Grace’s eyesight began to dim, the edges becoming hazy like the enhancements in a photograph.
No, no, no. The battle for control of her body quickly swung in favor of the demon. A tear of desperation almost squeaked out before she lost entirely.
***
“Grace?” Rourke’s voice cut through to Grace.
Abruptly awareness flooded back as the demon relinquished control of her body. Ripped sheets of paper surrounded her, covering the desk and the floor. Her chest heaved, like she’d been exerting herself enough to breath heavily.
How much time had passed? Holy shit, were those all of Calli’s notes?
She spun slowly. Rourke stood in the room, Demetrius next to him, Calli was still in the hallway. Calli’s mouth was pulled down in a frown, her expression full of guilt and concern.
“Grace, did you do this?” Rourke asked. His expression was carefully blank, back to the cold slate he’d been when they met.
Swallowing the giant lump in her throat, she again assessed the damage. The laptop lay against the wall where it had fallen after she apparently tossed it. Likely because the demon couldn’t hack into it. Cabinet doors hung ajar, some ripped off entirely. Drawers were dumped, books shredded. Nowhere did she see the tome she and Calli had once bent over.
Calli interpreted the harried search. “The tome is under lock and key. Only available for those who need to know the location.”
“Good.” The word escaped Grace and gave her an idea. She spoke before the demon interfered. “I’m possess—” It was like a hand bitch-slapped her brain. “So’s Osiris.”
She gaged. Her throat closed up. She worked her lips to mouth the words, but she gaped for air instead. The demon was going to strangle her from the inside out. Dropping to her knees, she fought with all her might. One more sentence!
“Birth…” She coughed, blood-tinged sputum hit the floor. “Parents…alive—”
For the third time since she threw everything away with the best intentions, she was pushed back by the demon.
Chapter Fourteen
Rourke couldn’t tear his stunned gaze off Grace. Her agony tore him up inside, but he couldn’t get close. Not when he suspected what had happened.
Well, he more than suspected. She just told them. Possessed.
Her lovely face glared up at him, her eyes completely black.
“You have us at a bit of a disadvantage.” Demetrius sounded casual, but his stance was anything but. “Your name is?”
Grace bared her fangs and snarled.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.” Demetrius maintained eye contact with the demon who’d hijacked Grace.
Desperation to save her should’ve taken priority, but he couldn’t shake the fact she had to have uttered the bonding spell. Had it been willingly? The words don’t accidentally spill out. Part of him screamed it didn’t matter. It was Grace, and he had to save her. The other part filled with rage she might’ve and trotted danger into his home, among his family.
Then her last words sunk in. Birth parents alive. No matter how he felt, he needed answers. His emotions could eat shit until he knew what happened to Grace and why. The demon within her held the answers.
He glanced at Demetrius to make sure they were on the same page. They had worked together for a long time, their routine second nature. His friend was the distraction, Rourke inched to the side, the best they could do at surrounding the demon.
“Demetrius,” Grace’s lip curled in a sneer. “I will enjoy killing you. After I rend all the limbs from your love’s…” The demon retched on the word. “…body.”
“At least you’ll smell good doing so.” Demetrius’ hands flared out in a defensive position, in case a weapon was needed, but like Rourke, he didn’t want to hurt Grace in the scuffle. “The stench of your new bath products gave you away, made Calli suspicious. Other than you arriving at her office in the middle of the day to search our records when Grace is usually in Rourke’s arms.”
Damn right she had been. Rourke was pissed at himself for not catching on earlier when he’d spoken to her. He’d grown too close to Grace, her impromptu aromatherapy hadn’t lit any warning signals in him.
Grace swung to him, halting his progress as he maneuvered behind her. A sneer smeared across her lips. “She’s been with your brother. Did you know that?”
Shock nailed him in the solar plexus. His brother and Grace?
