Demons in My Driveway Read Online Free PDF

instructions.
Due to the time zone differences, he was also the only one likely to be
awake.
    Can’t talk now. Keep Mom in the house when she gets up.
Do not let her outside for any reason. If he’s not already there, call Darius
and get him there ASAP. I’ll call when I can.
    Thirty seconds later, my phone vibrated with a return text.
    Got it. Be careful. Come home safe and soon.
    Maurice was rarely so brief. He was probably juggling all sorts
of security arrangements I would never have thought of. Even without an
explanation, Maurice was on top of things.
    If I ever lost him, I wouldn’t know what to do.
    Lord Chilford, meanwhile, addressed the pavilion of oddly
dressed characters from around the world. A steady murmur accompanied his words,
as translators echoed him in other languages.
    “For centuries,” he said, his gaze spread across the crowd, “we
have regarded one another with a rather cautious wariness. We hold these
meetings every half decade in order to strengthen friendships, share information
and release some of the tension that comes from our particular line of
business.”
    Mumbles and nods from some of the tables punctuated his words.
He paused before he continued.
    “Historically, we’ve had to keep our distance from one another.
Border feuds, policy arguments and, yes, even hostile takeovers have been the
norm. No more. We must work together if we’re going to survive the coming
days.”
    Personally, I thought that was a little melodramatic, though
probably true. Chilford sipped from a glass of water and cleared his throat.
    “We’ve taken heavy losses recently. All of us. Had we trusted
one another, we might have avoided the near destruction of our governing bodies,
and...” He trailed off midsentence scanning the crowd. His gaze stopped and
rested on me. “And the loss of nearly all our Aegises.” He took another sip of
water. “This is why I stand before you now, begging your mutual cooperation. We
must trust each other. Work together in an unprecedented manner. Join forces as
our forefathers did so many centuries ago.”
    Lord Chilford stopped speaking and dabbed sweat from his
forehead with a handkerchief. Puffy bags hung beneath his eyes, and desperation
clung to him like static electricity.
    A chair scooted behind me, and I turned to look. A small Asian
woman with enormous purple eyelashes stood with one hand on her hip and the
other resting on the table. “Lord Chilford,” she said. “What about the Covenant?
If all the rumors I hear are to be believed, the governments are barely able to
do their jobs to maintain the Hidden, and only a few Aegises remain in the world
to care for them. Is this not a breach of the Covenant?”
    The crowd erupted in animated conversation. I couldn’t make out
entire sentences, but my name popped up several times.
    I wasn’t quite clear on this whole Covenant nonsense. I’d only
heard about it a few months ago, and no one seemed to give me a straight answer.
Mostly, I got the impression that a breach of the Covenant would mean the end of
the world. Hidden would no longer remain hidden. War. Famine. Disease. Flying
butt-monkeys from outer space flinging neon-pink space poop. Sonic wedgies and
other signs of the apocalypse nobody thought to tell us about. Game over.
    I honestly didn’t know how to react to all this apocalyptic
fearmongering. I suspected the people yelling the loudest knew the least about
it. I had enough worries on my plate without adding some Great Older Than Time
Unknown to the pile. Thus far, no one had produced a copy of this mythical
Covenant. I needed to know more before I ran around waving my hands in the air
over the end of the world. Global warming, a giant meteorite or fracking might
get us there just as easily. Who knew?
    It wasn’t that I was unconcerned. But I wasn’t an alarmist,
either. The threat of being murdered by some entity who wanted all the Aegises
dead was a lot more immediate.
    My phone vibrated, and I