Free In the Demon's Company (Demon's Assistant Book 2) by Tori Centanni Page A

look, an eyebrow quirking over his glasses. “You were stabbed last year.”
    “Barely,” I say.
    “There’s no such thing as ‘barely stabbed.’”
    We reach the bus stop, crowded with people all waiting to get up the hill. “If there is another demon like Az—“ he starts, speaking quietly so we’re not overheard.
    “I think there must be. If Az didn’t make a deal with Mrs. Crane, someone did.”
    “Okay, so… What does that mean? Are they going to have some kind of turf war or do they sort of ignore each other and go about their business?”
    “I don’t know,” I say. “Azmos seemed really weird when I mentioned it.”
    The bus pulls up and we find a row of seats near the back. Cam sits by the window and I slide in beside him. He puts his arm around my shoulders.
    “UW, huh?” I say. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive. Even my dad is on board. He went to UW, you know.” Cam’s father, a doctor who lives in Colorado with his second wife, will be bank-rolling whatever scholarships, grants, and loans don’t cover. Cam smiles down at me so radiantly that I can almost feel the warmth coming off it. “It’s the right decision.” He leans down and kisses me briefly, and we ignore an annoyed huff from a woman in the seat next to us. I meet her eyes when we pull apart and she hurriedly turns to her phone.
    I run my fingers through Cam’s soft hair, fingers massaging his scalp. “Besides,” he says, “I’m not sure what you’d do without me.”
    I punch him in the arm. The bus jerks to a stop at the bottom of the hill and more people pile on, crowding the bus until they’re standing in the aisle and squished up against each other.
    “Just because there’s another…” Cam trails off, not wanting to say ‘demon’ in a crowded space, no matter how likely it is people would assume we were just stupid teenagers talking about a movie or something. “…I don’t think we should worry about it. Let Az handle it.”
    “Maybe,” I say. I don’t bother to tell Cam that for once, he and Az are in total agreement. But I also can’t sit around and do nothing. Cam threads his fingers through mine and squeezes my hand. “I’d just like to figure out what the deal with Mrs. Crane was. Literally.”
    “You did what you could for her, you know,” Cam says.
    “It wasn’t enough.” Cam squeezes my hand again and bends his head down against mine.
    “You can’t save everyone, Nic. The world doesn’t work that way.”
    I know he’s right. But what use is working with magical beings if I don’t even try?

 
     
     
     
CHAPTER NINE
     

     
    If I thought Gabriel looked like he was around my age before, it’s painfully obvious that he’s older when he arrives on campus the next day. He’s only nineteen and he might even pass for a high school student if he didn’t look like he’d recently gotten in a head-on collision with a train. His olive trench coat doesn’t help, nor does the fact that he towers over all but the tallest students.
    Still, he walks down the halls like he’s meant to be there. He smiles when he finds me. I wonder how long he’s been running amok on campus and thank the powers that be that he didn’t get in trouble for doing it.
    He finds me just after Spanish. Cam and Brian have run off to their next class, but Melissa is actually attempting to be friendly so of course, that’s when the random stranger appears. She stops mid-sentence when she sees Gabriel, frowning so hard I think her lips might twist into an upside down “u.”
    “Hey,” he says, “you need to come with me.”
    Melissa looks from me to him several times and then her expectant gaze lands on me. “Who is this guy?” she asks, a little too loudly. The last thing I need is to draw attention to him.
    “He’s a friend,” I say quietly.
    Melissa shakes her head and raises her gloved hands in front of her, palms out. “Forget it,” she says, resentfully. “I can’t do this. Not when mysterious weirdos