The Price of Possession by Dakota Brown (universal ebook reader txt) 📗

just wasn'tenough for them. Nothing about that energy was normal and I could tell thedancer was uncomfortable.

"Should you do something?" Sabian's voicewas full of worry.

"Me? You're the demon."

"I'm a lover, not a fighter." He held up hishands.

"Can you counter that energy at all?"

"I could try, but I think it would start a fightsooner rather than later."

"Great, mate. Leave it to the puny human tohandle the big bad demon."

"I could incite an orgy."

"I can't tell if you're being serious or not. Probablynot the best time for it, though."

He shrugged. "Think Mal can get here in time? He'sactually a warrior."

I tilted my head. "He is?"

Sabian gave me an exasperated look.

"Okay, yeah, I noticed the scars," Iconceded. "And the muscles, and everything else." I might have had towipe a bit of drool away and this time it wasn't Sabian's fault.

While I was contemplating if I should call the vampireor not, the demon surged to his feet.

One of the bouncers charged forward and then wentsailing through the air as the demon tossed him as if he weighed nothing.

Yeah, little old me wasn't going to do shit againstthat guy in a fist fight. A magical fight on the other hand... I raced forward,hopped onto a vacant chair, and leapt onto the stage, putting myself betweenthe dancer and the demon.

He glared at me, human eyes rimmed in red as thechained demon worked its way through the cracks in the binding spell. Thatmight prove to be in my favor since I didn't have a crystal to destroy so Icould unbind the demon before exorcising it, and there was no way in hell I wastouching that focus necklace.

Best guess, the human had wanted to come to the stripclub. The demon was using the human's distraction to work further into hissystem and now he just wanted to cause problems.

"You're blocking the view," the demonhissed.

"I am the view, asshole," I snarled back andcalled out the first line of the Latin exorcism ritual I knew best.

His eyes widened and he turned to bolt. Sabian blockedthe doorway, and the demon twisted around, picking up a chair as he went andswung it at my head.

I dove out of the way, rolling across the stage andnearly sliding off the far edge. I caught myself in time and scrambled back tomy feet, hoping the normal humans had taken the hint and left. The dancer wasgone, at least.

I started over. "Exorcizamus te, ominsimmundus spiritus..." I chanted, lending that extra power I had to myvoice, the power that made me just a little bit better than your averageexorcist. Something innate. Something that commanded demons, even when theydidn't want to be commanded.

Wow, I really hoped I didn't get a two for one hereand send Sabian back to hell on accident.

The man screamed, spit spraying from his mouth as hisback bowed and the demon fought. I suspected it had full control of the bodynow, but it was caught up in my incantation.

"Ab insidiis diaboli..." I shouted,focused on expelling the demonic presence that polluted the atmosphere in theclub.

"More are coming, Price! We'll get you!" itshouted as I yelled the last words of the rite and commanded the demon back tohell where it belonged.

The human collapsed as the demon was sucked away.

"Chris!" I glanced at Sabian, the panic inhis voice tugging at me. He had sunk to his knees and was grasping thedoorframe as if his life depended on it.

"Sabian! Stay!" I shouted, not sure whatelse to do. I'd never tried to command a demon to do anything but leave before.

Fortunately, I had his true name and that and mysimple order was to be enough. He sagged in relief.

Well, shit. No exorcisms with the incubus present.

I leaned back against the pole on the stage andsighed, suddenly exhausted.

No one moved for a minute, then the human groaned,rolling over.

A couple of people pushed past Sabian and I mademyself focus on them. Deputy McClellan and another cop quickly handcuffed the nowmellow and bewildered looking human.

McClellan studied me while the other deputy handledthe arrest. "That was something to see," she marveled.

Uncomfortable, I shifted my gaze away from hers andshrugged. "Yeah, can get ugly. That was an easy one."

She continued to stare at me before her attentionflicked over to Sabian. "That the one you pulled out of the other charm?"

I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. So much fornot telling anyone Sabian was a demon.

"Yeah, mate. He's all right. Helping us."Maybe Darius had told her.

She didn't ask what we were doing here, so mysuspicion that Darius had spilled the beans intensified.

Rolling my shoulders to ease stiff muscles, Istraightened off the stripper pole that had been holding me up.

Wide-eyed expressions from the remaining normal folkin the bar followed me as I headed toward the edge of the stage. Sabian met me,a grateful look on his face as he helped me get off the stage more or lessgracefully.

He massaged my shoulders while I stared at DeputyMcClellan. "You need anything else? Cause I need to get home."

She shook her head. "No. Thank you for saving usquite a lot of trouble." She gestured to the mostly intact bar. Thebouncer that the demon had tossed was on his feet and looking pissed as hell.Andi stood next to him, probably explaining what had happened.

"Great, later." I headed for the door. "Andi,call me, or come by for pizza soon. Thanks for a good night."

"I'd flip you off, Price, but you kinda saved ourbutts, so I guess you get a pass tonight." She grinned at me.

I waved and Sabian followed me out into the coolerevening air. The sun had set. I hadn't realized how long I'd actually been inthere.

Exhaustion tugged at my feet and I trudged back to thecar.

Sabian helped me in the driver seat before getting in."Think you can make it home?"

"Yeah, mate. Had worse."

He grinned. "I'll help keep you awake."

My entire reproductive system nearly orgasmed with theseduction in his voice.

"You're going to wreck me," I groaned.

"As long as you don't wreck the car in theprocess."

"Fuck."

His chuckle ripped through me and I shuddered, backarching, eyes rolling back in my head as