“That isn’t funny,” she said, and although she was trying to sound matter-of-fact, he could still catch the smallest tremor in her voice as she pronounced the last syllable.
“I’m not joking,” he told her. “My grandfather was a demon from Hell, and my father was half demon. I’m just a quarter, so I’m not nearly as bad as the rest of them.”
Once again, Pru shifted in her seat so she could look back at Ty. “Is this some kind of stupid joke the two of you have cooked up?”
“No joke,” Ty said calmly. “Caleb is descended from demons, just as he told you. His grandfather was a servant of the demon prince Belial, and therefore among one of the highest orders of demons. That’s why he’s so powerful, even though he’s mostly human.”
She shook her head, the deep green strands of her hair shimmering like dark tourmaline in the bright sunlight slanting through the passenger-side window. “So, what…you’re a demon, too?”
Caleb couldn’t help tensing slightly as she asked the question. Was Ty Carter finally going to come out and say what he truly was?
He should have known better.
“No, I’m not a demon,” Ty said calmly, as if he were called upon to answer that question on a regular basis. “Let’s just say that I’m someone who has an interest in making sure your friend Delia is safe.”
Judging by the way Pru’s lips pressed together again, she wasn’t too happy with that response.
“He’s not going to tell you anything else,” Caleb remarked. “Personally, I think he’s part angel, but since he won’t cop to it, I guess you’ll just have to accept that he’s here to help.”
She crossed her arms and settled against the back of the seat. Something in her expression seemed to signal that she was wishing she could be almost anywhere else, but since she was stuck in a Range Rover heading southbound at roughly eighty miles an hour, she didn’t have a lot of options.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to ‘accept’ much of anything,” she said, her tone caustic. “Sure, some weird shit went down at the Desert Paradise, but I’m supposed to believe in quarter demons and part angels and God knows what else?”
“Basically, yeah,” Caleb said. He lifted one hand from the steering wheel, palm open. This little trick had been enough to convince Delia he wasn’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill human being, and he had to hope it would work on Pru as well.
For just a second, flames danced on the palm of his hand. Because he wanted them to be harmless, he knew they wouldn’t do anything to the Range Rover’s interior, or to the woman who currently occupied the passenger seat. They were just for show.
Slowly, Prudence removed her sunglasses and stared at his hand. With the flames now gone, he wrapped his fingers around the steering wheel once more.
“You just….” She shook her head. “How the hell did you do that?”
“Those with demon blood can summon flames,” Ty said from the back seat. “It’s a talent that can come in useful in some situations.”
“More than ‘some,’” Caleb replied. “I’ve used fire to send lesser demons back to Hell, so it’s a nice weapon to have in my arsenal. Most of the time, though, Delia and I use her holy water.”
“The stuff she gets from Father Bryce for her house cleansings?”
“The same.”
Pru returned her sunglasses to her nose. Caleb couldn’t be sure whether that was because the glare outside was getting to her, or she simply didn’t want him to see her expression clearly.
“But if you’re part demon, doesn’t it bother you?”
Once again, Ty spoke up. “His demon blood is diluted enough that holy water has no real effect on him.”
“Well, that’s something, I suppose,” Pru said, her tone now positively dripping with sarcasm.
Caleb could see why she’d want to retreat to a tried-and-true defense mechanism. This was all kind of a lot.
Luckily, he always had a few bottles of the stuff on hand, and he’d included it in the kit he’d brought along on this trip, just to be safe. He still didn’t know for sure what they were dealing with here, but a little extra insurance never hurt anyone.
“We’re telling you this because we don’t know what we might be facing in Laughlin,” Ty said, and once again, Pru’s brows lifted.
“I thought Delia went down there to clear a ghost out of a house.”
“She did,” Caleb put in. “But since the guy who asked her for the favor is someone who was involved in that mess at the Desert Paradise, we don’t know for sure if a regular old spirit is what we’re dealing with here…or something much worse.”
Pru fiddled with her seatbelt, then said, “I’m surprised she trusted him after everything that happened at the tournament.”
