CHAPTER 1
Ialways knew that parenting a teenager would be like living with a demon from hell. The hormonal explosions. The friend drama. The dating drama. The high school drama. All of the little passion plays that make up the theater that is known as adolescence.
I read all the parenting books. I talked with other moms. I watched movies and television shows.
I anticipated everything … except for the one thing I couldn’t possibly have imagined?—
My teenager really is a demon.
Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. Technically, she’s only part demon, and that from her father’s side. And I’m not even sure how much demon is in her, because we don’t really know how much was in her father in those years when he was growing up, his body and soul unknowingly entwined with a demon put there by his own parents when he was an infant in a ritual that no parenting book would ever endorse.
And, yes, the fact that our daughter is part demon did save the world just a few days ago—though that little tidbit didn’t even make the local news. Not like that’s a shock; preventing the apocalypse hardly ever makes CNN.
But none of that changes the fact that something demonic lives inside my strong, beautiful, snarky daughter. Not just lives—is. She’s not possessed. She’s not playing host. That darkness is part of her. That yearning for power and mayhem. That fundamental, hard, cold evil.
I’ve never seen it in her. It’s never come out.
But I know it’s there, and that simple reality scares me to death.
Because how do I protect her from something hidden deep inside her?
My name is Kate Connor and I’m a Level Five Demon Hunter.
And right now, my biggest fear is that someday the demon in my daughter will burst forth, and that will be the end of everything. Because even if it meant the apocalypse, how in hell could I kill my child?
CHAPTER 2
“So the kid’s got some evil inside her,” Eddie said, leaning back in the recliner he’d claimed as his own. He rubbed his stubbly gray beard and made a snorting noise. “Like that’s news? She’s fifteen. Whoever heard of a fifteen-year-old who wasn’t evil?”
“Um, hello?” Allie said. “Sitting right here! Andsonot evil!”
My daughter Allie, the subject of this particular conversation, glared at her great-grandfather. Or, rather, at the man she considered her great-grandfather. Like me, Eddie Lohmann had retired from the Demon-Hunting life. Also like me, he’d been pulled out of retirement and is now back in the thick of it.
I’m a Level Five Demon Hunter, which puts me out in the field. And although he’s not officially on theForza Scurapayroll, Eddie’s stepped up as myalimentatore,a sort of mentor-teacher-researcher-coach. And, in Eddie’s case, a sometime babysitter and all-time curmudgeon.
Forza Scurais the secret arm of the Vatican created thousands of years ago to train, educate, and organize hunters to fight the demons, vampires, zombies, and other creatures of hell who move secretly through our world. Demons are themost prevalent because they’re the ones who can look the most human because, well, they pretty mucharehuman.
The thing is, demons are all around us all the time, and I mean that literally. Walk through the world, and you’re walking through demons, albeit demons in another dimension. Those of us inForzacall it the ether, but it’s fair to say it’s a kind of limbo, and it’s where demons wait, lurking around for the chance to slide into a body that a human doesn’t need anymore.
Not that they can take over every dead body. There’s a very short window of opportunity, so the demon has to beright thereand ready, paying attention and on his toes.
But that’s not all. Even if the timing is right, the departing soul can still protect the body. It can fight, and most souls do. And the more faith that a person had in this life, the harder it is for the demon to battle its way inside.
Still, quite a few demons make it, and you hear about it every day. A heart attack victim miraculously revived? A drowned swimmer brought back to life? Maybe that’s just exceptional work by the EMS folks, but I usually assume demon. Call me a pessimist, but I figure it’s better safe than sorry.
Once a demon is inside a body it could simply stay there for as long as the body lasts, living out its life as a super-strong human. Most don’t, though. They’re demons, after all, and that means they want to get out and do a little damage. Shake things up and go all evil on the world. Also, most tend to be minions, doing the work of High Demons who have a Serious Agenda. Like, oh, bringing about the end of the world as we know it.
Those demons are easy for a Hunter to spot.
But the others? Well, they manage to blend in. Some slide into regular jobs. They’re demons, yes. They’re evil, absolutely. But they also just want to be human. I’ve known demons who ran convenience stores and strip clubs and telemarketing farms.Usually their true nature gets the better of them after a while, but the point is, they’re out there.
And now I can’t help but think that Allie has something in common with them.
The thought isn’t a happy one.
“—just like Father Donnelly said. Right, Kate?”
Eliza’s voice pulled me from my reverie. “I’m sorry. What?”
