The Demon Next Door

By Chace Verity

Mollie Bennett plans every detail of her life, but somewhere along the way, life stopped following her plans. Recently divorced and left to raise her young son alone, nothing about her forties is the way she thought it would be. And her unplanned life becomes more unpredictable when she discovers the hot, single dad next door is actually a demon.

Nuit is blunt with a bad habit of talking over people and lets his son run around without a coat in subzero temperatures. Total opposite of Mollie's type. But maybe he has some good qualities—he uses his magic to keep her driveway free of snow, he's devoted to learning how to be a good father, and he's quick to help her own family when they're in need.

When Nuit keeps showing up every time Mollie's plans go awry, it turns out she might enjoy losing control of her life as long as she has someone she can rely on. Someone like the demon next door.
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The Demon Next Door is a 28,000 word paranormal romance novella.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chace Verity
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223128717

Book preview

Chapter One

After weeks of searching, Mollie had finally secured a bounce house to rent that would fit inside her actual house. Her son wanted one for his birthday party, but bounce houses in Decembers in a part of Canada where the thermometer frequently dipped thirty degrees below freezing were like holy grails. For the first time in a long while, she felt at peace.

Mollie had grown up without doing birthday parties herself, bouncing from foster home to foster home. Plenty of nice people in her life, but no one who had ever wanted her for keeps. As such, she grew up with a plan for an adulthood with a family to call her own.

She had planned her life meticulously so she could attain the stable family she wanted—graduated college with a business degree, worked multiple part-time jobs until she landed a position as an account manager at a fast-rising IT company, dated a man she found attractive and charming with a good job for two years before getting married at thirty, bought her dream house, waited until thirty-five to have a child when the savings account was padded with money.

All that planning, working, and waiting, just so her husband could surprise her when she was forty-one by packing up his belongings and leaving the city to start a new life with his young, starry-eyed secretary.

It was now nine months into Mollie’s new life. The divorce had been finalized a few weeks ago, Jackson was in therapy to cope (unsuccessfully) with the fact his father had disappeared and never video called, she had sold the dream house and moved into a smaller one across town that needed some repairs (but at least it had a driveway and was affordable), and her job had given her so many projects that she had to work from home at evenings after spending her days inside a dreary, cold office. All for the same pay, of course.

This was not how her life was supposed to be. A rental bounce house in winter wasn’t supposed to be the best thing to happen to her all year. She was pissed about this fact, but ultimately, there wasn’t much she could do except plan for Jackson’s seventh birthday party next month.

It would be the perfect birthday. It had to be, since it would be the first one without his dad.

She sighed as she looked up from her laptop and glanced around the living room. In order for the bounce house and rented folding chairs for guests to fit, she’d have to move everything out. It’d be easy enough to stash most items in the bedrooms and closets, but where could the couch and her massive bookshelf go?

Ugh, she wanted to take a stress shower, but she had already had one of those today. Couldn’t risk having an absurdly high water bill.

Mollie ambled to the window while she mentally rearranged her house, curious if the moving trucks were still outside. When she had purchased her new home, there had been two properties in the neighborhood up for sale. But something about the sandstone building at the end of the street had creeped her out.

In the three months since she had moved here, the house, with its crooked steeple and a door on the third level that didn’t seem to go anywhere, had remained empty. The yard also had a strange ambience with its dead limber pine trees and treasure trove of discarded frisbees and balls. Not even the neighborhood kids dared to approach the place to retrieve their items. The only life she ever observed on the property was the real estate agent who shoveled the sidewalk once a week and the occasional stray cat.

The creepy house was much larger than the other homes on the street, but it had been cheaper than the one she ended up purchasing. No one wanted to live in a place that looked like it had seen its fair share of murders. The site would have been better off being bulldozed so a more modern home could be built in its stead.

But a few hours ago, some moving trucks had pulled up to the house. The for sale sign had also been taken down.

She was curious about who had decided to be her new neighbor. It was rare for people to move during this time of year. In Alberta, people generally waited until the snow had melted before committing to life-changing decisions.

By now, the moving trucks had disappeared. There were lights on inside the house. The glow from the windows made the rest of the house extra eerie.

While they were technically next-door neighbors, the creepy home was placed at the end of the cul-de-sac, so Mollie had an angled peek at the new residents. She caught a small figure zooming by the windows on the second level. Oh, good. Maybe they were Jackson’s age. He had already made some new friends, but more wouldn’t hurt.

Her heart skipped a beat as she caught a glimpse of a more enormous figure on the third level. Someone had poked their head out the door that went to nowhere—but the shape wasn’t normal. Almost…not human.

She rubbed her eyes and closed her curtains. Enough spying. After a few days, she could plan a well-timed walk and try to bump into her new neighbor. Maybe it was someone who shared the same interests as her.

For all of her life planning, Mollie had forgotten to leave room for friends in her plans. Or, well, maybe that wasn’t accurate. There were co-workers she had met with for dinner and drinks before the divorce, yes, and she used to go to the movies or shopping with her old college pals, but that was as deep as her relationships went. She didn’t have anyone she really shared her heart with. Any time she tried to get really close to someone, they pushed her away. Only called her up when they needed something. Too busy when she needed help. Eventually, she quit trusting them.

When her husband left her, that was the first day Mollie realized the only constant in her life was her son. She had had no one to call and cry to about her shattered heart, and vague tweeting into the digital void had done little to soothe her. Her in-laws had reassured her that they’d always be around to visit with Jackson, but they had never expressed a single breath of concern for her personal well-being. To them, she was just the woman who had given birth to their grandson.

It was too late in life for her to form any new constants. She’d spend the rest of it with Jackson, ensuring he grew up with the means to live any dream he wanted.

Her gaze darted back to the living room. For now, she had a rental bounce house to prepare for.

Chapter Two

Mollie stared at the email she had just received. Jackson’s teacher wanted to set up a meeting to discuss his behavior. Fantastic. Just what she needed to see on a day filled with pointless meetings and equally pointless coworkers who refused to read instructions on how to launch the new software they were piloting.

She leaned back in her chair, wishing she could dip out of the office and grab some coffee from Monahan’s. Instead of using the elevator, she would use the stairs, and she’d certainly take her time returning. Anything to get away from her computer, her phone, all the noise and lights that never brought anything good. That was part of why she showered whenever she was upset—the hot water against her skin and the gentle waterfall roaring in her ears were the only sensations she had to focus on. When she was really overstimulated, she showered with the lights off. If it was possible to live in her shower, she would.

Honestly, what wouldn’t she do for a chance to get trapped somewhere dark and peaceful?

Okay. That sounded a lot like dying. Only death would provide such a generous release, and she wasn’t ready to leave this realm yet. Giving up had never been Mollie’s style, even though the world constantly gave up on her. If she could get a bounce house in December, she could probably do anything.

Including a meeting with Miss Lorrae.

It wasn’t Mollie’s first time meeting Miss Lorrae. Jackson had started school in September with