Page 32 of Monsters of Midlife

“When a demon kills you,” he continued, “they do it slowly. They like to torture their victims for a long time and carefully tear them apart bit by bit. Some demons, the worst of them, will eat the flesh of the victims while they’re killing.”

I swallowed hard. He made it sound so real. It was a little more than I could take right then, but I was daring to take the challenge of getting away, because at the end of the day, I wanted to have my freedom.

I glanced over at Tony, who was standing there watching with his arms crossed. He gave me a brief nod. “He’s absolutely right. Demons are nothing you want to mess with and if they are after, you just lay low. Whatever happened between the two of you, I don’t know, but Ryder is not a bad guy. He’ll go out there and try and get the demons before they can attack you. He’ll spend every effort he possibly can to do that.”

“What am I supposed to do until then? Sit locked up in a castle tower somewhere and wait?” I asked

“Yeah, that’s about it,” Ryder said. “It’s why I brought you to Alameda and I was planning on coming to talk to Tony. The satyrs have a different way of doing things and well, they are just below the realm of what the demigod corporation considers legal.”

“Well, if you’ve got demons after you, we need to keep her off the ground and you need a strong patrol,” Tony said.

“That’s for damn sure.”

“What about the Temple of Sedona?” Tony asked

“That’s the first place I thought of,” said Ryder. “But I think it’s a little too obvious. She’ll be noticed there. I think she’s better off here with a satyr guard.”

Tony looked at me, then he looked over at Ryder. I had the distinct feeling he was leaning towards helping me.

My house was gone. I was back in some weird sort of entanglement with my ex-husband and if I chose to try to fight these crazy demons who I had no powers against, I was most likely going to die. But if I went into hiding, there was a good chance Ryder could stop the attacks and I would be safe, and maybe I could get my life back.

I inhaled slowly, hissing the air through my teeth, almost swallowing the words even as I said them out loud. “I’ll go wherever you can keep me safe.”

I glanced over at Ryder and he looked visibly relieved as he turned to Tony. “So, what have you got?” he asked.

“Do you wanna know the truth?” Tony responded. “She’s in the safest place she could be. The witches rule Alameda and I’ve got a lot of wards around it to keep the demons out. Made a really smart choice bringing her here.”

“But I need her under some type of protection,” Ryder said.

“I think he just said he was going to give me protection,” I said. At least that’s the way I had understood it. I couldn’t hide the fact I wasn’t really in the mood to stay in Alameda for any indefinite period of time, but if this place was warded by the witches and the satyrs that would keep out the demons then staying here would probably make sense.

Ryder moved closer to Tony, and I could feel his back rise as he grew taller and bigger, invading the space. Tony was clearly the alpha of his pack, but Ryder was going to show his dominance in the location, even though it was Tony’s own pub.

“She needs more protection than just staying in Alameda,” he said.

“But if the demons can’t get into Alameda, why should it really matter?” I asked. There was a knocking on the door and Sophie came in like a bubble of joy. “Hey, they’re asking for her to sing downstairs again,” she said. “Aurelius just got here. Are you guys done up here yet or what?”

I felt lighthearted when Sophie entered the room, like something had been liftedfrom my shoulders. I didn’t want to impose on her, but it felt good to have a female friend around, someone who could support me and connect with me in this male dominated, testosterone driven environment.

“Great. Why don’t you guys decide where you’re going to stuff me and keep me safe and I’ll go down and have another song,” I said. Without waiting for another word from the two of them Sophie and I walked out of the office and down into the pub. “Whatever you do, don’t leave the pub,” Ryder called after us.

“What is he, your dad?” Sophie asked.”

“No, but he’s sure acting as if he wants to be,” I said.

Sophie laughed. “And it doesn’t sound like ‘it’s in a ‘who’s your daddy’ kinda way, unfortunately.”

“No, those days are long gone between Ryder and I.” I stopped my mind right there not giving it a second to think about all of the passionate nights I had spent with Ryder when we were married and in a good place, loving each other. No, those moments were long, long gone.

I tripped after Sophie down the stairs. She already had the music primed and ready to go by the time I got to the stage.

“What song did you pick?” I asked.

“I thought we could do something a little bit different,” Sophie said. “I’m just going to have the band play, and we’re going to sing. We don’t have any lyrics. I just want to test something out. Let’s see what happens.”

I glanced at the musicians who were standing around the stage. They all looked similar in a strange way, angular features and black hair of varying length and they all wore the same necklaces around their necks, little black chokers that had a pendant hanging down the center.

“What are they?” I whispered to Sophie.

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