Free The Devil Inside by Jenna Black Page B

hand-to-hand combat.
    It was a tactical error on her part. One, I’m six inches taller than her and I work out. Two, if your family is Spirit Society, you either learn to fight at a young age, or you spend your entire childhood getting the shit beat out of you. I’d opted for fighting.
    Val jabbed the Taser in my direction, trying to sneak it in around the edge of my shield—er, sofa cushion. I blocked her easily but didn’t notice her foot until it was too late.
    Her heel made contact with my shin, and if she’d been wearing hardsoled shoes, I’d have been in trouble. As it was, she was wearing sneakers, and she didn’t do any serious 50 / 226
    Jenna Black, The Devil Inside (2007)
    Morgan Kingsley #1
    damage.
    “Ow!” I yelled. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Val?”
    She didn’t answer. Her eyes were fierce and focused on her goal. I’d never seen her look like that before. She grabbed the sofa cushion and tried to rip it out of my hands. Since I had two hands on it, and she had only one, I had a heavy advantage in our game of tug-of-war. I gave a particularly hard tug to wrest the cushion from her grip, and she let go. I cursed as my own momentum felled me.
    The impact with the floor knocked the cushion from my hands, and the breath whooshed out of my lungs. Val hurled herself on top of me, throwing an awkward punch with her left hand. The punch was just a diversion, though, as she tried to ram the Taser into my ribs. I ignored her left hook and latched onto her right wrist with both my hands. I didn’t let go when her fist contacted my face. The blow might have been awkward, but it sure hurt. I was seriously pissed now, and I let instinct take over. I rolled hard to my left. Val was too small and light to pin me, so I ended up on top, with her Taser trapped between our bodies so she couldn’t zap me without zapping herself as well.
    My punch was not awkward, and Val’s body went limp. I almost hit her again, but stopped myself.
    Panting, hurting, wondering what the hell was going on, I rolled off her inert body. I pried the Taser from her unresisting fingers and checked the battery indicator. Still plenty of juice left. I patted her down as she slowly came to, but didn’t find any more weapons.
    I stood up and moved away from her. My cheek ached where she’d hit it, and there was another ache, too. A deeper one. My eyes burned, and for a moment I thought I was going to cry. Val had been my best friend since high school. The only person I trusted enough to talk to about my mysterious problem. And she’d attacked me!
    Val moaned softly, then opened her eyes to see me pointing her own Taser at her.
    “Sister, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” I growled. Anger and indignation helped quell the hurt.
    Val looked up at me with wide, astonished-looking eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said.
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    Jenna Black, The Devil Inside (2007)
    Morgan Kingsley #1
    Not what I’d been expecting. About thirty seconds ago, she’d been at my throat like a rabid dog. Now she was apologizing?
    She sat up slowly, eyeing the Taser. “I thought you really were possessed.”
    “What?” I cried. This had to be some weird-ass dream, right? I mean, come on! “The whole point of this exercise was for you to check my aura.”
    She didn’t try to get up. I guess I looked like I had an itchy trigger finger, and she couldn’t be sure I hadn’t reloaded the Taser while she was out.
    “And if you really were hosting an illegal demon, then that would have been the perfect moment to attack me.”
    “You have got to be kidding me. If I was possessed by a homicidal demon, what makes you think I’d need to wait for the perfect moment?” I shook my head in disbelief.
    “I’m sorry,” Val said again. “You were acting strange. Like you were hosting a demon who didn’t quite know how to pass for you yet.” She reached up and touched the bruise that was swelling along her jawline as I watched. “But if you