Vengeance of the Demon (Kara Gillian 7)

“Why not here? Who or what are you searching for?”

“It doesn’t matter now.” He glanced back, and I saw a flicker of fear in his eyes. “This is bigger than you. Bigger than me.”

Alarm shot through me. “The Mraztur?” Rhyzkahl, Amkir, Jesral, and Kadir—demonic lords who wanted unrestricted access to this world and didn’t care who got fucked over in the process. “Is one of them on Earth?”

Szerain barked out a laugh, short and humorless. “I’m not afraid of those assholes.” He reached his car and pulled the door open. “Stay low, Kara. Stay off the radar.”

“Gee, that’s so helpful,” I said with a sneer, but his alarm had me unsettled. “Give me a hint of what to watch out for?”

He dropped into the seat and shoved keys into the ignition. “I wish I could.” Before I managed to snap back at that lame response, his entire body jerked as if he’d seized a live wire. Fear spasmed across his face again. “I must go,” he gasped, then slammed the door and cranked the engine.

“Are you kidding me?” I yelled over the revving of the motor. “Goddammit, Szerain, I need to talk to you!”

But apparently he didn’t need to talk to me. Without another glance my way, he threw the car into reverse, sending gravel flying as he backed up, and forcing me to retreat or get nailed by the rocks. I extended my thumb and pinky in a mocking call me gesture as he turned and sped down the driveway, the

n I scooped up the biggest chunk of gravel within reach and hurled it at his cloud of dust. “You suck!”

Jill waddled out the front door and onto the porch. “You okay?”

“No!” I took a breath and mentally traced the pygah sigil to help me calm and center. “Yes,” I said with far less rage-face than before, “other than dealing with more demonic lord bullshit and having a billion unanswered questions.” I quickly thanked Eilahn for her help and ordered her back to her nest to recharge, then joined Jill on the porch. Her color was back, I noted with relief. “How about you? Everything all right?”

“I think so.” She rested one hand on her belly. “The bean went crazy when the grass went flat, then crazier after you yelled at Ryan to stop. Hurt like hell.”

When he ignited the rakkuhr. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to keep the frown off my face. “Different than normal?” I asked with polite interest and nothing more.

“More kicking and squirming than ever before, that’s for sure,” she said, nose wrinkling. “But since Zack’s been away recovering from the plantation stuff, there’ve been times when it’s felt as if she’s nothing but bony elbows and heels.”

“No need to worry,” I said with as straight a face as possible. “It’s just the wings and claws.”

“Don’t you dare tease me like that! I have ultrasounds that prove she’s free of wings or any other weird appendages.” Her smile eased into a frown. “Ryan was a dick, huh?”

“A-number-one,” I said with a scowl. “I got nothing from him except attitude and a vague generic warning to stay low. Whatever that means.”

“Maybe you need to stake out his office.”

“It might come to that if this crap goes on much longer.” I blew out a gusty breath. “I’m summoning Mzatal in a few days. If nothing shakes loose by then, I’ll see if he has any bright ideas.”

“If you two even bother with talking,” she said with a mischievous grin.

I forced a laugh. “We’ll manage to get a few words of conversation in between episodes of wild monkey sex.” Except that there probably wouldn’t be any wild monkey sex, not given his calculated emotional withdrawal. But no point in being mopey or making Jill feel bad for bringing it up.

Jill hooked her arm through mine. “If you’re really nice I’ll let you go to birthing class with me day after tomorrow.”

“Let me, huh?” I smiled. “I’m not so sure about this deal.” I’d go with her, of course. Though she hadn’t said so, I knew she was asking me because Zack wasn’t around.

“You’ll love it!” she said as we headed inside. “Multimedia and everything.”

“I don’t want to see everything.” Eilahn’s cat Fuzzykins curled around her litter of kittens at one end of the sofa, but I managed to get Jill settled on the other end with only a single warning hiss from the aggravating feline. “I want to see the bean when she arrives. After she’s all cleaned up and free of weird baby goo.”

“Pretty sure babies are never free of weird goo,” she said then sighed. “I wish we’d moved beyond ‘the bean’ as a name before Zack . . .” Her shoulders slumped.

Damn it, this was a sucky time for him to be an absentee dad. Despite Jill’s prodding, Zack had flat out refused to even toy with names, saying only that it was too soon to name her. We knew it was a “her” at least, but neither of us could get more than that out of Zack.

“We’ll show him,” I said. “By the time he gets home, we’ll have her name picked out. Juliana Sidney Faciane.”

Jill quirked a smile. “Yeah. Hannah Nicole Faciane.”

“Tabitha Angelina.”