Free Demons: A Hunter's Novel, Book 1 by Felicite Lilly

spell open allows for more than one and they
tend to gang up on you. Of course, Kai didn’t need help ganging up on you.
    “Yes.
I did it before the meeting.”
    “ Before the meeting? Why before the meeting? How’d you know we’d need him?” My
voice was slowly elevating.
    “Because
the guy that hired me to keep you safe told me to summon Kai before the
meeting.”
    Az
knew the meeting was going to turn bad, obviously, and he knew that I was going
to need help figuring out what was going on. But what if it wasn’t Az? I needed
to talk to him.
    “Anie,
can I ask a favor?”
    “Depends.”
    “Is
there any way I can put up a symbol on your house?”
    “Depends.”
    “He’s
a friend of mine that’s trying to help me. I know what it’s going to look like
but he’s actually on my side.”
    “Let
me see it.” She held her hand out to me. I pulled the piece of paper from my
pocket that had Az’s symbol etched in blood. She saw it and frowned. Her eyes
widened a little then and she threw the paper on the table.
    “How
do you know him?” She asked, squinting her eyes at me. I knew she wouldn’t take
it well.
    “I
told you he’s a friend.”
    “It’s
already up.” What?! Okay, I needed to take a breath. Don’t jump to conclusions.
    “How
do you know him?”
    “He’s
a friend.”
    Oh.
My. God. She’d fucked him. I could tell by the look on her face. Or they still
were. There’s no question in my mind as to what kind of friend he would be to
Anie.
    I
was suddenly very, very pissed off. I wanted out of the house. I knew we
weren’t together. Hell, I had screwed a ton of guys in the six months he had
been absent in my life. I knew that logically, but emotionally I was on a rage
bender. And it was because this was my friend. It was yet another page in the
book of shit I didn’t want to deal with. And I wanted to punch Az directly in
his junk.
    I
stood up without a word.
    “Where’re
you going?” Anie asked my back.
    I
was running down the stairs. I wanted to run out of the house. I was upset and
that’s what I did – I worked off extra energy by running, doing blade exercises
or fucking. But seeing as I was locked in a house with Anie, running seemed
like the most logical option. If you gave me a blade right now, I would
probably cut her. And even if I could put aside the fact that she had fucked
Az, women just weren’t my thing.
    I
ran straight to the front door and started unlocking the locks. By the time I
was half way through the locks Anie pummeled me to the ground. She pulled me away
from the door and into the entry way of the house, straddling my stomach.
    “I
don’t know what hair crawled up your ass, but you will not run out that front
door for as long as I am responsible for you.”
    “I
want to run.”
    “Don’t
we all? Just stay here and do something else. Sharpen your blades.”
    Anie
knew me well enough that she knew something was seriously wrong. And it
involved the Demon who belonged to the symbol we shared on our walls (pun NOT
intended). She just didn’t know what had happened with me and Az. Or maybe she
did and she was avoiding the uncomfortable conversation that we could currently
be having.
    I
was tamping down the need to kick her ass right now. She slept with my Demon.
She couldn’t have found a different one? One of her own?
    My
instincts being what they are, I hauled up off the floor and took a swing at
her. She leaned away at the last second and my fist met the edge of her cheek. We
had sparred many times when she was a Hunter. I hadn’t fought her since she had
become a supe, however. This would be interesting.
    I
stepped back and got in fighting stance. She was already there. We started
circling each other, but I was never one to wait. I started faking right and
brought my left fist up – she blocked it easily with her forearm. I circled
faster, trying to throw her footing off. It was never her strong point. She
wasn’t so easily thrown and ended up keeping up