Still of Night (Thorne Hill 4)

“But Hell has a king, bitch,” I say and hear a dog barking in the distance. Holy hell.

Scarlet.

The demon ignores the barking and looks down on me. “What do you know about the King of Hell?”

“I know he does a better job ruling than you ever would.” I have no idea if that’s true, but I need to buy some time. “And I know he’s prepared for a rebellion. He’s probably laughing at you right now.”

Scarlet, still in puppy form, comes running into the barn. The demon scoffs at her and kicks her hard, sending her flying across the room. Scarlet lands with a pitiful whelp that makes my stomach hurt.

I slowly inch back toward her, watching the pathetic puppy limp over to me.

“You know nothing about Lucifer Morningstar.”

“Wanna bet?” My fingers slip through Scarlet’s fur. The demon raises her hands, summoning up power.

“Why not?”

I feebly reach for the collar again and get my fingers on the latch. “He’s my uncle. And family has each other’s backs.” The collar falls off and Scarlet turns from cute fluffy puppy to a terrifying hellhound.

And now I know why Lucifer sent her to me. He said he knew a rebellion was brewing but there was nothing he could do about it.

“Get the demon, girl,” I say and Scarlet lunges forward, mouth opening and clamping around the demon’s face. She falls back, and her grip on my familiars is broken. Binx shadows forward, crushing the bones in the demon’s chest. Freya and Pandora help me up, and I crawl over to the demon.

Scarlet pins her to the ground. I put my hands on her head. “Daemonium mori!” Blue light pours through me, burning the demon from the inside out. “Daemonium mori!” I shout again, and hellfire erupts before me. We all jump back, watching the demon burn to nothing.

“Holy shit,” I pant, falling back. Scarlet comes over, and nudges me, licking my face. “Gross,” I say, wiping away slobber.

“The police are coming,” Binx says, voice echoing through the barn.

“You…you guys go. I’ve got this.”

I’m sitting on the hood of a police car, trying hard not to fall asleep. I have to answer a few more questions and then someone will take me home. Officer Maxwell comes over—finally—with a notebook in hand.

“I know how this is going to sound, Ms. Martin, but for my records can you please confirm or deny Danielle Johnson’s statement that you and a small army of cats apprehended the suspect?”

That’s exactly what happened. “Deny.”

“And can you confirm or deny the statement that you, quote, beat the ever-living crap out of the suspect with voodoo mind powers, unquote?”

It’s witchcraft, not voodoo. “Deny.”

The officer lowers his notebook, thinking this is too ridiculous to take seriously.

“Last one. Did your eyes glow blue?”

Shit, they saw that? I shake my head. “I have green eyes.”

“That’s what I thought, thank you, ma’am. Now, do you feel like you need medical attention?”

“No,” I say and push up. “I just want to go home. I’m getting married tomorrow.”

“Oh.” His brows go up. “Congratulations.”

I give him a look and he smiles awkwardly. “Come on then, I’ll take you home. Is that your Jeep?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll have an officer drop it off this evening.” He opens the passenger side door of his police cruiser for me.

“Thank you.” I get in and he starts the engine.

“You’re lucky your friend knew to track your phone,” he says and turns down his police radio. That’s the story Betty ended up giving the police. After not being able to get a hold of Kristy, she drove out to the location I’d circled on the map, saw my Jeep, and drove away to find cell service so she could call the police.

“Yeah, and everyone says Find My Friends is creepy.”

“It kind of is,” he says. “But it saved your life. And the lives of several others.” He glances at me, and I know he’s thinking about how none of this adds up. How a girl like me was able to defeat a serial killer, getting out with only a few minor cuts and bruises.

I’ll send Lucas to alter the memories of the entire police station if I have to. But right now…right now I just want to sleep. I fight against it the entire way home, afraid he’ll take me to the hospital if I pass out.

“Thanks again,” I say when we get to my driveway. I don’t want him to walk me up. I just want to get in the house. “My Jeep will be here soon?”

“Sometime tonight.”

I already gave him the keys when I got my purse out to take home with me. I open the door, drawing in all the energy I can so I can make it into the house. I speed up the porch steps, vision spotting. The door flies open and Lucas pulls me in, getting burned from the sunlight.

He doesn’t care.

He just wraps me in his arms.

