Make Me (22 page)

“Yes, I do. We need all the weapons we can get, and she’s a formidable one.”

“No,” Tessa said. “Micah is the only one who can control her.”

“Micah’s not the only one,” I said, staring pointedly at David. “David’s an incubus, too, so he can control her. He’ll come by tonight and pick her up. Along with anyone else who wants to help find Micah.”

I hung up and David sighed and shook his head. “How did you know I’m an incubus?”

“I figured it out when I tried to control you at Dina’s club. I couldn’t. Just like Micah.”

“Yes,” he said, “But I don’t like to use my ability. It’s what caused this.” He made a sharp gesture toward the burned half of his face.

“But you’ll do it to help us.” It was a statement, not a question.

He closed his eyes. “Don’t make me do this. Can’t you find something in the books?”

“I tried, believe me, but they were no help.”

“Try again,” he insisted.

I sighed. “Okay, I’ll try again. Can we do it in your room?” I asked Austin. I didn’t want to go back to the adjoining rooms I’d shared with Jack.

“Of course.”

We rode up to the elegant suite and David looked around appreciatively. “So this is how the other half lives,” he murmured, making me wonder what kind of home he and Pia had. Did they live together? I didn’t even know that much about the two of them.

THEY DO ALL RIGHT, Fang said. STOP STALLING AND THREATEN THE BOOKS SO WE CAN GET MOVING.

For some dumb reason, that made me smile. But the smile faded when I swung the backpack up on Austin’s pristine table and saw the stains on the strap. Blood. Jack’s blood.

Austin whipped it away from me. “I’ll get you another one,” he said and unzipped the bag to dump everything out on the table.

At once, one of the books vibrated and glowed—my cosmic messaging device again. Austin and David backed up, looking a little freaked out.

“It’s okay,” I assured them. “It’s for me.”

I grabbed the book and glared at it. “If you dare show me that same damned spell, I’ll… I’ll…” I couldn’t think of anything bad enough that wouldn’t take me and half of Texas out with it. “I’ll stake you.” That might hurt it a little anyway.

I opened the book and watched as it flipped pages until it landed at the glowing one. I leaned down to read it. “Huh.” It was very simple. For some reason, I’d expected it to be more complicated.

“What is it?” Austin asked as David moved forward eagerly.

“It’s a spell for exorcising demons.” Now that might come in handy.

David backed away abruptly. “What does that mean, exorcise a demon? Would it just take out the demon part, leave us as a vegetable, kill us?”

“I don’t know.” I read through it silently at first. “It doesn’t say, but there are no time limitations listed. Shall I take it?”

“I don’t know,” David said. “It sounds dangerous.”

Yeah, it did. Good. “Dangerous for the creep who kidnapped my friends,” I said with satisfaction. I began to read aloud.

“No,” David said. “Stop. You don’t know what it’ll do to you.”

“It’s okay, Jack read from the book and it didn’t hurt him.” Someone else had done that. “And it won’t affect my abilities until I actually use the spell.”

“Leave her be,” Austin said, grasping David’s arm and pulling him away. “Let her do what she has to do.”

SMART MAN, Fang said approvingly.

So you think it’s okay to take this spell?

I THINK IT’S THE ONLY SHOT WE HAVE.

Yeah. I read the spell aloud, each word making the hairs on my body stand up and tingle, as if tiny ants ran up and down my body. “Demon thou art, demon thou shalt not be. Say it times three, I exorcise thee.”

I felt a great swell of… something… as the hair on my head lifted and blew wildly in an invisible wind. Then the spell settled somewhere beneath my breastbone. The tension and wind vanished, but the spell burned in my gut like a case of magickal indigestion. Strange. Now all I had to do was say “I exorcise thee” three times, and the spell would work.

“The words are gone,” Austin said in wonder.

Sure enough, they were no longer on the page.

“So, you don’t need me to bring—go to San Antonio,” David said, sounding relieved.

“Sorry, David, you still have to go.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know how this power works exactly, and I’d rather use something I know and save this one for backup.” Besides, two aces in the hole were better than one. “Please, David, help me save my friends. Save Micah. Isn’t that why you came to me, to protect us? Micah’s one of us.”

He scowled, but said nothing. Did that mean he agreed?

HE DOESN’T WANT TO, BUT HE’LL GO, Fang told me as David pulled out his phone to text something.

Austin nodded at the books. “That spell. What if you don’t use it? Can you give it back?”

“I don’t know. Jack never—” I stopped and swallowed hard, fighting back tears. “Jack never told me how to get rid of one.” But he’d done it, somehow, when I became the keeper.

