Page 19 of Spit

“I take it you’re hungry?” I asked my shadow before shaking my head. “Why do I even ask? You’re always hungry.” As if to ram my point home, my shadow took that moment to send a hunger pang directly to my belly, enough to make my head swim as if I hadn’t eaten in days. I saluted my shadow. “Message received,” I told it. I knew I must have seemed mad, talking to myself in the back of a car while we were under attack, but the driver was long gone.

I stepped out of the car into the frigid air, squinting into the darkness. We had just passed through some sort of gate at the entrance to a stately manor. In the distance, the glowing lights of a behemoth of a building stood on top of the rolling hills. It was as if we had passed straight through a modern metropolis and into a Jane Austin novel—save for the monster in the dark.

The road twisted up and towards the house, but it was at least a mile away, if not more. I could run, but I didn’t know how far I would get if the monster was nearby.

The limo's headlights shone two streaks of light onto the road, giving me just enough sight to see but not enough to pierce the darkness of the hills on either side of the road.

Deep thundering footsteps shook the ground, and the headlights caught the edge of a long tail, dark and coated with fur.

I prepared myself, my shadow chomping at the bit, to strike out and feed, but I didn’t know how many monsters had surrounded us. If there was more than one, I didn’t want to sic my shadow on something only to be attacked from behind while it was busy. I could null whatever magic was thrown at me, shadow or not, but I couldn’t stop something that wanted to bite me. All I could do was outrun it.

Someone behind me cleared their throat. It was the driver, he was holding a phone in his hand.

Earlier, I hadn’t seen much more than a shadow behind the limo’s partition, but in the glow of the headlights, I could see that the older man wore white gloves and a hat, entirely in uniform. His brow furrowed as he cocked his head to the side.

“I just called up to the main house. They’re expecting us, Ms. Boudaire. You should get back in the vehicle.” The driver said, relaxed as if there wasn’t something prowling the darkness around us, waiting to swallow us whole.

I felt whatever was in the darkness as if it was breathing down my neck. Its amber eyes glowing. Was there more than one? I counted the glowing amber lights, and there were three sets. I shuddered and turned back to the driver.

“What about the…” I waved toward the darkness.

“Don’t mind him. Kiko roams the grounds to stop any intruders.” The driver popped open the door. “He doesn’t usually come so close to the gate, but something must have piqued his interest.”

Kiko? What kind of person named their pet monster Kiko?

“Sure.” I tried to sound nonchalant, but I wasn’t sure I pulled it off. I might have been the brawn instead of the brains, but even I could sense a threat. I wasn’t going to relax just yet.

My shadow took a swipe at the monster in the dark, and it let out a yelp. When I got in the car, my shadow licked its fingers.

“I hope you’re happy with yourself,” I said.

My shadow wriggled, pleased as punch.

The intercom crackled. “Did you say something, Ms. Boudaire?”

“No. Ignore me.”

“We’ll be at the house in a couple of minutes.” The driver replied. “Mr. Legion is meeting us at the door.”

We drove up towards the house, the strange sounds in the darkness didn’t abate, and I was on full alert. Despite being beholden to one, I was reminded how little I knew about demons.

The limo pulled to a stop, parking at the front of a marble staircase bordered by pillars that looked like they belonged to a temple in Athens. I stepped out of the car, my heavy doc martens crunching the gravel under my feet as I towards the glow of the house and the perfectly cut topiary bushes in the shape of various animals.

I was barely two steps away from the limo before it pulled off and away from the round courtyard at the front of the mansion, taking a dark road around the side.

I was alone in front of one of the biggest buildings I had ever seen. It looked more like a compound than a residence.

I had no idea what Mr. Bub expected me to do, but my skills were nullifying magic and slicing things to pieces with my knife. It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment that perhaps Mr. Bub expected something else. Something that I wasn’t willing to give.

I had traipsed through cemeteries searching for pets and driven fast food to random locations in the middle of the night. I had turned up to a nightclub and sat next to a demon while Mr. Bub brokered a deal—a walking, talking magic-killing machine.

I had never been taken to someone’s home before.

The Red City was known to be decadent and dangerous. I wasn’t arm candy. I wasn’t for sale.

I did what Mr. Bub told me to, and I went home and slept just fine until the next new moon rolled around.

Yes, the chains chafed, and I was growing tired of it, but I had never been asked to compromise my morals before.

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