Demon Ex Machina: Tales of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom Read Free Page A

I approached Stuart, my muscles tense, my senses hyperalert.
    What is it? Stuart mouthed. I shook my head and held up my hand, palm flat, hoping to silently indicate that not only did I not know, but he needed to stay put while I figured it out.
    I signaled again to Allie, and she correctly interpreted my hand flapping as orders to get closer to Stuart. I wasn’t sure how keen Stuart would be on the concept of a fourteen-year-old girl helping to protect him, but right then I wasn’t inclined to tread daintily on his masculine ego. To Allie’s credit, she got right next to him and took his hand, as if to suggest that he was the one protecting her.
    As for me, I moved slowly and silently out of the circle of light. I considered moving them to the dark as well, but decided against it. I’d rather be able to see them and know they were safe. In the shadows, anything could happen. A fact of which I was only too aware as I moved through the dark. The night seemed to close in on me, and I shivered, unable to shake the feeling that something was out there. Something other than us. Something watching.
    Something waiting.
    But waiting for what, I didn’t know.
    A thick layer of clouds hid a crescent moon, reducing the ambient light to next to nothing. I could barely see my hand in front of my face, and if a demon were crouched in waiting, it was quite likely he’d see me before I’d see him.
    And that realization was my cue to get my family the hell out of there.
    I stepped around a tall monument, planning to call to Stuart and Allie. I never got the words out, though, because of the sharp crack of a twig somewhere from the dark in front of Stuart.
    I saw him tense and reach out, his hand going for the knife at Allie’s back even as the figure appeared in front of him, just outside the circumference of light.
    Stuart snatched the knife, then hauled back, taking aim even as I raced forward, a sharp cry of “No!” bursting from my lungs as I recognized the apparition for what it really was.
    But it was too late. And all I could do was stand there as the lethal blade flew straight for Eddie’s heart.

Two
    Allie’s scream joined mine , and I heard Stuart’s sharp intake of breath even as the knife whipped, blade over hilt, toward the retired Demon Hunter.
    I watched, helpless, as Eddie thrust his arm up in an effort to deflect the impact. But while he still had it going on at eighty-something, those reflexes weren’t what they used to be, and he missed the knife by a solid two inches, then stumbled back as it connected—hard—with his chest.
    “No!” Allie shouted, racing toward him with me right behind her. Stuart stood frozen, his eyes wide, his hand held in front of him as if it were something contaminated that he’d never seen before.
    “ Goddamn , that smarts.” The voice, slightly irritated, came from the prone figure of Eddie on the ground, and those curmudgeonly tones danced on my ears like bells tolling my relief.
    Allie skidded to a stop at his side, then helped him up, his Oscar the Grouch face more grumpy than usual, though I supposed that was to be expected. He grunted, coughed, and proceeded to rub his head with gusto while Allie made soft noises, as if she were trying to calm an angry dog.
    Dressed in black jeans, a black turtleneck, and a black knit cap, Eddie was the very picture of an octogenarian grave robber, and despite the circumstances, I couldn’t help my smile. He aimed a gimlet eye at Stuart. “You trying to get your guest room back by offing me, pansy boy?”
    “I didn’t mean—” Stuart began, the fact that he was overlooking the “pansy” part of the equation underscoring exactly how freaked out he was.
    Eddie, however, only chuckled. “Guess I’ll have to quit calling you that, huh?” He rubbed his chest. “Got something of an arm on you there, slugger. Just gotta learn to hit ’em with the blade, not the hilt.”
    “It’s from lifting all those pansy-ass legal tomes,”