Edge of Passion Read Online Free

shareholder with a medical degree would swoop in and nose around in her work. What if that wasn’t everything he wanted to do? What if he was intent on taking over the research and taking credit for it? She’d seen things like that happen before, where one researcher was booted out in the middle of the project and some newbie had taken over, claiming the credit for the ultimate result.
    Or what would happen if he was incompetent and destroyed the progress she'd already made? If that happened, her parents would never get better.
    She couldn’t allow this to happen. Nobody would ever find out enough about her research to be able to take over. This was her life’s work!
    “You can’t take this away from me, Patten,” she mumbled, wiping the tears off her cheeks.
    As she pushed back the chair, it scraped against the floor, the sound echoing in the empty lab. Her legs carried her to the wall safe. She pressed her thumb against the touchpad that activated a scanner. Then she heard a mechanism click. A beep accompanied by a green light told her that her authorization had been accepted.
    Leila pulled the thick door open and peered into the dark interior. She had to do what needed to be done.

THREE
     
    Aiden burst through the door of the compound. There was no need to open it. His body simply dematerialized as he passed through the solid material and rematerialized beyond in a process too fast for the human eye to analyze. All it would see was a man walking straight into a door or a wall, the process behind it remaining a mystery. It was a power unique to Cloak Warriors; no demons known to them had a similar skill.
    He charged down the hallway. The massive building consisted of three stories above ground and two below. Its walls were thick, like those of an old English castle, build the way their ancestors had built their own strongholds. Their past was imprinted on the structure: ancient runes decorated the walls and floors, and charms to ward off evil hung over each door and window.
    There were many Cloak Warrior compounds dotted all over the world, places where the brothers, and the few sisters, lived together. All compounds were protected by the collective power of the Cloak Warriors, their virta , and might as well have been invisible. An ancient hypnotic-like spell ensured that the buildings went unnoticed by humans.
    Inside, no humans were allowed. Not even the charges of Cloak Warriors could be trusted to keep its location secret. There was always a chance that one of them would turn against them and eventually betray them to the demons.
    Within the walls of the compound, Cloak Warriors could recharge their energy after each mission, energy they expended as they cloaked their charges from detection by demons.
    Weapons long forgotten were stored in the vast underground vaults, weapons that could kill even an immortal Cloak Warrior. While no human weapon such as a gun or a knife could permanently injure Aiden or his brothers and sisters, any weapon forged during the Dark Days had the power to kill Cloak Warriors and Demons of Fear alike.
    As Aiden rushed into the large kitchen that was the center and indeed the hearth of the house he called home, his eyes scanned the assembled quickly. Manus was busy raiding the fridge, clad only in a pair of tightly fitting leather pants, his scarred chest bare, while Logan poured himself a drink. His dark hair hung loose over his shoulders and it looked as if he’d just only risen.
    Enya, the only female in their compound, lounged in one corner of the large couch in the adjacent great room. Her long blond hair was braided and pinned up in circles on the back of her head. She rarely wore it open, and Aiden could only suspect that it had grown down to her waist by now. Instead of watching the football game that blared from the giant TV mounted on the wall, she had her nose stuck in a book.
    Aiden cursed. “Where the fuck is he?”
    Heads turned toward him. Manus slammed the fridge door