“She’s been sneaking out to meet him, reporting about you.” An evil, throaty laugh bubbled out of the demon. She stopped, her voice dropped low. “And do you know why? Your name should explain it.”
He stilled. Grace knew his dirty history, but it felt like the ultimate betrayal the demon would use her to spill his secrets.
“Like she said, her birth parents are still alive…her prime birth parents. And you’re just a former blood whore from the streets, Ozias Rourke.”.
Rourke ground his teeth down so hard he was astonished his fangs didn’t poke out the other side of his lower lip. His eyes shot to Demetrius.
His friend’s expression held only distrust for the creature. “I hate to insult you, demon, but I’m gonna go ahead and wait for proof about Grace’s parents.”
Grace held her arms out and glanced down at her body. “Is it not enough proof I’m here? She must be the one to say the words, after all.”
There it was. Out there for everyone else to hear now—Rourke’s main hang-up about this whole ordeal.
“Riiight.” Demetrius cocked a brow. “Because demons are open and honest about their intentions. What, exactly, made Grace speak the vows?”
Grace glared back and forth between the both of them. Her black gaze rested back on Rourke, a cruel smile curving her lips. “All Osiris had to do was ask.”
His hands curled into themselves, his nails biting into skin, but Demetrius words were not lost on him. “If she were to reject me because I’m a filthy street whore, then I fail to see how my brother would turn her head.”
A moment of indecision passed through her expression. So, it wasn’t as cut and dried as the demon purported it to be.
Shocker. He almost felt ashamed, but the truth was still out there, and he didn’t know why Grace had betrayed them all.
“We’re gonna go ahead and lock you up until we figure this out.” Demetrius advanced on her.
She hissed at him and crouched to attack. The demon would do everything but destroy the body to get away.
Fast as lightening, Rourke lunged to wrap his arms around Grace to pin her own arms to her torso. He was flung back as easily as the paper shreds littering the room.
Shock registered in Demetrius’s face. Grace possessed normal strength and very little fighting skill as a vampire, but the demon obviously knew how to fight.
Rourke was back on his feet in seconds. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt Grace, no matter the circumstances. He wouldn’t allow the demon to brutalize Grace’s body in order to escape.
The demon and his friend were locked in battle. Arms tearing at each other, Grace attempting to claw Demetrius’ face off while he grappled with her limbs to pin her down. Calli stepped in the doorway to block Grace’s exit.
Prime hosts were too hard to come by. That fact was the only solace Rourke had the demon wouldn’t seek Grace’s death to stay out of confinement. He circled around behind her again, prepared for her new fighting skill. Demetrius knew what he was doing and dropped low.
This time when Rourke grabbed her around the middle, locking down her arms, she twisted and writhed. Sharp teeth slammed into his arm.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, he decided more acute measures were required to subdue Grace. With her teeth tangled in the mess she’d made out of his flesh, he released his other hand. Propelled by his speed and all the strength he had to lend, he thumped her on the head.
She slumped forward unconscious and her teeth released.
Grateful one hit was all it took, he swooped her up. Guilt ate at him. She’
d heal, he told himself. It was the best way.
Demetrius and Calli eyed him. He set his mouth and strode out of the office with his bundle.
He was fine.
The other two followed with their towline of tension; they were all prepared to take on Grace again if need be.
Fuck, he wanted the demon’s name. Associating Grace’s name with that abomination wasn’t right. Didn’t feel right.
“It wanted the tome.” Calli’s voice was introspective. “I’ve been through that thing at least ten times. It packs a lot of information, but nothing that will bring down the underworld. I could only wish.”
They moved swiftly through the hallway, winding their way down to the holding cells Demetrius had built into the place. They’d never been used. Death was a common solution to many of their problems.
Demetrius, the consummate leader, ticked off duties for all of them. “Calli, comb through the book again. There’s something in there they either don’t want us to see or will be incredibly useful to them. Zoey reported the possible human contact point the demons are using. Before sunset, I’ll take Bishop to shake him down.”
