Demon Bound

Or maybe it was just knowing that if I fu— messed it up again, you’d be hurt. And that I couldn’t go back and fix it.”
    She looked away from him, waiting for the powerful emotions swirling within her to fall into place so that she could name them. They would not.
    “So,” he continued after a moment, “all things considered, everything is pretty darn swell.”
    He could not be serious. All things considered, “swell” was a gross understatement. She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. How unfortunate that he was not just attractive, but so incredibly appealing. There was nothing about him she did not like, so much that she admired, and everything drew her to him. He left no part of her untouched and unengaged; not her mind, not her emotions.
    And not her body.
    Oh, dear. Even now, as the result of a single glance, her breasts seemed fuller, her nipples tighter. Warmth spilled through her womb, and her mind was returning to the incredible pleasure she’d felt in his arms.
    But surely it hadn’t been so very good. Surely she hadn’t been so completely lost and overwhelmed. Surely her surprise had blown her memory out of proportion to the reality.
    Surely, in time, she would be able to go more than one or two minutes without remembering how agonizingly wonderful it had been, or thinking about taking him inside her again.
    “Alice?”
    The line of concern between his brows told her it hadn’t been the first time he’d said her name. She snapped upright, placed her feet on the floor. “My apologies. I was not attending.”
    He sighed, shook his head. “Ah, goddess. I’m guessing you spent most of the time I was gone looking over the prophecy.”
    Oh, heavens. She had not given it a thought. “I—Yes. Quite absorbed by it.”
    “So what do you think?”
    Alice called in the paper. It was still crumpled into a ball. She avoided his eyes as she smoothed it out. “The language is obscure. Do you think it is deliberate?”
    There was amusement in his voice, blast him. “I’m sure it is. What’s the fun in saying ‘vampire blood weakens the nephilim’ when you can write ‘the blood that heals will release the dead unto judgment.’ And even then, who knows if there isn’t another meaning in there?”
    It was difficult to find a clear-cut meaning anywhere. “ ‘She waits below. The dragon will rise before the lost two,’ ” she read. “The lost two what? Dragons?”
    “That could be the grigori,” Jake said. “Count ’em—she said there were ten. Three were killed and never became Guardians, then there’s Anaria, Michael, Khavi, Zakril, Aaron—”
    “Perhaps. She did not say Aaron was.”
    “Okay, yeah. But if he was, that adds up to eight. That’s two left. And the dragon—is that the one Michael killed? Did it already rise or is it coming? When’s ‘before’?”
    One line, and Alice’s head was already spinning. “ ‘The blood of the dragon will create one door and destroy another.’ ” She looked up at Jake, who spread his hands. “ ‘Caelum’s voice will sing it closed with ice and fire and blood, and be lost until she claims her new tongue and the dragon’s blade. The blood that heals will release the dead unto judgment, and the judged unto Heaven. And upon the destruction of Michael’s heart, Belial will ascend to the Morningstar’s throne.’ ”
    Finished, she carefully laid the paper flat on the table. Her blood pounded in her ears. “And this gibberish is why Teqon trapped me into this damnable bargain?”
    “It’s useless,” Jake agreed. “Even if it’s all true, it doesn’t mean anything until you look at it after the fact.”
    Yes. There was nothing specific; it was almost all open to interpretation. The only clear reference was Michael’s heart.
    But perhaps someone more familiar with demons would recognize something they could not. “What did Lilith say?”
    “That Khavi was a nutcase. And a bad poet. She said it rhymes in the Old Language.”
    She tried very hard to smile. And could not. Before she could tear up the paper, she pulled her hands back from the table, wrapped her arms tight around herself.
    “Hey,” Jake said. He vanished and appeared, kneeling beside her. His hand cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing her compressed lips. “So Khavi gave us nothing. But listen—”
    “Blast it all, Jake. There is something she gave us. And it is specific. I ought to have told you.”
    “Yeah, that I was going to die because you don’t