Page 13 of Demon Demands

The last dagger grazed my cheek and ear as it whirled by my face. Dolyn stopped immediately, wincing.

“That’s a problem,” he muttered to himself, rubbing his right temple as he thought through solutions.

“It’ll get us through the hunt for Jack, though,” I softly reminded him. “I could have dodged that, Dolyn. Everyone that will be with us could dodge an attack like that.”

He hummed under his breath, nodding at me. “Tuck the talisman I gave you under your chest plate. Against your skin if you can.”

I pulled the coin-sized rock from my pocket and pressed it into my hidden cleavage. “Ready.”

“Lo,” he cautioned, “I’m going to use my powers. If that talisman works against me then I’ll ask some of the others to come in and try. I know it negates the incubus and succubus charm, but I haven’t tested anything else. Hyland threw a fit when I asked her to try her powers out on me.”

I heard his warning. I truly did. But again, I trusted Dolyn with my life.

Hyde and Dolyn’s mother had been a powerful succubus. They’d received both parental traits, though.

Dolyn’s dad was a nightmare. Hyde’s dad was a basilisk. I understood why she wouldn’t want to test that out on Dolyn. One look from Hyde could kill. Period.

I was the only person that I knew of who’d managed to come back after looking a basilisk in the eye, but my first run-in hadn’t been with Hyde or her father.

Another story for another day.

Dolyn was a Nightmare, just as his father, Peter, had been. He would turn into what you’re most afraid of. Luckily for me, Dolyn couldn’t turn into a shattered heart, and I was beginning to think that such a thing wasn’t my biggest fear anymore.

That fear was reserved for losing my family and my friends. My guys.

So, I did what any normal person would do. I worked on tricking the system. I thought really godsdamn hard about clowns.

I fucking hated clowns.

They terrified me in the most irrational way. And when Dolyn began to tremble, I knew that his talisman may work against some powers, but not all.

Fucking clowns. Really, Lo?

I hated myself for even putting the thought in my head. Why couldn’t I have thought about how much an octopus scared me, or better yet… a scarecrow?

There was something so unnerving about a scarecrow’s straw body and the way they were dressed to look like people standing in a field.

A shiver ran through my body as I focused once more on clowns. The too big smile, the unnaturally white makeup, that fucking flower that spat water in your face.

As Dolyn’s body changed in front of my eyes, I knew that he’d be disappointed, not with me, but with himself. His talisman wasn’t working like it should. He’d be back at his drawing board once Jack was safe.

When the clown in front of me laughed, a humorless and terrifying sound, I hurled a dagger at Dolyn. If I ever slept again, the few hours would be filled with that fucking laugh, and he knew it.

* * *

When Dolyn and I finally joined the rest of the group in the open expanse of his workshop, I wasn’t happy. Fucking clowns. Godsdamnit. I should have thought about starfish and butterflies.

The thing about a nightmare’s power was that if you were expecting it, you could make yourself believe that you were scared of almost anything. If you thought hard enough, you could mask your own true fears and have the nightmares reflect something easy to battle.

Maybe I should have thought about ladybugs or roses. I fucking hated roses too. They reminded me of the rose garden Dolyn’s mom used to covet. I especially hated white ones, because that’s all the bitch ever planted.

“...a few places he could be holed up,” Lucy was saying, but I missed most of it because… clowns and scarecrows and roses and, yeah, I should have stopped while I was ahead.

Novak turned to me, catching the ramblings left in my head before I clamped down on my inner monologue.

“How are you scared of clowns? All the shit you’ve done and do on a regular basis, and you’re scared of a... man in makeup?” He was fighting a smile, but I had no true answer for him.

At least, no true answer that didn’t involve a lie.