Rourke cradled his rapidly healing arm and waited for his assignment with trepidation. He didn’t want to leave Grace’s side, but he was afraid Demetrius would order him to do so. Or he’d order Rourke to work another angle to this mess, and that was even worse.
“You gotta find out who her birth parents are, if they exist.”
Hellfire. There was that. Researching prime families would’ve been fine before his past was dredged up to the forefront and thrown in his face in front of his team, his friends.
Demetrius continued, “Grace might be able to tell you when she comes to. Get anything you can out of her. When you do, we find them, we find your brother.”
“That guy,” Calli spoke up, “the cult leader, Terrance Walkins… He might know how to throw a demon out of a host.”
Both males swung their gaze toward her, surprise etched in their features.
Genius.
“I mean,” Calli shrugged, “if you deal in the business of hosts, my guess is you’d cover your ass by having a get out of jail free card. Have the upper hand, so to speak. Maybe that’s what they don’t want me to find,” she mused, her brows drawn in.
Their assumptions had been pigeon-holed by their limited experience, which included beheading or staking a host and sending the demon back to the underworld.
Finally, they reached their destination. Grace’s slight weight wasn’t cumbersome, it was the conflict raging within. His instincts drove him to comfort her, watch over her, but he needed distance from her.
Demetrius opened all the doors. The cell was behind a triple locked door, in a room with a cage of double layered bulletproof Plexiglas reinforced with metal bars between the layers. Mostly see-through, and damn hard to break out of.
Cameras hung in each corner where Creed could watch her day and night.
Rourke almost growled.
He had to get over it fast. Writing Grace off completely wasn’t on his agenda, but scribbling her out of his heart was. He couldn’t with her. Just couldn’t.
Because no matter what filth the demon spilled, Grace was still with his brother without telling him, and she hosted a demon. Those two items gave him the it’s-you-and-not-me excuse.
He bent to lay Grace down on the cot. A very subtle stench of brimstone wafted off of her.
He dropped her the rest of the way and stalked out of the cell.
She groaned as the door clicked shut. Rourke stopped with his back to the cell. The intensity of his gaze could’ve set fire to the floor.
“Rourke?” Grace’s hoarse whisper ripped the remnants of his resolve.
Steeling himself, he spun slowly around.
She was sitting up, rubbing her temples, when she paused to peer around. Her face drained of color and when her eyes met his, they were brimming with guilt.
“Talk.” All of Rourke’s disappointment poured into that one word.
“Rourke—”
“Don’t.” He pinned her with a dark glare. “Talk.”
Her hands twisted in her lap, resembling what his insides looked like. His heart was having a difficult time carving her out of it.
She swallowed hard, her eyes dropping to her hands. “He caught me after I ran out of the club when Bishop was jumped. I was persuaded to go with him when he said my birth parents were still alive.”
“You believed him?” His tone was flat. He was slowly winning the war to close his emotions back up in a box. Grace had made him feel, and it sucked as badly as he remembered.
“How could I walk away? I’d lost them all and when he said that, it was…” Tears welled in her eyes. She sniffled. “Anyway, he took me to this mansion. I can’t tell you where it’s at.”
“How convenient.”
“He showed me their picture,” she said quietly, studying her hands.
“And?” If he appeared too interested, the demon would take over to prevent Grace from giving him details. He needed time with Grace to learn as much as he could about her “parents” and Osiris.
Hastily wiping her eyes, she gathered herself. “If they’re fake, whoever chose them for the photo did a bang-up job. They looked like me.”
Rourke ensured no spark of intrigue entered his dark gaze. He measured his bored look on her.
“I mean, I’m sure I’m shorter.” She gave a half-hearted laugh. “Height seems to be a theme with vampires.” A soft, wistful sigh escaped. “He said the murdered couple were my caregivers. He said you did it, said you killed all of them. He wants to frame you, and I don’t know why.”
