Stranger at the Hell Gate by Ash Krafton Read Free Book Online Page A

"Why won't you let me heal this scar?"
    He covered her hand with his. "I didn't get this fighting anything."
    "No?"
    Jagger settled down to lie beside her. "I got it when my mother was killed."
    "Oh," she said in a tiny voice. "I'm sorry."
    He didn't seem to hear her. "Me and Acheron were born demon. Our hearts run backwards. It's what makes us demon. My mom—"
    "You don't have to," she whispered.
    "Yes, I do. If we're gonna—you need to know what's under this skin." He swallowed. "My mom was on the run. She didn't want Tallon to know about us. I was born in an alley because she kept running, even after she went into labor. I was born, and she held me upside and spanked me, but I didn't cry. I was a demon, Sunny. My father's son. She did the only thing she could. She prayed, and she jammed her finger into my chest, and she willed me to breathe. She stopped my heart. Her prayer restarted it and made it beat the right way.
    “She thought the worst was over. But then the contractions got worse. Acheron was breech. He hurt her bad when he was born. She tried to restart his heart, too. But it was too late. They found us. The legion took Acheron and they killed her."
    "No, Jagger—you don't have to say anymore."
    He gritted his teeth. “The angelic host that came for my mom's soul protected me and put me in a safe home. Eranil raised me."
    She nodded at the sound of the name but remained silent.
    "When I was old enough to know the truth, they told me. I can't figure that out. Why do that to a kid? I was a baby when all that shit happened. I didn't have to know.”
    “You can't hide from a legacy like that," she said. "Even if they didn’t tell you, you'd have found out. You have a twin. You are connected.”
    “Don't I know it. He found me. And he was a bastard about it. I knew one thing—I'd kill him one day for killing our mother."
    Sonya bit her lips. It was hard to reconcile the two versions of Jagger: the man he claimed to be and the man she wanted to believe he truly was.
    He rolled his head on the pillow and avoided her eyes. "He was never meant to be anything but demon. My humanity makes me weak. I had to work harder at everything because I only have one foot in the world. I'll hunt demons until I die and then I'll die knowing I did everything I could to stop them."
    She traced her fingers over the lines above his heart. "That's quite a story for the scar. I knew there would be one, but I didn't expect that. Well."
    She leaned down to kiss his chest.
    Alarmed, he pushed her shoulders back up. "I told you. I don't want you to erase it."
    "I wasn't erasing it." She smiled at him with a radiance to rival she sun. "I was blessing it. That scar is a sign of true love. I hope you always have it."

ANGELS
    Nearly a month passed.
    The calls came in more frequently, sending him out night after night.
    When he returned at dawn, she healed him before allowing him to topple her into bed. He loved her savagely, seeming to try to put distance between the horrors of the battle he waged each night.
    He sought sanctuary with her, and sought it whenever he could.
    Whenever their flesh met, a current passed between them, a spark jumping between their polarities. Opposites attracted, all right. They attracted and singed each other with their hunger.
    His lovemaking left her exhausted, a lazy kind of languor she was beginning to relish. If only she could get him to lie with her a bit longer before dressing and going back downstairs.
    Jagger hunched over the side of the bed, dragging his boots closer and shoving his feet inside. She watched him from her recline on the pillows, still buzzing with the contentment that lying with him brought.
    His boots strapped, he slapped his thighs. "Well, babe, Time to work. Sun's going down and the creepies will be coming out to play."
    "You have a job tonight?" She hadn't remembered Enzo mentioning one. Then again, Enzo didn't speak about work when she was around. He didn't speak much, period. Despite