Grim Haven (Devilborn Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

find it surprising that she’d left me everything, including the Mount Phearson Hotel. “She was your adoptive mother, wasn’t she?” he asked when I spoke to him again, the day after Kestrel’s attack at the restaurant.
    “She was my guardian,” I said, which was not at all the same thing.
    “Well, she had no children of her own, and all her siblings appear to be deceased.”
    My stomach went cold. “What do you mean, appear to be deceased? Deceased seems like a pretty binary condition.”
    “Yes, well. There have been some questions… and Mark… missing, you know… probably best explained in person…” Pickwick trailed off and cleared his throat. “But in any case, Madeline’s will was very clear. You are her beneficiary.”
    I let it go. Mark was not the Underwood brother whose fate concerned me.
    So they all—Mr. Pickwick, the hotel staff, the manager—wanted me to come home. And how serendipitous, when I’d just found myself in the position of being hunted by a psychotic feeder . (Cooper might not like the word, but I thought it suited what I’d seen of Kestrel Wick just fine.) Or possibly in the position of having just murdered a psychotic feeder, in which case, I would be hunted by her entire clan.
    Bristol was uniquely positioned to be a safe haven. It had been built as one by my own father. At the turn of the nineteenth century, that was, my father being either a demon, or some other creature ( phantasm ?) with a very long lifespan.
    But Bristol had never been a haven for me. It was the last place I would ever feel safe. I might as well do what Cooper wanted, and get mixed up in his clan war.
    For three days after the attack, I made no commitments, either to Mr. Pickwick or to Cooper. I assumed in the latter’s case, that would be the end of it, and he would leave town on his own. Each day I expected to hear that he just never showed up for work. But each day he came.
    And each day, he left early and followed me home, then stood across the street from my building for an hour or so, like some kind of sentry. He didn’t seem to think I knew, so for the first two nights, I didn’t say anything.
    On the third, I walked a cup of tea out to him. He was obviously going to need some convincing to leave, and scrawling Verity was left to herself in Lenox, all alone in spell ink that morning hadn’t done the job. My will must have gotten soft, after so many years with nobody to resist it. I was going to need stronger spells to deal with Cooper. Maybe to deal with his enemies, too. Better ink would be a start. I would need to use a higher concentration of blood.
    In the meanwhile, I would have to deal with Cooper directly. I pushed the mug into his hands and asked, “Are you stalking me, or protecting me?”
    His scowl didn’t make him look like much of a white knight. “The second one.”
    “In that case, let me return the favor.” I nodded at the tea. “Cinnamon and angelica root.”
    “It’s going to take a lot more than herbs to protect us from the Wicks,” he said. “You have no idea what we’re up against.”
    “Maybe they have no idea what they’re up against.”
    My bravado was too obvious. Cooper scoffed at me, then sipped the tea and made a face. “I hate angelica root.”
    “Way too bitter,” I agreed. “I was hoping to pawn the last of mine off on you.”
    He smiled, and I felt like I’d won a prize. A traitorous feeling if ever there was one, so I pushed it aside.
    “I thought you were leaving town,” I said.
    “Can’t,” he said with a sigh. “You got mixed up with Kestrel because of me. I’m responsible for your safety now.”
    “You really aren’t. My apartment is warded. I’m pretty good at protecting myself. Seriously.”
    “You also have no idea—”
    “—what I’m up against, yes, you’ve mentioned that a time or two. But you don’t know what I’m up against, either. You don’t know if Kestrel is alive or dead, or if anyone else knows she was here.