Grave Mistakes (Hellgate Guardians #1)(25)

I could escape. I could tell the world what I know. I could go full Gaston and rouse the villagers and show back up here on their doorstep ready to pitchfork their asses. But as appealing as that all is, my thoughts of escape and whistleblowing have one fatal flaw...no one will believe me. I’ll be one of those kooks trying to convince everyone that I was abducted and anal-probed by the aliens.

Actually, worse, because my story isn’t even that interesting. I was scared in a graveyard, invited into the house where four guys told me they weren’t humans, and then I went unconscious. Definitely not headline news.

Just fucking great, Delta.

I drop my head into my hands and groan out my frustration. I knew this was all too good to be true, but I could have never seen the whole demon thing coming. I just figured I’d get here and it would be some fucked up telemarketing job that I just got tricked into doing.

“Get out of debt, fix my house, find a job I like. That was my to-do list. Not skip down

Mindfuck Lane with a bunch of hot demons,” I mumble as I try to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do now.

“So you think we’re hot?” a smooth voice asks me, and I scream at the unexpected invasion of it.

My eyes flare as I look up and see Echo stepping out of a shadow—and I don’t mean that he was casually leaning against a wall and reveals himself. I mean he literally steps out of a fucking shadow.

His dark tattoos swirl and move over his pale skin, settling again when I squint at them as he makes himself fully visible. The hair on my arms rises as I swallow hard, all doubts of him not being human flying out the window. He is completely otherworldly, there’s no more doubt about it.

“How the fuck did you do that?” I ask, but any response he offers is drowned out by the French doors slamming open and the three other demons tumbling into the room. The lanterns on the walls come to life, flooding the room with light.

“She’s awake,” Jerif says, sounding anything but excited about that fact.

“Are you okay?” Crux asks as he comes forward, walking behind Iceman.

Am I okay?

“Uhh. No, not even a little bit. You guys went full paranormal on me,” I tell them.

Iceman frowns. “Full...paranormal?”

“Yes!” I say with a huff. “You caught me off guard and then did some freaky shit to make me actually swoon. You made me go full Bella Swan when I’m a fucking Katniss Everdeen at heart,” I told them accusingly. “Not cool. I’m allowed to pause myself. You are not allowed to pause me, ever!” I add, staring at Iceman, because I need to drill that point home.

They just stare at me until Echo looks over at Iceman-Rafferty. “Did you mess up her brain? Because she’s just making up words now.”

Iceman just shrugs as if it’s a definite possibility. I look at him accusingly. “You can’t just knock someone out,” I say with anger.

“You were panicking. I didn’t want you to injure yourself.”

“Or the window,” Crux supplies with a grin.

I get unsteadily to my feet and shake my head, my overloaded brain still trying to process everything. “I need to know what the hell is going on,” I say before wincing at my choice of words.

Iceman gives me a placating look, probably because I look like I’m about to start panicking again, but I’m not. I’m surprisingly level-headed right now. A bomb was dropped at my feet, and maybe I’m not totally processing it and my brain just decided to go on survival mode, but whatever the hell happened, it seems I’ve put demons are real on a waffle, and I’m just smothering it with syrup, ready to swallow that fact whole.

“We should go talk in the office.”

I snort. That’s probably a code for let’s drag her to the pits of Hell. Not today, demons. Not today. I cross my arms in front of my chest and shift my weight, making the leather pants squeak embarrassingly loud, but I somehow hold my glower through the noise and pretend like it didn’t even happen. “No, thanks. Let’s talk here.”

Everyone glances back at Iceman, and he sighs. “Miss Gates, it was unfortunate that you learned about things this way, but we’re telling the truth. We’re demons. And so are you.”

My stomach churns, and I’m dangerously close to going into blink-mode again, but I shove it aside.

“You should’ve always known what you are, though,” he goes on. “Who are your parents?”

I point my scythe at him. “Don’t you dare drag my parents into this. They were fucking beautiful, gentle, good people. They were not demons, and neither am I.”

Iceman holds up his hands. “Okay, parents are off-limits. Understood.”

“But you are a demon,” Jerif tells me. “You wouldn’t be able to see us otherwise. Hell, you wouldn’t have even been able to get this job.”

My mind immediately flips to the Chucky bouncer dude who was standing guard outside the interview building. Is that what he was doing? Making sure only demons went inside?

I run a hand through my knotted hair, pulling on it slightly like I can yank some sanity out with the strands. “This can’t be fucking real.”

“It’s real,” Crux assures me. “But you know what else it is? It’s fucking awesome,” he says with obvious excitement glinting in his green eyes. “We can finally fix the Gate.”