Demon Bound

Henry, who would later claim to have no memory of them. Eventually, Teqon flared his eyes, showed me his demonic face. And I tried to avoid him, certain I was mad—but it was impossible. Henry was determined to put us together, because it would make me happy.”
    “So you told him,” Jake guessed. His gaze wasn’t on her face, but searching behind them. “And he thought you were nuts.”
    Alice nodded. “I look back, and I see how easily Teqon manipulated me—and I want to call myself a fool. But I cannot. I do not blame myself for that. Only the bargain.”
    “What happened?”
    “Henry had begun restraining me again—for my own good, of course. It should have been soothing; I had such a lovely view of the garden from my bed.” Bitterness had crept into her voice. She smoothed it before continuing, “Teqon came to me in his demon form, and told me that he would not kill Henry as long as I brought Michael’s heart to him. I had no idea who Michael was—and despite everything, I loved Henry. So I made the bargain.”
    “How does that make you a coward?”
    Alice stopped walking, her brow furrowed. “Who trades the life of a stranger for another? I didn’t fight Teqon—not physically, not with words. I begged him to go, to leave Henry alone, to leave me alone. But I didn’t fight. Yet if I had, perhaps I’d have learned that he couldn’t kill Henry—not without breaking the Rules and receiving Punishment from Lucifer. But I assumed he had that power, and bowed down before it.” Thinking of it made her stomach churn with self-disgust.
    Jake shook his head. “You’re too hard on yourself.”
    “What if Michael had been a child? I didn’t ask—didn’t care to know. Yet I agreed to kill him.” She watched Jake’s expression, the struggle there. “You want to be kind to me. Don’t be.”
    He scrubbed his hand over his hair, dropped it back to his side. “Okay, yeah—maybe you could have been tougher. But it’s not worth spending eternity in Hell for. Did you know that was part of it?”
    “Yes. But I was determined to save Henry, to follow through. I didn’t consider the implications of it—that it would be murder.” She sighed. “And of course, once I was transformed, I realized who Michael was.”
    Understanding spread over Jake’s features. “Teqon gambled that it would happen—that you’d have access to Michael and Caelum. Did you die saving your husband?”
    She nodded. “He and Teqon would spend hours talking together, and Henry’s ‘care’ became even more caring.” And always accompanied by his crying, his pleading with her to be happy. “One evening—after he’d spent the day with Teqon—he came to bed, lay down next to me. He removed all but one of the restraints, asked me to hold him. He told me that everything would be perfect.”
    “And then?” Jake prompted when she paused.
    “Then I smelled the smoke.”
    “Jesus Christ. He set the house on fire?”
    “Intending for us to die together,” she confirmed. “So I coshed him over the head, kicked him through the window to the garden below.”
    “A delicate flower, huh?” An admiring smile curved his mouth. “And you were transformed, so he must have lived. But you didn’t make it?”
    “I knew I would not have much time, but with him there and fighting me, both of us would have died. So I saved him by pushing him out, then tried to save myself.” Alice wrapped her hand around her wrist like a manacle. “But I couldn’t get the last one off. I couldn’t go out the window, and I couldn’t drag the bed through the door.”
    “Jesus Christ in Heaven.”
    “It wasn’t so terrible. Fortunately, I succumbed to the smoke, not the flames. I’m not certain if I was dead when Michael came, but most assuredly I was on the verge of it.”
    Jake was silent for almost ten yards. “I’m going to say two things.”
    “Oh, dear. Must you?”
    His nod pulled a laugh from her. “One,” he said, “that’s badass. And you call it cowardly?”
    “Perhaps not that part,” she admitted.
    “Damn straight. Two, your husband was a flippin’ idiot.”
    “Yes, well. He could translate hieroglyphs and converse in ancient Greek, so it was a surprise to me, too.” As was the discovery that she was capable of loving an idiot almost as much as she was sickened by his weakness and condescension. “But he was very handsome, and kind, and so I’m certain he found another wife to care for—one who wouldn’t