Wicked Burn by Rebecca Zanetti Read Free Book Online Page A

to enter.
    Turn back. Turn back. Turn back.
    Nick ignored his inner whispers and walked inside his uncle’s main office, instantly assailed by the smell of flowers on fire. Opium. His uncle had made smoking the sweet-smelling stuff a sport.
    “Nicholai.” Uncle Henry stood behind his desk, a map of the new world spread across the stone surface. “I thought you went to Ireland with your tail between your legs.”
    “I changed my mind.” Nick shut the door and crossed the room, bypassing a series of chairs.
    Henry’s gaze narrowed, and shrewd black eyes took his measure. At about seven centuries old, Henry had honed his warrior’s body to pure muscle. His blond hair reached his shoulders, and he’d tied it back with leather. “The witch rejected you, huh?” He threw back his head and laughed.
    “No. I decided it couldn’t work. The witch is too ambitious to be my mate.” Nick reached the desk and surveyed the maps. “What’s this?”
    “New world with a new breed of human females.” Henry smacked his too-red lips together. “Suri and I are thinking about going hunting.”
    They needed laws in place to protect females of all species from demons. “Doesn’t sound like much sport,” Nick murmured.
    Henry shrugged. “’Tisn’t. But the end result is always so much fun.” He reached across the desk and smacked Nick in the arm. “Maybe I’ll go hunt that witch first and show her what a real man can do.”
    Nick’s stomach rolled. “I don’t think so.” He grabbed Henry’s arm, yanked, and pulled his uncle right over the desk. The demon weighed a ton, but gravity helped.
    Henry hit the floor, rolled, and came up swinging.
    The first hit to the face nearly knocked Nick across the desk. Pain exploded as his cheekbone cracked. He countered with a punch to Henry’s nose. Blood sprayed.
    Henry roared and yanked a razor-sharp knife from his back, swinging for Nick’s neck. “You bastard,” Henry hissed.
    “Not really. Mum and Pops were married,” Nick countered, slashing across Henry’s forearm. His parents had died during the last war, as had many demons. Heat filled him along with purpose. Now he was committed, like it or not.
    Henry snarled and tackled Nick, taking him down. His head bounced against rock, and stars flashed behind his eyes. Twisting his body, Simone in his head, he slammed his knife up and into Henry’s throat.
    Henry’s eyes widened, and blood gurgled from his mouth. Angling to the side, he shoved his knife between Nick’s ribs.
    Agony ripped through Nick’s body. “Fuck.” Drawing on a darkness he hadn’t realized lived inside him, he shoved harder until the hilt of his knife rested against Henry’s neck. Pushing up, Nick reversed their positions, twisting and slashing until Henry’s head rolled away from his massive body.
    Oh God. Nick turned and puked. Then, wearily, his soul actually slipping away, he stood and wiped the knife off on his pants. Coldness settled down his body.
    He staggered toward Henry’s head and grasped it by the hair. His stomach rolled. What had he done?
    This would either work or get him killed, and right now, he wasn’t sure of the better outcome. The walk through tunnels to Suri’s office took an eternity, and he left droplets of blood the entire way. He shoved open the rock door without knocking.
    Suri looked up from his desk. He was centuries old but appeared about twenty; the only sign of his true age was an ancient glint in his eyes. “What the hell?”
    Nick strode inside and dropped Henry’s head on the desk. The neck impacted first with an odd squishing sound. It would take time and terrible deeds to gain Suri’s full trust, but now Nick was committed. God help him. “I think you have an opening in your organization.”
    Nick was yanked back to the present day as the door opened. He returned from the past to see Simone sauntering in to sit on a thousand-year-old sofa against the rock wall, her green velvet skirt topped by a classic