Free Claimed by Light by Reese Monroe Page B

idiot, but I’m not. I figured it out. Slade never would have not come to get me. He always did. And when they just let me go…”
    “I’m not following you.”
    “Long story short. I was about to be demon. Just had the final kill left. It was all ready for me in this hotel room, but I freaked. I couldn’t do it and called my brother to come get me. He never showed, but the…demons, they let me go.”
    “How’d you connect with demons in the first place? And why on Earth would you sign your soul away?”
    “You wouldn’t understand.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
    “You’d be surprised.”
    “Mom died of a brain tumor when I was two. And Dad…he was messed up after that. Smoking and drinking real bad. Fate has a sick sense of humor, because cancer took him, too, when I was thirteen. I was pissed Mom and Dad were gone. Slade was always busy with school and work.”
    “Working for you, to help raise you.”
    “I know that now . But I was a stupid thirteen-year-old. And I started hanging out with some older kids at school. Stetson, this guy I hooked up with, he…promised me the world. Promised me a family. One that’d never leave me. As Slade got closer and closer to graduation, I thought he’d be ready to do his own thing. You know, get married and start popping out Slade Juniors. I was scared.”
    Boy, did Halena get that. She wanted to be mad at the girl, considering it was decisions like this that made Halena lose faith in humans, but she’d seen this type of deception time and time again. Not just with demons, either. Gangs, too. They roped in innocents with the feeling of family, never being alone. And Addison had gotten a raw deal in life with her parents dying like they did.
    “I was getting a lot of—um—headaches, too.” She picked at her fingernails. “And, well, Stetson gave me stuff for them. I…”
    “Got hooked.” Once again, another avenue to suck vulnerable people in. “I get it.”
    “I was a burden to Slade. It was supposed to be easier for him if I was gone. If someone else took care of me so he could go do what he wanted.” She sniffled. “Stupid now. I know. But when it was all happening, it seemed okay. Up until the person I was supposed to kill.”
    And usually, when the person refused to seal the deal, the demons just killed them. But in this case, someone—Slade—stepped up in her place, so they got a soul.
    “How’d you connect with Jace?”
    “He found me. Didn’t know he was demon right away. Put things together after seeing his eyes go black once. He tried to talk it off as lighting, but I knew differently. I’d seen it before.”
    “And then started making Gap commercials with him.”
    “Screw you, Halena. Miss Perfect. You don’t know anything about my life. Is Slade even okay? Did he really send you?”
    “I know more than you think, coquine . And yes. Slade did ask me to check on you.”
    “Is he okay?”
    “I think so.” Maybe if Halena meditated some more on their bond she’d be able to feel for sure if he was still human. “But I don’t know for how long.”

Chapter Ten
    “I hope you’ve been studying, cuz you’re about to be tested.” Dev punched Slade’s shoulder. “We’re taking a trip off campus.”
    Campus . This place did resemble a small private university—only it was a freaking demon college. H ell, there was a chick across the commons area using a highlighter as she read a book. Like she was studying for a demon quiz.
    Slade chugged the last of his beer as he slapped closed the cover of the Shomrei book he’d been studying. “Where are we going?”
    “Votar set up a splice for us to America.”
    Slade’s heart rate jumped a few spikes.
    “I thought you’d like that. And I’m glad, because I haven’t been to the States before.”
    Slade followed after Dev, his mind racing. Could he check on Addie? Maybe see Grams? “Is Votar coming?”
    Dev pushed through a door and veered right, toward the stairwell.