SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (161 page)

Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

“Gentlemen,” the judge announced, his voice sonorous, his gaze still locked on me. “It seems we will not be reaching an accord this afternoon.”

“Your honor—“ the defense protested.

The prosecutor didn’t bother. He was already gathering up his papers and stacking them in his leather briefcase. Obviously, he’d been up in front of this judge before.

“Mr. Denison,” the judge interrupted. “We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning at nine.” The judge picked up his gavel, and smacked it hard on the round wooden disk sitting on his desk.

While Tree Stump dragged the defendant out of the room in shackles, (which I was glad to see), the attorneys packed up their gear and started out of the room. They walked past me, chatting like old pals and in just a minute or two, I was alone in the courtroom with the judge, his stenographer and the tall bailiff.

The quiet stretched on and on until I was pretty sure I was going to snap with the strain of not being the first one to talk. My dad always said that ‘he who speaks first loses power’, so what the hell. Let the judge get the ball rolling.

“That’s all, Margaret,” he said finally and my breath wheezed out in relief as the stenographer picked up her stuff and nodded at the judge. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, your honor,” she said like a good little zombie and walked down the aisle and out the door, sparing me only a quick look.

So, now it was just the judge, his trained ape and me.

“The Duster,” Judge Jenks said with a nod so small and so brief it was almost as if it hadn’t happened at all. Since he’d announced me, I had to figure at least this
one
bailiff was a demon. Sliding him a quick look, I saw his jaw tense and his fingers slide to the hilt of his Billy club. (Why was it a
Billy
club? Why not Johnny club? Or Howard?) I digress again, because in times of sheer terror, my mind takes me on little field trips so I didn’t have to think about what was actually happening. But in that room, the mental wanderings could get me killed.

“I wondered when you might come to see me.”

His voice was scratchy now, as if he wasn’t worried anymore about sounding like a distinguished judge—or human. I glanced at the bailiff again. He looked seriously big and mean. Substantially more so than he had just a minute or two ago. Demon? Or stupid human?

Only one way to find out for sure. I stood up, and stepped into the aisle. “Hi, Judge,” I said, keeping my tight grip on the Coach. Poor bag would probably never be the same. “I got your message. You know, the one tied to a rock? Oh, and the other one shoved through my mail slot.”

His mouth smiled but nothing else on his face did. I got another chill. As a Demon Duster, I was pretty new at all this. As a mom though, I was ready to do battle with the devil himself to protect Thea. So I forced a smile and pushed through the little swinging gate to stand in front of the bench. Had to tip my head back to look up at him and I had the feeling he was enjoying that.

“A bit dramatic,” the judge conceded in his nails on a chalkboard voice, spreading his hands out as if in a shrug, “but effective.”

The bailiff took a step closer and I shot him a sideways look. He was big, but I had my spritzer in my bag and hey, a hand that could whip through his chest, so I figured I could hold my own. Probably.

Okay, so I was outnumbered. We were still in a courthouse—attached to the police station. There were way too many people around for them to try to kill me. I hoped. For now, anyway. So in a weird way, maybe I
was
the one with all the power.

Looking back to the judge, I kept the giant in my peripheral vision while I quietly unzipped my bag and wrapped my fingers around my atomizer of death. Made me feel better just holding it. I’d gone there to force things into the open. To let the judge know I wasn’t going to back down and no
way
was he going to lay a single claw on Thea.

“Look,” I said, pretty reasonably if I do say so myself, “I’ll make you a deal. You leave Thea the hell alone and I won’t dust you.”

A second ticked past. And then another. I was just starting to congratulate myself on reaching a truce when the judge started laughing. Not some little amused chuckle but a flat out,
you crack me up
roll of laughter that filled the room with a darkness that felt almost solid.

Okay. I swallowed hard, curled my fingers around my handy dandy little spritzer, then dropped my bag and back-stepped a little, keeping some distance between me and the bailiff who was looking like he’d like to do a little Duster kicking.

I flicked the judge another glance and saw that all traces of laughter were gone from him now. So. We were going to get down to business.

