He glanced over his shoulder to see Choo Co La Tah there. "What's going on?"
Abigail went for Jess's throat with a force so fierce, she forced them both off the bed.
Jess caught her, but it was a struggle to keep her from biting him. Dang, she was strong. Inhumanly strong. He had to turn her around in his arms, and he held her there with her back pressed to him while she shrieked in outrage.
Choo Co La Tah crossed the room and took her face in his hands. He began chanting something Jess couldn't understand while Abigail fought him with everything she had. She slammed her head back into his, knocking him senseless. Still, he held on to her even while his jaw burned.
Her struggles increased until she let out another fierce scream. An instant later, she collapsed.
He lifted her up into his arms and cradled her against him once more. Her skin was suddenly so cold, it scared him. Was she all right? He returned her to bed while Choo Co La Tah continued with his melodic chant.
Her breathing was coming in short, hard gasps now.
Choo Co La Tah forced him away from the bed so that he could place one palm on her forehead. After a few seconds, she calmed down and appeared to sleep.
With his hands on his hips, Jess scowled. "What was that?"
"They have merged her blood with a demon's."
That hit him like another blow to the head, which was the last thing he needed. His senses were rattled as much as if he'd taken a header off a bronco onto a fence. "Come again?"
Choo Co La Tah nodded. "One could surmise that they thought to strengthen her abilities by combining her DNA with a demon's."
Now, that was about dumb. But then, most people weren't rocket scientists, and he could see an idiot Daimon thinking they'd found an upper hand by using her that way.
But damn, he'd have figured Abigail for having more sense than to try something so boneheaded.
Obviously not.
"So the demon's controlling her?"
Choo Co La Tah shook his head. "The demon is dead. Demons can control someone only when they're alive, and normally when the demon dies, the control over the person is broken. But this ... They did something else to cause her to have the powers, and I don't know what it is."
"Beautiful." Well, at least that explained how she had the power to kill a Dark-Hunter. "Can she convert one of us if she bites us?"
Choo Co La Tah nodded grimly. "If her fangs are showing and she mixes her blood with anyone, it will bring them under her complete control. And the demon inside her will crave that control. The longer it's in there, the hungrier she'll become for a victim."
That was the scariest thought of all. "So what do we do?"
"We must get her to the Valley as soon as we can and perform the ritual."
"Then she'll be all right?"
Choo Co La Tah refused to answer-which could mean only one thing.
Abigail would die.
Abigail felt her heart rate slow down as she fell through a dark mist. Images flashed through her mind. She saw her parents again. Heard them laughing.
Suddenly, she found herself as a small child on the floor with Sundown, who was smiling at her. Dressed in a black button-down shirt and jeans, he wore his hair shorter, and he was freshly shaved. Still, he was devastating to look at, especially when he smiled.
"Now, look, Abby, you send the bunny under the bush and then down around the rabbit hole. Like this."
She watched in awe as he tied her red princess ballet bedroom shoe. "That's not a bunny, silly, that's a lace."
His smile widened but not so much that he showed his fangs. "Yeah, but we're pretending," he whispered like it was a big secret.
"Oh." She tried to repeat it with the other shoe.