Demon's Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

prospect unappealing, she slipped into a slow, thick dream in which a man with long blue-black hair swept it back and forth across her naked legs. Higher and higher he went, to her knees, her thighs, his silver eyes gleaming like mercury set aflame. You’re what I want, he whispered against her mound. You’re the goddess I’ve been yearning for. And she was a goddess, so lovely, so powerful she had only to crook her finger and he’d crawl panting up her body with his sex erect…
    The sound of a loud throat-clearing yanked her up on her stool.
    Good Lord , it was Lord Herrington, standing like a tall red-haired mountain in the formerly sealed tent door. Because of his atypical coloring, you couldn’t tell he was a demon unless you looked at his eyes. They were the solid silver of all his kind, broken only by the jet black shine of his round pupils. Those eyes had nearly hypnotized her when she first met him. Now, remembering the burning silver gaze from her dream, she was doubly mortified. Herrington was not a person she wanted to associate with anything like that.
    Unlikely as it sounded, he was the father of her brother’s wife, Roxanne. Humans and demons weren’t supposed to be able to inter-breed, but somehow he and Roxanne’s mother had managed it. Beth being here at all, in Herrington’s employ, was very much a favor to his son-in-law.
    Thoroughly embarrassed, Beth peeled the recording sheet she’d been lying on from her sweaty cheek.
    “Hm,” Herrington said with an uncertain gesture of his right hand. “I think you’ve got a bit of ink on your chin.”
    “Hell.” Beth licked the heel of her palm and scrubbed at it…until she realized she’d probably disgusted him. Yama were notoriously fastidious.
    Fortunately, Herrington had grown accustomed to human ways. Something that might have been a smile tugged at his lips.
    “I believe the stain is gone,” he said.
    “Lord Herrington!” she burst out. “I’m so sorry for falling asleep!”
    “Not at all.” He shifted uncomfortably at the passion of her cry. “I put you here because you’re family, and you could be trusted with the machine. I should have realized a young, active human would find these duties dull.”
    Herrington thought of her as family? Herrington trusted her? Surprised and touched, Beth took a moment to shut her mouth.
    “It’s not really dull,” she hastened to assure him. “Or only a little. And it’s still much better than being home.”
    “Well.” He rubbed his big, freckled hand across his mouth, and this time Beth really did think he was smiling. Evidently, his spirits were high tonight. “We must endeavor to ensure that remains the case. I was wondering…” He paused, the hesitation almost human shyness. “We have succeeded in clearing a route to the queen’s chamber. I thought you might like to see the end to which all this paper leads.”
    “I’d love to,” Beth exclaimed, “but I’m so behind!”
    “Your work will keep,” Herrington said, though the glance he cast around the stacks seemed dubious. He squared his shoulders as if bracing. “Tomorrow is another day, and this is worth seeing.”
    “Then I’d love to,” Beth said more softly. “Really, really love to.”
    His face appeared to darken just a tiny bit. Beth supposed her effusion had embarrassed him. She couldn’t doubt Herrington liked humans. His devotion to his daughter was unmistakable. Also unmistakable was that humans, especially those to whom he had personal ties, made him feel awkward. As much as Beth enjoyed traveling far from home, she couldn’t imagine spending her whole life among a culture alien from her own. It must be nearly impossible for Herrington to relax, and perhaps he didn’t unless he was alone.
    Naturally it wouldn’t do to let him know she was dissecting his character—and in this sympathetic way! Determined to keep her musings to herself, Beth pushed from her chair and shook out her bothersome long skirts. For