Life Cycle by Zoe Winters Read Free Book Online Page A

take you out when I’m good and ready, but before
I do, I vow I’ll make you love me. You’ll beg me to keep you. And
then I’ll laugh and kill you.”
    Tam was out of magic, but not out of stupidity. She
spit in his face.
    He let go of her and glared. Tam rubbed her wrists
where he’d held them so tightly.
    “Let me let you in on a secret,” she said. “In order
for me to love you, you’d have to be charming and halfway decent. A
task you’re failing miserably at.” She doubted he could pull off
charming and halfway decent even on his best day.
    “I’ve got more experience in the art of seduction
than you’re prepared to handle.” He went back to the circle, packed
up her stuff and lugged it out of the tent behind him. It took him
three trips.
    She rushed to the doorway and pulled the tent flap
back to yell at him. “Oh, and taking all my shit? Brilliant first
move. I’ll be swooning by dinnertime.”
    The demon guard showed up with a bag from a fast food
joint and a soft drink. She glared at him and ripped it out of his
hands, then went back to her tent. First food. Then nap. Then she
wasn’t sure what, but something.
     
    ***
     
    Cain returned to the caves to hide Tam’s books and
tools behind a natural rock formation. When he was sure they were
secure, he headed back into town, still angry with the witch, but
wanting nothing more than to take her again. With his age, he
didn’t need to feed every day, but he often did—just like humans
ate chocolate not out of hunger, but because it tasted good. Unlike
his brother’s situation with Anna when she’d still been a living
human, Cain was confident he could sleep with Tam more frequently
without killing her.
    To kill a two-thousand-year-old witch with the level
of power she’d acquired just from living and using it for so long,
he’d have to make an actual effort. He’d have to gorge himself on
her—not an unpleasant way to spend an evening.
    But before he killed her, he wanted to make good on
his threat. Maybe it was the danger she posed to him, or maybe it
was his own ego and the fact that he had to use a heavy dose of
thrall to make her give in to him... and even then her smart mouth
still fought to the surface. He would break her. By the time he was
finished, she would be desperate for his approval. And then he’d
toss her aside like all the rest. It was what he had to do. There
was no other acceptable option.
    When he got back, Jane, Cole, Anna, and Luc were
standing outside his tent looking impatient and worried.
    “Did the meeting run on this long?” It seemed that a
lot of time had passed, though it was so easy to lose track of it
in the demon dimension with no day and no time keeping machines
like clocks or watches.
    “We should speak privately,” Jane said.
    Cain nodded and led them into his empty tent. “What
is it?”
    “It would be convenient if you had a cell phone,”
Cole said.
    “Cell phones don’t work between dimensions, and
technology doesn’t work here at all. This place is made of too much
magic. The two interfere and the magic wins.”
    Jane and Cole both pulled out their cell phones only
to discover them dead.
    “Huh,” Jane said. “So we can’t have TV or Internet
or...”
    Cain shook his head, amused. It was
easy to forget Jane was still such a new demon. Of course she would
have known by now that such things didn’t exist in his dimension,
but that they couldn’t exist hadn’t penetrated. But then, she’d been preoccupied
with raising her young pup back in the human realm.
    “But cell phones are really convenient,” Jane said,
as if it were some arbitrary rule Cain could change.
    Luc cleared his throat. “Nobody cares, Jane. We’ve
got more important matters to attend to here than your instant
communication withdrawals. Some day you’ll be glad there’s a place
you can go without those annoying things ringing for your
attention.”
    Cole growled. The werewolf alpha didn’t do well when
anyone talked