Demon Down Read online

  Demon Down

  Xoe Meyers - Book Four

  Sara C. Roethle

  Copyright © 2014 by Sara C. Roethle

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Prologue

  I came back out with my oversized Edgar Allan Poe mug filled with coffee and lots of cream. Allison and Lucy had made Max move to the love seat with Chase so they could sit together on the couch and save me a spot between them.

  I sat down and took my first sip of coffee. Feeling instantly better I asked, “Aren't you all sick of me yet?”

  “Don't be silly Xoe,” Max answered. “You're our wise and omnipotent benefactor.”

  I threw a pillow at him, almost spilling my coffee in the process. I had a feeling I'd be hearing jokes about me being their new leader for quite some time.

  The front door opened again to reveal Jason, freshly scrubbed and dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans. I liked the flannel way better than the dress clothes.

  Before he could walk in, a fire erupted momentarily behind him, quickly extinguishing to reveal my dad. Jason was unfazed by my dad's abrupt appearance. He simply walked inside then held the door for him.

  My dad looked unusually disheveled. He was normally the picture of good hygiene, but now his gray dress shirt was missing a few buttons and had one sleeve torn off, and his face and clothing were covered either in ash or dirt.

  He straightened his collar and cleared his throat. “This Bartimus problem might be a bigger deal than I originally thought.”

  1

  My dad huffed and picked at the frayed sleeve of his dress shirt. “Bunch of barbarians,” he mumbled as he switched to dusting off his charcoal gray slacks. His usually perfect blonde hair was a total mess, falling forward to partially cover his green eyes that perfectly matched my own.

  “Um . . . ” I began nervously as I stood. “Care to explain what you're doing in my house?”

  My dad met my eyes. “That little deal you made has backfired astronomically,” he explained.

  I glared at him. “You know I didn't have a choice, so spare me the lecture and tell me what happened.”

  He strode further into the room and took a seat on the now vacant couch. “Is your mother home?” he asked casually, though I knew the answer was more important than he let on.

  I sighed. “No. You're at no risk of having anything thrown at you . . . at least not by her,” I amended.

  My dad sighed in return, and turned features that looked startlingly similar to mine to face me. “I was doing some research into the claims you made to Bartimus,” he explained. “When I was attacked by several half-demon lackeys. Of course, they could have just politely informed me that their masters wanted to be able to go above ground as well, but no. Hence, they all had to die.”

  Just a few days before, I had made a deal with the demon Bartimus, Bart for short. Now, it's basically rule number one to never make deals with demons, but I really had no choice. You would think since I was a half-demon myself, it wouldn't be a big deal, but it was. I had been thoroughly lectured on my actions. Never mind that Chase and I would likely be dead if I hadn't made the deal.

  I highly doubted that the deal would even come to fruition regardless. Bart wanted to walk in the human world, but he had no human blood and was therefore physically incapable of doing so. My dad only had a tiny trace of human blood, but it was enough to allow him to travel freely.

  I had promised to help Bart find a loophole, or else I would end up his errand girl. I don't know why Bart even thought me capable of carrying through on the act of freeing him. Sure, I have some demon powers, but my control over them is pathetic at best.

  At the last moment my dad had swooped in and done the actual signing of the contract, making him the one actually indebted to Bart, but I was still getting all of the blame.

  My mouth was gaping in surprise at my dad's words. Well, at the killing all of the half-demons part. Though I knew he was fully capable, it was still difficult to imagine my dad killing anyone.

  The rest of my friends present: Chase, Jason, Max, Lucy, and Allison, all kept their distance during our exchange, unsure of what this new event meant for us.

  “How did they find out!” I asked as my brain finally processed everything. The only people who knew about the deal were in my living room, besides Bart of course.

  My dad rolled his eyes. “Bart has always been a gossip. I should have seen it coming, really. I just thought he would be smart enough to not want to hinder our search in any way. The other demons knowing about the deal makes things complicated. More complicated than they were before, at least.”

  “Maybe he believed it would make us work faster,” Chase chimed in as he stepped forward, effectively including himself in the conversation. “A little added incentive.”

  Besides me and my father, Chase was the only other person in the room with demon blood. He was also the only other person in the room that my dad would pay any mind to. Most demons seemed to have an extreme superiority complex. Non-demons only matter as long as they're useful. I knew that Chase didn't share in those archaic views, but sometimes I wasn't so sure about my father.

  My dad nodded at Chase's suggestion thoughtfully. “That probably was his convoluted plan, yes, but he is wrong.”

  “Well we weren't going to let him out anyway, right?” I asked, needing reassurance.

