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Gabriel started talking about the plans for altering the house, and I kept my mouth shut. The whir of the engine was vaguely soothing. I gripped the seat a little tighter, absorbing that thrum as well as I could.
A second later, the leather surface split beneath my left palm. I flinched, jerking my hand onto my lap. My fingers twitched of their own accord with a flash of heat, but I managed to will it down.No. Not here. Not now.
If it got bad enough, I could ask Rose to stop the car. We could hash the situation out on the side of the road, even if I’d rather we had the privacy of the estate instead. But at the very least, I’d like to get a little more distance from the damned Assembly before—
An urge wrenched through me so hard my head snapped toward the window. We’d left the downtown core behind, the shops and office buildings giving way to posh houses on manicured lawns. A sudden, furious certainty filled me from head to toe.
Somewhere over there, not far at all, was the jackass who’d made all this happen. Who’d called the demons forth. Who’d bound them to his will. Who’d ensnared Rose in the whole mess.
Whose missteps had cut off the freedom the fiends had nearly won. Who’d mocked my helplessness and put the idea that I couldn’t control this menace into my head.
The streams of rage burst through me so quickly and brutally I couldn’t separate which were mine and which seemed to have emerged from the vicious presence tied to my scar. All I knew was Mr. Hallowell wasclose, and he didn’t deserve one speck of the miserable life he was still leading—and I could see that he didn’t get a single speck more.
Rose eased to a halt at a stop sign, and my hand was on the door before I’d even processed what I was doing. I shoved the door open and flung myself out onto the sidewalk.
Two startled voices rang out behind me. “Damon!” I barely heard them over the roar of my pulse in my ears. My legs hurtled me forward, drawn around the corner and across the street and onward like a homing missile locked on its target.
My breath came ragged. My arm blazed with pain. The houses passed by in a blur, the sight of them barely penetrating the whirl of emotions inside me.
Cut down that driveway. Hop that fence with a surge of power that propelled me right over it. Veer right. Faster. Faster.There.
A fresh surge of rage flooded me when my gaze caught on the house I understood was Mr. Hallowell’s. Ifelthim, with a sickening intimacy, walking through the first floor living room, totally oblivious to the forces he’d failed to fully reckon with, the damagehe’ddone a thousand times over—
My footsteps thudded across the asphalt and up the front walk. I grasped the doorknob, and the deadbolt unlocked with a flicker of heat from my mark. The door flew open without any further impetus from me. I charged into the hallway.
“What on—” Mr. Hallowell stepped into a nearby doorway and froze. The stiffening of his posture and the widening of his eyes told me he now knew what was coming for him.
It wasn’t just me. The fury that stirred in the depths of my being came from a long way away and yet much too close for comfort, with an alien chill that echoed back to those horrifying moments in the cave on the cliffside. I felt the baring of deadly teeth and a bloody longing that brought a metallic flavor into the back of my mouth.
Rip him apart. Tear him limb from limb. Ravage him and let the blood spill like paint… like fuel…
My arm had already whipped up toward him, that violent desire twining through my muscles and veins on the verge of exploding out. Mr. Hallowell stumbled backward, but it wasn’t fast enough. I’d eviscerate him into hundreds of shreds of flesh splattered across his fucking polished floor—
NO!
I threw myself sideways at the last second. My elbow slammed into the wall, and the blast of magic shattered as it left my hand. It burst through the hall, shards of it scraping little gouges into the floorboards, the wallpaper, the side table—and, one, across Mr. Hallowell’s arm with a spurt of blood that showed so clearly how much carnage I could have caused if the full blast had hit him.
With a ragged sound, he clapped his hand over the wound to suppress the bleeding. I staggered, reeling, the pulsing in my head sharpening into a migraine ache. The demonic energy pulsed through me again, but I managed to cling on to one thought.
The worst villains were the ones that had dragged me here. I’d sooner cut my own throat than let them use me like this—turn me into a murderer. Fulfill whatever sacrifice they were trying to enact.
Rose’s dad didn’t deserve the life he had, but I wasn’t going to become a murderous puppet for demons to take it away.
I wasn’t sure how long I could hold on to that determination. The sear of power emanating from my mark gushed all through my body, clouding my vision and my mind. I was clutching my last strands of will when more footsteps clattered into the hall behind me.
“Damon!” Rose’s voice cried out. And then, quieter, darker. “Dad.”
“Get me out of here,” I managed to rasp. “I don’t think I can…”
Gentle arms wrapped around me and guided me toward the doorway. They tensed for just an instant as Rose paused. Magic wound through the words she hurled at her dad. “You willnotmention my or my consorts’ presence here to anyone in any way. Make up whatever story you want if you need to explain the injury, but it can’t have anything to do with me or them.”
She murmured something else, her hands stroking over my back in what must have been spell forms. A cooling, calming sensation trickled through me. By the time we reached the car, the fog of rage had drawn back enough that I was aware of Rose’s head tucked close to mine, of Gabriel at my other side, and of the wretched act I’d almost committed. Nausea swelled in my gut.
I turned and pulled my consort into a proper hug, soaking in every bit of her loving warmth. Even knowing I couldn’t avoid the conversation now and how essential it was, the admission still stuck in my throat. But a sense of understanding cracked through the resistance that constricted my lungs.
The demons had almost gotten what they wanted after all. I couldn’t help seeing it now. They’d wanted me to refuse to turn to anyone, to let my fears and resentments guide me until I fucked up in the most epic possible way. They’d wanted me to think that trying to conquer them on my own was real strength.
It wasn’t, though. I should have remembered that fact, no matter how they’d been messing with my mind for who knew how long.
