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

reply. Istill felt like I was slipping away, even with the prince's strong handgripping mine.

Ezra quirked a smile. "Sorry about this."

I didn't have time to ask what he meant before hejerked me forward into his arms and pressed his lips to mine. I was no longerslipping away. No, now I was melting firmly into his embrace. His heat filledme, and pain seared through me as I was pulled back into my body, though his kissdistracted me from most of it. Where all demons amazing kissers? I wasn't goingto make this a habit, but for now I opened for him when he pressed with histongue, and let him explore my mouth, before doing the same when he retreatedfor a moment. His hands roamed my body, spreading heat and fire, pulling meback together, repairing flesh, and shielding me from the pain with the intensepleasure of his touch.

"Fuck me," I whispered when he released mefrom his kiss.

The demon prince chuckled.

"You can wake whenever you're ready." Ezrastepped back and faded from my awareness until it was just me in my head.

I groaned as I became aware of the cold concretebeneath me. I gave my hands an experimental twitch, then climbed to my handsand knees.

Wait.

Why can I still sense you?

The only way to save you was to possess you.

The one thing I'd hoped to avoid. It had been onething when Sabian had been riding along. He'd still been in the charm, so itwasn't a true possession. This...the prince had saved my life, but eventuallyhe would still consume me, and I'd felt his power. I wasn't sure Darius couldget him out if the prince didn't want to go. I could have, but I wasn't sure ifI could do an exorcism on myself.

"Mother fucker," I snarled in reaction, snappingmy eyes open and glaring at Sabian. I could sense him pretty clearly, probablyfrom the connection he had to his prince.

Sabian flinched, though he didn't look away.

I will be staying for now, but you will not have tofight me when it's time for me to leave. I promise.

No, you need to leave now.

You're not completely healed yet, Price. Also, there'sthe matter of waking up your vampire. I'm giving you a free hint here. If youpull the stake out of him now, while I'm still healing you, I can continue toheal you while he tries to drain you dry at no additional debt accumulated.

I looked around until my gaze fell on Mal. He wasslumped over in the chair, not moving. At least he was still here to save,though seeing him like that made my heart clench.

 If you wait, or you cast me out, you're going to haveto get creative to save him. So, unless you want to find a random human tosacrifice to your vampire, you'll accept my presence without a fight. And Iwill fight you.

Why?

I will explain later.

His presence faded and I got some idea that he mightbe conserving his strength. If I took his suggestion and woke Mal up, he'dprobably need it. I could only guess based on what the demon had said and whatI knew of vampires–which wasn't a whole lot–that Mal needed a lot of blood torecover from what they'd done.

I sighed and climbed the rest of the way to my feet. Malhad saved my life, is what he'd done. The least I could do was make it so thathe didn't kill anyone because of it.

Now that I was somewhat recovered from dying, Inoticed Darius and Aaron standing next to Sabian. My hellhound was at my feet.

I was not happy about seeing Darius.

He's not particularly happy, either, the prince supplied.

I almost laughed.

Knowing what would happen, I put my hands out andleaned against the invisible barrier that held me in.

"Someone want to let me out?"

"Chris, you're possessed by a demon," Dariusreplied.

"No shit, Sherlock. And right before that I wasvery dead. He promised to be a good house guest, so let me out."

"Of course, he did. That's what demons do."Darius crossed his arms, seeming to forget he was standing next to an incubus.

Sabian looked incredulous.

My hellhound growled.

It occurred to me that both Sabian and the hellhoundhad also promised to be good houseguests and had completely made good on thatpromise.

Aaron looked like he wanted to run away.

I flipped Darius off.

He pulled out a bottle of holy water and I felt theprince flinch inside of me.

It would be best...

Yeah, I got this, I cut him off.

"Sabian, do me a favor and punch Darius in theface until he stops being an asshole."

Darius blanched, as if just remembering what Sabianwas. I suspected Sabian could take more hits of holy water than I could rightnow, and the incubus didn't look worried when he turned to confront the priest.

"Look, I need to help Mal. I'm probably the onlyone who safely can right now. Let me out."

"Chris, Mal..." Darius trailed off, lookingback at the vampire before his eyebrows rose. His gaze darted back to me. "Seriously?"

I put my hands on my hips and tapped my foot. "Youwere right, they've both treated me way better than any of the humans I'vedated."

Darius flinched. He'd been my first, long before he'djoined the priesthood.

"I deserve that."

"Yeah, you do. Now stop being a dick. I think we'vegot the demon situation under control. If this one wasn't friendly, I'd let yousend his ass back to hell. He's got a vested interest in helping us stop these twatwaffles,and he promised to leave quietly as soon as he could. I'm still healing, so hecan't leave yet." Didn't need to bring up the rest of it.

"So how are you going to help Mal?" Dariusasked warily.

"Pull the stake out and let him drink as much ofmy blood as he wants. The demon will keep healing me. Probably need to eat awhole cow's worth of steaks later, but it'll be fine."

"Jesus, Chris, you're really in deep."

"And who's fucking fault is that?"

Darius threw up his hands before he turned and headedto the door. "Fine, but you'll have to find yourself a different exorcistwhen you can't get free of all this."

"Yeah, typical, leave when it gets tough," Ishouted