Free Sacrifice (Revelations Book 1) by Mia Bishop Page B

now?” She spun to see him standing in the open space between the living room and bedroom. Before she could answer he added, “Hurry up.” As he headed to the back door in the kitchen and called out, “Meet me out back when you’re ready.”
    After giving the Striga clothes one last glance she reluctantly slipped out of his sweatpants and t-shirt. There was no way she was fighting demons in short shorts and a halter top. Her choices might be slim but she had to make the best of it. Grabbing another t-shirt from his drawer she slipped it on and quickly cinched it tight around her waist and tied it with a knot in the back. She rummaged through the drawers again until she found another pair of sweatpants. After a minute of examining her newest find she ran to the kitchen, grabbing the knife Nico had used to slice open his wrist a few minutes earlier and returned to the bedroom. It took a moment for her to reign in her desire to lick the blade for any residual blood that might be clinging to the stainless steel, but when she finally managed to get herself under control she took the knife to the sweatpants cutting them into shorts that hung below her knees. It would do for now. Her outfit covered a bit more than the Striga clothes and she’d done enough to make sure she didn’t trip over the garments or get tangled up while fighting.
    Five minutes later she was standing in the dark behind Nico’s house. An old green car was parked near the back door and Nico had lovingly run his hand over the hood as she came out. His focus had been on the automobile, but the minute Abby passed by he gaped. “What in the hell did you do?”
    “What?”
    “My clothes, you can’t just cut up my clothes.”
    “Well, I’m certainly not killing anything in Meri’s clothes. I choose to be practical.”
    “I have a limited supply of stuff, you can’t just go cutting up people’s things.”
    “I needed something to wear. If you are going to make me go out and kill demons then I’m not going to be wearing booty shorts and a strip of fabric over my breasts. I couldn’t wear the stuff I slept in because I’m not sleeping in clothes that I’ve killed something in.” She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and shrugged. “And your clothes are like four sizes too big for me, so I had to do some alterations.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared. “Deal with it.”
    A small smile played at the edges of his mouth. She tried not to fixate on it, but his smirk made her mouth water. There was a glimmer in his eyes, as if he liked her defiance. After a minute he nodded, giving in and dropping the argument. She’d won this round which boosted her ego to epic heights, but mostly it was the way he looked at her with that smile on his face that made her stand a little bit taller. He led her several feet away from the house and her eyes narrowed in on what he’d set up for her.
    She was facing a table lined with weapons and in the distance she could see a row of bottles and one bullseye painted on a hay bale. “What is this? I thought we were training?”
    “We are. You need to find a weapon you’re comfortable with.”
    “What about hand to hand? My instinct to kill and all that stuff you said before.”
    “Do you really want to kill a demon with your bare hands? I mean you’re more than welcome to have at it, but the cleanup is a real bitch.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “I guess not. What weapon do you use?”
    “A little of everything, but I prefer blades. Knives, daggers—”
    “Swords?”
    “When necessary. Killing a demon requires decapitation and burning the body. You can shoot it to incapacitate it but in the end you’ll always need a way to sever its head from its body and torch it.”
    “Every single time?” Words could not describe how much she didn’t want to have to decapitate a demon, but deep down she knew there was no getting out of it. This was her new world, her new reality, and she was going to have