Angel's Kiss Read Online Free

He was just going to sling it over his shoulder and walk out the door with it — as though he was carrying a sack of potatoes — unless he could do the disappearing trick with a body as well.
    I held up my left hand and looked at the fingertips. “Whose blood is it, mine or his?”
    “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.
    “That doesn’t help me much,” I replied anxiously. “He could’ve had AIDS or one of a hundred other diseases of the blood. I could well end up dead anyway. I am still alive, aren’t I?”
    Danny could tell I was afraid and spoke in a very calming voice, “Don’t be frightened. I won’t let anything hurt you. His blood can’t hurt you now, and yes, your heart still beats.”
    His words were strangely soothing and comforting, even though that’s all they were — words. Part of me — the reserved and hesitant part — already trusted him, something I did not do easily. He hadn’t hurt me or made any physical demands of me, and had returned as he said he would. Okay, so I would trust him for now, while it suited me, but I was gone — don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out — as soon as there were any signs things were changing for the worse. Danny would have little chance of finding me if I didn’t want him to. I was very good at disappearing when the need arose. The preacher would attest to that.
    “When Satan was cast out of heaven, on his way to hell he committed two acts of blasphemy on His other creations. The first was bitten savagely, the second scratched deeply. He wept for His creations — so defenceless — that had been turned into monsters by the one He had once loved most amongst all others.” I could hear the reverence in his voice when he talked about God crying. “Though they were monsters, He would not kill them, just as He would not kill Satan and his demons. Do you know what those monsters were?”
    I shook my head. How the hell am I supposed to know? I was no bible basher. I’d be lucky to find a remotely religious bone in my body!
    Danny waved his hand and images danced in the air of something large, dark, and sinister, falling and reaching out to the earth. It looked like it was trying to stop its fall by clutching onto whatever it could.
    “The creation Satan defiled was man. The bitten became a vampire, the scratched a werewolf. As they were living, breathing men before they were changed, the cycle of evolution endured through them. In turn, those they changed, or created as some would call it, continue to evolve as well.” Danny let the implication of these things being able to evolve sink in for a moment before continuing. “It is now very difficult, but not entirely impossible, to pick them out in a crowd of mortals.”
    “Vampires and werewolves — that they are real is bad enough, but growing and evolving? ” My head was spinning. “What other monsters are real?”
    “Many,” Danny waved his hand again and a myriad of images flashed through the air, “although vampires and werewolves are considered highest amongst all of the monstrosities, as they were created by Satan. Other monsters are the result of demonic activity and interference — sirens, chupacabras, wendigos and varakianas to name a few, though not all are humanoid in form.”
    The names startled me. Clearly there were more monsters than I was aware of, and the images that Danny had shown me confirmed that. I counted twenty separate images.
    “Apart from vampires and werewolves, I’ve only heard of sirens,” I replied. “So are the myths about vampires and werewolves being enemies true as well?”
    “Yes. They vie for the highest place amongst Satan’s favoured. To that end they are constantly at war. In some ways it serves our purposes. They keep their own numbers down through their infighting, allowing us to concentrate on the task of seeking out and destroying demons. Occasionally they work together, when a mutual threat is detected. Things tend to go back to