Hide & Seek: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Repossessed Series Book 1) by Simone Leigh Martin

Author:Simone Leigh Martin [Martin, Simone Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SLM Publishing
Published: 2022-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I stared at my green thumb while my aunts drank more tea and wore track marks in the floorboards between the living room and the library. They were on a research mission, so it would have made sense to set up camp in there, but despite a shot of Carol’s best whiskey in my tea, I refused to move. Our attackers – who I now accepted were three powerful warlocks, given their association with demons – had hit me with an umbra curse. It was the magical equivalent of a leech, attaching itself to a host and feeding off its energy. A thing born of shadows, it was strongest when used at night, and could eat its way through a body in less than twelve hours. But it wasn’t just in search of a juicy power snack; above all, it was hungry for knowledge it could feed back to its demon overlord. Bloodline, magic flavor, strengths, and weak spots. Basically, it was like having a mini-Maggie attached to my spine with unfettered access to my databases.

I waggled my thumb, watching the apple tree bob and weave on the pad. As a teenager, I’d been desperate to get a tattoo, but my aunts had flatly refused. Marking the body, they’d lectured me, was like putting a ring through your nose and waiting for someone to attach a leash. I’d tried to point out that a butterfly on my ankle was art, not magic. But everything, they’d warned me, had the potential to lead you down a path you didn’t choose for yourself.

Like the garden path that had led me to the Green Thumb incident. We still hadn’t gotten to the bottom of that, and now I’d been branded for a second time.

Madge had stripped me out of my date dress and bundled me into a tank and sweats. She’d taken up a perch on the arm of my chair, both so she could keep feeding me tea I didn’t want, and could rub soothing circles over my spine. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it felt like she was literally rubbing salt into the wound. “Demons,” she said for the umpteenth time. “Demons, in our home.”

“Not an actual demon,” I reassured her. “And the worst that happened was a broken window, right?”

She gnawed on her lip, a habit I was pretty sure she’d picked up from me. “Of course. Your shields aren’t going to fall just because a demon curse knocks on the door. It’s just…”

“Why would they come looking for me in the first place?”

My question dropped like a hammer, silencing us both, until my aunts strode back into the room. “It has to have been a demon with a senior overlord,” Carol announced. “Perhaps even one of the attendants of the Melancholies.”

All demons were manifestations of spirits. There were heaps of them, and some were even quite useful. But just as in the human world, a few rotten apples could spoil the whole barrel. In the

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