Stacia Kane - Demon Inside

“We’ll talk more later,” he said. “Unless you’ve decided to go home after Winston leaves.”

“Talking sounds good.” She still hadn’t even asked him about whether his demons were picking on hers…not that one explosion meant much. Not that the connection was even confirmed. Coincidences did happen, even when it seemed like they shouldn’t.

“We’ll see if—What the hell?”

Screams of pain tore through the door, mingled with shouts from Malleus and Maleficarum. Greyson started running, Megan right behind him, her heels clicking on the spotless floor.

They burst through the door of the study, where Greyson stopped so abruptly that Megan ran right into him. He hardly noticed. Neither did she.

Orion Maldon glowed like an LED light, sitting in his chair with sweat pouring down his face. Megan could practically see the air above him shimmer as his blood heated, as he got redder and redder until she expected to see his tears boil and sizzle down his tight cheeks. Heat rose from his skin and canceled out the chill of Winston’s rage.

Winston leaned against Greyson’s desk, his arms folded and his brows drawn. At their abrupt entrance, he glanced up.

“Nice to see you again, Megan,” he said, surely the most incongruous greeting Megan had ever received.

“Um…you too.”

“Winston,” Greyson said. “Far be it from me to interfere, but what are you doing?”

“Orion deserves to be punished. You guys do it your way. This is ours.”

“Of course. But we still have a lot of questions to ask him. If you wouldn’t mind—”

“What questions? He betrayed me. He made a deal with Templeton Black and allowed Templeton to almost bring the Accuser into your House. To defeat our own! I had no idea he was involved in that. The disloyalty…” He shook his head. “I know we were going to discuss his punishment, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I say I’ve already made the decision.”

Megan glanced at Orion. His eyes weren’t bulging anymore. Instead his lids were closing, his head slumping to the side. He was dying, right there beside her, and she couldn’t do or say anything to stop it.

“I gave him retchia, Win. You can’t kill him under my roof, not if I’m aware of it.”

“I’ll take him outside.”

“Vergadering is outside.”

“Oh, yes.” Winston looked thoughtful. “I did notice them. They’re going to want him first thing in the morning, aren’t they?”

“I promised them, yes.”

“Asterope Green?”

Greyson nodded.

Winston sighed. “Why you let that witch get so close to you I’ll never understand. We’re not meant to mix with them, you know.” His gaze settled on Megan, who had the uncomfortable feeling that both men were in complete agreement but only one was brave enough to say it. Or rather, only one of them was keeping his mouth shut because he wanted to stay in her bed.

“Orion says he knows how to beat the leyak,” Greyson said.

“He’s a liar. What would he know about leyaks? ”

“If we figured out the connection between the Yezer who exploded and mine,” Megan cut in, “maybe he did too.”

Greyson shot her a glance. Oops. Well, not exactly oops. She hadn’t really had a chance to talk to him about it, what with the vomiting and the cannibalism taking up so much of their time.

Winston sighed. “I’d say you were overestimating Orion’s capabilities, but after what he did—what he tried to do—with the Accuser, I don’t know I’d believe it myself.”

“He was a buddy of Temp’s from way back,” Greyson said. “Who knows what they talked about?”

They were silent for a moment, then Winston nodded. “I guess it’s worth a—What the hell?”

Megan had already started to jump away when Greyson’s arm caught her and pushed her back, trying to put more distance between her and Orion Maldon as he began seizing.

Pinkish foam oozed from between his tight lips and ran down his chin. He flopped out of the chair, onto the floor, a high-pitched sound, a keening, coming from his throat. Megan’s demon heart twisted and wiggled; her fingers dug into Greyson’s hand.

“It’s her,” she whispered. “Greyson it’s her, you have to do something, you have to stop her—”

He didn’t argue, or say it was impossible, even though she knew it should have been. He didn’t ask how she knew. He just crossed the room to the fireplace and picked up the poker, holding it in front of him like a baseball bat.

Megan clasped her hands over her face, but couldn’t resist peeking out through her fingers. She didn’t want to watch this, but it was like a gory accident—no. Not like a gory accident. It was a gory accident, about to happen in the middle of the antique oriental rug on the floor of Greyson’s lovely study, and in her panicked state she didn’t even care. She just wanted the threat gone. She couldn’t face Ktana Leyak again, not in her current state. Her demon heart might be pumping merrily away in her chest, but the human one had had just about all it could take.

Orion started to swell, the thin navy fabric of his shirt ripping down his spine to reveal flesh mottling blue and purple. Greyson raised the poker and started to swing it down, but Winston caught it. The sound of the metal hitting his flesh made Megan wince. How had he not just broken every bone in his hand?

“My rubenda,” Winston said.

“Sorry.” Greyson dipped his head and handed over the poker, while sweat trickled down Megan’s temple and she clenched her fists to keep from grabbing the fucking poker herself. What was the matter with these two? Didn’t they realize how close they were? That they didn’t even know if this would work?

Winston brought the poker down in a savage arc. Blood and tissue spattered everywhere as Orion’s head exploded like a cockroach under a brick.

Someone shrieked, long and loud, raising the hairs on the back of Megan’s neck. For a moment she thought it was her, but it wasn’t. This came from elsewhere, circling the room, brushing past all of them before disappearing with a tiny pop.

“Eshti raika,” Winston gasped. His casual dove gray trousers and white shirt were spotted with gore. Megan looked down; she and Greyson both resembled extras from the set of a slasher film. “How did that happen?”

“She must have been in there the whole time,” Greyson said. Megan thought he looked a bit pale. She was certain she was. Her skin was numb. “She must have called and turned him in to Vergadering, Meg, just like she got you arrested last week.”

“She—” Megan stopped. Of course Ktana Leyak had tipped off the police. They’d said it was a female voice.

“And she heard our conversations.” Greyson raised a hand to his head, pinching the bridge of his nose for a second. “Now she knows the story of your father and Orion—if she didn’t already. She knows something about the layout of this house. She knows you two figured out why some demons are exploding.”

“We’re not sure of that,” Megan said. “It’s just a theory. There’s no proof, since every house has lost at least one demon and…they can’t all have attacked my Yezer. Can they?”

He met her gaze. “Anything’s possible. Mine are ordered to leave yours alone, but personal squabbles happen all the time.”

A weight she didn’t know was still on her shoulders lifted. Not much of a relief, but a relief just the same. She nodded, her lips curving into a slight smile.

Winston cleared his throat. “I haven’t ordered any of my rubendas to go after your family either, Megan.”

“I know. Thanks.”

“That doesn’t mean the other Gretnegs haven’t,” Greyson said. “Unless…unless she’s been possessing them, in order to attack yours, and not the other way around. Who’s been attacked, Meg?”