Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(21)

“I’m not sure I want to know,” Lukas said, sinking back onto the couch. He ran a hand over his face and sighed. The poor guy was having a rough few days. “They’ll be looking for you. They need you to keep their freedom. There’s nothing they won’t do to break their tie to the box.”

“They’ll have to find me first.”

Mom was pale, and I could see the worry in her eyes, but she was a tough cookie. A woman used to kicking ass and taking names. A little thing like this wouldn’t slow her down. “This changes things,” she said with a quick glance in Lukas’ direction. He met her gaze for a moment before she turned away.

“Changes…?” And then I understood. Dad was the bastard that opened the box. The one we’d planned on switching Lukas with. “Craps,” I spat.

On the couch, Lukas remained silent and unsurprised. He’d figured it out before I did.

Dad leaned against the wall next to Mom’s desk. “Fill me in.”

“Lukas was human—trapped in the box,” I said.

Dad narrowed his eyes. “Human? How is that possible?”

“A witch,” Mom supplied with a frown. She moved around to the other side of the desk and settled into her chair. “And as you know, something done in blood cannot be undone without the same.”

“Ah.” Dad nodded. “Never been a fan of witches.”

“We were planning to transfer the sin to whoever opened the box…”

“I see.” Dad turned to Lukas. “You’ve found a descendant then, I take it? Of the one who trapped you?”

“We were searching for one,” Lukas said. “We’ve had no luck.”

“And this descendant you’re looking for can remove the Sin?”

“I believe so, yes. It’s how I became infected. By magic.”

Dad didn’t look convinced. “But you need someone to transfer the sin to. Is that correct?”

And this is where the problem was. Assuming we could find a Wells witch, we were now short one bad guy. “What about another demon? We bust bad ones all the time. Could we just—I dunno—pick a bad one and transfer the sin to them? Problem solved.”

Mom rolled her eyes, and Dad actually looked annoyed. He fixed his gaze on me, and in that moment, I was almost glad he’d been absent during my early years. The parental stare of death would have been hell coming from him. “Even if it were possible—which it’s not—I wouldn’t condemn one of my kind to that.”

Oops. No wonder Dad was mad. All demons came from the Shadow Realm and most were, in some small way, related. Technically, when we sent a demon back, there was a good chance we were deporting a relative of his—and mine. A distant relative, but still. We shared some small amount of blood.

“What do you mean, if it were even possible?” Mom asked.

I couldn’t help staring at them—my parents. Mom in the chair, and Dad standing beside her; they looked like the perfect couple. So normal… It was hard sometimes for me to remember they weren’t normal. Mom being human and Dad, well, not. Demons could look normal when it suited them, but you could spot them if you knew what to look for.

From the time I could talk, Mom taught me how to pick them out in a crowd. There was always a slight difference in eye color—usually too bright or too dark. Height was another indicator. Demons tended to be a bit taller than normal humans and had long, unusually slender fingers.

But the real way to sniff out a demon—the foolproof way, as Mom would say—was to pay attention to mannerisms. The devil really was in the details. Contrary to TV and movies, I’d never come across a volatile demon. They really didn’t go around wreaking random havoc—not unless it suited their plans. Demons were actually a pretty mellow bunch. Always observing. Waiting for their in. They didn’t talk much and never blinked—if a demon was looking at you, you knew it.

“The Seven Deadly Sins are the core demons. Ancient and powerful. You can’t transfer one demon essence to another. It won’t work.”

Hell. That meant the original plan was out. We couldn’t just grab an innocent person off the streets. And if demons were immune, we were going to have to find an alternative. Fast. Today had obviously been a waste. Sure, Mom found the person who opened the box, but I didn’t see her toting any Sins along when she and Dad came through the door.

I glanced over at the clock on Mom’s desk. After five already. That pretty much only left three full days and change to find six Sins and hopefully track down a Wells descendant.

Lukas stood. He was trying to be discreet, but I could see him glaring at Dad out of the corner of his eye. Dad, in turn, hadn’t taken his eye off Lukas. “I think I’d like to get some air, if you don’t mind.”

Mom must have noticed the tension between them, too. Always eager to diffuse a bad situation before it got started, she waved toward the back door and said, “Of course. If we need you, we’ll call.”

As soon as he was through the door, I turned to Mom. “Okay. Options?”

She shook her head. “Realistically? I don’t know that there are any.”

I stared. “So you’re giving up? Miss, I’m a woman of my word even if it kills me? You promised him you’d help.”

She turned to Dad. A look passed between them and I’ll admit it, I was a little jealous. Not only of her time spent with him before I was born—which was crazy, of course—but of the fact that she had someone who so clearly understood her as well as I did. “I know—and I shouldn’t have. Even if it hadn’t been your father, I don’t know if I could have condemned someone else to Lukas’ fate.”