Night Huntress 03.5 - Devil to Pay Read Online Free PDF Page B

dies, even an animal that’s several miles away. So when we… when you die, there can’t be anything alive nearby for miles.”
     
    “Wouldn’t it be okay if the demon were to possess an animal?” Blake asked. “I mean, a possessed armadillo couldn’t do much damage.”
     
    “Animal possession is very temporary,” Mencheres replied. “The demon’s goal is to get back into a person. It’s easy to compel an animal to kill itself once people are around. Haven’t you ever noticed that some animals seem to throw themselves into traffic? The driver of the first car to strike a possessed animal would, by virtue of closest contact, then become the next person the demon possessed.”
     
    Blake sighed. “It just keeps getting more twisted, doesn’t it?”
     
    “There’s only one type of place where it’s safe to force out a demon,” Mencheres went on, filling the loaded silence. “The salt flats. Salt is a natural element for containing a demon. Once the host dies, the salt limits a demon’s range to only a mile in every direction, and there are no humans or wildlife living on the salt flats.”
     
    Elise wished she knew what Blake was thinking so she could… what? Tell him things would work out? They wouldn’t. There were so few things she could do to help him, and that knowledge made her feel worse than useless. Not only had she failed to save him, she’d be one of his executioners.
     
    “Okay.” Blake nodded briskly. “That makes sense. I’m glad you guys know how to stop it. I wish I had found you sooner.”
     
    “It seems like fate that you found us at all,” Mencheres said, staring at Elise. “Demons feed on rage, hatred, jealously—all our lesser emotions. Once they’ve consumed everything they can out of a person, they move on. Elise tells me you were possessed when a woman ran in front of your car several months ago. You understand now what happened. The demon used her up, then it let her kill herself to find a new body. It would have eventually done the same to you.”
     
    Mencheres paused, his gaze flicking back to Blake. “You must be very strong. As a rule, humans don’t last long before the demon controls them completely. For you to still have periods of control against a demon of Xaphan’s caliber—remarkable.”
     
    Blake shoved his plate away and held out his hands. “Do you see the blood still staining these?” he asked, intensity pouring off each syllable. “There is nothing remarkable about being a murderer, and that’s what this thing has made me.”
     
    Elise wanted to tell Blake that no, he wasn’t the killer. He was the weapon, and weapons didn’t have a choice. But even though she believed that, the words eluded her.
     
    She stood. She might not be able to say anything to ease Blake’s guilt, but she could still do something.
     
    “Let’s clean the blood off you, for a start.”

Chapter Eight
     
    B lake stood under the hot spray of the shower and closed his eyes. This felt good. Normal. It used to be his routine every morning and night. Now he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a hot shower. The stall was big, too. One of those upscale versions where there were multiple heads and two entrances to it. These vampires sure lived in style.
     
    He was lathering his hair for a second time when Elise stepped into the shower. Blake froze so completely that he didn’t even wipe his eyes when the suds trickled down to them.
     
    She was naked, her body slender and sleek and so unbelievably beautiful that Blake wondered for a moment if he were hallucinating. Elise took the shampoo off the alcove in a nonchalant fashion, pausing to let her gaze sweep over him.
     
    “Without all that dirt, you’re younger than I thought you were,” she said, sounding faintly surprised. Her hand swiped his face, brushing the soap from his eyes and flicking his sudsy hair back. “You look completely different.”
     
    I could say the same thing about you, Blake