Million Dollar Demon by Kim Harrison

Author:Kim Harrison [Harrison, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

16

I was guessing Pike wasn’t much of a nature person by his perpetual grimace and his periodic mutters of disgust when he slipped on a root or misjudged the depth of a rut in the path. That the sun was down and we were walking by reflected light probably didn’t help. I had fallen into the steady yet variable pace I’d learned at camp, one that allowed for both bad terrain and periodic bites from my burger. I thought it interesting that the green and white paper the burger was wrapped in was from Junior’s coffee shop. That the finding amulet was leading us from the open grassland and into a looming, dark forest was even more so.

But my stomach was happy and I was almost dry apart from my underwear and socks. My feet still squished, and my hair had dried in tight ringlets sporting that lovely shade of blue at the tips. Dali, though, knew what to do with hamburger, and I was content as I chewed, swallowed, and repeated—even if Pike did keep slipping on damp roots. Dress shoes. Sheesh.

“Want me to carry the bag?” I said, worried he was going to fall and squish it.

His gaze went from the trees to me, eyeing the half-eaten burger in my one hand, the amulet in the other. “I’ve got it,” he said, having finished his burger and fries in the time I had eaten half of my own.

“Okay.” I slowed, eyeing the faint path. The sun was long gone, and though it still illuminated the upper sky, it was dark under the trees. Thoughts of Little Red Riding Hood meets Hansel and Gretel flitted through my mind. My hands were full, but Pike was done. He could hold a flashlight.

“Lenio cinis,” I whispered, and a glowing, fist-size ball of energy materialized, hanging in the air at chest height to send a cheerful glow a few feet into the woods. “Could you carry that, then?” I asked as I moved around it. “It will go out if I touch it. It’s basically an undrawn circle filled with energy, and my aura will break it.”

I wasn’t sure why I was explaining it to him, other than he was staring at it as if it might knock him out. “Sure.” He hesitated. “Neat trick,” he added as he gingerly took it.

I stifled a shiver as we slipped under the first of the trees. Clearly the burger and fries had done him good. But the farther we got, the less I could tell which smelled better: Pike, or the dinner we were delivering.

Pike had gone silent, probably to concentrate on his footing, and a slow unease began to steal over me. My eyes dropped to my hamburger and the few bites left. I’m eating in front of a vampire. . . . “Ah, I’m eating because I’m hungry,” I said, and he looked up, the glow from my magic seeming to smooth the scars on his face.

Pike eyed me. “Okay . . .

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