The Price of Possession by Dakota Brown (phonics story books txt) 📕

"What the hell just happened?"

"You know, just dealing with unruly customers."I shrugged.

He gaped at me.

I ran my hand through my hair. "Yeah, so, uh, let'sjust not talk about that ever again, huh?"

"Did you just exorcise a demon?" Mandy rushedover.

Sabian and Rebecca came out of the kitchen, surveyingthe mess. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the incubus.

"No, that's ridiculous," I protested weakly.

"You saved us from the skinwalker," Rebeccawhispered.

I gave in. There was no covering this up from thestaff. "Demon, mate. Not a real skinwalker. Not sure I have the chops totake on one of those."

She simply stared back at me.

"Yeah. Okay, so, um, we're closed for the rest ofthe day," I raised my voice so everyone who wasn't right here could hearme.

"If you want to leave, you can. There's a bigbonus in it for anyone who sticks around and cleans this place up. Also, you'llget your normal wages, so, uh, yeah, thanks and all." I clenched my jaw. "Ifyou could keep quiet on all this, that'd be great."

The door chimed before any of them could answer.Deputy McClellan and another cop came in.

"This is becoming a habit," she declared.

"Hey, if I gotta do your job for you..." Igrinned to take any sting out of the words. There was no way they could handlethe demons normally.

She smiled back. "We appreciate it. What's thestory with this one?"

"Uh, came looking for..." I glanced aroundat my staff before sighing. "Came looking for me. Wanted help withsomething. Unfortunately, demon picked a bad day to ask me a favor and, well,went about getting my attention the wrong way."

She raised her eyebrows as her gaze swept the disasterthat was the restaurant. "If you figure out what it wanted, please let meknow."

"Will do."

They took the guy into custody and left me with mybewildered staff.

"Yeah, like I said. Let's just not talk aboutthat. And, uh, get this place clean. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again."

"For real?" Stacy stared at everythingbefore turning her attention back to me.

"Yeah. I got a friend who's good at wardingplaces. I'll get him to hook us up with some great demon preventatives." Igrinned, trying to ease their fears.

"You're an exorcist," Stacy stated.

"Yeah, I guess." I cleared my throat.

"That's so cool," she breathed.

"Uh..." I had no reply to that. Why werethey not freaking out more? Maybe they were in shock.

Sabian came up and put his arm around me. "It iskinda cool."

His heat lit me up and I groaned, leaning into him fora moment. Fucking incubus.

"Yeah, so, you heard the boss. Let's get you allcleaned up, and then get this place cleaned up." Billy clapped his handstogether.

That got them moving with a chorus of agreement.

I cocked my finger at Billy, gesturing for him tofollow me back to the office.

"That's going to take forever." I groaned asI viewed the destruction in the kitchen.

"Yeah. We'll get it done."

"Great, mate. So, pay everyone… twenty an hour toclean this mess up. Yourself included, on top of whatever they normally wouldhave made. And… is five hundred enough of a bonus to keep mouths shut and keeppeople from quitting?"

His eyes widened. "Yeah, that's really generous.Hell, we'd probably do it if you just threw us all one of the jean jackets."He referred to one of the merch items we sold occasionally. We had shirts andjean jackets with the pizza logo on the back.

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, you all can have oneof those, too. Get one for everyone, even if they weren't here."

"So, you're really an exorcist," Billy said.

"Yeah. I was. Had given all that up. Events arechasing me back into it, though."

"So, demons are actually real."

"Yeah."

He paled a little. "That's going to take somegetting used to."

"Try not to think about it. Not something youwant to get caught up in," I cautioned.

"Right. So, what do you think that was all about?"

Clearly not taking my advice.

"Probably related to the events trying to drag meback into the occult. Best to leave it at that. Hate to leave you with all ofthis, but I need to go check some stuff out. Call me if you need anything."

"Sure, Chris. I know you hate to clean."

I laughed. "Yep. Also, I really do need to checkinto a few things. Probably urgently."

Billy smiled and followed Sabian and me back out intothe dining area where the team was hard at work cleaning everything up. Wideeyed stares followed me as I headed toward the exit.

I hurried outside into the afternoon heat. My car wasparked in a small degree of shade, but it was still going to be hotter thanhell in there. Still, the leather jacket would protect me from burns, so I leftit on despite the sweat that beaded my brow and trickled down my back.

Sabian and I got in my car and dropped the windowswhile the AC cranked away. I still couldn't touch the steering wheel without itburning my hands, but I needed to get out of there. I needed to call Mal. Damnit. At least this time I had an excuse other than that I wanted to get laid.Felt a little less desperate, though the thought of running my hands over thosefirm muscles of his was making me pretty happy. Was it just Sabian's influence?Or was there something else there that was drawing me to the vampire?

The trip home didn't take too long. I shed my boots atthe doorway in case I had sauce on them that I didn't know about and hung myjacket on the hook.

Sabian did the same with his shoes and followed closeon my heels. I was practically vibrating, and I really needed some release. Hispresence behind me was like an electric charge and I wanted to throw myselfagainst him.

I pulled out my phone and stared at Mal's name in thecontacts before taking a deep breath and hitting call.

He answered quickly.

"Chris, how are you?"

Lord help me, he sounded really happy to hear from me.

"Oh, all right, I suppose. Hey, so we had a demonshow up at the pizza shop. I was wondering if you might be willing