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

get.” Her expression was shuttered as she stared out the window at her door.
    “You’re already getting better at controlling your emotions.” He tried to sound approving. “You’ll need it.”
    She slanted a glance at him, so full of rage his breath caught. A hint of violet flickered in her eyes, as if the aurora borealis had drifted too far south. The demon, coming out to play. “Yay, me.”
    “I’ll let you know what we learn. And if you need anything, anything at all, call that number,” he added, knowing she wouldn’t.
    She crumpled the business card in her fist. “Sure.” She jolted out of the car and stomped to the door.
    Liam watched her go. “She couldn’t be sweet and easy, like Sera?”
    Archer slung his arm over the front seat. “You must be talking about a different Sera.”
    They both winced as Jilly let herself inside and slammed the door, never looking back.
    “I suppose it’s unreasonable to expect a demon to possess a nice person,” Archer continued. “Even angelic forces aren’t really interested in nice people.”
    “The battle between good and evil does seem to call for a certain fortitude of spirit,” Liam agreed.
    “You think?”
    They waited in silence a moment.
    “Did Ecco get surveillance set up in her apartment?” Liam asked.
    “Energy sink. ESF recorder. Audio. He wanted video. Sera nixed it. Said the bad ol’ boys’ club would have to rent their porn just like regular nonpossessed assholes.”
    Liam sighed. “Why do I get the feeling that adding another female possessed is like peeking through the underwater view port on the Titanic ?”
    “Ice is all you’ll be peeking at.” Archer smirked at him. “So you’re ready to acknowledge that you want her?”
    Want. That one word zinged through Liam like a bullet off bone, leaving a jagged wake. “What does want have to do with being talyan?” His voice sounded harsher than he intended. The teshuva couldn’t risk wanting—not when wanting dovetailed so closely with sin. With an effort that tightened his throat, he modulated his tone. “She’s another fighter. We need those. Desperately. I’ll find someone to help her through possession.”
    He believed in all his men, valued each of them for their unique abilities. But this job . . . He folded his hands together, interlaced fingers over tautly strung tendons. “You could do it.”
    Archer recoiled. “No. I found the other half that fits my broken pieces. And she’d break me into dust if I let anything come between us.”
    “For the good of the league—”
    Archer’s eyes flashed violet and his voice thrummed with the double-octave lows of demon harmonics. “Not for the world itself.”
    “Ah, right. How could I forget?” Liam subsided. His grip eased. “I’ll find someone.”
    “Idiot,” Archer muttered.
    Liam let himself out of the car. The instinctive violence of Archer’s reaction just went to show why the league’s leader couldn’t get so involved. A leader had to keep perspective, which would be impossible if he got too close. Too close to anything, or anyone.
    “Where are you going?” Archer rolled down the window and leaned out. “I thought you’d stay through the night, pining hopelessly outside her window, too self-sacrificing to make your move, too entangled to walk away.”
    Liam shot him a withering glance. “It’s not a romance, jackass. It’s death and damnation and doom, remember?”
    Archer slapped the flat of his hand on the steering wheel. “Exactly.”
    They stared at each other for a minute.
    “I’m going to find a feralis and tear it apart,” Liam offered conversationally.
    “Have a lovely evening.” Archer settled back in his seat. “Bring me a nice cup of tea when you can’t stay away any longer.”
    Liam stalked away, neck stiff to stop his gaze from lingering where Jilly had gone. There was no one he trusted more than Archer to keep anything dangerous from making its way through her door.
    Anything