Hot Demon in the City (Latter Day Demons Book 1) by Connie Suttle Read Free Book Online Page B

hurt or killed last night, I'll kill you and Claudia for keeping that bomb shit to yourselves."
    "You're serious?"
    "Hell, yes."
    "Damn. Do you have a way to reach her? I need to know whether I ought to start running or not."
    I had the news station on the phone in seconds. "She's here—with Mike, the weather guy from Eighty-Two and somebody else from the downtown office," the intern at the night desk informed me. "Mike looks like he's been through hell and keeps yelling that his car was blown up."
    "Thank the Mighty," I muttered. "Look, I can come get them if you think they need a ride."
    "Mike and the other guy for sure," the intern said. "I'll have to ask Lexsi."
    "I'll be there in half an hour," I said. "Tell them not to go anywhere," I added. "I'll drive them home."
    * * *
    Lexsi
    Kory showed up in less than half an hour, checked out one of the station's vans and herded us into it. Anita didn't like it—she'd intended to fold space to get us away from Mike, who was still yelling about his car.
    My headache still hadn't gone away; that meant I wanted to yell right back at Mike, telling him he was damn lucky to be alive instead of blown up or drained vampire bait. Those six vamps would have been all over him and Rick, with the bodies hidden so well afterward nobody would have found them.
    "We're gonna talk," Kory growled as he held the van's back door open for me to climb inside.
    "About what?" I rubbed my forehead.
    "Fuck," he muttered before shutting my door and stalking toward the driver's side door.
    He dropped Rick, Mike and Anita off at their homes, leaving me for last.
    "Get in the front seat," Kory barked after Anita walked into her building.
    I was too weary and in too much pain from the perpetual headache to argue with him. He buckled me in after I fumbled the seat belt. He waited until he'd pulled away and headed for the bridge to start talking.
    "What the hell were you doing at that bar," he demanded.
    "Farin," I whispered. "Rick is her brother. She was worried that he and Mike would get hurt at the bar. She begged me to convince him to leave. I had to ask Anita to go with me, because I sure as hell didn't want to go by myself."
    "Why didn't you call him?" Kory still wasn't happy with my explanation.
    "We tried. He wasn't answering."
    "Fuck."
    "Yeah. I hear that, all right." I closed my eyes, hoping that would help with the pounding inside my skull. "If Vann hears that Mike tried to go around him to get the bar story," I didn't finish.
    "Maybe Vann needs to hear exactly that. Mike could have gotten you killed, tonight."
    "Mike could have gotten himself killed, and Rick, too."
    "I don't give a damn about Mike or Rick."
    Silence fell after that statement, and somewhere between the Golden Gate Bridge and Aunt Bree's house, I fell asleep.
    I dreamed about Kory carrying me into the house, while someone else opened the back door for him.
    Everything was hazy, after that. I just remembered falling into a deeper sleep when the pain went away.

Chapter 4
    Kordevik
    I worried that Li'Neruh Rath would be angry that I sent mindspeech, or that he'd ignore me altogether, but he didn't. After I carried Lexsi to her bedroom, he took away her headache with gentle fingers.
    They hit her harder than she thought , he sent afterward. It's taken care of. Go home. She doesn't need to find you here in the morning .
    I know . I hung my head. Things were supposed to be so different, yet here we were.
    Woo her. Carefully. You're not a caveman, you know .
    Li'Neruh disappeared. That's when I figured out why he'd placed me on Earth to start with. So I could win my intended, instead of expecting her to be handed to me outright.
    I was still so angry with her about going to that fucking bar, though, while she was injured and in pain. I almost touched her, too, while she slept. I only wanted to run a finger down her cheek; I knew her skin would be velvety soft beneath my hand. Tearing myself away from that thought, I walked back through the