A Friend to the Darkness. Katherine Rathbone

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ older brother. His eyes, horns and talons were a deep cobalt blue, and his shoulder length, lustrous black hair swept back, held out of his eyes by his horns.

      “Want a drink, Katie?” Sera was smirking at me. I realised my hand was still grasping Seth’s. I snatched it back and coughed.

      “Yes, please.” I took the cup from her, avoiding Seth’s eyes. I drank it all down in one go, and held it out for a refill.

      “Oh great.” Seth sounded bored. “A messy teenaged drunk girl. This will be fun.” He rolled his eyes at Sebastian.

      “Listen, buddy.” I stepped close to Seth and jabbed a finger in his chest. “I’m Australian. Drinking is our national sport. I could drink your demon arse straight back to Hell, bitch.”

      He glared at me, and the night went silent. The flames in the fire died down, and he loomed over me. I refused to take a step back, and kept glaring him in the eye, craning my neck further back the taller he got.

      I put my hands on my hips, looked him up and down, and said in a mocking tone, “Compensating for something there, buddy?”

      Sera gasped, and Sebastian burst into laughter. Seth looked taken aback, then resumed his normal size and laughed too. He looked over my shoulder at Sebastian and said, “Maybe you’re right. She might be remarkable.” He smirked at me, said, “Wouldn’t you love to find out?” and leaned forward as if he was going to kiss me. I stepped back first. Dammit. He grinned and swaggered over to his spot by the fire.

      Sebastian clapped his hand on my shoulder. “That round goes to Seth, I believe.” His eyes twinkled.

      “Mmh.” I grumbled, and sat by the fire, away from Seth. I took a sip from my refilled drink. “So are all demons brothers and sisters? Lucifer’s children?” I asked curiously. My companions exchanged guarded glances. Sera answered.

      “Um, no.” She swallowed. “Lucifer doesn’t have children. Our father is... a different demon. We’re not all related, but we do call each other brother and sister, which gets confusing, I guess. These guys are actually my brothers, same parents. And we have another sister too, Sebine.”

      Seth hissed, and Sebastian glared at her. “We, uh, we don’t get on with her.” She added quickly, avoiding her brother’s gaze.

      “Family can be tough.” I offered. They nodded, and gazed into the fire, lost in thought. I sat quietly, sipping my drink. Eventually, Sera offered me a smoke, and asked,

      “So, tell us about your life.”

      I coughed, and looked around. “My life? It’s boring as… Well, it’s boring!”

      “Aha, you were going to say boring as Hell!” Sebastian exclaimed. “Which happens to be our life. Therefore, yours must be more interesting!”

      I rolled my eyes at him, and began to talk. They all seemed surprisingly interested in my day to day life, asking me probing questions, telling me to clarify things they didn’t understand, and even offering me advice. It wasn’t very good advice, granted- it involved a lot of disembowelling people, but at least they offered. We laughed, and talked, and drank, and smoked.

      I was pleasantly buzzed, when I noticed Seth and Sebastian exchanging glances. Suspiciously, I asked, “Can you read minds?”

      “Hmm? What?” Sebastian asked.

      “Can you read minds?” I repeated, glaring at them. “Have you been reading my mind?!”

      “What? No, we can’t read minds!” Sebastian exclaimed.

      “Then how did Sera call you, that night we met?” I challenged him.

      “That’s different.” Sera replied for him. “We can hear prayers addressed to us and Lucifer. It’s really hard topside, so we can’t like, have a conversation by praying to each other.”

      “What are you two doing then?”

      Seth smiled lazily. “We’re brothers. We don’t always need to speak to communicate.”

      I glared at him and sniffed. Seth grinned. “Do you want to know what we were talking about?”

      I tossed my head. The answer was a resounding yes, but I didn’t want him to know that. “Whatever.” My tone was nonchalant. Finally I was getting the hang of chatting with these guys.

      Sebastian barked a quick laugh. “Seth here was asking if he should ask you something. I was strongly suggesting he didn’t.”

      I raised my eyebrow at Seth. He smirked back at me.

      “Well?” I snapped. “What do you want to ask me?”

      He straightened, and smiled at me. It was almost predatory. He captured my eyes with his cobalt ones, and I felt my pulse quicken. “Sebastian doesn’t think I should ask.” God, his voice was so sexy. I raised an eyebrow at him. He snorted, looked away from me for a second, then back into my eyes. “Wanna fuck?”

      I blinked. “Wanna die?” I snapped back at him.

      He smiled widely. “You wouldn’t even know how to kill me, Human.”

      I smiled back coldly. “I’m pretty sure those knives that Sera is carrying would do the trick.”

      He chuckled, and held his hand out to her. With obvious misgivings, she pulled a knife from behind her back. He took it, and walked over to me, holding it out. “This knife?” He smirked.

      I took it from his hand and admired it. It was beautiful. There were two curved blades made from a smoky grey material on either side of a leather bound handle. I balanced it on my finger, watching the way it held steady, right in the centre.

      “So, wanna fuck?” Seth asked again.

      I got to my feet and grasped the knife, looking him in the eye. “No.” My voice didn’t even shake a little bit.

      “Aw, why not? Don’t you think I’m pretty?”

      “I guess you’re kinda pretty. For a really old dude.” I conceded.

      Sebastian and Sera roared with laughter, and Seth spluttered.

      “Katie wins that round!” Sebastian was still laughing. Seth sniffed.

      “In demon terms, I’m roughly the age as you.” He pouted.

      I smiled and held out my hand. “Friends?”

      He regarded it for a moment, then shook it firmly. “Friends.” He agreed, with a grin. His face became serious, and he kept a hold of my hand. “Just so you know, we punish the wicked, not… not good people. I wouldn’t have… you know… hurt you.” He mumbled. I gave his hand a quick squeeze.

      “I didn’t think you would.” I reassured him.

      “Sure.” He scoffed, taking his hand back. “You thought I was going to eat your soul.”

      “Can you do that?!”

      He СКАЧАТЬ