Demon's Vow: Part 2 of the Final Asylum Tales (The Asylum Tales series) by Jocelynn Drake Read Free Book Online Page A

to her. Was I supposed to pretend that everything was normal and that our relationship wasn’t crumbling before my eyes? I didn’t want to say anything that would drive her away faster, but we couldn’t sit all day in this uncomfortable silence.
    “Nine Inch Nails, huh?” Trixie called from the main tattooing room.
    A reluctant smile tweaked the corners of my mouth and I turned around to face her. Music had always been the easiest way to determine the mood of whoever was controlling the MP3 player hooked up to the speakers. When Bronx was troubled, it was Pink Floyd, and when he was happy, it was Cage the Elephant and Foo Fighters. When Trixie was in a good mood, she opted for Dropkick Murphys, and switched to Tool when she was upset. And when I was in a bad mood, I listened to NIN. Oddly enough, when I was in a good mood, I frequently put on show tunes, but that was only to torture my coworkers. If I was alone, it was Shaman’s Harvest.
    “I’ve got a lot on my mind,” I admitted, desperately holding on to my smile.
    “I would imagine.” The elf sat on the little rolling stool beside the tattooing chair she preferred, her hands folded on her knees. She looked exactly the same to me despite the fact that she was carrying my child. There was no extra fullness to her, no extra luminescence that shown out from her soul. She was still Trixie. Beautiful, sarcastic, intelligent, perfect Trixie.
    “I heard on the news that there was fight between a pair of warlocks this morning down in North Carolina. Would you know anything about that?” She lifted one brow to me in question while fighting her own smile.
    “Two warlocks fight and you automatically assume I’ve got something to do with it,” I teased, waving my hands about dramatically. I crossed the room and dropped onto the tattooing chair I usually used. “You know I hate to get out of my bed in the morning.”
    “True, but I thought it might be you since there were no reports of anyone being killed by the warlocks,” she pressed.
    “Oh,” I murmured and I could feel a light blush staining my cheeks. That was something of a dead giveaway. Beside the fact that warlocks won’t fight in public, it was rare for them to not at least maim someone. “Yeah. Gideon and I were checking something out. It didn’t go as well as we might have hoped and I guess we needed to blow off a little steam.”
    Trixie shook her head, a hint of a smile showing on her face. “At least you didn’t get yourself killed.”
    I flashed her a smile that felt more genuine the longer we talked. “I’m harder to kill than a cockroach.”
    “And just about as charming,” she muttered.
    I snorted and rolled out of my chair so that I was standing before her. “I think you’ve found me plenty charming,” I said, wagging my eyebrows at her. “You know, considering you’ve got a little Gage growing in you now.”
    Trixie chuckled softly. “Like I said, as charming as a cockroach.”
    Bending down, I pressed a gentle kiss to her lips while she was still laughing. For a heartbeat, I was lost in her lovely scent drifting around me. A thousand memories surged to the front of my mind so that I could clearly remember every time I kissed her, touched her, and held her. I remembered every laugh and I could count the tears that had slipped down her face. It was all there and I wanted a thousand more instances just like those, but I was afraid that they weren’t in our future.
    When I pulled back, the laughter was gone from her eyes and she looked as worried as I felt. There was no dancing around the obvious when we were alone together. This tattoo parlor wasn’t big enough to house us and the elephant in the room.
    “How are you feeling?” I asked, taking a step back so that we both could breathe.
    “I’m good. A little more tired than usual and my stomach gets a bit touchy at times, but the doctor said that it’s normal.”
    “You’ve been to a doctor? What did he say?” Without