* * *
It took Jaci twenty minutes of pacing the bedroom before she could finally form a coherent sentence, and when she finally rediscovered the ability to speak, the first thing that fell out of her mouth was, “Viansa is a succubus.”
“A demon,” Gabriel clarified.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“There are common demons—like Rogozin and his crew. Dark essences who possess human vessels. Then there aredemons. Like, O.G. demons whose essences are bound to hell. They don’t need vessels because they can take any form they want. Viansa’s always had that one.”
“How long is always?”
Jaci blew out a breath. “Near as I can tell, somewhere between twelve and twenty thousand years.” She met Gabriel’s stern glare. “She’s the first succubus, Gabriel.”
“How the fuck do you know her? Whose purple hair is that? What did she mean, you summoned her. What thefuckdid she do to my mind?” He shoved a hand through his hair, his questions coming at her rapid-fire, anger rolling off him in waves.
It was no less than Jaci deserved. In fact, she deserved worse. Way worse. And she was pretty damn sure she was going to get it.
Still, she owed him answers. As many as she could give him.
“Viansa has the power to control your thoughts. She can make a man relive his worst nightmares, bring his fears to life, or create a complete illusion in your mind. It immobilizes you while its happening, and your mind has no idea the illusion isn’t real.”
“For fuck’s sake. How did she get here?”
“I’m not sure. She’s an original hellbound demon. She wasn’t supposed to be able to manifest here.”
“She said you summoned her. With my blood.”
“If that’s true, it was unintentional. Gabriel, I…” Jaci dropped onto the edge of the bed, no longer possessing the strength to stand on her own two feet. “Viansa is the demon who bound your curse.”
The look in his eyes was murderous. “How long have you known?”
She blinked. Sucked in a breath. Tried to gather her thoughts. Her strength.
“How long?” he shouted.
“Since… since that day I did the blood spell in my apartment. She possessed your body, just for a minute, and I knew it had to be because of the connection.”
“And you recognized her?”
Jaci nodded.
He lowered his head and sighed, still trying to piece together the pieces, to find the explanation that would make any of this craziness make sense.
“How thebloodyhell do you know her?”
At this, he looked up, captured her gaze. She could see the gears turning behind his eyes, keys sliding in and out of locks, pieces filling in the holes.
But she held the final pieces.
“Viansa is my sister. Half, anyway.”
“Your sister. That means you…” He shook his head as if he couldn’t bear to let the thought stick. The truth. “I saw your hellfire. I saw you cast it. You… You’re… You’re a…”
This was it. The final piece. The final stake through the heart of whatever relationship she’d stupidly thought they could have.
“I’m a hybrid, Gabriel. Half witch, half demon. Created in hell, born of an unholy union between a drugged mage and a vicious demonic bitch, bred for one purpose.”
