Page 29 of Speak of the Devil

“A demon worried about right and wrong?” he countered. “That’s rich.”

The thing hissed again. “You’re pretty full of yourself for someone who’s only a quarter demon.”

Caleb didn’t bother to ask how it knew that. Demons could just tell.

“And you’re asking for trouble,” he replied. “Now, get out of here before I banish you.”

Its reddish eyes narrowed. “You can’t do that.”

“Can’t I? All that human blood in my veins lets me do a whole lot of shit that demons can’t.”

A second or two passed as the demon eyed him, clearly trying to weigh its chances of success. Caleb stood there and waited, knowing any shift in position on his part would only encourage it to attack.

And then it leaped into the air, clawed fingers reaching for him, reaching out to rip open his face —

Flames flared from his outstretched hands, and one fireball, followed by another, connected with the creature, knocking it back a good ten feet or so.

“I might be mostly human,” Caleb said as he advanced on the demon. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t defend myself.”

The creature bared its yellowed teeth. He’d encountered similar imps in Hell and knew they didn’t possess his talent for summoning fire. No, they delighted in tormenting those weaker than themselves and were often employed by stronger demons and devils to carry out their dirty work.

In fact….

“Who do you work for?” he demanded, and the thing growled.

“I work for myself.”

But something in the way those last two syllables squeaked past its jagged teeth told Caleb the demon was lying.

“You’re not strong enough to make it topside on your own,” he said. “Someone summoned you so they’d have a lackey. Who was it?”

Its reddish eyes widened in fear, and something about the way it glanced to one side told him the creature was about to bolt.

No way. Not when it would most likely go back and tell its master — whoever that was — that a quarter demon descended from one of Belial’s lieutenants was now roaming the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada.

So much for the interrogation.

Caleb lifted his hands again, and this time, fire exploded from his hands and swirled all around, catching the imp-demon in its scorching embrace, holding the thing until it had shattered into ash.

Not a moment too soon, because in the next instant, the faint squeal of a set of tires from the direction of the ramp told him someone was approaching and he needed to get the hell out of there.

Doing his best to seem nonchalant…even as he summoned a small breeze to blow away the ashy remnants of the demon…he walked over to the Range Rover and climbed into the driver’s seat. Just as he was fastening his seatbelt, the vehicle passed behind him.

It had the elegant script logo of the Bellagio painted on one door, with the word “Security” above it. Most likely, whoever was driving was just making their normal rounds, but to Caleb, its arrival was an additional signal that he needed to leave, and now. He always made sure to park carefully out of range of the nearest CCTV camera, and yet he also knew he shouldn’t take any more chances.

Slowly, he backed the SUV out of its parking space and headed down to the lower level and the exit that opened onto Flamingo Road. The whole time, he’d made sure his disguise remained intact, but after he turned onto Las Vegas Boulevard and knew he was well away from the parking structure, he thought it was finally safe for him to let the illusion disappear.

As he drove, he couldn’t stop himself from frowning.

Who had summoned that imp-demon…and why?

Chapter Ten

Even though itwas the weekend and Delia would have much rather taken a page out of her friend Pru’s book and stayed home, she hadn’t forgotten about her agreement with Robert Hendricks, and knew she needed to go and prowl a few more casinos to see if any demons were lurking there.

After her last experience, she was inclined to think that the only unusual individuals hanging out on the Strip were a few people with abnormally good luck, but if she wanted to earn that ten grand — and maybe more, on the off chance that she actually managed to detect something — then she needed to get her ass out there and do her job.

So that was why, once she was finished with her laundry and had done some general tidying-up around the house, she got out of her yoga pants and sweatshirt and into some jeans and low boots and her favorite dark green sweater, put on some mascara and lip gloss, and headed out to see if she could find anything of use.

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