A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

angry, slamming the door shut. My brother dropped on the
sofa, laughing hard with tears in his eyes. I tilted my head to get a better
look.
    In his lap sat a cute, white Labrador
puppy, scratching at its stone-embedded, pink flea collar.

 
    ***

 
    The demon— Thrain —arrived
the next day, shortly after dark. I could smell him from a mile—incense
and heat mingling with the sweet scent of blood. Although I could never quite
shake off that gnawing sense of hunger that came whenever I picked up the scent
of blood, my stomach turned. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door before the
demon drove up the path in a shiny, black SUV with tinted windows.
    Thrain stepped out, a large grin playing on his lips. “Dude, what happened
to you? Someone pound on your face?” He appeared to be the dodgy male version
of Cass: tall with disheveled hair, dressed in tattered jeans and a crumpled
shirt.
    “Yeah, I was in a giant pillow fight. Come
on in.” I shook his hand and stepped aside to let him walk past.
    “ Yo , how hard
were those pillows?”
    I grimaced. Not only did he dress like
Cass, he also had her strange sense of humor. Must be a hell thing. As soon as
we entered the library, Clare’s gaze locked on Thrain ,
and she almost tripped over herself to greet him. “Hi there, I’m—”
    “An idiot,” Kieran said, rolling his eyes.
    Thrain grinned and shook Clare’s hand. “Well, hello, Miss Idiot.”
    She pointed at Kieran. “He’s the idiot. I’m
Clare.”
    “Okay, that’s enough,” I said. “So glad we
got the introductions straightened out.”
    “Cass said you needed my help?” Thrain dropped on the sofa and crossed his right ankle over
his left knee. Clare sat down next to him, enthralled by whatever she found so
attractive about his bad boy attitude, oblivious to the reek of ritual and
offerings wafting from him.
    Kieran sat next to me and leaned in to
whisper in my ear, “I don’t get it. What does Clare see in a guy who looks like
he doesn’t know how to commit, is narcissistic, self-absorbed, and in dire need
of shave?”
    I cocked a brow. “You realize you’re
describing yourself, right?”
    “Feel this face—not one stubble. Only
cavemen don’t shave. I admit, I might have one or two of those traits, but it’s
different.”
    I smirked. “You’re a diamond in the rough,
bro.”
    He shook his head. “Look at Clare. I know
what she wants with a dude like him—smoldering, volcanic passion. That’s
an easy fix. I can erupt any time she wants.”
    I laughed. He didn’t just say that. “Whoa,
too much information. That’s an image I don’t need seared in my mind for the
next hundred years.” I turned to Thrain who didn’t
seem to mind Clare’s gawking. “Thanks for coming. Cass probably told you we
need you to get us onto Shadow territory.” Kieran snorted and stared ahead, pissed
that he wasn’t the center of attention for a change. Blake lurked in the
corner, quiet as usual.
    Thrain nodded. “You’ve set yourself quite a goal, mate. That’s almost as
hard as entering hell without Lucifer noticing.”
    “We know that. Otherwise you wouldn’t be
here,” Kieran said. With his ego hurt, he didn’t seem to plan on turning his
hostility down a notch any time soon.
    I nudged him in the ribs and turned my
focus back on Thrain . “Can you do it?”
    Thrain laughed and winked at Clare. “Let’s go.”
    “We should have a plan, just in case he isn’t
trustworthy,” Kieran said.
    Thrain just shrugged and leaned back. No temper flares, no fighting
back—this wasn’t the usual behavior of a demon. I felt temped to just
jump up and go rescue Amber, but my brother had a point. We couldn’t burst in
there because we wouldn’t stand a chance against hundreds of armed Shadows.
    “You stay outside. I’m going in with him,”
Blake said. “I know how to deal with a demon.”
    I shook my head. “Not happening, Blake.
Rescuing Amber’s my responsibility.”
    “Trust your best friends,” Clare said. “We’ve
dealt with Shadows before. They wouldn’t hurt me. As Blake said, you wait
outside, just in case something goes wrong, but don’t get too close.”
    Clare was naïve to believe the Shadows
regarded her as some sort of friend. She always thought if she was friendly
enough everyone must like her. Even after her turning, she still didn’t
understand that by just being called a vampire, half of the paranormal world
watched her with distrust, and the other half