“You were in my apartment? How? And why?”
Barbie, looking smug, came farther into the room, though she kept a healthy distance between herself and the temporarily disabled demon.
“I’m a private investigator,” Barbie reminded me. “About eighty percent of my job is convincing people to do things or tell me things they’re not supposed to. Saul’s staying at my place tonight and he needed an overnight bag. He’s still pissed about something you said to him, and didn’t want to run into you, so I agreed to go for him. The gentleman at the front desk of your building was very accommodating.”
Jessica’s harsh breaths were now even louder and faster, punctuated with little growling sounds that sounded more like anger than fear or pain. Barbie came closer.
“Hey, is she all right?” she asked.
Suddenly, Jessica’s leg kicked out, catching Barbie right in the shin. I heard the sickening crunch of breaking bone only seconds before Barbie screamed in pain.
And then Jessica was on me, punching, kicking, and clawing. For just a moment, Lugh and I both failed to recognize what was going on. Long enough for Jessica to lift me off my feet and toss me into the wall.
Lugh kept me from feeling any pain, but even he had the wind knocked out of him, and by the time he’d recovered, Jessica was on him again. But, of course, it wasn’t Jessica, it was Abraham.
Lugh managed to evade the punch that Jessica threw at his face. Which was a damn good thing, since that punch left a sizeable hole in the wall. Lugh threw both arms around Jessica, trying to pin her arms while dragging her to the floor beneath him. He was making at least a token effort not to kill Abraham’s current human host, but he’d underestimated Abraham’s strength.
Abraham broke Lugh’s grip, and I felt Lugh’s shock as we were once again airborne, heading for a wall. Lugh managed a patently nonhuman maneuver, executing a complicated twist and somersault in the air so that he managed to land on his feet instead of slamming into the wall.
Jessica’s mouth dropped open. “What the fuck?” she screamed, and I could see the mingled glows of madness and a demonic essence in her eyes. “You were exorcized!”
Lugh grinned at her, and I got the sick impression that he was rather enjoying himself. “Surprise!” he said, then charged Jessica again.
This time, he and Jessica hit the wall together. I was surprised it didn’t give way under the ferocious impact. Chunks of plaster rained down on us, but neither demon paid any attention. When they rolled free, locked together in mortal combat, Lugh was on top. He reached for Jessica’s throat, possibly meaning to try to break her neck, but he was once again surprised when she managed a tremendous burst of strength and flipped them both over.
As king of the demons, Lugh was necessarily one of the strongest among them all, but it seemed Abraham was able to hold his own.
Though my mind still resided within my body, there was a distinct separation between the two, seeing as how I had no control whatsoever. Nor, in this particular situation, did I have any desire to have control, because I would be dead in five seconds flat if I didn’t have Lugh’s demon strength.
Because I wasn’t driving, I was able to pay more attention to our peripheral vision than Lugh was. I’m sure he saw Barbie out of the corner of his eye, but his gaze didn’t even flick in her direction, his entire concentration focused on Jessica/Abraham. I, on the other hand, could see Barbie, her back propped against the wall, her face contorted with pain, loading a fresh cartridge into the Taser.
Abraham mirrored Lugh’s last move, going for his throat. Instead of trying to turn the tables again, Lugh grabbed for Abraham’s wrists, trying to hold him off. Which I suspected meant he was aware of Barbie after all—he was making sure Abraham stayed on top where he made an easier target.
The Taser popped again, the probes latching on and pumping fifty thousand volts into Jessica’s system. Powerful though he might be, Abraham reacted to that Taser shot just like any other demon: He lost control of his host’s body and went completely limp.
CHAPTER 29
Lugh pushed Jessica’s body to the side and sat up while I tried to figure out exactly what had happened. The unknown woman, Abraham’s host, had let go of Jessica’s ankle before Barbie Tasered her. When she’d collapsed, I’d been sure she wasn’t in contact with Jessica. So how the hell had Abraham ended up in Jessica?
He was in Jessica the whole time, Lugh said, and I knew he was right. Jessica had seemed a little… weird. Particularly when she swung at Lugh as if trying to knock the knife away. Yeah, she was supposed to be drugged out of her mind, but she’d still managed to gouge out some skin for evidence. Not a coincidence.
But if Abraham had been in Jessica all along, who was the woman with the gun? Whoever she was, she still lay in a heap on the floor, but her body was wracked with sobs.
“Now that I saved both your ass and your soul,” Barbie said, “do you think you’re ready to level with me?”
Lugh turned to her, though we were both keeping a careful eye on the two Taser victims, just in case. Even in the light of the single candle, I could see the sweat that coated Barbie’s face. Her eyes were squinched almost shut with pain, and her cheekbones stood out in stark relief.
I mentally reviewed everything Barbie had seen and heard, and it was not good news. She’d probably have been able to explain away the inexplicable quickness that had stopped me from stabbing Jessica, but not the strength it had taken for me to throw Jessica across the room, nor the midair acrobatics that had kept me from hitting the wall when Jessica threw me.
We’re screwed, I said to Lugh.
“I’ll get back to you in a moment,” Lugh said to Barbie. He grabbed my cell phone and quickly called Adam.
“What?” Adam said when he answered, sounding groggy and grumpy.
“I need your help, immediately,” he said, then rattled off the address. “Get here yesterday.”
Adam was instantly awake. “What’s going on?”
“Too much to explain. Just get down here. And get Raphael down here, too. We may need his inventive storytelling abilities.”
Adam must have realized he was speaking to Lugh, not me. If it had been me barking orders at him like that, he’d have balked. Instead, he hung up with a promise to be here ASAP.
“What, no ambulance?” Barbie asked.
“Not yet. We’re going to need Adam to be a bit creative about what happened here, so we need him here before anyone else.”
Her gaze was shrewd. “Because you need to hide that you’re somehow still possessed.”
“Among other things.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Lugh looked back and forth between the two Tasered women, and Barbie said, “Oh.”
He crossed the room to her, squatting by her side and dropping his voice to the softest of whispers. “Morgan will explain everything later,” he said.
I will?
“For now, just know that she and I don’t have the typical demon/host relationship.”
Are you sure about this? I asked.
Yes, was his succinct reply.
“When Adam arrives and my strength is no longer required,” he continued, “I will put Morgan back in control. She will no doubt become violently ill again, but that can’t be helped. Please contain your curiosity for now, and go along with whatever story Adam and Raphael—that’s Tommy Brewster’s demon—come up with.” He held out his hand for her to shake. “Deal?”
She managed a smile, though pain was written across her face. “I’d do just about anything to find out the real story behind all this. I’m just dying of curiosity.” She shook Lugh’s hand, and her palm was clammy with sweat. “If it’s all right with you, I’m going to pass out now.” And true to her word, her eyelids fluttered, and she slumped to the side. Lugh lowered her gently to the floor.