outer demon wars 01 - comic book demon by emily cyr Page A

think. Not think about Carl, not think about Mom. Even the brief thought of the word mom made my walls come crashing down. It had been six months since she’d died. 
    Everything was so raw, so new. I felt as if I was some kind of unfeeling automaton. I walked and talked as if everything was normal, but it wasn’t. Inside, I was made of acid. I was boiling and seething, ready to spew or explode at any moment. I was alone now. My dad had left when I was six, and my mother refused to tell me anything about him. I didn’t really remember much. So, it had just been her and me—the two of us taking on the whole world. Or at least it had been. 
    The sound of the small bell dinging brought me back to the present. I glanced in the direction of the new customer and nearly tripped over my tongue as it rolled out onto the counter. The man was tall. Wowzers, kind of tall. NBA tall. I was only about five-foot-four on a good day, so this guy had to be six foot six, easy. However, it wasn’t his height that really made him stand out. It was his fiery red hair. I had always wanted ginger hair, but my thick black mane made coloring, other than non-natural colors, impossible. Hence why, at the moment, it was black fading into blue then purple. 
    His eyes were nearly a glowing blue, and they met my bright green ones. He walked right over to me as though he had known I would be there. 
    No, that can’t be right . I had never seen him before in my life. I sure as shit would have remembered if I had. 
    “Are you Annabelle Franklin?” 
    I winced at my father’s last name. I had sworn my whole life I would get the money to change it to my mother’s, but had never gotten around to it. Red’s first language was not English, or at least I didn’t think it was. What it was I had no idea, but the way he spoke led me to believe he had practiced the four-word question. 
    “Uh, yeah. And you are?” I was mystified. Who is this ape?  
    He didn’t answer, just smiled. A predatory smile that sent a shiver up my spine. I took an instinctive, save-your-ass step back from the counter. Again, my attention flipped to the small bells dinging on the front door. Red’s gaze was also on the door. In walked a god. I mean, I seriously had no other way to describe him. He was slightly shorter than Red, maybe six four. What he lacked in height, if you can call it that, he made up for in brawn. I bet he could bench press Red. 
    The new man had chocolate brown, shaggy hair, but in that I-just-slept-with-you kind of way. He had bright green eyes much like mine. The angles of his face were sharp, and his jaw was set in a hard white line. His lips were angled down, but oh man, they were plump. I felt my hand rise to my mouth wondering what his would feel like brushing against mine, but I dropped my hand as soon as his eyes connected with my own. My heart beat wildly in my chest. I felt as if I knew him.
    “Gregus, back away from her,” the new man called to Red—Gregus.
    “I do not fear you, guardian,” he spat the words as though they were something distasteful. 
    The guardian grew more incensed, if that was possible. His sun-kissed skin seemed to grow darker, and he grew bigger. Gregus backed up until his ass hit the counter. He was way too close, so I sidestepped several steps to put some much-needed distance between myself and the men. 
    “Um, look, this is my cousin’s store. So if you two have beef with each other, you need to take it outside.” My voice was small, but at least it didn’t shake like the rest of me. 
    Both men looked at me, and nearly at the same time, dismissed me. I put my hand on my hip and stuck out a foot. It wasn’t the picture of force I had hoped for, but it was all I had. 
    Just as I was about to lay into the two with the force of a tsunami, the guardian spoke to me.
     “Princess, I need you to get down and take cover.” 
    My eyes widened. I’m sorry, did he just call me a princess? No. I had not heard him