Jenna Black - Speak of the Devil

A shiver ran up and down my spine as an ugly suspicion hit me. Tell me we’re not actually going to kill her .

That may be the only way to get Abraham relaxed enough for me to take him by surprise .

But—

Remember, as far as Jessica knows, she caused Maguire’s demon to be executed in a fit of jealousy. This is not an inappropriate punishment .

Oh, so now you’re going all Old Testament on me, are you?

I guess my subconscious desire not to be sick as a dog for the foreseeable future had helped me resurrect at least some of my mental barriers, because I actually felt it when Lugh tried to take over. Reflexively, I fought him.

“Get over here!” Abraham barked. “If I have to tell you again, then I’ll go to Plan B, which you’ve already indicated you don’t like.”

Moving while fighting to keep Lugh out of control was almost impossible. However, in my already weakened state, keeping Lugh out was entirely impossible. Between one step and the next, my free will was taken from me.

I understood Lugh’s point. In a rational, logical way, I knew he was right, and we had to kill Jessica Miles if that’s what it took. It might be our only chance to stop Abraham—our only chance that he might lower the gun, or at least waver in his aim so that if he shot us, it wasn’t in the head. Lugh could heal most gunshot wounds, and with the element of surprise on our side, he was likely to be able to overpower Abraham even wounded.

No matter how logical it was, I couldn’t bear the idea of killing someone in cold blood.

I’m doing it, not you , Lugh reminded me, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it.

Lugh continued to follow Abraham’s orders and knelt by Jessica’s head. She took a weird, awkward swing at him. Maybe she was hoping to knock the knife out of his hand, but she hit the wrong arm. Her nails managed to dig in, though, conveniently getting my skin under them as further evidence that I was her murderer.

“To answer your earlier question,” Abraham said, looking a little wild-eyed, “Brennus and I were rivals in love—several times, actually—and I never came out the winner.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Lugh mumbled.

“Shut up!” Abraham snarled, and the gun wavered slightly. But not enough—and based on the madness in his eyes, we were out of time.

“I’m sorry, Jessica,” Lugh said, and his knife arm started to swing down toward her back.

A bunch of things happened at once then. There was the distinctive sound of a Taser pop, coming from the hallway outside. Abraham’s body jerked spastically. Losing his grip both on the gun and on Jessica’s ankle, he crumpled into a heap. And Lugh, with his demon-quick reflexes, managed to arrest his swing just short of Jessica’s back.

Lugh turned toward the doorway, where Barbie was ejecting the spent Taser cartridge. She smiled at us, though her eyes were a little too wide, and her hands were shaking.

“Whew,” she said. “That was close.”

“What are you doing here?” Lugh asked.

Let me back in , I demanded.

And how will you explain to Barbie why you’re fine one moment and puking your guts out the next?

Argh, he had a point there. I hoped the amount of time he remained in control didn’t contribute too much to the misery level I’d suffer when I was back in the driver’s seat.

Barbie shrugged, trying to look casual. She almost succeeded, too. “It was nice of you to leave that note with all the details sitting on your dining room table. Made it real easy for me to find you.”

Behind me, Jessica was breathing hard, like she’d just run a marathon, but Lugh didn’t seem too interested in her panic attack, or whatever it was. Instead, he said exactly what I was thinking.

“You were in my apartment? How? And why?”

Barbie, looking smug, came farther into the room, though she kept a healthy distance between herself and the temporarily disabled demon.

“I’m a private investigator,” Barbie reminded me. “About eighty percent of my job is convincing people to do things or tell me things they’re not supposed to. Saul’s staying at my place tonight and he needed an overnight bag. He’s still pissed about something you said to him, and didn’t want to run into you, so I agreed to go for him. The gentleman at the front desk of your building was very accommodating.”

Jessica’s harsh breaths were now even louder and faster, punctuated with little growling sounds that sounded more like anger than fear or pain. Barbie came closer.

“Hey, is she all right?” she asked.

Suddenly, Jessica’s leg kicked out, catching Barbie right in the shin. I heard the sickening crunch of breaking bone only seconds before Barbie screamed in pain.

And then Jessica was on me, punching, kicking, and clawing. For just a moment, Lugh and I both failed to recognize what was going on. Long enough for Jessica to lift me off my feet and toss me into the wall.

Lugh kept me from feeling any pain, but even he had the wind knocked out of him, and by the time he’d recovered, Jessica was on him again. But, of course, it wasn’t Jessica, it was Abraham.

Lugh managed to evade the punch that Jessica threw at his face. Which was a damn good thing, since that punch left a sizeable hole in the wall. Lugh threw both arms around Jessica, trying to pin her arms while dragging her to the floor beneath him. He was making at least a token effort not to kill Abraham’s current human host, but he’d underestimated Abraham’s strength.

Abraham broke Lugh’s grip, and I felt Lugh’s shock as we were once again airborne, heading for a wall. Lugh managed a patently nonhuman maneuver, executing a complicated twist and somersault in the air so that he managed to land on his feet instead of slamming into the wall.

Jessica’s mouth dropped open. “What the fuck?” she screamed, and I could see the mingled glows of madness and a demonic essence in her eyes. “You were exorcized! ”

Lugh grinned at her, and I got the sick impression that he was rather enjoying himself. “Surprise!” he said, then charged Jessica again.

This time, he and Jessica hit the wall together. I was surprised it didn’t give way under the ferocious impact. Chunks of plaster rained down on us, but neither demon paid any attention. When they rolled free, locked together in mortal combat, Lugh was on top. He reached for Jessica’s throat, possibly meaning to try to break her neck, but he was once again surprised when she managed a tremendous burst of strength and flipped them both over.

As king of the demons, Lugh was necessarily one of the strongest among them all, but it seemed Abraham was able to hold his own.

Though my mind still resided within my body, there was a distinct separation between the two, seeing as how I had no control whatsoever. Nor, in this particular situation, did I have any desire to have control, because I would be dead in five seconds flat if I didn’t have Lugh’s demon strength.

Because I wasn’t driving, I was able to pay more attention to our peripheral vision than Lugh was. I’m sure he saw Barbie out of the corner of his eye, but his gaze didn’t even flick in her direction, his entire concentration focused on Jessica/Abraham. I , on the other hand, could see Barbie, her back propped against the wall, her face contorted with pain, loading a fresh cartridge into the Taser.

Abraham mirrored Lugh’s last move, going for his throat. Instead of trying to turn the tables again, Lugh grabbed for Abraham’s wrists, trying to hold him off. Which I suspected meant he was aware of Barbie after all—he was making sure Abraham stayed on top where he made an easier target.