“I have no idea.” Gram reached for the book again.
Zoe stopped her. “Don’t touch it.” Even closed, the volume glowed with an unholy fiery light. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
She’d no sooner said the words than there came a fierce pounding on the front door. She opened it a moment later to find a furious Damon, who looked ready to kill as he growled, “What did you do?”
“You gave us half an hour to get the cameras back up,” Zoe reminded him even as she backed away from his obvious fury. “According to my watch we still have five minutes left.”
“I’m not talking about the freaking cameras.” Damon’s voice was dangerously grim. “I’m talking about the demons.”
“Demons? What demons?”
“The ones that just appeared out of the blue in the tunnels.”
“I don’t know anything about any tunnels or demons.” Which was true, although her witch’s sixth sense was warning her that this could be a result of the dark magic they’d inadvertently experienced a few minutes ago by opening that mysterious book.
“Oh my stars,” Gram said as she joined them. “I sure hope it wasn’t something I did.”
Damon turned his attention to Gram. “What did you do?”
“Don’t yell at her,” Zoe said, rushing to her grandmother’s side and putting a protective arm around her.
“Maybe it was the book,” Gram whispered.
“What book? Show it to me,” Damon demanded. “Before I break my promise to Nick about killing witches.”
“It’s on my bed,” Gram said, heading down the hallway past the stairs to her bedroom.
Zoe bumped into Gram as she abruptly stopped, which made Damon bump into Zoe. He set her aside like a nuisance in his way. “Where is it?” He reached for their family Book of Spells but Zoe got there first and snatched it up to press it protectively against her chest—no easy feat, as the book was heavy and nearly a foot thick.
“No outsider is allowed to touch our family’s Book of Spells,” Zoe said. “It will burn your fingers off.”
Damon didn’t appear at all intimidated. “They’ll grow right back.”
“No, they won’t. Besides, this wasn’t the book Gram was talking about.”
“That’s right,” Gram said. “It was a spell book I didn’t recognize. But it’s not here where I left it. Maybe it fell off the bed.”
Zoe knelt down and looked under the bed. To her surprise, Damon instantly joined her on the floor. Both Morticia and Bella were under the bed, their fur standing on end.
“Demons,” Bella growled.
Damon reached for the cat, but the protection spell prevented him from touching her.
“What did your damn cat do?” he demanded.
“Not me. The book,” Bella said.
“Did someone come in here while we were in the other room and take the book?” Zoe asked Bella.
“It disappeared in a puff of smoke,” Bella said.
“Bring it back,” Damon ordered the cat.
“I didn’t take it.” Bella moved farther under the bed. “Demons.”
Damon hauled Zoe to her feet. “I don’t care if it was your possessed cat or you or your zany granny, but I want to see that book right now.”
“Trust me, I want to see it, too,” Zoe said.
“Trust you?” he scoffed. “Not in my immortal lifetime.”
“Listen, the feeling is mutual.”
“The difference is that I’m not the one who called forth a pack of demons.”
“All my grandmother did was open the book. She didn’t do anything else.” Zoe tried to wiggle free. “And neither did I.”
“Me neither,” Bella called out from under the bed.
Damon held Zoe in place, his hands sliding down from her shoulders to her arms, thereby shackling her. “We could have seen what happened here if you hadn’t messed with the surveillance cameras. But now there is no proof of what you did or did not do. How convenient for you.”
“This is not convenient at all,” she retorted.
“Damn right. Demons are not convenient. Do you know what they do? They possess humans and kill. They suck the brains out of witches.” He tapped his index finger against her temple.
“Actually I think sucking brains is a zombie thing, not a demon thing, but I could be wrong,” Gram said.
Seeing the look of fury growing in Damon’s eyes, Zoe said, “Gram, why don’t you wait for us in the hallway.”
“Stay where you are. Both of you,” Damon growled.
He made Zoe so nervous, her legs were shaking. She found the strength to pull away from him, but it took such effort that she ended up bouncing on the edge of the bed.
Damon towered over her but she didn’t have the strength yet to stand and confront him again.
Placing a hand on either side of her, he bent over until his mouth was mere centimeters from hers. “You have no idea what you are dealing with here, little witch.”
Staring him in the eye, she said, “I’m dealing with a pissed-off vampire falsely accusing me of calling forth demons.” She tried to shove him away. It was like trying to move a tank. She ducked under his arm and stomped to the other side of the room.
Okay, it was more like a scurry than a stomp, but at least she’d put some much-needed distance between them.
“Whatever happened, it was an accident,” she said.
“Fix it,” he ordered, stalking her as she moved around the room.
“We need the book to do that,” she told him.
“Find it.”
“I don’t even know who took it.”
“So you say. But maybe you have it stashed here in the house.”
He started dumping out the dresser drawers that Gram had filled with her unpacking spell earlier.
“You have no right—” Zoe said.
He cut her off. “I have every right. If you get in my way, you will both be banished from Vamptown immediately. Don’t bother calling Nick,” he said as Zoe reached for her smartphone. “He’s already agreed with me on this matter. And get these surveillance cameras working again,” he snapped as he dumped more belongings on the floor.
Looking nervous and remorseful, Gram said, “I’m working on it.”
“Work harder. Meanwhile tell me what this book looks like.”
“It’s beige calfskin with gilded edges along the pages. It’s not as thick as our family Book of Spells,” Gram said. “We only saw the outside of the book. Once we heard the howl, I snapped it shut again. I don’t know what’s inside.”
Without speaking, Damon moved on to the living room, which he ransacked with the same disrespect that he’d displayed in Gram’s room.
His search was meticulous. Beneath furniture, behind it, inside couch cushions.
He went through the kitchen with similar thoroughness. There wasn’t much to go through, as Gram hadn’t unpacked those boxes yet. Damon ripped them open with vamp speed, rummaging through them.
“Be careful. That belonged to my mother.” Zoe grabbed the ceramic soup tureen out of his hands.
He grabbed it back and tore the lid off to check it inside.
Finally satisfied that he’d covered the main floor, Damon announced, “The upstairs is next.”
