Death Wish . Amy Blankenship

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СКАЧАТЬ and turned the heat up a little more. For her, relaxing was a luxury she’d been unable to partake of since running away from Vincent and the horde of demons that were after her.

      Vincent… even the name called up feelings of guilt and she frowned sadly. She’d met him a couple days after she’d gotten a layout of the huge museum Grandpa had sent her to. It just so happened that they had both been sent by different people to steal the same artifact.

      Her lips twitched at the funny memory… the look on Vincent’s handsome face when he’d caught her breaking into the same secret room he was there to break into. If they had tried to fight over which one of them had gotten there first and who deserved the spoils, they would have alerted the heavily armed guards that were just down the hall and been busted, or worse… shot.

      Glaring at each other, it took them about thirty seconds to come to a mutual decision to work together in order to gain the piece. Though thinking back on it now, she realized that Vincent would have been fine either way… he had only agreed to the tag team because he’d wanted too.

      Once they’d made it safely away from the museum, they had suddenly been surrounded by five black eyed shadow demons that had taken up host inside some of the local law enforcement by possessing them.

      Standing there in the flashing lights of the cop cars with hands raised and five sets of guns pointed directly at them, she’d thought for sure that they weren’t going to make it out of there alive. That was until Vincent had handed one of them the stolen artifact and been handed a huge briefcase of money in return.

      Afterward, Vincent had offered to split the money with her and asked her to go into business with him. Without thinking of the consequences, she’d agreed to the partnership deciding that she could get even more things for her grandfather by using Vincent’s ties to these new aggressive collectors.

      She had been excited about finally having a partner and she’d seen that he could be just as sneaky as she was. It also didn’t hurt that he was sexy as hell and had a British accent that made it sound like he was flirting with every sentence.

      Lacey shook her head at her naïve thinking as she lathered her hair up with shampoo. She’d agreed to the arrangement out of greed and because he was damn sexy… her only two weaknesses.

      After a night and most of the next day of hot as hell, no strings attached sex, Vincent had told her a little bit about the underground ring he belonged to. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out that being partners with him meant she was also partners with an entire network of powerful demons.

      Thanks to grandpa, she hadn’t been completely clueless about demons but that didn’t mean she’d ever danced with one. Though the knowledge of what she was getting herself into had made her nervous, she’d ignored the sixth sense and had been looking forward to the thrill Vincent was offering her.

      That evening, he’d taken her to meet the master demon of the underground ring… an old man that looked every bit a hundred and ten years old and went by the name of Masters, which she’d thought funny at the time.

      When the old demon had coldly rejected her invite into the underground thievery ring and tried to kill her on the spot, she’d lost all sense of humor. If it hadn’t been for Vincent stepping in front of her and taking the bullet meant for her head, she’d be dead right now. She’d thought Vincent was dead when he’d jerked and groaned as the bullet entered him, sending a spray of blood across her face.

      That was the first time she’d been clued in that Vincent couldn’t be killed… no matter what was done to him. He’d dug the bullet out of his shoulder as he’d argued with the black eyed demon on her behalf, saying he’d wanted a partner for years and he’d chosen her.

      Seeing how Vincent was his favorite thief, Masters had reluctantly agreed, but only if he could brand her as one of his underlings, giving him rights to kill her if she ever got out of line or tried to leave the group.

      Vincent had calmly looked over his bleeding shoulder at her and said, “It’s either that, or he will never let you leave this room alive. Do you agree to the deal?”

      She had been taught by her grandfather not to ever make a deal with a demon but she wasn’t stupid enough to disagree with the one in front of her. As she’d looked into his cold black eyes she’d known he would indeed kill her and forget her with the same breath.

      Once they’d left Masters’ huge estate, she’d turned on Vincent and glared, thinking that he was also a demon… or at least a half breed of some kind and hadn’t warned her. She quickly informed the good looking jerk that she was thankful that he’d saved her life in there, but she had a rule about not sleeping with demons.

      Vincent had then calmly taken a hold of her shoulders and asked her to look closely at the blood staining his shirt… it was red. Had he been a demon it would have been black. Once she’d calmed down he’d went on to explain his… unusual circumstances. He’d informed her that he was completely human in every sense of the word but somewhere along the way he’d been cursed by the angels.

      She wasn't sure what he’d meant by angels since he wouldn’t elaborate but the bottom line was Vincent just couldn’t die. Correction… he could die but never seemed to stay dead for very long. He’d even unbuttoned his shirt letting her see that the bullet wound had already stopped bleeding and was healing at a rapid pace.

      Lacey empathized with his situation as she’d gotten to know him better, understanding that he’d lived for so long he was bored, fearless, lonely… and very angry that he was still alive while everyone he’d ever cared for was dead.

      She and Vincent had made several agreements pertaining to their partnership and friendship. The first one was that she wouldn’t try to run away because although he couldn’t die, Vincent was pretty sure she could and would once Masters caught up with her. The other agreement was that they would continue their no strings attached relationship which she’d enjoyed immensely.

      It wasn’t that she didn’t love him… she did. But it was more as a best friend, which was a good thing since he claimed to have lost the ability to give his heart away eons ago. For him, falling in love with someone would only lead to heartache as he watched them grow old and die… leaving him behind. She understood completely.

      It was during her partnership with Vincent that she learned a couple truths about the greatest thief of their time… her grandfather. He’d gone by the name of Chameleon and never gave any other name. He’d also been so good at the art of deception that he had never failed a single job he’d been hired to do… and no doubt any he’d taken on in secret.

      By the way they had described him as a master of disguise and the fact that he went by Chameleon, she’d known right off the bat it was Grandpa, though she’d never shared that information with anyone, not even Vincent. The most agreed upon theory was that he’d been a shape shifter, which in her opinion was the closest to the truth since no one knew grandpa had the cloaking device.

      The demon world was still trying to find him but many believed he was dead. After his final job, which was to steal a soul orb from an original, he’d promptly vanished taking the orb with him. No one had been able to find him since… they’d searched, of that Lacey had no doubt. Little did they know that the soul orb in question was sitting in a concrete safe in the middle of LA surrounded by a demon ward.

      Because of that, Lacey knew it would have been dangerous to get in touch with any member of her family for fear the demons would find her grandfather. She’d known better than to contact him herself. He wouldn’t have understood and probably СКАЧАТЬ