Page 15 of Immortal Throne

CHAPTERFIVE

Insane. This entire situation was nothing but pure insanity, and who landed smack dab in the middle of all the craziness? Yup.Me.

Like my life wasn’t bad enough.

And, normally, I wasn’t the type of person to stay down, let alone allow myself to get kicked, but dealing with Mr. Dante threw me off my usual game. I’d let him pin me to a wall, play with my clothes, and spout gibberish instead of kicking his ass. Something about him not only got under my skin but chiseled away my confidence.

And how did I deal with him? By leaving. No ass-kicking like he deserved.

I kept a hand pressed to the scar on my hip as I hurried home. Hearing the echo of that roar in my ears, I’d hoped he wouldn’t come after me. There was only so much I could do against a psychopath like that.

Weird job—no. This wentbeyondweird, and, honestly, the money wasn’t worth it no matter what kind of bills knocked at my door.

What kind of crazy man hired a person just to tell them they’re a demon? He’d insisted on it, and he hadn’t had that kind of zealot glow in his eyes, either. He’d looked perfectly normal.

Yeah, Mr. Dante could definitely go to Hell, but I refused to join him there no matter what kind of lofty claims he threw at me. I’d find another way to get the money I needed without having to degrade myself for someone with more than a few screws loose.

The bills could wait.

I was dying, after all. Maybe I deserved a little break from the constant stress of having to pay to live. I’d take the afternoon, curl up in bed with Chupey and my favorite television shows, and see what I had left in the fridge. Binging on snacks sounded pretty damn good right now.

I made it home in record time and spent precious minutes with my back pressed to the front door trying to drag air into my lungs. Fighting to get my heartrate back to normal. My skin crawled at the memory of the first half of my day.

Closing my eyes, I shook my head, muttering out loud to myself, “I’m not a demon. I’m not a demon. I. Am. Not. A. Demon!”

The scar seemed to throb in silent protest to those words.

Okay. So, maybe I did know something supernatural existed out there. What else would explain my hindsight and above average strength? The idea of a magical world wasn’t completely lost on me. But what kinds of creatures were out there? If what Mr. Dante had said was true–if that was his actual name–how did I fit in?

Was there a chance Mr. Dante spoke the truth?

Mom always warned me there were things in the world I might not understand, things most people thought only existed in storybooks. There were creatures lurking in the darkness ready to snap me up and devour me.

Most kids would probably be scared of the boogeyman stories and have trouble sleeping at night.

Mom put me in martial arts to learn how to fight them.

She made sure I could defend myself if those creatures ever came into the light, even though I never saw them. That was probably why I never felt comfortable in a regular, “real person” job. I’d been raised to fight monsters.

It took me way too long to realize that Mom meant my father when she had talked about the supernatural. She didn’t just want me to be prepared. She wanted me prepared to fighthim. The realization hit home around the same time I started to realize that I had special abilities.

Special abilities I definitely didn’t use on Mr. Dante today, no matter how badly he’d deserved a big juicy ass kicking.

I fumbled with my bag, reaching into its depths to try and snag my cell. I needed backup. I needed to tell someone about this.

Becca was unquestionably human and oblivious to magic and even what I could do. I never wanted to bring her into this craziness, but my need to not be alone right now was outweighing my sensibility.

The familiarclick, click, clickof Chupey’s nails along the floor greeted me, and I glanced up to see my pooch, his tail wagging in response.

“I know, I’m home earlier than expected. Mom’s just having a little freak out, boy,” I managed to get out. My smile strained, and I kept digging for my phone.

Please tell me I didn’t leave it at that office.

“Give me one second to talk to Becca and then we’ll go for a walk. Would you like that?”

Numb fingers finally brushed along the surface of the phone, and I dragged it out before pressing the screen to dial the familiar number.

Yup, I deserved a little meltdown moment. And who better to witness and help me with it than the only friend I had in this world?

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