Once You Go Demon (Pure Souls) by Killian McRae Read Free Book Online

my dad, and he didn’t exactly stick around long enough to read any ‘See Dick and Jane Cast Hexes’ books. But I’m trying to learn. Oh, my mom is a witch all right, just not the magical kind.” From the bag hanging taut at her side, Riona pulled out one of Dee’s old castoff tube socks. “Let’s start with this. No one I’ve spoken to so far has had a clue, and a friend …” She paused to test the shape of the word against the place Jerry held in her life. The fit was wrong. “ Someone told me that Bunny might be able to tell me about it.”
    The woman eyed the object with a disinterested glare. “It’s a gym sock. Probably cotton with some elastic banding at the top.”
    With a huff, Riona reached in and wrapped her fingers around the handle of the dagger, unsheathing it from its cotton poly-blend confines. Handing the weapon to the clerk, handle first, she waited. The woman’s eyes lit with a new appreciation.
    “Yes, this is very interesting,” she agreed, nodding slowly. She turned the blade over, running her smooth fingertips over the jewels encrusted into its silver hilt, delicately traipsing a study by touch and by eye down its blade to the point.
    Riona held up a warning hand. “Be careful. The tip is poisoned, or so I’ve been told.” She hesitated to add, By Lucifer himself.
    The clerk seemed amused. “I have no doubt. But it’s poisoned with magic, not some noxious liquid. On top of that, the charm on it isn’t intended for humans. It would only poison elites; Grigori, nephilim, that sort of thing.”
    Nephilim. She filed that term away for later exploration. She didn’t want to seem anymore a moron than she was coming off already. “You mean it’s cursed?”
    The clerk nodded, gracing Riona with an acknowledging grin. “But only in the right—or is that, the wrong—hands. Those who are powerful enough to wield such strong magic are not many in this world, and certainly none of them are human.”
    The clerk offered back the blade. Riona took it and placed it back in the sock. “So it’s not dangerous like I thought.”
    “Of course, it’s dangerous. Curse or no, it is still a pretty damned big knife. You go jab it in a rabbit and see how it fairs. If there’s one thing I can advise you, Keystone, it’s to take a lesson of that. We witches sometimes become so focused on using magic to fight our battles, we often forget the weapons we may wield as mere men. Or in our case, women. ”
    She thought of how Marc had used this very dagger to sacrifice himself, to save her. No need to take a full-page ad out for that bit of advice. “Any idea where it’s from?”
    “I can say only, it was not forged by mortal hands. As to its exact origin …” She shook her head from side to side. “Now, I have a question or two. How did you come to have such a powerful armament, and who told you to come here with it? Objects such as these … They are generally entrusted only to the most powerful and skilled wiccan warriors to face their greatest battles.”
    Riona slipped the sheathed dagger back in to her bag. “I’m the Keystone witch. You’re implying I’m not worthy?”
    “On the contrary. But you are new. I’m merely saying, it may be possible that you are not ready for it.”
    Riona waited a moment for that to sink in. In the silence, the clerk seemed to grow amused at her own comment. Riona reminded herself that she didn’t come to be someone’s entertainment. She came for answers. “Do you think Bunny would have any more information?”
    One perfectly-penciled eyebrow arched. “I am Bunny.”
    Riona squared this revelation against her expectations. “But Jerry told me Bunny was at least sixty or seventy. You can’t be a day over—”
    “Jerry? Jerry who?”
    “Um … Romani?”
    A storm struck in Bunny’s eyes. “That … snake! That cur! Please tell me you have not let yourself fall victim to that debaucher! That ingrate of Hell!”
    From recesses she didn’t even know