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

purred happily, and I nearly had an orgasmas the sound vibrated through me down to my very core. I squirmed. "Yeah,that's not something you should do in public."

He laughed.

Mal shifted in his chair and I glanced at him. He hada slightly pained expression on his face. "Yes, not in public, thanks."

"You sure you want to stick around, Mal? Couldget pretty dangerous. We could end up entangled pretty deeply with demons otherthan Sabian here." Now I sounded worried. I didn't want to lose thevampire this fast. How I'd gone from, 'I'm good with my vibrator' todesperately needing the two men in my living room to stay in my life, I wasn'tsure. Yeah, they were hot, and interesting, and sweet, and seemed to like me.Okay, those were pretty good reasons to keep someone around. Two someones infact. The feelings were a touch uncomfortable, but I felt I had to own up to them.It wasn't fair to them otherwise.

"I'm no stranger to dangerous times. I'm happy tostand by your side, and Sabian's. If nothing else, it'll make thingsinteresting for a while. We need to stop this occultist before the idea ofbinding demons spreads, and before they get more involved in the other aspectsof crime that your priest is worried about. Besides, I like you, Chris Priceand you might need me to watch your back."

I raised an eyebrow. "Just my back?"

His grin turned suggestive. "And the rest of you."

I took a deep breath. "Okay, right. So, we have afew more hours to kill before I suspect the staff will be done cleaning up therestaurant. What do you want to do?"

Mal grinned.

And that was how I ended up playing a drunken dwarf ina dungeon crawl for my very first tabletop roleplaying adventure. Sabian playeda celestial paladin, and Mal told us all what to do.

∞ ∞∞

We showed up at the restaurant at about ten pm. Everyonewas still there, eating pizza and drinking beer. The place was as clean as Ihad ever seen it, and I fully approved of the pizza party.

Billy grinned when we came inside. He knew me wellenough to know I'd be okay with the party and no trace of worry crossed hisfeatures.

The smell of fresh pizza also made me realize howhungry I was. Had I eaten?

"Everyone, this is Mal, and you know Sabian. They'regoing to help us keep the riff raff out." I hoped if I could avoidmentioning demons long enough, they would forget. It was a vain hope, but Icould pretend.

The guys responded to all of the greetings while Isnagged a piece of pizza.

"So, what exactly are you going to do to keep thedemons out?" Billy put a foot on the chair he stood next to and leaned hiselbow on his knee, studying the guys.

Mal glanced around. "First, probably a cleansingritual. You've done a fantastic job with the physical cleaning. We will have toclean the traces of that demon away. Then we will put up wards that should keepmost demons out."

"Not all?" Billy frowned.

The others stared at Mal with rapt attention.

"I'm not sure anything can keep every demon out.Some are simply too powerful. However, it's unlikely that we will encounter anydemons that could breach the wards, uninvited."

"Why would someone invite a demon in?" Mandyglanced around as if expecting one to pop out of the woodwork, as it were.

Mal shrugged, obviously not going give the realanswer. "I can't foresee every possibility, of course. Simply that theremay be a time when we need to invite a demon in. Obviously, it would be understrict orders to behave itself."

"Can you order a demon around like that?"Mandy's eyes went wide.

"Depends on the demon," Sabian answered. "Andwhat the arrangement with the demon is."

"So, we're supposed to be forgetting that demonsexist, right mates?" I clapped my hands together after I finished my sliceof pizza.

They all looked at me with similar 'seriously?'expressions on their faces.

Why were they not freaking out more?

Sabian leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Imight be keeping them from losing their shit too badly. I didn't think youneeded the drama."

I sighed, not prepared to deal with that tidbit ofinformation. Sabian's revelation was a bit unsettling, but I'd deal with thatlater. "Just do me a favor. You don't want to get caught up in any of thatshenanigans if you can avoid it."

"How'd you get involved?" Stacy askedquietly.

I clenched my jaw, before shrugging. "Dariusdragged me in when I was young and impressionable."

"You're hardly old," Mal stated.

I shrugged. "Thirty-five isn't old, sure, but I'mmuch more jaded." I grinned at him.

He conceded my point with a quick nod of his head anda mischievous smile.

"The priest?" Billy raised his eyebrows indisbelief.

"Yeah, wasn't always a priest. Anyway, we grew uptogether. He got me involved. Then he dragged me back in the other day. So,misspent youth and all that. Not real interesting."

The look everyone gave me let me know they thought Iwas full of shit. I shrugged.

"So, how many demons have you sent back to hell?"Stacy clasped her hands together in delight.

"Not sure. Look, it's getting late. Um, lot ofunhappy memories and all." I ran my hand through my hair and thought maybeI should style it up again into the short mohawk I'd been neglecting for awhile. Maybe having a boss with crazy hair would distract them from the demons.Probably not.

"Sorry, Boss," Billy said. "It's simplynot something we ever thought we'd hear anything about. It's like stuff you seein movies or on TV."

I nodded. "Yeah, some shows are closer to thetruth than others. Mostly it's just saving people from bad choices. Sometimesyou can't save them, but you can at least make sure the demon isn't loose onearth."

They nodded soberly.

"What other kinds of supernaturals are there?"Mandy grinned, eyes lighting up.

I'd have bet anyone a hundred bucks right then thatshe was into vampire romances. I managed to avoid looking at Mal, though Icould practically sense the amusement rolling off of him and Sabian.

"Don't know, mate. Mostly just dealt with demons.I suspect there's all sorts of things out there we don't want to know about,though."

Mandy looked a little disappointed. Hopefully, shewouldn't go looking for trouble. I