Why the
hell
hadn’t I brought someone along with me? Who was I all of a sudden? Wonder Woman? Uh...
no.
I was too new at this to be facing down a guy like the judge and as every second ticked past, I felt my confidence dribbling away in a slow but steady stream.

“You are becoming too much of a nuisance, Duster,” Jenks said, folding his hands on his desktop and pinning me with those ice blue eyes. “You’re interfering with the flow of my business concerns and I’m afraid I can’t tolerate that.” He tipped his head to one side. “I have run this town for more than forty years. And you are becoming a nuisance.”

I couldn’t seem to look away and that really pissed me off. And maybe that’s just what I needed. A little blast of pure mad to get under my skin enough to wipe out the nerves still scraping me raw. Then the color of his eyes shifted, swirling with different shades of darkness, shadows danced, flames burned and just for a second, I was pretty sure they went blank and empty.

Way creepy.

But enough to snap me out of my ‘hypnotized rabbit in front of a cobra’ mood.

“Well,” I said, trying for bravado and hoping to hell my voice didn’t crack. “Any little thing I can do.”

“You can’t stop me,” he said, as if I hadn’t spoken. “This is my city. And will continue to be so long after you’re gone.”

“What’re you?
King?”
I laughed and he didn’t like that. Well yay for my side. “You’re just another demon with delusions of grandeur.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re a fool. Do you think you’re the first to try to end me? You’re not.” He slapped his palms flat on his desk and I was pretty sure the windows rattled. “I’ve survived longer than you can imagine and I’ve left the bodies of my enemies strewn behind me like so much trash.”

“Littering?”
Oh, God. Have I mentioned that when I’m nervous I tend to say the wrong thing at the wrong time? Well, I do.

“This is no joke, Duster. You aren’t the first of your kind who’s come against me. Your own grandmother tried and failed.”

YIKES.

He steepled his fingers and tapped his chin. “I see you’re beginning to understand. I should have killed you—along with your mother.”

My vision went wavery as shock slammed into me, along with a stabbing pain that seared my soul. “My mother?” I managed to say. “You...?”

“She wasn’t as reasonable as your grandmother was in her time. She actually had the effrontery to
threaten
me.”

Just like I was doing now.

He stood up behind the bench and his black robes made him look like a damn vulture. Just what he was. “Your grandmother was wise enough to choose to leave me alone in order to protect her child.” He smiled again. “Ironic wasn’t it, that her child then grew up and refused to back off herself. One wonders why she didn’t put you first, doesn’t one?”

I was quietly pissed. And sad. And depressed. And furious. Well, mostly furious.

“Your mother swore to kill me when she came into her powers.” He shrugged and watched my eyes as he smiled again. “So I made sure she didn’t. And I’m still here. Still ruling the underground with no one to challenge me.”

God.
Too much information. Why had no one told me? Jasmine? Gram? Devlin? This monster had destroyed my family once and now he wanted to do it again. Pain washed through me, over me and I knew I would be mourning my mom all over again. But I couldn’t grieve now.

My mom was gone and there was no bringing her back. Thea though, was alive. And I meant to keep her that way. I had to push my mom out of my mind—block everything. I took a breath, settled myself and sneered at the judge.

“Nothing to say, Duster?” he asked, clearly amused. “No barbs? No quips?”

“No,” I said, keeping Too Tall Bailiff in my line of sight. “Just this. You stay the hell away from my daughter.”

“Or you’ll do what, exactly?”

I watched as the bailiff walked slowly, trying to come up on my left. Not easy to keep your eye on both the judge and his muscle, so I knew I had to either start dusting or get the hell outta Dodge. Fast. Still talking, I half turned in a small circle, following the path of the bailiff. Big guy. And seemed to be getting bigger. I didn’t think that was just my fear talking, either. He was actually
swelling.
Like some huge demon toad—which, if those existed, I sooooooo didn’t want to know about.

I tightened my grip on my little spritzer. Not that it would stop the guy cold, but I knew if he was a demon, it would at least hurt him like hell, which could buy me a couple extra seconds.

