Read Goddess in the Middle for Free Online Page A

that blue bastard-bitch. How dare it taunt her?
    What she wouldn’t give for the ability to conjure a thunderbolt or two. She’d blast the demon’s ass back to Aitás.
    Barring that, she needed to use her brain. She’d walked these trails so many times, she knew them like the back of her hand.
    The tiny bridge at Trudy’s Garden. If she could get there and get over it before the demon, maybe she could outrun it back to the next bridge. Then, if she could make it up the small hill, she might be able to get to the emergency room entrance where she could alert the guard.
    Not that she could actually tell him what was after her. Chet, the nearly eighty-year-old man who stood at the door in a uniform and directed people, would think she’d lost her senses. But at least he could call the police.
    Or maybe she’d get lucky and there’d be a police car there. It wasn’t unlikely—
    She tripped and nearly fell, a short, startled cry falling from her lips before she could bite it back and right herself. Luckily, she didn’t go down but she lost precious ground. She swore she heard the sound of the demon’s feet pounding behind her.
    “Oh, dear. Are you okay, Amity? Hope you didn’t hurt yourself. Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon, and all this exertion will be at an end.”
    Her lungs burned, as did her thighs and calves. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep up this pace.
    Above the din of the creek, she heard the ringing of the chimes that hung from trees in the pretty little garden near the end of the park. She was so close, she thought she could smell freshly turned earth. Just a few more feet before she reached the bridge—
    The demon brushed a hand down her back, causing Amity to scream.
    Sweet Mother Goddess, this was it. The demon would take her back to Aitás for Charun to consume her soul.
    She did trip then. Her feet tangled together and she hit the ground hard. The air rushed from her lungs and starbursts flashed before her eyes as her head bounced off the paved surface of the trail.
    Pain flared seconds later, beginning in her temples and radiating throughout her entire body. Still, she tried to scramble to her feet but only got to her knees when she felt a hand grab her shoulder.
    “Steady there.”
    The masculine voice made her head snap up. She realized someone stood in front of her. A tall, masculine shadow whose face she couldn’t make out in the darkness of the park but whose voice sounded so familiar.
    “Are you ok—”
    Amity pushed away the hand he’d extended toward her, terror making her shake. “You’ve got to run. Go now or you’ll be killed.”
    His hand didn’t move. “No, I don’t think I will.”
    The certainty in his tone made Amity blink up at him in astonishment as she realized the man standing above her was Rom.
    She opened her mouth to yell at him but felt a chill seep into her body that had nothing to do with the air temperature. Her time was up. The negative energy of the demon began to suck at her positive force, the energy that allowed her to heal those who needed it. If she lost too much of it, she would be no good to anybody.
    “Well now, it looks like you’ve found a hero,” the demon taunted. “How nice for you. He’ll make a tasty snack for later, won’t you, lucani? ”
    Lucani . She blinked up at Rom, standing so tall above her. He was an Etruscan wolf shifter? Why hadn’t she realized that last night? Was Remy too?
    How had she missed it?
    Reaching down, Rom wrapped a strong hand around her arm and pulled her to her feet then drew her behind him.
    “You’ll have to break me first, demon.” Rom’s deep voice was filled with palpable menace. “And, trust me, you won’t get the chance.”
    Peeking out from around his shoulder, Amity watched the demon emerge from the shadows, close enough now for her to see the whites of its eyes. Its body was nothing more than another dark shadow sliding through the night.
    She shivered, the demon’s menace