Defying Instinct (Demon Instinct Series) by Jaye A. Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

and the brunette Hammer talking in the
corner with their backs to us. 
    “Your
life is in danger and you dismiss it like it means nothing,” Rowan growled,
bringing my attention back to him.
    No,
my reactions to finding this out were not normal.  Story of my life.  Though I
knew how a normal human, even probably a normal half-caste would react, I
couldn’t muster the outrage, or confusion, or sense of anxiety I knew I should
feel.
    Then
I realized the only thing that could scare me.  If my life was in danger…
    “Will
they go after my family?”
    Rowan
narrowed his unusual eyes.  For the briefest of moments, his harsh, skeptical,
scrunched expression softened.  The next instant—maybe I only imagined it
soften—that annoyed sneer was back.
    “Likely.”
    “You’re
keeping me prisoner here and just leaving them to…to,” surprised by my frantic
words, I saw Grayson and the other Hammer demon’s heads spin around.  For a
second, I was certain they glared at Rowan, as if they were expecting him to
hurt me.  Or maybe just piss me off.
    “Our
job is to protect our Scion,” he snarled so quietly I doubted the other two
males could hear him even though their attention was on us.
    I
looked up at him, right into his eyes.   Protecting me and not them will
destroy me.
    Rowan
blinked, and I didn’t understand the look of complete shock he had.  “It’s
unsafe for you to—”
    Follow
me, then.  I interrupted.  If they
get taken, or die, I won’t survive it.

CHAPTER 5
     
    No
one stopped me when I exited the warehouse.  Rumbling, angry male voices
argued, but none of them demanded I stop or grabbed me around the waist.  No
one threw me over a muscular shoulder to drag me back inside again.
    This
was my hometown, and I had a good sense of direction.  The smells, the way the
city illuminated the sky.  I had no problem finding my way back to a main road
and heading in the direction of Clayton, the area of St. Louis County my
bookstore was in.  They hadn’t driven me far, so I knew if I could find the
highway, I’d have no problem getting back.
    I
tried to muster up the fury I should have been feeling.  Those idiot males. 
Kidnapping me.  Manhandling me.  Locking me in a warehouse.
    Nope. 
None of it got me angry like I knew it should.
    A
Tempter even hinting at seducing me?  That got under my skin. 
Smoke-and-fire swirled at the thought.
    And
the way Rowan had made me…
    I
shook my head so hard my neck crackled with resistance. 
    Through
my worry about Dad and Benn and my need to get home, I realized why Rowan had
given me that shocked look.  I’d telepathed to him.
    I
didn’t know what it meant, but knew enough to know it meant something.
    He
was a Hammer demon.  Putting aside the fact that I was a half-caste who could
clearly telepath, proving that old belief false, I knew Razers and
Hammers weren’t supposed to be able to.  There had been clinical studies, great
debates about why other castes couldn’t communicate with Hammers unless they
were connected by blood, or by an exchange of blood.
    And
I wasn’t Blooded to anyone. 
    The
limo pulled up beside me, and the passenger’s side window rolled down.
    “I’ll
drive you,” his deep, smoky voice snappish.
    Rowan
looked like he’d just bit into an unexpectedly salty slice of pie.  Utterly
surprised, and a second away from gagging.
    Analyzing
the situation, I considered what he had said.  He wasn’t demanding I get in the
car.  Did he think I’d get in, and he’d drive me right back to the warehouse?
    “To
my home?”
    He
nodded curtly, then rolled the window back up.  I human-like shrugged for no
one but myself, and reasoned that a car would get me home in ten minutes while walking
would take a half hour or more along the highway.  A gust of frigid wind stung
my exposed skin, and my decision was made.  I climbed into the passenger’s seat
without looking at the full-caste male inches away.
    What
were the emotions a