More Than Fiends Read Online Free

serve in Mass, but back then, I’d been a feminist rebel, and the nun who should have been an Army general had wanted to smash me like a bug.
    â€œYour grandmother hasn’t told you anything, has she?” Jasmine asked.
    That caught my attention. “Gram? You know Gram?”
    â€œOf course,” she said, waving one hand in dismissal. “And I must say, when it was her time to be called, she wasn’t nearly as much trouble as you are being.”
    â€œSure.” My grandmother knew the wacko? What? Were they best friends in high school or something? Shouldn’t she have warned me that a crazy who knew the family might be showing up at my back door someday? As soon as I got Jasmine and Leo the hell out of my house, I was going to put in a call to Gram and try to get some answers.
    â€œIt’s imperative that you listen to me, Cassidy Burke.”
    â€œOkay.” I wondered if she’d notice my dialing 911 if I kept my hand at my side and just talked really loud.
    â€œThe mixture will identify demons and even slow them down a little.” Then she added with a saucy wink, “Plus, it’s an excellent window cleaner.”
    â€œGood to know.” I grinned companionably, assuring her that we were all crazy together and wasn’t life great? before wheeling my eyes to the service porch, hoping Leo would look in to say he was finished and I could signal him to strap the old biddy to his dolly and give her a ride to the curb.
    No Leo.
    â€œYou must listen to me,” she said.
    â€œOh, I am,” I assured her, trying to look interested.
    â€œYou,” she said, flattening her hands on the table and leaning in to make her point, “are the latest in a long, proud line of Demon Dusters. For centuries, the women in your family, on their thirty-second birthdays, come into their ‘gift.’ Now it is your time. You must accept your destiny.”
    Okay, this was just getting weirder and weirder. She knew my name. Knew it was my birthday and how old I was, for God’s sake. She had to be a friend of Gram’s. It was the only explanation.
    â€œThis is a joke, right?” If I were rich and famous, I’d figure that Ashton Kutcher was out there somewhere with his Punk’d crew, getting this all down on film. But since I was nearly broke and hardly famous, and the show had been cancelled, that wouldn’t fly. “I’ve seen the TV show. Everyone knows that Slayers are way younger than I am. Tell you what: Why don’t you wander on down to the high school and see who you can find?”
    Her mouth flattened and pinched like an ill-tempered librarian’s. “Don’t be ridiculous. The Fates would never send a child into battle with demons.”
    â€œOh sure,” I said, nodding again, “I’m the one being ridiculous.”
    â€œYour mother was the chosen one before you, but she died too young to take up the mantle of responsibility.”
    So, (a) how the hell did she know about my mom? I was twelve the year my mother died at thirty-one in a car accident. And (b) where the hell did granny get off making my mother sound like a slacker for dying?
    â€œSince she was not there to cleanse the demons in her time,” the woman continued, “their numbers have grown substantially.”
    â€œBusy making little demons, huh?” Nice to know someone was having regular sex.
    â€œThis is not a joking matter.”
    â€œTrust me on this: I’m no longer laughing.” For God’s sake, did I have a damn sign over the house? WEIRDOS WELCOME HERE?
    The phone rang and I jumped, startling Sugar, who WOOFED loud enough to make the windowpanes rattle. The old woman didn’t even flinch. Nerves of steel and a sieve for a mind.
    â€œHello?” I snapped, idly shaking the spray bottle, watching those green flecks dancing around.
    â€œMs. Burke?” A female voice with the purr of a professional greeter.