on her door. There would only be one person who would have access to her bedroom: Alec Morodan. She had been staying in his apartment ever since hers was burnt down by a demon. It was comfortable enough; she had her own bedroom, bathroom, and closet. Also, Alec was a decent cook, whereas she had lived most of her adult life off of frozen pizzas and deli sandwiches.

  Harper put a pillow over her head and groaned. She hoped if she ignored him long enough that he would go away.

  "I'm coming in," Alec said.

  "Don't you dare!" Harper said, leaping out of bed. She was in her bra and underwear and nothing else. She hadn't been sober enough to put on anything else when she'd stumbled up the stairs the night before, and passed out in bed.

  Harper grabbed her fuzzy green bathrobe and slipped it on, tying it quickly. She ran her fingers through her long blonde hair which was matted and tangled.

  Without another warning, Alec opened the door. As usual, he looked perfectly casual with his wavy black hair, dark eyes, and pale skin. To the rest of the world, he looked like a normal person, but Harper could see him for what he really was: a vampire. When she first met him, she had felt an instant attraction, but he was so tight-lipped and quiet that it was difficult for her to even get to know him. He was already dressed for the day, wearing a heavy metal t-shirt and a faded pair of jeans.

  "Seriously?" Harper said. She pulled her robe tighter around herself, giving him a cold look. "You couldn't have waited for me to wake up and look human?"

  "Trust me," Alec said, "you most definitely look human."

  Harper rolled her eyes. "What do you need?"

  "We have a case," Alec said. "Get dressed."

  Without another word, he backed out of the room and closed the door behind him. Harper sighed and went over to the closet. She had a duffel bag sitting inside full of jeans and t-shirts. She was lucky she had even that much: she had only prepared to stay a few days before her apartment was burnt down. She quickly dressed, and then went into the bathroom and scrubbed her face. She took the time to brush her teeth too, trying to get the bitter taste of morning-after alcohol out of her mouth. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, slid on some raggedy sneakers, and went to join the others downstairs.

  Sarah Carter was sitting next to Chloe. They were sharing a box of french fries and talking about someone they'd seen when they'd been out for an early morning run. They were both dressed in red gym shorts and white tank tops.

  "You went for a run?" Harper asked Chloe. "I could barely drag myself out of bed this morning. What is wrong with you?"

  "Fairies process everything faster," Chloe said. "Here..." she got up, went to the fridge, and came back with a bottled water. "Get hydrated. Conner's got a job for us."

  Harper took the water with a nod of thanks, flopped down in one of the chairs, and took a long drink. "Where is Conner?"

  "He'll be here in a minute," Alec said. He took a seat. Sarah offered Harper some fries, which she promptly declined. Her stomach was still churning and it was all she could do to keep the water down.

  Sarah was the most human of them all, but she wasn't precisely normal. She could shape-shift into a panther or a wolf, which she did now, turning into a large, white furred wolf. She prowled around the room for a little bit, waiting for Conner. Harper watched her with fascination. She wished she had the ability to do something so cool.

  It had only been recently when Harper found out that she wasn't just a normal woman. She was adopted at birth by a loving family, but her true heritage was in the Perseca lineage. Her great grandmother, Ileana, had been a powerful gypsy with the power of Sight and several others that Harper didn't know of yet.

  She had harnessed Ileana's power briefly when she had found her Nexus. The Nexus was a glass orb that contained all of the power of her ancestors. A group of demons led by Jahres had discovered her lineage and wanted to use her to find the Nexus to take the power for himself. Harper had broken the Nexus, absorbed the power, and killed the demons. The power was almost too much for her, though, and she'd had a hard time turning away from it.

  In the end, she'd released the power and felt like herself once again. But now she knew there was more powers she could wield besides Sight. She didn't know how to use them yet, but she was determined to learn.

  After a while, Conner came in the room. His dirty blond hair had a windswept look, and his blue eyes were somehow both stern and compassionate.

  "Oh, look who's up," Conner said, looking to Harper. "I thought you'd still be sleeping off all that tequila."

  "If someone hadn't decided to barge into my room and demand I get dressed and get down here, I probably would be," Harper said, looking pointedly at Alec. He met her gaze calmly but didn't seem at all fazed by the comment.

  "Right, anyway, Chloe, where's the remote?" Conner asked.

  Chloe held it up.

  "Let me see it," Conner said.

  "You know, normally I lead the--"

  "--Give me the remote, Chloe," Conner said.

  Chloe tossed it to him. He turned off all the cameras watching the club, and then turned on the largest screen. He fiddled with the remote for a moment before an image of a woman came up on the screen. She was pretty, with delicate features and long black hair.

  "This is Janice," he said. "She's a friend from a long time ago."

  "A friend?" Chloe asked with raised eyebrows. "Do you mean--"

  "--Yes, Chloe," Conner said, looking a little annoyed. "She was one of the women I slept with. Look, we're not getting into my past affairs. The thing is, Janice needs our help."

