Read Online Etched in Bone by Adrian Phoenix - Free Book Online Page A

migraine intensified, spiking a red-hot poker of pain through his left eye. He shoved the pain ruthlessly below. Blood trickled hot from his nose as white light jittered like Times Square neon across his vision. Sniffing back blood, he wiped at his nose with the back of his hand.
    Ain’t got time for this. Focus, dammit.
    “Dante.”
    Dante looked across the Morningstar to meet Heather’s questioning gaze. Night shadowed the curve of her jaw, pooled in her eyes.
    “Your nose is bleeding. That’s a migraine I’m feeling, isn’t it?” she asked.
    “Just beginning.” Dante wiped his nose against his mesh sleeve.
    Her brows slashed down in a frown. “Christ, Baptiste. That’s just the start ?”
    “Yeah, but it’s nothing I wanna share, so you need to tighten your shields.” Dante tapped a finger against his temple. “You know how to do that?”
    Heather nodded. “Visualization and focus, right? Von told me to picture something that I believe secure and impenetrable, like steel walls.”
    “Yeah, c’est bon, chère . Just imagine the walls thicker, reinforced. I’ll tighten mine too and that should stop any more pain bleedthrough.”
    “If I fed you energy, maybe it would—”
    “Heather, no. Merci, but not here. Not now. And you ain’t got none to spare.”
    “Neither do you.” Heather sighed. Weariness and something else Dante couldn’t name—regret or sorrow or maybe a grim and quiet determination—sculpted her face, carved hollows beneath her cheeks. “I’ve got morphine with me,” she said. “If it comes to that.”
    “I can’t afford to go on the nod, catin, no matter how bad it gets.”
    “I know,” Heather agreed quietly. “But if you have a seizure, I’ll have no choice.”
    “I could ease your pain,” the Morningstar said, glancing at Dante sidelong.
    Remembering how Lucien used to ice the pain in his head with quicksilver curls of energy, Dante said, “You could, yeah. If I trusted you. Which I don’t.”
    “You mean you don’t trust me yet .”
    “I mean, maybe I trust you never .”
    A smile quirked up one corner of the Morningstar’s mouth. “I love a challenge.”
    Dante snorted. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”
    Wybrcathl floated into the air, a buoyant song, a nighthawk gliding on thermals.
    Our creawdwr comes!
    Dante focused his attention on the Royal Aerie’s torch-lit main landing terrace. His muscles knotted a twist tighter when he saw the crowd of Fallen waiting on the other side of the terrace’s white marble balustrade.
    “It looks like we have a welcoming committee,” Heather murmured. “How do we want to play it, Baptiste?”
    “As soon as our feet hit the ground, we grab Lucien and haul ass for the gate.”
    “And if they won’t let us?” Heather asked.
    “Then we fight, catin .”
    “There’s no need for that,” the Morningstar said. “They only wish to greet you, to look upon you. The ones who would try to stop you aren’t here. At least, I don’t see any of the Celestial Seven. Perhaps they’ve heard how you knocked Gabriel to the floor and feasted on his blood, and are exercising a bit of caution. We can hope, in any case.”
    “The Celestial Seven?” Dante questioned. “Even though that sounds like the name of the cheesiest Christian rock band ever—”
    “Or a gospel choir group composed of seven plump divas,” Heather suggested with a quick smile.
    A smile tilted Dante’s lips. “Nice,” he approved. “But I’m betting it’s neither.”
    “You’re right. They are the Dominions,” the Morningstar replied. “Princes of the Elohim and the leading members of Gehenna’s senate.”
    “Politicians, yeah? So why the concern?”
    “They’re much more than that, but never underestimate a politician, boy. It never ends well—for anyone.” Having closed the distance between them and Lucien and Hekate, the Morningstar leveled his wings and glided in the slipstream created by the pair. “The Seven are charismatic,