Dance with the Demon by Stacia Stark

4

Danica

Evie lived in Trinity Park— deep in witch territory. Most of the houses were old, huge, and steeped in history— all things witches were delighted by.

I was so tired I could barely see straight, but I managed a sloppy parallel park and made my way up the steps leading to the coven’s wide porch.

I’d once played on this porch with Evie. We’d swung on that porch swing and climbed the huge tree in the front yard.

The coven’s house was painted a cheerful buttercup yellow with white trim, it was large enough to house a solid third of the coven, with extra guest rooms for nights when they got together for meetings or to work on their spells.

Evie opened the door before I could knock.

“You’re okay.”

“Yeah.”

“What did the Mage Council do?”

“Threatened me with a truth spell.”

Her face turned white, and then she flushed. “Let them fucking try.”

Magic sparked around her and I stared. Evie kept her magic hidden away, but since I’d been in Austin, she’d turned into a powerhouse. There was something about it—

“Danica.”

I surveyed the witch standing behind my sister. “Gemma.”

Last time I’d been here, I’d lost control of my power, holding the coven leader in place and ruthlessly questioning her. The look on her face told me she would never forget it.

“The boys are in the living room.”

She gestured for me to follow her. I gaped at Evie and she clamped her mouth shut, her eyes dancing with humor.

I’d forgotten how Gemma felt about most kids. I’d never been fortunate enough to benefit from the way she loved on anyone younger than sixteen, but I’d seen it happen.

Cil and Zip were sitting on a stuffed gray sofa, a bowl of popcorn between them. On the TV, the news played, and for one long moment, it felt like I’d never left this house. Gail– one of the more senior witches– had always been obsessed with the paranormal news, and insisted on keeping the TV on day and night.

The boys were silent, obviously exhausted, their gray faces drawn and pale, with dark circles beneath their blue eyes. Zip clutched a small canvas bag in one hand and held his brother’s hand in the other.

They needed to go to bed. But I needed to find out what they’d seen before they forgot anything important. I crouched in front of them. “Hi guys.”

Both of them focused on me. “Hi, Danica,” they chorused, and I smiled.

“What’s that you’ve got, Zip?”

He clutched the canvas bag tighter. “It’s our treasures.”

“What kind of treasures do you have?”

“They’re secret.”

I glanced at Evie. She grinned at me. “You always looked after our treasures when we were kids.”

“You couldn’t be trusted not to lose them.”

I turned back to the kids. “Okay, I need you guys to tell me everything you remember about tonight. Can you do that?”

They both nodded. Distantly, I was aware of Gemma, Gail, and a few of the other witches filing in.

“Okay,” I took a deep breath. “What did you guys have for dinner tonight?”

“Chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes with green beans,” Cil said. “I ate all my green beans, but Zip only ate half.

“Dad said I could,” Zip stuck his lower lip out.

“I hate green beans,” I admitted, and he grinned at me, revealing sharp, pointed teeth. He was still missing a couple of adult teeth.

“I hate them too.”

“So after dinner, what happened next?”

“We went back to the store. Dad said he wanted to stay open for a few more hours and we needed to do our homework quietly.”

“Okay. So what happened after that?”

Zip reached for his brother’s hand once more. “A bad man came.”

“How did you know he was a bad man?”

“He was wearing a cloak. Bad men wear cloaks.”

My mouth twitched. He wasn’t wrong. Anyone who wanted to look suitably villainous had a tendency to buy a black cloak. And that cloak tripped them up and gave their enemies loose clothing to grab them in a fight. Cloaks were for low-level thugs and rookies.

“So the bad man came, and then what happened?”

Cil’s eyes filled with tears. “Dad told us to hide.”

“Was the bad man in the store?”

“No. He was on the street.”

“Okay, so your dad saw the bad man through the store windows. And then you hid in your secret hiding spot? The one I found you in?”

