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A Date To Do Or Die

  Lanette Curington

  Can a demon wreck a perfect date? Never! Ginny won't stand for a demon ruining a date with Pete. She has something up her sleeve, so to speak, to ensure the date goes as planned.

  A paranormal romance short, approx. 1,000 words.

  Published by Silver Heart Books

  https://www.silverheartbooks.com

  https://silverheartbooks.wordpress.com

  SHB Edition 1.1

  Copyright 2014 Lanette Curington

  Cover Copyright 2014 Mae Powers and Immortal Designs

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction and the characters and situations are a product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual situations or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  A Date To Do Or Die

  Excerpt from A Date Worse Than Death

  About the Author

  More Books

  A Date To Do Or Die

  The demon lunged at Pete. The low-level fugly brute, expected to annoy Pete more than actually kill him, was good enough to keep Pete on his toes.

  "Ginny, throw the scarf!" Pete yelled at me over the sound of the wind while dodging the fiend with some fancy footwork.

  Pete was an expert at sending demons back to Hell. Meticulous research had led him to develop the demon trap scarf-a round piece of silk printed with concentric circles of ancient Aramaic script. Basically, a magic spell. When the scarf was aimed at any class of demon and tossed, if the scarf was close enough to the demon and sent on the correct trajectory, it would glide onto the demon's head, covering it, and close tightly around the demon's neck.

  High-level demons conjured pits to Hell expecting to toss Pete and anyone else around-like me!-into the fiery maw, but Pete, sometimes with my inadvertent help, always managed to send the demon back instead. With the low-level kind, as the demon fought the scarf, a pit erupted spontaneously and the blinded and weakened demon could be pushed into the opening quite easily.

  The wind had already caught and carried away Pete's demon trap. I clutched mine, but as I rushed toward them, I lost my balance and the whipping wind snatched away my scarf, too. I wasn't close enough to the demon for the scarf to be drawn to it.

  Pete and I were on a date, natch. All our dates weren't interrupted by demon attacks, but enough were that we were always prepared. Tonight had started out lovely and quiet. We dressed casually and decided to have a walk along the river before dinner at our favorite restaurant. We'd first met there when I was on a blind date arranged by a nasty co-worker. (She blackmailed me into it, long story.) And Pete turned up at the restaurant while on the trail of a demon.

  This evening started out warm and muggy, but by the time we reached the river, the weather turned breezier and cooler, the sky overhead becoming a solid mass of roiling dark clouds. It hadn't begun to rain yet, so we decided to go for a short walk anyway. Then the demon showed up to spoil things.

  Well, I was going to have my date or die trying!

  Extra scarves were in the car, but it was too far away to struggle against the almost gale force gusts to reach in time. Besides, Pete and the demon were between me and where we'd parked. I had an ace in the hole, though. While I hadn't had a chance to try it out yet, I didn't have much choice and had to give it a shot.

  I reached behind me, under my blouse, and unhooked my bra. I undid half the buttons on my blouse and quickly worked the bra straps free of my arms, but left the bra where it was, my boobs holding it in place. I took off at a run.

  When Pete saw me racing toward them without a scarf in my hand, he was horrified.

  "No, Ginny!" he screamed. "Get a scarf out of the car! Oof-"

  The demon had landed a blow to Pete's stomach while he was distracted. Pete crashed on his back in the sand, the demon advancing. Pete recovered and prepared to drive his feet into the demon's mid-section when it got close enough, but then the demon spotted me coming straight toward them and stopped.

  With a blood-clotting roar that scoured my eardrums, its arm rubber-hosed out to me, wrapped around my waist, and snapped me back until I was face-to-face with it. The putrid odor of backed-up sewage assaulted my nose. I gagged as I reached into my blouse, yanked my bra off, and wrapped it around the demon's head.

  This time the demon's shriek was so intense and high-pitched pain ripped through my eardrums and into my head. I clamped my hands over my ears, but that didn't really help. The demon turned me loose, and I dropped to the sand beside Pete. The demon clawed and tore at my bra, but it molded itself to the demon's head, the hook ends twisting themselves and tightening around the demon's neck.

