I dressed and redid my bun slowly between Sawyer’s languid, searing kisses. It was the perfect way to keep stalling the inevitable trip to the graveyard. The thought of going there again after what had happened last night threatened to eat up my courage and rot out my confidence in myself. I couldn’t let it, though. I refused to let it.

“We can’t come with you tonight,” Sawyer said, his eyes alight with desire once again as he cupped my face in his large hands. “Demons repel us, but we’ll be there in spirit with the things you’ll find on the kitchen table.”

I frowned. “Pie and coffee?”

“Those things and other things.” He kissed me again, almost to the point of senselessness. “I need a quick shower before I start my next shift on the phone.”

“You’ll think of me during your shower?”

With a smile, he guided my hands down the expanse of his tattooed chest and then lower to his straining cock between us. I wrapped my fingers around it and stroked, my tingling body echoing his shudders.

He threw his head back with a groan and covered my hands with his so we both jacked him off. “I’ve thought about you since the first time I set eyes on you, Belle. And I’ll continue to think about you every damn minute until I die a second time.”

I heaved a shaky breath as my body ignited for rounds two, three, and four with him all at once. All of my vamps dripped with sexual appeal, and I wanted to lap every bit of it up a thousand times over. But not right now. Sawyer and I both had important jobs to do, and mine was starting to itch at my feet and cramp my gut. Time to go.

Grinning, I sauntered out of his bedroom, my hips punching the air and leaving a trail of desire and sunshine in my wake. “See that you do.”

On the kitchen table, I found my cup of coffee and slice of apple pie, both of them somehow still steaming hot. Next to them were three gift-wrapped presents, along with a sealed envelope with my name on it. The letter inside it read:

Belle,

Happy birthday from the three of us.

Eddie, Jacek, and Sawyer

P.S. We’re also giving you a key to our house for daytime, or anytime. No pressure.

A weightless, giddy feeling pushed at my heart.  I grinned so big I probably cracked my eardrums. They were giving me a key to their house. A key to them at all hours. It was what I’d always wanted, and I hadn’t even known them a week ago.

Now I just had to figure out how to turn the devil down, live to tell about it, and defeat Paul before my next birthday. It sounded so easy in the safety of this house.

I pocketed the key that had been inside the envelope and then tore into the wrapped packages, my fingertips buzzing. Inside the first one rested a seraph knife, similar to the one in Eddie’s book. It lay on red velvet, the silver blade twisting into a lethal curve. Next to it sat a black leather holster. The brief note from Eddie read:

The holster is meant to be worn right around the sweet spot where I bit you.

All my love, Sunshine

Eddie

I shook my head in disbelief. Had they all brought me presents? I set the box aside and picked up the second one. Inside was a pair of boxing gloves with a note from Jacek:

IT’S TIME TO BRAWL!

xoxo

Jacek

I laughed and picked up the third package. It held a gorgeous silver and glass pendant in the shape of an eye. The note read:

Let your slayer sense guide you tonight. Happy birthday, Belle.

Sawyer

Tears burned the backs of my eyes at how thoughtful and perfect their gifts were, and not just the ones in the boxes. I clasped the necklace around my neck near Sawyer’s bite, fastened the holster and knife around my upper thigh near Eddie’s bite, and stuffed the boxing gloves in my duffel bag since I couldn’t exactly slay with them on. Though I was tempted to try...

My three bites tingled, as if I needed any more reminding of them. They were all neat bites, too, hardly there at all unless I looked closely. Definitely not like the hickeys given to me by my downstairs neighbor. I just hoped they were enough to thwart the devil and his demon tonight.

Now that I’d procrastinated enough, the bottoms of my feet were itching like they were about to catch fire and my head was starting to ache. Time to go. Ready or not. No time for pie or coffee.

Fuck.

I pulled open the door and locked it behind me with my brand new key.

Let your slayer sense guide you tonight, Sawyer had written. Well, it was leading me to the graveyard, as it always did, but this time dread spiked my pulse and my breaths hung inside my chest.

Would Paul be there? Or would he give it a rest since it was Halloween? This had always been a slow night for me in terms of vampires, but I couldn’t be sure dark unknowns played by the same rules. Plus, I didn’t think I had it in me to battle him and a demon. Last night had almost done me in on a psychological level, and I never, ever, wanted a redo.

Also, I still didn’t know if I was tainted enough to get rid of the devil. Sure, I could kill his demon with the seraph knife, but another one would pop up in its place. Could I make a different deal? That probably wouldn’t end well. Sell my soul? I kind of liked having one. Box the demon with Jacek’s gloves until it gave up? That plan sounded like the most fun.

