Devilishly Sexy (27 page)

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Authors: Kathy Love

BOOK: Devilishly Sexy
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“Or time for me to finish you.” Liza’s hand yanked away from the young man on the other side of her and she started to turn toward Michael. The young man reached for her, to renew his hold, but Liza was strong, mostly because of Bartoris.
Michael didn’t flinch or struggle as Liza’s hand curled around his throat and squeezed. All around him, Michael was aware of the team, trying to regain control, their voices growing louder and more emphatic.
“We believe. We believe.”
Michael said it too, but he wasn’t sure what he was saying he believed anymore. He did want Liza safe. More than anything, but his desire to war with this demon also was strong.
Suddenly Liza—or rather Bartoris and Liza’s body—started to sit up. The demon didn’t seem to be leaving. He was just growing stronger and he was solely focused on Michael. On this fight they had yet to finish. Liza’s fingers squeezed even tighter. Her beautiful features were barely her own, her mouth contorted into a sneer, her eyes blazing with hate.
She was off the table then, walking Michael backward.
“What are you going to do, slayer?” Bartoris demanded in that mocking version of Liza’s voice. “You can’t hurt me without hurting your beloved. Are you willing to kill her to kill me?”
Michael realized the team was no longer chanting. They hadn’t seen this before. But Michael had. This was the point when the evil in the demon tainted the human host.
Michael struggled to look around at the others. This was what he’d been assured, even by Gabriel, wouldn’t happen.
Panic filled Michael for the first time. Not for his safety, but for Liza’s.
“Go ahead, slayer. Get me out of her body.” Bartoris shoved Michael hard, and Michael realized he was pinned to the glass of the other room. He also realized he couldn’t breathe. The air barely wheezed past Liza’s strong, strangling fingers.
“Bartoris.”
Liza’s body actually stopped, almost immediately frozen at the sound of the voice behind her. Or rather Bartoris froze.
Then the possessed body slowly turned. Michael followed Liza’s gaze.
There in the doorway was Eugene. Eugene with his calm demeanor and average looks. Nothing about him strong-looking or striking. Except for his eyes. And now his eyes glowed a brighter, more vivid blue than ever before.
“Let the man go, Bartoris,” Eugene said evenly, more a suggestion than a demand.
Bartoris continued to stare. Then the demon said something. A word Michael didn’t understand.
“Do as I say,” Eugene said, moving closer.
Michael felt Liza’s body flinch.
“I believe,” Eugene added, and a low noise escaped Liza’s throat. But her hand no longer held Michael with that superhuman strength she had even moments before.
“I believe,” Eugene repeated.
Another strange noise, and another shudder of Liza’s body.
“Leave her,” Eugene demanded.
The demon within Liza repeated that word again. But he released Michael, moving backward away from Eugene.
“I believe,” Eugene informed the demon as if he was discussing the weather. “I believe.”
Liza then jerked violently, almost as if she was going into a seizure; then she started to crumple to the floor.
But Michael was there, his arms catching her before she hit the ground. Her head lolled against his shoulder, her whole body limp.
Michael immediately worried that this was too much for her. She’d had her episodes before. What if this was another one? What if the medications she overdosed on had made it too hard for her to deal with an exorcism? What if her body couldn’t take it?
“She’s fine,” Eugene said from beside him in his usual conversational way. “The exorcism is done, and she is tired. That is all. It’s very normal.”
Michael frowned at his boss. The exorcism was done? No way. Exorcisms could take hours, days.
But by way of explanation, Eugene jerked his head toward the glass partition of the other room. There on the other side of the glass was a diminutive man, who looked like he could be someone’s rather geeky uncle.
“Bartoris,” Michael said, recognizing the demon’s human form right away. The demon growled and pounded the glass, clearly furious to still be trapped.
Michael frowned at Eugene. “How did you do that?”
“I didn’t,” he said simply. “Not alone. The others helped too.”
