Daemon Blood
Mary Maddox
(Daemon World, #3)
Publication date: March 8th 2022
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Our war will not unfold in your imaginary heaven. We will fight on Earth with human beings as pawns and weapons.
Lu Darlington is a seer, bound to the daemon Talion through ritual and blood. It’s not a role she enjoys, but she has little choice: daemons take what they want and destroy whoever stands in their way.
So Lu’s surprised when Talion doesn’t punish her for her newfound ability to keep him from possessing her whenever he likes. In fact he’s pleased. The stronger she is, he explains, the more powerful he becomes.
And he needs that power, because a war is brewing in the daemon world, a war that will be fought by—and through—humans.
Lu’s friend Lisa Duncan can’t see daemons but she’s seen what they can do and so has stayed far away from Lu for years. After a bizarre attack on Lisa leaves half a dozen people dead and she learns it’s just the first skirmish in the daemon war, Lisa realizes the safest place to be is with Lu.
Then Talion sends Lu away to teach her skills to another seer and Lisa must stay behind to look after Lu’s son Solly, conceived through a daemon ceremony with Talion. At four years old Solly’s seer abilities are already so strong Lisa is sometimes more afraid of Solly than for him.
As Talion’s enemies grow bolder, Lisa and Lu face attacks from every direction. There seems little hope any of them will survive—until Talion and his allies devise a plan.
The only problem is how much it will cost.
“With Daemon Blood, Mary Maddox has crafted a timeless tale of good against evil. With compelling characters and a keen sense of the darkness that lurks within us all, Daemon Blood will stay with you long after you turn the final thrilling page.”
— David Sodergren, Author of The Forgotten Island
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Excerpt
Lisa hauls herself out of bed, pulls on sweatpants and a sweater, and heads for the kitchen. She halts a few steps from the coffeepot. Beyond the wide arched entrance to the dinner area, Steve and her mother sit at the table, staring at her like a tribunal. “What?” she says.
Steve clears his throat. “A body was found at Lester Hammond’s lake cabin.”
“It was Willard Steeples,” Mom says.
She doesn’t have to fake surprise. She never expected Steeple’s body to be found so soon. “The guy who wrote the book about me and Lu? What was he doing in Seville? Was he staying at the cabin?”
“Of course not,” Mom says. “Someone must’ve lured him out there and shot him.”
Lisa takes her favorite mug from the cupboard, the black one with I SEE THE ASSASSINS HAVE FAILED printed on the side. Her hand trembles as she pours coffee. Steadying the mug with her free hand, she carries it to the table and sits. She fights to wake up. She has to ask questions—it would be suspicious not to—but if she lets the wrong detail drop, her parents will jump on it like hungry dogs. “When was he found?”
“Early this morning,” Steve says. “A jogger noticed the cabin door hanging open.”
“And it’s already in the news?” Lisa blows on her coffee.
“Jenna Arlow called your mother. She heard it from Cora Smithson.”
Cora, the dispatcher at the police station, was on duty when the cops busted Lisa for walking under the influence. A bullshit crime, but Cora eyed her like she’d robbed a gas station.
“So, let me get this straight,” she says. “Cora gossiped to Jenna, who gossiped to you.”
“The cops found notes in Steeples’ rental car,” Steve says. “And a printout of an email from someone at a publishing company. Steeples is writing another book about you. Did you talk to him?”
Lisa sips the coffee and winces. Still too hot. “No. He probably knew I wouldn’t.”
Her parents stare at her expectantly. Mrs. Arlow must have said something about seeing Lisa drive off with a man. But did their nosy neighbor see her actually get into the Edge? Lisa is almost certain she didn’t.
“I’m sure that man Steeples tried to contact you,” Mom says. “You know, we caught him sneaking into your hospital room in Salt Lake a few days after the park rangers found you. Steve took the memory chip out of his camera and ground it under his heel. That sneak threatened to have Steve charged with theft. But he never did. Remember when the orderly escorted him out, Steve? The way he grinned at us. Smug, like he knew we couldn’t touch him.”
“He didn’t contact me,” Lisa says. “Maybe he was talking to other people, trying to find out about me.”
Mom sighs and gives her a disappointed look. “Please don’t lie. Jenna saw you in the drugstore parking lot. You drove away with someone she didn’t know. A man.”
“She made a mistake. It was someone else.”
“You were at the drugstore.”
“Yeah, Mom, to pick up my meds. What? You think I killed Willard Steeples. Didn’t you say he was shot? I don’t even own a gun.”
“We know you didn’t kill him.” Steve pauses. “You saw something, didn’t you? While you were out at Lester’s cabin.”
“I was never at any cabin!”
“It’s understandable if you panicked, but now you have to go to the cops.”
“And tell them what? The neighbor lady thinks she saw me in Willard Steeples’ car?” Lisa delivers the comeback disdainfully, but her mouth is suddenly dry. The cops will find evidence in Steeples’ car—a strand of her hair, something.
Author Bio:
Mary Maddox is a suspense, horror, and dark fantasy novelist with what The Charleston Times-Courier calls a “Ray Bradbury-like gift for deft, deep-shadowed description.” Born in Soldiers Summit, high in the mountains of Utah, Maddox graduated with honors in creative writing from Knox College, and went on to earn an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She taught writing at Eastern Illinois University and has published stories in various journals, including Yellow Silk, Farmer’s Market, The Scream Online, and Huffington Post. The Illinois Arts Council has honored her fiction with a Literary Award and an Artist’s Grant.
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