“Says who?” she said.
“Says Silas.”
“Give me a break. I just met him a few minutes ago,” she said. “Talk about impatience. Wait, exactly what do you mean by my time is running out?”
“What I said.”
“And you possessed this poor man just to tell me that?” Zoe said, her disapproval evident in her tone of voice.
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s very rude,” Zoe said.
“The Demon Hunter can’t kill me or he kills the human,” Guy said.
“I’m not a fan of most humans,” Damon said, speaking for the first time since they’d entered the room.
“You have your orders and I have mine,” Guy said.
“Okay, you delivered your message. Now leave,” Damon said.
“No. I’m not done,” Guy said.
“What do you want?” Zoe asked.
“A devil’s food cupcake. I hear they are very good. I can smell them down below. And a Dr Pepper. Your mother introduced me to Dr Pepper.”
“It’s a soft drink, not a person,” Zoe said. “Wait, what about my mother?”
“She’s the reason I am in this position,” Guy said.
“Possessing a guy in a funeral home?” she scoffed. “How can you blame that on my mom?”
“She condemned me to hell.”
Zoe couldn’t believe it. “What? When?”
“Right before she died two years ago.”
Was that why her mother had practiced black magic? Was it to send Guy to hell? “Why? What did you do?”
“I loved her.”
Zoe shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
“May I burn in hell if I am lying. Wait, I am already burning in hell. Not at this exact moment, however.” He swung Phil’s arms. “It feels good to have human form again.”
“Stop doing that. You could be hurting him. Tell me about my mother,” Zoe ordered.
“Oops, my master calls. Gotta go,” Guy said. “Remember, you owe me that cupcake and Dr Pepper.”
Suddenly demon-free, Phil slumped over and would have fallen had Damon not stepped forward to help him to a nearby stool.
“Whaa … at happened?” Phil said groggily.
“You passed out,” Damon said.
“Low blood sugar,” Zoe added, trying to be helpful.
“What are you two doing here?” Phil said.
Zoe tugged on the hem of Damon’s black T-shirt. “Something is happening.”
“Another possession?” Damon asked
She shook her head. “It’s my bangle bracelet.”
“This is no time to talk about your stupid jewelry,” Damon said impatiently.
“It’s not stupid and it’s pulling me toward something.” Her right arm went straight out at her side, with her fingers aiming at the wall, where several framed certificates hung. But it was the Latin saying that her bangle glommed on to like a magnet to iron.
CORPORA LENTE AUGESCENT CITO EXTINGUUNTUR.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” Phil said.
Damon looked into Phil’s eyes and said, “You will not remember us.” Grabbing Zoe’s hand, he pulled her from the room.
Daniella was waiting for them right outside. “Is Phil okay?”
Damon nodded. “I didn’t sense any lingering demon presence.”
“There is a Latin saying framed on the wall that starts with
“It’s a quote from Tacitus.”
“Do you know what it means?” Zoe said.
“Bodies grow slowly but are snuffed out quickly,” Damon said.
“Bodies grow slowly and die quickly is another way of saying it,” Daniella said. “It’s been on the wall in there as long as I can remember.”
“Why would my bangle be attracted to it?” Zoe wondered aloud. Seeing Daniella’s blank look, she said, “Never mind.”
“I’ve got to make sure for myself that Phil is okay,” Daniella said.
Once she was inside, Zoe asked Damon, “Can we leave now?”
“Yes.”
This time they walked outside at a normal human speed and went around the corner to the bar and grill.
“I need to stop here for a minute.” Damon held the door open for her to enter.
She’d barely taken a few steps inside when her bangle once again pulled her toward the wall. This time it was behind the bar where there was a sign, again in Latin.
CINERIGBRIA SERA VENIT.
The sign was higher up than the last one, which left Zoe with her arm raised and her bangle plastered against the sign.
“Let me guess,” Damon drawled. “Your bracelet again?”
“It’s a bangle, actually, but yes.”
“You wear a magic bangle along with your talisman?”
“The bangle never was magical before. I got it from the Home Shopping Network. It has hand-carved cameos around it, and the writing is from an Italian love letter.”
“Written by Tacitus?”
“No. Written by a woman in the twentieth century not—”
“When Tacitus was around in ancient Rome,” Damon inserted.
“Right.” Using her free hand, she pointed to the sign above the bar. “What does this one say?”
“Fame to the dead comes too late,” Damon translated.
At his words, the bond was broken between the bangle and the sign, allowing her to lower her arm. She studied her bangle. “I don’t know what’s going on here.”
“Maybe your grandmother cast a spell on it.”
“She wouldn’t do that without telling me first.”
Zoe was still rattled from her earlier experience in the embalming room. Had that Guy demon been telling the truth about her mother sending him to hell? Or was he lying and trying to besmirch her mother’s name? She also hadn’t recovered from seeing Silas as an astral projection or from discovering he’d been the cause of her ancestor’s death in Salem.
And then there was the whole embalming-room-of-a-funeral-home thing. She needed a drink. Badly. But she was in a vampire bar. Who knew what was on their wine list?
She looked at the bottles behind the bar. “You don’t have a lot of alcohol here.”
“We have enough,” Damon said.
“Do any humans come here?”
“Not many.”
“So this is really a vampire bar for the consumption of blood?”
“Could you make your distaste any more obvious?” he retorted.
“I didn’t say anything distasteful.”
“You didn’t have to. That disdainful wrinkling of your nose expressed your feelings.”
“Maybe I was just shaking off a sneeze.”
