Angel Of Solace by Selene Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

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    “In that case, I like a perceptive man.” She tugged at his arm and subtly dragged him into the solitude of the corridor, her blue eyes smiling wider than her lips. He followed easily, and the moment the two of them were out of sight she pulled him in close and brought her hands to his face.
    And then she had him.
    Shyrah was not a particularly strong Demon compared to some of the other Asurans, but she had learned a few tricks. With just a touch of her skin to his, Johnson’s entire body convulsed as she overloaded his nervous system, freezing his muscles in place. As his consciousness slipped away she dragged him in through the door into the women’s restroom.
    Fortunately, it was empty at the moment, which made the next few seconds much easier. Shyrah hauled him into a stall and propped his insensate body in such a way that hopefully any other visitors would just think it was occupied. She wasn’t powerful enough to change his memory, so when he woke up he would recall what had happened and be quite pissed off about it—but with any luck that wouldn’t be for an hour or so, long after she and the others were gone.
    “Problem?” Kronn whispered into her ear.
    “No problem,” she said into the transmitter on her left bracelet. “I’m on my way over now. You think he’s interested?”
    “He watched you the entire time you went down that balcony.”
    “All the better when I come out alone, then,” she told him.
    A few seconds later she was back out on the ballroom floor, her eyes quickly latching onto their target, Beren. The man was rapidly finishing off the last of his appetizers when his eyes locked onto hers. She tossed him a polite smile, then glanced away and began leisurely making her way over towards him. She didn’t need any more than that; in a single second, she could tell he had just figured out what was going on, and he was about to attempt his escape.
    “He’s making for the southeast door,” Kronn confirmed.
    Corin made a nervous groan over the com. “That might be trouble. One of the guards decided to loop back around for a second pass. Beren might run right into him.”
    “It doesn’t matter,” she whispered, casually adjusting her hair so she could speak into the wrist mic. “He’s going down tonight.”
    Beren was at the door now. He tossed a single glance over his shoulder at her, the apprehension and annoyance on his face as clear as day, then thrust open the door and went out into the hallway. Shyrah did her best to speed up without tripping or drawing too much attention to herself, and less than five seconds later she was following him out into the corridor.
    In a different place and time, it might have been a lethal decision. He could have been prepared to ambush her, but she knew he wasn’t armed—the Parleia’s security, for all its problems, wasn’t that terrible. And the fact the patrolling guard would be here was both a boon and a curse. On the one hand, it meant he probably wasn’t going to be waiting around the corner to tackle her.
    On the other, it meant that Beren might try to alert him instead. And it seemed that was exactly what he was doing. 
    “Is there something wrong, sir?” the slightly overweight, almost certainly underpaid guard asked. He was ten meters down to her right, roughly halfway through his patrol through this barren white corridor that led to a stairwell on either side. Beren was striding towards the man, shaking his hands dismissively.
    “No, no, just needed some air.”
    It was clear the guard wasn’t buying it, but then his gaze flicked to Shyrah. Judging by the way his face twitched, he was apparently impressed by what he saw.
    “He gets a little nervous around so many people,” she said playfully. “Don’t you, dear?”
    The guard raised his eyebrow at Beren, who was still moving forward. Middle-aged men coming to parties with women half their age was hardly surprising, but the guard, to his credit, didn’t seem