Read Dylan's Witch: 10 (Supernatural Bonds) for Free Online Page A

the moon. Its light bathed her, caressed her, embraced her. And she didn’t want to cover her skin.
    She laughed. Joyous. Amused at the thought of being naked as she navigated the small boat through the swamp. But then, wasn’t such a thing appropriate? This was her rite, her event, and so much more satisfying than the ones Helene insisted she attend, a naked acolyte meant to tempt and tease lesser demons while her mistresses was a robed, hooded figure.
    Turning her face from the moon, she moved toward the deck’s edge, smiling as she neared the blood sprayed across the expensive wood like black ink. She wondered what that long ago school counselor would see in this pattern.
    With ease she dropped into the skiff next to Robert. At the feel of the tarp against the soles of her feet, and beneath that, the weight disks, she frowned, regretting the dramatic, victorious impulse that had led to her kicking Robert off the boat.
    The skiff was small and she’d just made her work harder. She should have retrieved the tarp and rolled Robert in it before dropping him.
    Next time, she’d remember.
    She started the engine. And though it was a quiet motor, the swamp in front of her went silent.
    The silence lasted for a second. Then the insects and frogs resumed their incessant noise.
    She shivered. It increased the risk she might be noticed but she refused to travel by moonlight alone. Grabbing the flashlight she’d stored beneath the seat, she turned it on and entered the swamp.
    To her left an alligator bellowed. In front of her, eyes caught and reflected with the sweep of the flashlight.
    A chill crawled over her skin at seeing a python swimming, sliding through the water. It was a primitive, horrifying creature evoking a visceral fear, like the demons her mistress summoned.
    Go! Go! Go! Instinct screamed, though not as loudly as it’d screamed for her to run that night she’d been with Senator Harper when he’d used Lucifer’s Blade.
    Never again would she risk herself in that way. It’d been one thing to seduce him while serving as his wife’s personal assistant, to play the naïve witch with an interest in black magic so she’d be able to inform Helene when James and Nicole got possession of the athame. But to be present when the inept handled the blade—
    A hard shudder gripped Camille, along with the memory of arriving for their little tryst, only to have the senator lead her into the ceremonial room. The whore he’d acquired had been drugged and lying on the altar, a pathetic creature already used up by drugs and selling her body to get them.
    A nearby splash had Camille’s heart rushing, fear of what lurked in the swamp pounded against her chest, adding to the relived terror that had followed James’ use of the athame.
    She’d peed herself when the first demon arrived. And fled when the second stepped into existence, so panicked she hadn’t used the opportunity to grab Lucifer’s Blade.
    Anger surged to the forefront at remembering the hot wash of urine down her thighs. I’ve rectified that mistake.
    She glanced down at Robert. Pleasure crept in, insidious warmth as she felt the phantom weight of the knife in her hand, the smooth slide of it across his neck.
    Now to be done with him once and for all. She wondered what other corpses Helene had ordered brought to this location. It was the place Helene had told her to dump the senator’s dead whore, after Camille had been summoned back to the house when Nicole returned home to discover her husband’s stupidity.
    Camille smiled. It had been a sight to see the oh so cold Nicole panicked, frantic to get the blood and gore cleaned up and the woman’s body disposed of quickly so she could call the police and play the shocked wife, all the while cursing her husband for his idiocy, his inconvenient and deserved death at having believed himself skillful enough to summon a demon lord on his own.
    Camille hated the swamp but she would obey her mistress. It was somehow