Read Online Drowning In The Dark: #4 The Veil Series by Pippa DaCosta - Free Book Online Page B

deep chuckle washed over me like a calming salve. He had power in his voice. I hadn’t yet figured out what Jerry was, if he was anything other than human. He looked human underneath all those tats. He felt human. But his voice was something else. He straightened beside the couch. “Stefan brought you to me. Caused quite the stir at the clinic, especially considering you were demon.”
    Jerry was a vet. He could make babies cry at ten paces and patch up poodles with his eyes closed. And he was a demon doctor in his spare time. “I was demon?”
    “We hosed you down with a fire extinguisher. Seemed to do the trick.”
    It was Stefan’s turn to chuckle. I glared. “I’m glad you both think this is funny.” Trying to sit up cracked my skull open again. Falling back, I lay still, closed my eyes, and fought the nausea.
    The floorboards creaked. Jerry moved away. Jerry’s apartment was the size of a shoebox. He could cross it in two strides in any direction. “I also patched up that day-old wound in your side,” he called from his kitchen. “What did you do, stick it together with glue?”
    I cracked an eye open and saw Stefan smile. “Yeah,” I replied. “Learned that from some cocky demon hunter.”
    “Great.” Jerry clearly wasn’t impressed. “No more self diagnosis. Next time, come to me for surgical tape.” His rich voice boomed in the tiny space, but where it should have been intimidating, it warmed me. “On the plus side, the gunshot wound in your shoulder is healing well.”
    Stefan shook his head. “How have you not died?”
    “I did.” I fired back and then regretted it as his lips pressed into a thin line, and his guilty gaze flicked away. I shrugged a shoulder, and then groaned as a wave of hot nausea crashed over me. “Ryder shot me a few weeks ago.”
    “Really?” Stefan’s light tone implied mild curiosity, but the slight growl spoiled the effect.
    “I don’t think he likes me right now.”
    “Don’t believe it. When Ryder had me holed up at the lake house, he wouldn’t shut up about you. I was sick of hearing Muse this, Muse that, especially as I had some…issues with you. He worked damn hard at trying to convince me you weren’t Akil’s pawn.”
    I listened to the peaks and troughs of Stefan’s voice. I heard light humor but something else too, something darker, hidden deep. “Well, we sorta had a falling out. He shot me, and I threw whiskey in his face.” I didn’t want to go into how Ryder had executed a nine-year-old half-blood girl in front of me.
    “Ryder will tell it to you straight, whether you wanna hear it or not.” Stefan chuckled a soft, gentle laugh. “I knocked him out once. No, twice.”
    “You did?” I turned my head again and blinked at Stefan. Even in my beaten-up state, it didn’t take much for my thoughts to wander and the memory of the kiss to tingle on my lips.
    “He’s stubborn.”
    “Takes one to know one.”
    “Yes…” He nodded, “Yeah, it does.” He held my gaze. “He’ll come around. Talk to him.”
    That ship had sailed. “Maybe.”
    “He cares about you, and he’s proud of you. Maybe leave out how you let a Scorsi demon take you down. It’s not like they’re stealthy. Or particularly bright.”
    “Hey, pal, there were car alarms going off, and you were all sparkly.” And I was still getting over the shot of desire he’d dumped into my veins.
    “You mentioned that.”
    “Well, it’s worth saying again. I can’t be held responsible for my actions around you.” Wasn’t that the truth? Back in that garage, he’d moved like the Prince of Hell he was: strikes lethal, aim true. He’d toyed with those demons. Even the hellhound. He was sexy as hell and too dangerous for me to even entertain the idea of getting involved with. He undid my control with a glance, a kiss. The intensity of that moment, the raging hot lust, the debilitating hunger to have him… I couldn’t get close again. Even now, sick as a dog, remnants of