Doomsday Can Wait Read Online Free PDF Page A

supposed to see, but I was both. However, I hadn't had the time to study the ancient texts, the legends of every country and people. The way things were going, I doubted I ever would.
    Thus far I'd made do with consulting any available DK and that friend to seekers of knowledge everywhere, the Internet.
    "I've been doing this a while," Summer answered. "There's also a Web site where DKs and seers have begun to enter into a database what they know about a particular Nephilim or breed. Cuts down on research time."
    "Why don't I know about this?"
    "Just went live in the past few weeks." She rattled off an address, then told me how to access the files with a code. "It's not comprehensive since DKs are better at killing than typing, and a lot of knowledge was lost when three-quarters of the federation was wiped out."
    I cursed.
    "Live with it," Summer said. "And move on."
    I didn't have much choice.
    "Have you ever seen anything similar to this?" I held up the amulet.
    Summer took it, and I tensed, half afraid she might go up in flames when she touched it. Who knew what that thing could do? But she didn't.
    "The woman of smoke probably made it," Summer said. "Cast a spell. Sacrificed a goat."
    I stilled. "Why would you say that?"
    "There's always a sacrificial goat." She glanced sideways, then back at the dark road. "You do know that a goat isn't always a goat?"
    "Huh?"
    "The goat without horns. It means human sacrifice." I must have made an involuntary movement because she lifted her brow. "Don't tell me you're surprised? We're talking pure evil. For demons, humans are prey. Cattle. Meat. Goats, if you will."
    I'd known that, had seen it practiced by the leader of the darkness, who'd kept a harem of women snacks. I was so glad that guy was dead.
    Summer laid the amulet on the seat between us. "Something else is bothering you besides this."
    Her intuitiveness was nearly as annoying as her manicure.
    "I've seen the Naye'i before," I admitted.
    "And you didn't kill her?"
    "I was a kid." I'd had no idea what I was seeing. One glance into the demon's eyes, and I'd hidden under the covers for the rest of the night.
    "What happened?"
    "Sawyer. He—" I searched for the words to explain what I'd observed. "He ... conjured her. By killing a goat."
    The car swerved as Summer's hands jerked on the wheel. "A goat, goat or—"
    "A goat." It had still been quite a shock.
    "And then?" Summer asked.
    I closed my eyes and saw again what had happened so many years ago.
    Ruthie had sent me to Sawyer the summer I was fifteen to discover all that I could about the psychometric talent I'd been born with. I'd needed to learn how to live with it, and Sawyer had helped.
    Sure, it was weird to send a fifteen-year-old girl to an isolated part of New Mexico to stay with what appeared to be a thirty-year-old man.
    However, Sawyer wasn't thirty. Hell, he wasn't even a man. And I was no ordinary fifteen-year-old girl.
    I don't think Ruthie had been wild about the idea of sending me there, but I also don't think she'd had much choice. I was special in a way she'd never dealt with before, just as Sawyer was special in ways no one else could understand. As much as he'd scared me—as much as he still did—he'd also thrilled me, tempted me, and taught me.
    On that long-ago night, I'd woken in the dark, heard a voice, peeked out the window just in time to witness the death of the goat and a whole lot more.
    The blood had poured over Sawyer's hands and into the ground. Smoke had risen wherever the blood struck as he'd chanted in another language—Navajo, no doubt— and lifted his gory palms in supplication to the night. The smoke had twined with the bonfire at the edge of the yard before racing around and around as if trying to break free. Sawyer had snapped an order, and the dancing flame paused, lengthened, and became the woman of smoke.
    When she'd stared at me with her bottomless black eyes, I'd tried to hide, but it was too late. She'd seen me, and I knew