Demons are a Ghoul's Best Friend: Afterglow, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Growing up was hard sometimes. Not being able to fit in to the usual cliques—vampire, werewolf, elf—you know how it works. I had the mark but I couldn’t do the deed. And yet I wasn’t a bland either…”
    She nodded. Everyone wanted to fit in, it seemed. “Yes, I can see you’d have some issues.” She frowned a little. “But now you’re an adult…”
    “And a cop.” He turned the wheel as they exited the highway. “I finally found a place where a talent like mine can come in handy now and again.”
    “Really?” She blinked. “You use it on the job?”
    “Sure. Makes undercover work a helluva lot easier sometimes. I can’t hold it for hours on end, but there’ve been a few cases where minutes count. If I can persuade a perp he’s someplace else seeing something else? Hey, whatever gets the job done.”
    “Is that legal?”
    He lifted an eyebrow briefly. “There speaks the lawyer.”
    “Of course.”
    “Never had a case thrown out because of it.” He braked for a stoplight. “We know our job, Pandora. The DA doesn’t accept magical manifestations when it comes to prosecution. Hard evidence and facts. That’s what he wants.”
    “Um.” She digested his comment, wondering if any of the cases she’d dealt with had involved some sort of AG event prior to arriving on her desk. The thought made her shudder at the potential implications and she turned her attention to the road. “Turn right at the next intersection.”
    He did so, then glanced at her. “To turn that question to you—what’s a Fae doing becoming a lawyer?”
    She tensed. “I don’t see the two as mutually exclusive.”
    He grinned. “Touchy, are we?”
    “Certainly not.” The pause that followed could best be described as pregnant. “Well, not very much.”
    “Aha.”
    “There’s no aha about it. I like the law.” Pandora lifted her chin defiantly. “It’s essential, clear cut and interesting. It’s a part of our society that’s pretty much always been there and always will.”
    “True. And I could probably count on one hand the number of its members who are Fae. Most are blands or vamps who don’t mind burning the midnight oil in some musty library, poring over data that’s a gazillion years old.”
    “But don’t you see? That’s the point.” She twisted in her seat and spread her hands for emphasis. “The law is a gazillion years old. It’s one of the few things that transcends the passage of time and the changes in our culture. It’s been a constant from the earliest recorded history. Before there were AGs, there was the law. Before there was hideous weaponry, there was the law. Before there was—well, before there were a whole lot of humans, there was probably a law or two.”
    Cheney huffed out a soft laugh. “It’s illegal to kill more than one woolly mammoth a week?”
    “Probably. You may make a joke out of it, but I regard the law as part of the glue that’s held humanity together for eons. I find that thought…comforting, in an odd way. And fascinating too. How the intricacies of it still make sense. How the necessity of it is still very much an integral part of our foundation as civilized beings.”
    The car slid to a stop at the end of a cul-de-sac, in front of a small group of contemporary townhouses. She pointed. “That one’s mine.”
    Cheney killed the motor and withdrew the keys, unfastening his seat belt as he surveyed the area. “You know, Pandora, if I was a shrink, I’d say you were looking for some major stability in your choice of a career. And that would be an interesting premise for therapy.” He opened his door and got out of the car.
    She snorted and did the same, straightening her skirt automatically as she slammed her door closed behind her. “In that case, it’s probably a good thing you’re a cop.”

    Cheney found himself once again contemplating Pandora’s very fine ass as it swayed up the short driveway to her front door. There was a garage next to it, so