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SLAM.
A moment later, Freddie has Brooks pinned against the wall, his hands around his throat. Brooks’s eyes bug out as he struggles for air.
What’s going on?
Freddie meets my gaze, and his usually kind eyes are glowing bright red.Demonred.
“Lily Dean,” he rasps. “Just the nosy little busybody I’ve been waiting for.”
30
THIRTY: JACKSON
Lily peers at the unassuming concierge as he holds my older brother against the wall like he’s a bug that needs to be squashed. Her eyes swim, and her face crumples. Her arms are shaking as she tries to hold herself upright in the bed.
The drops Becka gave her must be working. Only now, she doesn’t need to go to her dream to pull Levi out because the demon is already here.
We were wrong this entire time.
Levi isn’t the demon we’re looking for.
It’s Freddie.
As Freddie’s grip tightens around my brother’s neck, Iseehim for the first time. People never stop to look at the help. If they did, they would have seen Freddie’s true nature. The evil that crawls beneath the surface of his skin, the inhuman glint of his eyes.
Demons take on human form when they come to earth, but they can never quite get the eyes right. Eyes are the windows to the soul, and demons don’t have souls.
We should have seen it in Levi, too, but we were too busy hating on him for other reasons.
“I recognized the famous Bellua brother the moment you guys walked into the lobby,” Freddie hisses as Brooks claws at his throat, trying to get enough air.
His face is turning red, and his feet kick frantically in midair.
“The golden boys of the Vault. And I quickly figured out you were with the Shadow. You weren’t exactly subtle, Lily Dean, sprinkling your magic stones all over the hotel. Did you find more than you bargained for at the dear Bridgemont Hotel?”
Freddie throws this last line over his shoulder at Lily, who whimpers as her arms finally collapse. She falls back against the pillow, her red hair fanning around her like a halo of fire.
I know it’s hopeless to fight Freddie, but I have only one thought—protect Lily. I meet Brooks’s eyes and can see the same grim determination there.
I fling myself at Freddie. At least, I try. All I achieve is a little twitch. My limbs have frozen. I’m stuck in place like a fly in a spider’s web.
“I was called to this hotel when it was on the brink of ruin. The new owner was desperate for the hotel to succeed, so he bargained his soul if I would make the money flow, the construction easy, and bring in the tourists. I kept up my end of the bargain, but when I came to collect, he’d disappeared and hired a high-powered supernatural to hide him from me. Isn’t that rude?” Freddie asks Brooks, jiggling my brother by the neck so it appears as if he’s nodding in response.
Fear churns in my gut. Freddie could break Brooks’s neck at any moment, although right now, he seems content to tell his tale. Demons are known for being loquacious bastards.
“That’s right, Brooks, itwasrude. But I’m nothing if not reasonable. I gave him fair terms—I take my first soul from his guests, and I will return every six weeks for another, until he shows his face and gives up his soul to me. And if he continues to defy me, the timeline will move to six days, six hours, sixminutes, six seconds, and this hotel will be nothing but a ruin atop a pile of dead bodies.
“I knew it would only be a matter of time before the Vault sent someone to the Bridgemont,” Freddie continues in a conversational tone, as if he’s discussing the hotel’s amenities. “I’ve been so careful to cover my tracks, to make my prizes look like a run-of-the-mill haunting, to be a shadow—like our Lily here. But it’s an honor to know that I’m worthy of the great Bellua brothers and their little plaything.”
“I’m not…their plaything…” Lily spits out, her eyes falling shut as she attempts to ward off whatever serum Becka gave her.
“That’s not what it sounded like when you let this one fuck you every way imaginable.” Freddie grins. “Oh, yes, I remember what you told me on the first day you arrived, that you let all three of them have you. You seemed to believe that batting your eyelashes and implying I might become your ‘fifth’ would get you anything you wanted. I played along because it amused me.
“But now that I see you lying here, I wonder if maybe I should take you up on the offer. Maybe I should fuck you while the others watch, make your little boyfriends squeal like pigs? Would you like that, Lily Dean? It makes my little demon heart all aflutter. What about yours, younger Bellua? Did you jerk off listening to your brother make Lily Dean scream? Or did you run away because you can’t bear to tell her how you really feel?”
The way Freddie says those words twists a knife in my gut. I knew about Brooks and Lily, of course. We heard them. The whole hotel probably heard them. But somehow, knowing Freddie heard them too and is using it to torture me is too much.
Freddie lets go of Brooks’s neck, but he doesn’t drop to the floor. He remains pinned to the wall, his body frozen.
