Read Online Inner Demon by Jocelynn Drake - Free Book Online

together, preparing to defend myself. I didn’t know where Gideon was in the house, but the warlock would realize that I hadn’t entered yet and would come looking for me. Right? He was my backup. And I was going to fucking need it. This guy was definitely not human. He wasn’t an elf, a siren, an incubus, or a shifter.
    â€œNo need for that, warlock,” he called as he straightened, his hair falling back over his face when he leaned forward. “I’m not going to kill you yet. I need you alive to see my final creation. My moment of triumph.”
    â€œBut maybe I’d rather see you dead now,” I muumbled before sending out a debilitating spell meant to incapacitate the fucker but keep him awake for questioning. One of the few spells I’d picked up from Simon during my studies.
    The madman laughed again, the sound like needles prickling along my arms. The spell just washed over him as if he wasn’t even there. My heart stumbled and for the second time I wished that I felt more secure in having Zyrus watch my back, because it would know what I was faced with.
    Gideon! I mentally reached out for the other warlock.
    â€œCalling for help?” he taunted with a soft giggle.
    â€œWhat are you planning?” I demanded, hoping to distract him long enough for Gideon to join me.
    â€œOh, I can’t tell that now. It would ruin the wonderful surprise.”
    â€œNever been a fan of surprises myself.”
    â€œNo, warlocks aren’t.” The man’s voice changed suddenly, becoming cold and biting like a sharpened blade slicing through the fatty tissue around your stomach. The singsong mocking was gone. “You don’t like anything you can’t control and manipulate.”
    â€œNo, we don’t,” I said, grinning broadly at him. The boiling anger that lay just below the surface was something I could use. If I could get him pissed, then I might be able to get him to make a mistake. Lord knows I’d done that often enough in my life.
    â€œYour time is coming. We’re going to destroy you all,” he snarled.
    I gave an indifferent shrug. “And who is ‘we’? The Towers have got a lot of enemies.”
    The man chuckled. It had become a low and ugly sound as it tumbled across the lawn toward me. “But that would be giving away the surprise.” And then it was like he’d flipped a switch. His high-­pitched laughter returned as he started swinging again. “Nice trick, warlock, but you’re not going to get me.” His singsong voice had me clenching my teeth.
    At the sound of the back door opening, the man was consumed in a brilliant flash of white light. When I could finally see again, an enormous white owl was perched on the wooden beam that held the swing. The owl watched me and Gideon, who was now standing on the patio just past the back door of the house, and then the owl extended his massive wings and took to the air.
    I started to form a new spell that would pull the bastard back down to the ground. There was no way in hell I was going to let this prick out of my sight. I’d find a way to get some answers out of him. But I never finished the spell . . .
    A surge of raw energy blasted through the backyard, similar to what I had felt at Asylum earlier in the evening. The power of it threw me backward, tearing through the defensive spell I had erected like it was wet tissue paper. Pain exploded in my spine as I slammed into the wooden fence. Boards creaked and splintered under the impact, but I didn’t go through it. I collapsed in a heap in the yard, my face down in the dirt and snow. My organs clenched and burned while my brain felt like it was melting in my skull. My cheeks were wet, but I couldn’t tell if I was crying in pain or if my eyes were bleeding.
    It took all my energy to roll partially onto my side so that I could throw up without choking on my own vomit. When I had flushed both