Starfire (Grim Gate 2)

“Yeah,” I force out, telling myself to stay calm. “That’s so gross.”

Inhale and exhale.

My eyes flutter shut in a long blink. That wasn’t the work of a small dog and cat getting hungry and nibbling on their owner. No, it was the work of reapers, which means they’re nearby.

“They found the body this morning?”

“Yeah. Apparently the neighbor saw flies gathering.” She shudders. “I thought it was way too cold for flies.”

“It is outside.” I push my shoulders up in a shrug, needing to remind myself of one problem at a time. We need to focus on what’s important right now, and that’s on me not being pulled away from reality.

“Every spring, PV does a wine fest,” Rene starts and pulls her legs up under her body. “Different stores and restaurants rent space and set up venders. It’s super fun, I swear. The last three years, I’ve drank way too much and left after purchasing multiple bottles of wine.”

“That does sound fun.”

Rene shows me photos from the last few years, and we start planning for the booth her store wants to sponsor this coming spring. We go so far as to sketch it out, deciding for some reason to go with a unicorn theme. We’re both laughing hysterically when Rene’s phone rings. It’s her sister, and she answers, lips still curved up into a smile.

“Hey, Chelsea. What’s—oh my god.” She falls silent for a few seconds. “Yeah, okay…give me twenty and I’ll be there.” Hurriedly, she ends the call. “My sister caught our shoplifter,” she tells me. “This woman has been stealing for months and we finally got good enough video evidence plus her stealing red-handed. The police are on their way to the store. I need to go.”

“Oh my god. Yes…go! I’m glad she got caught.”

“Me too.” Rene stands and smoothes out her hair. “She’s taken over a thousand dollars or merchandise!”

“You should definitely press charges.”

“Oh, we plan to.” Rene takes a big drink of her water and I walk her to the door. “Sorry to bail like this.”

“Don’t be.”

She gives me a hug goodbye and says she’ll text me an update as soon as she has one. I close and lock the door behind her, and then go into the kitchen to start cleaning up. I don’t remember that I’m avoiding being alone until I press start on the dishwasher, and nearly as soon as the thought enters my mind, I start to feel paranoid.

“It’s in my fucking head,” I grumble, going back into the living room. Hunter stays close to my side, and really, he’s all I need to keep me from wondering away again. Besides, Ethan should be back soon, and all I’m going to do is snuggle under blankets and finish the movie we were watching…and not think about the reapers nearby at all.

Though the more I think about how normal things are, the more paranoid I feel. Only three minutes later, I’m reaching for my phone, unable to shake the feeling that I need to check on everyone in the barn. The surveillance footage takes a minute to load, and at first everything seems fine. I let out a breath of relief and go to set my phone down when I notice it—a dark figure scurry across the bottom of the screen.

I blink, thinking I have to be imagining this. But then the horses spook, clearly reacting to whatever I’m seeing. And if they see it, then it has to be real.

CHAPTER 24

Oh, shit.

I look at Hunter and nod. He takes off, shadowing through the house and into the barn. In a mad dash, I race upstairs to get the enchanted dagger, fingers shaking as I quickly feed a belt through the sheath and then buckle it around my waist, running back down to put on boots and my coat.

Then I run outside after Hunter. He’s right outside the barn and had a demon by the throat. He bites down, teeth crunching into its jugular. Blood spurts and the creature goes limp. But no sooner does the light leave its eyes does another come after us, and I recognize them as scrapper demons. They’re small and compact, looking like Gollum was exposed to a hell of a lot of radiation, and have long black claws, dark eyes, and snake-like fangs full of venom that can paralyze a grown man.

Their official name is tersus daemons and they’re technically some sort of gremlin, according the entry in my Book of Shadows, but a handwritten note explains that the demons are referred to as scrappers because they follow behind other demons, eating their leftovers, or scraps.

And the reapers are still near and are killing, so the scrappers are following. And like the reapers, one or two scrappers aren’t a big deal. Between Hunter and I, we’ll be able to easily—oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Another scrapper barrels toward me, mouth open in a hiss. Also like the reapers, they tend to travel in groups, ya know, because of the whole safety in numbers. They’re bottom barrel demons and aren’t the best fighters. Unlike the reapers, though, they’ll throw each other under the bus if it means living to see another day full of eating whatever other demons have leftover.