Demon High Read Online Free PDF Page B

behind me. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. I knew I was losing her.
    It hardened my determination. I let my mind leave her behind and put force behind my desire.
Theodore, where are you? I’m getting impatient. Ever been trapped in a circle by an angry caller? Don’t test me.
I thought the last with enough force, my eyes flew open. I could feel power surging through me, could feel my hair lifting off my scalp.
    “Lucinda—” Brittany.
    I ignored her. My call had found its mark or a mark at least, I wouldn’t know for sure until the demon materialized if I’d managed to ring my target on my very first try.
    “What in the—?” The voice came through first, annoyed and with a New England accent, then the body, or form—a short fortyish man dressed in a classic tux, complete with spats and tails. He didn’t seem to see me at first. He blinked blindly around the circle, then dropped whatever he’d been holding to the ground.
    A smile spread across my face. I’d done it. As he bent to retrieve what he had dropped, I glanced over my shoulder at Brittany. She was frowning.
    Realizing a middle-aged guy in a tux didn’t scream demon, I set the bell on the ground and crossed my arms over my chest. “Theodore Washington Thornton. Show your real face.”
    He glanced around again, then sauntered closer to the circle’s edge. He had a pair of opera glasses in his hand. He peered through them. “I only got one face, now my wife she’s got three, the one she puts on in the morning, the one she takes off at night and the one I try and forget lies under both of them.” He paused, like he was waiting for something.
    I tapped my fingers on my arm, not sure how to respond.
    Behind me, Brittany muttered. “Pathetic.”
    Theodore tapped his foot and leaned forward his hand over his eyes like a visor. “Now don’t get me wrong. I take my wife everywhere—New York, California, even Canada. Unfortunately, she keeps finding her way back.”
    I could feel Brittany’s groan. This wasn’t how I’d thought this would go; I held up one hand. “Theodore.”
    He broke into another joke. “What do you call an honest lawyer?”
    “Unemployed!” Brittany yelled. Then she reached over the fence to tap me on the shoulder. “Who is he?”
    Theodore drew himself up to his full five foot eight inches of height. “The punch line is
broke
.”
    “Yeah, well so are your jokes, old, broken and lame. But go ahead, hit me with another one, I could use a good nap,” she responded.
    As Theodore’s eyes narrowed, they flickered yellow. Something flickered inside me too.
    “I am the most famous vaudeville comedian to tread the boards.”
    “Uh, yeah, no.” Brittany tapped me again. “This is the best you could do? To get the big bucks we need something I don’t know scary…all dark and sexy or maybe—.”
    “Like this?” Theodore’s voice boomed at us.
    My gaze snapped back to the circle; by Brittany’s intake of breath I guessed hers did too.
    Theodore had grown fourteen inches. He towered over us. His skin had darkened too, to somewhere between cocoa and cappuccino. His chest was bare and every muscle bulged. On his back were wings. Wings that started at the ground and reached to four inches above his head.
    His face was angelic, high cheekbones, full lips and eyes so blue they were almost clear.
    I didn’t know who this demon was, but it sure as hell wasn’t the weak vaudeville-star-turned-demon who I’d called.
     
     

Chapter 4
     
    “Who are you?” I asked. My voice came out as a croak, but with the panic welling inside my chest, I was impressed words came out all.
    “Who did you call?” asked the creature. He tilted his head to the side and raised one brow.
    You don’t answer a demon’s questions. It gives them control, something else my mother had repeated frequently enough it had apparently settled permanently into my brain. “You know who I called,” I replied.
    “Do I?” He smiled.
    I could