Demon Trouble Too (Demon Guardian Series)

  DEMON TROUBLE TOO

  The Demon Guardian Series (Book 2)

  Terry Spear

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Terry Spear

  Demon Trouble Too

  Copyright © 2010 by Terry Spear

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by

  any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Discover more about Terry Spear at:

  http://www.terryspear.com/

  Also Available by Terry Spear:

  The World of Fae:

  The Dark Fae

  The Deadly Fae

  The Winged Fae

  The Ancient Fae

  Dragon Fae

  Hawk Fae, coming 2014

  The World of Elf:

  The Shadow Elf

  The Darkland Elf (TBA)

  Blood Moon Series:

  Kiss of the Vampire

  Demon Guardian Series:

  The Trouble with Demons

  Demon Trouble, Too

  Demon Hunter, coming 2014

  Non-Series for Now:

  Ghostly Liaisons

  The Beast Within

  Courtly Masquerade

  Deidre's Secret

  The Magic of Inherian:

  The Scepter of Salvation

  The Mage of Monrovia

  Emerald Isle of Mists (TBA)

  Dedication

  Dedicated to readers of urban fantasy who love the unusual—the underdog, the misaligned, the paranormal characters who are really the good guys.

  Blurb

  Alana Fainot is a demon gate guardian, stuck in her last boring year of school. But not for long. Hunter and the rest of the gang show up when her astral form can't return to her physical form, and she's at the police station trying to talk her way out of having seen the murderer of a summoner. Hunter always knew Alana was trouble, but his kind of trouble, and he's not leaving Alana alone again.

  Celeste Sweetwater, a new kind of demon, joins Hunter and Alana and the rest of the demon guardians in a fight to find a new kind of portal device that can summon several demons at once. But not only that, another Matusa has been unleashed on the unsuspecting human world and the demon guardians must stop him before he wreaks much more havoc.

  But this time, the police are involved, paranormal investigators pounce on the area, and the whole mess seems to be spiraling out of the demon guardians' control.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  Prologue

  The storms over Baltimore sucked every centimeter of light out of the sky. No starry bodies twinkling across an ebony velvet night. No glimpse of a moon, even the hint of a new moon’s shadowed existence. Only masses of black clouds blanketing the city, the air heavy with wet moisture, the threat of rain hanging gloomily all about her.

  In black jeans and the same colored sweatshirt and sneakers, Celeste ran toward the zoo, heard a lion roaring on the stiff wind, felt the stormy turbulence circling her. She had to get away from the man and woman and their bratty daughter whom she called… no, she didn’t call family. Some foster parents she’d heard were good, who would provide a loving home for children who needed them.

  She didn’t want the ones she’d been stuck with this time. They certainly didn’t need her. The fault was not all theirs, she had to admit. She’d always been difficult.

  She couldn’t help it. Seeing visions in her head of things to come made her too weird for them to handle. For any of the foster parents she’d lived with over the years since she was three, she’d found it was the same story. She wasn’t about to hide what she saw. Although her foster parents and the social workers who placed her in their homes insisted she not speak of what she envisioned.

  Why should she hide what haunted her in the form of nightmares and day terrors? Why should she have to hold it all in?

  Schizophrenia, paranoia, oh yeah, any neat term they could call it, that’s what doctors labeled her mental state, just because they couldn’t subscribe to the notion that psychics existed.

  But the visions had gotten worse and tonight, she wanted to run away from what she’d envisioned—a Matusa demon killing a human—and from the family who refused to believe she saw them. She wanted to get away from all of it as far as humanly possible. Yet how could she? When she wasn’t even human?

  She meant to run away from the visions, and yet as before, she was racing straight into the face of terror as if she had no power over her own feet. As soon as she reached the gates at the zoo, she saw blue-green lights spreading outward at the edges in a 3-dimensional sphere, expanding, more oblong than circular. Glittering in the Baltimore night, beckoning her, the portal willed her to find a way into the zoo and seek the light, as if she was dead and she needed to find peace in heaven.

  She knew to run far away and hide from the portal that had opened the thin fabric between the demon world of Seplichus and Earth world. Knew that one of the Dark Ones could be drawn forth as well as any number of different kinds of demons. But if it was a Dark One and he saw her standing there, he could even think she’d summoned him forth, and then she’d be dead. Maybe not immediately. Maybe he’d make her suffer first for having the audacity to call him forth to do her bidding.

  But then again, wouldn’t he realize she wasn’t human at all? That she had no way to summon a demon? At least she didn’t think she could. She had no interest in trying, either. Who knew what she’d pull out of the hat?

  Then again, she could hide her demon aura. And so she did.

  Since she had not opened the portal, someone else had, and he or she had to be nearby. If the summoner saw her transfixed to the spot, he might even think she was the demon he had summoned forth. The one he would think he could enslave.

  Which meant, she had to get away. So, why was she searching for a way into the zoo?

