Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones Read Free Book Online Page B

an end. But being born on Earth was perhaps not the wisest decision I’ve ever made. My corporeal body has made me too vulnerable and should be destroyed. The physical evidence of the key hidden.”
    When Reyes was born in human form, the key, the map to hell that was imprinted on his body when he was created, appeared on his human body as well. I wondered what his human parents had thought of it. What the doctors had thought. A tattoo on a newborn. I wasn’t sure how it all worked, but apparently the tattoo was the means for Satan to escape from hell. He didn’t want to escape, to render himself vulnerable, until a portal was born. And he sent his son to this plane to wait for one. Reyes was supposed to retrieve Satan and all his armies the minute I was born. Instead, he was born upon the Earth as well. To be with me. To grow up with me. But he was kidnapped from his birth parents long before his dream could come to fruition.
    “If those demons make it back through the gate,” he continued, “they’ll have the key and my father can escape. Which is exactly what he’ll do.” He leaned back in the chair and clasped his hands behind his head. “You know how people have prophesied about the end of time since pretty much the beginning of time?”
    “Yes,” I said, knowing instinctively his anecdote would end badly.
    “They have no idea what hell awaits them if my father gets this key.” He dropped his hands and leaned forward. “And the first thing he would do is come after you.”
    “I don’t care.”
    He fixed a dubious scowl on me. “Of course you do.”
    “No. I don’t. You can’t just let your body die. We don’t know what’ll happen. They could get you either way.”
    “Let’s say, for argument’s sake, they were no longer a threat, that you were able to vanquish them all.”
    “Me?”
    “There’s still this one little problem I have called life behind bars. I’m not going back to prison, Dutch.”
    What? He was worried about that? “I don’t understand. You can leave your body anytime you want. It’s not like those bars can hold you.”
    “It’s not that simple.”
    He was being evasive again, holding something back. “Reyes, please tell me.”
    “It’s not important.” He reached up and turned my computer screen off as if it suddenly bothered him.
    “Reyes.” I placed a hand on his arm, coaxed him back to me. “Why isn’t it that simple?”
    He worked his jaw and glanced down at his boots. “There’s … a side effect.”
    “When you leave your body?”
    “Yes. When I leave, my body mimics a seizurelike state. If I do it too often, the prison doctors put me on drugs that keep me from seizing. Drugs that have an unacceptable side effect.” His gaze traveled back to mine. “They keep me from separating. I’m stuck in prison and you are completely vulnerable.”
    Oh. “Well, then keep running. I’ll help you. But let me get you medical attention for now. I have a friend who’s a doctor, and I know a couple of nurses. They would see you for me. They wouldn’t turn us in, I promise. Let me find you and we can worry about prison later.”
    “Because if you find me, he finds me. And I go back to prison no matter who you know.”
    That again? “Who finds you?”
    “The guy your uncle has glued to your tail.”
    That took me by surprise. “What are you talking about?”
    “Your uncle put a tail on you, probably in the hopes that I’d show up.”
    “Uncle Bob put a tail on me?” I asked, appalled.
    “Aren’t you supposed to notice those types of things? You know, to detect them?” He winked teasingly.
    “You’re changing the subject,” I said, trying to recover from the wink.
    “Sorry.” He sobered. “Okay, so you want me to stay alive because there is a slight possibility I could be sent back to hell. Does that about sum it up?”
    “Reyes, you escaped from there. The same being that was created with the map to the gates of hell on his body. You’re the key