Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4) by J.A. Cipriano Read Free Book Online Page B

of way which struck me as odd. Hadn’t he just asked me a question?
    “I am curious as to why the great Lillim Callina is running from a man. You killed the ‘Ascended’ Jiroushou Manaka. You killed the vampire dragon, Valen. You defeated the ‘greatest orcish swordsman,’ Grollshanks. You stood toe to toe with the Egyptian God, Sobek. You killed the Celtic God, Crom Cruach.” Ordain smirked at me. “That résumé is a little over the top, don’t you think?”
    I blushed and looked at my shoes as we walked. “I don’t know how to respond to that.”
    “So why?” he continued, ignoring me. “Are you running from a mere man?”
    “Because,” I said, swallowing as tears filled my eyes. “Because I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me. Every single time I did one of those crazy things, someone else paid for my win. Every single time I left a path of destruction in my wake and… and I didn’t have to pay for any of it.”
    Ordain glanced at me, brushing the hair from his face to reveal his burn in all its glory. Thick mottled scar tissue ran over his skin in an almost perfect semi-circle. “Are you running from Masataka Mawara because you fear him?”
    “No,” I said after a long moment. Hey, my feet were interesting, okay? “I am not scared of Masataka in the traditional sense. I am scared of what he will do to stop me, of the trail of ruin we will leave when it’s all over, of who will pay for me to beat him.”
    “And by running you think that somehow the damage will be less?” Ordain asked, and for the first time in our conversation, I felt a little stupid. “It seems like you’re ensuring that more people will be hurt by running from him.”
    “When you say it like that…” I said with a sigh. “No. It’s like Gib said. Every person who helps me is getting a huge target on them. Right or wrong, my running is just creating more victims. If I’d stayed and fought Masataka on the battlefield, maybe I’d be dead, but no more people would get hurt.”
    “So why don’t you march back into Lot and turn yourself in?” Ordain was staring at me, eyes narrowed. “Then no one would get hurt.”
    “Because my mother told me to run,” I said, looking away from him, and turning my attention toward the sky, across the bloody dunes, at the crimson waters. Basically, anywhere but at him. “She told me to run and I did because I’m not ready to die, okay?” I said. “I… I’m just not.”
    “So you’re scared?” he asked, but his tone wasn’t mocking.
    “Yes,” I said. “I’m scared I’ll either die, or I’ll turn into someone I won’t like in order to beat Masataka. When we were in Fairy… I got dark… I don’t like being the person I was in Fairy. If that happens again, I’m not sure I’ll be able to live with myself.”
    Ordain shrugged at me. “Touching,” he said after a moment. “I don’t really care or anything, but it’s touching.” I glared at him, and he shrugged again.
    “You know, you’re really not the nicest person I’ve ever met,” I said as we crested a tiny sand dune.
    “I’m a demon,” he replied, glancing at me in a way that made me feel pretty dumb. “Now, play nice!” he added, grabbing me by the scruff of the cloak and flinging me down the dune.
    I hit the ground in a roll, which while it stopped me from breaking any important bits, sent me tumbling down like a scarlet snowball. I came to a stop a few moments later in a cloud of ruby dust.
    I scrambled to my feet, whirling around to glare back up the hill as I tried to ignore the places now occupied by sand. Ordain stood at the top with a smirk on his face. Very slowly, he lifted one hand and pointed behind me.
    I whipped around, and my eyes went wide as I took in the scene. There was a small, red-walled farmhouse with white trim. A well-manicured lawn of blue-colored grass stood behind the white picket fence that surrounded the property. A beat-up tan Ford pickup sat in the driveway, the