Demon Inside

Another demon huddled beneath it, little eyes impossibly wide. Blood trickled down its forehead and formed a trail down its snoutlike nose. Its mouth opened and closed, trying to form words that would not come.

“Ashtenor!” Roc leaped for it, holding it—him—tight. “Ashtenor, how did you manage to survive?”

“Hid. Pretended…” Ashtenor shuddered.

“Do you know where she took them?” Greyson said. Roc glared at him, but he only shrugged. “We don’t have a lot of time and there are one or two things we need to figure out.”

“Tul azar,” Ashtenor whispered. “Tul azar Akuzi.”

Greyson and Roc exchanged glances.

“Tul azar Akuzi?” Roc asked. “Tresh tena?”

Ashtenor nodded. Megan watched a tear trickle down his rough, wrinkled cheek. She’d failed him, God, she’d failed all of them, she hadn’t protected them and now…now she didn’t know if she had enough energy left to protect herself, much less a thousand little demons. Now that her demon heart was dead, she didn’t have any way to—

If her demon heart was dead, or at least dormant, could it still stop her from practicing what Tera had taught her?

She couldn’t try it here. With her Yezer gone—and she strongly suspected Ktana Leyak was using their co

But Ashtenor huddled on the floor, staring at her with those damned Keane-painting eyes of his, and the words were out of her mouth before she had a chance to second-guess them.

“Greyson, I need some help.”

Bless him—or whatever one would do with demons—he didn’t ask why, or even look surprised. He just gave her what she wanted and brought Ashtenor over to her so she could hold him in her lap.

The co

His little eyes widened, then closed, as he snuggled into her. She’d never thought of them as her babies before. Well, they weren’t babies. Babies were good and i

But they were her pain causers. More now than before, when she’d forced herself to watch as Halarvus was punished, she felt the great expanse of what she owed them.

They weren’t inherently evil. They were part of life. Isn’t that what she’d always counseled her clients? Without the bad feelings, we wouldn’t appreciate the good ones?

Being in charge of the Yezer Ha-Ra, even just her small Meegra, was a responsibility not just to them, but to mankind. It was their job to tempt. It was the job of humanity to resist. Without that battle, what was the point of life?

So Megan held Ashtenor close, and breathed her borrowed power into him until his tears stopped and his color—a particularly unpleasant glaring orange—returned. She took care of him.

The way his Gretneg should.

Chapter 24

“But we don’t know where the Accuser’s house was!”

Being back at Greyson’s place hadn’t really helped her mood, but realizing she could draw a trickle of energy from the ground outside had a bit. At least she wouldn’t need Greyson to keep kissing her in order to stay awake. It was a little embarrassing.

Her eyes still itched with tiredness, but she could handle it.

“That’s why Brian is coming over,” Greyson said.

“You called Brian?”

“Yes. That’s why he’s coming over, see. It’s very simple.”

“But—”

He shook his head. “I think I know where the Accuser’s house is. But I’m hoping Brian can confirm it, because if I’m wrong we’ll be wasting important time. He can read the document. The corporation papers of your father’s? He might get something from those.”

“But we only have the photocopy.”

“No. That viper who gave you life has the copy. I took the original.”

“You stole it?”

“Does that surprise you?”

She leaned back on the couch. “I guess not.”

“The only person besides us who’ll need to see it is Tucker, anyway. I’ll give him the original next time I see him.”

“When will that be?”

“When you decide what you want to do with the property, darling, and we start probate.” He sat next to her and handed her a Coke, which she took with the sort of gratitude dogs offer when given table scraps. Her throat felt like sandpaper; her stomach was a hollow, nervous space in her belly.

It tasted like pure, sweet life on her tongue. “So you knew we might need to do this. To get Brian to read it, I mean.”

“Of course I did. I certainly didn’t plan to have Orion over for a chat before—well. I didn’t plan on discussing the situation with him.”

And the decision had been taken out of his hands, out of hers too. Orion had needed to be killed. Was Greyson pleased by that? Megan didn’t know how she felt. On the one hand she was horrified, absolutely stu

But would Greyson have listened to her, and changed his mind about having Orion killed? He’d said they would discuss it. That didn’t mean he would agree with her.

“Greyson, about Orion…”

“Brian’s here.”

“What? How do you know?”

“Nobody enters or leaves the property without the Gretneg knowing, remember? Except witches, unfortunately. They can break our protections.”

He got up and shuffled through some files on the desk, finally grabbing one and taking some papers out of it. The documents of incorporation they’d taken from her old bedroom.

Brian came in. He smelled like wintry air when he bent to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Jesus, Megan, what happened to you?”

“My—I’m just tired. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

“You should go back to bed.”

Ha. He had no idea how good that sounded. All she wanted to do was go back to bed, and stay there with the covers up over her head and the TV on low. “I’ll be okay.”

“Drink, Brian?”

Brian too took a Coke, then sat down on the opposite end of the couch. “Okay, so what do you need me to look at?”

“This. It’s—it’s related to Megan’s dad. We were hoping you might be able to see him from it, maybe something of his conversation with a couple of demons.”

“Demons aren’t readable, you know that.”

“I know, but Megan’s father was, so maybe you could get something through his eyes.”

Brian nodded and glanced at his watch. “Okay, sure. But I have an interview scheduled in about forty-five minutes, so—”

“It shouldn’t take that long.” Greyson handed the papers to Brian, who closed his eyes.

They flew back open as his face turned bright red. “Whoah! Hey, um, I’m not sure you guys want me to see this.”

God damn it. She was forever doomed to have Brian watch her have sex, it seemed. He’d managed to catch a glimpse of a college boyfriend the night he’d read her after they met, and now…she rubbed her forehead with her hand. This was just perfect.

“Try to go back further,” Greyson said, in his just-doit voice.

“Okay.” Brian used his thumb and forefinger to pick the papers up from the floor where he’d dropped them. “I’ll try again.”

This time he held on. “Okay, your dad—I think that’s your dad, he looks younger than in the picture at the funeral—filing these, thinking about what a great deal he’d made…um…oh, okay. I remember Templeton Black, and that guy from the funeral, Orion? He’s there. Blah blah blah, the hospital will be the perfect place to house your daughter, everything she needs is already there and she’ll be very comfortable, just sign here…they’re sort of smirking at each other but he’s not paying attention…” Brian opened his eyes, and looked up. “Is that it, or do you need more?”