Melissa F. Olson - 01 Midnight Curse by Melissa F. Olson

Author:Melissa F. Olson [Olson, Melissa F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503942820
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2017-02-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Okay, I soft-pedaled the part where I got shot, and I conveniently left out throwing a knife to scare Jesse’s brother and most of the gunfight at Frederic’s. Without outright lying, I may have made it sound like the bikers had been armed with fists and harsh language.

“The cops were coming, so Jesse shot the boundary witch, figuring she might come back from the dead like the one he knows in Colorado,” I finished. “And we brought her here because we needed a place to contain her where the bad guys wouldn’t find us. Bad guy,” I corrected myself. “Hopefully there’s only one archvillain left. If you don’t count the bikers, who are probably just hired muscle.”

“Just hired muscle,” he repeated, staring at me. For a long moment I couldn’t tell if he was mad or just processing. I let him think it through while I finished eating and started putting away sandwich supplies. I got a Diet Coke and a regular Coke out of the fridge, went back to the counter, and set the regular soda in front of Eli.

“We’re going to come back to the part where you and Cruz keep putting your life in danger,” he said tightly. “But let me see if I’m getting this. A vampire and a boundary witch came to town to frame Molly. You killed and . . . body-snatched the witch, the vampire’s holed up somewhere making new baby vampires, and Molly’s still going on trial tomorrow night because you can’t actually prove any of this until the witch wakes up, assuming you can make her talk. Is that right?”

“Wow,” I said with genuine admiration. “You should be in charge of all my summarizing from now on. Seriously. Not even kidding.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but Jesse came back into the room, still shoving his cell phone in his pocket. “Good news, finally,” he declared. “I described the tattoo to my friend at the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Department. She thinks the guys we saw are with the Demon Kings.”

I had been taking a sip of my soda at that moment, and while I managed to not spit it out, the carbonation went up my nose, and a few minutes of hacking and coughing followed, while Eli thumped me on the back and I wiped tears from my eyes. The Demon Kings? Were they run by an eleven-year-old?

“Scary name,” I gasped when I could speak again.

Jesse didn’t look amused. Actually, neither did Eli. Tough room. “Jimmy—Jimena Valdez, she’s my contact at the Sheriff’s Department—said the Kings used to be really bad news. Drugs, weapons, street prostitution. The cops went after them hard, so about twenty years ago, the MC made some changes. Brothels and a little porn instead of street-level hookers, pot instead of heroin, no more guns.”

“I swear, that was a cable TV show,” Eli said wryly.

Jesse just nodded. “And a lot of the show was based on real MC culture. The Demon Kings aren’t the worst of MC culture, but they’re still a long way from the Shriners.

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