Michael then noticed the others still circled around them. Michael didn’t understand. He hadn’t seen anything like this. Maybe the others had helped, but he knew Eugene had done the majority of the exorcism.
“Let’s get Liza out of here. She needs to lie down and rest,” Eugene said. He gestured to one of the others in the room. “Hannah, show Michael to the room down the hall where Liza can rest.”
Hannah nodded, waiting for Michael to follow. Michael wanted to ask Eugene more. He wanted to understand what had just happened, and what would happen to Bartoris now, but he had to take care of his mate first.
Liza was his first priority. Always.
So he followed Hannah out of the room.
Chapter Thirty-two
L
iza woke slowly, stretching her aching muscles. Even though she didn’t know where she was, or what had happened, she had a strange feeling something was very different.
“Liza.”
She blinked repeatedly to find Michael beside her, his strong hand holding hers.
“Where am I?” she asked, her voice hoarse. Her throat a little sore.
Michael hesitated, and she instantly got the feeling he didn’t know how to answer her. She squinted, trying to remember. Then she did. She’d been brought somewhere by the mailroom staff. Or people who had pretended to be the mailroom staff.
They’d locked her in a strange room. And Boris had told her they were going to kill her in order to kill him. But she wasn’t dead.
She braced her arms to lever herself up. Michael immediately helped her.
“I feel strange,” she said, touching a hand to her head. She didn’t feel sick exactly. And nothing hurt. She just didn’t feel quite right.
“Do you want some water?”
She nodded absently, still trying to figure out what felt so different.
Michael made sure she was safely upright, then moved away from the bed to a counter with a sink. He brought her a paper cup filled with cold water.
She took a long sip, then looked around her again. The room looked rather like a hospital room although she didn’t think she was in a hospital.
“Where am I?”
Michael glanced around too. “Under the basement of the
HOT!
building.”
She stared at him for a moment. “And you are a demon slayer.”
He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “I am—at least in theory.”
She considered that for a moment. “And the mailroom is just a cover for people who are here to fight the demons?”
He nodded again. “Yes.”
She thought about that, then took another sip of her water. Then she slowly lowered the cup, realizing what was different. She stared at him with wide eyes.
“He’s no longer here.”
Michael returned her gaze, then smiled slightly. “You’re right. The demon is gone.”
A laugh bubbled up inside her. “He’s gone.”
She flung herself at him, and he caught her, laughing himself.
“Oh Michael, I’m finally free.”
“You are,” he agreed, hugging her tightly. “But not completely.”
She pulled back, her laughter dying on her lips. “What do you mean?”
“Finola and Tristan are still in control of
HOT!,
for now anyway. So you need to go into hiding. They can’t find you or me or discover that Bartoris is gone. We have to go into hiding to keep you safe.”
Liza hugged him again, pressing her face against his chest.
“Sort of like witness protection,” she finally said.
“Yes.”
The idea was overwhelming, but it certainly wasn’t any more overwhelming than the last few years had been. And she was finally free of Boris.
“Will you go with me?” she asked without lifting her head from his strong chest.
“Yes. If you want me.”
She looked at him then. “Of course, I want you. I feel like I couldn’t go on without you by my side. That’s scarier to me than the idea of having to hide or even being possessed, which was no picnic.”
She gave him a smile and was pleased to see him smile back.
“I can only imagine,” he told her. “Was that why you took all the allergy medicine? To somehow subdue the demon inside you?”
She nodded, then smiled a little proudly. “It knocked him out cold.”
“But it was also hurting you,” he pointed out and she nodded again.
“But it was worth it. It allowed me to have an almost normal relationship with you. And I had to have that.”
Michael kissed her then, just a brief brush of his lips against her mouth. He rested his forehead against hers.
“I do have one more thing to tell you. I hope you will be pleased, because I’m not sure there’s much we can do to change it.”
She waited, feeling a little nervous. She was already hearing so many odd things. Things that would change her life forever. What else could he tell her?
His gaze searched hers, his golden eyes uncertain in a way she’d never seen before. He was nervous too.
