Free Demetrius by Marie Johnston

up. There was a gaping smoldering hole in the floor where her father’s remains should’ve been.
    The blue blazed in her eyes when she turned to him. “We could’ve have saved him!”
    Insulted she thought he killed indiscriminately, he ignored her comment. She just lost her only family. “Where’s all his information?”
    Callista blinked at him, not comprehending the subject change.
    “The documents he hid from you,” he pressed. “Any information he or your mother used to summon Malachim. Where might they be?”
    “The library,” she mumbled, her eyes wandering back to the hole in the floor.
    “Where?”
    Numbly, she pointed down the hall. He recognized the deviation in her demeanor. She was going to go into shock. The last ten minutes sunk in and her mind was rebelling. He needed to do something.
    He grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind him. She stumbled, not putting much effort into her movements, yet he continued his relentless pace. There were others involved in all of this and he didn’t know who, but he felt it imperative they gather as much as they could and leave as soon as possible.
    She tried stopping, but he tugged her along. She yanked her hand out of his.
    “No, wait. His room. I’ve already checked the library. His room and the cabinets in his office.”
    Demetrius didn’t want to split up, but it’d be the smart thing to do. Unless her mind shut down and he found her collapsed in Edgar’s office. “His room first.”
    Callista nodded and backtracked back out to the main area. She stiffly avoided looking at the floor and headed around the circular path to another hallway.
    “His office is across from his bedroom.” She might be holding up, but not for long.
    Following her into the dark bedroom, neither one of them turned on the light. She searched the nightstands and he ransacked the closets. Dumping bins and boxes, he found nothing that screamed “Demons for Dummies.” He grabbed the last container and dumped it. Photos.
    One caught his eye. Edgar, a fair beauty, and a little blonde girl sat on the steps of the mansion. A happy family photo. A happy little girl.
    Sliding the picture under the pile, he buried the rest of them back into the box. It would do Callista no good to see any of it.
    She finished searching his dressers and peeked under the bed. Dropping down, she slithered under the bed. Demetrius waited by the closet. She was still in that damn dress and he didn’t need to get hard watching her wiggle on the floor. Not minutes after he’d killed her father.
    Rolling back out from under the bed, she rose on her knees—again, another image he needed to pretend he didn’t see—and threw a large book up onto the bed. “I found something.”
    Now that one screamed ancient, dark textbook.
    “I’ll carry it. We need to search the office.” He grabbed the book and tucked it under his arm. The thing must’ve weighed ten pounds.
    She rushed out the door and disappeared into another room.
    “I looked through the desk earlier this week.” She gestured to the wall of cabinets. “All of those are locked. We have to find the keys.”
    “No need.”
    He handed the book off to Callista. Aiming a fist at one set of doors, he punched it.
    And fuck, that hurt. But it loosened the bolts enough he could pry his fingers behind the door and rip it off. He did that for all five locked cabinets. His bloodied knuckles throbbed. He had no time for the pain. The skin and any damaged bones would heal soon enough.
    They ripped documents from the shelves, scanning them quickly, discarding them just as quickly. Callista’s father had saved everything: receipts, ledgers, bills, notifications.
    “Here.” Callista paged through a small leather bound notebook. “It was my mother’s.”
    She tossed it to him and grabbed another notebook. A folded piece of paper fell out. He snatched it before it hit the floor, handing it back to her to ensure they had everything—not because he had an