devil 03 - tween hearts fire and devils delight Read Online Free PDF

halted with a bone-jarring jerk and my body slammed into the floor hard enough to knock all the wind out of me.
    I lay gasping on the floor of the disabled vehicle as I felt it shuddering into the dragon’s embrace again.
    I tried pushing myself off the floor and thought foul deprecations in my head as I fought to regain breath. My arms didn’t seem to be working right. Probably from oxygen deprivation.
    “You’ve got to be shitting me,” I wheezed as an eight inch long, razor sharp claw pierced the Viper’s back and started ripping away the metal over my head.
    I rolled to my back and fired another power arrow blindly through the new tear. The dragon screeched but didn’t let go of the Viper. I fired again and again until the dragon lost its temper and flung us away.
    I grabbed a seat as we plunged downward, wondering that we hadn’t hit the ground yet. As expected, the Viper came to a grinding halt in midair and, this time my legs took a painful jolt but my hold on the seat stopped me from full impact.
    I didn’t wait for the dragon to attack again. I flung myself into the seat and hit the eject button. The roof over my head surged open and the seat bucked powerfully, flinging me through the opening in the Viper’s roof and into the sky above.
    I sailed past the dragon, watching one surprised, red eye track my upward progress as it realized what I’d done. It immediately dropped the Viper and spread its wings to fly. Before it could react, I tapped into my daemon hickey and pulled the full force of my power and Dialle’s through me, firing it into the surprised dragon as I reversed my momentum and started falling past it toward the ground below.
    The thing had time to shriek once as my power hit its black head and then, with one last powerful surge of its mighty wings, its head exploded and its dead body plummeted toward the ground.
    I grabbed the cross around my neck, closed my eyes and placed the cross against my forehead. I thought his name and Flick appeared, suddenly cradling me in his arms. “Hey, Astra.”
    I smiled at him, taking a breath for the first time in moments. Leaning my head against his chest I sighed. “Hey, Flick. Take me to the office will you?”
    His voice rumbled in his chest as he said, “Sure thing.”
    And we entered the sphere where time and space stopped.
    * * * * *
     
    Flick sat across from me in one of my client chairs. Emo sat in the other. Emo’s handsome, golden face had creased more with each detail I’d fed them about my encounter with the black dragon.
    He shook his head now, black curls swinging against finely honed cheeks and his beautiful black eyes narrowing. “It doesn’t make sense. Black dragons haven’t been seen around here for nearly thirty years.”
    My gaze slid to his. “That’s not entirely accurate. I did see one fighting a red dragon when we faced off against Enoch and my mother. I have a feeling Enoch brought them back from the shadows to fight that battle.”
    Emo shook his head and looked down at his hands. That memory was not a good one for either of us. Enoch had been a long-time friend and trusted ally of our two families. That he had chosen the dark purpose over the divine goal in the end still stung.
    Flick seemed oblivious to our sudden melancholy. “So, we need to get you a new air vehicle.” He grinned at me, obviously relishing the idea.
    I grimaced. Losing the Viper was like losing my best friend. We’d been through so much together and the Viper had never betrayed me or tried to kill me. Actually it was better than a best friend. “I guess.”
    Emo slid his dark gaze to me. “I can start looking if you’ll tell me what you want.”
    I shrugged, suddenly not interested at all in finding a new air vehicle. It felt somehow disloyal to replace my beloved Viper within hours of having lost it. “Surprise me.”
    Emo’s eyes widened slightly, knowing that the choice was too important to be sloughed off so cavalierly. “How about we