  He touched a button and an image of a little boy, about six, popped onto the screen. He looked almost exactly like his mother; they shared the same black hair and blue eyes. The combination of dark skin and dark hair gave them both an exotic look. They shared the same almond shaped eyes. "This is her son, James. He's been kidnapped."

  "Isn't this a job for the police then?" Harper asked.

  Conner shook his head. "He was taken by a demon named Trentreen. He wants his powers."

  "What sort of powers does he have?" Sarah asked.

  "I don't know," Conner said. "But his mother is a witch, so it makes sense that he'd have some sort of magic in his blood. I don't know why they decided to take him though and not his mother. She'd obviously be much more powerful."

  "You know we don't take personal jobs," Alec said. "It's too ea
sy to be emotionally involved and take risks that we wouldn't normally take."

  Conner glared at Alec. "If you guys don't want to help, I'll do it myself."

  "Of course we'll help," Sarah chimed in.

  Alec folded his arms, but consented with a single nod.

  "So the first thing we need to do is gather information," Conner said. "Sarah and I will go question Janice together. See if we can find out why this demon is after her son. Make sure there's nothing we're missing. It could be a ransom to try and get Janice's powers... I just don't know."

  Alec frowned. "Do you want me to go with you?"

  "No," Conner said. "You shouldn't be outside right now, and we don't know if Trentreen is watching us. If he sees you out in the sunlight, he might try and attack."

  "How would he even know about us?" Harper asked. Everyone stared at her. "What?" she asked impatiently.

  "We're well-known," Chloe said. "Trust me, if demons see us, they'll know we're involved. Hey, you know what we should do? We should get Brittney to go question her."

  Harper shook her head. "Brittney isn't part of this. She doesn't have any special powers."

  "We don't need her to do anything that's going to require the use of powers," Chloe said. "She could just question Janice instead of Sarah and Conner. Nobody will recognize her. In fact, I think I have a... yes, I do! I still have my old cop uniform, and the matching badge that goes with it."

  Harper stared at her.

  "What?" Chloe asked. "You think we always just go in with guns blazing? Sometimes things take finesse, Harper. If Brittney goes, flashes the badge, then she can get in without any suspicion. Then she can question Janice and let us know what she thinks. What do you think, Conner?"

  Conner considered it for a minute. "I would really like to question her myself, but maybe this is the better play. I have somewhat of a history with Trentreen. He'll recognize me from a mile away."

  Sarah tilted her head. "If only I could transform into something less noticeable. I'm thinking of learning to change into a cat or maybe a dog. What do you guys think?"

  "A cat would be good," Alec said. "Everybody ignores cats. Work on that. Harper, you call Brittney, get her on board. Conner, tell me everything you know about Trentreen."

  "And me?" Chloe asked.

  "Well, we're out of food in the fridge," Alec said. "And I'm almost out in my kitchen. Think you could do a grocery store run for me?"

  Chloe frowned. "Seriously?"

  Alec raised his eyebrows. "You have a problem with going shopping?"

  "Well..." Chloe said. "I suppose not, but you guys always stick me with the boring jobs. Chloe, go get us coffee. Chloe, go get us food. Chloe, find me a suitable tie for tonight... I'm a fairy, not a housekeeper."

  Alec yawned. "Well, obviously I can't do it."

  "Fine," Chloe said. "Want to go with me, Harper?"

  Sarah shook her head. "After she gets hold of Brittney, I thought we'd work on some defense skills. How does that sound, Harper?"

  Chloe stuck her lip out. Harper didn't want to turn Chloe down, but she also knew that she needed to learn to defend herself if she was going to keep working with the group. "Sorry, Chloe, I'm with Sarah."

  "Oh fine," Chloe said. She stood up, grabbed her purse, and left the room without another word.

  "Uh-oh," Harper said. "I didn't mean to upset her."

  "She'll be fine," Conner said. "If you haven't noticed, Chloe can be a bit dramatic. Anyway, forget her for a minute. Get hold of Brittney."

  Harper pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts. The phone rang a few times before a sleepy, hungover Brittney answered. "Do you know what time it is?"

  "Trust me," Harper said, "I'd be in bed if I could. Did I wake you up?"

  "Yes," Brittney said. "I'm massively hungover. This better be important."

  "Sorry," Harper said, "but we need your help with something."

  "We?"

  "Me and the others."

  "Are we going to fight our way into a demon infested warehouse again?" Brittney asked. "Because let me tell you, Harper, I'm really not in the mood to be tied up and threatened today."

  Harper smiled. "Yeah," she said. "Me either. No, this time you'll be pretending to be a police officer. We need you to question a woman whose son has been kidnapped."

  "Kidnapped?" Brittney asked. "Shouldn't the real police handle that?"

  "He was kidnapped by a demon," Harper said.

  "You know," Brittney said, "life was a lot simpler before you met these guys. This is going to be an ongoing thing, isn't it?"

  "Probably."

  "Alright, give me an hour. I need to take a shower and get some breakfast. Should I meet you at Afterlife?"

