Green-Eyed Demon (Sabina Kane #3)
Page 32
Considering some of the maneuvers he’d pulled off during Demon Fight Club, I found his judgment hypocritical. I ignored him and bent over with my hands on my knees. I wasn’t really winded. But the adrenaline was already evaporating, and, in its wake, lethargy pulled at my shoulders. Shutting out the jeers and glares surrounding me, I went back to my mental calculations.
If March is a week away, that means it’s been 113 days.
I glanced up to see the ref point at me and jerk a thumb. Apparently, my hit earned me time in the penalty box—the big-girl version of a time-out. Heaving a sigh, I stood and put my hands on my hips. I should have been pissed. Put on a show for the audience. But I was too bored to care.
“Nice going, Betty Bloodshed!” This from one of my own teammates, a werewolf named Merry Machete. I cringed at my ridiculous moniker. When Giguhl told me about the roller-derby team he was putting together, I thought it’d be a fun way to work off some aggression. Instead, I was forced to adopt a ridiculous handle and wear fishnets that rode up my ass. And now they expected me to follow stupid rules about not disfiguring opponents? Where’s the fun in that?
I looked past Merry to the crowd surrounding the ring. The makeshift amphitheater had been built in the basement of Slade’s club, Vein. The room used to be used for Demon Fight Club, but after an unfortunate incident involving a Lust demon and a mage with ADHD, Slade had been forced to close down the fight club. That’s when he and Giguhl came up with the idea for Hell on Wheels Roller Derby Night. The mostly male crowd for the fights adapted easily to the change. In fact, if anything, they seemed to enjoy the spectacle of violent, scantily clad women on wheels even more. Go figure.
Speaking of the audience, they seemed to have recovered from their disgust over my actions and were now demanding more thrown elbows, more tripping, more fighting. I was overcome with disgust. These mages, vampires, and faeries were nothing more than armchair warriors. They wanted controlled violence they could experience vicariously. But put them in a dark alley with a Vengeance demon and they’d all crap their pants.
Giguhl stood watching me with his arms crossed. Guess I wasn’t moving as fast to the penalty box as he’d like. I raised an eyebrow and tried to tamp down the black fog gathering behind my eyes. This wasn’t Giguhl’s fault.
I took off my helmet and shook out my hair. Sweat drenched the red-and-black strands, plastering them to my face and neck. The electronic scoreboard caught my eye. In addition to the score—24 to 16, advantage Devils—it also flashed the time. One a.m.
Wait, that makes it 114 days, doesn’t it?
I looked away from the clock and my gaze landed on a familiar, handsome face in the crowd. Adam sat three rows up. Seeing me look at him, he raised his chin slightly.
For a moment, the easy intimacy of the simple gesture warmed me. One of my favorite things about being part of a couple was that we barely needed to speak anymore to have an entire conversation. One raised eyebrow, a nod, a simple touch could convey more than an hour’s worth of conversation.
Of course, it was also one of the worst things about being in a couple. The same mundane magic that allowed us to communicate so effortlessly also gave Adam the power to read me at will. I couldn’t hide anything from him anymore. No more privacy, even in my thoughts.
Of course, I could read him, too. And judging from the frown on his face, I knew that before the night was over we’d argue about what I’d just done.
That’s got to be a record—114 days. Time flies when you’re not having fun.
I looked away from the weight of his stare. Suddenly the idea of sitting on a bench like a punished child was too much. I needed air. I needed solitude. I needed blood.
“I’m out of here.” I wasn’t sure if those words were for Giguhl’s benefit or my own.
The Mischief demon shot me a look. “Why do I get the impression this isn’t just about the penalty?”
“This is lame, G. I’m not cut out for roller derby.” And by “roller derby,” I really meant roller derby and everything else my life had become. Predictable, settled. Safe.
“Well, excuse me, Miss Thang. I thought you’d enjoy a new hobby. You’re the one always bitching about being bored.”
“Skating in a circle wearing fishnets and a helmet isn’t exactly my idea of a good time, G.”
The demon’s eyes narrowed. “You and Adam been having problems?”
My stomach dropped. I crossed my arms and glared at my best friend. “No.” It wasn’t a lie, exactly, since the problem in that equation was me, not the mancy.
The demon pursed his lips. “Is it already that time of the season, then?”
Unlike mortal women, most vampire females ovulate only once a quarter, usually corresponding to the solstice and equinox schedule. As it happened, we were still a few weeks out from the vernal equinox. “Jesus, can’t a girl want to inflict a little pain without being sexually frustrated or on the rag?”
We both paused to watch the healers carry Ima Cutchoo off the rink on a stretcher. She was alive but probably had a pretty intense round of healing spells in her near future to repair the broken spine. As they carried her off, her eyes found me. It’d been so long since I made a new enemy, I almost enjoyed seeing the hatred burning in her eyes.
Once she was gone, Giguhl turned back to me. “Then what’s your deal, Red?”
It’s been 114 days since I killed anyone. And I don’t know who I am anymore.
Table of Contents
Front Cover Image
Welcome
Dedication
Epigraph
Extras
Meet the Author
A Preview of Silver-Tongued Devil
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Acknowledgments
By Jaye Wells
Copyright
BY JAYE WELLS
SABINA KANE NOVELS
Red-Headed Stepchild
The Mage in Black
Green-Eyed Demon
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Jaye Wells
Excerpt from Silver-Tongued Devil copyright © 2011 by Jaye Wells
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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First eBook Edition: March 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-12197-2
n-Eyed Demon (Sabina Kane #3)