“And a Demon Hunter like Damon?”
“No,” Tanya said. “No one is like Damon.”
Zoe’s curiosity was aroused. “What do you mean by that?”
“He’s special.”
“Because he hunts demons? What made him get into that line of work?”
“Why do you want to know?” Tanya asked suspiciously. “Because you’re a demon’s BFF? Is that why you unleashed them?”
“I didn’t even know demons existed until a few hours ago,” Zoe said.
“Then you’re the one who is stupid, not me.”
“Maybe I am,” Zoe muttered. She certainly didn’t feel like she’d made a brilliant move here. She for sure had not landed somewhere safe and secure. No way. Instead it felt like she’d left one bad situation back in Boston for another one here in Chicago’s Vamptown.
With her librarian background, Zoe was an excellent researcher. She should have learned more about their new location before moving. But there hadn’t been time. They’d had to leave in a hurry and this mess was the result.
Zoe didn’t like to hurry. She liked to be thorough and precise, although there had been times in her life when she’d taken a leap of faith. A very few times. And they’d all ended badly. Which should have been a warning about moving to Chicago.
But Zoe had thought she’d be leaving all that behind. Yes, she was still a witch. There was no leaving that behind. It was as much a part of her as her height or her long dark hair. Wait, she could cut her hair or dye it. But there was no changing the fact that she was a witch. She could change what she did with that ability, however.
The last time she’d taken a leap of faith, she’d hooked up with Tristin Winters. She’d fallen for him big time. As a professor specializing in the paranormal, he’d been comfortable in her world before he knew there was anything unusual about her, aside from her bicolored eyes.
He’d said he loved her. That she was the woman he’d been waiting for his entire life. Her mother, who’d still been alive when he’d proposed, had warned Zoe to take her time and not do anything rash like tell Tristin that she was a witch from a long line of witches.
No human was supposed to know.
But Zoe had trusted Tristin. She didn’t see how she could say yes to his proposal if he didn’t know the truth.
So she’d told him. He’d taken the news incredibly well. And he hadn’t made any demands on her. Not at first.
Tristin had been subtle at first. He’d been solicitous and sweet. Concerned and candid.
No one outside of her family and her coven knew Zoe was a witch. She’d never said a word to anyone else. It’s not like the admission was a great conversation starter. Besides, it broke the covenant of their coven to reveal to a human the fact that she was a witch.
Tristin got that. He understood her. Or so she’d thought.
He’d requested her help when there had been drastic cuts in funding for his department at the college. When he’d wanted her to help him in the stock market, he’d told her about his earlier trips to research the legends of Nepal and how he wanted to donate money to build schools there and help more of those in need.
She hadn’t agreed at first but had eventually taken another leap of faith and done it. A sign of how much she’d trusted him. That trust had been completely misplaced.
She didn’t learn that fact until her mother’s death. Even now, two years later, she missed her mother and felt the loss like a huge void within her. The dark side of magic had resulted in her mother dying and Zoe vowing she’d never use magic again.
Tristin’s compassion and understanding had only lasted a few days before he wanted her to cast another spell to increase his finances—for the greater good, he claimed. When she refused, he’d been furious and she’d broken their engagement.
Gram had stepped in and zapped Tristin with a memory spell to make him forget the fact that Zoe was a witch.
The entire experience had been a lesson very painfully learned. When their coven had eventually learned that Zoe had confided her secret to a human, they had been very angry with her. Zoe had been put on probation. Gram’s run-in with the motivational speaker had been the last straw as far as the coven was concerned. Like vampires, witches preferred to stay under the radar. The Adams witches currently had two strikes against them. A third could be disastrous. So they’d been sent away.
Not that there was any danger of history repeating itself. Zoe didn’t trust Damon at all. Besides, he already knew she was a witch. He clearly had a thing against her kind. But if he knew that she’d once trusted her deepest secret to a human, he would most likely accuse her of being willing to reveal the fact that she was living among vampires, insinuating that she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Which wasn’t true.
It belatedly occurred to Zoe that the surveillance cameras were working. “We’re being watched, aren’t we?”
Tanya looked around. “By the demons?”
Zoe pointed to the surveillance camera in the corner of the living room up near the crown molding.
Was Damon watching? Had he heard what she’d said about him? She tried to remember exactly what she had said.
“So tell me more about these demons you unleashed,” Tanya said.
“I didn’t unleash them.”
“Right. The story is that your grandmother unleashed them.”
“It’s not a story. Did Damon send you over here to interrogate me?” Zoe demanded.
“What if he did?”
“Then I’ll tell you the same thing I told him.”
“The same story you made up.”
“It’s not a story. It’s the truth.” The expression on Tanya’s face clearly indicated that she didn’t believe Zoe. “Why would I want demons hanging around?”
“Because you’re a witch.”
“And all witches call upon demons?”
“I don’t know. You’re the first witch I’ve ever met,” Tanya admitted.
“Then let me be the first to assure you that witches do not want demons around. Witches aren’t evil.”
Tanya just gave her a look.
“Okay, so maybe somewhere on the planet there are evil witches,” Zoe said. “But
“Now you sound like Daniella.”
“She’s not a witch,” Zoe said.
“I know that. But she plays the songs from that musical
“I met her. She seems very nice.”
“I’m the one who saved her, you know. When she was trapped down in the tunnels, I mean. I escaped and got help.”
“What do you know about the tunnels?” Zoe asked.
“That’s where the demons are right now. Bootleggers trying to smuggle alcohol during Prohibition built the tunnels. Not that I was alive during that time. I was turned in the ’50s. Not my fifties, obviously. I was turned at the peak of my beauty. You’re already past yours.”
“I’m only twenty-eight,” Zoe said.
“Yeah, but your eyes are different colors. That’s weird.”
“This coming from a vampire who runs a tanning salon,” Zoe retorted.
“I don’t run it, I own it.”
“Well, that’s an entirely different matter then,” Zoe said sarcastically.
“Right. I know. I’m a business owner. A member of the Vamptown Council,” Tanya bragged. “And the other
