Read Payable On Death: A Jax Rhodes Novel, Book One (The Jax Rhodes Series 1) for Free Online

them, there was no mistaking their yellow, goat-slitted eyes.
    Unlike the hellspawn wearing people suits, I didn't have unnatural strength. I hadn't healed from the night before. Scaring off two street thugs was one thing, taking on three demons beaten and battered was a whole other level of stupidity. Rather than take them on physically, I held my ground and began to recite the prayer I'd used to banish other lesser demons.
    And that's when I realized they weren't lesser demons at all. And there were four of them.
    The homeless man wasn't a man at all—well, not anymore.
    Outnumbered and over my head didn't begin to cover my situation. I'd walked right into a trap.
    For whatever reason, my marker had been called in.
    Perhaps I'd made an impression that night on the overpass and the Devil decided he wanted the mortal flesh I'd offered in trade after all. He should have taken the deal before. There was nothing virginal about my body anymore.
    Left with two choices, tuck tail and run or try to banish not one but four demons, I made the obvious choice.
    "In the name of the Heavenly Father, I command you to leave these people. The power of Christ compels you. I expel you from the bodies of God's children and send you back to the fiery pits from whence you came."
    The demons laughed, a dark and evil chorus of cackling. My ears started to bleed, the tiniest of trickles. I needed a real priest. Some of this I'd seen on Sunday church television, the rest I'm pretty sure was from watching the Exorcism movies.
    "You don't actually believe you can send us back, do you? You have no power here. Or anywhere. God doesn't see you anymore. You gave up the one thing that marked you for Heaven. Forsaken. Though not by all.” The demons spoke in unison, the Greek chorus literally from Hell. “There is one who waits for you, wants you. He chose you and you chose him, just as he knew you would.".
    "Bullshit." I repeated the prayers, a hodgepodge of made up lines and actual Bible verses, doing my best to condemn the demons back to Hell.
    It didn't work.
    "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Oh wait, you can't because you don't have one.” They laughed as one, the high-pitched sound bouncing off the walls. “It belongs to our master."
    It was time for a new tactic - running.
    Their physical forms stayed in the alley. Their taunts on the other hand, followed me home. "If I die before I wake, my soul the Devil will surely take."
    I sprinted back to my apartment, my cracked rib protesting the entire way. After that encounter, a normal person would probably run into the nearest church. Except I wasn't normal and the church no longer welcomed me. I'd tried, more than once, and each time, I'd found it physically impossible to walk up the steps. My feet felt like they were glued to the sidewalk surrounding the holy grounds. There was no moving forward, closer to the house of God. Only when I tried to back away was my mobility returned.
    Forsaken.
    So I ran to the only sanctuary I had. Home. It wouldn't stop the demons from following me or attacking me once inside. At least I'd be alone when they came for me. Away from prying eyes and the possibility of being institutionalized.

SEVEN
     
     
     
     
    The rest of the day consisted of an unhealthy combination of alcohol and coffee. One to drown out the noise so I could sleep and the other to keep me awake when the demons' words haunted my dreams.
    They started the same, tangled in the sheets with Dane. I explored every chiseled inch of him while his magic hands roamed my body, leaving fire in their wake. I needed him like I needed air. For once, the desire, the desperation, matched my own. His mouth crashed into mine, kissing me until my lips were swollen. His fingers skimmed down my torso, tracing the curve of my hip. His grip tightened, pulling me closer, the swell of his arousal pressed against me. I arched up, my hardened nipples brushed his chest.
    I reached down between us,