Demon's Vengeance The Complete - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,73

minutes, Gage,” Gideon warned.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard his footsteps retreating as he headed back toward the open shaft in the far wall that would take him to the basement level where the library was located.

You’re sure you don’t want that one killed?

“Yeah,” I snapped. “I’m sure.”

The demon chuckled and I shook my head. Exhaustion was taking its toll and the bed in the next room was starting to look appealing. Of course, I’d have to burn the sheets first, but I had a feeling my new little friend would be only too happy to help with that task. Fuck it. Even with fatigue leaving me trembling where I sat, I wasn’t sleeping here. I had a bed waiting for me that wasn’t watched over by a demon.

“I need to get out of here,” I muttered, slowly pushing to my feet.

Looking around, my eyes landed on the bookshelves in the far corner and some small bit of energy returned to me. If I was to have any hope of finding some spell or at least learning more control that would give me an edge over the Towers, there was a good chance it lay in Simon’s books. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time or energy to go searching through them tonight to find what I was looking for—not that I even knew what I was looking for at this point.

“How long did you watch Simon?” I asked as I walked over to the bookshelves. None of the books looked familiar to me, but then the bastard hadn’t let me touch his books while I was his apprentice. He believed that the best way for a young apprentice to learn was through watching and mimicking.

Time is difficult for me to judge, but I was here before you arrived as a child.

I nodded. “Could you help me find something? I need . . .” I started, but my words quickly drifted off, unsure of how to phrase my request.

Power, the demon whispered with a gleefulness that bit at my nerve endings like a jolt of electricity. You wish to take down the Towers. You wish for control and power. You wish for protection.

“Yes.”

Two books slid partially out from there they had been shelved, one at chest level and the other on the very top shelf. Grabbing both, I took them over to the table and looked at them. The first looked to be a spell book, but upon flipping through it, the spells all appeared to be extremely aggressive and lethal. The book was old, older than even my former mentor. Simon had either taken this from the library or stolen it from a colleague many years ago.

The second book was the disturbing one. It was all about demons.

“Why this one?” I looked up in the direction that I felt the demon hovering even though I couldn’t see it. “More information will give me the ability to control you better. Improve my edge over you. Wouldn’t that make it harder for you to eventually kill me?”

The demon’s amusement increased and it was like I could feel it smiling at me. Its presence drew closer so that it was surrounding me, but I didn’t feel crowded.

It is like a chess game.

“And I’m a pawn?” I growled.

No, in this case, I am the pawn.

“What?”

I have allowed myself to be taken so that greater things can happen in the future.

My heart started pounding as some part of my brain desperately scrambled to find a way out of the mess that I had created. “What are you talking about?” Had my attempts to ensnare and control the demon gotten me into an even bigger mess that I couldn’t escape? It was a hidden skill with me to constantly make things worse when I got involved.

She will claim her time with you soon. And if you’re not prepared, she will break you.

Lilith. When I’d encountered her in the Underworld this past summer, she’d been adamant about my being able to free her so that she could wreak havoc on the rest of the world.

“Why me?”

You have potential.

“Fabulous,” I muttered, suddenly feeling bone weary as hope of getting to the bottom of this dilemma quickly deflated. This conversation was getting me nowhere. I already knew that Lilith wanted to use me. I could only assume it was because she saw some kind of weakness within me that she could exploit.

Yes, it is. But as you will learn when you read, demons can read the