  Near us, the sand shifted and heaved, opening up a pit filled with sparking flames. Pete jumped to his feet, gave the demon a shove, and the fiend toppled over, the hole closing up after it.

  The wind died down, and the clouds started dissipating. By the time Pete helped me to my feet, patches of stars twinkled overhead.

  "Oh, Ginny," Pete breathed, holding me close. We kissed, long and deep, glad it was over. For now. Then he pulled back, looking at me. "Your bra?"

  I giggled as much in relief as the look on his face. "I shrank the magic spell graphic, printed it out on transfer paper, and ironed one into each cup of my bra. It's one hundred percent cotton, but I didn't think the material mattered as long as it's not synthetic. After all, originally the spell was written on the inside of a bowl to put under a house to trap any demons that tried to enter. Bra cups are like bowls."

  Pete placed a hand on each side of my face and laughed. "Wow. I never would have thought of that."

  "Well, you don't wear a bra," I said.

  We kissed again then walked arm-in-arm toward the car.

  "You still want to go to dinner or would you rather I take you home?"

  "I need to stop by my place for another bra." I finished buttoning up my blouse. "But we're not going to let a stupid old demon wreck our night."

  "Good girl," Pete murmured and planted a kiss at my brow.

  And we had our date just as we'd planned.

  Find out how Ginny and Pete first meet in

  A Date Worse Than Death

  What can possibly go wrong on a blind date? Everything! Ginny North meets the man of her dreams, Pete Adams-except he's not the creepy guy she has the date with. Too bad Pete might be crazy, too. Between blackmail and a demon from Hell, Ginny finds out there can be such a thing as a date worse than death.

  Paranormal romance novelette, approx. 11,000 words or 37 pages.

  EXCERPT

  Keri's date picked her up at exactly four, and it was Mick again. I was to meet them, and Andy Lyons, a few hours later at the Garden Palace Restaurant. After bidding my boss, Mr. Craig, good night, I went home to clean up and change clothes.

  I didn't have much time to fret over what to wear, so I grabbed the nicest dress in my closet and put it on. I dabbed expensive lavender perfume oil on all my pulse points, slipped into a pair of white sandals, ran a comb through my freshly washed and dried hair, and decided I was good to go.

  After I parked in the Garden Palace lot, I checked myself in the rear view mirror one last time. Aside from some flyaway hairs, which I smoothed down, I still looked put together. As I adjusted the mirror for driving again, I caught movement in the reflection. A man stood at the corner of the restaurant, looking in my direction.

  Andy Lyons? I hoped so. About all Keri would say when I asked for more information regarding her friend was that he was tall and kind of shy. She didn't go into any details describing him.

  I pretended to futz with the mirror, but all the while I watched the guy across the parking lot. He looked to be tall, from what I could tell. And he was very hands
ome with rusty auburn hair. I took a deep breath and picked up my purse. When I got out of the car, I saw he was no longer at the corner of the building and now crossed the lot.

  I smiled and headed toward him. When he realized I was coming his way, he stopped but glanced over his shoulder and all around us before looking at me again.

  "Hi, I'm Ginny North," I said as I got close enough to speak without shouting. And, yes, he was at least four inches taller than I, so that if I stood close enough to touch, I'd have to look up into his eyes. "I think we're-"

  At that moment, I saw a car pull in with Keri in the passenger seat, her date behind the wheel, and another man in the back.

  Uh-oh.

  My heart fell into the pit of my stomach. This gorgeous hunk wasn't Andy Lyons. I turned back to apologize to him-and get his name and find out if he was single-but he had disappeared. Bewildered, I walked around a car to see him hunkered down in the narrow space between it and the pick-up truck in the next parking space. When he saw me, he started feeling around on the pavement under the car then bent down to look beneath it.

  "I'm sorry," I told him. "I thought you were someone else. I'm supposed to meet some friends, and they just drove up."

