Dumping Her Demon

After the demon of her dreams turns human to marry her, Demonology professor Sarah Prescott can’t go through with the wedding. She wants nothing to do with the boring, blond hunk who used to be Legion, Marquis of Hell. But when her best friend is murdered by a demon, Sarah has no choice but to ask her ex for help. She’s shocked to find Legion is once again the red-skinned hell spawn she fell for, and stunned to learn her friend’s murder is part of a demonic conspiracy to end the world. As she and Legion hunt the killer together, traveling to Hell and back, it’s easy to remember why she loved him. Can she rekindle the best relationship of her life and save the world from destruction at the same time?

Warning: This romantic comedy about fighting demons includes several bad puns, vivid descriptions of demonic attack, demonic cannibalism, and explosions. While all bedroom scenes take place behind closed doors, there are adult situations and mild curse words.

Dumping Her Demon is available from Amazon and included in the the Kindle Unlimited collection.

 

Curious? Enjoy a taste:

“Don’t you know not to sleep with the windows open?” A voice crackled, waking me up. For a minute it felt like a dream, but no, what I saw was real. My elderly neighbor folded herself, breaking bones and popping joints, to slither in through the open window over the kitchen sink.

“Maude?”

The thing laughed at me. Its mouth hinged open like a snake, with too many sharp teeth pointed in my direction.

It hissed as it jumped. “Time to die, little girl.”

I dove off the couch to the floor, but the demon was fast. Too fast, it was on me, biting at my leg as I tried to crawl away. I kicked hard, trying to hit it in the face. My foot slipped, and scrapped along sharp teeth. My blood in its mouth made the demon stop to lick its lips. I jerked back, scrambling toward the table.

“Gonna cut you, just like your friend,” it sang. I pulled myself to a standing position. I needed to think, to identify it. Black eyes, otherwise human, it was a….

“What are you?” I screamed. I’d studied demons for years but it didn’t make any sense.

It only laughed. Drawn up by some unseen force, not even bending its knees, it looked at me with a sick smile. It stood on the other side of the table, and I grabbed the back of the chair. Not much of a weapon, but at least it was something.

“Gonna drink your blood and eat your heart. Give your body to the dark lord.”

“Who?” I dodged a hand that struck out for my face. Some demons plucked the eyes out of their victims. It had the wrong mouth for that though. The hand reeled back in, then snapped back out. My head ducked down and I saw the Bible. I grabbed the holy book, letting it fall open, and waited. The next time the arm came forward I slammed it between the thin paper.

Nothing happened.

It used Maude’s voice, the old lady tone gone creepy, “Poor thing, guess you don’t have enough faith.”

It was right. I hadn’t been to church. I hadn’t prayed. With Minh’s death my faith took a blow. Crap. The demon’s other hand came forward and grabbed my chin.

“Gonna send you someplace where you don’t need to believe, you’ll see.”

I looked everywhere but at it, sure I didn’t want to see what came next. My eyes fell on the crucifix, without faith it was as useless to me as the Bible. Above it the ancient needle point sampler with faded colors told me, “God has faith in you.”

It was right. I grabbed for the crucifix and shoved it into the side of the demon’s face. The noxious smell of burning flesh filled the room as the thing screamed.

“It’s not the size of my faith that matters.” The power of righteousness filled me as it squirmed on the floor. This was why I studied demons, so I could feel this moment, so I could be smart enough to take them.

The crucifix and my hand flew to the wall at the same time, shoved by the demon who cackled from a mouth that still smoked. “Pride goeth before the fall.”

The thing lunged across the table, clearing the three-foot distance with no trouble. Its hands were tipped with talons, moving for my throat. It caught me off guard and had taken my only weapon. I tried to grab something, anything to fight back.

“Sarah? What the hell?” Lee stood in the doorway, his mouth hanging open.

The thing on top of me checked itself, crouched, then went after Lee. I ran out the back door, too panicked to think. I hid behind a tree, like an idiot, until I realized my other neighbor might be a demon, too. I slid around to face their front porch, trying to get a read on the shape that didn’t move. The breeze came up, bringing the smell of blood and loose bowels. I glanced inside, the old man was a corpse with a wet hollow where his chest had been.

Lee called for me from inside the cabin, but I stayed rooted to the ground. I didn’t want to see the dead body. I didn’t want to see any bodies, ever again. But Lee might be hurt. He could need me inside. I forced my feet to carry me to the cabin.

“Is it safe?” I asked one hand on the door knob.

“It’s safe,” he promised. I went inside where he stopped washing his hands and wiped them off on a kitchen towel. A greasy burned spot in the middle of the living room floor told me most of the story.

“What was it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” My voice went high-pitched and hysterical. “I don’t know what it was, and I’ve got a PhD in this stuff, if you don’t know what it was…oh my God, we can’t fight it if we don’t know what it is! We can’t—”

He grabbed my shoulders, holding me still. “It’s dead. Everything’s okay.”

“But you don’t know what it was,” I whined. I hated being this scared, hated not knowing what to do. It was like I was thirteen years old again, helpless and alone, looking at my grandparents’ bodies unable to do anything to make things better.

Lee squeezed my shoulders, pulling me out of the memory. “It moved like a lower order demon, but it didn’t respond when I talked to it. It was like it was only part of the way there.”

“It said it was going to kill me, going to drink my blood and eat my heart, oh my God.” Yep, definitely hysterical. But if Lee didn’t know what it was, I was entitled.

“Sarah, stop.” Lee pulled me even closer to him, letting me stare into those big black eyes. I should’ve looked into them and been afraid, the thing that came after me had the same eyes, but on Lee black eyes and red skin looked right. They looked like safety and someone I could trust. I kissed him, and would’ve kept on kissing but he moved his face back.

“We don’t do this anymore, remember?”

“Shut up, Lee.” I kissed him again. A few seconds later we were upstairs, naked, and I wasn’t afraid anymore.