Free Demon Marked by Anna J. Evans Page B

with a firm tap on his bud and broke into a flat-out run, all thoughts of keeping cool vanishing in a wave of concern. What if the Death Ministry members had found their dead comrade? What if the gang had already decided to track down the girl they’d seen him talking to last night at the bar? Emma could be in very real danger.
    â€œSamantha Quinn,” Andre ordered. He hated to bother his cousin-in-law on her honeymoon, but he had no other choice. Sam would know how to find her sister, and he had to find Emma ... before anyone else did.

CHAPTER FIVE

    E mma knew something was wrong as soon as she reached the top of the stairs.
    The long, narrow hall leading to her apartment was a dark, cramped passage without a single window. The only illumination came from a pair of bare bulbs hanging at the beginning and end of the hallway. It was usually so dark she could barely see to fish her key from her purse and fit it into the lock.
    This morning, however, a bright shaft of light pierced the gloom from the second apartment on the right. The door to Emma and Ginger’s shared living space stood open, illuminating the flat, gray plaster on the opposite side of the hall, revealing the faint striped pattern of ancient wallpaper that had been painted over at least a dozen times.
    Emma’s hand instinctively reached for her purse, searching for her special “hair spray.”
    She didn’t worry about styling her hair—products were useless against its stubborn straightness—but she did worry about protecting herself on the Southie streets. A lot of women carried Mace in their purses. Emma took things a step further and had purchased a six-pack of miniflamethrowers from the secret back room at Yang’s Curiosity Shop.
    Any bad guy who tried to mess with her would soon find his face on fire.
    A girl couldn’t always depend on her life-sucking hands. Emma still followed Father Paul’s advice and did her best not to show the world at large what she could do. She fed in private, and criminals often attacked in public. Ginger had been mugged three times in the past five years, all three times in broad daylight on a crowded Southie street.
    If her roomie had been hanging with Emma, however, Emma was pretty damned sure the men who’d robbed Ginger wouldn’t have gotten away with her purse. Just like whoever had broken into their apartment wasn’t going to get away with any of their meager belongings. She might not have her purse or her special hair spray, but she still had the dark craving. It had probably gotten her into this mess. Now it might just have to get her out of it.
    Slowly, she crept down the hall, ears straining for any sounds coming from the apartment. There was no point in turning and running down the stairs. If the Death Ministry had found the body and come looking for her, she would be better off dealing with them now.
    They wouldn’t have found anything to connect her to Blue Eyes in her apartment. Hopefully, she could convince them she’d had nothing to do with his death, that she’d passed out and could have died in that alley if she’d had the misfortune to collapse in a puddle of her own vomit the way their friend had. Maybe they would believe her. Maybe she wouldn’t need to take matters into her own hands. ...
    By the time she reached the door, her heart was beating in her throat. She couldn’t remember being this afraid since the night the aura demons were banished last spring.
    But then ... this wasn’t just her life on the line. If the Death Ministry had found the corpse at the Demon’s Breath, then Sam and Jace and Ginger and everyone she cared about would be in danger. Emma might not feel comfortable getting too close to her new friends and family, but the thought of someone hurting them made her crazy. She’d do anything to keep them safe.
    Sam was so good, too good to spend her time with a kid sister who was basically a serial