The Demon in Me Read Online Free Page B

jerk of a fiancé out six months ago. Although, it was still a close second.
    She felt rather than heard the demon gasp inside of her—inside her head, her chest, her entire body. As if she’d been punched in the stomach she let out a wheezing breath and doubled over as the black smoke exited through her mouth in one dark, tasteless, odorless stream. She scrambled back from it until she hit the wall behind her and held the bat up as if that would be enough to protect her from Hell itself.
    The smoke hung there like a small black rain cloud, unmoving, five feet in front of her, for a few more moments. Then something changed. She watched, stunned, as it began to take on a recognizable shape. The entire process took less than thirty seconds, but it was as if time itself had stopped. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All she could do was watch—waiting for a large, red, hulking, horned hell-beast to appear and devour her whole.

THREE
    When he finished, he was tall, but not red or beastly—and he looked like a man, not the monster Eden was expecting.
    He raised his wide-eyed gaze to hers and blinked. He looked as shocked as she felt. Then he looked down at his hands, holding them out in front of him, before reaching up to touch his face, mouth, cheeks, ears, and finally running his fingers through his black hair.
    Full lips peeled back from straight white teeth and he began to laugh.
    But it wasn’t a demonically evil laugh. It sounded more like one of sheer joy.
    “I can’t believe this,” he said after a moment. He stretched his arms over his head as if he’d just woken up from a long sleep and his muscles were stiff and needed stretching.
    “That makes two of us.” She was surprised she could even speak considering how beyond freaked-out she was. Her legs were too weak and rubbery to even consider running. She felt like the girl in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. The one who just stood there, frozen in place, screaming like a helpless twit while her date slowly turned into a werewolf.
    Eden didn’t think she had enough air to scream like a helpless twit.
    He ran his hands down his sides and across his stomach and chest. He closed his eyes and sighed happily.
    She eyed him with trepidation. “Do you want to be alone?”
    His eyes snapped open and he looked directly at her. “More than you could ever possibly know.”
    The demon had ice blue eyes framed with dark lashes. The blue was a sharp contrast to the darkness of his shaggy hair that was almost long enough to brush his shoulders. He was pale, as if it had been a very long time since he’d felt the sun on his skin. He wore generic black clothes on his tall frame—pants, T-shirt, boots—however, if she’d seen him on the street she might have checked him out. He was inarguably attractive, but that little observation did nothing to help her relax. If anything, it made her tense up even more. His handsome exterior had to be a façade, a trap of some kind—like a Venus flytrap luring its prey to be consumed slowly and painfully.
    She tried to see evidence of horns growing from his temples or black, leathery wings stretching out behind him, but visually there was nothing that alarming.
    He pushed the unruly hair back from his eyes and smiled at her. “I haven’t been able to take solid human form in over three hundred years. I can’t tell you how much this—hey, watch it—”
    He ducked out of the way just before her bat swung through the air where he’d been standing. When she swung again, he caught the bat and easily pulled it out of her grip. She stepped backward, scanning her immediate surroundings for another potential weapon.
    His dark brows drew together. “What part of ‘I mean you no harm’ didn’t you understand?”
    “It’s not every day I’m possessed by a demon. Sorry if I’m not reacting in the calm, collected way I’m supposed to.” She grabbed a hardcover dictionary and whipped it at him. It