Page 30 of Vipers and Vendettas

He grabs my phone off the nearby table and uses my face to unlock it quickly while I stand in front of him and try to think of something.

His thumb flies over the screen, and I hear the sound of a message sending. He flings the phone onto the couch. ‘You just quit your shitty job. You’re welcome.’

My eyes blaze. ‘You can’t just …’ I’m not able to finish the sentence; I’m so angry!

I can’t let him take me anywhere. What about Jellybean?

With a cry, I push him as hard as I can. He falls back, and I don’t let myself stop to wonder how I just threw a demon across the room. He’s already up and lunging towards me. I put my hand on the door and rip it open, vaguely seeing thathis handis already on it next to mine. My eyes widen as understanding dawns, but it’s too late.

‘NO!’ I scream as I try to dart away from the portal he’s opened, but he grabs me by the back of the neck and thrusts me through the doorway into the breach.

ChapterSix

Maddox

When the door to the library opens, I don’t immediately look up from my work, assuming it’s Tabitha bringing me an early-morning tea tray.

I hear the roar of a portal. Not expecting visitors, I pick up the gun that I keep close for Krase, mostly because I don’t feel like demoning up and ruining my chair in the process when a well-placed bullet would do the trick.

A female in an impossibly short skirt falls into the room. Daemon is right behind her.

I frown, wondering if Daemon has lost his mind and brought an uncontracted female here to feed from.

But then the girl on her hands and knees on the floor looks up at me, and time stops.

She looks the same apart from the clothes. Her hair is a little longer, her face paler, and maybe a little thinner, but it’s her.

Jules.

I’m already on my feet and striding toward her.

She skitters back into Daemon’s legs, curling into a ball at his feet as if he’s any less dangerous than I am.

I almost laugh aloud at the absurdity of her actions as I grab her by her hair and pull her up to her feet.

She screams, the sound cut off as I wrap my hand around her throat and squeeze just enough to make her go quiet in terror.

The resulting desire that slams through me makes me instantly hard, but I resist it.

‘Oh, darling,’ I murmur, ‘you should have run so much further.’

I back her hard into one of the bookshelves, relishing her wince of pain as the wood digs into her back and tightening my fingers around her neck again.

‘Julian,’ she chokes, her hands trying to pry my fingers off her.

Her face is turning purple, and I know she can’t breathe. I know I need to stop, but I’m so, so angry with her. It’s been building for months, and now she’s here in front of me.

I feel Daemon pulling at my arm, but I push him away hard. The door to the library opens, and I hear a tray crashing to the floor over the roaring in my ears.

My fingers suddenly go slack, and Jules crumples to the floor. I’m pulled backward and turn to launch myself at Daemon, but it’s not Daemon behind me. It’s four foot-five, sixty-five-year-old Tabitha!

She pushes me hard, and I just barely catch myself with my hand on the edge of my desk before the corner of it brains me.

I right myself as Tabitha hurries to Jules, who’s wheezing on the floor with her hands to her neck.

I take a breath and then another, glancing at Daemon, who’s looking as shocked at my actions as I am. I never lose it like that, no matter how angry I am. Never.

I crane my neck as I draw closer.