DemonicPersuasion Read Online Free Page B

face and she saw a
fellow cleaner. “Caley.” She worked a smile across her mouth. “You’re early.”
    “Shift change.” Caley leaned on the long pike of the washer
and let her gaze move over Fade’s almost-nakedness. “So you went ahead with it?
Foster is going to shit a brick. Ten of them. Are you taking vac-days? Tell me
you’re going into hiding.”
    “I’m on duty again in six hours.”
    Caley spluttered a laugh. “You’re insane.” She leaned in.
“What was it like? In the Cage?”
    “I… It was…” Fade bit her lip, fixing her gaze on the bulky
cleaning suit, on the familiar toggles and snaps. She had to lie to her friend.
“I can feel the hum in my blood, on my skin…but what happened, I don’t know.”
    Caley groaned. “People pay a fortune for the best fuck of
their lives. One they can never remember. Crazy. Though there’re those rumors.
That it can change you. Heal you.” She straightened, her gloved hand gripping
the pike. “Stay away from Foster.”
    “I am. I will.”
    “Good luck.”
    “Thanks.”
    Fade closed her eyes and let out a slow breath. Silently she
also thanked whatever they were in her head for not touching her. She held back
a groan. Whatever this was, it would drive her insane. Maybe that’s why the
clients didn’t remember—
    “ It’s not their right. ”
    Air hitched in her chest at the deep, sure voice filling her
mind. And she had to ignore the need flaring warmth into her flesh at the
promise lurking in its words. She focused and her fingers flexed around the
pyramid, the sigils pricking at her fingertips. “ Where do you want me to
take this…gift? ”
    “ It must stay with you. For now. ”
    Fade ignored the little twist of regret that burned in her
belly. But she had to be realistic. She couldn’t have Athanasios as a permanent
fixture in her life. Her life was screwed. She had to stay unnoticed,
unobtrusive if she wanted to stay alive. There was also Foster. And how she was
betraying him.
    “ Him. ” Derision thickened the voice and a sliver of
emotion, hot and angered cut through her thoughts. “ A man you’ve never had.
A man who refused you— ”
    “ Enough! ” She snapped the word out and pushed herself
away from the rail. Bitterness put speed into her feet. “ I’m not discussing
him. ”
    The silence in her mind was a relief and she couldn’t
question how Athanasios could know that. What else did he know about her? She
pushed her way into the service area, the wild thump of music and the scent of
sex thankfully dulled.
    She wiped the sweat from her face and pulled in a cleansed
breath. Get changed and get out of the club. A shower could wait until she was
safely bolted into her tiny flat. She needed the safety of her own walls around
her. As dubious as that safety was.

Chapter Three
     
    Smog and dirt swirled around her in biting winds. She
squinted at the platform, working herself up to make the dash to her door.
Three seconds. That’s all it took to jump from the open door of the transport,
verify her tells, push her way into the room and lock herself in.
    In a few heartbeats, it was done.
    Fade leaned back against the thick door and closed her eyes.
In the club she felt safe. She knew the staff, the workers, and Foster’s
security meant there was never any trouble. In her room there was a dubious safety.
Metal walls she knew every part of, every dent, when a knock or clatter was
wrong.
    She pushed away from the door, drew the silver pyramid from
the depths of her suit and set it on her small table. Light flowed from it in
rippling streams and the temptation to run her fingers over the strange script
tingled across her knuckles. She was a natural linguist. Languages came too
easily. Her hand curled away. Her skill had her on the run and people wanting
to kill her.
    There was nothing she could do about it but accrue money and
buy herself another new identity—her Fadeyka Bryce persona was a fast grab and
brittle—a new face and