“Of course not,” I snapped. “None whatsoever.”
Eric rolled his eyes.
“What?” I demanded.
“You make a big production to explain exactly why it makes sense that Stuart is concerned, then you get snippy with me when I suggest that you might be concerned?”
“Our daughter is not a demon. I’m just trying to think logically.”
Eric’s mouth twitched at the corner. “Don’t do that, Katie-kins. It doesn’t suit you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Back to my original question—why weren’t you at Mass?”
“Something came up,” he said.
“Something demonic?” I asked, right as the front door opened again, and a burly man pushing a dolly stacked with boxes entered.
The burly man stopped short. “Demonic?”
“You must’ve misunderstood. I said demo. As in, we’ve been demo’ing this place.” Who knew that lying so easily would be one of my most valuable tools as a Demon Hunter?
He glanced around. “Yeah. Can see that.”
I signed his clip-board without reading, hoping I hadn’t just sold him the house, then pointed to a free corner, hoping this was the last company scheduled to come by.
“Attacked,” Eric said, not even missing a beat once the guy was out of earshot.
“Wait, you’re telling me the demons attacked you? On the beach they were calling you Sire.”
“I know. Demons are tricky little devils.”
I snorted. “I think they just have bad leadership. Somebody’s not telling the right hand what the left hand is doing.”
“I don’t know,” he said, his tone turning more serious, “but I wasn’t thrilled to be jumped as I walked from my garage to my apartment. I don’t have room for another body in my trunk, Kate. Not until I can make a run to the school.”
“Not even one? What am I supposed to do with it? Put it in the back of the van and take it where?”
His entire body seemed to slump as he exhaled. “Is it a big guy?”
“Skinny.”
“All right. I suppose I can cram him in.” He didn’t sound thrilled, but I wasn’t about to argue.
As we started up the stairs, he gave me the rest of the story. “I had a dream,” he said. “A dream about Lilith.”
“What about Lilith?” We’d reached the double doors, and I nodded indicating that the girls were inside.
“I’ll tell you later.”
Since it didn’t seem urgent, I pushed the doors open, and we both watched as the girls practice sparring. They were doing well, and I was proud of Mindy who’d been making steady progress. But Allie’s skills had increased exponentially.
She moved with speed and form that she hadn’t had before we went to Rome, but I knew that her new expertise wasn’t the result of training with Marcus in the bowels of the Vatican.
Like it or not, I had to admit that something had happened to my daughter. Something that changed her. But whether that change was for good or for ill, I couldn’t know for certain. All I could do was go with my gut and, like Father Corletti had said, have faith that my daughter was fundamentally good. That any skills or powers she now possessed had been given to her so that she could battle the demonic forces that wanted to wreak havoc in our world.
Not—please, God, not—so that she could rally those demons herself.
“They really are doing great,” Eric said next to me.
