Stone In Love

Chapter 37

Sugar skull girl had climbed the door of my stall and was sitting on it like a bird of prey. As far as I was concerned, she was lying through her extremely sharp teeth. She had no intention of taking me home. At least, no place I would consider home. Was she talking about Heath's home? Damn. It appeared I was screwed, and distracting her with conversation had become ineffective. 

I had to admit, the girl was pretty for a demon, just like Kelly. Her shiny yellow hair hung in a ponytail at her neck, and a petite set of horns protruded from her forehead, enhancing the freaky makeup she wore. The only features she hid from me were her eyes, which looked as pale as the moon behind those rose-colored glasses.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," she said. "The easy way is you sheathing that dagger and handing it over. The hard way might result in injury."

She held out her clawed hand, which looked just as lethal as my dagger. How easy would it be to kill her? Vincent should have given me better instructions. Would I have to stab her in the heart like a vampire? Did I have the balls to kill someone, even in self-defense? This demon didn't seem very threatening, although she was serious enough to knock my friend out cold.

"C'mon, Reese," demon girl pressed. "I may have more patience than Heath, but even I have my limits."

"Is Heath waiting for us? I don't want to see him. He needs to let me go."

She chuckled. "This isn't about Heath."

Oh, really?

"Then who? What's going on?" I struggled to hold the dagger steady while demon girl watched me panic, keeping her rosy, round eyes locked on me. Was she wary because an inexperienced idiot was in possession of dangerous weaponry?

"Heath told me you were a talkative little beastie, but we don't have time for chit chat. Back up."

As she spoke her command, demon girl jumped into my stall, forcing me between the toilet bowl and the wall. Quick as lightning, she swatted the dagger out of my hand and it landed on the floor just shy of Sylvie's head. She was fast, and before I knew it, her arm was wrapped around my waist and she was leaping for the air vent, swinging one-handed from the sharp edge.

"Get in," she commanded as she hoisted me up and into the crawl space. My fake wings caught on a screw and the Velcro strips gave way easily, peeling the wings off my bodice and nearly unsheathing my boobs in the process. I ducked into the confined space, but not before my head met with the wall of the duct. I bit out a curse as my anger brewed under the powerful emotion of fear, and I didn't try to stifle it. It might come in handy. Where did this demon come off calling me a beastie?

"Start crawling until I tell you otherwise." Demon girl followed me through the duct, closing the vent cover and tucking her wings tight against her back. She prodded my ass with her claws when I didn't immediately respond, which was totally unnecessary. Where else was I going to go? We followed the air duct, and every time we passed a vent, I was tempted to whistle for help. But there wasn't much a meager human could do against a demon, and if I got someone killed, I would have to live with that guilt. 

"Here we are," she said as we came to a vent at the far end of the duct. "Push that grate open. You should have no trouble getting down. There's a chair right below it."

I found it interesting that demon girl was concerned for my safety. Or was she trying to reduce the risk of having to carry me if I broke my leg? With a sharp whack from my fist, I popped the vent open and it swung away. True to her word, a chair had been pushed to the center of the room below the vent, and I dropped easily onto it.