Demon Accords 6: Forced Ascent by John Conroe Read Free Book Online

physique.
     
    The third square showed one of the men, a bearded individual, leaning forward toward the female in the circle, his eyes reflecting lust and desire that was just beginning to change to surprise, as his foot could be seen slipping.
     
    In the fourth, the bearded male was in the arms of the circle dweller, his eyes reflecting pain and shock as she crushed his upper body with her embrace, blood erupting from his mouth.
     
    I could feel Tanya, Deckert, and Doug looking over my shoulder as the sixth box revealed the naked female backhanding the other male, his head deforming around her fist while her other hand choked out the female robe wearer.
     
    The view changed to the other side of the circle for the seventh block picture showing the naked female with both arms elbow-deep in the chests of two men, her bloody hands protruding out of their backs and clutching their torn hearts.
     
    In the eighth, she had her head back, her jaws unhinged like a python’s, inhumanly sharp teeth lining her mouth as one of the bloody hearts fell toward her maw.  The remaining male was turning to flee.
     
    “That explains where the hearts went,” Commissioner Rielly’s voice said from behind me.  My audience had grown.
     
    The ninth and last box showed the final robed male having his arms yanked out of their sockets from behind and for the first time, we got a good look at the naked demon woman’s profile.
     
    “Brianna Duclair,” Tanya whispered.
     
    “I thought Duclair was killed in New Hampshire?” Rielly asked.
     
    “So did we.  She got yanked into an open Hellhole like this one.  Looks like she came back… or something wearing her skin came back,” I answered.
     
    “Holy shit.  What do we do?” he asked.
     
    “Circulate her photo with strict on pain of dea th instructions not to go near her.  As you can see, she will eat your men,” Tanya answered.
     
    “So what do we do when we find her?” he asked.
     
    “You get us, Commissioner... Chris and me.  We will take care of her, or whatever she’s become,” my vampire replied.
     
    “What about this circle?”
     
    “If we can get a screen around it, I’ll close it right now.  Too many media and cameras out there watching,” I said, pointing back to the police lines a hundred yards away.  A bearded man with a telephoto-lens-equipped camera was just taking a picture of us as I spoke. Grim instantly sent a burst of aura at his camera.
     
    The bearded guy yanked the camera from in front of his face and looked to be swearing as he studied its controls.  A young woman next to him conferred with him about the camera before looking back up and meeting my gaze.
     
    “We’ve got portable screens,” Rielly said, snapping me back to the situation at hand.
     
    Closing the portal wasn’t difficult, just draining, and it had already been a busy day.  Nothing tried to come out and the small, two-foot diameter and perfect circular shape made the closure straightforward.  I just had to expend a lot of aura to do it.
     
    When I had finished, I was tired and extremely hungry.  Tanya was drooping with exhaustion in the glare of the mid-October sun.  It was still early afternoon, and she had in effect pulled an all-dayer.
     
    A car waited for us, on the other side of the police tape, one of Deckert’s guys driving it. 
     
    “Take her back to rest. I need a restaurant like right now.  You can send someone else to pick me up,” I told Mr. Deckert.  He didn’t look happy and he started to argue.
     
    “He wants to think about Brianna’s return.  He thinks better when he’s eating,” Tanya suddenly said.
     
    Still unhappy, Deckert also understood my metabolism waited for no one.  The fact that I was shaking with hunger might have helped convince him.
     
    They dropped me at West 77 th Street and I found a burger place near the Museum of Natural History.  I ordered three double stack cheeseburgers with cheese fries and a chocolate