How to Lose a Demon in 10 Days by Saranna DeWylde Read Free Book Online Page B

was gone.
    Crap. He was definitely going to have to summon Ethelred again, barter more of his soul to get rid of these things. Goddamn it, he was fucked. He was fucked like the two dead hookers in the trunk of his Lexus. He was fucked facedown. And it didn’t look like anyone was looking to flip him over.

C HAPTER S IX
    Ain’t Life a Bitch?
    G race came around slowly but wished she was still in oblivion. There was something under her nose that smelled like death.
    Another hot puff of the putrid stench was blown up her nose. Before she thought better, she opened her mouth to protest. She was immediately and heartily sorry, as a blast shot right into her mouth, like something out of an Internet shock vid. That was when she realized it was just Petru’s breath.
    She opened her eyes and gagged as he moved closer into her breathing space, peering at her intently. “I’m going to pass out again if you don’t get out of my face, Petru,” she warned.
    “He had borscht and lamb for breakfast,” Sasha said by way of apology.
    Grace struggled to turn her head. “I’m going to spew my breakfast.”
    “You hit your head,” Petru said. “You fell.”
    He was suddenly yanked out of her immediate vicinity, and for that she was grateful.
    “Yes, Petru. Thank you.” Grace realized that she was starting to feel sorry for him again; he was really just a big, dumb animal that needed a guiding hand. It had been a while since she’d seen him, and she’d forgotten what he was like. “Sasha, why don’t you try to tell me once more? Please use small words, because I find it hard to believe that my son—my Nikoli—isn’t real.”
    “I know he’s real to you, Grace. Which is why Michael believes that you’ll make the ultimate sacrifice for him.”
    “But I remember you taking him from my arms. I remember being pregnant. I remember Michael getting me anchovies and ice cream.” Grace’s voice cracked with emotion.
    “Grace,” Sasha admonished. “How many women do you know who’ve ever actually craved anchovy ice cream? It’s a stereotype. Look at your belly, Grace. With your genes, there’s no way you would have made it through a pregnancy without stretch marks. I saw you when your robe slid open. Your stomach is as smooth and flat as it was when you were a teenager.”
    “How do you know what my belly looked like when I was a teenager?”
    The mobster sighed. “It’s an expression.”
    “Why are you telling me this?”
    “Look, Michael has plans for you.”
    “Why me?” Grace wrapped her arms around her body, suddenly frightened. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone? The whole world she’d created for herself seemed to be crumbling like the bone dust still littering her bedroom.
    “Nadja, his mother. She chose you.”
    “Michael said she was dead.”
    “Nadja can only pray for death now.” Sasha looked sad.
    Grace took his hand in hers. “And I ask you again, why are you telling me this, Sasha? Michael will kill you.” She knew this could very well be a ploy, because for as long as she’d known Michael, Sasha had been loyal to him.
    “Because I love Nadja. I always have. Since Ivan introduced me to her on their first date. I have to find a way to set her free.”
    Nadja? Really? Things were getting more complicated by the moment.
    “How is helping me going to help her?”
    “Gaining the Baba Yaga powers through deceit will surely damn her. I just pieced together the details of her plans from Michael’s own.”
    Grace sighed tiredly. “There is no Baba Yaga, Sasha.”
    “There is, Grace Stregaria. And her blood runs through your veins.”
    “No one knows whose blood I carry. I never even knew my father’s name.”
    “Your father’s blood doesn’t matter. It’s Seraphim’s blood and magick that runs through you, that’s made you as powerful as you are, and has marked you for Nadja’s vengeance.”
    “If I were to believe any of this, why does Nadja hate my grandmother so much?” Grace was