If it came to a demon boxing match, I supposed I was ready in terms of equipment. In terms of actual boxing skill, I was screwed.

The night was strangely quiet and still, the lack of a breeze smothering the air with a heavy feeling. No static noise even without the cotton. No disembodied voices making me do things I didn’t want to.

As I strode toward the cemetery gates, my steps stuttered and a bitter taste soured my mouth. Yellow crime scene tape had been looped between the metal bars, and a heavy-duty lock hung from the latch.

Cold sweat rolled down my back as I set my duffel bag down, my limbs weighted with guilt. Why hadn’t I warned Tim to stay away at night? I could’ve offered to drop off his thermos if I noticed he’d forgotten it. I could have prevented his murder.

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself not to lose it. Not right now.

With shaky hands, I pulled the stake free from the bun on top of my head and crashed it down onto the lock. It dropped to the ground, and the gate swung inward on silent hinges. Tim had always kept them well-oiled. He’d put his heart and soul into the care of the final resting place for the dead.

As I replaced the stake through my hair and pulled the seraph knife from my thigh holster, I swept over the path, searching for any sign of spit-shined dark shoes, a brimstone-scented suit, or a bowling shirt and scraggly long hair. Anything that shouldn’t be here. My stomach curdled at the sight of more crime scene tape near the middle of the graveyard, and I quickly averted my gaze.

Focus. I needed to focus on tonight, and then I could wallow in guilt if I made it through.

Maybe I’d lucked out and the devil had traded me for someone who actually cared about the state of their fingernails and didn’t wear their hair in a messy bun all day, every day. A slayer could dream.

But before I could declare a victory and call it a night, at precisely 11:59 p.m. according to my Mickey Mouse watch, a ring of fire ignited in the middle of the graveyard. Out of it rose the demon with hellfire licking at his suit.

His red eyes gleamed when they zeroed in on me and he smiled. Red lava boiled underneath the ridges on his face, crisping his mouth black. “Happy birthday, Belle Harrison.”

I sighed. “Let’s skip to the end, okay? I’m not coming with you, same as four days ago. Nothing’s changed.”

Except everything had.

His smile didn’t falter. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

I widened my stance, running through everything Jacek had taught me in the back of my mind, readying myself to go on the defensive if offensive didn’t work. “That depends on your perspective.”

“I can assure you this will be easy.” The fire in his eyes blazed brighter as he charged toward me.

This was it. My pulse thrummed. He was going to try to make my choice for me. I held my ground, attempting to appear calm when I was anything but since I’d never fought a demon before.

He made a grab for my arm, his face twisted in a scowl, at the same I lashed out with the knife. I ducked. He didn’t. He lunged back, clutching the inside of his wrist. Heavy smoke curled up from the gash, and oily black blood poured out.

“A real seraph knife?” He gazed at me, bewildered. “Where did you get that?”

I grinned. “Want me to show it to you again?”

He shook out his hand, wincing, and looked as though he might turn tail and scurry back to hell. He even backed away a step and glanced over his shoulder at the hell portal since he knew I had a weapon that could kill him. Not going to lie, I didn’t expect this to be so easy.

He flashed his hand out, but I bobbed and weaved around him, just like Jacek had taught me.

The demon’s black lips peeled back as if he weren’t expecting such strong opposition. “Are we going to do this all night? You’ll be the queen of hell, Belle Harrison.”

“We’ll do this for as long as it takes you to hear my hell no answer.” I lashed out with the knife again, but this time he was fast enough to lunge out of the way. While I righted my balance, he snaked behind me in a flash and yanked my hand up behind my back.

The ridges in his skin bubbled heat up through mine, needling pain up and down my nerves wherever he touched. He shoved me toward the fiery pit.

I kicked my foot behind me into his ankles to drop him to the ground, then leaped on him with my knife raised. His fist caught me in my chin and shot darkness across my vision. Dazed, I rolled off of him. He slammed his shiny shoe into my side and sent me face first into the dirt.

Dude could fight. This wasn’t going as planned.

I hauled myself to all fours while I sucked in a breath that hurt more than it should have. He dragged me the rest of the way to my feet by my Pebbles stake wedged into my bun. I swayed to the side as if he’d clocked me too good, but nah.

I was the slayer.

With my hand tightened into a fist, I let it fly. It dug into his face, and he flew backward toward the fire pit, back where he’d come from. He landed hard next to it.

Gripping my knife tightly, I marched toward him to finish the job. His leg zipped out and kicked the knife out of my hand. Panic jolted through me as I made a mad grab at it, which was the wrong thing to do. During my nanosecond of preoccupation with the knife, he surged to his feet and dragged me forward by my bun. His other hand gripped my neck tight enough to cut off speech.

