“Thanks Jules. Keep us updated,” he says.”
“I will. I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep tonight,” she says with a laugh. “Your dad and Harold are helping me look into this. Don’t worry, Harold doesn’t know that Anora is a witch. But I showed him the data I found from the autopsies and he definitely agrees something else is going on. His money is on a demon. I’ll call you if anything else happens and keep me up to speed on your end too.”
The call ends, and a collective silence falls over the table. We sit there looking at each other for a moment before Ethan speaks.
“I think the best thing we can do is get a good night’s rest and start fresh in the morning.”
“Sleep?” I ask dubiously. “You really think we can sleep after we just found out there’s a Freddy Krueger type demon out there killing people with their worst nightmares?”
“You’re still recovering from the incubus stealing your energy, babe. You need to rest before you get sick again. We can take shifts if that makes you feel better.” He makes a face. “Because it would make me feel better.”
“I think I’m with Anora on this one,” Sam chides. “And now I can’t even think of what my worst fear is. How would I die?” Eyes wide, she looks at us. “What’s your worst fear?”
“Something bad happening to the ones I love,” I answer with no hesitation. “How would that kill me?” I shake my head. Maybe I don’t want to know.
“Being eaten alive by worms,” Nik says, face sullen. “And it’s not as an irrational fear as you may think. The way the Fae punish wrongdoers is to bury them in the earth and let nature—the thing we were supposed to protect—betray us.”
“Guys,” Ethan interjects, “This demon is only killing every three days. W e have two more days until we have to worry about it.”
“Only every three days?” I ask with a shrill laugh. “Better than every day, right?” I quickly suck in a breath and look at everyone gathered around the kitchen. I love Ethan more than life itself and Nik feels like a brother. Or an uncle? He is older than me. Either way, he’s family now. And Sam, as much as she pushes my buttons, is family too.
“We’re going to figure this out,” Ethan says with confidence. He believes it and deep down I want to believe, but what if we can’t? What if we can’t find the demon before the time is up? One more person will be killed and Stephanie will take the video of me killing demons with a magical freaking fire-sword to the Order. What they’ll do with that, I’m almost scared to ask.
It’s actual video proof of someone doing magic. The public might be quick to say it’s photoshopped, but with vampires coming out, I know there are others who are more open to more supernatural beings, like witches.
“We’re going to go about this like any other case,” Ethan goes, his voice calm and level. “So for tonight, we are all going to get as good of a night’s rest as we can and will regroup in the morning. We’ll hit the books right away.”
“Okay,” I say, knowing he’s right. The demon just had a kill and won’t come after someone tonight. That alone gives just a bit of comfort, but knowing that my forty-eight hours are ticking away as we speak doesn’t sit well with me. “Do you know of any demons who feed off fear?”
“There are quite a few,” Ethan says ruefully. “This demon, however, has to be powerful to be able to get into somebody’s nightmare and have it physically affect them to the point of death.” He gets up, goes into the library, and returns with his laptop. I push food around on my plate while I wait for him to open the email from Julia. He moves the computer to the middle of the counter so we can all see. Julia did an impressive job organizing everything and highlighting any similarities in the reports.
“The woman who was killed in a plane crash but not a plane crash,” Nik starts. “Was she a hunter too?”
“Not one in the Order,” Sam answers. “But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t a hunter. If she was, David and Julia will find out. And if she’s not…well, there goes the theory that this thing is only attacking hunters and we’ll have to find another connection.”
“Sometimes the only connection is poking around something that doesn’t like to be poked,” Ethan reminds her. “Patrick looked into whatever attacked Hector and that could’ve been enough to piss off the demon.”
“Aren’t we poking around?” Nik asks with a nervous laugh. “Making us the next victims?”
“I don’t think we can come to any conclusions at this point,” Ethan says. “Two hunters in a row seems too coincidental to me, that’s for sure. And if this thing is going after hunters, then I’ll figure out a way to make it come after me next.”
“You’re going to use yourself as bait?” I retort.
“What, like you’ve never suggested yourself as bait?” he shoots right back. “Now you know how I feel.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” I raise my eyebrows looking at Ethan.
“Our roles have reversed.” His lips curve into a smirk, holding my gaze for a moment before closing the laptop. “All right. Finish eating then get ready for bed and then meet in the living room.”
“For demon-planning?” Sam asks, looking down at her plate.
“For a movie night,” Ethan replies. “And it’s my turn to pick the movie.”
“Seriously?” Sam asks, corners of her lips twitching into a smile. “Movie night?”
“Yeah. It’s something we started doing regularly,” he tells her, getting up to microwave his plate since the food cooled while we were talking. “It’s nice.”
“It is,” I agree, so thankful for him. He’s right: we need to find a way to calm down and then go to bed. The adrenaline is wearing off and I’m realizing just how tired I am. Sam and I go upstairs to shower and change—I let her borrow pajamas—and then I clean Romeo’s cage and spend some time playing with him before going back downstairs.
It’s cozy in the living room, and I snuggle up under a heavy blanket on the couch next to Ethan. He picks an old comedy from his childhood to watch, and halfway through the movie, I’m starting to drift off.
Hunter jumps up, startling me, and two seconds later, the doorbell rings. We all freeze. It’s after ten PM. No one shows up this late with good news.
Chapter
Twenty-One
“Stay here,” Ethan says, rising to his feet. He pulls a knife from a hiding spot under the coffee table and goes toward the door. Hunter is faster and sits in front of it with his tail wagging.
“No way,” I whisper, getting up and letting the blanket fall to my feet. “Why would they be here?” Hunter isn’t wrong, though, and I’m left standing in disbelief in the foyer once Ethan throws open the door.
“Surprise!” Harrison and Laney say in unison.
Ethan steps back, as shocked as I am to see my brother and my best friend standing on the porch this late at night.
“Harry! Laney!” I exclaim, still shocked but thrilled to see them both. “What are you doing here?”