Inferno Read Online Free PDF Page A

her head sadly and closed her locker door. “Well, if you need a friend, you have my number. I haven’t forgotten what you did for me when I needed someone. You really are a great guy, Nick.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Any time.” Brynna headed off to class.
    Nick turned away and walked toward his next period. Thankfully, it was with Caleb and not Kody.
    Caleb picked up his pace to walk beside him. “You do know Brynna was hitting on you just now.”
    Yeah, right. Caleb was shy a few bricks on his wall if he really believed that. “No, she wasn’t. She thinks of me like a brother.”
    “You sure?”
    “Positive. I tried to hold her hand once when I first started going here and she read me the riot act for it. I got the full we-are-just-friends-so-don’t-make-me-call-my-older-brother-out-on-you-to-beat-you-to-a-pulp speech from her years ago.”
    Caleb laughed. “And that’s why I only hook up with women who have sisters or, even better, no siblings at all.”
    “Got your butt whipped once, huh?”
    “No.” Caleb sobered. “But I know what I’d do for my sister if some idiot broke her heart.”
    That news floored him. Caleb never really talked about his family, and he’d never before made any kind of declaration of love toward them. “You have a sister?”
    “Not full-blooded. But yeah, I have a number of them.”
    “Are they around?”
    Caleb shook his head. “Even though I’d kill for them if they needed me to, we’re not that close.” He opened the classroom door for Nick to enter first.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t be. I’m not. I don’t like personal entanglements or obligations. Gets you into too much trouble. But blood is blood. End of the day, if one of them needed me, I’d be stupid for them.”
    And that was why, even though Caleb was a demon, Nick respected him and called him friend. Caleb spent a lot of time denying his better nature, but Nick had seen it up close and personal enough to know that Caleb was cold-blooded decent. No matter how much the demon protested, you could always count on him in a fight.
    Taking his seat, Nick pulled his book out and opened it to the day’s assignment. Still, he couldn’t get Kody out of his mind. Now that they were officially broken up, she would be coming for him for sure. The only question was, when?
    *   *   *
    Belam?
    Nekoda looked up at the whisper of her real name that no one in the human realm used anymore. In the far corner stood the shimmery image of her guide, Sraosha. Only she could see him and he was definitely summoning her.
    Could this day get any better? Really? Why couldn’t Nick have set her on fire and ended her misery?
    Sighing, she got up and walked to Mr. Raney’s desk. “Mr. Raney? May I please have a pass to the restroom?”
    “You know we don’t—”
    She lowered her voice and chose the one topic her male math teacher wouldn’t argue with. “Sorry, but it’s that time of month and—”
    “Enough!” he snapped, reaching for the pad of passes on his desk. “I don’t want to hear about anything that personal.” He quickly scribbled in the form, then tore the sheet off. “Don’t be long, Miss Kennedy.”
    “Thank you.” Taking the pass, she ducked out of the room and headed for the bathroom. She would vanish immediately, but didn’t want to take a chance on being caught by one of the school’s hidden cameras. Though she knew where most were located, she wasn’t sure about all of them, and her powers didn’t play well with electronics.
    Better safe than sorry.
    She went into the bathroom and entered the first stall, then locked the door and flashed herself to Sraosha’s less than friendly office.
    Dark and dismal, it was a sad study in grays and browns. Not appealing in the least. But he seemed to like it that way.
    Unlike his office, Sraosha was a thing of absolute beauty as he stood waiting next to the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out onto nothing. Literally. It was absolutely dark … like