Grave Mistakes (Hellgate Guardians #1)(35)

The demons are still looking at me with glittering amusement, and I lift my chin, eyeing them haughtily. “I fail to see what’s so damn funny about this. You trick me into working for you, tell me I’m a powerful demon, don’t even come after me when I run away, and now you think it’s hilarious that I was attacked?”

“We did not trick you into working for us,” Crux argues as he bites back a laugh.

“You did so!” I retort, sounding a bit like a kid arguing on the playground.

“How?”

Is this beach-bum-looking demon for real? “Umm, hello? You put a damn ad online for a security position at a graveyard. I’m pretty sure it didn’t say anything about Hellgates and demon attacks!” I say, somewhat frantically.

“Well, technically it is a security position, and besides, every other demon would’ve known what it was for,” Echo puts in, his pale finger tracing over the rim of his glass as his black eyes watch me with mirth. “You have grass in your hair,” he adds, and I have to curl my hands into fists to keep from launching at him.

“Well, I don’t want this. So whatever you did to me that forces me to see demons now, turn it the fuck off, okay? I have a whole new appreciation for the expression ‘ignorance is bliss.’”

The room is quiet for a moment as they share another look. I’m getting real tired of those looks.

“Um. We can’t turn it off...we didn’t do anything to turn it on,” Echo states.

“Yet...” Crux adds, his smile salacious and his green eyes twinkling with sinful promises.

I give him a look that says fuck off with the flirting. He just smiles even wider.

“How is it that she’s never seen demons before?” Jerif muses behind me, while looking to the others.

Iceman shrugs. “I’m not sure. Something must have activated her demon blood, but I’ve no idea how any abilities would have been blocked in the first place.”

“Well, deactivate it or reblock me or do whatever you need to do, because I can’t go on living like this!”

“You’re right about that,” Echo says. “You’re going to have to stay here.”

I rear back. “Excuse me?”

“Echo,” Iceman chastises. I still can’t completely commit to calling him by his actual name—Rafferty. He’s just so...blue. Iceman makes more sense.

I shake my head, feeling like the walls are starting to close in on me a bit. “Look, something obviously happened when I came here to work. I’ve never seen anything that wasn’t human until the night I stumbled into all of you. Now I’m getting attacked, and I’m afraid to look too closely at anything, so just reverse whatever you did so I can go home and pretend none of this ever happened. Please.”

“We didn’t do anything to you,” Jerif tells me, his frustration clear as he swipes a hand through his hair.

“Bullshit,” I argue, feeling more and more tightly strung by the second, like I’m going to snap at any moment. “Don’t lie,” I seethe as I jump to my feet and stare Jerif down. “Just fix it!”

“Whoa,” Crux says, standing up and thrusting his arm between me and Jerif. “Let’s calm down and not anger the Duo demon, alright?” I ignore him, staring daggers at the orange-eyed demon like this is all his fault.

“Delta, we have no idea why you can suddenly see us,” Iceman cuts in across the table, trying to draw my attention over to his blue face. “But it wasn’t anything that we did, I swear that on the Morning Star’s wings. Maybe something happened during your interview or your first night in the graveyard that activated your demon blood? Perhaps you were blocked before, somehow, and that block stopped working for some reason?”

I open my mouth to argue and then promptly shut it. Did something happen during the interview or the graveyard?

“Were the people at the interview humans or demons?” I ask as I sift through the memories.

“Demons,” Jerif answers evenly.

“Demons that look like Crux or demons that look like the freaky green men who attacked me?” I press.

“Ms. Atwood has three eyes. If you didn’t see them and the two rows of razor-sharp teeth when you met her, then you weren’t seeing through her wards,” Echo explains.

I think back to her model good looks and white gleaming smile. “Yeah, no shark teeth in my interactions with her.” Thank fuck.

“Anything unusual happen after you were hired?” Crux inquires.

“No. I gave notice at my work. Bought some stuff to fix my house. Came here a couple of days later. Got bitched out by your snooty butler. Found the groundskeeper building and the awful uniform waiting for me. Almost got brained by your scythe. Opened the graveyard gates, got a splinter that hurt like a bitch…”

“Wait,” Jerif interrupts. “Our scythe? What does that mean?”

I look at him confused. “It came with the uniform,” I point out.

“We didn’t give you that scythe. We thought it was yours,” Iceman declares.

I look at him like he’s lost it. “What part about I’m a human, don’t see demons on the regular, and most definitely wouldn’t be carrying around a scythe for the fun of it don’t you understand?” I ask him incredulously.