Demons are Forever: Confessions of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom Read Online Free PDF

husband. He’d known me better than any person ever had or, I’d believed, ever would.
    There’s an intimacy to hunting, a bonding and a trust that has to be there if you’re going to step out together against the bad things in the world. I’d opened myself to that trust with David, and through that crack had swarmed a desperate melancholy. I’d done this with Eric, I’d thought. And this, and this.
    The memories and sadness had blindsided me, as fresh as that cold night when I’d first heard of Eric’s death.
    Those raw emotions had been painful enough. But when I’d started to suspect that David was more than Eric’s friend—that he was Eric himself—well, my emotions had whirled into a tailspin.
    I’d loved my life with Eric, but I also loved the life I now had. My fabulous daughter. My precious little boy. My wonderful husband who adores me despite the fact that I can’t cook worth a damn and have yet to figure out a method for ensuring that we all have clean laundry on any given day.
    The thought of hurting Stuart paralyzed me, and yet I couldn’t help but fear that I was on that very path—that merely by contemplating this David/Eric mystery, I was hurting him. If not in fact, then in my heart.
    For weeks now, I’d been balancing on a knife edge, desperately hoping that Eric had returned even while fearing that very same thing. Because if Eric really had escaped his body on that dark day in San Francisco, then he’d been a disembodied soul until the day several months ago when David Long wrecked his car. And that meant that when the “real” David died and his soul had departed, Eric had squeezed into his body using the exact same method that the demons use.
    Black magic, Eddie called it. And he was certain that no good soul could play with dark forces and come out unscathed.
    That wasn’t something I wanted to think about, much less believe, but I had to concede that the argument had merit. Still, David had helped me save Allie. He’d never done a thing to harm me. So maybe Eddie was wrong? Or maybe David wasn’t Eric at all, but simply the man he purported to be—a chemistry teacher who’d survived a nasty car wreck. A rogue Demon Hunter who used to be Eric’s friend, all those years ago.
    Or maybe the blackness in him was growing, and one day—when I’d need him most—David would turn on me.
    I shivered slightly, pushing away the thought. I had three things going for me in this life—my family, my strength, and my faith. Whether he was Eric or not, I believed that the man I knew as David was good. That he would never willingly harm me. I believed that with every breath in my body. And I held fast to that belief. Because without that faith— without that hope—I knew that I would be truly lost.
    But while I might trust David and long for Eric, that didn’t mean I was ready to learn the truth. I wasn’t. If David truly was Eric, I wasn’t ready for the ramifications—to Eric’s soul or to my family. And if he was simply David? Well, I wasn’t ready to give up the hope that somewhere— somehow—my Eric was still alive.
    So I’d done the only thing I could do—I’d avoided the problem by avoiding David.
    I should have known better. When you grow up in Forza Scura, you grow up knowing that the things you try hardest to avoid are the things that jump out at you in the dark.
    His footsteps quickened behind me, the padding sound of his shoes underscored by the tap of his cane. “Kate,” he called. “Katie, wait.”
    I kept walking.
    “Katie! Damm—” The curse died on his lips, but I heard him speed his pace. I considered taking off in a jog, decided that would be taking the coward’s way out, and turned to face him.
    “I don’t need help,” I said. “I’m fine patrolling on my own.”
    “Why do it on your own when I can help you?”
    “You’re not a Demon Hunter.”
    “The hell I’m not,” he answered.
    I stared him down. “You told me yourself you’re not with