Released (Eternal Balance) by Jus Accardo Page B

as it grew gradually louder until the bedroom floor of the cabin fell away and I was weightless. Panicked, I opened my eyes.
    I’m in a bar, the bartender in front of me pouring what looks like vodka into an older man’s cup. I try to check out the rest of the room, but for some reason, I can’t turn.
    There’s movement in the other corner of the room and the girl glances up. “Welcome to Comraderies. Be right with ya.”
    I try to talk, but a wave of dizziness washes over me. The girl disappears, along with the bar—
    —and with a jarring echo inside my head, I was back in the cabin with Azi. “Oh my God.” The world listed sideways and strong arms caught me just before I crashed to the floor.
    The demon lifted me in Jax’s arms and set me down on the bed. “Did you see it?”
    I shook my head and rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. The edges of the room were watery, and Azi’s— Jax’s —voice was slightly garbled. “I saw a girl.”
    “A human?”
    “Probably? No way to know for sure.”
    “Who is she? Does she have the Brim Stone?”
    I rolled my eyes. “And again, no way to know for sure. I heard her voice, but when I looked directly at her, her features were distorted. Fuzzy. The only clue I got was the name of the bar she worked at. Comraderies.”
    It nodded and took several steps backward, then pointed to the door and said, “Let’s go.”
    “Whoa.” I twisted and swung my legs over the side of the bed. “We need to find this place first. You’ve been around long enough to know it’s a great big world out there. I don’t even know what state it was in.”
    “Then find it,” the demon commanded. It reached out and hauled me to my feet.
    “Sure thing.” I reminded myself that throwing something pointy at it would only hurt Jax. “I’ll just pull the location out of my ass and we’ll be on our way.”
    Jax’s eyes narrowed and the demon folded his arms. “Do not toy with me. Humans can’t do that.”
    I stared, wondering for a brief moment if Jax had somehow managed to steal back control. Of course, it wasn’t him. The deadpan, almost irritated glare fixed on me was a neon reminder.
    “How?” I threw up my hands and reached the doorknob. “How have you made it through so many lives?”

Chapter Seven
    Azirak/Jax
    It took some convincing, but Sam finally managed to persuade Azi to take her to a library. We found one and waited till it opened, and she’d been sitting in front of a public computer for the last hour now. As hard as it was to believe, there were actually three bars in the United States called Comraderies. Based on what she’d seen in her flash, she was able to rule out one because it was a biker bar. That left two to check.
    “Which of the remaining two is it?” The demon was getting restless. It was sometime after ten in the morning, and it was pacing my body back and forth. It reminded me of the way Sam stalked the kitchen as she waited on the coffee machine in the morning.
    Sam pushed the keyboard back. She stood and tossed the demon a nasty glare. The woman at the desk on the other side of the room had been watching us. Every time Azi moved in close to Sam, she stiffened, a puff of gray rising into the air around her. “How the hell should I know?”
    Azi looked from the computer to Sam. Irritation coursed through my body. “Do you not understand—”
    An explosion of red burst into the air. Sam shot forward and jammed her finger against my chest. “I understand that you repeatedly whining in my ear about how important this is won’t do anyone a damn bit of good.”
    “You dare use that tone with me?”
    Brows knitting together to form a deep V, she poked me again, this time harder. “Oh, I dare .”
    “Is there a problem?” The woman came around the desk and stopped a few feet from us. Her attention was trained mostly on Sam, but her eyes occasionally darted to me, full of suspicion.
    Sam opened her mouth, then closed it with a snap. I knew