Dreamwalker (Stormwalker #5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

unconcerned with John and Monica’s offer. The fact that he’d figured out what they wanted while I’d been oblivious meant this hadn’t been the first time he’d been propositioned. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
    Mick leaned to me again, his breath warm in my ear. “Go home if you want, sweetheart. I can stay and wait for demons.”
    I snuggled into his embrace. “No thanks.” If I went back into the hotel, I’d only have to solve problems like leaky faucets and the magic mirror trying to scare the somewhat magical. Out here, I could continue my date with Mick, even if we had to spend it on the watch for demons. He warmed me against the night, and moonlight glinted on the turquoise and onyx ring he’d given me when a breeze moved the tree’s limbs.
    After a time, I asked him. “What did you mean, what kind of demon?”
    “There are several varieties,” Mick answered readily. “The ones from Beneath are pretty much monsters with little going on in their brains. They act on instinct and hunger. But there are other demons, born of the earth as the dragons are, who can live among humans without detection if they choose. They’re still flesh eaters; they’re just more subtle about it.”
    “Great. And I don’t know about them, why?”
    Mick kissed the top of my head. “They’re rare, and they tend to lie low, far from any mage who could detect them and stop them.” I felt the smile in his kiss. “And, you’ve been busy.”
    “If they stay away from mages, why did they come here?”  
    The Crossroads Hotel was becoming notorious as a refuge for the paranormal. I had one of the most powerful mages in the country as my manager, a Nightwalker in my basement, and a shaman storing her magic in the room next to the Nightwalker’s. Not to mention a dragon I was going to marry, and me, the crazy woman with the Stormwalker and Beneath magic mix. Plus Gabrielle, who was more powerful than I was, and various and sundry supernatural guests.
    “It is curious,” Mick said.
    When Mick sank into his dragon self, his mode of speech became archaic, more precise. The biker bad boy started to sound like a Victorian college professor.
    “ Curious is one word for it.”
    “Suspicious is another,” Mick said. “Especially coming hard on the heels of Emmett’s impromptu visit.”
    “You think they’re here to help steal the mirror?” I glared at the open front door of the bar as though it would give me answers. “I don’t think they stand a chance.”
    “I’m sure Emmett’s plan is more devious than sending demons to carry off a giant mirror weighing close to three hundred pounds.”
    “I know you’re trying to make me feel better.” I patted Mick’s broad hand where it rested on my abdomen. “But it’s not working.”
    “A dragon’s got to try.”
    His answering caress reminded me of other things my dragon boyfriend liked to try. I shifted with impatience. As soon as the demons emerged, we’d grab them, interrogate them, and maybe slay them, and then I’d haul Mick off to bed. The remnants of our date night might just be salvageable.
    On my hotel side of the parking lot, the shadow of a woman emerged from the hotel’s saloon. The saloon had just been rebuilt and refurbished after its last run-in with a dragon, who’d burned it down. To be fair, the dragon had then made all the arrangements to have it renovated, and he’d paid for everything. The construction had taken very little time, but then, Drake could be persuasive.
    The young woman walking toward us, unerringly, was Gabrielle. She moved without her usual verve, and when she reached us she simply folded her arms and faded into the shadows with us.
    “Cassandra yelled at me,” she said sullenly.
    Cassandra, my tidy hotel manager who was a strong Wiccan witch, never yelled. But I knew what Gabrielle meant. No doubt Cassandra had explained to her, sternly, how a powerful mage should behave.
    “Cassandra’s pretty smart,” I