I was alone.
I exhaled through the flicker of disappointment deep in my chest.
Demons. We didn’t make every supernatural creature sign a contract to live in Ordinary, but in the case of gods and demons, we absolutely had papers drawn up and signed.
Bathin had refused to sign a contract to stay in town.
Which meant he had to leave. Without my sister’s soul.
Just like I knew my family gift would never fail me, I knew I’d be the one who figured out how to save Delaney’s soul. And I’d be the one who kicked Bathin out of Ordinary for good.
Banned, as all his lying, cheating, double-crossing kind were banned.
He’d be furious.
I smiled. I couldn’t wait.
Chapter 2
I leaned backon my heels, chewed on the end of the paint brush, and studied my handiwork. Not bad for my first demon trap. I hadn’t been able to fall back asleep.
So I’d followed that instinctive tug in my chest, brewed some tea, and then ended up brewing a spell.
Juice of thistle, oil of sassafras, kosher salt, and beet root stewed in a silver spoon. The tug in my chest had led me here, on my knees in front of the fireplace, drawing out ancient symbols on the hardwood floor.
When the spell dried, becoming invisible against the wood, I waited for my family gift to tell me where I needed to be next.
Nothing. No tug. No tingle. Noneed.
Thank the gods. There was nothing else I should do with the trap. I could go about my own business.
I pushed up to my feet and stretched out the kink in my back, wondering why it was so important to draw the trap in front of my fireplace. Unfortunately, my gift didn’t supply answers to my questions.
I followed the gift and did what I instinctively knew I should do, what I felt I had to do, without always knowing the cause or the results.
Which was why I preferred logic and facts when it came to the non-gift parts of my life. Logic and facts had never let me down.
I took a sip of tea that had gone cold hours ago and gathered up the spellwork items. It was six o’clock in the morning. I had to be at work in about an hour.
Lucky for me I had just enough time for a long shower and a quick stop at the drive-thru for a huge cup of strong, hot tea.
~~~
Roy had been a fixture at the police station for years. After he retired from being a cop in LA, he moved here and decided to put on the badge again for our little town and our “quaint” crimes.
Those crimes included monsters and ancient evils and yes, even murders, kidnappings, and shootings. So it wasn’t exactly the quiet beat he’d expected.
But it wasn’t anywhere near the violence level found in a big city, so he had remained and given us his level head, steady advice, and love of Rubik’s Cubes for years.
I was going to miss him, the elder in our mix. The human who didn’t stand for any kind of shenanigans on his shift, whether said shenanigans came from monster or god or one of us Reed sisters.
I parked the cruiser next to Jean’s truck and strolled around to the trunk with my huge mug of tea. I retrieved the bag full of random things I’d felt theneedto throw in there today: a turnip, a candy ring, a deck of cards, and a book I’d been hoping to take back to the library the next time I got out that way.
I slung the bag crossways over my shoulders and juggled the bulky carriers of cinnamon rolls and little chocolate-dipped, cheesecake strawberries I’d made for Roy’s retirement party later today.
I tucked the tea between my arm and ribs, lifted a carrier in each hand and carefully, one hand balancing the carrier on top of the trunk, closed the trunk with athunk.
Slow applause from the station made me turn.
