Demon Possessed

What the hell had she been thinking? To get back at him by kissing Nick? Well, no. That wasn’t all of it. She’d wanted to be reassured that she was still . . . well, still desirable. And not only did she genuinely like Nick and care about Nick and not only, if she wanted to admit it, did she know Nick was “safe” somehow purely because of his friendship with Greyson—he wasn’t going to want anything from her—but . . . Yeah. It was wrong, but the simple fact was that if a man who took home a different woman every night, a man who could have his pick of any woman he wanted, wanted her, it was an ego boost.

Plus, who wouldn’t give a sex demon a try, if all she was looking for was a night of meaningless lust? It wasn’t as if she was a total lunatic for thinking that if she was going to hop into bed with someone, the incubus with the intense sex energy was the one to hop. So to speak.

It didn’t really matter, and it didn’t make it right. Didn’t make it less of the hideous mistake it had been. But her motive hadn’t really been revenge, not entirely. At least there was that. She genuinely hadn’t meant to hurt anyone, least of all Nick.

“Megan?” Winston’s voice cut through her unhappy little haze.

“What?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Do you agree with Greyson?”

“I—” She glanced around the table, glanced at Greyson, who scowled and said nothing.

But agreeing with him was still probably pretty safe. So she nodded. “Yes.”

Greyson’s scowl deepened.

“But I don’t understand what the agent was doing there,” Baylor said. “If the angel murdered Justine, he could have done that on his own. He certainly wouldn’t have needed to use some silly human to do it. And Justine was . . . I find it hard to believe the FBI agent would have been capable of that.”

“What exactly did she do?” Gu

Baylor confirmed this by glaring at Gu

Gu

“She ripped her apart. Slit her open from stem to stern.” Greyson looked at Megan. “Tore out her heart.”

She looked away.

“The point is,” Winston said, “that whatever this thing is—if it is indeed an angel, which I’m inclined to believe—it has now attacked Megan and murdered Justine. Our friend. Which of us is next, is what I want to know? How can we keep ourselves safe?”

“What do your Yezer say?” Baylor asked Megan. “Have they found any trace of it?”

Oh, shit, she hadn’t even asked. Roc would have told her if they’d found anything, but still, she should have asked. Should have checked. “They’re still looking.”

“That doesn’t do us any damned good,” he replied. “This is ridiculous. I feel like I’m sitting in front of the firing squad. Like a lamb being led to slaughter. A sitting duck.”

“A cliché waiting to be used,” Greyson suggested.

“Yes, I—this isn’t the time to make jokes, Grey.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem to be the time for much else. You all know how I feel about it, what I think we should do.”

Megan looked at him, started to open her mouth. She didn’t know what he wanted to do. Oh, she had some ideas—she imagined it had something to do with Reverend Walther, since he was the only co

And of course, hearing his thoughts in this group situation was the only way she would hear them, wasn’t it? No more late-night conversations in the dark. No more phone calls. No more evenings on the couch or long di

She stomped on her treacherous thoughts. This was not the time to mope and mourn. Or, rather, it was supposed to be a time to mourn, but the pitiful shreds of her relationship were not what she was supposed to be mourning. A woman had died. More of them could die. She didn’t particularly want it to be her.

Or him.

“We can hardly leap into the middle of a crowd of humans and assault a public figure,” Win said. “Really, Grey, I agree he’s our next best shot if the Yezer aren’t finding the angel, but that fleabag hotel says he’s playing his little games all day.”

“The angel may be watching. He was yesterday.”

“Yesterday he had Agent Reid to piggyback on,” Baylor said. “At least according to you.”

“And today there’s a whole horde of believers over there. He can easily attach himself to one of them, if he hasn’t already grabbed hold of the reverend. He did send Agent Reid over there as his first act once he’d nabbed her, don’t forget. Clearly he’s checking things out.”

“Obviously that’s his target,” Gu

Megan opened her mouth. Hadn’t Gu

Something shut her mouth before the words could form, though. She didn’t want to argue, didn’t want to speak at all, really. But more than that, she simply felt as though it wasn’t the thing to say. Something held her tongue, and that something was instinct, and she trusted it.

She couldn’t resist sneaking a glance at Greyson, whose tilted head made her suspect he was thinking the same thing.

Winston said it, though. “He’s been killing our rubendas, Gu

“You don’t know that. That’s just Greyson and Megan’s theory. We can’t be sure.”

“It’s the only workable theory we have,” Baylor said. “If you have a better one, Gu

They waited. Finally Gu

“Oh, come on.”

The words triggered a memory in Megan. “No. He could have. The reverend suddenly got popular a couple of months ago, right?” She looked at Greyson, forgetting she wasn’t supposed to. Forgetting, for one blessed second, that the day and night before had happened. “Isn’t that what you told me? That he came out of nowhere in early June?”

He paused just long enough for memory to crash back in and her gaze to falter. “Yes. I did read that.”

“So he came for us and latched on to the exorcist after,” Winston said.

“So we should go over there,” Baylor said. “The exorcist could have the key to the whole thing.”

“The FBI agent could too,” Winston said. “We could try to talk to her.”

“Sure, Win.” Greyson leaned back in his chair. “I’m sure the police and the feds would be happy to let you go in and question her. Privately.”

“Justine could have done it,” Baylor said. His tone wasn’t sad so much as regretful. “She could get in anywhere. When will she be replaced? We need a sex demon for this.”

“What about your friend Nick?” Win asked Greyson. “Would he do it?”

Megan just managed not to cringe.

Greyson’s expression didn’t change at all. “He’s not full-blood.”

“Oh, right. His father . . . what a mess. Still, do you think he’s got enough incubus blood to do it? Has he ever—”

“No.”

“Have you asked him? Perhaps he knows—”

Greyson stood up. His jacket draped over the back of his chair; he grabbed it and put it on as he spoke. “This is pointless. Megan and Asterope Green attempted to question Agent Reid yesterday, and she was apparently barely coherent then. Talking to her won’t do any of us any good. The exorcism ends at nine. I think if we head over there then, we’ll find the angel. Perhaps Megan could ask her witch friend to lend a hand with that as well.”

He talked about her as if they hardly knew each other. She managed to nod. “I’ll ask her.”