Excerpt from book 5 - Demon Born

Some of you have been asking about the 5th book in the Demonverse series, Demon Born. I thought I would post part of the first chapter for you here. It will have to be in 2 parts. This is part 2.

“I’m staying.” Lilly dug her heels in, her eyes flashing in determination as an old pickup truck pulled up to the curb and three young men in jeans, tee shirts and ball caps climbed out of the cab, their stance cocky and confident.

They set off my internal threat meter instantly. Okay, so most things did that these days. My time in Hell hadn’t helped my anxiety disorder. I watched as they swaggered toward us, taking note as their eyes shifted from side to side, checking to see if we were alone. We were, on the street at least. The scrabbly hedge guards were always there, hidden, silent and deadly, a security system not everyone knew about. We didn’t have to utilize them often, and I didn’t want to call them out of their hiding place today.

“Hey guys.” I stood in front of the table, stepping in between them and Lilly before they got any closer. “Are you hungry? Do you or your family need a bag of produce?”

“I’d rather have a beer.” One of the young men laughed as his two buddies came to stand on either side of me, both of them invading my personal space.

I felt around on the table behind me for something to hit them with if I had to. My fingers closed on a cabbage. Damn it. I needed harder vegetables. I locked eyes with the leader; of course he was wearing a W.O.H. hat. I just hadn’t noticed the logo before now. There were fewer We’re Only Humans left, their membership distrusting a vaccine made from demon blood. A lot of them had died for their political shortsightedness.

“Sorry.” I let go of the cabbage and crossed my arms, stroking Flame’s spiny head with my fingers. A wisp of smoke let me know my red Fire dragon was ready for whatever command I might care to give her. “No beer here.”

“Okay.” The leader shrugged indifferently. “But you got money. I can buy beer with money.”

“Do you see any money, asshat?” Lilly levered herself out of the chair to berate the leader of the trio, defiance and insults being her stock in trade. “Or are you too stupid to read the free food sign?” She waved an insolent hand at the sign my demon spawn had hand lettered and decorated with drawings of vegetables.

The leader’s two accomplices sauntered around the table to bracket her, their faces stretched with evil intent, reminding me of the Fallen who’d surrounded me in Beau’s back yard last year. I’d had to call my dragon for that confrontation too.

“I’ll bet you got money somewhere around here, sugar.” One of the two men held his hand out and rubbed his fingers together suggestively. “You gonna give it up, or do we have to search you for it?”

Oh. Hell. No. That was not happening on my watch. “That would be a really unwise choice on your part.” I stepped in between my daughter and the dead-man-walking. One warning was all they were going to get from me before I set Flame free to seek.

Lilly laughed at her potential assailants before I could call Flame to defend us. “You fuckers can all go to Hell.” She flipped them off with irreverent disregard to the consequences.

Crap. My demon spawn were going to be the death of me. Or themselves.

“Look around, girlfriend.” The leader spat back at her and shoved me out of the way, knocking me to the ground in his attempt to get reach Lilly. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re already in Hell.”

“Not yet.” A venom laced voice emerged from a black-edged glyph right before Daniel did. “But I’ll be glad to give you a preview.”

All three humans jumped back when the rest of the enraged former demon fully emerged from the ether. None of them were quick enough. Daniel grasped the closest two by the neck in an iron grip and bared his teeth at them, his eyes having turned to goat-slit red in an instant of defensive fury.

Yeah, they’d chosen unwisely, and I had a feeling they hadn’t seen the worst of it yet.

“Daniel.” A Darker, harder voice intervened, followed by a much bigger, daunting presence as the Demon Lord stepped through the glyph behind his former lieutenant. His black horns had grown and twisted to sharp, stabbing points, adding another eight inches to his already intimidating height. His eyes, sapphire when I saw them last, were back to a menacing goat-slit red now, and were trained on the three troublemakers. He snapped gunmetal gray leather wings open to their fullest and put one hand on Daniel’s closed fist. “Let them go if you want to remain in the human world to see your daughter born.”

It was a logical request. Daniel just didn’t look like he had a halo’s worth of logic left to him, his lips pulled back in an aggressive snarl. “They were going to hurt my wife.” He hissed, his fingers clenching involuntarily.

“Daniel.” Lilly’s voice cut through the former demon’s battle rage, her voice edged in the first sign of anxiety I’d seen in her throughout the entire altercation. “I think I might be going into labor.” She looked down as a puddle of liquid appeared at her feet, and soaked the front of her maternity dress.

“Get her to Raphael.” Maxiel ordered, momentarily forgetting that Daniel was no longer under his command. “Tell the Host that Sahara and I will be there shortly.”

Daniel released his captives an instant before Maxiel uttered a Dark word in the demon tongue and froze them in place. I waited, holding my breath until Daniel opened a glyph to the Garden’s entrance and whisked Lilly into it. I really wanted to follow her, but one look at the Demon Lord’s face told me I needed to stay here.

“Which one of you put your hands on my wife?” Max asked in a deceptively mild voice, looking from one nervous male face to another.

Two of the offenders pointed, giving the culprit up instantly. Maxiel brushed them aside with a casual wing swipe, immobilizing them again with a whispered guttural word. He took the guilty party’s hand in his, dwarfing it in his palm.

“Do you know how much pressure it takes to crush the bones in a human hand so that they’re pulverized to the consistency of…”

“Shit.” The perpetrator whimpered a curse as panic set in.

The new ruler of Purgatory shrugged one leathery wing. “I was going to say pudding, but shit works too.” He waited expectantly, his red eyes narrowing as no answer was forthcoming. “That was not a rhetorical question, human; do you know how much pressure it would take me to crush your hand?” He leaned down to look his captive in the eyes.

“N-n-n-no.” The suddenly repentant man whimpered.

A ruthless smile added another level of threat to the Demon Lord’s face. “I do.” Maxiel touched two fingers to suddenly black lips, uttered a word in demon speak and put them on the would-be mugger’s hand, leaving an ugly black mark on his skin. It looked like a tattoo, like the one Lucifer had once emblazoned on my thumb. This one was the letter D.

“What is that?” The newly tattooed man jumped back as Maxiel released him, shaking his hand as if hoping to dislodge the mark.

“You may think of it as a tracker. If you lift your hand in anger again, I will know, I will be displeased, and you will find out just how much pressure it takes to crush that hand.” Max waved his wing, releasing all three of the would-be robbers, watching without expression as they ran to their truck like the devil himself was chasing them.

He wasn’t. The de facto Ruler of Hell turned his attention to me. “I wasn’t going to hurt them, Sahara mine.” He assured me, reading my surface thoughts with as much accuracy as ever. “I was just putting the fear of…God, into them, since my Father is apparently busy at the moment with more pressing problems.” He held his arm out to me. “Shall we go see what they are?”

Yeah, Hell hadn’t done the Demon Lord’s mental health any good either.