Rourke didn’t know either. He’d always been dispensable to his family, another mouth to feed when they couldn’t afford it. For Osiris to hate him so severely he’d pursued him for decades to frame him for murder…Why?
They’d been street poor, so who was Osiris working for who had a mansion? Another prime family? If, by a long shot, the mansion was his brother’s, what had he sold to get that much money?
A slow realization crept into Rourke.
Indeed. What had his brother sold?
“Osiris is possessed.” He didn’t ask; in his gut, he knew.
Grace’s beautiful brown irises grew black until the demon took over with a menacing laugh. “You’re not nearly as stupid as your brother claimed.” She cocked her head at him, her gaze sweeping his body. “It’s a shame the bond never took with you. You’d have been a worthy host, despite the circumstances of your birth.”
Cold blanketed his insides at her revelation. Perhaps the demon was messing with him. He had no recollection of a bonding ritual.
“Yesss,” Grace’s demon squealed with glee. “The power in prime families’ blood tolerates hosting one of the Circle better than commoners, yet…it was worth a shot. Your parents were deliciously greedy, so willing to turn over a good price for you.”
“They did turn over a good price for me, only not to you.” He’d had too many years of confinement and abuse to work through his emotions of why and wondering what he’d done to deserve any of it. The underworld wasn’t going to play him.
The demon sat back, wearing a Cheshire grin. “Their ingenuity was impressive. You were broken, making our deal null and void. But they managed to put your other traits to use.”
Blood and sex. What else was there?
The demon was still smiling, as if waiting for Rourke to ask and dammit, he had to. “Broken?”
If possible, the grin widened, transforming Grace’s features into those that weren’t her own. “Like Callista Augustus,” the demon spit her name out, “we were going to bond you to a demon, only one from the Circle, one of us. A test, to see if it’d actually work with a commoner.”
His mind spun over the data. Calli had been bonded to a second-tier demon so when she came of age, Draken could roam the earth freely. If he was bonded to a Circle demon, would that mean the demon could walk into his body when
he came of age?
She waved her hand as if it wasn’t a big deal. “You weren’t strong enough. Obviously. You just weren’t strong enough. I told them it wouldn’t work.”
“Then why try?” And how did it fail?
She shrugged and glanced away. Information the demon didn’t want him to have? Prime families weren’t as easy to target as they’d thought, so they went after commoners.
“You broke,” she said finally, laying all the blame on his child self. “You’re still broken, showing us how wrong it all was.” Her eyes grew even darker. “At least you’re not stupid like this one. She doesn’t even know what you are to her.”
His brows drew down. What could he be to Grace?
“Your bonding instinct’s been busted since you were a child, but this prime girl can’t even interpret her own feelings to know you’re true mates.”
Chapter Fifteen
Early the following night, Rourke addressed both Bishop and Demetrius as they were leaving the compound for their mission of hunting down the cult leader assisting the underworld. “I’m going with you.”
The males didn’t argue. That’s why Rourke liked them. They knew if he hadn’t gone back to Grace’s cell, it was for a damn good reason and he’d explain on the way.
“Did you get any rest?” Demetrius asked.
“No.” Rourke had spun out of the cell as soon the words “true mate” left Grace’s mouth. He trusted Demetrius to assign Creed to monitoring the cell, and he stormed back to his apartment, his safe place.
How could he rest after his talk with the demon? Could he believe any of it?
Was it plausible? Yes. His family would’ve bartered him for top dollar, and if someone came offering thousands for their son’s soul…well, easy answer. If that had failed and they could still get a good rate selling him to a blood slaver…well, he knew the answer.
His true mate would be a prime daughter? Impossible. No, Grace wasn’t raised with a traditional prime family, but if those were her bloodlines, she’d be welcomed right back. With their fairly new medication bypassing the link and allowing true mates to share their bodies with others, Grace wouldn’t have to stay with him. Why would she?
Rourke (New Vampire Disorder Book 2) Page 15