What on earth was going on?
Lou wore no expression, just nodded, his arms still outspread as the demon held on to his shoulders.
“I don’t like this,” Derek whispered.
Lou closed his eyes, and a strong wind kicked up, blowing his hair back, pressing his clothes to his body. The demon mimicked Lou’s stance and it was like looking at two mirrored objects.
Suddenly, the demon moved closer to Lou, then against him. They were face-to-face now. Lou’s eyes were still closed, their noses were almost touching.
And then the demon disappeared.
Inside Lou!
Angelique blinked, so shocked it took her a few seconds to find her voice. She looked over at Ryder, who seemed as stunned as she was.
“What just happened?” she asked, turning to Michael.
“Lou absorbed the demon,” Michael said, his mouth set in a grim line.
From the grimace on Michael’s face, whatever had just happened wasn’t good. Yet Michael had done nothing to stop it.
“What the hell does that mean?” Mandy asked, frowning. “That thing just slid right into him.” Mandy went to Lou, who still had his eyes closed, still hadn’t moved yet. She turned back to Michael. “Is he. . all right?”
“Leave him alone, Mandy,” Michael said.
“Now what?” Ryder asked.
“Now we wait. It shouldn’t take long.”
Wait for what? “Is the demon actually inside him?” Angelique asked.
Michael nodded.
Lou opened his eyes. They were as blue as the demon had been, no longer Lou’s natural eye color.
Lou laid his arms at his sides, breathed deeply in and exhaled. “I don’t have much time,” he said, his gaze focused on Michael.
“Understood,” Michael said.
“What’s he talking about?” Mandy asked. “We need to do something.”
“We are going to do something. We need to kill him.”
“What?” Angelique couldn’t believe what Michael had just said.
“No.” Mandy shook her head. “That’s not what we do.”
Michael lowered his head. “In this instance, it’s what we must do.”
Pain stabbed Angelique’s stomach. She looked at Lou, who seemed to wear an expression of utter calm and peace. Surely he didn’t expect them to. .
“I don’t fucking think so,” Derek said, leveling his gun, then lowering it again. He turned to Michael. “How do we get that thing out of him?”
“We don’t,” Michael said. “Not while Lou’s alive.”
“This is bullshit,” Mandy said, her gaze flitting from Michael, then back at Lou. “Surely you don’t expect us to-”
Mandy reached out and touched Lou’s arm. A zap of something blue, like electricity, shot from Lou onto Mandy’s hand. The shock made her cry out, snatch her hand back.
“What the hell?” Mandy asked, looking down at the redness on her hand, then back at Lou.
“I’m sorry,” Lou said, his jaw clenched tight. “I can’t help it. It’s very strong. I can’t hold out much longer.”
“Lou retrieved the demon from the black diamond,” Michael said, his voice picking up a sense of urgency. “It was the only way. Now we have to destroy it.”
“By killing him, and the demon along with it,” Ryder finished for him.
“Yes.”
Angelique refused to believe this. Destroying a Keeper? They were rare and valued.
“Do it.” Lou’s voice was filled with strain, the same he showed on his features. “Hurry.”
“We all know that our jobs aren’t always easy,” Michael said. “But we do what’s necessary to destroy the Sons of Darkness and all they represent. Lou knew it might come to this someday. He’s accepted it.”
“No.” Mandy croaked the word.
“I’m not doin’ it,” Punk said.
“Please,” Lou pleaded. “I can’t hold it in here much longer.”
“It’s now or never,” Michael said.
“You do it,” Derek said, his jaw tight.
Michael shook his head. “I can’t. As a Keeper, it’s forbidden.”
“Goddamit. Lou?” Derek turned to him.
Lou shook his head, his body shuddering now.
With a deep sigh, Derek raised his gun. Punk muttered a curse and did the same. Mandy followed suit, her eyes filled with moisture. Reluctantly, they all pointed their lasers at Lou, but no one seemed willing to pull the trigger. Angelique already knew she wouldn’t be the one to destroy a human.
Lou was sweating with the effort to hold the demon inside him. His chin rested on his chest, his hands clenched into tight fists.
“Please.”
Lou’s single word was a whispered plea.
Maybe it was her imagination, but she saw that demon shimmering inside him. Trying to get out, maybe?
Oh, no. That couldn’t happen.
Angelique didn’t know who shot first. Maybe that was a good thing. A split second later, they were all firing, blue light hitting Lou square in the chest. He jerked back, his entire body shuddering violently with the impact.
Tears streaked down Angelique’s face as she watched the destruction of a human being. She wanted to cover her face and not watch, to sob at the savagery of the act, but she knew what was being done was necessary in order to kill a demon. Lou had made the ultimate sacrifice, one she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to make.
When they stopped, there was nothing left of Lou, or the demon that had taken up residence inside him.
Afterward, there were no words. With zero emotion showing on her face, Mandy shouldered her weapon, pivoted, and walked away. Derek dropped his head down and Gina laced her fingers with his, tears streaming down her face.
The grief was palpable.
It was over. Lou was dead. And so was the demon inside him. The black diamond sat on the ground, now a lifeless dark rock.
Ryder wrapped his arm around her and lifted her chin.
“Are you all right?”
“No. I’m miserable. Why did this have to happen?”
“I don’t know, darlin’. It sucks. But at least that thing inside the black diamond is dead.” Ryder turned to Michael. “It is dead, isn’t it?”
Michael nodded, his expression grim. “The demon’s dead.”
And so was Lou. She hated even thinking it. It made her hurt all over.
“Let’s go,” Michael said. “I’ll debrief you all when we get back to the Realm headquarters.”
Angelique inhaled on a shudder, then allowed Ryder to lead them back to the vehicles.
One of the SUV’s was missing. “Where’s the other car?” she asked.