Like both Knox’s home and their lair’s prison, it was safeguarded by a myriad of spells that kept the prisoner contained and stopped anyone from teleporting inside. In addition, each of those spells were covered with protective wards to prevent them from unraveling.
“Did she give you much trouble?” Knox asked Derek as they all turned down a long, carpeted hallway.
“A little, but nothing we couldn’t handle,” replied Derek.
“Is anyone with her now?”
“No, but we’ve been monitoring her from the office through the camera.” Derek grimaced. “We noticed something.”
“What?”
“Well, she was sobbing for a while, rocking forward and backward while sitting in the corner with her legs tucked up to her body. Then, at one point, she stopped. Went completely still. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, said she was ‘done.’ And then her demon surfaced. It has been driving the wheel ever since, so to speak.”
Entering the security office, they crossed straight to the monitor that was linked to the camera in the detention room. Muriel was standing near the rear wall, her back straight, her chin high … and her eyes pure black.
“Thank you for your assistance, Derek. We’ll take it from here.” There was no bloodthirst in Knox’s voice, and Tanner knew the Prime hated that he’d have to kill this person who’d been through more than anyone should ever have to endure.
Levi opened the door, and all three of them filed inside. Knox stood directly opposite Muriel while Tanner and Levi flanked him. And it was right then, as Tanner stared the demon in the eye and saw the malicious gleam there, that his instincts went on high alert and his hound let out a snarl.
Tanner froze. So did the others, which meant they’d obviously sensed what he and his hound had: Muriel hadn’t just retreated to allow her demon to surface temporarily. No, Muriel had given her demon full-control. She’d turned rogue.
Fuck.
This wasn’t good. Not at all. The entities were all essentially cold, unfeeling psychopaths. But sharing their soul with an actual person gave them a sense of balance. Without that balance, without an element of goodness touching their souls, they were as close to pure evil as anything could get.
Rogue demons weren’t insane in the literal sense, but they didn’t behave rationally … purely because they didn’t want to. They would kill without thought or discrimination. Would just as easily slaughter or torture an infant as they would an adult, and they wouldn’t even need a motive to do so.
It wasn’t that they became rampant serial killers who craved the sight of blood … But they were always looking for the next high—something they got from drugs, alcohol, destruction, inflicting pain, causing misery, and stealing the lives of others.
Many people died whenever a rogue was on the loose. They cared for nothing, couldn’t be reasoned with or controlled. Didn’t care if their actions attracted the attention of humans.
There was only one way to deal with a rogue: you had to kill it.
“Thorne,” the demon greeted, its tone flat and cold.
“I’d like to talk to Muriel,” said Knox.
The demon lifted its chin slightly. “Muriel is gone—you can sense that much for yourself.”
Recalling what Derek told them about how Muriel claimed she was “done,” Tanner said, “She willingly handed over control to you, didn’t she?”
“She was done with this world,” it replied. “Too weak to handle it. She knew I was stronger.”
“She gave over control to you because she didn’t want to deal with us herself,” Knox corrected. “She was escaping the consequences of her actions. It was cowardly, really.”
The demon shrugged one shoulder, clearly not giving a hot shit what they thought.
“What happened to Royal Foreman?” asked Knox.
A glimmer of humor briefly glittered in its obsidian eyes. “You will find him eventually. I doubt you will like the state you find him in.”
“Did you help her kill him and the others?”
“No. She wanted to punish the boys herself.”
“For voting for her?”
“Yes. They all did it at least once, aside from Foreman.”
But Muriel had still killed him. Tanner wondered if that meant she’d developed a taste for killing. After all, demons craved power. There was no greater power than that over whether someone lived or died.
“Dale didn’t try to protect her from the tutors?” asked Levi.
“No,” said the demon, its voice seeming even flatter than before. “He never offered to go in her place. Never told her not go to the dorm. Never tried to help her. He even voted for her more than once.