Read Online Night Call (Book 2): Demon Dei by L.J. Hayward - Free Book Online Page A

actually mean she did.
    She flicked past it, found an old episode of MASH and wondered why she couldn’t be a feisty, slightly insane medic in some war a long way away from Nick Carson and his wants and desires.
    Nick clattered around in the kitchen for a while longer, swearing and cursing in a nasal twang. Good. Then he came out and sat warily on a chair as far away from her as possible and still be in the same room.
    “Can you turn that off?”
    “No. Hawkeye’s about rip into Frank for being a conceited, uptight, unmitigated twit. I need to learn how to do that with class.”
    “I never knew you were this bitter,” he said softly.
    She tried to ignore him. Hawkeye unleashed a beautiful string of insults on the flustered Frank and she missed every word of it. Nick sounded reasonable, like he might actually want to talk civilly. Not that she really wanted to, but if she could make him understand, then maybe he would let her go.
    “You never let me be bitter,” she answered.
    He sighed, then winced and touched his nose gingerly. “Amaya, I don’t understand this thing you’ve got going now. Why do you think I have this unparalleled control over you?”
    “Because you do. Or at least, you did. Now, you don’t so much control me as just have me trapped. My mind is free now, but my body isn’t. Otherwise, I’d be long gone.”
    “I don’t understand what you’re saying. Spell it out for me.”
    It was a command and last week, she would have patiently and methodically spelt out every word of the explanation for him. At least, as much as she could. He’d bound her about explanations as well.
    “Do you remember when we first met?” she asked instead.
    “Yeah. You visited my shark museum.”
    “And what did you say when you first saw me?”
    He tried for humour and got as far as sick trepidation. “ Hubba hubba?”
    She glared at him.
    “Okay, I don’t remember the exact words. ‘Hello’ maybe?”
    “Not your first words to me, but the ones you said when you saw me. You were with Saul at the time.”
    “Saul? Um, well, it was probably rude then.”
    “Damn it. You said ‘I want that girl’.”
    “Those exact words?” Nick looked sceptical.
    “Those exact words,” she said between gritted teeth. “And guess what, you got me.”
    He sat back, jaw dropped. “You’re saying I made you come over and start talking to me?”
    “You made me come over, and you made me talk to you, and you made me go home with you. Have I gone anywhere you didn’t want me to go since?”
    Spluttering, it took him a while to get his brain and mouth working together. “Yes! The other day, on the ship. You went into the water when I didn’t want you to.”
    “But I was here when you got back, which you wanted.”
    He shot out of the chair, began pacing and flashing her scared looks again. “Yeah, I wanted it because I didn’t want to lose you. I will admit that I wished you would be here when I got home. But I never really expected it.” His voice rose. “Because you drowned off the Neptune Islands. Your body, lost at sea. You weren’t actually supposed to be here.”
    “Keep your voice down,” she hissed. “Do you want the neighbours to think you’re crazy and talking to your dead girlfriend?”
    “Aren’t I?”
    He had a point, and it wasn’t about the dead part.
    “Look, can you just tell me what happened on the ship?”
    They’d been down this road before, but he’d asked, so she had to answer. “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “I… I just can’t.”
    “You don’t remember?”
    “I remember.”
    “Then tell me!”
    “I can’t.”
    Nick’s hands curled as if they would fit around her neck, but he forcefully put them back by his sides. “Why can’t you?”
    “Because someone with more power over me than you told me I couldn’t.”
    He let loose a wild, inarticulate shout and stalked from the room. Amaya let him go and watched the end of MASH. It all ended happy and she was still hungry, so she