Free demon slayer 05.5 - the tenth dark lord a leaping by angie fox Page B

have my limits, and a fifteen-foot-tall adolescent dragon was one of them. “I’ll make a plate for you to take out to him.”
    Pirate cocked his head. “Better make it two. I might get hungry on the way down.”
    Before I could answer, he dashed toward the front door, where a witch named Ant Eater, built like a battering ram, stood staring up at the mistletoe. She let a pig in a blanket slide off her plate, and I’m not even sure it hit the carpet before Pirate had it.
    The door banged open, and Crazy Frieda, with her blond hair stacked high, charged inside with a half-dozen more witches. Her eyes were wild. She’d forgotten her coat. She stood, chest heaving under an avalanche of green-and-red holiday costume jewelry, looking almost as if she were surprised to see us there.
    Ant Eater ran a pig in a blanket through the thick glob of ketchup on her plate. “Haven’t you people ever heard of knocking?”
    My thought exactly. Frieda rubbed her hands on her white leather pants and just stood there, as if she were looking straight through us.
    “Hey,” I said, walking up next to her. “Are you okay?” I took her arm. Yes, she was wearing a sleeveless zebra-print top, but her skin was ice cold.
    She stumbled a little on her platform heels. She was shaking. “It’s my son. He’s going to kill himself.”
    I didn’t even know Frieda had a son.
    Ant Eater towered over her. “You heard from Bruce? Where is he?”
    Tears flooded Frieda’s eyes. “He got ahold of me right before I left,” she burst out. “And I’m not sure where he is. He didn’t say.”
    Ant Eater cursed.
    Frieda bypassed her and headed toward Grandma. “For ten years he’s cut himself off from me. He never told me why. Now I get this.” She held out a crumpled piece of loose-leaf paper.
    Grandma met her halfway. “Let me see.”
    Dimitri joined us, wrapping a hand around my waist. Grandma held up the paper for us to see as well. On it was scrawled
    Nothing was your fault, Mom.
    I never stopped loving you.
    I thought we could fix this all someday, but I was wrong.
    Please don’t blame yourself.
    I didn’t like to think it, but it really did sound like a final good-bye. And I knew better than to question the blond biker witch’s instincts.
    Frieda wrapped her hands around her chest, as if she could ward off her fear. “I don’t know what’s going on with my baby. He made it clear he never wanted to see me again.” She braced herself. “No mind, though. I am going to find him. I’m going to save him.” Only it was clear she didn’t know how.
    Grandma nodded, thinking. “He still in the Dark Lords motorcycle gang?”
    Frieda took the note back from her, folding it like it was a precious relic. “Yes.” She shook her head. “Last I knew anyway.”
    Ant Eater’s jaw tightened. “That’s the trick. Nobody quits the Dark Lords gang.” She said it as if he’d joined the supernatural mob. Hell, maybe he had.
    Grandma nodded. “Okay. Fine,” she said, giving a knowing glance to Ant Eater. “Then we know where he is tonight.”

CHAPTER TWO
    We gunned our Harleys and took to the streets, out toward the desert. The night was cold, with absolutely no moon. Our headlights scanned dry desert rock and scrub, and the occasional glow of a coyote’s eyes.
    We rode until we hit the base of the San Gabriel Mountains near Bear. The last time I’d been up here, we’d gotten stuck in a time-warp hippie commune. Never again. Although as a demon slayer, I knew better than to make that kind of a statement.
    Scrabbly evergreens rose up on either side of us. My front tire skidded in a patch of ice, and I made a mental note to be extra careful. I shifted in my seat, feeling the chill of my leather weapons belt. It had been a gift when I’d first come into my powers. No matter what, the belt seemed to hover at about eighty-five degrees. No one knew why.
    We climbed up a steep embankment that zigzagged straight up into the night, before Grandma