Meljean Brook - Demon Marked

Fucking demons. His finger tightened on the crossbow trigger. As if she heard the movement, her gaze fell to his hand.

“I’d be grateful if you wouldn’t,” she said. “I’d rather not die.” Bullshit. She didn’t sound grateful or concerned.

“What happens if you die?” He let curiosity lighten his tone, as if he was considering pulling the trigger just to find out. Let her sweat. “Do you return to Hell?”

“I don’t know.” She watched him steadily. No sweating. Dammit. “Nicholas, I need your help. Somehow, I’m connected to Madelyn St. Croix, just as Rachel was. And your mother—”

“She’s not my mother,” he stated flatly. The idea sent fury through his veins, but he wouldn’t let her see that.

Her brows rose. “Then who is she?”

“A demon.”

“A demon,” she echoed. Something sparked in her eyes. Excitement ? Whatever it was, the emotion quickly vanished. “Is that what I am?”

“Yes.”

“And you are, too? You seem to suffer the same lack of affect that I do.”

The demon probably intended that observation to hurt him, to make him question his humanity, but to Nicholas, it only showed that she couldn’t read his emotions. Good. Rosalia’s tutelage had paid off there, too. She’d taught him to guard his mind—and obviously she’d done it well enough, as this demon couldn’t sense anything that he didn’t want to give her.

“I’m human,” he said.

“How can you tell?” Her gaze searched his face, as if looking for the differences. When he didn’t answer, she asked, “Was Rachel a demon, too?”

Oh, that was clever. Introduce doubt about Rachel, throw him off-kilter. Too bad Nicholas had already considered the possibility that Rachel had been Madelyn’s lackey all along.

Considered the possibility and discarded it. He’d been skinto-skin with her too many times. She’d been human—and the only reason the idea had ever occurred to him was because it could assuage his guilt. If she’d been a demon and her death had been a setup designed by Madelyn, then Nicholas had nothing to be sorry for. An attractive thought, but not true. He preferred to live with his regret rather than blame Rachel.

“Try again,” he said.

She didn’t. Almost dismissively, she looked away from Nicholas and scanned the room. “Are any of Rachel’s things still here?”

“No.” He had a few items, including the overnight bag she’d packed for the weekend they’d intended to spend together—Madelyn had shot her before they’d left town. The rest of Rachel’s belongings had been returned to her family. “Her parents took them back to the States. Why?”

“If you can’t help me, perhaps they can.” She touched the steel collar. “So let me go, and I’ll leave you alone.”

Not a fucking chance, especially if she truly meant to see Rachel’s parents. Goddamned demons. If this was a threat, she’d chosen the perfect one.

Unlike the police and the press, Rachel’s parents had believed Nicholas. When he’d told them that Rachel had thrown herself in front of him, they hadn’t asked what Nicholas had done to deserve such a sacrifice; they’d only said Rachel’s selfless act was exactly what they’d have expected from her. And though they hadn’t understood how her body had disappeared any better than Nicholas had, they’d believed that, too.

And they were still looking for her. If this demon showed up at their home, no doubt they’d welcome her with open arms and call it a miracle.

The Boyles didn’t deserve that. They’d suffered enough. No way in hell would Nicholas let a demon arrive at their house wearing their dead daughter’s face. But he couldn’t let her know that he felt the need to protect Rachel’s family from her, because she’d use it against him.

Nicholas focused on how he intended to use the demon, instead. “So you want me to just let you walk away?” He shook his head. “The way I see it, you’re the last person to have contact with Madelyn. That means you’re my best chance of finding her. Where is she?”

“I don’t know.”

And he wouldn’t get anywhere as long as she kept lying. All right, then. He’d call her bluff. She wanted to know who she really was? He’d discover how much she’d risk to find out.

“Okay.” He lowered the crossbow. “Then I propose a bargain: You help me track Madelyn down, and I’ll help you discover who you are.”

She hesitated. Damn right she did. A bargain was the most dangerous agreement a demon could make. Any party to a bargain that didn’t follow through on the terms would find their soul trapped in Hell’s frozen field when they died, tortured for eternity. A human who didn’t fulfill the terms would be trapped, too, but Nicholas was willing to take that risk to find Madelyn.

An emotion that might have been wariness entered her voice. “What would the bargain entail, exactly?”

“As I said. You use the knowledge you have to help me find the demon who impersonated my mother. And no lying to me for as long as we’re bound together—that’s part of this bargain. You can’t conceal information about the demon who pretended to be Madelyn, or anything that might lead me to her. Every relevant bit of info, no matter how trivial, you give to me the moment you think of it. In return, I’ll help you discover who you are.”

“I won’t be of use to you. I don’t know where Madelyn is,” she said.

Hedging, delaying. Nicholas hadn’t expected anything different. He raised the crossbow again. “So that’s a no .”

“No, I didn’t say that.” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead, as if forcing herself to think. Rachel used to do the same, but her eyes had never begun turning crimson as this demon’s eyes were. “I just . . . I’ve entered into a bargain before. I don’t know what . But I know that it’s not something I should do quickly. So I’m telling you now that you’ll be disappointed, because I don’t have answers for you.”

No. She was telling him now because if she entered into the bargain, she couldn’t lie.

“I don’t care,” Nicholas said. “If you don’t know where she is now, you can still agree to help. And I’ll help you in return.”

“What if we don’t find Madelyn or discover who I am?”

“It only matters that we help each other, not that we succeed. It only matters that you don’t conceal information or lie.”

She nodded. God, what a terrible bargainer she was. She hadn’t asked the same from him—probably because finding out who she was didn’t really matter.

It mattered to him. If she was telling the truth and didn’t know who Madelyn was, then tracing this demon’s history might lead him to Madelyn, anyway. They were obviously connected.

The glow receded from her eyes, leaving them clear and blue. “And if we fail, are we stuck together for the rest of our lives?”

“If we exhaust every possibility, we’ll agree to release each other from the bargain,” he said. Even if they never did, her life would be much longer than his. Surely her immortality was a detail that every demon couldn’t forget. “So, you help me, and I’ll help you. Are we agreed? You have to say it.”

She took a deep breath before slowly nodding. “Yes. We have a bargain.”

She’d actually agreed? Nicholas stared at her, replaying each step, making certain he hadn’t missed anything. He hadn’t expected that she’d go through with it. But she’d said it clearly: Yes.

Surprise shifted to triumph. He had her.

“Are you Madelyn?” But no, that was the wrong question. She might not be able to lie, but technically, the demon he sought had never been Madelyn St. Croix; she’d just stolen a human woman’s identity. He clarified, “Are you the demon who impersonated my mother?”