“Oh yes.” He raised his head and smiled a terrible smile, and his eyes were not Iestyn’s eyes, and his voice was not Iestyn’s voice. “We certainly did.”
19
H e wa s l o s i n g h i s m i n d .
Losing control. Of his voice, his arms, his . . . self.
Iestyn sat trapped on the toilet seat, trapped in his unresponsive body, fat, fiery ripples of power coursing through his veins and along his bones, coiling in his heart and bowels, as the demon burrowed and twined deeper, farther, into its host.
“Iestyn?” Shock in Lara’s voice.
Horror in her eyes.
Freed from hiding, the demon who had been held captive by the heth’s power tightened his borrowed arms around Lara’s hips, enjoying her panicked struggle to be free—
savoring the soft, yielding flesh of her bel y against his stubbled jaw. His cock swel ed. Twitched. He wanted to F o r g o t t e n s e a 249
turn his face and bite her, fuck her, eat her, have her, while she jerked and bled and moaned.
No.
Iestyn loosed his arms.
Lara stumbled back a step, reaching behind her for the support of the tiled wal . “Iestyn, what’s wrong? What happened?”
Iestyn exerted control, fighting for his voice. “Get away from me.” A guttural growl.
“What is it?” Shaking, Lara stood her ground. “Let me help.
Let me help you.”
“Can’t.” The word burst from Iestyn’s throat. “
“What happened to you?”
A great wave of love and despair swept over him. His head throbbed. He couldn’t think. The demon hammered iron spikes into his brain, punishment for his disobedience.
He could feel his skul splitting, his mind yielding, his identity failing and fal ing away like ice chunks dropping from a glacier, caving into the sea.
“Demon.
Lara’s back pressed the wal . “How?”
Cudd fed on her disbelief, fed on her fear.
“You know what they say.” The demon jerked Iestyn’s mouth into a grin. “Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
He real y shouldn’t have passed out on a dead man after our little al ey fight.”
“But in the car . . .”
“Wasn’t I clever?”
5 0
V i r g i n i a K a n t r a
Our merfolk friend’s shields provided the means. And you provided the way.”
Iestyn heard the demon’s words coming out of his mouth, his throat. He flailed inside his head, trapped inside his own body. He couldn’t move. His strength was drying up.
Like a beached whale, beyond help or hope of the sea.
“Zayin . . .” He forced the name through stiff lips.
The demon’s spite flared.
Iestyn spasmed and went rigid.
Cudd shook his borrowed body like a dog, once more in control. “But I’m here now. I’m free. Thanks to you. The merfolk aren’t quite as attractive a target as the nephilim, of course. But stil , my master wil be pleased.”
“Why?” Lara asked.
Why didn’t she run?
“Their wards have been nearly as inconvenient as yours. I must reward you for that. Although perhaps you won’t enjoy your reward. You’re such a
Her face went white.
“No,” Iestyn said simply and stood.
This son of a bitch would not touch her.
Not while he lived.
“Go,” he said clearly. “Get away.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I can’t leave. You need me.”
“Get help. Get . . .” He searched through the haze of pain, the stink of decay and death rising from his brain. “Dylan.”
F o r g o t t e n s e a 251
But instead of moving away, she took a step toward him.
“There’s no time.”
No time, he accepted. No guarantees, no hope.
“Iestyn.” Another step closer. He could smel her hair, sweet as lilies over the stink of blood. He clenched his fists.
“Do you trust me?”
He met her eyes, deep shining gray like the sea at sunset or the sky at dawn.
“Yes,” he said.
*
*
*
Lara’s heart slammed against her ribs. Her stomach was trying to crawl up her throat.
She didn’t kid herself she knew what she was doing. But Simon wasn’t going to rescue her this time. Rescue them.
She knew the damage a thwarted demon could inflict on a reluctant host, wreck his body, scramble his brains. She couldn’t run away and let that happen. Not to anybody. Not to Iestyn.
