Witches' Bane (The Soul Eater Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

his chest. “I know I shouldn’t be here.” His wide eyes flicked between Cujo and me. “I know that, but… well, like I said, I don’t have a choice.”
    He flipped the bag over and looked away.
    A human arm flopped onto the tabletop. Long, decorated nails and small, thin fingers. Female. The cut was clean, below the elbow. A chopping blow, no sawing. Someone or something would have to be abnormally strong to cleave an arm off in one go. Or maybe the witch had caught her arm in industrial machinery. What did the rest of her look like?
    “That’s something you don’t see every day,” Cujo quipped and then winced as he remembered Kenny.
    I approached the table, leaned in, and drew the stiff fingers back. There, on the palm, a single hieroglyph was carved into the flesh depicting the body of a jackal with the head of a snake. I’d seen it before, only once, on the box I found in my mother’s chamber right after she’d died. “What is that?”
    Kenny shifted from foot to foot. “We don’t know. None of us know. I even looked it up online, and I—”
    I had him by the throat and against the wall before either of us realized I’d moved.
    “Ace,” Cujo snapped.
    I glared at Kenny the Witch, dug deep into his eyes, and found that naive soul of his: bright, light, and clean—ripe for the picking.
    Wait .
    I didn’t want his soul… oh, but I did. How long had it been? Not long enough, but still, power clawed at me, eager to be free and grab hold of young, stupid Kenny and devour him whole. I could sink Alysdair into his gut and let the sword have him, but where was the fun in that? I wanted to take and own this foolish witch for being the parasite he was, for stealing magic that didn’t belong to him, for all the damn witches and their insolence.
    I tore my gaze away and tossed the witch against the table. He stumbled, almost upending the table, and fell to a knee. Tiny threads of his soul lingered within reach. If I wanted to, I could pull and I’d have him. I growled a warning at him, at myself, at everything.
    Damn witches.
    Kenny spluttered and wheezed, and when I could look at him without wanting to tear his soul out, I watched Cujo wheel over to help him up.
    Pinpricks of restlessness touched my nerves. What by Sekhmet was going on with me?
    I should leave the witches to their own damn problems, but that mark, that symbol… it was connected to me by way of Ammit’s little box, the one warded against me, and there it was again, on a witch’s severed arm. What did it mean?
    “Who’s your girlfriend?” I asked, looking again at the curled hand and the mark. Flakes of blood had fallen onto Cujo’s clean, white table.
    “Julie Carter. She works in a health food store on Thirty-Fifth and—”
    “A witch?” I snarled, hearing the acid in my voice and not caring.
    “Yeah, but we’re not grand witches or anything. I mean she’s better than me. We just practice on weekends. We were going to watch Netflix, but when I got to her place…it was trashed. And I found that. I freaked out. I mean, the mark, I knew it was magic related, but the coven, they were already busy with other missing cases. They said they’d look into it, but she could be out there somewhere, and nobody is doing any—”
    “When was this?”
    “Last night.” Kenny swayed on his feet and rubbed at his neck. “They said not to contact you, but witches have been going missing for weeks and nobody is doing anything!”
    I shoved the arm back into its bag and scooped it off the table. “Kenny, congratulations. You’ve succeeded where the others have failed. I charge ninety bucks an hour, and the minimum charge is four hours. The full list of fees is on the website. I don’t want any other witches involved. I’m keeping the arm. I’ll be in touch.”
    As I strode through the door, I heard Kenny ask Cujo, “Is he always like this?”
    “Only on good days.”

Chapter 4
    S hu wasn’t back at the office. I called her cell, but