Demon Possessed

The angel got up. Greyson didn’t.

She saw Malleus and Spud heading toward her. Saw Brian touching people in the crowd, saw him trying to break the co

So she nodded, and Roc began to speak.

Chapter 31

Roc’s voice started low, growing louder, words in the demon tongue she didn’t understand. Energy flowed through her, the thick, sticky-sweet energy of the Yezer, speeding her demon heart. Speeding both of her hearts.

Nick’s hand clasped hers more tightly. Did he feel it? Did he know? She couldn’t tell, but she hoped he did. And then she knew he did, because his energy pushed into her too, red with lust and black with anger. She opened herself to it. To all of it.

For a moment she floated on it like a dust mote in the sun, dancing lazily, twirling and drifting. Her shields were already down; she willed them to disappear, let the energy flow through her entire body. Let it become magic inside her while Roc’s voice kept going and something wet touched her lips.

Roc’s blood. Just a smudge. And then Roc’s lips, and she started to jerk away when she realized he wasn’t kissing her. He was breathing into her, and that was necessary too, and she flew so high she thought she was scattered in the stars.

Then the pain hit.

Everything went red. Her brain screamed. Her mouth screamed. Every muscle in her body caught fire. Her heart pounded, pounded, pounded; it was all she could hear, faster and faster, her blood rushing through her body and through her brain. That hurt too, her head throbbing, a migraine times a million, and tears fell down her cheeks, and sweat soaked her dress, and blood poured from her nose.

Her muscles snapped and stretched. Her stomach roiled. She threw up, and blood came with it. It hurt so bad, so much worse than she’d ever imagined it would. She didn’t want this anymore and it was too late.

It felt as if her bones were breaking. It felt as if her body was breaking, curling in on itself. Somewhere in there she felt Nick’s hand still in hers and realized she was squeezing it. Her organs rang like bells and that was Tera nearby.

She didn’t know how long it went on, the pain. Deep beneath it something else was happening. A strengthening. A deepening. Her consciousness spread around her until she felt every person on the roof, every one of them, as a separate and distinct entity. Felt their co

Her legs shook when she tried to stand. They wouldn’t support her. Instead she leaned on Nick, let his strong arms hold her up as she turned again to the angel.

Tera had been holding it off, screaming spells, waving her hands, and shooting what looked absurdly like neon flares at it. She wasn’t beating it, but she was distracting it.

Brian ran through the crowd; large portions of them had stopped screaming, were huddled together on the floor, crying. “What do you need? Megan, what can I do?”

She didn’t reply. Instead she took his hand. His shock transmitted to her; he felt it then. Felt her new power. Knew what she’d done.

Time to worry about that later. Right now—Greyson still hadn’t moved—she had some business to take care of. And if that was an overly dramatic way to think of it, she couldn’t help it.

She drew on his energy as much as she could. Drew on what her Yezer were getting, which was so much more now that the angel’s hold on the crowd had been broken. Took it from Nick.

And thrust it all, flaming, at the angel, as hard as she could.

The impact nearly knocked her over again. It would have, had Nick not been there to hold her.

The angel screamed. It was the kind of scream she never wanted to hear again, the kind that made her want to cry and scream herself. The pain and rage in that sound horrified her.

But feeling the angel’s shock, its misery, feeling its power weaken and rebound into her . . . that elated her.

Maybe it shouldn’t have. It hadn’t been easy to deal with that feeling the first time. But this time? All she had to do was look at the people around them, at Greyson, and anger overshadowed any sense of shame.

It fought her, pushing back. She gritted her teeth. Kept going. Kept shoving at it, sending every bit of anger and rage, every bit of energy, every bit of pain into it.

It sank to its knees. Tera shouted something, and it convulsed. Again. And again. Its energy fading, it felt so weak . . .

Megan pulled back. She couldn’t keep going, not anymore. It didn’t seem so evil anymore. It seemed so helpless, so—

It shouted something, and Reverend Walther flew through the air at her.

“You will not—foul—” He shouted something else, but Megan didn’t hear it. She was too busy trying to jump out of the way, because Walther held a knife in his hand, moonlight glinting off the edge of it, and it was aiming straight for her heart.

Her heart. Not her two hearts. Only one leaped; only one pounded. It was done.

No time to think about that. She jumped sideways. Nick and Brian grabbed at Walther and tackled him.

The angel screamed. Megan looked up in time to see Spud bring his own knife down and ducked before it finished falling.

Silence fell. The wind died. The rain stopped.

She peeked up through her fingers. People milled around, crying; some of them headed back down the stairs, some clutched at each other as though they’d never leave. Tera stood panting by the wall, edging away from the angel’s body toward Nick and Brian. Spud got up and turned to look at—

Greyson. Not moving.

She moved faster than she ever had. Faster than she ever thought she could move.

He was warm. She thought he was breathing. She couldn’t be sure, though, and her hand was shaking too hard to check his pulse.

“Greyson, wake up.” He wasn’t dead. Couldn’t be dead, right? Did demons go into comas? Jesus, did they go into comas they never came out of? He looked so pale. He was warm, but he was pale.

She slapped him lightly. “Greyson, wake up!”

He stirred, coughed. Opened one eye and stared at her. And like a silly girl, she burst into tears.

“Now?” he croaked. “Now will you fucking marry me?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Yes, I will.”

The afternoon sun shone beneath the thick curtains on the window by the time they woke up the next day. Megan didn’t really remember going back to their hotel or falling, exhausted, into bed. She had a vague memory of Greyson helping her undress and another, much sweeter, of him pulling her close before her eyes fell shut.

She opened her eyes, rolled over, and found him staring at her. She jumped.

“Jesus, you scared me. What are you doing?”

“I was awake.”

“So you decided to lie there and stare at me?”

“Well, actually, no. I got up, and I made some calls—I have a few things to tell you—and then I got back into bed and waited for you to wake up. How are you feeling?”

How was she feeling? That was a good question. “Okay. Kind of achy everywhere. And a little loopy, maybe. But other than that, okay.”

He nodded. “So you did the ritual last night.”

“Yeah. I guess I did.”

“And . . . you’re okay with that?”

“Yeah.” She smiled a little. “I guess I am.”

Their eyes met for a second, but he blinked and started to sit up. “I talked to Winston this morning. He and Baylor showed up just after we left and took care of Gu