But finally he spoke. “I am a demon slayer, and I have been for centuries.”
She frowned. “Are you immortal?”
He shook his head. “I just age differently from normal humans. But I am human. I don’t have any powers or anything except for the fact that I was chosen, by God or some higher power, to battle demons. My only special skill is that ability.”
“So will you kill Finola?”
“No. Things have changed and now the DIA—the Demon Intelligence Agency—is handling demons much differently than they used to.”
She nodded, not totally understanding, but getting the basic gist.
“But that’s not the main thing I want to tell you.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, finding it a little hard to believe there could be more.
Again she got the feeling he was nervous.
“Another part of being a slayer is that we—we sort of mate for life.”
Liza stared at him, her stomach tensing with dread. Was he saying what she thought he was? She pulled away from him, trying to prepare herself for the answer to her next question.
“Are you mated with someone then?”
He nodded, but his expression seemed almost amused. She couldn’t find anything funny about that. She’d been involved with what was in essence a married man. Definitely not funny to her.
“Who? Does she know about us?”
He nodded again, and she couldn’t miss the amusement there now. Really? She couldn’t find anything humorous about this at all.
She pulled away even more, but his hands on her shoulders stopped her before she could break all contact.
“Please, Michael, let me go.”
But he didn’t. Instead he caught her gaze with his. “Liza, it’s you. I’m bonded to you. You are my soul mate.”
She searched his eyes, suddenly realizing what he’d said was true. How could she not know that? She could feel it now.
“We—we’re soul mates.” Her words were spoken more as an agreement than a question.
“Yes. Does—does that bother you?”
Now it was her turn to be amused. “After everything I’ve been through in the past day—in the past few years, do you really think being with the man I love is going to shake me?”
He stared at her for a moment, then laughed, pulling her tight against his chest.
“I love you, Liza. We are going to be just fine.”
“I know we are,” she said, really feeling that things would be okay for the first time in years. She had Michael, her very own demon slayer. Who could want more?
Epilogue
“A
re you two all set?” Eugene asked.
Michael held up the plane tickets to London. The DIA had set up a place for Michael and Liza to live in England. They even had jobs. Michael would work for the DIA over there, and Liza would work for a publishing company. Working on children’s books, which pleased her. She’d had enough of the fashion industry, that was for sure.
“We are good to go,” he told his boss. His old boss.
“You will be safe there,” Eugene said.
“We will be fine.” Michael had no doubt about that. As long as he and Liza were together, they would always be good.
Eugene nodded as if he agreed with Michael’s thoughts.
“Thanks for your help,” Michael said. “I’m sure we will be in touch every now and then.”
“Yes.”
Michael nodded again, not quite sure what to say to the man who’d been in some ways his nemesis and also his savior. But he felt the need to say something.
“Thank you for saving Liza.”
Eugene smiled, and even his smile seemed rather bland. “It’s my job.”
Michael nodded again, still not sure exactly what to say. Still wanting to ask something he didn’t actually think he’d get an answer for. But he was leaving, so he had to try.
“How did you cast Bartoris out of Liza like that?”
Eugene looked as if he wasn’t going to answer, but then he shrugged. “I have a very good understanding of how to deal with demons.”
Michael no longer doubted that, but still he had never seen anyone exorcise a demon so easily. Only another demon could do that.
He studied Eugene for a moment, wondering about that very possibility, not for the first time.
Eugene gave him a look that he couldn’t quite decipher, then nodded slightly as if agreeing with what Michael was thinking. But Michael didn’t ask the question that had been swirling in his mind.
Are you a demon?
Maybe he really didn’t want to know.
He waved the tickets in the air once more as a good-bye. “Thank you again.”
Eugene nodded. “Thank you.”
Michael left Eugene’s underground office and went to Liza, where she waited in the reception area.
She smiled as he approached and he no longer considered how Eugene did what he did, or what he might or might not be. He was headed to his future, and he was just glad it was with the love of his life by his side.
For once, Michael didn’t need any other answer than that.

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