Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
“We’d probably be rescuing them from certain death at the home improvement warehouses anyway,” Nova piped in.
“So… girls’ trip?” Jo suggested.
Which, hilariously, caused a chorus of demonic growls from around the room.
The girls, equally amused, decided to pile on.
“Oh, what are you grumbling about?” Jo asked, barely holding back a smile. “We’ve got a witch, a demonslayer, and a demigod. No one would stand a chance against us.”
“Not fuckin’ happening,” Drew snarled.
“We could stop for brunch!” Nova said, not even trying to keep from smiling.
“Yes!” Jo agreed.
“Maybe some manis and pedis,” Dale joined. “My nails are looking rough.”
“Absolutely not,” Minos said.
“You gonna join in the fun?” Daemon whispered to me, fingers tickling my side.
“Depends.”
“On?”
“Are you gonna get all grumbly and protective too?”
“We’ll go to the fuckin’ plant store,” Drex declared, getting a little laugh out of Nova.
“What? On your motorcycle?” she shot back. “How do you expect to bring a monstera back on a bike?”
“The fuck is a monstera?” Drex asked, getting head shakes from the other demons.
“I’ll go with the girls,” Lucy declared.
“Your penis-mobile isn’t going to work either,” Dale said, making a snort escape me.
“Lucy… commandeered a red sports car,” Ace explained.
“If anyone here objects to theft, the owner was dead inside of it,” Lucy declared, making the women let out a mix of groans and laughs.
“Sometimes, having a full soul around you all is… interesting,” Charlotte said, shaking her head at the lot of them.
“Well, if it helps at all, even losing a tiny piece of your soul to become immortal,” Nova piped in, “still makes this whole thing,” she went on, gesturing vaguely, “interesting.”
“You lived among vampires, and these guys are shocking?” Dale asked.
“Different vibes, I guess,” Nova said with a shrug.
“They do dress quite nicely,” Dale said, getting another low grumble from Minos. “But you have much nicer hair,” she said, petting his head while giving the girls all a look.
We all immediately understood it. It said: For creatures of hell, they sure are sensitive.
“Anyway,” Jo said. “We’re going to drop off plants to Arick. And Aggy, if she’s still there. And I guess you guys can come if you want.”
My gaze slid around the room, finding a certain affection for everyone gathered around. I’d known them for almost no time at all. Yet I felt a kinship with them, a connection I hadn’t anticipated.
They were going to be my family, I realized with a swelling sensation in my chest.
I’d been so alone after my father’s passing. And aside from my mother, I didn’t have anything nice to say about my actual blood family.
It was nice to know I was no longer alone, that I had community, family.
All thanks to Daemon.
I leaned close to Daemon’s ear. “I really love your people,” I told him, meaning it.
“Even Lucy?” he whispered back.
“A bit begrudgingly, but yes,” I admitted.
“Good,” Daemon said, wrapping me up tighter. “Because you’re stuck with us for eternity now.”
“Good.”
“Hey, Charlotte,” he called, making her look over.
“Yeah?”
“Any idea what a demon/demigod baby would be like?”
She thought on that for a second before admitting, “I have no idea.”
“Hmm,” Daemon said, shrugging. “Guess we’re gonna have to find out firsthand then.”
Daemon - 1 month
“Got another one incoming,” I said, making my way down the stairs to find Ace, Jo, Drex, and Lenore in the study.
“Another what?” Ace asked. “Demon or human?”
“Human this time,” I said. “I could see the blood from the second floor.”
“Guess we’re up then,” Jo said, looking at Lenore.
At first, Ace and Lycus had a lot of objections to their women and their newfound need to aid and heal the wounded humans.
The problem was, these women we’d all chosen were stubborn as fuck. There was no talking them down from their individual missions.
And as a former nurse, Jo felt it was still her duty to mend. Lenore, who had all the herbal training from her coven, was a happy assistant.
We’d had no fewer than fifteen half-dead humans happen our way over the past few weeks. Running from gods, from demons, but mostly from their fellow men who had formed roving gangs with a thirst for violence.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” Lucy asked, standing with me in the doorway, watching the human woman collapse into Jo and Lenore’s arms.
“What?”
“We’re supposedly the evil ones,” he said, sipping his coffee. “Yet this is what the humans do to one another.”
The collapse of the world as they’d known it had indeed brought out the true nature of the humans.
Some were working hard to build community, to all work together to create gardens, makeshift schools and hospitals, to take in displaced and needy people, forming their own mini societies.
More, though, turned greedy and ugly, roving around the world with too many weapons and not enough sense, looking only to pillage, rape, and kill. For the thrill of it. Because there were no longer consequences for giving into their base, wicked instincts.