Stacia Kane - Personal Demons

He did look tired. Deep circles shadowed his dark eyes, and the clothes covering his lean body were rumpled and smudged.

"I'm sorry," Megan said. "Are we bothering you?"

"Not at all. I'm just going to sit down. Let me know when you're done."

"You do that." She refused to watch him walk away, turning instead back to Brian and Tera, staring at her with identical furrowed brows.

"Maybe we should all sit down," Tera suggested. "And have something to eat or a drink or something."

"The servants are all asleep," Greyson said from the table.

"Then I suppose we'll just have to serve ourselves." Tera took Megan's hand and started to lead her toward the table, but Spud stepped in the way and, before Megan could stop him, scooped her up and carried her to a seat next to Greyson. Megan shook her head and pointed opposite. She did not want to be so close to him. Tera busied herself with glasses and bottles and Brian sat next to Megan. Greyson stayed where he was with his arms folded across his chest and an empty glass in front of him.

Tera brought back drinks and handed them out. "Everybody gets wine," she said. "I don't know what your preferences are."

The red was fruity and spicy on her tongue, and warmth spread through her body as she swallowed. "Thank you." She turned in Greyson's direction but didn't meet his eyes. "Where are the Fearbusters people?"

"We sent them home." He didn't look at her, either, which was just as well. Megan didn't think she could stand to see his eyes again. "As soon as you were gone."

"They're okay?"

He nodded.

"Good. I was worried about them. What happened?"

Greyson cleared his throat. "Temp made a deal. He thought if he handed you to the Accuser, he'd be able to control him. He was wrong. The Accuser had what he wanted—you—and he planned to use you. For what, I'm not sure, but I think we can bet it wouldn't have been pleasant.

"They argued for a few minutes. Then the Accuser got angry. He left your body and changed to his pure physical form, which you saw. He was about to kill Temp when you came back and did whatever it was you did to defeat him."

"I used the personal demons’ power."

Rocturnus, sitting on the floor a few feet away under the watchful gaze of Malleus, Maleficarum, and Spud, cleared his throat. "It's your power now, Megan."

"Excuse me?"

"Our power. It became yours, when you bound us to you."

Megan finally broke the silence. "Say that again?"

"You bound us to you. When you released us from the Accuser. You held the string. We pulled you out of him, but you didn't let go. It was still wrapped around you when you re-entered your body and that man—" he pointed at Brian—"did the power transfer to bring you back to life. Besides, you promised us back when you bound us to the Accuser that one day you'd save us. Now we're yours."

"But—but you can't be," Megan said, spluttering. Don't forget what you promised ran through her head. That day in the shower, after the zombie attack. She'd been trying to remember it all. She just hadn't put the pieces together. "You're, I mean, you've been very nice to me and all, but you're demons. I'm human. And I'm a psychological counselor. My job is to fight you, to help people get rid of you."

"You're not entirely human," Greyson mumbled.

"What?"

He leaned back, looking at his hand holding the stem of his wineglass as if the words he was about to speak were written on it. "You're not entirely human. The Accuser left some demon in you the first time you met him. And you kind of ... grew over it, I guess is the best description. You're not demon, but you have demon, if that makes sense. That's why you could bind them to you."

"Okay, either I haven't had enough to drink or you've had way too much," Megan said. "Or is this another fun little game of yours? Another round of ‘let's laugh at Megan'?"

"Are you going to use your head and listen to me, or are you going to keep up with this petty revenge?"

"You mean my mediocre mind?"

"Fucking—fuck!" Greyson stood up and threw his glass across the room. It shattered on the wall in an explosion of crystal shards, leaving a purplish stain on the damask wallpaper as the wine ran down. The others gasped. He glared at them, his face dull red.

"It's your vocabulary that impresses me most," Megan said.

Greyson shot her a dirty look and strode out of the room, slamming the heavy door behind him.

"Megan, don't you think you're being a bit hard on him?" Tera asked.

"I don't think I'm being hard enough," Megan snapped. "After what he did to me—"

"What, save your life?" Brian leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on the table. He still looked pale. "Megan, you do know he saved your life, don't you? You felt his energy bring you back?"

Greyson's energy. Greyson's line.

He'd kissed her before they entered the room, shoved his power into her body. Not to give her a boost, but to bind her to him somehow. To create the line.

She'd seen the flames. She'd seen the sparks die out right before she appeared in the personal demon's hall.

His energy sent her there, his line brought her back. She swallowed. "Brian. What did he tell you about tonight? How did he get you to come?"

"He told me you'd probably die if I didn't show up. He took my watch. I could focus on it, because it was mine. It's one of the ways my abilities work. With him wearing it, and me focused on it, he could let me know when I needed to be here. As soon as you guys finished eating he said it was time. I called Tera. And we came so I could do the power transfer."

" You came to do the power transfer," Tera said. " I came—with the other Vergadering—because Greyson told me at our meeting Thursday morning what he thought Templeton had planned and to be ready. When Brian called, I was expecting it, and so were they."

Of course. She'd known that watch Greyson wore wasn't his. She just hadn't been able to recall where she'd seen it before—on Brian's wrist, at the ball.

"That still doesn't excuse what he said to me," she mumbled.

"Megan, the man was fighting for both your lives," Tera said. "If Templeton found out what he'd done, he would have been killed, and so would you. You made it obvious how you felt. He had to do something to make Templeton think he didn't care about you. And to get you angry, since your power flares when you get mad. As you know."

"He used me. He seduced me to use my power to overthrow Templeton Black. He just wanted to take over the Meegra."

She smiled faintly for a moment. "He's going to have an awfully hard time taking over, after ratting Templeton out to us. He did that for you."

Megan couldn't remember ever feeling this bad about anything. "And I slapped him," she said.

"That was a pretty good slap, too," Brian said, looking very satisfied. "I didn't think you had it in you."

"You thought I might have killed somebody once," she said, but her mind wasn't on the argument.

"And you thought I was probably working for Bellingham and would write all sorts of horrible rumors about you in the magazine."

The smile came to her lips unbidden, but once it was there Megan discovered it felt good. She liked Brian, despite the differences they'd had, the differences they still had.

He smiled, too. "Call it even?"

She nodded, and he leaned over to plant a small kiss on her cheek. "It'll be a great article," he said.

"Oh. I'd forgotten about that."

"What? Oh, yeah, your profile. That will be great, but I'm thinking of the article I'll write about this. Art Bellingham, forcing the Fearbusters clients to perform dark occult rituals, almost killing them in the process ... and Megan Chase, Dr. Demon Slayer, rushing in to the rescue. With a little help from—" he glanced at Tera, who shook her head slightly. "A little help from me, and nobody who is supernatural in any way," he finished.