Demetrius Read Online Free Page A

girls who,” her cheeks flushed and it was…adorable, “gave themselves quite enthusiastically. I’m afraid you didn’t choose reticent women.”
    Ah, that. “Being discrete wasn’t my goal.”
    “Why ever not?” She shook her head. “Never mind. I’m here for my father, he’s in trouble.”
    “Why would I help your father?” Especially when she walked in acting like being in the same room with him was defiling her sense of decency.
    “Do you think I’d be here if it wasn’t important?” Hostility radiated off her. “You’re not exactly my favorite person. My father may have archaic beliefs, but he was an honest male, strove to do right by his people. He didn’t just lose his job when you took over. He lost his reputation, his mission in life, his livelihood. It’s not as if a centuries old vampire can go get a job at McDonalds. The way you took down the Vampire Council villainized him. All of our support was cut off.”
    She was breathing heavily, the movement threatening to keep his gaze riveted on her breasts. Only her words kept his focus off her delectable body so he could concentrate.
    “Edgar had quite a run while he was a councilmember. Perhaps if I’d seen evidence that any members had been planning to move our species into the twenty-first century, or especially mitigate the destruction caused by the Sigma Network they designed and supported… Instead, it was best they all go.”
    She blinked. “ They all had families.”
    Demetrius stood and braced his fingertips on his desktop. He leaned toward her. “And you’re lucky I let them live. I neutered them when Sigma was taken down. If they had tried to retaliate in anyway, I would’ve come for them and introduced them to the sun.”
    “You would’ve killed them for defending their government? Our government. My father killed no one.”
    “No Miss Augustus, your father gladly stood by while others did the killing for him.”
    “He would do no such—” She seemed to shock herself into silence. “Look, I’m not here to debate politics or discuss your coup d’état.”
    He wondered at her sudden change; she was about to defend her father’s honor and then stopped. He was definitely interested in what brought her to his headquarters now . 
    “Have a seat Miss Augustus.” He sat down and waited for her to perch at the end of a chair. “What’s wrong with your father?”
    She opened her mouth then shut it again. Looking around the room, she avoided his eyes. Then she opened her mouth again, and promptly shut it. Finally, she took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. “I think he’s possessed. By a demon called Malachim.”
    She broke eye contact and scanned the room nervously.
    He blinked. “Did I hear you right? You think your father’s possessed?”
    She gave a curt nod while staring into the corner of one the bookshelves that lined his office.
    “You’re going to need to elaborate.” Demons. He and his team were just talking about investigating the council for practicing the dark arts seconds before Callista showed up on his doorstep. He was too damn smart to believe in coincidences.
    She fidgeted, her hands wringing, her eyes lasered onto the floor at her feet. “I, um, came home from work a week ago. I heard a weird noise and followed it. He was talking to this thing.” Her hands motioned by her forehead. “It was tall, stunk of sulfur, and had horns. It sounded like my father was going to banish it back, or whatever you do with summoned demons, but it disappeared, like, into him. And now my father is…different.”
    “Different how?”
    She let out a sad sigh. “Scary. I get chills when he’s around and I want to run. Sometimes I swear his eyes are black, but when I look again, they’re his normal blue. And he checks on me all the time. He’s always been protective, especially after my mother left, but this is just… I feel like I’m being watched. When I was leaving for work last night, he