Read Online Sixth Grave on the Edge by Darynda Jones - Free Book Online Page A

It’s like on-the-job training.”
    “That’s exactly how I feel. So, like what? What can I do that I don’t know about?”
    “I just told you. Pretty much anything.”
    “That’s so helpful. Thanks,” I said, giving up. Again. “What do you see?”
    He looked at him, studied him a long while, then said, “Power.”
    My eyes rounded. “Power? What do you mean? What kind of power?”
    “That’s it. Just power. You’d have to see it to understand. Me da mala espina .”
    Well, that was a huge help. “Something ominous is coming, huh? When isn’t it? I want you to try to draw the tattoos on his back onto this paper when you can.” I pointed to my sketchpad.
    “Okay. Most likely the pencil will slip through my fingers, but I can try right now if you want.”
    “Nope—right now, you have another job.”
    “Okay. I get paid time and a half for overtime, right?”
    “No. I need you to go check out a demon posing as a man.”
    “I don’t like demons.”
    “I don’t either.”
    “That’s funny, since you’re sleeping with one.”
    “Reyes is not a demon.”
    “Keep telling yourself that, mijita . He is the most notorious demon of them all.”
    “Are you going to go check this guy out or what?”
    “Sure, but when the prince of hell turns on you and decides to engulf the world in a blazing inferno, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
    “Deal,” I said, plastering a smile on my face.

 
    5
    I’m only here to establish an alibi.
    —T-SHIRT
     
    I told Angel where he could find the Dealer, with instructions to just get a feel for him. For his power. “But don’t get too close, else he’ll sup on your soul,” I’d added, after which he’d rolled his eyes. He could be such a drama queen.
    I looked back at Mr. Wong and studied him. Power. I just didn’t see it. Duff!
    I bolted up again. When Duff, a departed man who’d followed me home from a bar one night—long story—first saw Mr. Wong, he seemed … surprised. Like he knew him. Or recognized him.
    Mission for the moment: Find Duff.
    I went to the last apartment he’d lived in. He moved around a lot, but the last time we’d talked, he told me he was back in with Mrs. Allen down the hall. She had a vicious poodle named PP. To PP’s credit, however, he did try to fight off a pack of demons for me. I had a soft spot for him now. Super soft. Like Twinkie guts, only not so marshmallowy delicious.
    I knocked on Mrs. Allen’s door, waited a bit, then knocked again. PP was yapping up a storm from behind it, but it took Mrs. Allen a bit to travel that distance, even though her apartment was smaller than mine.
    She cracked open the door, the chain still on, until she saw me and took the chain down to let me in.
    “Hey, Charley,” she said, and I realized immediately she didn’t have her teeth in.
    “Hey, Mrs. Allen.” One thing I didn’t think to come up with was an excuse for being there. “Um, I was just wondering how your … heating system was working. Mine is on the fritz.”
    “My heating system.” She practically shoved me inside. “It’s awful. Never works right, and poor PP feels the cold. Breaks my heart.”
    She hobbled to her thermostat. “See, it’s on seventy-five, and I know it’s not a degree over seventy-three in here.”
    “Okay,” I said, searching for Duff. According to the talk on the streets, I could summon any departed, as I had with Angel, but I didn’t know Duff that well. I didn’t want to just drag him away from whatever it was he was doing. Come to think of it, what did the departed do all day?
    “Duff?” I whispered, sidestepping a snarling PP and hurrying over to a bedroom door to peek inside. Nada.
    “And this stove still hasn’t been fixed. I told that lazy, good-for-nothing landlord about my stove weeks ago.”
    I turned back to her. “Your stove isn’t working?” I tried to walk over, but again had to sidestep PP. I glared down at him and the one fang he had left that protruded out of his