Page 1 of Lure of a Demon (Unearthly Sins)

ILSA

Blood type: inconclusive.

Those words glared up at me from the report hanging limply in my hands. They’re the same words these reports always showed, and while I didn’t expect any different, there was still that persistent hope I’d get some answers.

Hope that was now dwindling, telling me I needed to find another way to solve this issue.

Clinical reports and tests didn’t offer me any information I didn’t already know or couldn’t figure out through my own investigation.

Kelly had slipped me a copy of this report over drinks last night. Drinks and stilted conversation while she tried desperately to rekindle some semblance of therelationshipwe had. Prior to my asking her for help over these past few weeks, we hadn’t seen each other since before my last deployment.

Kelly would say we were in a relationship back then.

My view was we were simply sleeping together.

That difference in opinion might be a clue as to why it didn’t work out.

Kelly was a medical examiner for the city and one of the few people on this planet I knew would believe me when I told her what I had seen—she was all star signs, crystals, and the alignment of the planets. I had taken a gamble on her willingness to accept things she could neither see nor prove would mean she’d believeme.

She did, without much question or the skeptical raised brow and smirk of amusement I’d get from most other people.

I guess I should be thankful to her for at least that, and then going above and beyond and putting her job and reputation at risk to get me copies of reports that shouldn’t reach civilian hands.

I had to tell someone. For while I’d seen a lot of fucked-up shit, this was hard for even me to swallow. From the poverty of the area I grew up in before my father worked his way through the army ranks, to the horrors I’d witnessed while on deployment myself, I’d absorbed it all.

But I still struggled to explain the incident a few months ago.

Perhaps that was part of the problem—I was trying to explain the unexplainable.

I wouldn’t say it was the worst thing I’d ever seen, but it was the only incident that occurred on home soil that haunted my dreams.

It was a little over two months ago, and I’d decided to drink away my sorrows for at least one night following the finality of my medical discharge from the military.

By the way, it didn’t help—the alcohol—and it’s not a path I’ve gone down since.

The last thing I needed on top of my already damaged body was alcohol poisoning or some other weak shit which would get me sent to a hospital again. I’d spent enough time within hospitals and rehabilitation centers to last a lifetime—several lifetimes in fact.

For all the good it did.

As if to remind me of the injury I was already overly aware of, a pang of sharp pain, gone as quickly as it had come, radiated from my leg.

Yes, I know I was weaker after the injury than before, and yes, I’ve been forcefully reminded of my humanity and limitations.

Thank you very much for the reminder,body.

But despite the alcohol and the anger-fueled thoughts that raged through my mind as I slammed empty glass after empty glass on the bar, the bartender continued to serve me when he probably shouldn’t.

Whenshewalked into the bar, it was hard not to notice her.

Deep red hair was styled loosely around her shoulders in those waves I never understood how girls got to work, not that I’d ever been one of those girls to try too hard to get my hair to do anything other than whatever the hell it felt like. Tight leather pants and a corset to match sculpted her already toned body, and dark makeup shadowed her eyes, adding an extra layer of mystery.

And damn me, an extra layer of fuckability.

She might as well have had the wordtroublestamped across her forehead.

But her eyes, I’d never seen eyes like hers before. Irises of gold and yellow shined with a promise of danger and sexual prowess. Although perhaps the last bit was only in my head.

I also hadn’t been laid since before my injury, and occasionally my body would get the better of my mind, and my usually otherwise trained thoughts would stray. Withher,I blamed the haze of alcohol pushing its way through my veins, making me blink through the blur as I stared at her, mentally wandering my hands over her body.

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