Page 27 of Hellfire to Come (Infernal Regions for the Unprepared #5)

No, scratch that. That was for humans. The real lesson was: don’t drink and pretend you’re something you are not.

Like, acting like a badass witch when you have zero magic.

Take it from me because it’ll destroy your life.

Although that was neither here nor there, when it came to me, since I was screwed the day I popped out of my mother’s vagina.

She died during childbirth, most probably out of disappointment. I kid you not.

I was a dud born in the most powerful bloodline of witches in the world.

How was that for a sap story?

“Hey, buddy,” I called out like we’re the best of friends. “Get back down here before you hurt yourself and I get blamed for it. What do you say?” The Kishi demon cocked his head and eyed me like I’d lost my mind. Poor schmuck had no idea that ship had sailed years ago.

My foot wobbled in my designer ankle boots when I took a step forward, and I did an awkward shimmy-wiggle-swan-dive before I regained my balance. It was what happened when you drank one too many Manhattans and answered a call from your coven to deal with a demon selling illegal merchandise.

“Damn you! If I scratch my boots I’m going to skin you alive just to make myself a new pair.

I should’ve just stayed in the damn bar.

” The racket of a paint can crashing to the floor and rattling around applauded my muttering.

It also stabbed my brain, which was pounding like a shifter in heat when a willing body accidentally stumbled in front of his dick.

Don’t ask me how I know this, because as brutally honest as I am, I’m not going to tell you.

iPhone held in front of me the same way those pompous asses from the Magi Police waved their badges around, I pointed the flashlight right into the creep’s eyes.

It screeched like a banshee and scattered further into the darkness while I hissed curses at it.

Luckily for the demon, none of them would be taking root, because … no magic, duh.

What took my coven mates so long to get to the warehouse? If this was a party they’d be lining up at the door since yesterday. As I looked around the dirty warehouse and the misty odor of congealed blood and decaying bodies made my stomach roll, I couldn’t say I blamed them.

The fact that Kishi demons had an attractive human face on the front and a hyena’s face on the back of their skull was the least of my problems. Kishi demons used their human face as well as their smooth, luring voice and other tricks to attract unassuming idiots— which I definitely was not, shut it I’m not!

—and then they proceeded to eat them with their deformed jaws.

That would’ve been fine and dandy if they kept it under wraps, but this one also made an entire collection of body parts to sell on the magical black market.

Quite a smart trick when the market was scarce, but not such a great idea for this guy, because he was dumb enough to get caught.

That was if I managed to hold him back until the others got to the warehouse.

With all the alcohol in my blood system, I got this like a hot potato in a bare hand.

Witches more than other supernaturals paid good money for body parts like the ones stacked all the way to the ceiling in the large building, although nobody liked to talk about it.

It was that pink elephant in the room we all ignored.

No delusions clouded my mind that my coven would “confiscate” the evidence in the warehouse without blinking an eye.

I was basically standing in the middle of a gold mine.

The pentagram tattoo on the side of my forefinger tingled, an annoying reminder when my body thought I should be using magic, as adrenaline raced through my veins. My meat suit never got the memo we were shooting blanks. We were as impotent as Mike, my coven’s administrator, according to Sissily.

“Go away witch, or die,” the demon cooed, his alluring voice gliding over my skin like a caress and leaving goosebumps in its wake.

“Aww, you actually think I’m a witch.” My eyelashes fluttered in his general direction as I stumbled deeper into the warehouse. “How adorable,” I deadpanned, a serious expression on my face that froze him in his tracks.

Silence followed.

“Ah, you are the useless one.” His face poked through the shadows before he fully emerged to sneer at me from over ten feet up, crouched like a gargoyle on the rafters. “I’ve heard of you. Pathetic.” He dismissed me, as his full lip curled over a row of flat, white teeth.

I hated sneering. It reminded me too much of the looks on my coven mates every time they stared in my direction.

Shaking my head to regain my focus, I swallowed hard when the alcohol tried to come up.

All I had to do was keep the hellspawn from escaping until reinforcements arrived, but he was pushing his luck.

Even a dud could do that if said dud was not a little drunk and teetering on six-inch heels.

