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

forward, until he was whispering in my ear. "Nowwe're either fucking," he said, his breath tickling my neck. My heart,already pounding, sped again and I sucked in a breath. "Or I'm taking areally cold shower. It's up to you."

"I…" I didn't know what to do. Falling intohis arms was such a bad idea, and he and Mal weren't getting along. If I couldavoid drama, maybe I should.

He seemed to sense my decision before I'd really madeit and backed off.

Without his heat warming me, my sweat chilled in thecool air conditioning, and I shivered.

"Which room is mine? I need a shower, too."

Ezra didn't act upset as he led me to one of the twoclosed doors and opened it for me. Somehow my duffle was sitting on the bed.

"Seriously?"

"The staff elevator is purposefully faster sothey can beat you to your room. It's a normal part of the service here."

"Oh." I twisted my hands together awkwardly,not sure what to say. "Ezra…"

"Price, it's okay. A little separation betweenthat bit of trickery and anything we might do later is probably a good thing."

"Awfully understanding for a demon." Igrinned at him.

He shrugged before winking, sly amusement glinting inhis eyes. "I've been inside your head. I think I know how to get what Iwant."

I gaped at him but couldn't find a reply before he hadshut the door. "Fucker," I muttered before turning and looking at mysurroundings. One queen sized bed that looked extremely comfortable, nicefurniture, posh everything, and the glimpse into the bathroom showed a lot ofmarble.

"Well, Mayhem, I don't know that I could exactlyget used to this, but I'm certainly going to enjoy the fancy surroundings."

He woofed and hopped up onto the bed, circling acouple of times before curling up in a fluffy yellow ball.

"You, too, huh?"

He wagged his tail before shutting his eyes. I tookthat to mean he thought we were safe and got to work shedding my sweatyclothing.

I wasn't going to take a cold shower. I was going totake a hot one. I needed some relief after all of that, and while it occurredto me that Ezra might notice, he was just going to have to deal. It wasn't myfault he had the ability to read surface thoughts. I wondered if all demonsdid, or if that was just my incubus and my demon prince. At some point I'dremember to ask.

Chapter 7

Price

"Okay, mate. Talk," I ordered as I came out of myroom a while later. I tried not to notice how nicely his shirt–blue silk thistime–fit him, or that he was wearing black jeans again. He looked good in asuit, but the slightly dressed-down look was really doing it for me right now.It was entirely possible he knew that.

Ezra stared at me, fingers curling into fists for amoment, eyes a little wide, before he took a few deep breaths and nodded,visibly trying to collect himself.

If his reaction was any indication, he'd noticed whatI'd been up to in the shower. Amused and not at all feeling bad about it, Isank into the armchair and tried for an innocent smile.

The demon shook his head.

"You still need to tell me about this friend ofyours we met in the airport, as well."

"Ahh, right. This will be quick, so I'll gofirst. She's a mate from my old infamous exorcist days. Friends with me andDarius and a couple of others. Daedalus and Tiffany. We got into all sorts ofmischief. Darius and I were lucky and didn't really get caught much. A fewminor slaps on the wrist. She and Daed were a bit more daring and sometimesdragged Tif into their shit. Still, nothing too major. We all studied theoccult together and everything was all well and good until Daed wanted to tryand summon a demon. Now, I don't summon demons unless they're Sabian, who Ididn't even know at the time. Darius and I talked them out of it several times,but finally Daed wouldn't be denied anymore. He said it was perfectly safe if Iwas there. I refused and we parted ways. Darius had been feeling a great dealof guilt anyway and seemed to feel the need to repent for his sins. He joinedthe priesthood.

"I really didn't have a direction, but thoughtmaybe I should get some sort of higher education, so I enrolled in a communitycollege in Colorado. Left them behind in Boston. I came west just to put somedistance between us, but I wasn't ready to go back to New Mexico. Lost touchafter that. Can't help but think she's here for a reason, but no idea what.That was about five years before my folks died. I still did the exorcist thingand all, just solo."

"And your parents died five years ago?"

"Yeah, plus a few months."

Ezra nodded. "And that's when you quit theoccult?"

He already knew the answer to that, but I nodded. "You'vebeen inside my head, don't you know all this?"

"It doesn't quite work like that. I didn'texactly get a download of all your memories or previous thoughts. I was, ofcourse, privy to everything going on at the time but the only things that Iknow from your past are things that came up while I was with you."

"Oh, okay. So, your turn. Talk."

"I believe I mentioned that I'm dragging you to ameeting of sorts to discuss the recent events. Some of us are concerned theevents are all connected and wish to compare notes. This was the easiest andsafest way for us to all meet. You'll meet some interesting folks over the nextcouple of days. Then I have to get final permission to bring you to hell withme, and we'll retrieve Sabian."

"You need permission? I came all this way, and Imight not get to go?"

"Yes, from the gatekeeper. If I didn't think they'dlet you in, I wouldn't have brought you," he replied a little hotly. "Theonly way to get a soul into hell that is still attached to a body is throughone of the portals. You will need a gate key." He held up his arm, showingme an ornate bracelet I certainly hadn't noticed before. It looked like itmight be made of