  Because, as long as she could remember, she was always trying to find a way to control the outcome of a vision. Not only that, she couldn’t quite decide what it was, but it was almost as if she was drawn to peril. She shook her head at the notion.

  She ran along the fence, attempting to locate a way in as if she was one of the caged animals desperately seeking a way out. Her brain screamed at her to fight the urge compelling her to head in this direction, but her heart—that was pounding out of control—didn’t want her to, either.

  For years, she’d been shuffled from one family to another after her summoner parents had been murdered by one of the Matusa demons, through their own folly. If they hadn’t brought him forth, they most likely would still be alive. She snorted. They’d wanted a baby brother for her. Bringing her over had been easy. Bringing him—a full grown Matusa—into this world had been a fatal mistake.

  She found a break in the fence—no, not a break, but a place where someone had physically cut through the chain link, which should have warned her away. She wriggled inside, then dashed back through the exhibits where she’d observed the portal. When she saw the shimmering lights, she came to a dead halt. If she hadn’t seen what had happened to her parents—or the ones who had made themselves her parents—she wouldn’t fear what she saw before her now.

  She was both terrified and mesmeriz
ed. How could part of her desire to step through the portal and see what the demon world looked like? When part of her knew better?

  She wasn’t of that world.

  She was different. Yes.

  But she hadn’t been raised there. Wouldn’t it be worse than moving from lush green Oregon, to the scrub brush strewn lands of western Oklahoma? And then to the city of Baltimore?

  Of course it would. Because demons ruled the world in Seplichus. And she wasn’t one of them.

  She wasn’t.

  How could she be? She hadn’t a clue as to what their world would be like. What their people were like. She wouldn’t be any more accepted there than she was here.

  She scoffed at herself as she walked toward the portal, knowing she shouldn’t take another step closer. Not one more step.

  That’s when the portal collapsed inward and a screech of shocking proportions ripped through the air.

  Shaken, her heart beating a million miles a minute, Celeste ran away from the disintegrating portal and the horror trapped within.

  Chapter 1

  Alana Fainot slumped at her desk in calculus class, Day One, hating that she had to be here when she was probably needed to save the world. Somewhere.

  Certainly, advanced math was not required in her line of work. Most of all, she hadn’t wanted to return to Baltimore to her old high school to complete her senior year. Her mother had insisted she leave her uncle’s home in Dallas to return to live with her. Normally, Alana would have been bemoaning the fact she had to stay with her neat-nic uncle for any length of time.

  Everything had changed once she had learned she was half Kubiteron demon, not just a witch, and that she had a mission—keep the demons from entering the world when a portal was called forth by some clueless human.

  She still wasn’t really fond of the idea that she had to guard the gates and send the demons back, particularly when the nasty-tempered Matusa entered. They were dangerous and most of the time deadly, and she really didn’t think she could deal with one strictly on her own.

  Which was another reason she hated returning to Baltimore.

  She’d had to leave Hunter behind. Half Matusa and half pain in the butt, he was a first class demon hunter. As much as she hated to admit that she needed anyone, she needed him. Well, his protection when it came to dealing with Matusa. Not that she couldn’t deal with them in part. But she really needed him at her side when she did. She tried to tell herself that was the only reason she couldn’t quit thinking about him.

  She couldn’t stop thinking about Jared, either. He was a lesser demon in the pecking order in the demon world, a full-blooded Elantus that were usually pretty good-natured. So she’d heard.

  Except when it came to her. She outranked him in demon order, but was a less powerful demon than Hunter. Every demon was less powerful than a Matusa.

  Jared still believed she’d be the death of Hunter, and so he’d held a major grudge against her. Although sometimes he riled Hunter by showing he really cared for Alana, more in a girlfriend/boyfriend way. Not that Alana was buying it, either. She figured it was more of a way of his causing trouble between her and Hunter.

  To her amusement, it did. Was Hunter jealous? Nah. He couldn’t be.

  The two of them weren’t the only reason she didn’t want to return to Baltimore though.

  She hated it here because she was the only witch in the whole school. Courtesy of being only half witch. Because she was also half demon. So, she really didn’t fit in. She hadn’t really been working on her witch’s spells like she should have been, either, resenting that she wasn’t all human. Until she discovered that that wasn’t the only problem she had. How many kids her age could claim half demon heritage? Two that she knew of. Hunter and her.

  Then she had the problem with being pulled to portals opening when humans, sometimes warlocks or witches, summoned demons into their world. She was drawn to them in a really weird way—teleported in mind, body, and soul, kind of. Yet, she wasn’t physically there. Except everyone saw her there. And she could even speak to them. Talk about weirding everybody out, including herself.

  Just chalk it up to being really bizarre. The good thing was no one could hurt her in her astral form. The bad part was that sometimes the demon came looking for her afterwards if she had witnessed something—like murder—that he didn’t want announced to the whole wide world. Not that she’d be dumb enough to tell the world that she’d witnessed a demon murder his summoner. How dumb did a Matusa think she could be?

