“You said the demon at our funeral home blamed your mom for him being in hell?”
“Yes, but he refused to give me any details.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know what to believe.”
“I know what’s that like,” Daniella said sympathetically. “When Nick told me he was a vampire, I refused to believe it at first. I thought I’d hit my head and was in a coma or something. At least you knew Nick and Damon were vampires when you first met them. As for your mom, well, from what you’ve told me about her, I don’t see how she would send anyone to hell unless they deserved to go there. The most likely thing is that the demon lied. They’re not exactly known for doing good deeds.”
“I know. It’s just that hearing stuff about my mom—”
“Brings the pain of her loss back,” Daniella said.
Zoe nodded, blinking back tears. “Sorry to be a wimp.”
“You are not a wimp.” Daniella gave her another hug. “And neither am I.”
“No way. You are a kick-butt druid hybrid who can protect herself from evil vampires. I wish I could do that with these demons.”
“That’s Damon’s job,” Daniella told her. “As for me being a kick-butt druid, I’m really just a cupcake maker living with a vampire in an apartment above my cupcake shop. Maybe it seems normal to me now because I grew up living above the funeral home,” Daniella said.
“Was that strange? Living above the funeral home, I mean.”
“Not really, no.”
“I don’t think I could handle that.”
“Why?”
“I have a thing about funeral homes.”
“What kind of thing?”
“An avoidance thing,” Zoe said.
“It’s not a fave hangout for most people.”
“Unless they are vampires.”
“Even then,” Daniella said.
“Damon doesn’t like me asking questions about the funeral home.”
“I can understand that. But what do you have against funeral homes?”
“I guess it goes back to my dad’s funeral. He died in a fire when I was a little girl.” Zoe remembered the whispers about the family curse, that no man would be good enough for an Adams woman. “I thought funeral homes crushed you into little pieces. He was cremated. My mom spread his ashes from a sailboat in his favorite cove off the coast per his wishes. But at the funeral there was this urn that someone had put my father in, like an evil genie locking him in there. I’m sorry, but funeral homes kind of freak me out.”
“I understand,” Daniella said. “We don’t have to talk.” Reaching for a pad of paper she wrote
Bella jumped onto the worktable. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” Zoe said, turning the pad of paper over so Bella couldn’t read it. “I was just telling Daniella how aromatherapy centers on the way natural fragrances affect our thoughts and feelings. Lavender is well known as a calming scent. That’s why it was often used in sachets or small pillows to help people sleep.”
Bella yawned. “Bo-ring.”
“It looks like we’ve taken care of most of the mess,” Zoe said.
“It does look much better than it did before,” Daniella agreed. While they’d been talking, they’d managed to restore order to the workroom.
Zoe and Bella accompanied Daniella downstairs. “Thanks again for everything,” Zoe said.
“There may be just enough time before Nick comes for me to run back to the shop to pick up dessert. I forgot to bring it.” Daniella opened the front door. “Oh look, it’s Mrs. Seely’s Chihuahuas Princess and Coco. She’s dressed them up with Irish bowler hats and green bow ties for St. Patrick’s Day. Aren’t they cute? I wonder what they’re doing on your front porch, though.”
“Demons!” Bella hissed and tore upstairs as if the beasts of hell were after her.
“Demons?” Daniella repeated, nervously looking up and down the block. “Where?”
Growling ferociously considering their size, the two leprechaun wannabe dogs raced inside and took off after Bella up the stairs.
“Come back here!” Zoe cried, rushing upstairs after them.
She entered her workroom to find Bella on the worktable. The feline was arching her back and hissing. She looked like a porcupine with her fur standing on end while the dogs scrambled below, jumping up and trying to get at her.
“Bad dogs,” Zoe said.
“Demons!” Bella hissed again.
The two dogs turned in unison to face Zoe. They bared their teeth, and their eyes took on an evil glow. “We are the Hounds of Hell.”
After the day Zoe had had, there was no way she was backing down from this standoff. She recognized the voice coming from the little dog. “Guy, is that you? Are you possessing Chihuahuas now?”
“I told you this wouldn’t work,” another voice said through the other dog.
“Who is that?” Zoe asked.
“The other guy.”
“I know you’re Guy,” she said. “I was asking the name of the other demon.”
“I’m Guy and he’s the other Guy. We’re both named Guy.”
“But I’m the smarter Guy,” the other one said. “I said we should wait until the pit bulls went out for their walk but noooo, you couldn’t wait. You possess the first dogs you see.”
“You should both be ashamed of yourselves for taking possession of a pair of poor animals like that,” Zoe said.
“Actually, they are very pampered,” Daniella said from the doorway.
The dogs focused their attention on her.
“Damn, she’s got a protection spell around her, too,” Guy number one said.
“Get the cat,” the other one said.
Bella howled and leapt from the table to a higher shelf, knocking down soaps as she did so.
“Damn,” Guy number two said. “Even the cat has a protection spell around it.”
Damon was there in the blink of an eye. “What the hell is going on in here?”
“We are the Hounds of Hell,” both Guys growled.
Damon frowned. “Why are they dressed like leprechauns?”
“It’s St. Patrick’s Day,” Zoe explained.
“They’re demons,” Damon said.
Zoe grabbed Damon’s arm. “Don’t hurt the dogs. It’s not their fault demons temporarily possessed them.”
