The Price of Exorcism by Dakota Brown (sneezy the snowman read aloud .txt) 📗

THE PRICE OF EXORCISM

A Reverse Harem Tale

Pizza Shop Exorcist

Book Two

by

Dakota Brown

THE PRICE OF EXORCISM

AReverse Harem Tale

PizzaShop Exorcist, book 2

AllRights Reserved

Copyright© 2021 by Dakota Brown

CoverDesign © 2021 by Camila Marques

All rightsReserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in anymanner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisherexcept for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Names,characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imaginationand or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons,living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Publishedby Untold Press LLC

114NE Estia Lane

Port St Lucie, FL 34983

www.untoldpress.com

PRODUCEDIN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Dedication

For Becky Hodges.

You're such a caring and talented person. Thank youfor everything.

Acknowledgments

Sendinga shout out to my team: My PA Becky Hodges, Lizzy, Shoshanah, Justinn, Sean,Jen, and Therese. You all keep me sane–relatively, because, let's be honest,what is even sanity for an author–and on track. Thank you so much for all thethings you do for me.

Iwant to thank my ARC/Proofer team for finding all those pesky typos. And I wantto especially send a shout out to those typos that–despite everyone's bestefforts–still sneak through. There aren't many, but every once in a while thetenacious things pop up.

Dearreaders, thank you so much for your reviews, the time you take to devour mybooks, and the messages asking for more. I appreciate you more than you can everknow.

Stay safe out there.

Chapter 1

Price

Aaron looked so happy and carefree as he kicked thesoccer ball, encouraging the kids he coached as they ran around the field. Themorning was relatively cool, and I'd gotten up to spend a little time with him.Aaron wasn't about to turn me into a morning person, but I could certainly makethe effort now and again. I admired the way his lean muscles were so perfectlydefined, and I couldn't help my imagination as I mentally undressed him, just alittle bit. He didn't go around shirtless much, self-conscious of the whitemarkings on his dark skin, signs of his angelic blood, but I'd seen it enoughto want more.

Of course, the kids had given him all sorts of crapfor bringing his 'girlfriend' to the practice. He'd taken it well.

We were getting a late breakfast after practice. ThenI had to swing by my restaurant for a few hours and get some paperwork done.Then, this evening, Mal, my official boyfriend, and I were going to get Sabianback.

A month and a half ago I'd been happily alone, justrunning my pizza shop and keeping myself happy with my vibrator. Then Darius,my very complicated sorta best friend, had wandered back into my life with aproblem he couldn't solve. An exorcism he couldn't handle. See, I'm anexorcist. Probably one of the best. He's no slouch, but I'm better. He's theone that dragged me into the occult life when we were both teens. He stillblamed himself for all the chaos and complications, good times and heartachethat had followed. Truth be told, it wasn't all his fault, and I didn't regretmost of it.

With Darius back in my life, things had gone fromsimple to complicated in hours. I'd needed a spell to help exorcise the demonfrom the charm and that search had led me straight into the arms of Malak Naji.Turns out he's a damn fine lover, and a vampire. He'd worked his way into mypants and my heart courtesy of Sabian, the demon we'd had to exorcise from thecharm. He turned out to be an incubus. A starving one.

Long story short, Darius had decided we needed Sabian'shelp and left him with me. The incubus had also worked his way into my heart,and then I'd accidently banished him back to hell in a fight with a demonprince. See, I'd nearly died. To save me, Sabian's Prince, Ezra, had possessedme. Yeah, that's right, an exorcist who's been possessed. It didn't entirelysuck, because of the circumstances. Ezra had promised to behave while he savedmy life, and he'd delivered. Maybe a little too well, because I missed him,too. Still, Sabian was my demon and I wanted him back. Fortunately, so did Mal.Despite my assurances to Darius that I wasn't going to call Sabian back, well,I'd lied. The fight with the demon prince had drained me pretty badly, and I'dneeded some time to recover before I did any magic, let alone something ascomplicated as summoning a specific demon. I just hoped he wanted to be here. Ithought he did, but I had no way of knowing for sure until I brought him back.

Aaron was a Nephilim, though he hadn't known until afew weeks ago that he had angel blood. The bad guys had tried to use him tosummon a prince that they could bind into service. We'd gotten there just intime to save him and stop their plan. Now he and I were slowly exploring thepossibilities of a relationship together. We liked each other and, as Mal hadsaid, surrounding myself with powerful men wasn't necessarily a bad idea. So, Igot to date multiple guys. Mal, Sabian when we got him back, Aaron, and Ezra asmall voice whispered, adding the demon prince to my list. I shied away fromthe idea of the demon prince. Surely that was simply too crazy, even for me.

Still, something was coming. Something big. We neededto be prepared for whatever it was. Aaron's resistance to most demonic powerswould be really useful. Mal was a vampire and an occultist. Sabian was anincubus, and while he wasn't super useful in a fight, he knew more about thedemons we might encounter than anyone else. Ezra was a powerful prince, and ifnothing else, he was on our side in this coming conflict.

Me, well, I was a wild card. I had untapped abilitiesMal wanted to help me learn to use, and I was an exorcist. Somehow, we'd defeatwhatever came our way. Hopefully.

A younger kid, belonging to one of the parentswatching their children from the bleachers a short distance away, ran up to me.

"Can I pet your dog?"

"Dog? Oh, Mayhem. Yeah, sure. Come here, buddy."

The small