Free Demon Bait: Children of the Undying, Book 1 by Moira Rogers Page A

generators, as long as we don’t have to lay low for longer than a week.”
    Marci rubbed her cheek on her forearm and grimaced at the dirt and blood smudged on her skin. “And a water system? Turns out, running for one’s life is a filthy activity.”
    “You might have to wait twenty or thirty minutes for hot water…” He activated the overhead lighting, then the rest of the commands to bring his tiny shelter online. “But there’s a very nice shower.”
    “I don’t care if it’s cold. I just want to be clean.” Adrenaline was starting to fade, leaving a sick feeling in his gut and exhaustion in his limbs. Bundling her off into the shower so he could spend a moment in quiet panic seemed like the best idea he’d had all day. Maybe, if he wasn’t looking at her, the need to strip her naked and map every curve of her body would abate.
    And maybe the demons would all go back to wherever they’d come from and leave the world in peace. “Follow me, sweetheart.”
Chapter Six
    Marci stayed under the water for longer than she should have. It started to warm, stinging her scrapes, and she carefully catalogued every bump and bruise. She’d been hurt more than she’d realized. They’d been attacked , maybe almost died.
    She’d never felt more alive.
    She towel-dried her hair and dressed slowly. Then she sat on a couch in the shelter’s tiny living area and waited for Gabe to come out of the other shower room.
    When he did, he was wearing nothing but a towel around his narrow hips. The careful speech Marci had been practicing evaporated along with what remained of her sense of self-preservation.
    She rose and licked her lips. “I left,” she told him carefully. “I left the mill, and my life isn’t over. That wasn’t it .”
    “Not in the least,” he agreed. “Your life’s just getting started.” Just getting started. What a shame that he spoke the truth. For so long, she’d done nothing but wait for her world to drop out from under her. Now it had, and all she wanted was to relish every moment of her free fall.
    Marci tingled with anticipation and desire and freedom , with no room left over for doubt or hesitation.
    She stepped close and slid her arms around his neck. “I’m tired of not living, Gabe. Of being so scared I can’t be anything else.”
    Damp hair curled under her fingertips. His chest was broad and bore its share of scars, imperfections that would never appear in the network. But they were real, and so was he as he slid a hand to the small of her back and urged her closer. “Nothing to be scared of here, sweetheart. Just you and me.” The two of them, and no reason to stop. She stretched up and kissed him, soft and slow, like it was the first time. It may as well have been, because the simple touch shocked her with its intensity. No buzzing magic high this time, just his mouth over hers and his body…
    Oh, his body.
    Too soon he lifted his head, feathering teasing kisses along her jaw. “It is just you and me, right? Do we need to take a trip into the network and make sure you still want to take a ride if there’s no magic?” Marci shook her head. “Just us.” Water from the shower still clung to his skin, and it soaked through her shirt to heat and chill her at the same time. The thought of slipping into virtual reality, of losing that dichotomy of sensation, was unbearable.
    He didn’t seem eager to force the issue. The hand at the small of her back fisted, dragging her upward with an insistence that belied his gentle, slow kisses. “If this is your first time outside the Global, you need to tell me.”
    “I’m not a virgin, Gabe.” She’d had more sex inside the network, but she wasn’t completely inexperienced outside of it.
    “Good.” His teeth closed on her ear.
    Marci shuddered and scratched her nails down his back, all the way to the rough edge of the towel around his hips.
    He reversed their positions easily, half lifting her before sinking down on the couch and