  My dad snorted. “We're contractually bound to try, so try we will. There might be a way . . . ” he trailed off, “if we are able to release him, then we can just kill him afterward. It would simplify matters a great deal. It's likely not possible either way, but I signed a contract obligating me to at least try . . . and,” he paused.

  “And?” I prompted.

  “And Bart believes there is a way,” he said. “There has to be a reason for it. Why now? He has existed nearly one thousand years. Why does he now think there is a loophole, unless it has something to do with you?”

  “Me?” I asked. “Why would I have anything to do it?”

  My dad shifted on the couch to face me better. “Think about it. I have known Bart for a very long time. If he thought I had the means to release him, he would have attempted to blackmail me into a contract sooner. The only thing that has changed . . . is you. I do not think that Bart working with that vampire was a coincidence. I think he found her, not the other way around.”

  The vampire in question had been named Maggie. She was the one that turned Jason into a vampire, and she had taken an instant dislike to me. Maybe because I set her on fire once or twice. It wasn't like she didn't have it coming. In the end she made it clear that one of us had to die, and well, I'm still here.

  I shook my head. I wasn't liking where my dad was going with his line of conversation. “And what would happen if we just, you know, broke the contract?” I asked.

  My dad gave me a look like I was being silly. “Demons may not have much of a community,” he explained. “But if I were to break that contract, I would be hunted down and tortured for a good long while. Eventually they would kill me, but only once I begged for it. We take our contracts very seriously.”
r />   I sipped my previously forgotten coffee while I thought about the situation. Its cool temperature made it taste bitter, but I continued drinking it anyway.

  “So,” I began as I continued to think, “we'll do the research, which will ultimately be fruitless. It has to be. If Bart thinks there is anything special to me, then he's mistaken. We put on a good show with research, then we're off the hook.”

  My dad sighed. “Not quite. As you recall, you also included in your deal that if you could not find a loophole, you would become Bart's personal errand girl. As I took over the contract for you, that responsibility would fall to me. I fear even I would have trouble stomaching the acts that Bartimus would request of me.”

  “So we kill him,” I said simply.

  My dad laughed, but not like it was funny. “It is not quite so easy as all of that,” he explained. “Bart does not leave his lair often, and he definitely will not risk it now. His powers are of the mind, therefore he does not fair well around other demons whose powers are of a more physical nature. In his lair he is in control and could trap even the most strong-willed demon with his illusions. We would not stand a chance against him.”

  “Ok,” Max interrupted.

  My dad stood and looked down at him, and with the nine inch height difference (Max is only 5'4”), my dad had to look down a long way.

  Max seemed nonplussed as he pushed his sandy blond hair away from his freckled face. “I have to know. You demons are always talking about lairs and underground. Do demons seriously just like, live in an underground cave system or something?”

  My dad glared at Max, but answered, “Not quite. Demons reside in a different reality. Our reality mostly intermingles with this one, but not entirely. The demon reality is limited to a smaller space, and most of that space is underground in both realities.”

  “Oh,” Max answered with a confused look on his face.

  I didn't blame him. It confused me too. “So what do we do then?” I asked. “If we can't kill him in his lair, and we can't free him, then kill him . . . ”

  My dad eyed me very steadily, making sure that I would listen to every word he had to say. “Our aim is to free him so that we might kill him. If there is even the slightest possibility that it might work . . . until then we must go to ground, Alexondra. We must hide away. If we cannot free him, eventually he will be forced to come to us for the answers he seeks. If we can free him, we need to remain alive long enough to do so.”

  I laughed, then realized my dad was not at all joking. “We can't go to ground!” I shouted, slopping cold coffee all over my hand.

  “We are too vulnerable here,” he explained. “Or do you not recall the alternate reality that Bart so easily put you into just a few short days ago?”

  “But I escaped-” I began.

  My dad tsked at me. “You escaped because he left you an escape hatch. The end result was always for you to end up in his lair where Maggie waited. Where he waited. And there is something else. I've been thinking about how Bart was able to trap you in the first place. He should not have been able to do it without some of your blood. He can't just snatch demons into his lair by sheer force of will alone.”

  “My blood?” I questioned weakly.

  He nodded. “Whereas witches can partially summon a demon to this realm, a demon can also be summoned back underground. Using that demon's blood allows for a complete summoning. The demon would be pulled underground entirely, leaving nothing in this realm. Using your blood would have been the only way for Bart to bring you to his lair. Now Xoe, can you think of any way that he might have gotten your blood.”

  I thought for a moment and began to shake my head, but stopped. Not long ago I had been kidnapped by a group of witches and a werewolf named Nick. Not only had I been unconscious long enough for them to take blood without me knowing if they so chose, but they had been working with a demon. We never knew for sure what demon it was.

