Page 48 of My Funny Demon Valentine
Something Smells Fishy
Roughly five thousand kilometers away on Vancouver Island, in the private office of his art studio, Dan Gregory cursed a blue streak. Cursing some more, he grabbed the eraser and wiped the series of complex chalk sigils off the blackboard and then slammed the decaying grimoire shut. A cloud of dust blew out from the pages.
It had been a week since Jacqui had sprung those four names on him out of the blue, and he’d been performing tracking sigils with dogged determination every spare moment since.
The results were clear. They didn’t make a lick of sense, but they were clear.
It only gave him more questions. Where had Jacqui gotten those names? His beautiful wife had told him she “must have read them somewhere.” She was lying. It was too great a coincidence that she would hear those four names in particular, and then he would get these bizarre results. Not that Jacqui knew the real reason he’d hurried out to the studio that day, or any of the secrets he’d kept from her throughout their lives together.
She’d lied to him last week, but he’d been lying to her for twenty-seven years.
He hadn’t, however, made up any of what he’d told Jacqui about those four demons that day. He’d just downplayed it a bit. What he hadn’t told his wife was that this wasn’t the first time he’d heard mention of these four demons together, though he didn’t understand why.
Demons didn’t have friends. They were demons. But some connection existed between them, and his wife had somehow pulled their four names out of a hat.
And coincidentally, all four of them were missing from Hell.
The tracking sigils were clear. A successful result would tell him what realm the demons were currently in and, if he added a few extra details to the designs, tell him where precisely in those realms they were. They were no ordinary sigils and they’d come from no ordinary grimoire. They were ancient and powerful and unknown to all save for a secret sect of protectors that had been guarding Earth from demonic influences since the dawn of time.
Dan was certain the demons weren’t in Hell. That much was clear. There could be no doubt that Belial, Asmodeus, Mephistopheles, and Raum were all loose on Earth at this very moment. If that wasn’t frightening enough, Dan had been completely unsuccessful at pinning downwhereon Earth they were.
The only conclusion he could draw was that the demons were hiding behind wards or, god forbid, had somehow found a new source of Nephilim blood—a possibility that scared the hell out of him. But it made no damn sense.
Why would a King of Hell come to Earth and then hide? He was a King of Hell. If he came to Earth, he came to make himself known. What would he have to hide from?
Dan didn’t know, but after a week of getting the same inconclusive results, he realized that he needed answers. He had a bad feeling, and it was getting worse with every passing day. If Jacqui hadn’t asked him herself about those four names, he’d have been happy to let it go. He was retired, after all. He wasn’t supposed to concern himself with this anymore.
But she had, and she’d clearly lied about why she wanted to know. At the very least, he needed to make sure she wasn’t somehow involved in something she shouldn’t be. He had to make sure she hadn’t inadvertently put herself in danger.
It was time to talk to her, though he was hoping he could get the information he needed without giving himself away.
He remembered what Jacqui had told him of the advice she’d given Eva.If you want a real relationship, it has to be built on trust. If the foundation is weak, the structure will fall.It made him feel sick to his stomach.
He’d been lying to his wife from the day they’d met. With every passing year, it grew harder to keep doing it, but it never stopped being impossible for him to tell her the truth. Now he feared his chance for honesty had long passed.
If she ever found out, she would never forgive him.
The following Thursday, Eva hid behind a corner in an alley and tried to gather her nerves. She’d been talking to Ash on the phone every night, but she hadn’t seen him in a week. And now, he was going to be waiting for her outside Bootleg, and her heart was racing.
She had it bad, it was undeniable.
But how could she not? She’d never had more chemistry with another person. Conversation flowed so naturally between them. Sometimes they talked for hours without noticing how much time had passed. He was a great listener, and he seemed to be interested in all the same things she was.
All week, they’d talked about music and shared their influences. They’d had more phone sex. She’d told him about her artist parents, and he’d told her about his out-of-control brothers. And she’d finally convinced him to meet her at Bootleg again tonight.
Apparently, he’d been working with his brothers on something important, though he’d been vague on what it was, and they had been successful after a week of hard work. Ash had admitted he wanted a night out, and she’d convinced him to come jam.
Unfortunately for him, he’d called a few hours ago and told her that when he’d explained to his brothers where he was going, they had all insisted on coming along. He’d sounded pissed, but Eva was kind of excited. She wanted to meet them properly. She’d certainly heard enough about them to be curious.
So here she was with her back against the brick wall, knowing that when she stepped around the corner, Ash and his brothers would be waiting outside the club. She was nervous. She couldn’t help it. She’d never been this hung up on a guy before, and though she told herself it was too early for it to be serious, she couldn’t help fantasizing about what kind of future they could build together.
Heart fluttering, she psyched herself up for the big reveal and peeked around the corner. There they were. Four brothers hanging outside the club entrance. She watched them, thankful they hadn’t seen her yet.
Ash took her breath away even though he was smoking a cigarette. He leaned against the brick wall, boots crossed at the ankles, gorgeous hair spilling all over his leather-clad shoulders. Good god, it shouldn’t have been possible for a man to be that attractive.
She stared at his brothers next, and her eyes bugged. Where the hell had these guys come from? She couldn’t wait to see Skye’s expression when they came upstairs.
The huge, tall one who must be Belial looked like a Greek god come to life. He was built like a football player and the size of a small mountain. He had to be seven feet tall and towered over everyone, even Ash. Clad in a white T-shirt and jeans, his short, platinum-blond hair fell onto his forehead with that perfect, messy look like he’d just rolled out of bed.
