Get in. Get the job done. Get out. Get paid.
It’s a simple motto that I’ve lived by for the last five years. It’s kept me alive and made me rich.
There’s no love lost between me and the supernatural beings who walk the world beside us. But when it comes to being able to retrieve valuable information from the dead, Necromancer Riley Stone is the only game in town. They know it. I know it too, and that’s why my services aren’t cheap.
The archangel Benjamin hired me to find out why he has a new demon problem. Three demon interrogations in, and the only thing I know is that the demons are in hot pursuit of a nameless young woman. She’s here on Calamata Island, and the demon officials are willing to risk Benjamin’s wrath to grab her.
But I found her first, and she’s nothing like what I expected. In my line of work, you can’t afford to let anyone get too close. But there’s something about Paige Matthews that I can’t shake, and she needs my help. I won’t turn her over to Benjamin until I help her find out why the demons are after her.
So now I’ve got a demon problem, and I’m in way over my head.
Excerpt:
I
wanted to ask her questions, like why the demons were after her, but
her initial confusion about the attack and look of shock when I
mentioned demons told me that she was a civilian. No knowledge of the
ugly underbelly that prowled the world beside hers. I envied people
like that sometimes. It had been a long time since I had the luxury
of that kind of innocence. Unfortunately for the woman, hers was
about to go away as well.
Still,
asking questions and ferreting out answers regardless of her physical
or emotional state was part of my job. I was damn good at it. You
just needed to know the right approach depending on the person, or
thing, you were interrogating.
I
decided to start my line of questioning with the simple stuff and
hopefully build a thin layer of trust. People, especially humans,
opened up quickly to others that they trusted. “So you know my
name. What’s yours?”
Her
eyes swung toward mine. Her pupils were dilated and glassy. She was
deep into the throes of the effects of the drug. “Paige. Or at
least, that’s what I call myself these days.”
It
was a strange answer that only encouraged more questions in my mind.
I made a mental note to come back to it. “Nice to meet you, Paige.
I wish it were under better circumstances.”
That, as much, was true. Paige’s
lean, athletic body, long blonde hair, and baby blue eyes were on the
money for the type of woman that drew my attention like a beacon. Her
full pouty lips begged for me to reach out my thumb and caress them.
Even with the dirt, dust, and blood covering her, she looked like a
blue-eyed angel.
I
cursed myself for being so indifferent to the current situation even
as I shifted in my seat from the sudden tightness in my jeans.
Clearly I’d been out of the game too long. Work was my sole focus
these days, and I had forgotten how liberated I felt after a simple
roll in the hay.
“Are
you taking me to the hospital? I think I’m hurt pretty bad,” she
replied.
“Not
as bad as you think. You just need a little rest,” I said. “Why
were you in the graveyard tonight, Paige?” Given that she was
human, my assumption was that she was a Wiccan. They often held their
ceremonies in cemeteries to bolster their spells with the energy of
soil. Dead bodies still emanated quite a bit of mystical juice.
“Running,”
she said. “Couldn’t sleep.”
Another
perplexing answer that made no sense. Demons didn’t hunt and attack
regular humans for no reason. Then I corrected myself. Demons didn’t
hunt and attack regular humans at all on Calamata Island. On the
mainland, one would occasionally step out of line and feed on a
human, but that was usually squashed quickly. It wasn’t good for
anyone to have the humans be aware of the paranormal minions that
walked in their midst.
There
was a reason that the demons were showing up en masse and looking for
her. I just had to figure out that reason, and then decide if there
was any financial benefit for me in it. I wasn’t thrilled about the
idea of getting involved in a demon matter, but if Paige was
important to them, that could be highly profitable intel.
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