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

"He does not seem to have totally relinquishedhis claim on you," Mal grumbled once we were all seated, tone dark. "Areyou certain he doesn't want to take you back to hell just to keep you there?"

I shuddered. "Whatever that's all about, I thinkEzra was as surprised as I was. And if he tries to keep me in hell, Ezra willhave a fight on his hands he's not prepared for." I hoped I could back upmy bold claim, anyway.

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked around abite of pizza.

"It's nearly physically painful for me to not betouching him. It's something demonic I'm sure because that eased up as soon asI touched you. So yay for angel blood, I guess." I clutched my beer andsighed. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to do about it. I don't think hedoes, either."

Mal brushed his knuckles along my cheek. "I guesswe do have him to thank for you being alive. I wasn't expecting to have to dealso directly with Ezra again. Probably naïve. We had already determined that whateverplot was going on would likely involve us one way or another."

"What do you think he intends?" Aaron leanedback in his chair.

"Best guess, he wants Chris all to himself,"Mal replied with a possessive growl to his voice that tightened my stomach andalmost pulled a whimper from me.

"What do you want?" Aaron directed hisattention to me.

"Look, I'm not giving either of you, or Sabian,up. No matter what Ezra wants or how badly being around him is wrecking meright now."

"Well, that's a relief," Aaron replied. "Iwasn't interested in giving you up, either." He grinned at me.

I smiled weakly back before glancing at Mal. Thevampire was contemplating the pint glass he held.

"Mal?"

He looked up and held my gaze for a moment beforetaking a breath. "I'd tell him to take a hike, but we need to rescue Sabian,and he probably is our best chance at getting the incubus back. And we don'twant to piss him off. I suppose as long as he understands we're not handing youover to him for good, it'll be fine."

"I feel like we're having two conversations here,"I said.

"Do you think you're going to be able to keepyour hands off of him?" Mal replied, rather bluntly.

Okay, so we were having that conversation.

"Won't lie, it'll be tough to not touch him whenhe's around. Painful even, unless we can figure out some way to tone that down.As far as fucking him, I guess that depends on how much of an ass he's being.Problem there is, he's already been a pretty good house guest, so I don't exactlyhave ill feelings toward him." I shrugged. "I'll keep to myself if Ihave to. Not going to do something we aren't all okay with. Truth is, I don'teven know that I'm interested in him like that. The overwhelming need to touchhim is a little distracting from everything else. Hell, I don't even know if he'sinterested in me for anything other than what I can help him with or add to hisstatus or whatever. He was pretty averse to all the touching when he waspossessing me." Not that the aversion had stopped him from nearlyconstantly touching me. Or however that worked when a demon was in possessionof your body and not trying to take you over.

"Didn't seem to stop him," Mal stated,obviously remembering that, as well.

I shrugged. "Blame Sabian?"

That broke the tension a bit and Mal chuckled. "Well,I know the incubus is all for anything having to do with sex as long as he getsto keep you."

"I just hope we can get him back."

"Okay, so we're more worried about Ezra and Chrisand their relationship than we are her going to hell?" Aaron said. "Causefrom where I'm sitting, screw the demon if you want, literally I mean. He'sbeen on our side already and it'd be great to keep him there and I don't thinkI mind it nearly as much as Mal does. Going to hell seems to be the biggerthing."

"I was trying not to think about it," Ipointed out.

"Fair," Aaron replied. "I suppose wejust…what? Hope for the best?"

"That may be all we can do, anyway." Ishrugged. "I don't have any way to prepare for something like this."

Mal leaned back in his chair, lines creasing his browas he thought. "You may be right." He sighed. "I just don't wantto lose you."

"High on my list of things to not do, Mal. Getlost that is. Or lose either of the two of you. We gotta get Sabian though andEzra will help. If you have any other ideas, I'm willing to listen."

"Think he could take one of us along, too?"Aaron tapped his fingers on the table, thinking.

"Somehow, I doubt he's going to be willing totake you, Aaron. At least on this trip. And I seriously hope there's notanother." I shivered.

"The way things are going," Mal said. "Iwouldn't hold your breath."

"Thanks, mate."

He smiled. "Let me look into a few things beforeyou take off tomorrow."

"Does that mean no game?" Aaron soundeddisappointed.

The vampire grinned. "We could play for a coupleof hours, but it won't be as long as normal."

Mal loved roleplaying, and both Aaron and I werereally starting to enjoy our weekly sessions. If Ezra had shown more interestin the activity, Mal might not have been as annoyed by the idea of sharing mewith the demon prince. I half thought that Mal had encouraged me to startdating Aaron so we'd have another person to play with.

If Ezra ever wanted to put some effort into actuallywinning over Mal, I'd suggest that as a strategy.

What the hell was I getting into?

∞ ∞∞

I went to bed with just the fluffy hellhound forcompany. Mal was buried in one of his occult books but exhaustion tugged at myeyelids. Trouble was, once I got into bed, I couldn't sleep. Mal had promisedto join me before long and my thoughts drifted to Aaron. I'd offered to share abed with him more than once, but he seemed oddly reluctant. I was pretty sureit wasn't me for