Read Online Dark Halo (An Angel Eyes Novel) by Shannon Dittemore - Free Book Online Page B

at will. At my will.”
    “It was made by the Creator, Damien. You think you can corrupt it?”
    Damien pushes Olivia and Marco aside and leans into Jake’s face. “ I was made by the Creator, and it took very little to corrupt me. So, yes. If it can be corrupted, I will figure out how.”
    Jake feels the blood drain from his face and watches the confused halo morph back and forth in the demon’s hand. Cuff, crown, cuff, crown. Damien’s words are true.
    Is it possible? Can the halo be used for evil?
    Jake refuses to believe it. “You’re an idiot,” he spits.
    “And you’re my prisoner,” Damien says. “My guinea pig.Only . . .” His eyes move from Jake to Marco and back again. “Ms. Holt, find me another chair.”
    Olivia laughs, but it’s hollow, forced. She’s as confused as the halo. Whatever she agreed to, it wasn’t this.
    “I got you the bracelet. You do your own legwork from here on out. Come on, Marco.”
    She reaches a hand out to her old friend, but faster than humanly possible, Damien is on top of her. He slams her against the barren shelves, press the Prince’s halole his handing her against them with his massive arms and chest.
    “What the—” Marco tries to intercede, but with a well-placed elbow Damien throws him backward. Jake watches Marco for signs of distress. He groans, but his chest rises and falls. Jake turns his attention back to Olivia.
    In one fist Damien clenches the halo, in the other a handful of Olivia’s hair. She flails against him, but Damien is not deterred. He sniffs at her face and neck, growling with delight.
    “You wear fear well, Liv. Can I call you Liv?” He grabs her chin and yanks it up and down. “Good. ’Cause I’d like us to be partners. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Partners, like you and Javan.”
    She squirms against him, terrified gurgles coming from her throat.
    “There it is again, the fear. I can smell it on you. I can taste it on the air you stir. Like an old friend, you’ve grown comfortable with it, but I’ll share a secret with you, Liv. Fear answers to me.”
    She shakes her head from side to side. Jake knows she’s doing her best to shake off the fear, to free herself from its grasp.
    “Oh yes, it does,” Damien coos. “It answers to me. With just a little direction fear itself would squeeze you tight. I could suffocate you, collapse those lungs of yours, without laying a fingeron you. Did you know that? Fear would do it for me.” He grins. “That puts you in my debt . . .”
    Olivia rips her arm free and drags her nails across his face, but within a second he has her hand slammed against a splintered shelf.
    Her lips curl back. “I am not. In your debt.”
    “So independent,” Damien says, pressing his face closer to hers. “You think you’re free? Think again. Every one of us serves one master or another. I’ve spent eons dwelling on just how unfair that is. But it’s true.”
    “I don’t even know what that means.” She tries to pull her arm free, but he holds it tight.
    “It means you’re mine.” His voice is flat, matter-of-fact. He’s just laying it out for her now. “Javan made promises to you, but he’s gone now and his promises mean nothing. I’ve moved in. I own you. Every decision you’ve ever made, every deception, every crime, every wayward passion of the heart—they’ve all ensured your loyalty to Darkness. You couldn’t be free of us now if you tried.”
    “That’s not true, Olivia,” Jake says. “There’s a way. There’s always a way.”
    But Damien’s captured her attention. “And those wounds Javan promised to rid you of, those are mine too. Mine to exploit.”
    Olivia swallows. “There are just so many. Which ones are you claiming?”
    Jake watches in horror as Damien’s hand slides to Olivia’s wrist and yanks it forward. He turns it so the soft flesh of her inner arm faces out. She screams and thrashes as an invisible claw carves three lines into her skin.
    Jake yells out,