Page 236 of Mayhem and Minnie

Pressing my lips together, I reluctantly leave her to deal with the demon while I dash down the stairs.

The fire alarm is still blaring, and the closer I get to the ground floor, the more panicked voices I hear.

“Mother?” I call out, scanning the area for her and Giles.

The main door of the house is wide open, and I note a gathering of people on the front lawn. I rush there, combing through the terrified faces until I find my mother.

She’s in the driveway, standing next to Giles. His arms are tightly wrapped around her. Cristopher and Irene are pacing around, both on the phone.

“Oh, Marlowe,” she exclaims when she sees me. “What’s happening? We felt the earthquake, then the fire alarm…”

“You need to leave here, Mother. Now.” Turning to Giles, I hand him my keys. “Go to my house and keep everyone there for the time being.”

“But, Marlowe…” My mother touches my arm. “What’s going on? There’s no smoke, no fire…”

“You need to leave. I’ll handle the rest.”

“What about your brother? I can’t find Julien and Cara anywhere,” she murmurs, her brows pinched together in worry.

I take a deep breath.

Fuck. I’m not good at this.

What do I tell her? That her son’s dead and that his fiancée was a fucking demon who’s now trying to kill everyone? As if she’d believe me—hell, no one would.

“I’ll take care of it, all right?”

Giles looks at me with an odd glint in his eye. Then he turns to my mother.

“If Marlowe says we need to leave, I’d listen to him,” he finally speaks.

“Tell everyone else to leave too. No one should go inside the house. Is that clear?”

Another rumble echoes in the stillness of the night. I slowly turn, my eyes widening as I see the entire structure of the house quaking and ready to collapse.

“No. I’m not leaving without my Julien,” Mother argues.

“I told you I’ll deal with it. You need to leave,” I rasp.

The other guests are moving frantically about, trying to get to their cars.

“Giles, please,” I address him, my tone serious.

“Come, Simone. We must leave.”

“But Julien…” she continues.

I’m about to lie to her and tell her Julien got out with Cara before. But before I can do that, another thundering sound erupts from the house.

The entire facade of the house collapses, the wall crumbling to the ground. Without stability, the next floors follow suit.

Minnie…

She might be powerful, but as she said, even gods are not indomitable.

“Giles, I’m leaving them to you,” I say as I turn and run back to the house.

I only take a few steps when Minnie is thrown in the air by the demon, who is now even bigger in size.

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