Demons: A Hunter's Novel, Book 1 Read Free Page A

stop it. I did it
whenever I was nervous. It was a fatal affliction in some instances. I saw his
eyes warm slightly as he placed his hand over my mouth to stop the words
spewing involuntarily out of it, no doubt.
    “Don’t
call me that, Delaney. You no longer have the privilege.”
    I
noticed he hadn’t called me by my nickname, Laney, the name he knew I preferred.
Everything he did was deliberate. He hadn’t gotten over what happened. Good to
know I wasn’t the only one.
    From
the first time I had met him, and almost killed him, I had always called him
Az. The first time we met he had talked me into giving him a chance. He told me
he was an enforcer amongst Demons and there was only one of him every one
hundred years or so. I had let him live. We worked as a team of sorts.
    Initially
I kept an eye on him because I had questioned my sanity in not killing him, but
I soon discovered that if I had, Demons would’ve run amuck. After a few months
of him towing the line, we began a tentative friendship. We would call the
other when we needed back-up. That quickly turned into meeting every night and
working as partners.
    One
early morning, after a long night of killing and maiming, he dropped me off at
the door of my house, as he normally did. I’ll never forget the way he looked
at me that night. It was an intense mixture of pain and pleasure, with a “fuck
it” on his lips before he assaulted all my senses with a kiss that changed my
world forever.
    But
everything was different now and I knew that better than anyone. I had been
running from the truth of it for six months. Me calling him Az was a
familiarity he didn’t want between us anymore and I couldn’t blame him for that.
    In
my six month absence he had climbed the Demon ladder faster than any other
before him. I had heard of his unrelenting ruthlessness and madness from the
occasional Hunter that crossed my path. I didn’t want to believe it. I guess
you could only hide from the truth for so long before it caught up to you.
    “Take
me inside before someone sees us.” I whispered.
    “That’s
what you’d be afraid of. Your precious Hunters seeing us.”
    “This
is my life, Az. Don’t fuck it up.” Damn I did it again. In my head I started
chanting Az-rael, Az-rael …
    “I
thought your life was filled with fucking strangers, not being a Hunter.”
    It
hurt so much more than I knew it would. He had seen the men I had used to numb
myself from the pain of losing him. It had never crossed my mind that he may
have been watching me – I mean, why would he? Why torture himself?
    I
had to work on calling him Azrael. We had been on the same side for so long. It
was easy to fall back into line with him. Yes, he was a Demon but he had been
good when we were together. He was charged with killing any Demon that broke
the rules, and in the end, he took out anything that broke the rules on any
side. We shared that common ground.
    After
I left him he had gone off the deep end just as I had gone off the radar. He
had become one of the nastiest of all Demons. And because of that my heart had
broken further. I didn’t even know if my heart was still there – pieces of it
were, maybe.
    It
is said there is a thin line between love and hate. I had a foot on both sides.
I wanted to throw my arms around him and break his face at the same time. But
as much as I was conflicted, I trusted him above all others. Because when it
came to me I knew where he stood. He was on my side. Unless something changed
to completely turn him against me. As I would think seeing me with other men
would’ve done. Why was I here with him now? Why would he bring me back to him?
Why was I still alive? I would’ve lost it.
    His
hand dropped to my wrist and I felt the pull of the teleport. A second later, I
blinked the tunneled gray from my vision. We were in a window laden office at
least 15 stories up. It was a fabulous view of the city. I loved Miami, Florida
and so did the supes, especially Demons.