Free Valcour- Enchanted by a Demon (Hunted by Hellfie- Book 1) by Libby Sparks Page B

our date hadn’t been, you know, all about running for our lives.”
    “Brianna, I didn’t give you that.”
    That sent a little shock through her, tingles running up her spine and settling at the base of her neck, making the hair there stand up. “What do you mean, you didn’t send it to me?”
    “I didn’t send it.”
    “Jake, you had to. Who else knew I was at the ho—”
    The demons had. They’d been in the lobby, waiting for her and Jake. But if the demons had sent this to her, then…
    “Should I, maybe, get rid of this?” she asked, holding it now like she had a snake by the tip of its tail and it might coil around and bite her at any second.
    Jake stared at the necklace in silence. Then he shuddered as if he were coming out of a trance. “No. No, keep it. It’s a very old and powerful symbol among demons. It’s for protection.”
    “But if you didn’t send it, then who did? I can’t see those creeps you barbecued last night wanting to send me anything to protect me.”
    Jake just shrugged and settled back into his seat. “Someone must have had your best interests at heart.”
    Brianna took the necklace off again and looked at it, with its heavy oval pendant swinging lazy circles on the end of the chain. She’d had the thing with her, in her pocket, all of last night, and she’d been shot, chased, and terrified. In the end of it all, she had been put in the middle of an explosion that had killed two…well, two demons.
    But… she’d survived. So maybe there was something to this being her protection after all. It sure couldn’t hurt to hang onto it.
    So she put it back into her pants pocket and promised herself that she’d figure it out later. Right now, she had to get them started towards home.
    “So, how does this whole demon thing work, exactly?” she asked, putting the car in drive and heading for where the parking lot exited onto the highway.
    “I told you, that’s—”
    “Complicated.”
    “—complicated,” he said at the same time as she did. They both laughed and Jake playfully pushed at her shoulder. “Well, it is.”
    “Good thing we have a long drive ahead of us for you to explain it to me, then. You don’t have, like, horns or anything, do you?”
    “No, no horns. That is really stereotypical of you, by the way.”
    “What about a tail?” She sat and waited for traffic to go by with her signal light on.
    “You want to check me for one?”
    She nearly choked and pulled out quicker than she had meant to. A red pickup truck swerved to avoid her with tires squealing.
    She watched him out of the corner of her eye as she headed north on Route 169. A few miles down the road toward Interstate ninety, she finally found her voice.
    “I want you to tell me everything.”
    “Everything?”
    She nodded. “I think I’ve earned it, don’t you?”
    He leaned back, bracing his knee up on the dash. “Yeah, I suppose you have. You’re sure? Some of this…you might not want to know.”
    Brianna reached her hand out to hold his. He turned away from her but his hand held hers tightly. This wasn’t going to be easy for him. She could tell.
    “Hey,” she said, watching him and the road at the same time. He looked so vulnerable right now, sitting in her car, leaning up against the window. It was just like he was any young guy with issues. “We’ll take it slow, okay? Tell me what you want to. I can wait for the rest.”
    He didn’t turn away from the window but she saw the ghost of a smile. He took a deep, shaky breath, and began to talk. She knew he was holding some things back from her. But even so, it didn’t take her long to understand why he kept telling her that his life was complicated.
    Complicated didn’t begin to cover it.

Chapter 9
    Somewhere in the middle of Indiana Brianna stopped for gas. They pulled into a place that had twelve pumps standing ready outside a huge convenience store with a Mexican fast-food restaurant inside. It was a busy spot, with people