The Devil You Know

CHAPTER 25

Der Jäger’s smile broadened as he took a step closer to me. I took a corresponding step back as my Taser hand rose. My reflexes are pretty quick, but not as quick as a demon’s. Before I had a chance to get off a shot, Der Jäger slapped the Taser out of my hand, sending it flying across the room. I backpedaled, but he didn’t immediately pursue.

“We meet again,” he said with a mocking bow. “I was disappointed we weren’t able to finish our little…chat.”

“Yeah, me, too,” I said, edging toward the Taser, which lay on the floor by the couch. Der Jäger had destroyed the minds of his previous hosts. My stomach curdled as I realized that in all likelihood, my dad was now officially a vegetable.

Had Dad willingly taken Der Jäger, knowing what the demon was planning to do to me? I shook my head. I’d had a lot of bad thoughts about my dad, and I would never forgive him for handing me over to Cooper and Neely, but I refused to believe he would have given himself to a sociopathic demon. He was a fanatic, but he had at least a small streak of decency in him.

My throat tightened as grief tried to push tears out of my eyes. I fought them, hating to give Der Jäger even the faintest hint of satisfaction.

“Tell me,” Der Jäger said, still smiling, “was that a real name you gave me, or did you just make it up?”

I took another step toward the Taser. Der Jäger allowed it, as if he didn’t notice what I was up to. Every instinct in my body screamed that he was toying with me. However, I didn’t see any more attractive options to fix my hopes on.

“I told you the truth,” I said. “But since I don’t know where Peter Bishop is these days, I don’t have anything else I can tell you. Even if I wanted to.”

The arrogant prick still didn’t stop me from moving closer to the Taser. Hope speared through me. Maybe he was so arrogant I’d be able to make him pay for it.

“How’s the finger?” he asked, and I stopped in my tracks.

Shit! I’d taken the tape off when I took Brian to bed, and it hadn’t even occurred to me to put it back on to face my father. Der Jäger could see with his own eyes that my finger was uninjured. What were the chances he wouldn’t be able to figure out what that meant? His smile told me they were nil.

Der Jäger cocked his head, a furrow appearing between his brows. “How very odd,” he said. “All the evidence says you must still be hosting Lugh, and yet I can’t sense him on you at all. Why is that?”

I leapt for the Taser, hoping his puzzlement would leave him momentarily distracted.

His body slammed into mine with the force of a Mack truck, and we both fell to the floor. Der Jäger’s weight crushed the breath out of me, stealing my cry of pain, but we still made a mighty crash when we landed. I was facedown, so I jerked my head backward, my skull making solid contact with his nose. I heard the crunch of cartilage, and felt the hot, sticky gush of blood on the back of my neck.

Der Jäger didn’t seem to much mind the pain, but I think I surprised him, because I was able to pitch him off me. I reached for the Taser, my fingers almost closing on it, but Der Jäger grabbed my ankle and yanked me back. The motion sent the Taser skidding across the floor, once again well out of reach.

The door to the bedroom opened, and my heart nearly stopped when Brian came charging through.

“No!” I screamed, unable to muster a more coherent protest in my sudden terror.

Why do men always feel the need to come riding to the rescue even when they know they’re outgunned? I swore to myself that if we both lived through this, I was going to have a long, heartfelt talk with Brian about his misguided hero complex.

My own cry of distress was a mistake as well. Even through the blood that coated his face from his broken, misshapen nose, I could see the vicious smile that tugged at the corners of Der Jäger’s mouth. He let go of my ankle, homing in on a new target. I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him even though I knew I hadn’t the strength to hold him.

“Brian, run!” I screamed. “Get out of here!”

But the curse of testosterone poisoning wouldn’t let him leave me there to fight Der Jäger alone. Instead of running, he was wading into the fight. All it would take was one touch of skin on skin, and Der Jäger could take possession of the man I loved. And destroy him.

No way I was letting that happen! I’d already lost my father to Der Jäger. I refused to lose Brian, too.

In desperation, I tried to open my mental doors to Lugh. After all, Der Jäger already knew I had him, so there was no longer any reason to hide. Pain stabbed through my head, but though I strained to let Lugh in, my body and mind stayed stubbornly linked.

Der Jäger easily broke my hold on him, lurching to his feet to meet Brian’s charge. Despair strangled the scream in my throat.

Der Jäger sidestepped, like a matador evading an enraged bull. Brian’s eyes widened in surprise, and he tried to pull up. I noticed his right hand reaching under the tails of his shirt, going for the stun gun. He should have drawn the stun gun immediately, but I guess reaching for a weapon isn’t a corporate attorney’s first instinct, especially when he’d just bought the damn thing this morning.

