Deal with a Demon (Kindle Serial) Read Online Free Page B

started coming out of the floor and the wood was cracking and boards were popping up.”
    Arden knew the answer, but asked anyway. “And then what?”
    “They all got blurry, like that light was swallowing them up, like it was eating them. I was screaming and screaming because I knew the light was bad, but they never heard me. They started spinning around and the light was spinning. I couldn’t see Drew anymore. The floor opened up and those three went down in it, and when the boards fell back into place like nothing happened, I took off.” A single tear tracked down the male’s cheek and the scent of urine filled the kitchen.
    Arden let go of his spell and backed away, disgusted. Jimmy had pissed all over himself.
* * *
    Nic had come to a conclusion: she was dreaming all of this. Jimmy wasn’t sitting on the floor stewing in his own urine. The gorgeous man with dark hair and emerald eyes was not looking at her. She was asleep. She’d been reading that stupid book, and her price to pay? The most realistic nightmare she’d ever had.
    If this were dreamland, though, would she be able to smell piss? She took a deep breath.
    Yep, still there. She blinked. Arden was still staring at her.
    And if her mind had snapped — the most likely scenario — why did the whole situation ring so true?
    The drawings on the bedroom walls, the giant pentagram in the other room, the knife slicing through Arden’s palm and the wound reknitting, Jimmy falling so far into a trance that he’d wet his pants; compelling evidence when she thought about it.
    OK , let’s pretend all of this is real. Drew, as part of some desperate, drug-induced frenzy, decided to further his education by jumping headfirst into Satanism. He played around with all those books, fucked up, and called up something dangerous. And those dangerous things somehow convinced him he could get everything he wanted if he tagged along with them. But why would her brother believe it?
    One word — well, actually, two: methamphetamine psychosis.
    But that didn’t explain why she was starting to believe it. She’d never done a drug in her life besides caffeine, and she’d always used decongestants for their intended purpose; not cooked down with toxic chemicals and shot into a vein.
    She tucked her nine into the back of her pants. Was this her new reality? Demons existed and one of their princes was standing five feet away looking at her like he’d just proven a huge point.
    And Jimmy? A junkie for sure, but as deluded as her brother? More than likely. But he’d been with it enough to get out while he could—
    Wait a minute. Drew had been sucked into another dimension and his so-called best friend had run out on him? “You took off? You stupid fucking junkie.”
    She leaped on Jimmy and snatched him up by the front of his soiled shirt until he was half standing. “You watched my brother get sucked into the floor by two demons and you ran?”
    “I was scared shitless,” Jimmy said. He shook his head a couple times as if to clear things up. His eyes lost a bit of their feverish gloss. “You think because you’re a stupid rent-a-cop you wouldn’t do the same?”
    She had a strong urge to put a bullet in his head so she wouldn’t have to listen to him whine, but she let go of his shirt. Drew’s friends were really stellar. She gave Jimmy a shove and he stumbled back into the fridge.
    Nic retrieved her duty belt from the filthy green countertop by the sink and put it on. The two men in the room remained silent as she slid her weapon home into its holster at her hip. Maybe they both knew she needed a minute.
    Two days ago, she’d had a fight with Drew over money and rehab. After the first five unanswered calls, she’d figured he was only pouting. By the next day, his continued silence had worried her enough to rush over like a good sister and check on him, only to find him worse off than she could’ve imagined.
    But the topper on this cake of a day? The blow her