Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Which makes me fear something did change inside Lucas.
The demon laughs, spitting more blood out. I hold out one hand, telekinetically pressing him against the floor, and use the other to pull his shirt down, looking at the sigil.
“That’s not Paimon,” I say and turn my head, looking up at Lucas again. “I don’t recognize it, but it’s definitely demonic.”
“This is your last chance,” Lucas growls, picking the demon up by the collar of his shirt. “Tell us your name and why you’re here.” Right as he goes to bite the demon, Pandora shadows around us, telling me to check the demon’s pockets.
“Wait,” I tell Lucas and grimace when I stick my fingers inside the front pocket of the guy’s jeans. The material is damp and I don’t even want to think about why. I pull out a little leather pouch and hold it up. “It’s a hex bag.”
“Hex bag?” Lucas echoes.
I kneel down and quickly dump out the contents. There’s a raven feather, a small finger bone, something that looks like a flap of dry skin, and a handful of herbs. Pandora shifts back into cat-form and comes over, sniffing at the items. Potions and herbs are her specialty, and she’s able to identify this almost right away.
“It’s necromancy.” I jerk my hand away. “And it’s basically a locator spell.”
“Paimon already knows where you are.”
My teeth sink into my lip as I think. Why the hell would he put a locator spell on a demon? He’s not stupid and knows we would check pockets before burying a body. And he has to be aware by now most the bodies are either burned or buried off our property, so it’s not like he’s going to pin us for murder and have Lucas and I arrested or something. Having me in jail would kind of ruin his plan to use me to take over Hell.
“Maybe he got weakened or something and lost his ability to psychic-stalk me?” I shake my head, knowing there has to be a better reason. “Either way, I’m burning it to be safe.” I quickly gather the items back up, rush to the fireplace in the living room and hold my hand out, summoning blue hellfire. The hex bag ignites right away, and the smell of burning leather makes my eyes water.
As soon as it goes up in smoke, I rush back to Lucas, who’s still holding the demon. A faint smell of rot and decay hang in the air, which happens when a demon possesses a body for long. They start to rot from the inside out, and if this guy’s intestines have started liquifying, no medical intervention can save him.
But angelic intervention can. Alona is on my side, though if she sees Lucas, will she be able to sense that he’s a Horseman? I can’t take that risk, and I come to a dead stop as it hits me that I’m willing to let someone die—someone innocent who didn’t ask to be possessed—to keep Lucas by my side.
It’s selfish and horrible of me, I know. Yet I don’t care because I can’t do this without Lucas.
Summoning a ball of white light, I bring my hand close to the demon’s face. Little tendrils of magic burn his skin, hurting both the physical body as well as the demon.
“Let’s make this easy on the both of us,” I start. “We already know Paimon is like, totally obsessed with me and just won’t take no for an answer. But he really needs to take the hint that I’m a married woman and am not interested.”
“You can either tell us what we want to know,” Lucas goes on. “And you’ll burn quickly. Or my wife will transfer your demonic entity into a vampire’s body so I can torture you again and again and again until I’m satisfied I’ve gotten all the information I can out of you. And then I’ll keep torturing you just for fun.”
“When the King comes, we will all be free,” the demon snarls.
“Dude, how long have others been promising you that?” I let out a sigh. “And it’s yet to happen.”
“Things are changing, and soon all days will be dark.”
“We’ve heard that before too,” Lucas growls and then bites the guy’s neck, pulling back so skin and arteries snap and break. Blood sprays out, hitting me in the face and splattering the area around us.
“We just replaced this rug,” I say through gritted teeth, staring daggers at Lucas. He spits out the body parts and blood in his mouth, not wanting to drink the blood of someone possessed since it tastes like sulfur.
Lucas holds the body up as it convulses, quickly bleeding to death. The man’s head lolls forward and a rush of black smoke leaves his open mouth. I hit it with the energy ball and the smoke ignites, burning for a second or two before sizzling out, settling on the ground like ash.