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We need information. We need a plan. The two of them are looking to me, but I’m just as lost as they are.
Orion thumbs through a notebook. “Mom wrote that if we encounter a demon, we run as fast as we can in the opposite direction.”
“Well, that’s not an option, so what do we know?”
“Demons are tied to their tasks, right?” Jackson says. “These murders are ritualistic. There’s a pattern to them that we haven’t figured out. This demon is here on a mission—to complete this ritual.”
“Yeah. So?”
Orion closes the book. “So, we don’t have to kill Levi. We figure out what he’s trying to achieve. We force him to complete the task without hurting anyone else, and then he goes away.”
That’s kind of…genius. I’m personally from the “stab it several times with silver-tipped stakes until it doesn’t get up again” school of monster slaying, but silver won’t work on demons.
“That’s our only option?Reasoningwith it? Him? Whatever the fuck it is?” Jackson looks incredulous.
Fucking hell. Maybe stabbing it several times with a silver-tipped stake would be easier.
Orion nods.
I know he’s right. The Vault’s official stance on what you do when you encounter a demon is “run.”
“So how do we figure out his task?”
Orion speaks quickly, glancing over at Lily sleeping soundly. He often assumes he’s the weakest link of our little trio, butit’s times like this when he’s the best of us. “There are different types of demons. Think of them like factory workers, each with a different job on the assembly line of soul torture. Each job has very specific rules and parameters, so all we have to do is figure out which job Levi is here to do. I have some books on demon lore in my suitcase. You two can read them while I pull up the Vault’s archives online and see if we can match any demon types to what’s gone on at this hotel.”
“Okay. Let’s get on it.” Jackson tosses Orion the keys to their room.
Then he moves to the bed and lies down beside Lily, stroking her hair while she sleeps. He whispers in her ear, but his voice is too low for me to hear. Either way, the sound of it causes the furrow between Lily’s brow to straighten out and her tiny whimpers to abate.
The sight of him with her makes my heart clench.
But this is right. This is the way things should be. He and Orion will be here for her after I’m gone.
This is the way it has to be.
I know how demons work. Orion’s right—one way to send Levi back to hell is to force him to complete his task. But it’s not as if he’s here to retrieve a lost cell phone or something. He will demand blood. A sacrificial lamb.
And I’m not going to allow Lily or one of my brothers to be that sacrifice.
Even if it means I become the lamb.
23
TWENTY-THREE: LILY
Iwake up screaming, although I can’t remember why. It takes me a few moments to realize that I’m alone in the honeymoon suite at the Bridgemont.
I can hear the Bellua brothers moving around in the room next to mine. They’ve obviously gone in there to strategize about killing Levi so I wouldn’t wake up and hear them.
I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I sit up. My eyes are rimmed in red, and my skin is all splotchy. I look like I’ve gone five rounds with a basilisk. Instead, all that happened was that I got dumped by a demon.
A demon.
Fuck.
And I slept with him.
That’s not good. Well, the sex itself was good. Amazing, in fact. Ten out of ten for Levi and his remarkable demon dick. I’m probably the only person in the world who has shagged a demon and lived to tell the tale.
