How to Lose a Demon in 10 Days Read Online Free PDF Page B

soaking in a hot bath. This was more like dipping. When she got her money and her son back from Michael, after she admitted to him that she was behind the demon tormenting him and only she could stop it, she was going to buy a house in the nicest suburb of Kansas City. Somewhere with a homeowners’ association, gated entry, and no damn demons, witches, supernatural creatures, or mobsters. It was going to have a bathroom the size of a living room. It was going to have a tub big enough for eight people, and two hot-water heaters. And the showerhead would be to die for. Then she wouldn’t need a man. Or a demon. She and her son would have a nice, normal, safe life.
    She wondered what Caspian was going to do to Michael, then snorted. Michael. Michael Grigorovich. He’d sworn on a stack of Bibles that he was descended from the great Rasputin. Grace would believe that when Madame Tussaud sculpted his likeness out of her earwax. She knew now he was just another thug from Brighton, a thug who had her son, Nikoli.
    He’d stolen the child as soon as Nikoli was born, kicking her out of their penthouse and refusing to see her. Grace didn’t know why he wanted the boy, but it wasn’t to raise him or to be a father. He’d actually acted angry when he found out she was pregnant. He’d only begun seeing her, she’d learned, because he was into the occult and had heard that she was a witch raised in the old tradition.
    For her part, Grace had been blind to him and his slimy ways. Stupid. She’d liked his power back then, liked his money. Best of all, she’d liked his promise to take care of her as long as she took care of him. Ha! As if. She’d finally found out what he was really like. How had she not known earlier? Maybe because she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to believe it even now.
    She’d never dunked her fists into anything as wrong as demon-summoning before; Michael had done that all on his own. But she would fight fire with fire, and her fire was bigger. It was a bonfire. Caspian was very powerful, like the will of a mother trying to regain her child. Michael could summon the Devil himself and Grace would get Nikoli back. She would do whatever it took, as last night clearly showed.
    She wondered briefly if she was going to see Caspian again. He’d said that he would keep up his end of the bargain, which wouldn’t necessarily require a second visit, but wasn’t it just like a demon to come back and demand a second payment? If she was honest with herself, the idea caused her a little thrill of pleasure. Grace wanted to see him again, to be close to him. She’d never been touched the way Caspian touched her. Not even when she’d been fooled into believing that she was in love with Michael.
    Wait. This was a dangerous path she trod. No matter how great the sex, Caspian was still a demon—a Crown Prince of Hell, no less. If she planned to be one of those foolish girls who confused sex and love, this was the wrong time. There was nothing but misery down this path. Nothing at all.
    A loud banging on the door jarred her unceremoniously from her languid dip, but Grace would be double damned if she was going to get out of the delicious hot water to answer. She didn’t have that many friends, and none who would stop by without calling. Michael had seen to that, actually. He’d secluded her from her friends, her hobbies, her life. She was well rid of him. All that mattered now was her son, and when she got Nikoli back from his asshat father, she was going to make sure that neither of them ever had to deal with Michael again.
    She debated slipping under the water to escape listening to the incessant pounding. That was when she had another epiphany: Only cops and thugs banged on doors like that.
    “Open the door, Grace.” It was Sasha, Michael’s right-hand man. She hadn’t seen him since the last rescheduled court date regarding Nikoli. “Grace, I’ll be letting Petru break this door down if you don’t open