Unmasked by Kate Douglas Read Free Book Online

stared wide-eyed for a long time. First at Jett, then Locan, and finally Addie. Then he nodded, but he didn’t look very happy about it.
    Addie glanced over her shoulder and caught Jett and Locan grinning. “Okay. So what’re you two jerks laughing at?”
    Jett grinned. “He’s awful cute. Think we could keep him?”
    “No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!” Ukopach wailed and toppled over.
    “Thanks so much for your wise and thoughtful assistance.” Addie glared at the guys, grabbed Ukopach under one arm, and sent herself back to the Hollywood Hills.
     
    * * *
     
    As she expected, the guys appeared beneath the huge Hollywood sign at the same time she did. It was dark. Addie had been worried that the movie crew might have folded up shop for the night, but bright lights on the hill above them still filled the sky.
    She wrapped an arm around Ukopach and balanced him on her right hip as if she were carrying a toddler. He was actually smaller—she didn’t think he weighed more than ten or fifteen pounds. She felt him drawing energy from her—it was probably the only way he could maintain his form in the real world—but it was such a small amount she didn’t worry about it. “You guys ready?”
    Even the demon nodded. “Ukopach, we’re going to go in cloaked as shadows. I want you to become mist, the way you were when we caught you. Can you still talk to me?”
    He nodded and touched his head. “Okay. Let’s go.” Partially dissolving until she was nothing more than a dark shape among shadows, Addie jumped to the movie set on the hillside above. She spotted Jett on her right, Locan moving away on her left, closer to the director, though he quickly disappeared in the sharp shadows cast by the klieg lights.
    Which way, Ukopach? Where is Yush?
    In that room where we were given our humans.
    The makeup trailer?
    She sensed rather than saw a misty shrug. Jett? Let’s check out the makeup trailer. I have a feeling Yush will be there in his demon form. It won’t take as much energy, and they’re all in costume or possessed, anyway. I doubt any of the human actors would even notice.
    Okay—we’re looking for a really ugly big red demon with six fingers on each hand.
    Sounds lovely. C’mon, then. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d ended up in charge of this expedition. Maybe it was because the little demon was clinging to her, but Addie drifted through the shadows, skirting the main part of the set, where the director was screaming at some poor actor about something. She knew Locan was over there trying to find out if the director was the real Moloch, or merely a video game demon posing as the real demon.
    This was so weird, being surrounded by humans all possessed by demons who weren’t really the spawn of hell . . . no, they were merely the spawn of some game developer’s warped imagination, which could, of course, be the same thing. But knowing they were probably under the control of a bona fide demon meant she and the guys couldn’t ignore the potential threat.
    Nothing about this job had been normal. That didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. Jett slipped on ahead of Addie and found a door at the back of the trailer that was ajar. The gap was wide enough they were able to slide in without being noticed. The little demon, though he was nothing more than mist, suddenly flattened against Addie’s shadow form.
    Is that Yush?
    Scary. Ukopach’s voice quivered in her mind. So scary. There. In the corner.
    He really was scary. Yush was huge—almost seven feet tall with long, scraggly white hair and a filthy beard that appeared to be stained with blood. His teeth were needle-sharp points that overlapped his upper and lower lips, if you could call them that. His face reminded Addie of a large, fanged lizard, and his hands with their six fingers were absolutely huge. Shuddering, Addie looked away and caught Jett’s almost imperceptible shake of his head.
    He’s going to be tough to kill, but at least we don’t need to worry