them to rattle.
Worse, blood ran beneath the doors, pooling around his feet.…
CHAPTER 13
“Hellooooo? Akra-Menyara Cam lady, quality goddess, you in there? Why you gots all these nasty uglies circling outside your door anyways? Can the Simi eat some? ’Cause they just gonna drive away your good business people and they kind of scaring the tourists. If you ask me, it’s just a public service to let the Simi eat them. Hello? Akra-Mennie? You in there? Can you hear me?”
Laughing nervously, Nick almost fell over in relief at the sound of Simi’s singsongy accent as she pounded on the doors with enough force to rattle the hinges. It was a wonder she wasn’t shattering them.
Dang, that demon was strong to be so thin. She could double as a wrecking crew.
Kody went to the door to unlock it, while being careful not to step in the bloody demon mess that Simi had left behind on her arrival.
She carefully opened the door after first peeking outside to make sure all the other demons were gone.
Or eaten.
Though to be honest, Simi usually asked permission before she chowed down on things that could converse.
“That is you, right?” Kody asked.
“Well, there better not be nobody else pretending to be the Simi or else the Simi going to have to get some barbecue sauce and eat them heads ’cause I ain’t going to have no one else sleeping in my bed or hanging out with my akri in my stead, pretending to be me. The Simi don’t cotton to no imposters. Nor do she share, unless forced to against her will and loud complaints. You can ask my akri and he will tell you this is quite true. Don’t know what you heard, akra-Kody, but you were badly misinformed if you think otherwise.”
Yeah, that was definitely the adorable Goth demon Nick knew so well. All six feet, striped leggings, leather purple corset, and short, black frou-frou skirt of her. She had her black hair pulled up into two pigtails that fell in twisted cybergoth falls from just above her ears. Her coffin-shaped bag was slung over one shoulder and she wore a crystal vampire-bat choker.
Cocking her hip and head, Simi frowned, pouted, then frowned again at them. “Well, what all happened in here that has y’all looking so sad and irritable? Party? Bomb? Bomb party? Did someone get a little too excited and burp a chaos demon who ran amok and did all this?”
Then she saw some of the entrails on the floor and she bowed up at Caleb. “Oh no! No, you didn’t! You done had a buffet and you didn’t invite the Simi, for shame on you akri-Caleb! You a mean demon boy! You off the Simi Christmas list for that! No oven mitt for you! Bad, bad demon, bad!”
Caleb laughed. “There was no buffet, Simi, I promise. We got here after it. I mean, not after the buffet. After the fight that made this mess. You didn’t miss anything, other than a battle.”
“Oh, okay.” She grinned adorably. “I’ll put you back on my happy list of mitt deserving quality demons, then.” She waved at Jaden. “Hello akri-demon-dealer-god-man! Been long, long time since I saw you last.”
“Hi, Simi. You still hanging out with that loser with a surfboard?”
She gasped. “Akri-Savitar is the bestest. He makes the hottest diamond barbecue sauce this side of the Sunken City. You should try it sometime.”
“Yeah, I’ll pass, I rather like my intestines not on fire. But thank you for the offer.”
She sighed and patted her coffin-shaped handbag. “Your loss, akri-Jay-Jay. The Simi telling you that it fully enhances all the flavors of the innards, and can kill the ones you don’t like.” Pursing her lips, she looked around the store. “So where’s akra-Mennie? She promised the Simi some new sparklies!” There was something about Simi’s enthusiasm and happiness over the simplest things that was infectious and made being around her such a joy.
Provided she wasn’t sizing you or your entrails up for her dinner pot.
“We don’t know.” Nick gestured at the mess. “It was like this when we arrived.”
“Um, people.” Xev paused as he moved toward the doors. “Anyone else realize that the demon Simi killed is still on the ground over here, bleeding and not self-cleaning the way we like our demons to?”
“What’s that mean?” Nick asked.
“That it’s crossed into this realm and has its own corporeal body.” Caleb paled.
“And Xev’s right. We don’t like when that happens.” Kody turned even more ashen than Caleb—which was impressive given