Before his hand found the stun gun, Der Jäger grabbed him, hauling Brian up against his chest while pinning his arms to his sides. Brian’s shirt was long-sleeved, so there was no skin-to-skin contact at first. Not until Der Jäger wrapped a hand around his throat and squeezed.

Brian’s eyes bugged out, and I could hear him struggle to drag air into his lungs. However, he was breathing, and since my dad hadn’t collapsed to the floor in a heap, I knew Der Jäger hadn’t taken Brian yet. Of course, why would he, when my own reactions had revealed what a stellar hostage Brian would make?

I hardly dared move or breathe. I sat frozen on the floor where I had fallen, one hand reaching out toward Brian as I cursed fate for putting me back in my worst nightmare. The Taser had come to rest near the legs of the dining room table, and there was no way I was getting my hands on it again. My head throbbed, but Lugh couldn’t help me now, so I resisted his push. He knew how much Brian meant to me, and he would try his best to protect him. However, I knew that in the grand scheme of things, Lugh would consider Brian expendable. I could never think of Brian that way, and so it was best if I remained in control, even if I didn’t know what I could do to help either of us.

“Shall I take a new host?” Der Jäger asked, his eyes dilated with excitement as Brian struggled helplessly.

I swallowed hard, trembling in every limb. “Please don’t,” I said in a quavering voice. “I’ll do whatever you want. Tell you whatever you want to know. Just let Brian go.” Like I thought there was a chance in hell that was going to happen!

Der Jäger’s eyes lit with a gloating smile. “I knew you could be reasonable. Behave yourself, and I just might let your boyfriend go.”

“Let him go now!”

He laughed. “Why should I?”

I wished I could think of a clever answer, but all my brain could focus on was the threat to the man I loved. Being in love sapped every ounce of logic from my mind, and I just sat on the floor and sputtered like an idiot. Lugh gave another push, and I mentally snarled at him to knock it off. I wasn’t letting him in, and that was final.

The moment of pain seemed to refocus some of my brain cells, and I found the will to answer Der Jäger’s question.

“Because if you don’t let him go now, I’ll know you never intend to let him go, and I won’t have any incentive to answer you.”

Der Jäger laughed. “And if I let him go, you have no incentive to answer me. I guess if it doesn’t matter to you one way or another, I should go ahead and take him now.”

I leapt to my feet. “Don’t!” I held out my hand beseechingly.

“Are you going to answer my questions?”

What choice did I have? I nodded.

“Good. Now why don’t we take this discussion somewhere more private?”

At the moment, my apartment was about as private as you could get, though Der Jäger didn’t know that. I wished I felt more hopeful that someone had heard my screams and called the police. But my neighbors on one side were on vacation somewhere, and my neighbor on the other side refused to admit he needed a hearing aid. I was on my own.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said, holding my hands out to my sides. “Just don’t hurt Brian. He has nothing to do with any of this.”

I think Brian’s manly instincts were offended by my attempts to protect him, but Der Jäger was putting enough pressure on his windpipe so that he could barely breathe, much less protest.

“Your concern is touching,” Der Jäger said. “We’re going to go down to the garage and get your car. You’re going to drive, and your boyfriend and I will sit in the backseat. You aren’t going to try any heroic moves, and you aren’t going to talk to anyone. Is that all perfectly clear?”

I nodded, then started moving toward the table and my purse. The Taser beckoned from the floor, so tantalizing close and yet so far away.

“Stop right there!” Der Jäger barked.

I gave him my best innocent face. “I have to get my car keys,” I told him.

Der Jäger scowled. “Move very, very slowly, and keep your hands in plain sight. Get the keys and leave everything else.”

I did as he told me, moving practically in slow motion. I had to remind myself to breathe every once in a while. My fingers itched to reach for the Taser, but I knew if I did, Brian was dead. Lugh pounded at my head. He figured Brian was dead no matter what. But, damn it, I wasn’t giving up until all hope was lost.

All hope is lost, a voice that sounded disturbingly like Lugh’s whispered in my head. I shook it off.

I carefully unzipped the front compartment of my purse, then pulled it wide open so that Der Jäger could see that I wasn’t reaching for a weapon. Heart pounding in my throat, I drew out my keys and let the purse drop back down to the table.

Der Jäger kept his hand wrapped around Brian’s throat as he wiped blood away from his already-healing nose. “Lead the way,” he ordered.

And I did.