Demons of the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page B

so maybe he’s not so bad.
    She placed the glasses of water on the coffee table and flopped on the couch.
    Turtle abandoned Jax and crawled into her lap. Clumps of cat hair clung to Jax’s black T-shirt.
    “Sorry about all the cat hair,” Persephone said. “It’s one of the fabulous side effects of owning a cat.”
    “It doesn’t bother me.” He picked up the glass in front of him and took a swig. “But if it bothers you, why didn’t you pick out one of those short-haired cats?”
    “You think I picked this cat out?”
    Turtle gave an offended-sounding mew, and Persephone scratched the top of his head. “Sorry, Turtle. I didn’t mean to insult you.”
    Jax smiled at her like she was adorable, which bugged her to no end. “It’s cute how you talk to your cat.”
    “Look, I don’t care if you think I’m all kinds of crazy. Turtle saved me, and I saved him. It’s been just me and him for months, so yes, I talk to my cat.”
    He threw his hands up. “Sorry for thinking you’re cute. It wasn’t meant as an insult, I swear.”
    She waited for the mocking follow up, but it didn’t come. Since she felt stupid for making a big deal about it, she decided to try to explain herself without giving too much away. “After fleeing my home to get away from the demons, my gran and I…We got…separated.” Talking about it, even though she was leaving out most of the details, was harder than she thought.
    Persephone swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I’d only been to New Orleans once before, but Gran had a contact here, and that’s where we were supposed to meet up if anything happened. I traveled as fast as I could, terrified the demons were going to catch up with me…”
    Jax leaned forward, and the concern on his face surprised her. She didn’t want to get into the days on the run, so she charged on with the rest of the story. “Anyway, I didn’t think I was going to make it. By the time I got to New Orleans, I was tired and hungry, and I thought someone—or some thing —was following me. So I ducked into an alley and hid. Once I sat down, I couldn’t drag myself up. Turtle came over to me—he had a cut up leg and was limping—and snuggled in close. I almost pushed him away, thinking he might have some disease, but he was so warm.”
    She ran her fingers down Turtle’s fur and scratched his stomach. “He kept me warm that night. The next morning, I gathered my strength and got to my feet again. Turtle mewed, this pathetic rattly mew, and I just couldn’t leave him there. So I picked him up and walked the last twenty miles to Carrefour, this restaurant where a woman who knew Gran helped me out till she showed up . Obviously that was before she…” Despite her best efforts to tamp down her emotions, her voice cracked. She sniffed, trying to hold it together, but it wasn’t working. “It’s been a little over three months since she passed away, and I miss her so much that some days I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the day.”
    Now she wished she hadn’t told him the story. She felt raw, and exposed, and way too close to tears.
    When Jax spoke, his voice was soft. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know what that’s like. I will tell you I’ve been around Warriors all my life, and you’re still one of the toughest people I’ve ever met.”
    No doubt he was exaggerating, but it made her feel better.
    Jax raised an eyebrow. “So, are you going to tell me now how you got to be so strong?”
    The reason why she was strong was also why she struggled with who she was. Why she felt a darkness in her that she worried might take over someday. Which was another reason she kept people, even her friends, at a distance.
    Persephone shrugged. “I guess I just got lucky.”
    His face said he wasn’t buying it, but that was all he was getting. For now, anyway.
    “Fine. You can tell me later. We’ll have lots of time to get to know each other.” He straightened, and his