Demon's Vengeance The Complete - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,72
it.
What are your requirements, Master? the demon hissed at last, surprising me.
Master? This was a development that I wasn’t expecting. Master couldn’t be a word demons tossed about lightly. It couldn’t actually interpret this bargain I was trying to wring out of it as my beating it. But then, maybe I was beating it. I was forcing the demon to do my bidding.
“You will attack only who I say,” I commanded softly, trying to be careful in the event that Gideon was listening at the door. “You will not attack Gideon.”
Anyone else forbidden?
“Trixie, Bronx, and Sofie as well.” I didn’t expect my companions to walk through the door in the Towers, but I had to cover my ass in the event that some fucking witch or warlock got crafty. Besides, Sofie might be stuck as a cat, but the old witch did pop back to the Towers on occasion for information. I didn’t think she’d ever dare come into Simon’s rooms, but I didn’t want to risk her life.
Any other wishes?
“Back off. These rooms are mine now.”
The demon was quiet for a moment as if pondering my requests. The fierce, ruthless anger I had felt coming off it just seconds ago had diminished completely and all I felt was a kind of pensiveness.
Am I to be locked up completely like in your other rooms?
It was referring to the basement. The spell down there kept a much tighter leash on it, but then I’d been afraid of the power creeping up through the floorboards and attacking a client in the middle of a tattoo. Unexplained attacks and gruesome deaths were always bad for business.
“If you can agree to not attack me or those I have listed as untouchable, I will allow you to remain freer than at Asylum.”
Agreed.
As if to show that there were no hard feelings, the lights popped on around the room. Glass that shattered in the face of the demon’s rage drifted gently across the room, and reassembled into beakers, vials, and other sundry items as if nothing had ever happened. Not allowing myself to be distracted by the elegant display of power, I completed part of the closure spell I had started, trapping some of the demon’s powers. In comparison to what I had erected at Asylum, I was willing to estimate that the demon was now operating at only half power. Or rather, I hoped that it had access to only half of its powers.
My legs wobbled when I released the energy and I started to collapse toward the floor, but a cushioned ottoman shot across the room and caught me before I could hit the floor. This was just too weird.
“Gage?” Gideon called, reminding me that the warlock was waiting in the hall.
“I’m alive,” I shouted back. My body ached as if I had pulled several muscles trying to lift something I had no business lifting. But then, I guess that was only natural when you went a couple rounds with a demon. No, that was wrong. You go a couple rounds with a demon, and your intestines get strung up around the room like Christmas lights. This was what it felt like when you went a couple rounds with a demon that needed you alive.
I heard the rattle of the door handle as the warlock tried to open the door. My hand shot out and I reinforced the lock, keeping him barred from the room. “Don’t come in. I can’t shut down the spell. Simon still has it tuned to me so I can be in here, but anyone else coming in will be shredded.”
“What kind of spell? Maybe I can help unravel it,” Gideon offered.
“I’m not sure. I need to dig through his notes and try to find it,” I lied. Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep breath, pushing down the self-loathing that rose up like bile in the back of my throat. “I’ve got it so it can’t leak out of the room anymore. Go down to the library and I’ll meet you in a few minutes.”
I waited in the tense silence, listening to the pounding of my heart in my ears. I was terrified that the warlock was going to force his way in. The demon might say that he wasn’t going to attack Gideon, but I could still feel it coiled just past my shoulder as if waiting to launch itself across the room. Demons couldn’t lie, but they were great at half-truths and finding loopholes in agreements.