AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nathan met my gaze. “Will you go on a date with me when this is over? I can feed you dinner, and we can look at the moonlight together.”
“Sure. Then you can walk me back to my tent at the end of the night. Where do you live when you aren’t there?”
He blinked. “Did I never tell you? Really? Not far from you, actually. I…”
The door was flung open, and like a scene from my nightmares, the hunters flooded into the room. Dressed in all black, they struck me as emo and powerful in their dark and stealthy uniforms. They might mostly be normal people—Ryker’s old girlfriend might have joined them by then.
Nathan flung himself at the crowd, punching some of them and throwing the others around. “Addalee, run,” he shouted over and over again, as if he alone could stem the tide of hunters.
But Danvers lay prone and helpless on the couch. Ryker and Cruise never reappeared, meaning something likely happened to them. It seemed they had me, making it a foregone conclusion, so why would I try to run for my life, while everyone I cared about stayed behind to fight the lunatics?
“Stop.” I intoned, drawing the attention of every gaze in the room like a beacon. “Don’t hurt them. No one herehasto be injured in any way.” I got down on my knees. “Take me, for example. I’m possessed.”
One of the men grabbed Danvers, and two of them flung him around, dragging him out of the room with them. The biggest of the men in the room turned to me. “We weren’t expecting another one. We’ve wanted him since we heard he got out. But you, pretty blonde thing. You’ll be a trip to exorcise.”
“Addalee, don’t do this.” Nathan struggled against two of them who held him.
“Thank you for trying. It was always going to come to this. Watch out for my mom, okay?”
A woman stepped forward. Brown hair hung low over her mean, glass-bottle-green eyes. With a swing of her fist, fist she knocked me out. I went down, relieved to know nothing, if only for a little while.
“Addalee!”The woman I dreamed about called to me, offering her hand for me to take. “Wake up. You can’t let them have you. You’re very important, my Addalee.”
I opened my eyes to a raging headache. I blinked past it, hoping the memories would one day fade.
How did you get us into this situation? You stupid littlebitch.
I sighed.Well, apparently she’s back.On a table next to me, Danvers moaned. We were both strapped down. I couldn’t sit up to see what was happening, but I could hear that we weren’t alone in this room.
It was a giant storage area for furniture and random old things. That was the only thing that would explain the musty smell.
“Hello there, Addalee. I’m so glad you’re awake.” A young, strange, thin, and unfamiliar woman with dark hair walked into my line of sight. Wasn’t this place run by crazy old men? Apparently, they had women in charge, too, which surprised me. “I’m Rianne. My friends and I are hunters. We’re going to exorcise you, which will help you.”
Like hell you are. My demon wasn’t interested.You’re not getting me out of you. Not ever.
I neither understood what was happening, nor did I know what the hell to expect next. I swallowed. “Okay.”
She grinned, but the baring of teeth struck me as more menacing than kind. “But first, we’re going to do a little basic questioning.” She picked up a knife, twisting it in her small hands so it glinted in the light. “I need you to answer mehonestly. If you don’t, I’m going to have to cut off one of your fingers. Don’t worry, I’ll start with a pinky.”
She waved the knife over my right hand, and the wickedly sharp blade parted flesh, leaving blood dripping down my fingers. Luckily, I didn’t feel it. One of the few benefits of possession was my demon decided when I felt pain and when I didn’t. Right then, she clearly didn’t care for me to have the experience.
No, I’m the one who makes you hurt, not them.
I figured as much, so I sighed in resignation. She pushed into my eyes, seeing out of them. For the moment, she allowed me to basically ride along, still aware of what happened. Who knew how long she would allow me consciousness, so I did my normal and just focused on handling whatever she and the world threw at me.
And at least not complaining too much about it.
“You know what?” I could still talk, so I took advantage of the small measure of control to address the hunter directly. Usually, she wouldn’t even allow me the liberty of speech. It struck me as interesting, her leaving it in this case. “You made a huge misstep today.”
Rianne blinked before chuckling. “How do you figure, demon? I’m not the one bleeding.”
“You busted into the house of an assistant district attorney.” Staring down at me, Rianne visibly paled. “Oh, did you not consider that when you were chasing Danvers and found me, too? He is the youngest assistant district attorney this city has ever had, but he’s still a DA. Not to mention…”Yep, I am on a rollnow. “He’s rich. Did you notice that when you ran in where you weren’t invited? Cruise Winters is fuckingrichand not living off his government salary. He does the work because it’s meaningful to him. He is going to rain hell from the courts down on you so hard that you might wish you were possessed.”
She blustered. “We do this to save people. We’re here on a mission to save humanity.”
“Yeah? By cutting off their pinkies? Listen, I don’t know much about exorcisms, but I know you kill more than you save. I can’t imagine the physical endurance needed to survive exorcism, something rare to begin with, is helped much by first suffering torture because you just happen to enjoy sadism. About that, by the way, good on you. I’m not judging you. Find your kink. I say people need to make themselves happy if the other person is consenting.” I practically screamed the words in her face. “But here we are! Whatever you want to claim about helping us, we both know that’s not what you’re actually doing here. Plus, bonus, you just pissed off Cruise Winters.” Or at least I hoped so. “Unless you killed him, in which case, good luck dealing with the combined fury of his surviving family.”
Her eyes were huge.
