Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(20)

“Jessie, I’m on my way home,” Mom’s voice crackled on the other end. Stupid cell reception sucked in this area. The town had been fighting against getting an additional tower installed. Some crap about it being an eyesore.

“Perfect. Pick up a pizza or—”

“Jessie, listen to me carefully. I found the person the Sins are looking for. The one who opened the box.” On the other end, I heard Mom talking to someone. “Take the phone,” she said.

There was some shuffling and a slight pause. The person on the other end sucked in a deep breath. “Hello, Jessie.”

Two words. That’s all it took to tear my world down. And not so much the words as the voice behind them.

“…Dad?”





Chapter Nine




Ten minutes later, they breezed through the door casual as could be. Mom first, followed by a face I hadn’t seen in almost five years.

Still impossibly tall with dark, wavy hair, he stopped in the doorway and stared. New additions to his look included a closely clipped goatee, a silver earring, and a new tattoo snaking down his arm and around his right wrist. He hadn’t aged a day since I’d seen him last. It might have been due to the fact that I’d built him up in my memory. Constantly looking at old pictures to keep his face fresh in my mind.

Or it might have been the demon blood running through his veins.

I’d heard the story a thousand times. How my very human mom fell in love with my deadly demonic dad. They met when Mom was just sixteen. She was working with Grandpa at the agency, and the way she tells it, Dad sauntered in looking for help retrieving a powerful amulet. According to Mom, the sparks were instant. There was more to it than that, but I’d blocked it out. Mom and Dad smoochies were not a thought I cared to entertain.

Grandpa, of course, didn’t approve, but who could blame him? What father would want his daughter to hook up with one of the very things he’d spent his life battling? In the end, it hadn’t mattered. Mom was like me. Stubborn to the core. She loved my dad—demon or not—and refused to give him up.

I crossed the room and threw myself into his arms. He smelled the same way I remembered. Slightly spicy with the tiniest hint of sulfur.

“I’m sorry, Jessie.”

“It’s true? You’re the one who opened the box?”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, pushing me away. His eyes found Lukas, and the tone of his voice changed instantly. It was deeper and darker. Demonic. “Wrath.”

Lukas’ eyes widened, and he took an unsteady step back. “Please—for everyone’s sake, don’t come any closer. It’s very hard for me to control my anger and you—”

“Make it harder?”

“Yes.”

Dad advanced a few steps wearing a wicked smile. “I’m a demon. We do that.”

Shadow demons, like my dad, had strength and speed, but their big claim to fame was shadowing. It was their trademark move and made them excellent employees for higher ranking demons, put to work as assassins and thieves. They had the ability to blend in—to become one with the shadows—and travel between them. Virtually undetectable, my dad could take you out before you even knew he was there. I’d slept with my lights on for an entire year when I was six because of a story Dad told me detailing a job he’d done once. That had been the last time Mom let him pop in to put me to sleep.

“Stop.” I grabbed Dad’s arm and pulled back. It was like trying to move a mountain, well, up a mountain.

“There is a Sin in the room with my family.” His voice was calm, but I knew better. I hadn’t spent much time with my dad, but I knew that tone. I’d heard it a thousand times from a thousand different demons. Threatening. Dangerous. It was the last sound you heard just before your world went splat.

“There’s a Sin in the room because you opened the box,” I said calmly. Hah. Take that, logic.

He turned to me, expression softening. “I didn’t open the box on purpose.”

“So what happened exactly?”

“We got word it was stolen and about to change hands. Valefar, my boss, sent me to stop the trade. There was a woman—I didn’t see her face. I chased her for the box, easily overpowering her. Too easily.”

“Too easily?” Mom came up beside him and rested a hand against his shoulder.

Dad nodded. “She all but surrendered the box—and then she tripped me.”

“She tripped you? As far as attack methods go, that one is a little middle school if you ask me.”

Understanding creased Mom’s features. “She wanted you to open the box.”

Again, Dad nodded. “I believe so. I tried to stop it from opening, but it was too late.”

“Why would you want to stop the box from being opened?” Lukas asked. He was watching Dad from across the room with a mixture of fear and awe. “You’re an instrument of Satan. Bred to spread evil.”

We stared at him.

Dad scoffed, offended. Arms folded and nose turned up, he said, “Ignorant human. You are a perfect example of why your species is inferior.”

Mom cleared her throat, and Dad amended with a wink, “Most of the species.”

Lukas looked confused. I patted him on the shoulder and shook my head. His view might be a little archaic, but it really wasn’t any different from the rest of the world’s. “The whole heaven-hell-angel-demon thing? So not what you think. I’ll explain later.”