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

not my forte. Hopefully, somewhere inthat small library of knowledge Ezra had dumped into me, I had the informationI needed.

Still, I could sense Sabian now, and I headed in thatdirection, not sure what else to do. I assumed, at some point, one of Lott'sminions would notice me and take me to him.

I was going to shank Ezra when I saw him next.Asshole. I had to remind myself that he wasn't exactly human, and in a way hewas displaying a great deal of faith in me that I might or might not deserve.Still, dropping me here and sending me off on my own was not winning himbrownie points.

At least I wasn't cold. I grumbled as I trudged towardthe pull Sabian had on me.

I might have walked for about an hour, hand on Mayhem'sback for comfort, when my skin started crawling. Every sense I had that let mesense demons pinged hard, and I clenched the ruff that ran along my hellhound'sback. I'd certainly caught something's attention.

Mayhem growled a warning and stopped. His eyes took ona brighter glow than normal and we waited.

The sound of sand slithering across the barren stonesent chills down my spine. I twisted around, looking for the source, but Mayhem'sattention remained focused in front of us.

Moments later I saw what looked to be a pile of sand rollingtoward me. Then another, and another, until we were surrounded by hundreds ofsand demons.

Not going to lie, I was terrified, and I used Mayhemto steady the shake in my hands while I waited.

The piles of sand rose around me until they solidifiedinto creatures. The one in front of me was vaguely human shaped, with hundredsof empty eye sockets on what would have been a face for a human.

The others didn't even bother to try and emulate humanshapes. Tentacles, claws, everything out of every monster movie everywhere.Fuck.

They stayed back, but the sorta human shaped oneflowed forward. A mouth, of sorts, opened on the chest area, razor sharp teethlining the void.

"What are you doing in our master's domain,"it hissed.

"He's got something of mine," I replied. Myvoice didn't even shake that much.

All of the demons hissed at this, the sound remindingme of hundreds of rattle snakes. That, by itself, was terrifying enough to turnmy legs to jelly, but I got the idea they were laughing at me, and that waseven worse.

My anger sparked, helping to shove some of the fearaway.

"Lott cares not for what you consider yours,"the chatty demon answered after a moment.

"Don't give a flying fuck what Lott thinks aboutit. He's my damn incubus and I'm getting him back."

The laughter returned, sending chills down my back.

"You can either take me to him or get the fuckout of my way." I gathered my power, hoping I wouldn't need it just yet.Ezra was probably on to something with his element of surprise idea.

"Yes, I will take you to him." Before Icould do anything, the demon exploded into individual grains of sand andswarmed toward me.

I yelped as it swirled around me in some sort of sandtornado and swept me away.

Mayhem barked in alarm and I grabbed onto him throughthe power of our bond, dragging him along with us.

The ride took forever yet was over in an instant. The sandstormdumped me out on hard ground in a cave. Even with Ezra's power keeping me warm,the cold from the stone I lay on seemed to suck all the energy out of me. Iscrambled to my feet just as Mayhem appeared next to me.

The sand demon swirled away, leaving us alone in thegloom.

Chapter 15

Price

Where the hell were we?

The tug toward Sabian pulled harder and I could tellhe was close. At least the sand demon had done that much. When we weren'timmediately accosted by other demons, I set out toward Sabian, moving deeperinto the cave. Wasn't going to wait around, no matter whose house, or whateverthis was, I was in. Not when they were treating me like this, anyway.

Not that I'd expected anything better from Lott. Angercurled through me, replacing some of the resignation I'd felt when I'd foundout who we faced. He'd killed my family. I would be killing his ass one ofthese days, hopefully sooner rather than later. I kept that rage bottled up forlater use. If I let it leak out too quickly, I might regret it. But soon, Lottwas going to regret everything he'd done to me.

I wondered where the light was coming from. There wasno obvious source, but there was enough that I could see.

After a short walk, in which I felt all sorts ofdemonic attention but didn't encounter anyone, I came up against the wall ofthe cave. I frowned, then had a sneaking suspicion I'd gotten dropped in somesort of cage. Wasn't sure if they meant to let me rot in here, or if theywanted to study me, let me stew a bit, or whatever. Just to make sure, before Itipped my hand at all my extra power, I made a circuit of the entire cavern. Yep,same unrelieved, suspiciously smooth gray rock, and soul stealing chill, withno way in or out, at least that I could see.

"Mayhem, can you do your fancy wall trick here?"

He tilted his head as if thinking about my request andI hoped he understood. After a moment, the hellhound stared at the wall,rumbling in displeasure.

"No?"

He huffed in annoyance.

"Okay. My turn." I was nearly a hundredpercent certain I could summon Sabian now. Whatever prevented me from reachinghim encompassed the whole area, not just his cell or whatever he was in. I wasgetting my incubus back, now.

Gathering my energy and adding a bit of Ezra's in justfor good measure, I latched onto Sabian's presence and pulled, hesitantly atfirst, then harder, yanking, kind of like I'd done with Mayhem when I'd draggedhim into this cell with me.

"Sabianamon, come to me, now!" I commanded.

I got a sense of alarm from the demonic energywatching me and then suddenly Sabian was at my feet, naked and not quiteconscious.

Sabian groaned. He was in sorry shape, ribs showingwhere once he'd had significant muscle, sores on