  "Not a problem." He looked up at me and smiled. It was a little tip-tilted to one side and made my knees go weak. "I dropped my keys."

  "Do you want me to help you find them?" I was still eager to find out his name and anything else I could about him.

  He ducked his head, glancing under the car again, before rising to his knees. "No, I see them. I'm sure your friends are waiting. I wouldn't want you to be late. Besides, you're dressed too pretty to be crawling around down here."

  "Th-Thank you," I said and felt my face grow warm. "But I don't mind, if you need help."

  "I appreciate the offer, but I can manage." He shot me that oh-so-sexy smile again then leaned down and stretched his arm under the car.

  "Ginny!" Keri called out. "We're over here!"

  "I need to go," I said without moving an inch.

  "Enjoy your dinner," he said before his head disappeared underneath the car.

  Sighing, I turned to face the three who waited for me at the end of the walkway leading to the front door. Keri was perky and pretty as ever, and her date Mick was a little on the short side but a perfect match for her in all his perky blondness, too.

  That left the hulking guy with wild, unkempt brown hair and dead black eyes, who stood seven feet tall if he was an inch?

  For me.

  I almost turned and ran back to hide under the car with Mr. Gorgeous.

  "Come on, Ginny," Keri said in a whiny voice. "We're going to be late. Our reservation was for seven, and it's already ten after."

  Well, gee, I wasn't the one who just drove up at five after was what I wanted to say. Instead, I slowly walked toward them and immediately caught a whiff of something unpleasant on the air. The closer I got to the building, the stronger it became. It smelled like rotten eggs, and I could only imagine something was wrong with the restaurant's sewer system.

  Could this date get any worse?

  About the Author

  LANETTE CURINGTON lives in rural west Tennessee with her family and a clowder of cats. She is multi-published and author of the critically acclaimed futuristic romance novel Starkissed, available from Silver Heart Books. She writes erotic romance as Lani Aames and suspense and dark fantasy as Lane Champion. She has been e-published since 2000, currently with Loose Id and Silver Heart Books. For more information about Lanette's other books, visit her website: https://www.lanettecurington.com

  More Books

  More romance from Lanette Curington

  https://www.lanettecurington.com/books.html

  A Date Worse Than Death

  At the Stroke of Midnight

  Immortal Ecstasy

  Immortal Heat

  Immortal Lovers Collection (Immortal Ecstasy and Immortal Heat with bonus short Immortal Blush)

  Starkissed

  Valiant

  Free Stories

  https://www.lanettecurington.com/books.html

  A Date To Do Or Die (short story in the Date series)

  Immortal Blush

  Starlight (short story sequel to Starkissed)

  Supernatural Suspense writing as Lane Champion

  https://www.lanettecurington.com/lanechampion.html

  Chance Encounter (Two Short Stories)

  The Legend of Jack Straw

  Steamy Romance writing as Lani Aames

  https://www.lanettecurington.com/laniaames.html

  Dreamscaper's Desire

  Desperate Hearts

  Eternal Passion

  Gillian's Island

  Invictus

  Jingle's Belle

  Jule Reigh and the Jim Stone Affair

  Lover Unleashed

  Manimal

  Must Be Magic

  Stormy Surrender

  Taffy's Man

  Touch of the Werewolf

  The Wizard's Staff

  Sinclair Santa Specials, loosely connected stories set in Sinclair's Department Store.

  Each title is a complete story and can be read without reading the others:

  Santa's Lap

  Santa's Xmas

  Santa's Toys

  with Mae Powers:

  Dina's Double Delight

  Sea Dance

  Spellfire Hextasy

  Under A Werewolf Moon

  Free Stories by Lani Aames

  https://www.lanettecurington.com/laniaames.html

  Lust in the Dust

  The Wolf Man's Legacy

  More from Silver Heart Books

  https://silverheartbooks.wordpress.com

  by Mae Powers:

  Beastly Enchantments

  Dragon's Wish

  Midnight Lover (A Secrets in Solar City novella)

  Sex Magic

  Thank You and Happy Reading!