Free Demon's Triad by Anna J. Evans, December Quinn

throat before she passed out last night. Hell, she might lose it anyway if she had to keep moving this fast.
    “Mom, please, stop it, I can explain,” Aleeza said, crawling into the corner and cowering there with her arms across her face. She had no idea if she could explain or not but hoped the words would penetrate her mother’s rage. Mona hadn’t struck her in years, not since she was about twelve and tall enough to fight back, so whatever had pissed her off must be serious business indeed.
    “If I’d thought you were going to try something like this, there ‘s no way in hell I would have given you the root. What were you thinking? Have you lost what little sense you were born with?” Mona ran a frantic hand through her hair, revealing eyes shot through with red.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aleeza snapped. The sense she was born with? That must be from her father’s side since Mona was about as sensitive as your average parole officer.
    “You’re in heat!” Mona screamed the words loud enough to stir the birds nesting in the old tin roof above the shed.
    “What?” Aleeza laughed and immediately regretted it when her mother delivered another kick in her direction. It made contact with her shin, but Mona had lost the driving force of her anger so it didn’t hurt—much.
    “I’m betting you’ll ovulate in the next few days, and you’re practically vibrating with sex energy. If the sperm is still viable, you could get pregnant!”
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    Anna J. Evans & December Quinn
    “What?” Aleeza tried to smile, to pretend her mother had finally lost it, but the lump that had suddenly taken up residence in her throat made it difficult.
    “Pregnant, and with goddess knows what,” her mother said, sinking to the cot and dropping her forehead into her trembling hands.
    Goddess…what had she done? Aleeza hadn’t even thought about contraception, and especially hadn’t bargained on Mona’s particular breed of reproductive magic leading to her discovery. She’d thought she would be safe here or at least safer than she would have been at her own apartment.
    The entire building had been touched by black magic, not enough to leave an obvious stain, but the slight stink of it had left Aleeza nauseous and more than a little concerned. Was the blackness new? Placed there by some force that knew what she had done and was eager to make contact? Or had it been there for months, going unnoticed until she approached the building with Dorand’s borrowed power held within her? The white light had begun to glow the instant she set foot on her block and practically burned a knot in her stomach when she’d tried to mount the steps to her apartment.
    It was already four in the morning by that time, so Aleeza had taken her Taco Hut takeout and driven across town to camp out in Mona’s shed. She’d thought she’d be safe there, at least until morning when the hard light of day might offer some answers.
    But she should have known better. She hadn’t been safe at Mona’s when she was a relatively innocent little kid and she wasn’t safe here now. She had to get out and find someone who might really be able to offer some help.
    “Listen, Mona. I think you just had a hard night. I was out late and yeah, I did try to hook up with a couple of guys—”
    “A couple?”
    “But nothing happened,” Aleeza continued, ignoring the shame that tried to rear its head at Mona’s shocked expression. So she had considered fucking two men at the same time. So what? It wouldn’t have hurt anyone. Could Mona say the same about all of her decisions? “We’re cursed, remember? They were out cold before contraception could even become an issue.”
    “Do you think I’m stupid?”
    “Mom—”
    “No really,” Mona interrupted, tears in her eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid? I know you’ve always thought I was a shitty excuse for a mother, and a bitch who ran away your precious Daddy, but do you actually believe