  Oh, and yeah, then she had this other slight problem. All demons were attracted to the Kubiteron females. Like she had some kind of pheromones that called out to the male demons, saying, I’m interested if you are. Only she wasn’t. And it really ticked her off that she couldn’t control that aspect of herself.

  Which, in circumspect was probably another reason Jared sometimes acted as though he liked her. She had this automatic demon perfume designed to get their attention. Even if deep down, he didn’t want to have anything to do with her.

  But right now, she was stuck in calculus class. Not only had her mother insisted she leave her uncle’s home in Dallas, but he had also. She suspected he couldn’t deal with all the trouble she’d brought to his home. Demons were real. She was a bona fide half demon. Yep. She’d turned his whole world upside down. Since he was a high level warlock, not much did. In his methodical way, he was probably still trying to come to terms with it.

  So he insisted she return to live with her mother and finish her senior year at high school. What a waste of time. What was she going to do with learning calculus or chemistry? Not when she needed to improve her witch’s skills every waking hour and learn whatever other abilities her demon half could contribute to her guardian duties.

  She needed an arsenal of weapons if she was to make a stand against the Dark Ones when they left the demon world and came here.

  As soon as she took her seat, way in the back of the class, she felt the ghostly chill of the dead Matusa, Indigo, as he settled at the empty desk next to her. He gave her one of his cock-eyed evil smiles. She shook her head at him. He had promised not to bother her at school. She should have figured he’d lie. Matusa demon.

  She wondered how long he’d sit in class and behave himself. Not for long, she imagined.

  What really stoked her ire was when Ferengees Samson, though he insisted on being called Samson, walked into the class. His blond hair curled about his ears and his green eyes took in everything around him. As soon as he spied her, he headed for the desk next to hers. One thing about Samson, he had a nice round face that always made him look rather jovial. Or almost always jovial. She usually was too busy fighting a demon to know what his expression was when he was battling his own. Or he wasn’t quite all there. He had a peculiar way of turning into mist when a battle arose.

  Still, she stared at the Samuria demon in disbelief to see him here. She had warned him not to come to class. She didn’t want him saying something that couldn’t be easily explained since he was all demon and had never lived in the human world. Luckily, he looked like most anyone else in class, jeans, sneakers, well, except for the golfing shirt. He thought they were cool.

  Hunter had vehemently told him he wasn’t to hang around her any longer also. Not that Samson listened to Hunter all that much. And certainly now that Hunter was miles and miles away in Dallas, Samson really wasn’t listening to the Matusa. But even so, being a half Matusa, Hunter expected to be obeyed. They were the most evil and powerful of demons, after all. But his human half tempered his gruffer personality and his growl was often worse than his bite. At least with her. Most of the time.

  Samson believed he was to be her protector, paired with her for life because she was a gate guardian. She didn’t agree. Neither did Hunter.

  Jared, on the other hand, was all for it. Although she was often at odds with the electronic genius, a full-blooded Elantus demon, she missed him, too. Or maybe not him, exactly, but his laptop that warned
them when a demon was in the area. He was working on a demon tracker device that would be as small as a cell phone, easy to carry, and each of them could have one as an early warning system.

  As loyal as Jared was to Hunter for saving his life, Jared was making one of the trackers for him first. Then he’d make a portable one for himself. And lastly, for her. Samson wasn’t on the list of customers because Hunter wouldn’t let him be.

  Alana was a more powerful demon than Jared, she had reminded him. And she was a witch. To her way of thinking, she should get a device before he did. But he wasn’t listening to her. Particularly when he and Hunter were in Dallas and so far away. Otherwise, she figured she would have been able to browbeat one out of Jared after Hunter had his own.

  The teacher walked into class and began taking roll call. Alana must not have heard the bell ring, her thoughts still on Jared and his mini-demon tracker devices. Too bad he couldn’t sell the invention to a company that could mass market them. Then again, except for their little group of four demon hunters, she didn’t figure anyone else would have any use for them.

  Indigo was moving about the students seated in class, doing his ghostly best to freak them out as he sifted from desk to desk, chilling them with his presence. Thankfully, he wasn’t doing much more than that. Not until he saw Alana observing him, and then as if wanting to really show her what he could do, he smiled in his dark way and headed straight for the teacher.

  Oh… my… God… no!

  No one could see the ghostly entity like Alana could. Well, and like her mother could, ghost buster that she was. He was dark-haired, like most of the Matusa she’d encountered, except his hair was jet black. His hair was cropped short though, and he had the look of a biker dude—leather pants, leather jacket, black T-shirt, black boots. She hadn’t been able to see him before when he’d come to their aid, but she figured he’d become more comfortable with being around her. He had both the aura of a Matusa, which helped her to define what type of demon he was, and a ghostly silhouette that indicated he was not of this world.