Demon Hunting with a Dixie Deb - Lexi George Page 0,30
“Demon hunters can’t handle their chocolate. That’s frigging priceless.”
Conall gave him a cold look. “You will keep this information to yourself, if you value your health.”
Evan stiffened. “Is that a threat?”
“No. It is a promise.”
“Whatever.”
Evan stomped over to Grim. “Give her to me. I’ll put Sassy to bed.”
“No.”
“Don’t be an ass. You’re loaded. You’ll drop her.”
“I will not drop her.”
Evan made an exasperated gesture.
“Do something with him,” he said to Conall. “Tell the big galoot she’s safer with me.”
“As Rebekah was safe with you?” Conall’s voice was soft and deadly. “I think not.”
Evan shot him a look of dislike. “You think I wanted to hurt her? I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
“Fuck you,” Evan said. “You don’t know dick about it.”
He stalked from the kitchen and slammed the front door behind him.
Evan paused at the top of the porch steps, his old companion rage surging through his veins like acid. Survive or die; those had been his choices. He learned the hard way early on to look out for Numero Uno.
No one else would, for damn sure.
His muscles shifted and burned. Skin stretched. Bones and sinews expanded. Damn, he was hulking out again. He examined his hands. They were already twice their normal size, the nails lengthening into black claws. He’d better slow his roll or the monster would bust loose. The change had been hell, both ways.
Like he didn’t have enough to deal with without shifting into a no-brain goon with the temper of a pissed-off rhino.
Damn that witch. He would fix her for doing this to him. Home skillet was done taking shit off people.
He leaped off the porch and sprinted around the house, taking care to keep inside the shimmering spell line. Didn’t want to fry his ass; demon hunter magic was powerful stuff. Besides, he wasn’t leaving Sassy. She was some kind of special. He’d known it the minute he laid eyes on her. She was a supercharged antidepressant in a very shapely package. Feel-good and well-being poured off her. She was the smell of fresh-baked cookies, pound cake, and homemade bread. She was the holidays and celebrations he’d never had; the proms and homecoming dances he didn’t attend; the pep rallies and ballgames he’d missed out on.
Being around Sassy was a special kind of high, the melting sugary goodness of a hot glazed doughnut combined with the breathless excitement of love’s first kiss. Mary Poppins and the Blue Fairy were a couple of loser skank hos compared to the Lollipop. Sassy made him forget the things he’d done. The things that had been done to him. She made him forget what he was: death dealer; petty criminal and con man; former slave and torture victim.
He’d been raised by a couple of demons. Hagilth and Elgdrek were their names. Real sweethearts. Not.
The demons had found him in a flophouse, a baby abandoned by his demon-possessed mother. His demon blood had kept him alive through the years of captivity, healing him over and over again to take the abuse dished out by the fiends. Ward and June Cleaver his demon parents were not.
Evan had given up hope of release. He was Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, reliving the same shitty butthole of a day umpteen times.
Then the unexpected happened, and Hagilth and Elgdrek got vaporized. Evan was free. No more pain or terror. No more shame and self-loathing.
Then reality had smacked him upside the ass. He had no skills—unless you counted the kind that get you in trouble with the law—no trade, and no formal education. Hell, he could barely read and write.
He had family in Hannah: a norm father he hardly knew, a norm stepmother who looked at him like she expected him to break out in VD or serial killer—or both—at any moment. Two prepubescent norm half siblings he had no interest in.
Oh, yeah, and Beck, his long-lost sister. His twin, the reason he’d come to Hannah. But, instead of welcoming him with open arms, Beck had married a demon hunter.
And not any old demon hunter; Rebecca Damian didn’t do anything by half. Hell no. She married Conall the Almighty, the holier-than-thou, pain-in-the-ass captain of the frigging Dalvahni.
So much for the family reunion. He was on his own; nothing new about that.
He’d drifted around for a while before landing back in Hannah. There was something about this pisspot little town that pulled him in. He’d settled into a crappy trailer in a scuzzy part of town. Maintained a low profile. Kept under the