Read Online The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers by Angie Fox - Free Book Online Page A

brain unscrambled, the sooner the better.
    "We'll disconnect Phil as soon as we see what's got hold of him. Trust
me."
    "We know what's got him—a succubus in a wedding dress. I don't
need to know anything else."
    "Yeah, okay, Einstein," Grandma stopped at our door and dug the
key card out of her jeans. "I didn't survive all those years against Vald
without learning a thing or two." She pointed the key at me like a warning
finger. "Information is power in this world, and until we know why a sex
demon wants to get all holy at the altar, we're behind the eight ball."
Grandma huffed. "I don't want any surprises. Do you?"
    Pirate danced and nipped at our heels as we opened the door to a
surprisingly ordinary hotel room. Frigid gusts of air roared from a unit under
the window, causing the gauzy white curtains to billow and goose bumps to break
out all over my skin. Whew, the place reeked of carpet cleaner. Pirate gave a
big, wet doggie sneeze that landed on my foot. Lovely. I rubbed my arms against
the cold and fought the urge to wrap myself in the well-used hotel comforter.
    "Serena's not here," Phil said to the empty room. Quilts in muted
green and blue covered the two double beds. A hotel-issue lamp sat on an
unremarkable desk.
    I dumped my travel bag onto the bed nearest the window and reset the
thermostat from an inhuman fifty-eight degrees to a livable seventy-five. The
afternoon sun hung low behind the towers of New York New York. It was just dark
enough to see the light pouring from the top of the Luxor pyramid.
    Phil worried me. He wandered the room, running his hand along the low TV
stand, peering into the ice bucket, attempting to straighten the picture of the
iris that I didn't have the heart to tell him was probably bolted to the wall.
He seemed utterly lost, his forehead crinkling between bushy eyebrows. Finally,
he said, "I can't stay here."
    "We'll call down and get you your own room in a minute," Grandma
said, tossing her backpack onto the bed closest to the door.
    He reddened. "Oh, no. I have to find Serena."
    "Right," Grandma said, watching me.
    "Someone left us a present!" Pirate jammed his nose into the snack
basket next to the television.
    I dug through my bag and put on an extra shirt. "Is Phil going to be
okay?" He was going downhill fast. At least I hoped my uncle didn't
routinely sprinkle dust from his pockets while calling for she-demons.
    "Don't worry," Grandma said. "He can booty call her until he
loses his mind for good. Which he might unless we fix him. But either way,
there's no way a succubus can get up here. Too many wards."
    "What if she has friends?" I said, thinking about the creepiness
downstairs.
    "Yeah, let's fix this," Grandma said, rifling through her pack and
pulling out a pair of fat crimson candles.
    She raked one of the candles against Phil's fingernails, like a cat on a
scratching post. My poor uncle merely mumbled as he watched the wax curl from
under his nails and fall to the aqua carpet. Whatever hold Serena had on him
was affecting his brain. I didn't know how long a person could hold on in those
kinds of conditions, but I didn't want to find out.
    Grandma spared a glance at Phil, before focusing once again on her task.
"Watch and learn," she said to me. "I'm going to open the
pathway before we cut him loose." Her voice dropped. "Then you can
use that demon slayer mojo of yours to see what's gone wrong in this city."
She eyed me from my uncomfortable leather pants to the
Don't Mess with
Texas
T-shirt I'd tossed over my lavender bustier. "Look. Don't
touch. We only want information."
    I nodded, tucking my hair behind my ears. It's not like I could take on
every succubus in Vegas.
    Grandma dumped the clawed-up candles on the bed and unscrewed the top of the
silver eagle ring on her middle finger.
    Not possum tongue again. "Is this for Phil's ceremony?" I asked.
    A girl could hope.
    Grandma dug put a finger full of rust-colored pulp. Maybe she was going to
lend her stinky power to