A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(19)

Not so much.

It let out a garbled roar and charged. I was no fool. I ran like my butt was on fire. Over the park bench and around the right side of the lake. Every few feet another black glob hit the ground, each time getting closer and closer to my sneakers. If it hit my bare skin, I’d be paralyzed. They were kind of like spiders. Incapacitate their prey, then suck out the gooey insides. I liked my insides just fine where they were.

“I’m coming, Jessie,” Lukas shouted. A second later, his footsteps pounded the earth behind me.

It was times like this that I was thankful Mom made me start running a mile a day. I raced across the field and rounded the lake to the left with the intention of circling back around to where I’d made the circle. It was a solid plan, but I didn’t make it.

Lukas let out another yell, and as I came around the last corner at the edge of the lake, I saw him leap. He crashed into the Dirt demon from behind, taking them both onto the grass. He had the open bottle of bleach in his hands.

Oops. I’d never explained what happened when these things came in contact with bleach. Lukas wrestled the thing for a second, gaining the upper hand, then raised the bottle.

“Don’t—”

Flipping it upside down, he jammed the nozzle into the demon’s mouth. The thing made a horrible sound and began to thrash. I tried to get away, but I was paying too much attention to Lukas and planted my foot directly into a puddle of mucus, sending me inelegantly to my knees.

“I got it!” Lukas exclaimed with pride as the thing stopped moving. He got to his feet, beaming, just as the body of the Dirt demon convulsed once, then exploded. A blast of fetid air blew through the clearing and gunk torpedoed me in the side of the face as a long piece of something—the demon’s arm—crashed into to my right. It was a damn good thing I had a strong stomach, or I’d be losing more than just cookies.

“Well,” I said, choking back a gag and flicking liquefied demon mush from my hands. The field was a mess, patches of Dirt demon scattered everywhere. Bits of it even made it into the trees to our right. “I guess that could have been a lot worse.”

Thankfully, Lukas shrugged off his slime-covered jacket and let it fall to the floor with a grimace before reaching out to help me up. “Do I dare ask how?”

I ignored the subtle increase of my pulse when our hands touched—he had a way of doing that to me by simply being near—and skimmed a chunk of goop from his chin. With a grin, I said, “I could have had my mouth open.”

He turned his back to me, ever the gentleman, and spit out a mouthful of demon guts. When he faced me again, his lips pulled downward at the corners. “That’s a very good point.”

I grabbed the empty bottle of bleach from the ground and started back to the tree where I’d dumped my bag. There wasn’t much we could do about the demon bits—they’d dry up and blow away in an hour anyway—but Mom would feed me to demon dogs if I left litter on the ground.

“Jessie,” Lukas called, following me across the field. I slowed my pace. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Talk?” I asked, nervous. Talking was never a good thing. When someone said they wanted to talk to you, it was usually followed by bad news. Or, in Mom’s case, a good ass chewing. I stuffed the empty bottle into my bag and zipped it closed. “If you’re gonna try to sell me a magazine subscription, save your breath.”

“Huh?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. What’s on your mind?”

“Elaine,” he said without hesitation.

Wow. My pulse spiked, and I wasn’t sure if it was relief or worry. Elaine/Lucy/pain-in-my-ass was really not a topic that needed discussion in my eyes. “Um, okay. Something you need to get off your chest?”

“Back in Town Hall, with Elaine, you seemed upset.”

“Having things thrown at me by a dead girl will do that,” I said wryly. I didn’t know what he was getting at, but my heart was thundering anyway.

“I just wanted to make sure you understood. About Elaine and me.”

“What’s there to understand?” Avoiding his gaze, I swung the bag over my shoulder and started toward the entrance of the park. “You guys used to be a thing.”

“Used to.” He grabbed my arm and dragged me backward, spinning me to face him.

“Well,” I said, shifting from foot to foot. “Obviously. I mean, if you were planning to dump me for her, you guys would have some awkward challenges to work through. I mean, think about how silly you would look kissing her in public. It would look like you were tonguing air.”

He took my hand and squeezed. “Elaine and I were close as children, and yes, we were courting. She would have made a fine wife.”

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “Not loving the direction this conversation is headed. Just so you know—”

“Let me finish.” He smiled. “She would have made a fine wife, but that’s not what I ever wanted. Not really.”

“So, you wanted a crappy wife?”

His grin widened and my pulse spiked. How could he do that with just a simple smile? Take me from the edge of despair to the threshold of giddy with a simple twist of his lips? “I wanted someone who would challenge me.”

I couldn’t stop my own grin. “What are you saying, Mr. Scott? That I’m difficult?”