Read Online Blessed by a Demon’s Mark by E. S. Moore - Free Book Online Page B

at the bar to see my beer spilling out on the countertop. I must have knocked the bottle over when I’d jumped up. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
    Mikael frowned and looked around. Everyone shied away from his gaze and went back to what they were doing as if they were afraid to have him acknowledge them. Maybe they were. Mikael might have dirt on every single person in the room, and most people wouldn’t want their indiscretions to get passed around.
    “Let us sit,” he said, turning his back to me. He returned to his booth and sat down, looking far more concerned than I’d ever seen him.
    I brushed down my coat where he had touched me. I was surprised he’d reacted so fast. A normal Pureblood would never have been able to pull away in time, yet Mikael had managed to avoid my grasp and flutter back a few steps before I could fully turn around. The weaselly man was a lot more agile than I’d ever given him credit for.
    I made my way over to the booth and slid in across from the Swede. He was fidgeting, which wasn’t like him. Usually Mikael was completely composed, ready to deal. He always seemed to be in complete control of the situation, and yet, somehow, I’d thrown him off his game.
    I didn’t like that at all.
    “What’s going on?” I asked. “Everyone is treating me like I have the plague, and I want it to stop.”
    “Close enough,” he said. “I really wish you wouldn’t have come here, my sweet.” He looked around the room, scanning as if he was worried someone would see us together.
    “I really wish people would stop saying stuff like that.” I took a deep breath. “What’s going on?”
    His eyebrows rose and he stared at me like I must have gone completely batshit. “Don’t you know? How could you not know?”
    “Know what?”
    He ran a hand through his hair. It came away greasy and he absentmindedly wiped it on his shirt. He grumbled something Swedish before switching back to English.
    “You are a wanted woman,” he said, leaning forward. “If anyone knew I was talking to you, it would be my head.”
    I didn’t like the sound of that. “Hasn’t it always been that way?”
    His frown deepened. “Of course, but it is much worse now.”
    “Is this about whoever is looking for me?”
    He cocked his head to the side. “So then you know?”
    “Not enough.”
    “Obviously, or you wouldn’t be here.” He sighed. “You should have stayed dead.”
    I ground my teeth. “I wasn’t dead.”
    “Then in hiding.”
    “I wasn’t hiding either.”
    Mikael huffed and shook his head. “Whatever you want to call it, it was better that you were gone. You can’t fight this. Maybe you should go away again, my sweet. It would be better for everyone.”
    “Just tell me what’s going on so I can fix it.” I really didn’t like where this conversation was going.
    He looked like he was going to say something rude but changed his mind at the last second. He took a deep breath and puffed it out, making his lips flap. He gave me a quick smile, letting some of the old Mikael show through.
    “All debts are paid, okay?” he said, assuming a businesslike manner. “You owe me nothing anymore.”
    “Okay,” I said, my heart plummeting. Did this mean he was cutting ties with me? Without Mikael’s information, I would have been dead years ago. And if he thought he was going to sell what he knew about me the moment I walked out the door . . .
    “No,” he said. “I am not planning on telling anyone about you. It would not be good for me if some of the powers-that-be knew I had been feeding you information. Enough suspect already.”
    I grunted.
    “But I don’t want you coming back here. At least not until this blows over, if it ever does. I have a feeling you will be dead before you are clear of this.”
    “How about we stop all of this talk about me dying, okay?” I said, growing more and more agitated. “Just tell me who’s after me and what I can do about it. I’m tired of