Defying Instinct (Demon Instinct Series) Read Online Free Page B

his flunkies have been spotted in your neighborhood.  How
cool would it be to run into them one day?”
    Wiping
my cold nose with the back of my glove, I stayed quiet.
    “I
know what Grayson looks like.  He’s always in Gateway.”  Benn referenced the gossip
magazine that sprung up last year when demons set up shop downtown.  Well known
photographers and journalists came from national publications around the
country to report on the demon’s mundane, day to day lives around St. Louis. 
Benn had every issue. 
    I
made the decision in an instant.  Now that I wasn’t suffering the aftereffects
of the smoke-and-fire, I didn’t see a reason to keep the secret.  A small thing
I didn’t have to lie about.
    “Does
he have black hair and grey eyes?”
    “Uh
huh,” Benn mumbled.  The duh he didn’t actually say out loud was clear
in his tone. 
    “I
think, maybe it was him and two Hammers in the shop earlier.”
    He
stopped, moved as if he was going to grab my arm, but changed his mind at the
last second.  He put his hands on his hips instead, tapping his fingers.
    “You
said they were all Hammers.”
    “How
was I supposed to know?” I asked, not wanting Benn angry with me.  “Hammers are
all-American-boy handsome.  So is Grayson.  It’s an easy mistake.”
    “Ha,”
Benn let his hands fall from his hips and smiled.  “I’m camping out in your
shop for the next week.  All day, every day.  Get used to this face, kid.”
    Shaking
my head, I said, “Someday you’ll explain why they fascinate you so much.”
    We
strolled the remaining block in silence.  I saw the unfamiliar car parked in
front of The Bookstore with the hood propped up when we turned the corner
around my building.  Benn looked like he was devising his plans to “run into”
the Tempter advisor and didn’t notice the car until we got much closer, and the
woman’s face became visible.
    The
beautiful blonde smiled as she saw us approaching.  There was something
predatory about it, but I couldn’t figure out why I felt that way.  She
appeared to be nothing but a rosy skinned human with bright hazel eyes and soft
blonde hair.  Her red trench coat clung to curves that proved her face wasn’t
the only perfectly built part of her.
    “Excuse
me,” the blonde said, her voice saccharine and infectious.  No doubt perfected
during her privileged life, that voice paired with her looks probably got her anything
she desired.  “Do one of you have a cell phone I could borrow?  Mine went
dead.”
    Benn
wasn’t the type of guy to be rendered speechless by a pretty woman.  But when I
looked over at him, his mouth was hanging open.
    “That
look’s not going to impress her,” I whispered, and Benn shut his mouth, never
taking his eyes off the blonde.
    Pulling
his phone from his back pocket, Benn managed to find his voice.  “Sure.  No
problem.”
    She
placed her hand on his forearm as he leaned closer to offer his cell phone. 
“Thanks, cutie.”
    What
happened next happened so quickly, and so unexpectedly, it wasn’t until Benn
was face down on the sidewalk that I realized what the blonde had done.  The
billy club clutched in her right hand glinted off a streetlight on its downward
swing. 
    She
gave me that predatory smile again as I began to understand what happened.  I
wondered if I should flee, but kneeled to check on Benn instead.
    As a
dark van came barreling around the corner the next second, and the woman
slammed the hood of the car she’d lured us in with, I considered my options. 
There weren’t many.  Leaving him wasn’t going to happen, so I chose to play
this out.  Whatever this was. 
    “Get
the guy,” the blonde barked to a man as he exited from the driver’s side and
unlatched the rear door.  She turned to me, “In.”
    Her
face was twisted with disdain making smoke-and-fire flicker in my mind.  Images
of kicking her in the mouth, messing up that pretty, perfect, predatory smile
she had struck me.