  "Yep."

  "Alright, but you owe me," Brittney said.

  Brittney hung up.

  "She'll do it," Harper said.

  "Good," Conner said. "Alec, go upstairs, get some sleep. Sarah, you and Harper work on defense. I'm going out."

  "Where are you going?" Alec asked.

  Conner shrugged. "I'm going to do some questioning of my own. Don't worry, I won't make a scene."

  Alec waved him off, and then went upstairs.

  "Help me move this table," Sarah said. She and Harper maneuvered the table and the chairs over to one of the sides of the room, leaving plenty of room for practice.

  "The first thing you need to know," Sarah said, "is that when you're fighting a man, you want to incapacitate him. But you won't be fighting men. You'll be fighting for your life and sometimes you have to be prepared to kill for that."

  "I don't want to kill anyone," Harper said.

  Sarah gave a sly smile. "You already did, several of them," she reminded her.

  Harper thought of that moment when she'd encompassed all her ancestors' powers and had destroyed the demons with a simple move of her hand. "You can teach me how to do that again? Use that power?"

  "No," Sarah said. "Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday you'll learn, but that day is not today. Today, we're going to be practicing martial arts."

  Harper let out an inward groan. She'd always been somewhat clumsy and had never been a good fighter. When Sarah adopted a fighter's stance, though, Harper copied her as best she could.

  "Your feet are wrong," Sarah said immediately. "Keep them shoulder width apart, but step forward with your -- wait, are you left or right handed?"

  "Right."

  "Okay," Sarah said. "Then you're going to want your left leg forward. Like this..."

  Harper put her left leg forward and raised her hands again.

  Sarah shook her head. "You aren't bending your knees," she said. "You're locking up. If you do that, I can push you over easily. Watch."

  Without any warning, she shoved Harper, who promptly fell on her butt. She got up, gingerly rubbing her backside.

  "Now try to push me," Sarah said.

  Harper shoved at her. Sarah moved back a few feet, but didn't fall.

  "See," Sarah said, "that's because my knees aren't locked up. You have to keep them slightly bent. Go ahead, try it again, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart, left in the front..."

  Harper adjusted her stance and this time when Sarah shoved her, she didn't fall. She swayed a little, but kept her balance.

  "Better?" Harper asked.

  "Much better," Sarah said. "That's one of the most important things you're going to learn today. You also have to be able to move around while keeping your feet in the correct position. It's almost like a shuffle."

  She showed Harper what she was talking about, moving lithely around her. Harper tried to imitate her, but knew she didn't have the fluidity that the other woman had.

  "We'll keep practicing that," Sarah said. "Now, let's work on your fist work. Keep them up by your face. Left hand always stays to guard your face. So if I were to hit you in the face, you can stop me. Go ahead."

  Sarah punched lightly, and Harper used her left arm to block the attack.

  "Good!" Sarah
clapped. "That's excellent. Now, the other benefit of having your feet balanced is that you can put a lot more power behind your swings. Go ahead, hit me."

  Harper hesitated.

  "You're not going to hurt me," Sarah assured her.

  Harper took a swing but missed.

  "Okay," Sarah said, suppressing a smile. "That was a good attempt, but you swung blindly. Remember, keep your left fist by your face. Then be deliberate about your movements. She turned and punched into the air to show her. "See?"

  "Yes," Harper said.

  "Let's try it again," Sarah said.

  Harper took a deep breath, reminded herself to keep her left fist up, and punched forward with as much force as she could muster. Sarah caught the fist with a hand. "That was perfect!"

  For over an hour, they practiced different punches, different stances, and different ways to maintain defense while still attacking. At the end of it, Harper had sweat through her t-shirt and even Sarah looked a little beat.

  "You did well," she said. "You've got a lot to learn, but I think you're going to make a decent fighter."

  "Thanks," Harper said, feeling genuinely pleased with her progress. She remembered taking a self-defense course that taught the same things, but she really had never gotten the hang of it. It was a lot easier to learn with someone teaching her one-on-one.

  "We'll start every morning this way," Sarah said. "We'll get some gloves that fit your hands, and we'll start real matches soon. You can also shadowbox."

  "Shadowbox?"

  "It's when you fight an enemy that's not really there," Sarah said. "You punch and move and block as though someone's attacking you, but you're just really defending against thin air. It's a great workout and it will really help you learn how to put some power behind your punches. Then you can fight Conner. He's much better than I am."

  "What's he doing, anyway?" Harper said. "He said he was questioning people..."

  "He probably went to the lower city and is conversing with some demons there," Sarah said. When she saw Harper's worried expression, she smiled. "Don't worry. Conner can take care of himself."

  Before she could say more, the door opened and Chloe and Brittney both lurched in, carrying multiple bags of groceries. Sarah and Harper hurried over to help them. They set everything on the table, and Chloe began sorting it. She refilled the fridge, and then handed the rest of the packages to Harper. "Put these in Alec's kitchen."