“Listen,” I said, glancing at the judge over my shoulder to make sure he was still standing behind the bench. He was. Apparently, I wasn’t a big enough threat to him to get him to leave his precious throne. “I didn’t come here for trouble. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you run the underground around here.” Mental apologies to my mom and all the other women in my family. “Until a couple weeks ago, I didn’t even know you guys
existed.
So I’ll leave you alone to do your business, whatever the hell it is.”

The judge snorted his disdain.

The bailiff peeled his lips back in what he probably thought was an evil smile, but it reminded me of a chimp asking for a banana.

“Why did you come here then, Duster? Into my territory without invitation?”

“I
told
you,” I said. “To protect Thea.”

The bailiff stepped closer and I was suddenly tired of the whole damn situation. I owed the judge a lot of grief. I’d been willing to talk this out. But you know, press me too far and I don’t bend. I snap. And most times, it ain’t pretty.

“Fool,” the judge spat.

Tall, gray and swollen made his move. He came at me, arms outstretched, eyes narrowed. I yelped, tightened my grip on the spritzer and hit him square in the eye. If he was human, it wouldn’t even slow him down.

He wasn’t.

Instantly, smoke rose up from his head, swirling around his eyes as he
howled.
The judge was still behind me, shouting now at his smoking minion to finish me off. To give swollen boy his due, he probably wanted to kill me more than he’d ever wanted anything else in his life. But he couldn’t see me.

His eyes were streaming, a gray haze of smoke poured from his eye sockets and he kept pawing at them, trying to clear his vision. But even blind, he made a try for me. Thank God I’d worn pants. In a skirt, I might have been toast. As it was, I scrambled onto the prosecutor’s table and leapt off the other side. One of my boot heels snapped off and I lurched heavily to one side, nearly toppling over.

But I caught myself just as the still smoking demon toad guy charged me again. I picked up the glass pitcher of water and tossed it at him, but all that did was wipe away some of the demon liquid. The smoke was thinner now and I could see fury glittering in his eyes. He gave me that chimp smile again and I knew I was in trouble.

From his bench, the judge was watching the show like he was at the circus. All he needed to complete the picture was a bag of popcorn and a cone of cotton candy.

The demon charged and this time as he flew at me, I ducked low, crawled under the table and kept going as fast as my hands and knees would take me, straight across the room and under the defense’s table. He was right behind me and I felt claws grab at my bare ankle. I kicked out of my broken shoe and hit him square in the nose. Small consolation. When I got out from under the table, toad boy was waiting for me.

He snarled something in a language that sounded more foreign than anything I’d ever heard, but what do I know from languages? Most times I have trouble with English. Anyway, he reached for me, the judge shouted, “Kill her!” and I ducked under demon toad’s arm, popped up like a Jack-in-the-box and smacked my hand to his chest.

He knew what was coming. I saw it on his face. And in that split second between life and POOF, he made one last try, scraping his clawed hands across my chest.

Pain slapped at me, but now I was pissed. My Coach bag was ruined, my shoes were broken and one of my favorite blouses was hanging in tatters, announcing the fact that I’d worn my oldest bra.

Was
nothing
sacred?

“That’s it, brother,” I said and yanked out his heart.

He dissolved right in front of me and while I was brushing my palms together to get rid of the last of him, I turned and looked up at the judge.

“Another mistake, Duster,” he said, voice tight and scratchy, eyes laced with fury that seemed to bubble and froth.

“Seemed like the thing to do at the time,” I told him and picked up the hanging pieces of fabric that had once been my blouse and held them clutched to me with one hand. “You’re the one who started that. I didn’t come here to dust anybody. I wanted to talk.”

Even knowing he had had my mother killed, I would have dealt with him to save Thea. Now I realized that the only way my daughter would be safe was if the judge was dead.

Worked for me.

“I don’t talk to your kind,” he said.

“My
kind?”
I asked. “You mean Dusters?”

“I mean women.”

Oh, he really was a prick. For the good of women everywhere, this guy was going to have to go.

Behind me, the courtroom door was pushed open with such force, it slammed into the wall behind it. I whirled around, expecting a demon cavalry to come charging to the judge’s rescue.

Devlin stood in the open doorway, features tight, hands fisted at his sides.