Demons (Darkness #4)(33)

“But awesome,” the other twin joined in.

They bobbed their heads in excitement and shared a high-five.

The leader and the mousy lady were staring, wide-eyed, at Dominicous. The leader’s mouth dropped open.

And then things went pear-shaped.

“I’ll get him!” the mousy lady squeaked.

She bounced up with a quickness that made Charles chuckle, although he did not react. Pepper spray held high, Taser coming up to join, she yelled, “Don’t you come near us! Get out of here! We’re not defenseless.”

“There’s another one over—” the leader’s voice cut off in a moan.

“Don’t you make them all lovey!” I screamed at Jonas while putting my hands up in surrender. “Don’t you touch them, Jonas! You touch them and I will give you a seriously bad day.”

“Night,” Charles helped, a grin taking up his face as he watched the pepper spray draw near.

“What’s happening?” one of the twins said, glancing around. “Oh whoa, those guys are huge. Look like a football team. How long have they been here?”

“I am strangely aroused,” the leader said in a booming voice, her eyebrows in a flat line over her eyes. “I haven’t been turned on in ten years. What kind of strange voodoo have we wandered into? Who are you? What do you want?”

“Get out of here!” Mousy growled at us, arsenal held up in thin, shaking arms. Her teeth bared in a human snarl.

“She’s quite courageous,” Dominicous noted. “I wonder how they are able to see through our magic cloak now when they couldn’t a moment before.”

“What are you staring at, young man?” The leader struggled to her feet, grass and mud clinging to her ample rear. She punched her fists to her h*ps in disappointment as she faced off to Jonas. “I’m not afraid of you, so you can quit that unbecoming scowl!”

This was getting out of control.

“I just worked magic with them somehow, I think. Or around them, anyway,” I rattled off quickly to Dominicous as I stepped out, arms still raised to show I wasn’t dangerous.

Seeing me, Mousy’s expression waffled, confusion filtering in.

“Did you say you linked with them?” Dominicous asked in alarm, stepping forward with me, ready to shield my body from danger.

The finger on the pepper spray turned white. The arm started shaking violently. Not good.

“We are here for the same reasons you are,” I said to Mousy in a calm, although slightly harried, voice. “We unraveled that spell together. I have the same magic you do. I can help you. You can help me. Maybe. Hopefully. At the minimum, we can just hang out and magically hold hands. I’d be into that.”

“What’s that?” The leader waved her hand in front of her face. It looked like she was trying to clear a bad smell. Her gaze shifted away from Jonas and over to us. “Good heavens—what are you doing out here at this hour? And with these men? This is no place for you, young lady.”

“Well, we’re here…” one of the twins mentioned.

“Can we all just sit down a minute and have a chat?” I asked slowly. “We’ll just clear the air. I think that would be best.”

The leader walked directly across the circle. My heart started thumping. She knew it had been “cleansed.” That the nasty spell was dissolved away. She felt it.

My gaze slid to Dominicous. He winked. He’d noticed it, too.

“I’m Birdie.” The larger woman gave a head bob. Apparently that was her version of shaking hands. Her notice flicked toward the mousy woman. “This is—would you put those down, Delilah?! Have you noticed the size of the men standing here? The Taser would probably tickle them.”

“Nope,” Charles muttered behind me.

“As I said, this is Delilah,” Birdie went on. “She and I founded this circle about ten years ago. Three years ago, Jen and Liz joined up.”

“The circle?” Dominicous asked pleasantly. “Can you talk about that, please?”

“Oh sure, but maybe we can move this chat away from here,” Birdie said, looking around the area. Her gaze hit Jonas. A scowl creased her face. “The seclusion of this place attracts filth—keep frowning and your face will stay like that, you know.”

“It’s already locked on tight,” I said, trying to hide my smile from Jonas. And failing.

Ann snickered somewhere behind us.

“Let’s return to our vehicles, shall we?” Dominicous held his hand out to steer the group like any eighteenth-century gentleman would. “I am eager to return to the mansion. I think something pressing will need my attention.”

With a shock of fear that Dominicous knew something I didn’t, I focused on my link with Stefan. An undercurrent of sadness radiated. Sadness, and tinges of desperation. He was thinking of his parents—he only felt like this when the past reared its head and threatened to tear him down. Since the demon surfaced, he’d been struggling with this constantly. Something had triggered his memories, but overlaying that was determination and triumph. He was fighting through.

“I think you miss Toa more than he misses you,” I joked with Dominicous as he escorted me out of the trees. “He was never all jumpy to get back to you when we were on the Mata property.”