“I don’t get it,” Damon said. “Surely this isn’t the first time this guy has been insulted. Why is he making such a big deal about it?”
Bob pointed to Irma. “Bad things have been happening since she started the melee. For some reason, a number of followers have left.”
Damon gave Gram a suspicious look, but she shook her head in an indication that she wasn’t responsible.
“That’s the only bad thing?” Damon asked. “No unexplained sightings or strange events?”
Bob frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That’s a good thing,” Damon replied. “Consider yourself lucky. But since it appears that Irma is not ready to apologize at this point, it would probably be best if you left now.”
“This isn’t over,” Bob said as he and his mostly silent partner headed out. “You’ll be hearing from us again.”
Zoe took great pleasure in ducking out from Damon’s imprisoning arm and slamming the door after them.
Damon did not look amused. “Great. Not only do we have demons to deal with, now we have cult-following humans as well.”
“Powers is a motivational-guru con man, not a cult leader,” Zoe corrected him.
“Five minutes ago you wanted to kill them,” Damon reminded her.
“Because I thought they were demons.”
“Which is why you should leave the thinking to me,” Damon said. “At least where demons are concerned.”
“I thought we agreed that I could do research on the subject,” Zoe said.
“We agreed to no such thing,” Damon said.
“You don’t think there is a connection between Powers and the demons, do you?” Gram asked. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”
Nothing would surprise Zoe at this point. She turned to face Damon. “And what’s with you telling them that you think Gram is disturbed? Your comments were very insulting.”
“What? Now you’re going to take a page out of Powers’s book and demand an online apology from me? Not going to happen, little witch. We have more important things to talk about.” He fixed her with an intense stare Zoe could feel clear down to her toes. “I thought your grandmother was the one who started the stampede at their gathering.”
“That’s right.”
“Then why did they recognize you, Zoe?”
“How should I know what they were thinking?” she said. “They clearly weren’t acting logically.”
“Says the witch who called them demons.”
“That’s your fault,” Zoe told him.
“How do you figure that?” Damon said.
“You vaporize a demon cable guy in my living room and I get a little paranoid. I lost it.”
“We can’t afford to have you losing it. As far as we know, all the loose demons are now accounted for.”
“It’s that ‘as far as we know’ part that has me nervous.”
“I have a cure for your nerves,” Damon said. “Find the missing spell book.”
Three hours later, Zoe was still brooding over Damon’s words. She’d spent the intervening time doing additional research on her laptop and going through her family’s Book of Spells for any reference to demons. She was also trying to figure out the connection between her talismans and the witch Damon killed a hundred-plus years ago.
So far, all she’d learned was that there was a legendary Book of Darkness said to be able to release demons—but there was nothing beyond a brief mention; no actual sighting or description of it. She kept looking online.
Gram had retired to her bedroom to take a nap while Bella was curled up on a chair, sound asleep.
Which left Zoe basically alone with Damon, who kept looking over her shoulder at the screen of her laptop from time to time, driving her crazy.
“Don’t do that,” she said in exasperation.
“The Book of Darkness, huh? What do you know about that?”
“This is the only reference I’ve found.”
“Did you Google it?” he asked.
“No. I don’t want to get inundated with tons of weird occult spam. You Google it.”
“I already did.” He didn’t elaborate but did add, “I also Googled a photo of your talisman. Our tech vamp is going through the results.”
“What did they find out about the Book of Darkness?” Zoe asked.
“Nothing yet,” he admitted.
“I told you it was better to have a librarian doing the research.”
“Or maybe you knew exactly where to look for it because you owned the Book of Darkness, or your grandmother did.”
“We never saw it before,” Zoe said.
“Then why did you open it? Do you make a habit of opening strange spell books?”
“No, we don’t. It was a stressful day,” she said. “We’d just moved here and I’d just discovered vampires are my new neighbors.”
“Your grandmother knew Nick was a vampire. She’s known for years.”
“She didn’t tell me.”
“I wonder what else she hasn’t told you,” Damon said. “Or told me.”
“Gram isn’t like that.”
“Isn’t she? Come on, who are you kidding? She aggravated those humans enough that they came all the way from Boston to find you.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe they are local followers of Powers.”
“No, they are from Boston. They flew into O’Hare this morning and came straight here. Neville checked it out. He suspects they located you through your website.”
“Who is Neville?” Zoe said.
“Our top tech vamp.”
“My website doesn’t say where I live,” she pointed out.
“Maybe not, but your Facebook page for your business has the locator indicator turned on. Neville checked your laptop and found that someone hacked into the site to download a more specific GPS.”
Zoe slammed her laptop shut and set it on the coffee table. “Who hacked my computer?”
“We don’t know yet. Neville is still following that lead.”
“Wait a minute. When did Neville check my laptop? I didn’t give my permission for that.”
“We don’t need your permission,” Damon said. “I let you keep your laptop. I never said we wouldn’t check it out remotely.”
Zoe felt violated all over again, just as she had when Damon had torn through her stuff in her workroom. Her anger rose.
“Are you going to levitate again?” Damon mocked her.
She might not leave the ground but she was about to send some fiery words flying his way when she was distracted by the sound of moans coming through the floor vents in the living room. They weren’t happy having- really-awesome-sex moans. No, these were tortured sounds. “What is that?” she whispered.
“Demons!” Bella said as she streaked across the room and dove under the couch.
Zoe was tempted to join her. Not that she’d fit under the denim couch, but still … taking cover seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately she wasn’t sure where a safe hiding place could be found.
The noise was all around them and became deafening. Zoe put her hands over her ears in an attempt to shut it out.
