Bad Grace (Watcher Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

dropped to its knees as it went crashing into the shelves next to him, bottles smashing all around it, exploding liquor staining that expensive suit. Before the demon could recover, Frank pulled his Watcher knife from the sheath sown inside his jacket. A second later and the knife was pushing up under the demon’s chin. “You know what kind of knife this is, right?” Frank asked the demon as it froze when the point of the knife broke the skin under his big square jaw.
    The demon barely nodded, fear in its less glowing red eyes. Demons weren’t afraid of much, but being sent back to Hell to start at the bottom again, losing all the power and freedom they’d fought tooth and claw to attain, that was too much for most of them. Including this one. “Please,” the demon pleaded. “I’m just watching the door. They’ll destroy me if they let someone like you in.”
    “In where? What’s back there?”
    The demon didn’t answer.
    Frank pressed the knife harder into the demon’s jaw. “You’re about one second away from going back to Hell.”
    “Alright! It’s a blood bank.”
    “A blood bank?”
    “Yeah. It’s where demons go to get high.”
    Frank frowned. “You bullshitting me, demon?” He’d never heard of demons getting high of human blood.
    “No, seriously. I’m telling the truth.”
    And I thought I’d heard it all, Frank thought. Demons getting high. Jesus Christ.
    Frank shook his head. “You demons have been on earth too long. You’re all going native.”
    “You might as well stab me,” the demon said looking resigned. “I’m fucked anyway.”
    “Your bosses going to put you on the elevator, that it?” Putting someone on the elevator was demon speak for sending them back down to Hell. Euphemisms weren’t their strongpoint.
    “Something like that.”
    “And this boss, he owns the bar next door? He the one been running around stealing souls?”
    The demon looked surprised. “How did you know about that?”
    Looked like Lucas was right. “How many are in your little gang?”
    The demon looked unsure if he should answer.
    “Just to be clear,” Frank said, pushing harder on the knife, drawing more blood. “You don’t have a choice about whether to answer me.”
    The demon blinked. “A dozen. Maybe more.”
    “Where are they now?”
    “The bar, most of them.”
    “The boss?”
    “Back there.” He nodded his head towards the door behind the counter.
    “What’s his name?”
    “Krakus.”
    Frank smirked. “What’s this Krakus up to then? What’s his endgame?”
    “I don’t know. We just enjoy ourselves up here. That’s all.”
    “You’re not trying to drag the city down so you can take it over?”
    The demon shook his head. “No. That’s bullshit.”
    “Well,” Frank said. “I’ll find out if it is or not soon enough, I’m sure. In the meantime, I can’t have demons running around stealing souls, or stealing the blood of humans to get high on either. Crazy shit like that just upsets the delicate balance in this fine city, and unfortunately for you my friend—”
    “No—”
    “—I’m charged with protecting that balance from upstarts like you, so—”
    “—Wait!”
    Frank drove the knife to the hilt under the demon’s jaw in one swift move, held it in there for a second while the sigils carved into the eight inch blade did their work, decimating the demon on a molecular level, opening up a portal inside the meat suit that led straight to Hell. Then he pulled the knife out and took a step back while a blinding amber light seemed to escape from every orifice in the demon’s body, including his eyes, ears and mouth. A second later the light stopped, faded away into nothing. All that was left now was a meat suit that used to belong to some unfortunate human, a meat suit that was now charcoaled on the inside.
    After he’d sheathed the knife again, Frank retrieved the whiskey from his jacket pocket, unscrewed the cap and took a long swig from the bottle. He