No! I bucked and twisted and clawed at his hands. Even his gaping wound leaking black blood. Especially his gaping wound.

He didn’t let me go. Just tightened his hold so several hairs broke free from my scalp. My eyes stung at the pain as I continued to rip and claw and tear at him. The hellish pit was just a foot away.

I couldn’t reach the knife, so I snatched a stake from my boot. Before I could jam it into his flesh, the stake incinerated, turning to black ash in my hands. I plucked free the one threaded through the belt loops of my jeans, but the same thing happened to it. Gone. My last one, other than the one in my hair that he gripped.

The heat from the hell portal singed my back. We were so close, close to another life I didn’t want, Paul or no Paul. But now I did have a life I wanted, one with my three vamps. With them at my side, I could take on anything. Even Paul. Even this scummy demon.

Focus with your slayer sense.

The three bites on my body buzzed with energy.

Hellfire from the portal licked past the demon to blister my hands and shoulders. I had seconds before he took me with him. I closed my eyes against the heat and my fear and focused.

Three faces flitted through my head in vibrant detail. My three bites sang with electrical pulses.

The demon cried out and threw me away from him as if I had the zombie plague, rubbing the fingers that had dug into my neck. His red gaze snagged on my wrist and the fang marks there, so faint I could barely see them. Then he flicked his eyes to the bite on my neck, now uncovered since my leather jacket was in disarray.

A look of pure disgust tightened his expression. “You’ve been tainted! You let a vampire bite you?” he shouted. “A slayer? What is wrong with you?”

“Three different vampires, actually. And there’s nothing wrong with me. There’s more right with me than there has been in a long time.” Except for my ribs. My ribs were very wrong. They bit painfully into my side and made my breathing sound like I’d inhaled rocks.

“I can’t take a whore to the devil as his bride.” He sounded hysterical.

“That’s a tad judgmental for the likes of a demon, don’t you think?” I grinded out, holding my sides together as I stumbled to my feet.

A grimace pinched his crispy mouth. “I call it like I see it. His Majesty won’t be happy.”

“Well... Give him this for me.” I threw a punch at his demonic face.

He toppled into the hell portal, and it sealed up after him.

I swayed on my feet and blinked down at the solid ground. Had that really just happened? Had I really just successfully rejected the devil for good?

“And that, ladies and gentleman, is how it’s done,” a familiar voice said from behind me.

Jacek.

I turned and stared at my three vamps striding through the graveyard toward me. They were a gorgeous sight, especially since I thought I might fall over.

Jacek came to stand next to me, close enough that I could lean on him for support. He slid one arm protectively around my back and crossed his other in front of him to take my hand.

Sawyer came around to my other side and gripped my other one, his dark curls fluttering out from behind his ears in a sudden breeze.  “We were standing as close as we could. We saw the whole thing. You did fantastic.”

Eddie stepped up in front of me, his glasses pinched up on his nose with a look of concern as he looked around the cemetery, probably for Paul. He was here, but not too close. I could sense it, though not with the regular five.

Jacek grinned. “Are you ready to slay?”

“Well...first, I might need a couple new ribs because I don’t have insurance,” I said, wincing. They would heal quickly, but still. I didn’t even have dental.

I gazed at each of my vamps’ faces while I stood there like a lunatic, too overcome with relief and gratitude to do anything else. Tears trickled down my cheeks, and I let them.

“I don’t regret my decision to turn down the devil,” I finally choked out. “I choose to continue being the slayer, no matter what. And I choose the three of you.” I looked to Eddie. “I wish I had three hands, one for each of you to hold.”

“Someone has to carry your duffel bag and seraph knife, and I’m a pretty good carrier.” Eddie leaned in for a quick kiss, a frown still cupping his perfect mouth. “He’s here, isn’t he? Paul? The air feels...off.”

I nodded. “He’s close. Probably strategizing a new plan. I could really use all of your help with him.”

“Of course.” Jacek said with a smile. “That’s a given.”

“The first step in defeating a monster is to become the monster.” Sawyer glanced at me, his gaze hard and full of the memories that haunted him.

Jacek leaned down to whisper, his lips tickling my ear. “But first, a birthday celebration. I hear there’s cake.”

I could get behind cake. Always.

Jacek and Sawyer squeezed my hands as Eddie retrieved my duffel bag, and we followed him out of the cemetery toward our new future. Together. No matter what it might bring.

And it would bring my next birthday, despite the fact that no other slayer had reached the age of twenty-one.

With the help of my vampires, I could defend my body, mind, and soul night after night for a whole year. I could become the monster that could defeat a monster.

Game on, Paul.

––––––––

The End of Book 1