David backed away, looking frightened. “Then whatever you do, don’t say that three times.”

“Can it be as simple as that?” Austin asked.

“I don’t know,” David said, “but I don’t want to test it.”

Neither did I.

JACK TOLD US SPELLS LIKE THIS REQUIRE NOT ONLY THE WORDS, BUT A FOCUSED WILL ON THE SUBJECT IN QUESTION, Fang reminded us.

Yeah. I’m sure that made us all feel better. Except for one thing. I could feel the spell deep inside, lying there like a dark blot on my soul, waiting to be invoked.

And oh so willing.

After a little while, his headache began to recede, so Micah wondered how he could get out of this. What would his father do? Disgusted with himself, Micah shook his head. No, he had to stop using his father as his benchmark and think for himself. He had good instincts—he just needed to trust them.

So, what were his options? As he saw it, there were only two: lie here like a slug and wait for things to happen, or escape and save Gwen and Princess. Or the hellhound, at least. He didn’t know what to do about Gwen and her predicament.

ESCAPE? Princess said, sounding hopeful.

It was worth a shot anyway. Micah glanced around the room, looking for options. Maybe the windows. He hadn’t considered them an option before, because neither he nor Gwen could fit through the narrow space. But maybe Princess could.

He checked them out. Nope. They were boarded up tight on the outside. Even if he could break the glass and the boards, it would be noisy. “Are they still upstairs?” he asked the hellhound.

YES. I HEAR THEM WALKING.

All right. He’d save that for later, then. For now he’d consider every other option available. What could he do? Knock out the bulb and use the glass to slash the demon’s carotid? Tear out a stud and use protruding nails to bash in Asmodeus’s head? He liked that idea, but admitted it wasn’t realistic. Asmodeus would probably send Lilith down again, knowing Micah wouldn’t dare hurt Gwen’s body.

He daydreamed about several other fantastic scenarios, but all of them depended on a miracle occurring and none of them were feasible. So, what could he use to his advantage? His incubus power wouldn’t work on Asmodeus or on Lilith. And there weren’t any other women around—or were there?

He sat bolt upright. Wait a minute. He didn’t actually have to see a woman to control her. “Do you know where we are?” he asked the hellhound.

NO.

“You had to see something as he brought us into the house. Are we out in the country in an isolated house, or in a city neighborhood?”

CITY, Princess said.

Good. Then maybe he could do something.

YOU WILL SAVE US? the spaniel asked plaintively.

“I’m sure gonna try.” He laid back down and shut his eyes. “But please be quiet.” This was going to take some concentration.

Micah hadn’t gone this long before without feeding on female energy, and he needed to take the edge off. With luck, that hunger should make it easier to find what he needed. He centered himself, then sent out thin, questing tendrils, seeking a woman, any woman. The tendrils brushed against Gwen/Lilith upstairs, but bounced off. Asmodeus still had her firmly under his control.

Concentrating harder, Micah wafted them out farther, hoping they would go beyond the bounds of the house. This was farther than he’d ever tried to go before, but it seemed to be working.

There. He found a woman. He reached for her energy, but she moved too fast and the energy was torn from his grasp. Damn. She must have been in a car.

So, if that was the street, there should be houses on the other two sides. He reached in both directions with his hands and mind, willing the strands to find someone who could help. Up on the right, he felt something. A woman asleep?

He jumped up and ran to the wall, flattening his hands against it, and concentrating all his effort on that one spark of life. Could he wake her? Hell, he couldn’t get a hook in her.
Work, damn it.

No use. He paused to gather more of his strength.

STOP, Princess said.

“Why?” he bit out, his concentration broken.

SHE IS COMING.

Sure enough, he heard footsteps on the stairs. Quickly, he moved back over to the mattress and laid down on it.

Gwen peeked around the door. No, it was Lilith, Micah reminded himself. That must make Asmodeus the serpent, though this was no Garden of Eden. Or was it Lilith? She raised a finger to her lips and walked over on tiptoe toward him. She’d changed out of the scrubs and was now in a low-cut green dress.

“Gwen?” he whispered. “Did you break free of their control?”

She hurried over. “Shh. He’ll hear you. Yes, it’s me.” She hugged him. “Are you all right?”

His hopes rose. “I’m fine. Can you release me?”

She lifted her lips to his. “If you kiss me first.”

Lilith.

He jerked away from her. “I don’t think so.” He should have known—she didn’t feel like Gwen.

“Sucker,” she taunted as Princess scrambled for the corner. Lilith laughed and said, “You really believed I’d give up this body after making it back to this world? Not a chance in hell.” She ran her hands down Gwen’s sides. “You like?”