Edge of Passion by Tina Folsom Read Free Book Online

the restaurants farther down the street were still open. Some of the windows in the nearby office buildings were illuminated, and in the apartment buildings he saw people go about their lives, cooking dinner, watching TV. He always felt like a thief when he watched others like this. Yet it had become second nature. All Cloak Warriors did it.
    Curiosity had always been one of his traits. Even early in his training, he’d liked to watch humans, observe how they lived. In many ways it was so different from his own life of duty and service. Inside those apartments he gazed up at, people loved and lived. They raised children, had careers, shared laughter and tears. And one day, they died.
    While his life at the compound afforded him the same comforts humans lived with, life was very different there. For starters, he spent very little time at the compound, and it was rare that all inhabitants were there at the same time. One or the other was always on assignment. Birthdays weren’t celebrated, neither was Christmas, Easter, or any other holiday. Every day was the same. There was no weekend where people relaxed and unwound. Demons didn’t rest on Saturday or Sunday, and neither did Cloak Warriors. Danger was always awake. It never slept.
    Aiden tore his gaze from the apartment building and continued surveying the area. Few cars passed. A bus stopped on the next block, dropping off a woman with a small child. In the distance, a door closed and another opened. Normal sounds of a neighborhood.
    But his senses were only partially engaged, his thoughts going back to his new charge, Leila. He would follow her home tonight and assess where she was most vulnerable to an attack by the demons. Not that he believed that they would mount an outright attack: they wanted what she had, the drug. They were more likely to find something in her life to make a bargain with.
    The sound of footsteps and voices made him turn his head back to the building Inter Pharma occupied. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows that encased the lobby, he saw Leila crossing to the door, exchanging a few kind words with the night watchman. The photo he’d been given didn’t do her justice. In reality she looked even more enchanting than on the black and white picture. His stomach tensed at the sight, giving him a visceral reaction he was unaccustomed to when dealing with a charge. She was so unlike anybody else he’d ever had to protect.
    Aiden attributed his reaction to the fact that this woman was extremely dangerous: if the demons were to ever seduce her over to their side, they would have a brilliant scientist working for them. He’d gathered that much from the dossier on her. Who knew what other little serums she could invent, maybe one that rendered Cloak Warriors powerless? Yes, he reasoned with himself, what he felt in his gut now had everything to do with the knowledge that a brilliant mind like hers was trapped in a human body that would eventually succumb to the demons, because despite the strength he’d seen in her eyes, she would never be strong enough to resist them.
    And his reaction to her had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he found her more intoxicating than any woman he’d ever met.
    Leila smiled at the security guard before exiting into the crisp night air. It was September, but the day had been overcast, and it was colder than normal for the season. She turned left and walked down the block.
    Aiden followed her, remaining in his cloaked state, and mindful that even though his body was invisible, he could still be heard. His breathing, his footsteps, none of it could be disguised by his cloak. It was one of the reasons, he and all his fellow Cloak Warriors wore specially designed soft-soled shoes when on assignment. They absorbed nearly all of the sound of his footsteps on the pavement. In addition, he’d learned to tread lightly like a cat, or like a thief. If he stayed far enough back, his charge would never notice him.
    Yet, he