“Callie,” he breathes, holding me as if I am the only thing that matters in the world. “Are you okay?”

“I am. I got the demon.” I hold onto him to keep from falling. He kicks the door closed and scoops me up. “My familiars and Scarlet helped.”

“She was going crazy,” Lucas says. “So I let her out.”

“Thank you. He…he sent her for a reason. To help me defeat the demon.”

Lucas carries me upstairs and lays me down on the bed. He speeds away for just a second, returning with a damp rag. He carefully wipes the dried blood off my face.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks.

“Yeah. Lie down with me?”

“Are you sure?” Lucas looks me up and down. “You just fought a demon.”

“Two demons.”

“What?”

“Can we talk about it later?” My eyes flutter shut. “I just want to sleep off the rest of the drugs in my system. Because I’m going to marry the shit out of you tomorrow.”

29

“You’re lucky to have me.” Eliza reaches out and takes my hand in hers and carefully swipes a thin coat of pale pink polish over my nails. “I can do my best with those bruises, but I’m not sure if I can cover up that scratch on your face.”

“We can add a bit more healing balm,” Kristy suggests. She pulls my wedding dress out of the bag and hangs it up. It’s Saturday evening, and after spending the day at the spa with Eliza, I’m recharged and ready to get married.

“At this point I don’t even care,” I admit. “I’m here. Lucas is here. There’s a hellhound in my dressing room, but we’re all here.” I look up, carefully turning so I don’t risk moving my hand even a tenth of an inch or Eliza will yell at me.

“She’s so cute.” Abby tosses the squeaky potato and Scarlet takes off, scrambling after it.

“You would not be saying that if I took her collar off.”

“Does she look like Binx?”

“No. He’s a spirit, she’s…well, she’s a demon, I guess.”

“Who saved you by killing another demon?” Eliza looks up for half a second.

“Hey,” Kristy says, fluffing the skirt of my dress. “No demon talk. We are two hours away from the wedding. Happy thoughts only.”

I smile broadly, feeling my skin tug around the cut on my cheek.

Oh well. Really. I’m not going to get upset by a little scratch on my face.

Eliza finishes polishing my nails and then gets up, going into her room to get dressed and then to check on everything else. The sun has just set, and Kristy and Abby already went into the reception hall, making sure things were set up as they were supposed to be.

>

They took pictures and it’s gorgeous.

I hold my hands up in front of me, blowing on them so they dry. I’m not risking smudging the polish, though. I’ll give this a good ten minutes to dry.

I twist in my seat so I can see myself in the three-way mirror. I haven’t figured out a set way to do my hair, but it’s not really an issue. I point my finger at my head, magically pulling my hair into a low bun.

“Nope,” I say and shake my hair own. I try a fancy braid but don’t like it either. Abby watches, eyes wide, as I change up my hair with magic. Finally, I settled on a style that’s similar to what I wear most days, but with a bit pulled back. Kristy adds an antique hair pin, an Eliza comes back in to do my makeup.

An hour later, and I’m ready to go. I’ve never gotten dressed more carefully in my life, and both Eliza and my sister helped me step into my dress.

I haven’t seen Lucas since we arrived in Michigan last night. He texted me a few times, needing to make sure I was okay, but that’s the extent of our communication.

I’m dying to see him.

“Oh, Callie.” Abby looks at me with tears in her eyes. “You look beautiful.”

“She does,” Eliza agrees, looking as close to emotional as I’ll probably ever see her. “My maker does have good taste.”

I smile and look at myself in the mirror. I can’t believe we’re finally here. After everything we’ve been through, this day is finally happening.

“You have to stay here and be a good girl,” I tell Scarlet. “No barking and no ripping things up, okay?” I toss a handful of treats on the ground and look up to see Abby staring at me quizzically. Right. I speak angel-language when I talk to my hellhound.

“It’s a thing that happen. An, uh, angel thing.”

“Interesting.” She adjusts my necklace, centering it on my chest. “I’m going to make sure Penny is still semi-put together and then we’ll meet you outside for pictures.”

“Okay.”

Abby gives my hand a squeeze. “I love you, Cal.”

“I love you too.”

Eliza leaves the room first, making sure Lucas is actually in his room like he’s supposed to be. We both know he’s impatient when it comes to me, but I’m sticking to my guns about not wanting him to see me until I walk down the aisle.