Demon Lord 4: White Jade Reaper Read Online Free Page A

like wild fire.
    Tukka’s eyes shot wide open.  What are you doing!
    I smiled.  “Why, I’m putting a wounded animal out of his misery.  No need to thank me.”
    Grace arched an eyebrow as she studied the red haze of light around my blade.  “Don’t tease the animal.  That’s my job.”
    Tukka opened his mouth and roared.  An explosion of sonic energy slammed us away.  I lost focus and my sword magically returned to my armory back in Malibu.  I covered my ears as I stumbled back.  Through the sonic hash, I couldn’t hear the hall windows shattering, but I saw the glittery shards in the air. 
    Holding her ears, Grace screamed in pain. 
    The howl of doom stopped at once. 
    “What the fuck?” I said.  “Infra- and sub-sonic, too?”
    “It’s their primary weapon against dragons.”  Grace kicked the beast in his side as he scrambled up.
    I don’t think Tukka noticed the attempt at abuse. 
    She said, “Manners, Tukka.  You’re supposed to say ‘Excuse me’ when you belch.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
    THREE
     
    “Crazy is a stalking bitch reminding you you’re alive—for now.”
     
                                   —Cain Deathwalker
     
     
    Grace slanted me a look.  “So, Caine, what happened to that flaming sword of yours?  And where can I get one?”
    “It’s a demon sword, with murder on its mind, that comes when I call, and it’s not for you.” 
    Cassie would rip out my liver and eat it raw if I put such a thing in Grace’s hands.  Her mom was a consultant to the Preternatural Response Taskforce, part of a team—one of many—that rode circuits across the United States doing battle with darkness. If the PRT didn’t sometimes kill the good preternaturals along with the bad, they’d get more support from things that go bump in the night. The ironic thing about Cassie taking cash to quietly put down threats to humans lay in the fact that she was just such a threat herself.  Besides having federal authority, the best military weapons, and access to mega-top-secret databanks, she was over five-hundred years old, a kitsune steeped in high-level magic, and crazier than Hannibal Lector on a bean-dip diet.
    Whatever I do with Grace, Cassie must never find out.
    We stood at the front desk of the gym.  I counted a large stack of hundreds to cover the damage Tukka had left.  With each bill laid out, the manager became a little less irate, though his eyes all but called us crazy as he listened in on our conversation.   That was natural; without Tukka in sight, there was nothing tremendously preternatural about us.  Grace—with her antennae and baby wings—was just another cosplayer who’d watched too much anime. 
    Grace said, “Did you take it off a demon?  That would be scary.  I hate dealing with them.  They can be a real pain in the posterior region.”
    Little does she know, I’m heir to a demon clan .  I shot her an oh-come-on look.  “You can say ‘ass.’  I won’t be shocked.”
    She smiled.  “I wasn’t sure I should take that chance.”
    “We’ve only met twice.  There’s a lot about me you don’t know.  A lot I’m not going to tell you.  You’re the one who is going to be shocked, occasionally appalled, and most likely enraged beyond belief before all this is done.”  I felt the need to prepare her for working with me. That way, later, she couldn’t say I hadn’t given her fair warning.  “I’m a no-holds-barred, fornicating asshole with convictions of grandeur, if not godhood, and I function best in an alcoholic haze—but while you’re working for me, you’re mine, and I protect what is mine.”
    The manager muttered, “Yeah, you protected the hell out of my vending machines and windows.”
    I glared at the manager and considered pistol whipping him, on general principle, but