Demons in My Driveway by R.L. Naquin Read Free Book Online Page A

for those of us on house arrest to hear. She took a step to her left and craned her neck to Darius’s side, then retreated. “Nope. Can’t see it at all on this side. I’ve never seen one from the back before.”
    “Well, that’s something, I guess,” I said. “Nothing to explain to the mailman if you can’t see it from the end of the driveway.”
    Darius stuck a beefy finger into the liquidlike surface of the portal. It rippled, then stilled.
    I stepped off the porch and walked to the edge of where the invisible fairy ring lay. “Kam, you came through a portal to get here, right?”
    “Sure. Over a hundred years ago. Why?”
    “Is there any way to tell what world it connects to?”
    She shook her head, and flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. “It’s not like there’s a frame around it that says ‘Djinn’ or ‘Vampire’ on it.”
    I stared at her, my mouth hanging open. “Vampire?” I hadn’t thought about that possibility, despite Riley once telling me that vampires existed. I hadn’t believed him. “Tell me vampires aren’t coming out of there.”
    “Okay. Vampires aren’t coming out of there.” She grinned. “But they might.”
    Sara stood rigid, her lips pressed together in hard line. “What else could walk through?” Her voice was breathless and, as close as I was, I could barely hear her.
    I took her hand in mine. “Kam. How many worlds are there?”
    “Not a lot. Five or six, I guess.” She walked around the portal in circles, inspecting it from every angle.
    “Vampires and werewolves, right? And djinn have their world to protect themselves from us. What else?”
    She looked up and squinted in thought. “Zombies, of course. Those are really dangerous to everybody.”
    My gut churned at the thought. Because we hadn’t been through enough, now we had the possibility of the zombie apocalypse. I’d joked about it before, but the real possibility gave me chills.
    “Demons,” Darius said. “You forgot about demons.” He stuck five fingers into the portal, flexing and stretching his hand like a spider doing pushups.
    Neither the mothman nor the djinn seemed overly concerned about any of these possibilities. In fact, they were too busy being fascinated by the floating object for much of anything else to have their attention.
    Sara flinched and took a step backward. “What if he comes back?” she asked, eyes wide.
    I rubbed her arm to reassure her. “Even if Sebastian does come out of there, he can’t get inside the house. He can’t get on the property. He won’t get near you. I promise.”
    She shuddered, but her voice was cold and calm. “Sometimes I think that if I see him again, I will kill him.”
    On the surface, Sara appeared in control. But that was how Sara rolled. It was how she coped. As her best friend, I could see the cracks forming beneath her stony façade. I knew her better than anyone—she was terrified.
    I wondered if I should call Louise and tell her what was going on. On one hand, it wasn’t my place to interfere with Sara’s therapy. On the other, Sara might not have it together enough to call for herself. She was a stubborn woman.
    Riley lifted his hand as if to touch my shoulder, then dropped his arm. He searched my face with his beautiful gray eyes. “I’ll take a look.” His voice was husky, and worry flickered around him.
    I swallowed hard and watched as he joined Darius and Kam and consulted with them in low voices. It hurt that he had stopped himself from touching me, but I brushed it aside. I had a mystery portal in my yard, and my best friend was on tilt.
    My failed love life was pitiful in comparison.
    Maurice took Sara’s other hand. “Let’s go back inside,” he said. His tone was gentle, and his touch was light.
    “I’m not some invalid,” Sara said. “I can stand my ground.” Something about Maurice brought out Sara’s vulnerability, and her voice shook making her bravery sound less genuine.
    Still, it didn’t take much