Page 46 of A Shade of Myself
“Yeah, right. What is it really?”
Nav held the door to the cage room open for me.
“Carpe Demon it is. So, what’s your favorite part of a demon to seize, Mr. Kumar?”
“You are a royal pain in my arse.”
“Back at you.” My expression turned somber seeing the cages again. “All these humans, they’re really demons?” Most of the creatures had assumed nonthreatening forms.
Nav nodded and pressed his hand to a scanner on the wall.
The cages vibrated and I clapped my hands over my ears at the sudden cacophony of growls, whines, snarls, cries, and words screamed in languages I’d never heard and wasn’t sure I could reproduce.
The human glamours dissipated, revealing demons of every shape and size: reptilian, humanoid, mammalian, serpent-like. Some had skin like lizards, others were bumpy or had hard exoskeletons. Two horns, six horns, no horns, antennae. Geez. Too many eyes, not enough eyes, limbs, claws, fangs, fur, feathers, hair, the unglamoured demons came in every color of the toxic waste palette.
All of them wore slender collars around their necks.
Nav summoned his light staff and led me to Kirby, the demon that Clea had captured from the trailer park. He stuck the staff through the bars and prodded the demon, who was a red hairless rat about the size of a German shepherd.
The demon snarled at him, his flesh blackening from the weapon’s touch.
“Cooperate and I won’t do that again.” Nav motioned for the necklace and I dropped it into his hand. The cage bars disappeared and he handed it to the demon. “Is there magic on this?”
Kirby touched it briefly. “No. It’s just a necklace.” He sounded like a broken dentist’s drill.
“That’s it?” I shook my head. “Check again.”
The demon turned his back on me, the bars on the cage once more appearing.
“If he says there’s no magic, there’s no magic.” Nav handed me back the pendant. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”
All that for nothing?
Nav insisted on taking the Succubus back across the water with me to my car to ensure that I was well and truly gone. What a prince.
“At least I’ve got ice cream to look forward to,” I muttered, unlocking my sedan. “You don’t have to watch me go.”
Nav smiled infuriatingly and crossed his arms, not budging.
My irritation grew all the way home, along with my worries about why the Succubus had taken me across the water instead of killing me. I forced a smile when Sadie greeted me at our front door saying she’d already called Jude and to hurry because she’d been waiting forever.
We parked at Casa Gelato, the giant pink warehouse that was our favorite ice cream place, and Sadie hopped out of the car.
“Wait,” I said. “Grab my bag.”
She retrieved my purse from the passenger side mat and handed it over, then ran across the street to the entrance, her black hair flying.
When she was halfway across the road, she turned back. “I’m getting a double!” She held up the wallet that she’d pilfered.
“Try it, you little thief.” I laughed.
Then a car whipped around the corner.
“Sadie!”
My daughter registered a split second of confusion, her slim body flying onto the hood and cracking the windshield before she bounced off and rolled onto the concrete like a ragdoll. Her head was twisted away from me and her crumpled body was still.
Sadie was never still. Even at night she twitched and turned, bunching up her covers, and often ending up lying sideways on the mattress. I waited for her to jump up with a laugh that she was kidding, using those acting skills of hers to con me into buying her a whole gallon of gelato to take home.
