Demon's Mark (The Solomon Legacy: Book One)

Chapter Nine

Demons.

After the party run in with Rhys and the weirdest two minutes of my entire life with his teacher, I had convinced myself that I was either going crazy or that demons really were chasing me.

When I let my mind open just a little to the possibility, I began imagining them everywhere. Everyone was a potential demon, even River.

"You've been a little weird lately," she said one quiet ride home from school a few weeks later.

"Stress," I said simply. It wasn't a lie, but I really wasn't interested in going to any parties if I was one hallucination away from losing my mind or being incinerated by something evil. I spent more time than was healthy in my room Googling what exactly demons were and what possible use they'd have for a boring 17-year-old girl. I'd come up short on all fronts.

Funny thing was that as strong as Rhys came on with all those unwanted run-ins, he'd disappeared from the face of the earth completely after the meeting in the coffee shop. Not a random run in at the bus stop, not an angry text—nothing. What's more, I still rode the bus to Brattleboro on Tuesdays for my early college credit classes and there was nothing strange to report there, either.

I should have known better than to assume it was all a major hallucination.

It was on a quiet Wednesday night when my personal fan club demon introduced himself. My mom and I were watching a dance competition/reality show and she'd said for the fifth time that episode that she'd been a pretty good dancer herself in her day.

"Hate to say it, but the high school flag corps doesn't count," I said dryly, trying my best to keep a straight face.

She threw popcorn at me and I pretended to try to snap it out of midair.

Steven was going to be late that night, something about a late meeting in Massachusetts, so it was just the two of us.

It was a little past 8 p.m. when the doorbell chimed, ripping apart the relative tranquility of the evening. Something in my blood chilled instantly and I gripped the side of the couch as my mom looked at me.

"Expecting anybody?" She asked, looking like she was going to attempt to stand up and answer the door. I stopped her.

"Could be River," I said and shot to my feet, knowing it wasn't going to be River, who had basketball practice until well after 9.

With slow, wooden steps, I walked to the door and reached for the handle. For the first time since meeting him, I was really hoping Rhys' obnoxious face was behind the door.

Sucking in a breath and holding it, I pulled the door open.

I should stop right here and say that when this all started, my impression of what demons should look like was pretty much based on World of Warcraft and other sci-fi or fantasy-based lore. If the thing didn't have cherry red skin, giant glowing horns and freaky yellow eyes, then it wasn't a demon.

The thing standing on my mom's "Piss Off" gnome welcome mat (complete with peeing garden decoration and all) didn't have any of those characteristics and I still pegged it as a demon almost instantly. Just as almost instantly, I tried the slam the door in its face.

Whether he had some mystical force field that prevented door slammings or he was just really quick with sticking his foot out, I'll never know—all I did realize at the time was that he—it—was walking across my doorstep.

"I didn't invite you," I stammered, backing up into a small side table my mom kept a few ugly knick knacks on. "You can't come in."

"Vampires, darling," the man said casually. "You've obviously been watching plenty of the Sy Fy channel, but you've gotten us mixed up."