Read Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two) for Free Online

around draining kids, they’re selling the blood for a nice profit.”
    “So whoever the killer is, he’s likely just your run of the mill psychotic demon.”
    “Right,” Obi said. “I’ve got no leads, man. Not a single fiber to give me even the smallest clue about the perp.”
    I looked down at Kelsie again. She was too young for this. “I’m on the job,” I said.
    “You should have been on the job two weeks ago,” Obi muttered.
    I didn’t respond to the dig. “I’ll have to go and tell her mother,” I said. “I’ll have her meet you at the morgue. We should work together on this one.”
    Obi thought about it for a minute. “Alright, man,” he agreed. “You carrying a cell these days?”
    I had tried not to, but it did have its uses, even for the Divine. I took it out of my coat pocket. Obi snatched it and began keying in his contact info. I was watching his fingers slide across the keys when I caught my first scent of the demons headed towards us.
    “We’ve got incoming,” I said to Obi.
    He handed me back the phone, and then reached down and drew the gun from his belt. He was probably the only guy on the force who carried a Desert Eagle.
    “I’ve got silver,” he replied.
    I turned and looked down the tunnel towards the smell - nightstalkers, a lot of them. “Eighteen,” I said. “Nightstalkers.”
    Obi groaned. “Eighteen?” he asked. “I’ve never heard of such a large group.”
    I hadn’t either, and I didn’t like it. Nightstalkers hunted in groups, but they also kept their packs small so they could survive without attracting too much attention. Four to six was average. Eight to ten was a larger family. Eighteen was unheard of.
    They sounded like a subway train, headed towards us at a full run. I could see them through the darkness as they entered our tunnel, a mass of pale flesh in ragged, stolen clothes flowing like a corroded river. A booming echo followed, and the lead demon fell forward to be stomped by the group behind it. Three more shots, and three more demons collapsed.
    I took a deep breath and reached for Ulnyx’s power, weaving it into my own and feeling myself go through the change. I growled deeply and dashed forward, my powerful limbs carrying me to the nightstalkers in ten strides. I ripped into them with razor claws, scattering the group at the same time I decapitated the unlucky one who didn’t move away in time. They regrouped quickly, the whole mass of demons leaping on top of me, pulling me down. I could feel their teeth biting into my flesh, and their hands ripping at me. I heard more gunfire and felt a few of the nightstalkers fall away, but the silver wouldn’t hold them long.
    “Stay back,” I shouted to Obi, my voice like gravel in the Great Were’s natural form. My body was being ravaged, but I was so accustomed to the defilement that I hardly felt it. I let the weight of the nightstalkers ground me while I changed back to my human form. I always focused more effectively without the demon’s power muddying the waters.
    I took a deep, calm breath and focused, pressing my hand down on the cold stone floor of the tunnel. It began to vibrate, gently at first, but it became a violent earthquake in no time, shaking the ground below the demons and I. The ride didn’t have much effect on their attack, but that wasn’t why I had created the shockwaves.
    Instead, I focused on the kinetic energy they were producing, pulling it into me, holding it around myself like an invisible singularity. I pulled it tighter and tighter, and as I felt the first hand grab my vulnerable neck, I released it. The energy crashed into the nightstalkers, throwing them away from me, slamming them into the sides of the tunnel or in both directions down the tube.
    I rose to my feet as my body knitted itself back together and then ran towards three that had been thrown down the tunnel. They were stunned, and it made it easy to wrap my arms around their necks and rip off their