Jenna Black - The Devil Inside

It was very slight. If I hadn’t been watching so intently, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Lugh’s name meant something to Adam. It remained to be seen whether I could find out what.

He was silent for a long time after I’d finished. Deep in thought. At least, that’s how I interpreted the faraway look in his eyes. He could have been wondering what to eat for dinner for all I knew.

When he finished thinking, he reached for me, grabbing my hand before I knew what he was going to do.

“Hey!” I protested, trying to pull away.

“Hush,” he said, trapping my hand between both of his and closing his eyes.

I wanted to tell him exactly what he could do with his “hush,” but figured it wouldn’t do any good.

After maybe thirty seconds, he let go, opened his eyes, and shook his head.

“I can’t find him,” he said. “I believe you that he’s in there somewhere, or your bruise wouldn’t have healed, but your aura is overwhelming him.” He stood up and started to pace. “How can a human be that powerful?” I think he was talking to himself, but that didn’t stop me from answering.

“Are you asking how it’s possible for me to overwhelm any demon, or this one in particular?”

Surprise, surprise, he didn’t answer. Instead, he stopped his pacing right in front of my chair and looked down at me. I really wanted to stand up so I didn’t have to crane my neck like that, but I knew how much it would hurt and I just wasn’t up to it.

“So he wrote those notes to you while you were asleep, and he communicates with you through dreams, right?”

“Yeah.”

Adam nodded, the look on his face saying he’d reached a decision.

“Sorry about this,” he said.

Before I had a chance to get even vaguely alarmed, the back of his hand came out of nowhere and smacked into the side of my face with the force of a wrecking ball.

I came to, lying on my back, ready to be miserable. That had been one hell of a backhand. I braced myself for the pain, maybe even some queasiness and blurred vision. Surely he’d hit me hard enough for a concussion.

I realized I was unusually clearheaded for someone who’d just been knocked unconscious. Then I realized my face didn’t hurt. At all. I reached up and tentatively touched my cheek.

“ Lugh healed it while you were out.”

I turned my head toward the sound of Adam’s voice. I was lying on the bed, and he was sitting on one of the armchairs, his legs stretched out in front of him, hands clasped over his belly. He looked damn proud of himself.

I pushed up on my elbows, still tensed for pain and nausea, but I felt nothing.

“He healed your feet, too, though you should keep wearing the bandages just for show.”

Finally convinced that I would suffer no ill effects from Adam clobbering me, I sat up. I glared at him.

“You’d better tell me you exorcized him,” I growled.

“Sorry, no can do. He’s way out of my league.”

I groaned and lowered my head into my hands. Panic welled from deep inside my chest. I wanted this… creature …out of me. I wanted my life back. My gorge rose, and I wondered if I had a concussion after all. I swallowed hard, trying to force it all down, keep calm, keep sane.

How long did I have before Lugh found a way around my defenses and took me over completely? It seemed I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs. I sucked air frantically, my heart racing as fear beat at me from all sides.

Adam was suddenly beside me on the bed. His hand fastened on the back of my neck and he pushed my head down between my knees. I tried to resist, but he was far too strong.

“Easy now, love,” he said, still holding me down. “Breathe easy. Don’t pass out on me.”

Passing out seemed like a really good plan at that moment. Until I remembered that when I was unconscious, Lugh had free rein.

I forced myself to slow my breaths. I closed my eyes, concentrated, visualized taking the roiling panic, shoving it into a steel safe, and slamming the door shut on it.

I wasn’t sure how long that safe would hold, but I seemed to be calming. Adam released his grip on my neck and rubbed my back vigorously.

“Stop that,” I said as I slowly raised my head. My vision swam for half a second, then cleared. I was okay.

Yeah, everything was just peachy.

I hadn’t expected Adam to obey me, but he stopped rubbing my back and moved back to the chair he’d originally been sitting in.

“Better now?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Except for my overwhelming embarrassment at having fallen apart like that. Usually I’m a pro at hiding my feelings, delaying my reactions until I can have them in private. Then again, I’d never had to face my worst nightmare come true before. That can do funny things to a body’s insides.

I cleared my throat. “So am I, like, stuck with him until I die?” The panic beat at the door of the safe, but so far, it held.

“Likely,” Adam answered, and if I hadn’t known better, I would have called his voice gentle. “He’s very powerful, Morgan. I doubt there’s anyone, human or demon, who could cast him out. Even when he’s trying to cooperate.”

“Great. Just great.” I took a deep breath. “So who is he?” I looked up and locked gazes with Adam, whose expression gave away nothing. “Come on, Adam. I know you know who he is. You recognized his name when I said it.”

Adam looked chagrined. “I’ll have to work on my poker face.”

“Cut the crap and tell me who the hell is hitchhiking in my body!”

He licked his lips. “Let’s just say he’s a VIP and leave it at that.”

“Adam — ”

He held up a hand. “All right — let’s just say he outranks me and I’m not telling you unless he gives me the okay.” He grinned and made a fist with his right hand, pounding it into the palm of his left. “Would you like me to ask him?”

I flipped him the bird and he laughed. I wondered if backhanding me like that had satisfied his earlier desire to hurt me. I figured probably not, since I hadn’t actually been conscious long enough for it to hurt.

“Well, Adam, you’ve been a big help.” Not! “Thanks a lot. You can go about your business now.”

“Why do I get the feeling I’m being dismissed?”

“Um, because you are?”

His grin held a touch of evil. “Not that easy, love. There are people out there trying to kill you. Or had you forgotten?”

No, that’s not something I was likely to forget. “Your point being?”

“My point being this isn’t a good time to play Lone Ranger. I know how hot you are for independence, but you can’t do everything alone. And you definitely need help with this one.”

I sort of knew that, though I didn’t like it. “Are you offering?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Why? It’s not like we’re friends.” Actually, we were closer to enemies, I figured, but we hadn’t quite reached that stage yet. Though if he hit me again, that might be the last straw.

“No, we’re not. But I wouldn’t want anything to happen to Lugh.”

For reasons I didn’t want to examine, that stung. I hoped like hell it didn’t show on my face. “So what’s your plan?”

“First, we get you out of this hotel. This is not the place to go incognito.”

“You got a better suggestion?”

The predatory gleam in his eyes told me before he spoke that I wasn’t going to like the suggestion one bit.

“My place,” he said. And no, I didn’t like it.

“No fucking way.”

“No one would think to look for you there. And Dominic and I can watch your back.”

Bad enough to think about staying in a house with just Adam. Adam and Dominic together was just too much. Way too much.