Free Dark Tomorrow (Bo Blackman Book 6) by Helen Harper Page A

Foxworthy.’ I end the call.
    Rogu3 is still watching me. ‘You have an address for X.’
    I nod. ‘I do.’
    ‘Is this the best thing to do, Bo?’
    I consider his words. ‘Probably not. But it is the right thing.’ I meet his eyes. ‘If I don’t come back, you know what to do.’
    He swallows. ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Good.’
    O’Shea appears holding a greasy brown paper bag. Despite the overpowering smell of cooked meat and limp cabbage, my stomach growls. I really need to eat.
    ‘I got a kebab,’ he trills. ‘Yum yum.’ From out of nowhere, Kimchi bounds towards him, almost smacking into his legs. The dog whines and starts to slobber, a line of drool landing on O’Shea’s shoe. ‘These are handmade leather,’ the daemon yells, lifting his foot to shake away the spittle. Kimchi’s tongue lolls as he tries to decide whether to attack the shoe or leap towards the kebab. O’Shea hisses in disgust then looks from Rogu3 to me and back again. His expression clears abruptly. ‘Ah. I see we’ve made some progress. Let me drop this off with Michael then I’m coming with you.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Bo, we’re partners. Buddies. Where you go, I go.’
    ‘It’s too dangerous, Devlin.’
    He winces. ‘I really hate it when you call me that.’ He tilts up his chin. ‘You can’t stop me, Bo. If you’re going to do this, then so am I. I’m more than an errand boy. If you get all your vital organs ripped out of your body then someone’s going to need to break the news to Michael.’
    I raise an eyebrow. ‘You’re volunteering to tell him I’m dead?’
    ‘That’s what friends are for, darling.’
    I look at him. Despite his teasing words, steely determination is etched into his brow. ‘Okay.’ I sigh. ‘Okay.’ God save me from my own people.
    Kimchi whines, sensing the sombre atmosphere. O’Shea reaches inside the bag, picks out a scrap of brown meat and offers it to him. For once, the dog doesn’t go for it. Instead, he lies down and gives both of us a long-suffering look with his large, soulful eyes.
    ‘Dogs don’t have special senses, do they?’ O’Shea asks nervously. ‘Like being able to tell when someone’s about to die?’
    ‘Nah. I think that’s cats.’
    My grandfather’s moggy takes that moment to leap down from the desk and wander up to me, rubbing its head against my shins. O’Shea and I stare at each other. Eventually, I shrug. ‘Last one to get their heart eaten is a rotten egg.’

Chapter Six: Life Insurance
     
    The irksome thing about this part of London is that it’s all wide streets and glossy facades. You won’t a find a dark alley to hide in anywhere near here. However, there are lots of tall buildings. Given that I have no idea how close I have to be to X for him to read my mind, it’s important to stay well away in terms of yardage but close enough to spot him. O’Shea and I find his building while keeping our distance, then venture to the corner opposite.
    ‘We need the roof,’ I say decisively, looking upwards.
    O’Shea cranes his neck. ‘It shouldn’t be hard to get up there. But it won’t be easy to follow Mr X once he’s on the move.’
    ‘Don’t call him mister,’ I say. That bastard doesn’t deserve the respect. ‘And I don’t want to follow him. Right now, I just want to get a handle on him. What he’s doing, how he’s travelling around and where his vulnerable spots are.’
    ‘He’s a Kakos daemon, Bo,’ O’Shea says, sounding falsely cheerful. ‘He doesn’t have any vulnerable spots.’
    ‘No one is invincible, not even him.’
    O’Shea gives me a long look. ‘Well,’ he says finally, ‘now I’m wishing I’d bought another kebab. We could be here for some time.’
    ‘Yeah.’ I feel a wave of faintness and pinch the bridge of my nose. Damn it.
    ‘You need to eat as well.’ O’Shea bites his lip and offers me his wrist.
    I frown. ‘Ick.’
    ‘You don’t like daemon blood? I’ll have you know I can be pretty damn