“Yes. Dad used his I’m serious voice. If you don’t listen to that voice, you get no TV for a week.”

“Did you hear anything when you were hiding?”

Zip began to tremble, and Cil threw his arm around his brother’s shoulders. “We don’t want to talk anymore.”

I studied them. I wasn’t going to get anything out of them until they felt safer. “That’s okay. Gemma and the other witches here are going to look after you.” I leaned close. “If you’re lucky, maybe Charlene will make you her famous chocolate chip cookies.”

“Dad said you had to keep us safe.”

I nodded. “I am. This is the best place for you. These witches are the most powerful in Durham, and they’ll kick the butts of anyone who messes with you. I’m going to come back tomorrow, okay? Maybe we can talk some more then.”

“You’re going to find out who hurt our dad,” Zip said.

“Yes.”

“And then you’re going to kill them,” Cil stared into my eyes.

“That’s right.”

“Danica,” Gemma hissed, and I shook my head at her. “They’re big enough to hide and keep quiet when their dad tells them to. They’re big enough to know the truth.”

I turned back to Cil, and he smiled at me. Then he took the canvas bag from Zip and reached inside, pulling out a glittery gold marble. “You can have this.”

I grinned at him and ruffled his hair. “I can’t take one of your treasures.”

“You can borrow it. For good luck, until you find whoever hurt my dad.”

“Thanks.” I slipped it into my utility belt.

“Holy crap, turn that up.”

I didn’t recognize the voice, but I recognized the urgency in it. I spun as one of the witches grabbed the remote, turning the news up.

“Sources say the woman was a bounty hunter for the Mage Council before the incident,” the news anchor said. “When we reached out to the Council, they refused to comment, saying that Ms. Amana was a short-term contractor who is no longer employed by the council.”

I froze. On the TV, the shot cut away from the news anchor, and my face came into view.

I was trapped in a circle of witches, my face ashen. Samael was chained, and the witch recording the show zoomed in on my ankle. White bone poked through the ruin of my skin and the camera zoomed in on the compound fracture. One of the witches in the living room gagged.

My ankle still twinged occasionally. Unless I went back to a fae healer, it probably always would.

On the screen, I pulled out one of my throwing knives and nailed Veronica in the throat. She went down, choking on her own blood.

“Gnarly,” one of the kids said. They shouldn’t be watching this. But I couldn’t seem to look away.

Samael was staring at me, his silver eyes burning.

“Where the hell did they find Naud chains?” Evie asked.

I rubbed at the back of my neck. “There’s only one place they could’ve gotten them. Shockingly, it’s home to the same people who just leaked this.”

Albert hadn’t taken kindly to Samael’s threats. And while he knew Samael would likely consider killing him for leaking this video, he also knew that Samael would then be faced with a power struggle within the Durham Mage Council, which the demon would have to sort out.

On the TV, Mary stepped over Veronica’s body and picked up the grimoire. It was impossible to tell how much power Samael was gathering on the video, but even now I could feel the memory of it, hot and potent in the air.

Witches began to flee. I memorized their faces, wondering if Samael had found them yet. These were the witches who’d escaped, and like cockroaches, they were likely to keep coming back for more. Someone needed to spray them with hairspray and light them on fire.

I winced at the direction my thoughts had taken. Turns out, I was still pissed about the entire experience.

The recording continued to play. I was getting to my knees, and I stared at my determined expression, my stomach swimming at the memory. Agony had roared through every cell of my body and I’d been fighting to stay conscious. I’d known that if I passed out, the witches would succeed.

Mary raised her hands. On the screen, I made it up to one foot.

Mary let her power loose, aiming it at Samael. A few feet from me, Gail cursed. I glanced at her, but her gaze was on the TV as the power streamed from Mary, dark and deadly.

I leapt in front of Samael, and he clutched me in his arms. My ward surrounded us, my power glowing like an iridescent, violet and gold wall. A wall that Mary’s power was beginning to eat through.

