The Demon's Song Read Online Free PDF Page B

hit on women in situations like this? What kind of women liked it? Her kind, apparently, Sofia thought, utterly disgusted with herself. She turned
     her head to watch Justin frowning at the mess that had once been a fanged psychopath.
     When Sofia forced herself to look more closely at the head, those fangs were still
     very much in evidence. She went cold as the harsh reality of the situation hit her
     again like a bucket of ice water. Fangs. Wings. And her friends were gone.
    “Are Sara and Amy going to be okay?” she asked, the panic she’d so successfully kept
     at bay trying to work its way up the back of her throat again. Staying calm in crazy
     situations was one of her gifts, a thing that helped her excel at her job. But even
     she had her limits.
    “Amy is being returned home as we speak,” Justin said, which was comforting until
     his eyes went carefully blank. “Sara is going to require extra care for a while. You
     shouldn’t worry. We’ll get it sorted out.”
    She felt slightly ill. “Are you kidding? Of course I’m going to worry!”
    Justin shrugged, an infuriatingly casual gesture considering what they were standing
     in the middle of, and what Sofia had just seen. She glared at him helplessly as frustration
     joined fear to twist into a hard knot in her stomach.
    “She’s one of my best friends,” Sofia said, struggling to keep the urge to scream
     in check. “I got that monster away from her. I at least deserve to know what’s going
     on.”
    “You already know more than you should,” Justin told her. The look he gave Phenex
     was decidedly beleaguered. “Go ahead and gloat, Phenex. You Fallen were right. Hiring
     humans was a bad idea.”
    “Told you.”
    Sofia’s chin went up as she looked between them. “If I’ve already seen too much, then
     a little more information can’t hurt.”
    To her surprise, Justin smiled then, a startling flash of humor in a face that was
     as serious as it was handsome. It was gone before it could even begin to set her at
     ease, but there was a softening in the way he looked at her that helped the raw nerves
     she was contending with. It gave her some small amount of hope that she would walk
     out of here in one piece. Still, her friends…
    “You don’t cower, do you? I can appreciate that.” Justin drew in a deep breath and
     looked away, appearing to be in deep thought about something. At her side, Phenex
     leaned over to murmur in her ear.
    “Relax. He isn’t going to eat you.”
    She turned her head just enough to give him a sidelong glance. He didn’t seem to have
     any trouble being completely in her personal space, something that normally would
     have bothered her. Now, the fact that it didn’t bother her bothered her. Especially because he seemed a lot more dangerous than Justin
     did.
    “Nothing about this is funny,” she hissed back.
    “Sure it is. Humans just have no sense of humor.”
    His amused disdain for her, well, species, did nothing for Sofia’s ragged nerves. An acid comment rose to her lips, only to
     be banished by Justin’s sudden reentrance into the conversation.
    “Fair enough. I know you’re telling the truth, Sofia. I just wish you knew more than
     you do about what went on here. As it is, I’m going to have my hands full with…this…for
     a while.”
    “Aren’t you going to call the police?” she asked. Justin’s reddish eyes narrowed,
     and for an instant she caught a glimpse of what he must be like when he was truly
     angry. It would be terrifying, she realized. Phenex might be bigger, but Justin was
     deadly in his own right. Like the guy in pieces on the floor. Except far, far more
     competent.
    “We take care of our own problems here,” he said, his voice deceptively cool. “I suggest
     you heed that, unless you want even more attention from my kind.”
    “What are you?” Sofia didn’t realize she’d asked out loud until it was too late to take the
     words back. She blamed the shock now