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Chapter
One
The bus dropped me off in front of the prison. I might have been born inside its walls, but it wasn’t like I remembered the experience, and I certainly hoped no one in there remembered me. When I was a baby, they took me from my mother to live with my cousins on 8thStreet for the next five years. Afterward, Mama got herself together and took me back.
For a little while, anyway.
An armed guard tower loomed over the industrial building surrounded by a tall, barbed- wire- topped fence. The building seemed imposing and intimidating, as it was likely intended. Then again, as a tiny, blonde, brown-eyed girl, even if I got caught breaking the law—caughtbeing the operative word—I wouldn’t be sent inside those walls to serve my time. They no longer used the building for a women’s penitentiary, as they did when Mom had me. No, now the building only stored men.
They spent years renovating it and moved the men inside and the women out.
I knew way too much about the place of my birth.
But I hadn’t been inside since I left, and although I’d given it no thought ahead of time, my nerves bounced at the idea of going back inside.
It’s not like they can keep you. The voice that was always with me spoke in my head.They aren’t going to be like, Oh, Addalee, sorry we shouldn’t have let you leave at a week old. You’re now stuck here again.
I smirked. Sometimes my demon could be really funny. Other times, not so much. I steeled my shoulders. I never addressed her when I was in public. It looked crazy before everyone knew about possessions, and now it made others wary of me. Not that I blamed them. Thanks to that funny fiend inside of me, I was the most powerful person in any room. Most people didn’t have the sense to know that, which was a shame. Eventually someone was going to be hurt who didn’t deserve it, and then that would be my burden to bear—along with all the other stuff I emotionally lugged around that wasn’t my fault either.
With that thought I headed toward the doors only to be waylaid by a loud, sudden shout. “Addalee, wait up.”
I smiled even as my demon groaned. We had very different feelings about Ryker. I loved when he was around, while she thought about sending an army of demons to possess him…so that he might get lost in himself and never bother her again. So far, she held off, but only because I said please.
“What are you doing here?” I turned to regard him as he rushed across the parking lot to catch up with me. Dressed casually, like he always was, in black jeans and a green t-shirt, he’d changed into his Converse shoes today. They were hisfancysneakers. His blond hair always hung over his green eyes despite him cutting it once a month. He hadn’t updated his look since he was sixteen, even though he was twenty-six.
Ryker Williams, my best friend. Also former stepbrother, which we could hardly count since our parents wanted to be divorced almost as soon as they signed the marriage license. He was a step up from me, as he never spent any time living in a jail.
Also, he wasn’t possessed.
Yet.
She knew I wanted her to leave him alone, not that I had any real power over her. I never would, but she usually indulged me. We both knew eventually our relationship would end with me either dead or her back in Hell. Neither one of us was looking forward to that eventuality.
“What are you doing here?” I tugged at his shirt, and he grinned at me. During our six months of being stepsiblings, people had mistaken us for being blood relations., probably because of our blond hair. Folks didn’t look very far past that.
He nodded toward the prison. “You didn’t think I’d let you go to Ashgate without company? You’re not doing this alone. Face it, you need me.” He took my hand the way he had since we were children living next door to one another. Ryker liked physical touch to ground him. Hugs. Hands. Caresses. Once, I thought maybe it meant more than it did, but I’d been foolish back then and believed happy endings could happen to people like me. That maybe I was deserving of it or something.
I quickly learned that wasn’t the case. These days, I was grateful for his friendship for as long as I could have it. People like me—with demons along for the ride—didn’t keep friends very long.
“I’m not going to be in danger. That assistant DA—Cruise Winters—he hired me to come, and he’s meeting me here. I’m not going to be overrun or anything.”
Not while you have me, you’re not. On your own? You’d be dead, and they’d be fucking your corpse before your body hit the ground.
Ryker shook his head, unaware of the conversation in my head. Despite knowing about my possession, he stuck around and didn’t call the hunters after me, but we never discussed how my thoughts had changed since it happened.
“It’s not about you being attacked. This is a big deal. First, I can’t believe that you’re doing this. Second, I can’t believe you’re doing ithere. And third…I want to make sure these guys treat you right. Looking like you do, I’m worried they’ll try to take advantage of you.”
I didn’t want to dissuade him from being my friend, and I found it sweet that he’d come along. I needed him more than he did me these days. Ryker was on track to an actual career, unlike me, with a future pretty similar to my present. But there wasn’t any way anyone would take advantage of me, not unless my demon thought it would be funny.Sometimes she does like to torment me. Sadism was part of her deal.
“Thanks for coming, then.”
“Addalee Ackers?” a voice called, and we both turned toward the sound. The voice sounded deep, intoxicating, the kind I might like to listen to for long periods of time, and I figured it must be Cruise. I’d never met Cruise Winters before, only having texted with him on occasion to set up the test of my skills. Or my demon’s skills, rather, since I didn’t have all that many myself.
As the youngest member of the district attorney’s office, Cruise was just out of school. They’d assigned him to take care of the demon issue in the prisons, and it was clear to me over text that he was a) in over his head and b) didn’t want to be the guy in charge of demons.
He also, as he stared at me, wasn’t thinking particularly highly of me, either.
Oh, don’t fool yourself, Addalee. He wants to fuck you. They all do.