On the screen, Samael clutched me to his chest, and then brushed my lips with his. In the living room, the witches gasped, turning to glance at me.

I couldn’t hear him over the chanting of the coven, but I still remembered the languid tone of his voice. “You’re okay,” he’d murmured. “My turn.”

On the screen, Samael placed me on the ground and stood in front of me. Mary’s power had almost made it through my ward. Samael was talking to me, telling me to drop my ward. His eyes were indulgent. He’d looked at me like–

“You look half-dead, Danica.” Horror saturated Evie’s voice.

I attempted a grin. “Spoiler alert, I made it out okay.”

She simply shook her head at me, and I turned back to the TV. I did look half dead. I’d had a vicious head wound, a broken ankle, and I’d been drained of power.

Onscreen, I dropped my ward, and in the blink of an eye, Samael turned the witches to ash. He took a step toward me, and I froze. There were no longer any witches alive to make any noise, and the camera caught his next words.

“Danica,” he purred. “Are you frightened of me?”

“Of course she is,” Gemma muttered. “I didn’t raise an idiot.”

I glowered at her. “You didn’t raise me at all.”

Someone hushed me and I scowled. On the screen, Samael was picking me up. Vas appeared, offering to take me, and Samael clutched me to him, the movement clearly possessive. Shit.

He kissed my forehead, and there were several gasps. “A forehead kiss!” one of the younger witches said. “You know what that means!”

“What does it mean?” Zip asked.

“It means the king of the demons has a big fat crush–”

“Shhhhh!” several voices cut the witch off.

The video ended and the news anchor stared into the camera. “Our sources say members of the coven were direct descendants of the McCormick coven. The McCormick coven was responsible for the opening of the portals seventy-two years ago.”

A tiny hand touched my shoulder and I jolted. On the sofa behind me, Cil beamed at me.

“You’re friends with Samael?”

“Uh…”

“More than friends,” someone muttered, and I lifted a hand, keeping it behind me and hidden from the kids as I flipped them off.

“Will he help you find who hurt my dad?”

I gave him a look. “Um, excuse me. I don’t need his help. I’m an asskicker.”

Both boys laughed, and Gemma stepped forward. “Right. To bed, both of you.”

I watched as they negotiated, finally agreeing to go to bed in exchange for chocolate chip cookies in the morning. Witches filed out of the living room, shooting me wide-eyed looks, and a vicious headache took up residence in my left temple.

“Dani?”

“Yeah.”

Evie slumped on the sofa the gnomes had just vacated. “You almost died.”

“I told you that when I visited a few weeks ago.”

“Hearing it is different from seeing it. What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to protect the kids, find out who hurt Gary, kill them, discover who leaked this video, kill them too, and find a new job.”

Evie blinked at me. Then she laughed. “At least you have a plan. Can I help?”

“Keep the kids safe. Listen to them when they think the adults aren’t listening. If they remember anything about whoever attacked Gary, call me. No matter what time it is. Even if it’s something small like the sound of his voice or the way he said a particular word.”

Evie nodded. “Want to stay here?”

I perused the living room. It was empty now, but a few minutes ago, it’d been full of witches who’d just seen me help a demon slaughter another coven. If I stayed here, someone was likely to wait until I fell asleep and then try to smother me with my own pillow.

“Maybe another time. I need to feed my cat.”

Awkward silence stretched between us. She cleared her throat and leaned against an overstuffed armchair. “I know you hate the coven, Dani. But they were my only family.”

Fury burned through me. “I was your family!”

“You were gone. I was a kid.” She sighed and ran her hand through her long hair. “Gemma was there when I got my first period. Noelle bought me chocolate when my first boyfriend broke my heart. Ainsley taught me how to ward.”

“Because you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

She shook her head, and it was my turn to sigh. We weren’t going to get anywhere tonight. Both of us were too tired. Too resentful.

“Let’s talk about this another time,” I said.

“Yeah. Another time.”