Read Online Black Widow Demon by Paula Altenburg - Free Book Online

to be comfortable with the thought of spawn taking root in their midst.
    Justice walked the short distance to his own home, ignoring the pain in his thigh and tilting his hat to better shield his wind-burned face from the searing rays of the late-morning sun. Soon enough, the days would grow cold. Regardless, the mines would be fully productive long before winter. The men who had followed him to this new settlement were the best miners he could find, and the mines themselves well constructed and relatively safe. Security, both financial and physical, bred loyalty in people.
    His hand tightened into a fist. Loyalty had never been a quality his dead wife or her daughter possessed. Despite everything he had done for them, Columbine had remained a demon’s whore at heart until the day she died.
    And Raven…
    He intended to break her. She reminded him far too much of the goddess who had once exercised such enormous power over him. Those days were now gone. Immortals were not meant to rule men. And men were not meant to be whores.
    He climbed the front steps, spurs jingling as his riding boots struck the blackened, creosote-soaked wood. As soon as he entered the cool, dim interior of his house, he could tell that she had been here. The air reeked of rose oil. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes in appreciation for a brief second before hanging his hat on a hook by the door.
    “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he called softly, although he also knew she was gone. Food and clothing were her priorities—she would not have lingered.
    The front rooms, shuttered to keep out the worst of the heat, were untouched except for the food she had stolen from the kitchen. As he moved through the stillness to the bedrooms at the back of the house, he wished he could have seen her face when she discovered what he had done to her belongings.
    He started past his bedroom, his attention focused on hers, when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his own door was partially open. It had not been left that way. He paused, listened, then pushed on it, the door swinging silently on its hinges.
    He stared into the room for a long moment, a mixture of emotions rampaging through him. She had hidden something in the ceiling, something that she’d reclaimed. The open box on the floor indicated she’d also dared to steal money from him.
    She’d also taken the amulet her mother had once worn, an ugly piece of desert varnish that had been given to Columbine by her demon lover. She had claimed it protected her from other demons. That when she wore it, they could not touch her. He’d proven to her that it was, in fact, worthless, and demons would never rule him either. He would prove the same to her half-demon daughter. If Raven thought the amulet could help her, she was mistaken as well. All he had to do was send word to the assassins and have them track her down.
    He closed the box and slid it back under his bed. His jaw tightened when he saw the long scratch in the floor. He replaced the boards in the ceiling, his thoughts busy.
    Raven might have money and a small supply of food, but he had destroyed every stitch of her clothing and she had no way to acquire any more. She could not spend money in town without it being reported to him, and there were no other settlements for many miles. That meant she would need help. No woman in Goldrush would dare risk giving it to her, so her only help would come from the men she managed to possess. The townsmen, too, were now cautious. Strangers, although rare, might prove more susceptible to her true nature. Justice would have to mend any possible holes in that particular fence.
    The immortals were gone from the world—he did not want them back. But it gave him great pleasure to think of spawn serving man in their stead.
    Servitude would start with his arrogant and willful stepdaughter.
    …
    It was late afternoon by the time Blade arrived back in Goldrush.
    As soon as he reached the town limits, he headed