Read Online Black Dog by Caitlin Kittredge - Free Book Online Page A

save little old me?”
    â€œThe devil you know,” Leo muttered.
    â€œFine,” I said. “I suggest you do something about Gary and his merry band of black dogs before they realize this is your doing.”
    The deadheads weren’t faring well. One hound might have been in trouble, but against Gary’s star heavies, they were basically just chew toys.
    â€œI’m working on it,” Leo said. A guy who I assumed had to be his father, since they looked pretty much alike, separated by about thirty years and one nasty scar across the guy’s neck, shoved between us, looking me up and down.
    â€œWho the hell is this?”
    â€œLeave her alone,” Leo said. “She doesn’t have anything to do with anything.”
    Leo’s father turned his head and spit on the ground, missing my boot by an inch. I was starting to see why Leo wanted to kill him.
    â€œYou call me out here to clean up your mess, there better be something for me besides your skinny whore, boy.”
    I saw Gary emerge from the office at the same time Leo’s father did, saving him from my foot in his balls by way of explaining that I wasn’t a sex worker. His jaw went slack and his eyes took on a gleam. “Fuck me,” he said. “Is that a reaper?”
    It was my turn to get in front of Leo as Gary drew his Scythe again and started across the parking lot, flanked by Wilson and a hound I didn’t know, a big bruiser with a Mohawk the color of blue Kool-­Aid.
    â€œDeal with the hounds,” Leo said in my ear. “I’ll handle Gary.”
    I glanced back at him, but he seemed serious. Well, it was his funeral. He might not have sold me out, but I still didn’t think he had more than an ice cube’s chance floating in a hot chocolate made in Hell.
    Blue leaped at me, shifting on the fly, and the time for thinking deep thoughts was over. I let him barrel by me, stepping aside and swiping his throat with my claws. Blood erupted, coating my palm and arm halfway to the elbow. Blue coughed once and collapsed, twitching. Arterial red turned black, just a slick shiny spot on the asphalt as he died.
    Before I could celebrate, Wilson slammed into me from behind. He might not be graceful, but he had almost a hundred pounds on me, and that was enough.
    â€œAlways knew you’d turn someday,” he grunted. “You think you’re better than us.”
    â€œWilson,” I managed, even though he was slamming my head repeatedly into the pavement. “Why are you doing this?”
    He stopped, chest heaving, staring at me. The white network of scars across his skull looked like fresh paint in the sunlight. The shifter pack had taken off half his face, and even hellhound healing wasn’t perfect.
    â€œGary keeps you around as a joke,” I said. In my peripheral vision, Leo accepted a black case from his father, taking out a flat bag full of red—­a hospital blood pack. Alexi probably had an entire bank’s worth on ice when Leo had capped him.
    â€œGary is my master,” Wilson snarled. He shook me a little. It wouldn’t take much more pressure to snap my neck.
    â€œYour master did the same shit to you he just did to me,” I said. “He sent you off to do his bidding and didn’t give a shit when those lycanthropes almost made you hamburger. Why the fuck do you care about him, Wilson? To Gary, you might as well be a used tissue.”
    Leo poured the blood across the ground in a line as Gary came at him, and when the reaper hit the line he bounced back. The ozone taste of black magic hit my tongue, and all the small hairs on my neck lifted like lightning had fried the parking lot.
    Gary shook off the impact, but I saw a thin line of black trickle from his nose. Hellspawn bleed black, nasty acid crap with fumes that smell like a mass grave. That Leo had made Gary bleed encouraged me a lot.
    Wilson bared his teeth at me. “Gary saved me.