Dimitri, bless his heart, was unfailingly polite. I could tell mom felt better talking about it. Maybe the truth wasn’t so bad after all.
We searched the kitchen together, my mom trying to make us snacks the entire time. I settled for an artesian cheese sandwich but forgot it on the counter as Dimitri and I readied ourselves to descend into the basement.
I kept a hand on my switch stars and he took the stairs before me. They were incredibly steep. Narrow as well. A chill seeped up from the cavern, along with a pungent, musty odor. A single bulb above lit the stairs, its light dying as it reached too far underground.
“Let me go first. I’m a demon slayer.”
“You’re injured,” he said, starting down. “Don’t think I don’t see how you keep leaning up against the wall.”
He had me there. My entire body ached. “I have the weapons.”
Dimitri reached up and pulled the chain for a second, dangling bulb. This one lit parts of a gray floor that stretched out into the darkness.
“You know,” I continued, worrying a bit when I began getting light headed, “demon slayer. Demon attack.”
He cursed and stepped aside to let me pass as we neared the bottom. My palms were clammy and my knees were weak.
“Ready?” He asked, pausing to search for a light switch.
I drew a switch star. “Ready.”
Light bathed the space at the bottom of the stairs. The walls were made of stacked stone, painted white. The floor was concrete. And that was it. No storage. No ping-pong table. No demons. As far as I could tell, whoever was in charge of renting out the place didn’t seem to use the basement.
“I don’t get it.” There had to be another room, a secret space with those faceless statues and maybe a few minions of the devil.
Dimitri and I followed the basement around a U-shaped bend and came to a door to the right. I nodded at him, switch star in hand, and he threw it open.
“Ha!” I drew my star back, ready to throw, until I realized it was a utility room, lit by the same ceiling lights as the rest of the basement. “This is way too normal.”
Dimitri glanced at me, then back inside the room. “We might as well check it out.”
We thoroughly searched the small utility room because, well, where else were we going to look? But as I expected, I didn’t find any demonic markers behind the water heater.
I didn’t understand it. The house had been a bust.
My entire body ached.
Logically, there had to be something down here, or maybe upstairs or
“Maybe it’s in the garden,” Dimitri said, taking one final look behind the furnace.
“No,” I said, heading for the stairs.
All I wanted to do was crawl into bed.
His footsteps were heavy behind me. “You asked me to trust you. I get that. But this will go a lot easier if you told me what the hell we’re looking for.”
“I’m too tired to argue.” My legs ached. My chest and arms still felt tight from the poison’s effects, and I’d swear I hadn’t slept in a year.
I didn’t even protest when Dimitri led me into his room instead of mine.
“It’ll be the least of your mom’s shocks for today,” he said, closing the door behind us. We eased our shoes off and he drew me into bed.
It was so soft. Perfect. I curled into the warmth of his arms. “I love you,” I said, and before he could answer, I was asleep.
***
The next morning, Dimitri and I made up from our tiredness the night before. He was acting perfectly normal, although he certainly made love like a man possessed. Very refreshing.
Afterward, I curled next to him, naked, wishing I could tell him what was happening with the marks. Of course, it was impossible, for his sake and for mine.
I purposely kept my head tucked against his chest. I couldn’t look at him as I said, “my mom wants me to make wedding doves today.”
He drew back, trying to look at me. I kept my head down.
“Lizzie, we’re in the middle of an attack.”
“I know, but I promised. She wants us to glue sequins onto the backs of these fake birds she got at Michaels.”
He forced me to look at him then. “Are you okay?” He searched my face, looking for evidence of an addled brain. I didn’t blame him a bit.
I pasted on my best smile. “Sure. In the mean time, can you and the griffins make sure the grounds are secure?” I did worry about what was out there in the garden, and what could be approaching from any direction. We weren’t safe in this house, not until I could find and destroy the markers. Dimitri may not be able to help with that, but if I had the griffins protecting the house, I’d feel a lot better while I looked.
He ground his jaw tight. “Fine. But I know you’re not gluing doves.”
Okay. Caught. “What if I said I was making rose petal sachets?”
His eyes were steel, his expression hard. “Be careful.”
Easier said than done.
We showered together and dressed with our backs to each other. I felt for him. I really did. I knew what it was like to have your partner, the person who is supposed to love and trust you above all others, go rogue with no explanation or apology. But I didn’t have a choice here.
He left to gather the griffins while I set out to investigate what we could have possibly missed inside the house
This place was old, with plenty of nooks and crannies. Well, everywhere except for the basement. I stopped at the second floor landing and closed my eyes. I reached out, trying to feel the energy of the house, to sense any disruptions that may lead me to the third marker.
Nothing.
I shoved my hands into my pockets. “Cripes.” It was worth a try.
Maybe there was a hidden part of the house, or a secret passage. I could really use the ghost right about now. “Help me,” I said, as I ran my fingers over the paneling on the second floor landing. I moved down each stair, feeling the wall as I went. “Help me.”
That’s when Creely nearly ran me over.
“Watch it,” I told her.
“Hey, sorry. I thought you might actually be walking down the stairs.”
“I’m looking for hidden passages.”
She stopped a few stairs below me. “That’s an outside wall, sweetheart.”
“I know that. But wouldn’t this be a great place for a passage? You could make it a foot or two wide in this spot. Nobody would suspect.”
She looked at me like I was nuts. “It’s a load bearing wall. In an old house like this, of course, it would be a foot thick.”
Yes, well some of us weren’t engineers.
She gave me a cock-eyed look, clearly deciding if she should stay and harass me, or if she should continue barreling through the house.
“Come here,” she said, heading down the stairs. “The trick to discovering any kind of hidden room or structural oddity is to look at what you can see.”
“Have you been brewing more tea?” I asked, following her down.
