Pharon's Demon Read Online Free PDF Page A

Letting go was an act he had never learned.
    The demon world was brutal, pitting each
demon against the others. Brute strength and magics won the day and
Mkhai was one of the strongest demons. That much worked to his
advantage. His brothers would be hesitant to anger him since his
revenge would be swift and violent; it was, after all, how Pharon
culled his demon ranks lest they threaten to overwhelm his
kingdom.
    Still, fighting did not appeal at the
moment.
    A delicious lassitude still gripped his limbs
and the air was warm and soft.
    He would call a small Finding spell to locate
Bennu. Yes, that would work.
    He worked the magic smoothly, building the
ball of cobalt-colored light in the palm of his hand. It revealed
Bennu, moving steadily through the tunnels until she reached an
intersection that he knew all too well: it contained one of several
of the mine’s more vicious pit traps. Not all of Pharon’s defenses
were demonic. His pit traps were well-stocked with snakes: dark
black and gold bodies that coiled in the darkness, waiting for the
sensual warmth of human bodies—bodies that had no business
whatsoever being in the tunnels. The snakes did not accept excuses;
being barely sentient, they simply attacked whatever appeared in
their tunnels.
    His Bennu had just walked into a very ugly
trap.

Chapter Five
     
     
    Bennu backed up. The topaz-studded stone face
appeared to be the only snake-free area of the tunnel. If she’d
been quicker, she might have been able to run up the corridor
before the serpents had finished their slithering descent from the
ceiling. But somehow she doubted it. Whoever had designed this trap
had intended for it to close as soon as she had cut the stones
free. The stones—and her possession of them—were the trigger.
Simply dropping the stones would hardly solve her problem.
     
    “OK,” she whispered. She could activate the
rescue beacon embedded underneath her skin—but it would be hours,
at the earliest, before her brothers made their swashbuckling way
halfway across the galaxy and forced their way inside the mines.
What their chances were against Pharon’s demons, she did not know,
but she suspected that the fight would be more equal than she—or
her brothers—would prefer.
    Were there other options?
    She slid the blaster free of her belt. The
snakes paused—never a good sign—and massed. They’d blocked her exit
from the tunnel—her only choice now was to either stand her ground
or allow the snakes to drive her further back into the dark tunnel.
She didn’t want to know what else lay waiting for her in the
oppressive darkness.
    The first snake uncoiled and flew through the
air. She fried it before it crossed the line she had mentally
scratched in the sand. One down—she gave up counting how many more
were left.
    After all, the number of snakes probably
exceeded the number of minutes that she had left to live.
     
    ***
     
    As the snakes launch themselves in full-scale
attack, Mkhai materialized out of the darkness behind her. Harsh,
sibilant words poured from his lips and air pushed out around them,
hardening into a sphere. The snakes suddenly stopped their advance,
sliding off the orb of air and light he had woven.
    “Nice trick.” She stared at the orb. “Care to
teach me that one?”
    He shook his head. “You should not have left,
my femi .”
    It was a moot point now. The cat was well out
of that bag. He could save his dark, self-righteous wrath for
someone else. His eyes did that trick again, glowing with golden
color as heat poured off his skin.
    “Do not leave me,” he demanded. “Was our
sexplay not enough for you?”
    The snakes writhed over the orb, seeking
entrance, but he seemed unconcerned.
    “They cannot penetrate,” he said, but
suddenly she no longer gave a damn about the snakes. Mkhai clearly
would be more than a match for them. If he wanted to be. The
question, of course, was: did he?
    “The sex was great.” Did he need reassurance?
Wasn’t he an