Free The Demon Creed (A Demon Outlaws Novel) (Entangled Edge) by Paula Altenburg Page B

the bullet she fired embedded into the ground, kicking up dirt, and not in his heart.
    Shock roared in his ears.
    “I’m sorry,” she gasped.
    For what, he could only imagine. For trying to kill him? Or for allowing him to kiss her?
    His face felt wooden. Immobile. Time slowed again as he stared into those beautiful, terror-filled eyes. Her fear washed over him.
    All at once, the very sight of her infuriated and frustrated him. He had not compelled her, or threatened her in any way. He’d been nothing but kind. He had not earned her fear of him, but instead, kept his demon well in command.
    At least now he knew she could shoot a man if she wanted. It made it far easier for him to leave. A stupid part of him had begun to worry that he might end up neglecting his duty in favor of her well-being. Sooner or later he would have resented that, and then her, regardless of what his demon wanted.
    “I’m sorry, too,” he said, and went off to the stable to gather his belongings.
    A short while later he rode from the yard. As he passed through the gates, he did not look back.
    …
    Some distance away, in the Borderlands at the far edge of the desert, a blond-headed child sat on the top rail of a wooden corral where his friend Hunter was training an unbroken hross.
    He swung his legs, kicking his heels against the next railing down. Hunter and Airie called him Scratch, but that wasn’t his name. His real name was Asher—Ash, for short—but he kept that to himself. His mother was coming for him, and until she did, he had to be careful. Names had power, and he didn’t want the mean woman, the one who could summon demons from the demon boundary, to know his. If she had it she might try to summon him, too, when he traveled the boundary.
    But the big man—the one who was different, like Ash and Airie—had gone to the ranch where Ash used to live, and now his mother remembered him again, and she was going to come for him. The big man would help her. Ash had protected his mother for as long as he could, and kept her hidden from demons, but now the mean woman was following her. She’d be coming here, too.
    And she didn’t like Airie.
    Hunter’s wide-brimmed hat had fallen in the dirt. Now, sun-bleached hair hung in his eyes and he flipped it back with an absent toss of his head, his attention on the young hross on the end of the long lunge line. The nervous animal reared onto its hind legs, giant hooves pawing at the air inches from Hunter’s face, but he did not seem concerned, so Ash wasn’t either.
    Airie, however, was another matter. As if sensing danger to him, she came out of the log house across the yard and carefully descended the wide plank steps. She always moved more slowly these days. The heavy weight of the baby she carried in her stomach disrupted her balance.
    Airie was tall and very pretty, and Ash would not mind having her for his mother if he didn’t already have one he loved. He loved Airie, too, but his mother needed him whereas Airie did not. Not in the same way.
    She came to stand beside Ash as he sat on the fence. She slipped an arm around him and gave him a hug, although her eyes were on Hunter, but she knew better than to distract him when he was working.
    When Hunter was finished he released the hross from the lunge line, picked up his hat, and came over.
    “It’s lunchtime,” Airie said. She said nothing to him about being worried. Hunter always knew without being told.
    He climbed over the fence, lifted Ash from the top railing to the ground, then turned to give Airie a kiss. Ash placed a hand on her stomach and the baby inside rolled over in her sleep. Airie said the baby would be born in a few months, but Ash knew she was going to be several weeks longer than that. Hunter was worried the baby might be a monster, and that she would be born in a demon form that might hurt Airie, but Ash also knew he was worrying for nothing.
    Ash knew lots of things that he kept to himself. As he followed Airie