Read Online Pure Dead Frozen by Debi Gliori - Free Book Online

it done. Whoever he is, he’ll wish he’d never been born…. Er…Boss? Who is it?” Not trusting his ability to remember names, Isagoth grabbed the first thing he could find in the darkness and scrawled the name of Luciano Strega-Borgia in waterproof, super-permanent indelible pink laundry marker across the back of his hand. As he wrote Luciano’s name, he realized that he knew
exactly
who this prospective victim was. Luciano Strega-Borgia. The man in the parking lot with the no-longer-pregnant wife. Mr. Butler’s boss. And—Isagoth closed his eyes and swayed slightly—Luciano Strega-Borgia was also the boss of that infernal, pestilential nanny thing, that Flora McLachlan who’d got him in such deep water in the first place….
    It wasn’t until S’tan hung up that Isagoth remembered about the baby. In the heat of the moment he’d forgotten to mention that he’d found a newborn soul, ripe for the taking. Since souls were regarded as a superior form of currency in Hades—the demonic equivalent of, say, gold doubloons—it was to Isagoth’s considerable advantage that he’d stumbled across such a one. He had a sneaking suspicion that the baby might have some intrinsic value here on Earth as well. Therefore, he vowed, no matter how inconvenient it might be to kidnap it, that was precisely what he intended to do.

Their Baby’s Deepest Fear
    T he hospital ward was tropically hot, its thermostat set at a perfect temperature for raising orchids, nursing the old and frail, and overheating any visitors unwise enough to arrive dressed in anything more substantial than a bikini. Consequently, the tribe of Strega-Borgias and staff gathered around Baci’s bedside, all of them swathed in layers to insulate them against the freezing winter weather, were in imminent danger of melting. Furthermore, being adolescents, Titus and Pandora flatly refused to remove any outdoor clothing at all, and thus they stood, pink and perspiring, looking down at their new baby brother with expressions several smiles short of delight.

    Seeing this, Baci bit her bottom lip and tried hard not to cry, but Damp had no such qualms. She wriggled free from Mrs. McLachlan’s grasp, hurtled across the ward, sprang onto Baci’s bed, and burst into loud and inconsolable sobs. Titus and Pandora traded been-there-done-that looks and then resumed their identical expressions of faint boredom. Damp wailed all the more, attracting slitty-eyed glares from Sister Passterre, who was counting scalpels with an air of barely concealed anticipation. In vain did Luciano try to appease the wailing toddler; Damp was beyond appeasement, consolation, comfort, or even bribery.
    â€œâ€¦and because you’re being so
big
and
grown-up
”—Luciano rolled his eyes, acknowledging to his wife that he was indeed lying through his teeth about Damp’s behavior—“Mumma and Dada have bought you a
lovely
new tricycle.”
    â€œ
That
old trick,” muttered Titus, walking away from the crowded bedside to gaze out of the window. Outside, in pajamas and dressing gown, was a man walking with the aid of two crutches. Despite the cold, he was determinedly crossing the frosty lawn, trying to catch the attention of two lumpy figures shrouded in thick coats, the photo IDs dangling round their necks marking them out as hospital employees leaving at the end of their shift. Behind Titus, Damp eloquently declined her father’s generous offer.
    â€œNO LIKEIT. No WANTIT tie-sickle.”
    And Titus was instantly transported back in time, all the way back to an August morning, eleven years ago, when—
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 
    They’d promised him a tricycle, but instead they showed him a shawl-wrapped thing lying in his old rocking cradle. He’d looked out of curiosity and saw, under a puff of jet-black hair, a pair of navy blue eyes glaring up at him, surrounded