Still amped up on the adrenaline from fighting with Damon, Zoe didn’t scream. So Damon thought she was a wimp, did he? She’d show him. Cool and collected, that was her. That wasn’t
“What are you looking at?” Damon asked suspiciously.
“I suspect I’m looking at the astral projection of a demon. Am I right?” she asked the image.
“Spot on,” he replied in an English accent.
Damon shoved her behind him and looked around. “Where?”
She pointed to the edge of the living room.
“I don’t see anything,” Damon said.
“Because you’re not a witch,” she said. “Only witches can see this kind of projection.”
“Allow me to introduce myself,” the demon said. “Silas Milton at your service.” He bowed like someone accustomed to doing so.
“I thought you’d have a lot more scales or something,” she said without thinking.
“I’m a demon, not a fish or a dragon.”
Zoe stepped out from behind Damon to stand beside him. While the projection didn’t terrify her, she was not naive enough to think she had nothing to be worried about. Better to keep a vampire Demon Hunter close at hand when having a conversation with a demonic astral projection.
“Are you the demon in charge?” she asked Silas.
“I am.”
“Why are you here?”
“We’re not here to bring you harm,” Silas said.
“Then why are you here?”
“To right a wrong,” he said.
“What wrong?” she asked.
“It’s a long story,” Silas said. “As you may know, astral projections only last a short time.”
“What’s he saying?” Damon demanded.
“The Demon Hunter is impatient,” Silas said.
“He says you’re impatient,” she told Damon.
“It’s a major fault of his,” Silas said.
“I thought the same thing myself,” Zoe said.
“You’re agreeing with a demon?” Damon said in disbelief.
“On this one matter, yes. But let’s get back to this wrong you say you are trying to right, Silas.”
“What wrong?” Damon said.
She turned to him in exasperation. “That’s what I’m trying to find out if you’d just be quiet a minute.” She returned her attention to the demon. “Go on.”
“I am being held captive against my will along with two of my associates,” Silas said.
Zoe couldn’t resist asking, “Which one of you tried to possess me?”
“That was an unfortunate mishap. I know that you now have a strong protection spell surrounding you, your grandmother, and your familiars.”
Zoe realized he hadn’t answered her question about who exactly was responsible for her possession—but there were more important matters to discuss.
“Give me the short version of the wrong you’re talking about,” she told the demon. “Is that why you stole that demon spell book?”
“I don’t have the book, dearie,” Silas said. “If I did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“He said he doesn’t have the missing spell book,” she told Damon.
“I already figured that out,” Damon said.
“Who did this wrong to you?” she asked Silas. “Are you here to get revenge?”
“Think about it, dearie. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He tipped his head in a gesture of farewell.
“Wait! Does it have anything to do with my talisman?” she said.
But the projection was gone.
Only now did Zoe realize her knees were shaking. She sank onto the couch. “I’ve heard about them but I’ve never actually seen an astral projection before,” she said. “And certainly not of a demon. I’m sure he wasn’t a warlock.”
“No, that was a demon. I could sense that even though I couldn’t see him,” Damon said. “Maybe it was just a hologram of some sort.”
“Then you should have been able to see him.”
Damon swore under his breath before admitting, “You’re right.”
Zoe considered pointing out that this was the first time Damon had ever said those words to her. She really should make a big deal out of it, and she would have if they weren’t facing demon demolition.
“He didn’t look the way I thought he would,” she said.
“How did you think he’d look?” Damon asked.
“More like a scaly goat somehow. Which isn’t fair to goats. I mean, I like goat cheese as much as the next person. Or as much as the next witch.” She could tell by the look he gave her that he thought she was losing it. “I’m just saying…”
“A lot of demons have scales, depending on how long they’ve been in hell, but demons can take many forms as you found out earlier today.”
“He didn’t look like a regular human. Not like the cable guy. I mean, Silas had a human form, sort of, but there was something about him…” She shook her head.
Damon checked his smartphone. “We didn’t get the astral projection on-screen from the cameras.”
“I didn’t make him up,” she said.
“I’m not saying you did. I already told you I sensed a demon presence.”
“He said his name was Silas Milton. He was wearing strange clothes that looked like they were made out of snakeskin maybe? His skin was a gray-yellow color. Not a human color. Wait, he didn’t have eyebrows. He had a series of bumps over his eyes. Acne maybe? And his eyes…” She shook her head. “I can’t even begin to describe them. They were red. Like he’d been ass-kicked in the eye but there was no other bruising.”
“The bumps represent horns,” Damon said. “He had them drawn in.”
“I thought he’d have a goatee but he didn’t.”
“Did he go into any more detail about this wrong he’s talking about?”
She shook her head. “Just that I’d figure it out if I thought about it.”
“Then do that,” he ordered her. “I’ll have Neville check on a demon named Silas Milton.”
While he did that, Zoe went to speak to her grandmother in her bedroom.
“Gram, the head demon just appeared to me as an astral projection.”
“Where?”
“In the living room. But he’s gone now. I mean the projection is gone.”
“Damn. Why didn’t you call me?”
“There wasn’t time. He said he was here to right a wrong.” Zoe sat on the edge of the bed before hesitantly asking, “Do you think it might have something to do with my mother?”
Gram’s expression turned serious. “What makes you say that?”
“She was trying to use dark magic when she died,” Zoe said.
“True.”
“Did the black magic my mother was conjuring have something to do with demons?”
“I don’t know what she was working on,” Gram said. “She didn’t tell me anything.”
“Yet you knew she was dealing with dark magic. How did you know that?”
“I could feel the darkness. I tried to warn her but she wouldn’t listen. There are predators who hunt witches and want us dead. The same way that Damon is a Hunter.”