  My kidnapper's goal had been to kill supernaturals and steal their powers using their blood, which wasn't actually possible. Yet if a demon had powers of illusion, he could make them think it was possible. Perhaps the demon wasn't just causing chaos for the fun of it, and was in reality just after the blood . . .

  “Ruh Roh,” I squeaked as Bart's plot came together in my mind.

  “What is it Scooby?” Max asked worriedly.

  “I think Bart was the demon working with Nick and the witches,” I explained. “He tricked them into killing supernaturals and used his illusions to make them believe that they would get their powers. Once their confidence had been bolstered, he sent them after a demon. He sent them after me.”

  I thought back to the night that Nick had planned on killing me. We were in the woods. He summoned the demon that wanted my blood, but my dad had stopped Nick before he could kill me.

  What if Bart had never planned on Nick killing me? Bart could have tricked the witches into giving him some of my blood before the whole scene had even gone down. It had never made sense that the witches thought they could steal powers, but Bart could make them believe anything.

  “He wanted your blood,” my dad said, instantly understanding. “That night in the woods,” he went on, “the demon left as soon as I arrived, not because he was afraid, but because he knew I would save you. He knew his job was done. Bart has had your blood all along, and was just waiting for the right moment.”

  “But then why did he ask for my blood when I was trapped in his lair?” I countered.

  My dad let out a frustrated breath. “More blood equals more control. He would have drained you close to death given the chance.”

  My mouth went dry, and I couldn't seem to manage a full breath. Jason came to my side and pulled me close to him. “I will go with you,” he said steadily, accepting things for what they were.

  My dad shook his head. “There is no need to involve others in this. It is demon business.”

  My vampire boyfriend glared at my father, but didn't reply.

  “Anyone could be a target,” I countered shakily. “Just because I'm the only one that Bart can summon doesn't mean someone can't just send half-demons after everyone else. We can't just leave them up here.”

  “Bart cannot directly target anyone that is not near you,” my dad explained. “He was only able to entrap Max and Chase because they were with you. You being near them puts them all in harm's way. A human or a werewolf would have to summon Bart for interaction otherwise.”

  I shook my head, not wanting to believe what he was telling me, but knowing that it was the truth. “He could still send half-demons after them,” I repeated.

  My father seemed to think for a moment. “Abel will be obligated to protect them,” he said finally. “It was announced to the pack that you are his. It would be very bad for him if something was to happen to your pack, especially after he had been alerted to the danger.”

  “But-” I began.

  “No,” my dad interrupted. “I've let you endanger yourself far too much already.”

  I glared at him. “Mom will never let me go underground with you.”

  My dad took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “Your mother will not risk your life just to keep you away from me. She stands no chance of protecting you.”

  “What about her!” I shouted. “Abel will protect the members of our pack, but mom isn't part of that.”

  “Then she will come with us,” he said simply.

  My jaw dropped. “She won't even be in the same room with you,” I argued. “She'll never go for it.”

  My dad began to pace. “I will speak with her,” he said finally.

  “That's not a good idea,” I said, but I was talking to empty air. My dad had disappeared in a puff of smoke, presumably to find my mother.

  I sat down on the couch in an attempt to stop my head from spinning. I didn't remember agreeing to it, but somehow plans had been made for us to go to ground. Well, for Chase and me at least. I knew there was no way Jason would let me go without him,
and I wouldn't want to, so he was coming too . . . and my mom. This was a very bad idea.

  I'd been worried about Bart before, but now with the possibility of this all being some part of a master plan . . . I was terrified. For him to go to all of this trouble, he really had to believe that I was the only one who could help him escape. I had a feeling that my dad knew more about Bart's thoughts than he was telling me. If there was some way for me to free Bart, my dad would know about it, wouldn't he?

  Lucy pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She had been silent the entire time my dad was present, but her attention never faltered as she took in all of the facts.

  “I'm going to call Lela,” she announced as she walked across the room with Max following behind her. A moment after she disappeared into the kitchen I could hear her talking on her phone.

  I sighed and shook my head. Just the fact of how readily my friends accepted the situation proves what a rough few months we'd all had. Emergency mode had become the norm.

  Allison sat down on the couch beside me and pawed at the ends of her long blonde hair nervously. She bit her lip as if debating on what she was going to say. “I know you're probably processing a lot,” she began slowly, “but what am I supposed to do?”

  I smiled at her weakly. I could probably talk Abel into watching over her as well, but that would put her around more werewolves again. I knew for a fact that she still intended on becoming one, so leaving her with the pack would be a recipe for disaster.

  She could stay in Shelby away from the werewolves, but what was to stop some half-demon from snatching her and using her as a bargaining chip. There were too many risks to consider.

  “You're coming with us,” I decided.

  “But your dad didn't seem to want-” she began.