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

and loveseat, and a large desk alltook up space in the room. It was fairly cozy.

My duffle sat on the floor next to the fireplace, lookinguntouched.

Ezra frowned, staring at the office chair. Its backwas turned toward us.

The chair rotated, revealing a classically beautifulwoman. Her eyebrows rose when she saw me on Ezra's arm.

She was platinum blond, with perky boobs just theright size to entice guys, and horns that curled around her ears, kind of likeMayhem's. Her blood red lips curled into a lazy, confident smile.

"Ezra, you're finally home," she purred.

"Hello, Mez," Ezra said tightly. "Whatare you doing here?"

"Your gate ghouls let me in," she answeredand glanced at me. "Perhaps we can talk without your toy present."

My fingers twitched and I longed to give my firstexorcism in hell a try, but I kept my mouth shut for the moment.

Mez got up from the chair and stalked forward, eyes onEzra as if he were prey.

Mayhem, get over here, I thought, having no idea if that would summon thehellhound or not.

She was tall, curvy, beautiful, and screamed succubus.I wondered if that were true, or if she were some other female shaped demon.

"Ms. Price is not a toy, and you are not welcome."

She pressed her lips out in a pout. "It is time Iproduce spawn. I have chosen you."

Mez spoke as if his consent wasn't exactly necessaryand that it was now a done deal.

I crossed my arms and glared. I was not sharing mydemon.

I'll handle it. We don't want to showcase your powersuntil we've rescued Sabian. The element of surprise is more important thanmaking a point right now.

Can I stab her?

His lips twitched as he fought a smile. If itbecomes necessary.

"Mez, I'm not available right now. Please leave."

Just in case I needed to test my knife on the demonbitch, I went over to my duffle and hauled it over to the couch where I couldmore easily reach it.

Just then Mayhem and his littermates charged into theroom. Through a wall. Not quite Kool-Aid Man style, more like the wall justliquefied for a moment while they crashed through it, then reformed behindthem.

Holy shit.

Mez raised an eyebrow as all three of them sank to theground in front of me, eyes intent upon her, but she didn't comment, outwardlydismissing me, though I had no doubt I had her attention. Or the hellhounds did,anyway.

"Ezra, I offer you a great honor."

I doubt that,I grumbled.

In a way, she's right. It's not one I require, however, he replied.

You'd better not. My jealousy was in full swing, even though I could tell Ezra wasrepulsed by the idea of doing anything with Mez.

"Thank you," he replied. "However, I amon a mission for our liege, and it does not allow time for dalliances."

Her eyebrows rose and her expression, if anything,grew more possessive. "I see."

Good Lord, Ezra, you just made yourself moreattractive to her.

Ezra ignored me for the moment.

"You will notify me when you are no longeroccupied. I can wait a bit longer." She sauntered past me, giving thehellhounds a wide berth. Though, as if sensing my anger, she winked at me,before brushing her hand across Ezra's chest and leaving the room.

The hellhounds echoed my growl, and I clenched myritual knife in my fist. I had not grabbed it, and I wasn't sure how it hadarrived in my hand, but I was glad it was there. I nearly went after the demonbitch to use it in her back.

"Ezra." I turned my glare on him. "Thatwas not handling it. That was putting it off until later."

He turned his attention to me, eyes widening slightly."Chris, I didn't want to reveal anything to Mez."

"Yeah, yeah, right." I sighed, anger stillsimmering under the surface. "Let's go get Sabian before anyone else showsup that I can't stab until we have my incubus back."

Ezra nodded, though I could tell he had hoped to havea chance to show me around first.

"Promise, I'll stick around long enough to getthe tour later. We've taken long enough to get Sabian back."

"You're right, of course. Are you ready?"

I opened my bag, grabbed the sheath for my knife andthreaded that onto my belt. Then I tucked my holy water into my jacket pocket,grabbed a few more stabbing implements and decided I was sufficiently armed,along with my magic.

"One thing before we do go, how do I tie my personalwards into your power instead of my own?"

"I can do that for you," he offered. "Likelyfaster than teaching you."

"Is it reversable?" Just in case I didn'talways have Ezra's good graces. Of course, with the demon mark it probably didn'tmatter. I thought that would let him bypass my wards, anyway.

"Yes."

Pretty sure he just answered both my questions withone word.

"'Kay, let's do this."

Ezra came over to me, gathered his power, and pressedhis hand to my chest. His warm fire burned through me for a moment before theslight constant drain on my energy from my wards eased.

I almost panicked at the naked feeling not having themactive gave me, before I felt them tie into his much larger well of storedenergy.

"Well, I'll be able to take a few extra hits nexttime."

Ezra smiled. "Do try to dodge, regardless. They'restill dangerous to you. If you take a big enough hit, they'll still overload,just in a different way."

"Noted."

"Let's go outside the wards and I'll take us to Lott'sdomain. I can't enter without an invitation, so you'll have to summon me."

"Wait, so, like I'm walking in alone?"

"Yes," Ezra replied warily.

"You might have mentioned this."

"I thought I had. No matter, you're wellprotected. Especially with Lucifer's mark. Get to Sabian, summon me, and I'llhelp you both get out."

"Terrible plan, mate."

"It's literally the best one I've been able tocome up with. Do you have better ideas?"

"No." I grumbled.

"Let's get this over with, then."

We left his keep and I reluctantly let Ezra take myhand.

"Don't forget to summon me," Ezra ordered ashe called on his power and transported us out of his domain.

∞ ∞∞

It occurred to me, as I stood alone, except for Mayhemat my side, on a baren windswept plain, that I wasn't exactly sure how tosummon Ezra in hell. Demon summoning was