I eyed my precious boots for a split second, considering using them as a weapon and chucking them at his head, but I changed my mind.

Like hell I would mess up a good pair of designer boots for a stupid demon.

The choice was taken from me when he decided to try a trick called monkey in a circus and sailed through the air, aiming his body straight at me.

My phone jerked to follow the arch of the jump, and I had one second of an “oh shit” moment before our bodies collided.

Never mind me, my iPhone flew from my fingers, crashed on the concrete floor with a resounding crack, and I heard my silk shirt rip at the shoulder when we tumbled on the dirty concrete floor. I just bought that phone.

I saw red.

Fingers hooked like claws, I went straight for his eyes when he tried to straddle me.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware that if he bit me the poison from his kind would kill me in less than an hour, but I had liquid courage, louder than the alarm bells cheering me on.

The demon didn’t expect me to claw at his eyes, so when my nails made squelching mush out of his eyeballs, his human face roared at me.

If I was in the right mind, I would be shaking in my skin.

As things were, he resembled a chihuahua nipping at my ankles to my muddled brain.

Wretchedly vile breath melted my makeup and I gagged, barely holding back the bile so I didn’t puke all over both of us.

“It’s called a toothbrush, asshole.” I hacked hard enough to cough out a lung while jamming my forearm in his throat to hold back his snapping jaws. The Kishi demon was trying to munch on my face, for fuck’s sake. “You should use it, damn you.”

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and, as much as it pained me, I had to sacrifice my boots.

My leg swung up like a slingshot, caught him on the side of the head, and he went down hard.

His head bounced off the concrete, and his skull cracked with enough strength to be heard over the heartbeat in my ears.

The air whooshing out of him satisfied my need to hurt him like he hurt my poor blouse.

It was also new and cost me an arm and a leg.

Using the time I had, I scrambled on my knees, yanked my poor boot off, and nailed him in the neck with the heel.

The demon gasped, probably still dazed from the kick, but apart from a few spastic jerks, he didn’t attempt to flee.

Or move again at all, but that would be semantics.

They might think that was how I found him.

Right.

With a sigh, I dropped on my haunches not a moment too soon before the solid thump of feet came from the entrance behind me.

Light jiggled up and down over the stacked shelving from the flashlight the person held, and I looked down my shoulder at the flipping piece of silk that used to be a soft olive color.

Dirt, sweat, and dried blood from the scrapes on my upper arm turned the silk some disgusting color of brown. I frowned at the flapping fabric.

“Hands up where I can see them,” the owner of the flashlight barked from behind me.

Great. Instead of my coven mates, I had to deal with a human cop. Just my luck for the night, it seemed.

“Do I look dangerous to you?” My head twisted so I could squint at him over my shoulder, and a bright light stabbed me in the brain like a pickaxe.

“Are you trying to blind me on purpose, or is this how you pick up chicks all the time? If they have a flashlight burning their retinas they can’t see your ugly face, huh?

” Oh yeah, I recognized the voice better than I should’ve.

“Hazel? What in God’s name are you doing here?”

“Getting a tan. You?” I chirped brightly and regretted it when acid filled my mouth. I would never drink again.

“Don’t be a smartass. I’m seriously asking what—” His words stopped when he noticed my ripped shirt and one bare foot, and he shuffled closer. I was pretty sure having my skirt bunched up around my hips and flashing the creases of my ass didn’t help, either. Goddess, I looked a mess.

“Are you hurt?” His hulking frame kept moving closer, sending my heart to gallop in my chest.

“No, wait.” My sudden shout stopped him in his tracks. “Stay there, Davon, you don’t want to get bitten.” Think Hazel, think.

“Bitten? What the hell, Hazel. Get away from there right now. What’s in there?” When a gun cocked, I knew the jig was up. If he saw the demon, there was no doubt in my mind I’d be in more trouble than I already was.

“It’s a dog, okay. Stay back because if you spook it, it’ll bite me. Then I’ll be pissed. Do you want that?” Where the hell was my coven?

“What kind of a dog?” Tone dripping with suspicion, his feet scraped the floor as he cautiously moved closer again. If he saw the Kishi starfishing it, not even my grandmother could cover the mess up.