Forged of Shadows: A Novel of the Marked Souls Read Online Free PDF

a step. “Dee’s room light is on. She’s fanatical about her privacy, so I’m going to assume it’s her and that Iz made it back with her.” She cut a glance his way. “Unless I should think you’re lying to me.”
    “We try not to lie. We have enough dings against our souls.”
    She stuffed her hands in her pockets. “Then there’s nothing more I can do for them tonight. Except maybe bring down more monsters. I’m going home.”
    “It’s a long walk. I’ll call a ride.”
    She rocked to a halt. “You know where I live?”
    “I did save you from certain death,” he reminded her. As if that was an excuse for stalking.
    Her indignation soon bled away. She supposed it was a damn good excuse.
    She said nothing as he called from his cell. Within a minute, a dark sedan pulled up. Not a cab. “Your people again?”
    He nodded and held open the door for her. She hesitated, but what was the point? She felt wrung out by the night’s oddities and the sneaking realization that there were more dangers facing her than climbing into such a carefully nondescript car with such a strange man.
    “You could have murdered me already, right, and left my body in the alley? I mean, if you’d wanted to. No one could have stopped you.”
    “Yes, I’m an unholy powerful fighter. No, I wouldn’t have left your body anywhere. I’m unholy powerful but also surprisingly tidy.”
    She noticed he didn’t disavow the murder part. She huffed out a long sigh and climbed into the backseat.
     
    Liam settled beside Jilly, conscious of her heat near him in the closed space. And her scent. No perfume for the punkette pixie, just the wet leather of her boots and the waft of some fruity hair gel when she pushed back her hood. And the faintest hint of something else, something wild. Something just her.
    Too bad his teshuva protected him against even the simplest head cold. He didn’t need to be distracted by sniffing after a temptation he knew he couldn’t indulge.
    He kept his knees tucked in, careful not to brush against her as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet. He pulled out a business card and handed it to her.
    She looked down at the simple black card with its two lines of white text: a phone number and the symbol @1. “At one?”
    “Atone,” he corrected, running the implied letters into a single word. “Possessed humor.”
    “Dial the devil at 666-6666?”
    He started to correct her because the number on the card was quite ordinary. Then he realized she was joking. As if he’d forgotten where he put it, he dredged up his sense of humor. “That phone number was taken already. I guess evil has a better business manager and marketing department than repentance.”
    Her piercing winked at him when she snorted.
    On the quiet early- morning streets, the ride to her apartment didn’t take long. They idled, double-parked in front of her building. He wished they could circle the block, keep her beside him. To keep her safe, he told himself.
    “What does Andre look like?” he asked abruptly when she reached for the door handle.
    She paused. “He’s sixteen. About five-eight, one seventy. Black Latino. Shaved head. Homemade tattoo of a skull on his left calf. Last seen in a dark blue hoodie and jeans. I can get you a recent photo.”
    He wondered whether she kept an updated description of every kid in her charge so close to the tip of her tongue. How many did she lose? And how could she be willing to suffer the heartache of not saving them? “If I promise to have my people keep an eye out for him, will you not go looking again?”
    She considered long enough that he figured she was going to tell him the truth. “Not tonight.”
    “Fair enough.” The demon would ascend soon and she’d be too busy to worry about one missing teen.
    Soon she’d be lost herself.
    He studied her. “You know we’re not likely to find anything good.”
    “If you find anything at all, at least we’ll know. Which is more than we often