Garden of the Gods (The Immortals Series Book 3) by S.M. Schmitz Read Free Book Online Page A

go: he’d better get used to having an invincible wife and stop treating her like she would break at any moment. Colin told her he didn’t think he’d ever be able to do that, not entirely anyway.
    “This speaking in each other’s mind thing is new,” Luca muttered. “First Immortals I’ve ever met with this gift. Gets annoying after a while for those around you, you know.”
    Colin and Anna both blushed and apologized. They hadn’t even realized how long they’d been conversing silently.
    Luca smiled again and shrugged. “It’ll come in handy when you’re hunting. Just remember to speak out loud around other people. Now let’s see if we can get this guy out of London. Ready to run?”
    Luca didn’t wait for them to answer. He ran down the street and the muddy brown demon stopped its prowling and was going to try to fight this hunter that had just emerged from the shadows at the opposite end of the narrow alleyway when it realized this hunter was being followed by two other hunters. It was outnumbered. Instead of fighting, it turned and tried to escape.
    The hunters chased it for several miles before it was in an area that wasn’t heavily populated. Colin and Anna couldn’t talk to Luca in their minds, so they had no idea what he wanted them to do. But they could talk to each other, and Anna had an idea. “ If it gets into the woods up there, we might lose it. There won’t be enough light from the moon for us to see. Let’s try to flank it. Luca told us what we needed to do to kill it, and he’s awfully fast. If we make a mistake, it won’t take him long to reach us and rescue us.”
    Colin didn’t want to anger their new teacher, but he thought Anna’s idea was a good one, and she was right about the forest ahead of them. If it got into that thick growth of trees, they could easily lose this demon. He and Anna broke away from Luca and ran on opposite sides of the demon. Luca must have realized what they were trying to do because he sped up, which astonished the O’Conners considering they were already running as fast as they could, and somehow managed to get in front of the beast they were chasing. The demon pivoted and ran back in the opposite direction but Colin and Anna were waiting for it.
    They attacked it from each side, and the O’Conners had also decided to each use a different dagger to increase their chances of having a weapon that would actually work on this monster. It was Colin’s dagger that penetrated the demon’s side and left a gaping wound. Anna tried not to gag as she reached for her other dagger to help her husband kill this demon. It was the first time she’d been close enough to one of these bastards to smell that stench of rotting meat and sour mulch, the overpowering odor of decay and death.
    Luca stood nearby and watched them, but that night, the first time the O’Conners ever killed a demon, their first night as hunters, they didn’t need his help. The hideous, odiferous beast crumbled to the ground in a powdery dust, blending into the dirt of the earth.
    Colin and Anna backed away from the spot where the demon had stood seconds before, panting and tired now that the chase was over, and Luca stepped closer to them. Anna felt nervous again, and wondered if they were about to get yelled at for making a decision on their own, one that could have ended badly for all they knew. But Luca was smiling at them.
    “My angel told me you two were special. I see what he means. We’re grateful to have you on board with us.”
    And it was that night when Colin and Anna allowed themselves to believe they may have something extraordinary to give back to The Angel, to give back to the God who had blessed them with each other.

Chapter 6
     
     
    As soon as Colin finished relaying how he and Anna became immortal hunters, Luca jumped in with his own personal addition to Colin’s story.
    “I was right, too, by the way. All of the Immortals admire the hell out of the