Read Online Claimed by Light by Reese Monroe - Free Book Online

corner of the room. The shades were drawn, and the stench of two-day-old food and beer hung heavy in the air.
    Trevor stared at her, eyes wide, mouth agape.
    Oh, great. Another wannabe demon. This whole Slade and Addison situation got stinkier by the minute. Halena faced the grandma type, keeping Trevor in the corner of her vision. “And who are you?”
    The old woman clutched her chest and shuffled back. “I need to sit.”
    Halena hurried forward and eased her into the single chair in the middle of the small room. A recliner, of course.
    Trevor moved, and Halena growled. That time she scented a little urine.
    He’d make a terrible demon.
    “This is too much for my old mind to handle.”
    “I know.” Halena nodded. “Just tell me everything.”
    “Mae. My name is Mae.”
    “And you’re…”
    “Slade and Addison’s grams.” She let out a long breath and shook her head. “Have you seen them? Are they okay?” She looked at Trevor, who stood there watching. “He barged in… I…didn’t see him coming.” She sagged into the armchair.
    Didn’t see him coming? Halena riffled through Mae’s mind and picked up a few specks of information. Mainly Trevor backhanding her across the face. Halena lunged at him, and with one fist to the temple he was out.
    Hard.
    “Thank you, dear,” Mae whispered. “Asshole he was.”
    Halena chuckled and knelt before the old woman. “Please tell me what happened.”
    “That guy stormed in here two days ago, saying if I didn’t cooperate Slade would be killed. He had pictures of Addie and Slade.”
    “Show me.”
    She pointed to the coffee table. Eight-by-tens littered the wooden tabletop.
    Slade’s bruised and bloodied face graced several. Addison’s pictures, on the other hand, looked more like a Gap commercial—tall, cute guys hanging around her and a few other females.
    Smiling. Laughing.
    Behind Addie, in one of the pictures, a tall guy stood, fully fanged out, pointing to Addie. Halena held up the picture for a closer look. “Is this Jace? The one who told Limp Dude over there to rough you up?”
    Mae looked at Halena and took a long breath. “What are you?”
    “Sorry?” She took the pictures, corralled them in a neat pile, then slid them into a manila envelope lying on the coffee table.
    “You spoke to me without words and heard mine.” Mae pointed at Halena.
    “Perceptive old woman.”
    Mae shook her finger. “Mind your manners.”
    Halena chuckled and folded the top of the envelope. These pictures might give her an idea of where the Gap commercial wannabes hung out. But what she didn’t understand was why the demon, Jace, acted like he was Addie’s boyfriend.
    Mae coughed into her hand. “That Jace. I knew he was bad news when I saw him with Addie. But she was so sad after her brother up and left. Scared. Said she had a bad feeling.”
    “So she hooked up with the nearest de— Loser?” Halena sat on the floor in front of Mae and crossed her legs. “What gives?”
    “That one. She’s been messed up since losing her mom so early on. Poor Slade was always chasing her, saving her from one problem after another.”
    That struck a chord in Halena. The emails she’d read in Slade’s in-box. “He sacrificed a lot for her.”
    “More than a brother—particularly someone so young—should. After their parents died—” She shook her head. “Both had to grow up too fast. Slade did the best he could, got into school and fought hard for a normal life. Addie just stayed…lost.”
    “Wrong crowd?”
    “Slade and I tried to show her the right way. He was only eighteen when his dad—my son—died. Still just a child himself.”
    “When’s the last time you saw Addison?”
    “Well…let’s see. It’s hard to keep track. Slade disappeared a few weeks ago. Addie stuck around until Jace entered the picture. That was about a week ago.”
    The timing corresponded with Slade helping Halena escape.
    More and more made sense now about Slade and Addison. The