Read Demon's Embrace for Free Online

smile. She was a woman to be reckoned with, truly. As was the one beside him, he was beginning to believe.
    Miri knew Gordon Templeton, or rather she knew of him. Everyone did. More by reputation than anything else.
    Wealthy financier, flagrant self-promoter, dedicated to the occult according to the more select circles especially the darker aspects of magic or so she’d heard. Some found him charismatic. Miri had found him disturbing. It wasn’t difficult to picture him doing almost anything. Something in his name resonated within her, in echoes of her visions.
    “Gordon Templeton,” she said.
    Ash nodded.
    “What does that have to do with me?” she asked.
    “Templeton used an ancient grimoire called the Book of Demons to Summon Asmodeus to this plane of existence,” Ash said, his hand on her elbow to hurry her, “and trap him in a magic circle.”
    “To keep the Book from Templeton’s men, Gabriel – the FBI agent I spoke of – threw the Book between the rings of the circle, consigning it to one of the planes of existence. Your temporal planes. At the time it was the only alternative but the Book is too dangerous to leave where Templeton could perhaps find it again. It appears he’s now actively searching for another way to locate it. So both he and we have come to you. The question is, does he know you can see the other planes? If he does it makes you even more of a target.”
    Suddenly Ash had a sense of movement around them in the darkness, of men closing in.
    If they could reach his motorcycle first…
    Somehow, Ash doubted those around them would allow that.
    He didn’t mention that the Book had once been used to Summon him as well. And what he’d suffered for it. It was neither the time nor the place to talk about the past. If ever.
    Miri looked at him, sighed worriedly. “I don’t know. It’s not something I tend to talk about much. A good search of the internet, though…?”
    Nothing was truly private there. Many of her contacts with the metaphysical community took place there.
    The bright orange sodium vapor streetlights illuminated the parking lot, his motorcycle and her car. Both vehicles were alone, the light harsh on them, erasing the image painted on the side of his bike.
    Neither had parked close, not anticipating the need for an emergency exit. His motorcycle was closer but not close enough.
    “Stay close to me, Miri,” he cautioned.
    “Don’t worry about me, Ash,” Miri said as they started across the parking lot.
    A part of her still didn’t believe she was in danger.
    Not until the men in their black armor stepped out of the shadows.
    Then she believed.
    With one arm, Ash swept her behind his back to put himself between her and the intruders.
    More closed in all around them.
    There was no safe place.
    There was no safe place to run.
    “Let’s do this easy,” one of the men, clearly the leader, said. “Dr. Reynolds, if you don’t want anyone hurt, including yourself, just come with us quietly.”
    “Ash,” she said, softly.
    “They won’t take you,” he said, evenly, certainly.
    Only over his dead body. It was there in his voice, Miri could hear it.
    Looking at the grim faces of the men, her breath caught. Fear shot through her. Not for herself but for Ash.
    Foresight didn’t help.
    The time was here, now, the decisions made in these next few minutes, hours, days and weeks would change the course of history both human and Daemonae but there were too many variables for her to See her way clearly.
    Only one thing was clear to her.
    “Ash,” she said, her breath shuddering in her breast. “Go. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
     “No,” he said.
    She understood. He was a warrior, he could do and be nothing else. It was no more than she expected but she’d had to try.
    Looking from one hard face to another Miri knew this was as real as it got.
    Most of them carried automatic weapons, Ash noted. By the way they moved they were professional soldiers, mercenaries,