asthma. Trust me when I say I’m better at researching what to kill and how to kill it.”
“Oh, well, that makes sense.” I take a bite of my sandwich.
“My soup is a little cold,” Ethan starts, sliding the bowl over. “Do you think you could heat it up for me?”
Sam huffs and I smile, holding out my hands. “Probably not, but I’ll try.”
“Whoa,” I say, slowing to a stop as I look at weapons laid out on a table in Ethan’s basement. We’re heading to the barn soon so I can teach the lesson, as well as check out the woods for any demonic signs. “That’s a lot of knives.”
“Better to be safe than sorry, right?” Ethan picks up a silver-tipped wooden stake, considers it for a second, and then puts it back down. “A good old-fashioned mauling can kill a Pricolici, which means any of these will do. The demon, however, that son of a bitch could be a little trickier.” He looks up from the weapons to me. “Do you get any feelings about picking one over another?”
“I’m sorry, I’m hung up on how casually you said a good old-fashioned mauling.”
He flashes that cheeky grin and holds up a small battle axe. “You don’t see too many maulings anymore. Those were the good old days for sure.”
I laugh and start forward, eyeing what looks like a solid gold blade.
“Stop!” Ethan almost drops the axe in his haste to come over.
“What?” I freeze, thinking I accidentally triggered a booby trap or something.
“There are warding sigils drawn on the floor under the rug. Hang on.” He sets the axe down and lifts up the rug, looking at the different occult-like symbols spray-painted on the cement. “Right here.” He moves his hand in a circular motion. “Don’t step here.”
“What will happen if I do step there?”
“Render you powerless. It’s a warding against…against witches.”
“Why do you have to ward off witches?” I ask. “Do witches typically steal weapons or something?”
“We have to cover all our bases by rules of the Order. Anything giving you a good vibe?” he asks quickly.
“Umm…this one.” I go around the witch-warding and pick up the golden blade. It’s much heavier than I expected, and there’s something that looks like dried skin stuck to the tip of it.
“Good choice.” Ethan takes it from me, carefully wraps it up in a length of thick leather, and adds it to a bag of weapons. We head out, going first to my house so I can take care of my animals and change into barn clothes.
Ethan parks on the street in front of my house and we go in through the front door. I stick the key into the lock and get a creeped out feeling. I turn and look out over my shoulder.
“Everything okay?” Ethan steps closer.
“I feel like someone is watching us.”
“Get in the house.”
Nodding, I unlock the door and step inside. Hunter is looking out the living room window, staring out at the street right where I felt like someone was standing. He doesn’t run over to greet us until the door is closed.
“Hey, buddy.” I set my purse down and take off my shoes, moving out of the way to let Ethan in through the small entryway and into the living room.
“Do you still feel like you’re being watched?” Ethan asks, going to the window and twisting the blinds so we can see out but no one can see in.
“No, but something feels…unsettled, I guess.” I sink down onto the floor so I can pet Hunter, comforted almost instantly when I run my fingers through his thick fur. “Like I’m all jittery. It’s not an abnormal feeling, but given everything going on…”
“Right.” He sets the bag of weapons on the table and gets out a silver dagger. “If anything tries to come in, it’s not going to make it far.” He eyes Hunter. “It’ll have to get through both of us before it can get to you.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t have to come to that.” I put an arm around Hunter. “Do you think it’s okay to take him for a walk? I usually do if I’m going to be out of the house a lot like this.”
“Yeah, but if you get another bad feeling, let me know right away.”
“I will,” I tell him and get up. I let Romeo out of his cage, smiling was I watch him bounce around the room for a minute. Then I pull a jacket from my closet and meet Ethan