By the time Xan had finished in the bathroom, Quution was gone. He’d probably driven his host back to her place, got her nice and comfortable, then transported back to the underworld. Such a responsible demon.

The thread of disappointment was stronger than she’d expected. Looking inside her, she started. Marcus wasn’t as dormant as he’d appeared, and he didn’t like that Brooklyn had left.

Figured. Her host had the hots for Quution’s host. It wasn’t just attraction that was making Marcus stir. He’d missed a few days of work thanks to her and it was bothering him. Xan checked his phone. Five missed calls and an inbox full of boring insurance questions.

She wasn’t ready to let Marcus take control of his own body. Then she’d be stuck with her thoughts. And her regrets.

Taking a note from Quution’s book, she got out Marcus’s laptop. For no good reason, she searched the history and read over a couple of applications, skimming Brooklyn’s address. Huh, she only lived a couple of miles from here. Xan hit delete on them all and then emptied the trash. Quution would’ve done so himself, but he probably hadn’t planned on leaving so suddenly. If Marcus had mad computer skills, he could retrieve them, but Xan had done what she could.

Hours of reading through emails and listening to voicemails was finally enough to get her to shower and change clothes.

She was even restless.

Her stomach growled. Too bad there was nothing good in the kitchen. Marcus groused a little at the prospect of diving into the ice cream. And after the sour stomach of the other night, Xan couldn’t look at the gallon.

She dug through the cabinets and fridge. No appealing food stood out to her, but she let muscle memory take over until a peanut butter protein shake sat in a glass on the counter.

“Fuck, Marcus. How do you stand yourself?” She pinched her nose to drink it, but as the artificially sweet flavor caressed her tongue, she let go of her nostrils.

Not bad.

She sat back down at the computer but couldn’t bust out more than an hour of work. Marcus needed somebody to brighten his boring life. Of course, his last girlfriend had gotten him possessed by a demon, so she couldn’t fault his self-imposed isolation. But he shouldn’t let his past taint all his future relationships.

Xan froze, her fingers poised over the keyboard. She was reading too much into a simple thought.

The restless energy didn’t dissipate. Marcus was an active guy and he’d just lain around for days without being sick.

Fine. She’d go for a run.

Digging through his drawers, she found a spare set of sunglasses. His main pair was in his car, which was still at the gym. Maybe she could run there and grab it. She grabbed his keys and ran out.

The jog to the gym cleared the residual fog from her mind. Marcus was coming around and he’d put up more of a fight for his body soon, but she wasn’t ready to relinquish it. She could let him take over, but then she’d give up sunshine, cable TV, and king-sized beds. The only other option was to return to the realm where her deceitful sister was trying to take over.

Nah, she’d hold on as long as she could.

The drive back was uneventful, and when she arrived, she wasn’t ready to go back into that apartment. So she took off again.

Inhaling large lungfuls of fresh air, she relaxed into the run. There was no way she could do this in the underworld. Flowering trees on the boulevards released the most delightful fragrances.

Xan sneezed. Then sneezed again.

Was Marcus allergic? Was that why he lived in the gym? Or was she too used to brimstone lacing every scent that she reacted to them as foreign?

Another sneeze and she veered out of the residential areas into a multicomplex community. She passed a street sign and stopped, lurching forward from the sudden lack of momentum.

“For fuck’s sake, Marcus.”

Brooklyn lived two blocks away.

Xan put her hands on her hips and stretched her chest out. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been pushing the pace until she was out of rhythm and sucking oxygen.

Wandering in small circles, she waited until she’d caught her breath. A block ahead, two people walked shoulder to shoulder.

Lurched was more like it.

She spun to head back, but turned again. They were headed for Brooklyn’s apartment building in their faded, grungy clothing. Granted, this wasn’t the most affluent part of town, but this couple didn’t seem like they had a roof over their heads. Their clothing didn’t get that sun-bleached without being outside for several days or weeks.

Xan spun around again. The couple could have an apartment and still spend a lot of time outside.

Her feet wouldn’t move. She turned back and followed them, keeping her footsteps light.

Marcus’s long strides caught up with them in no time.

The woman of the couple turned back to shoot him a glare and a sneer.

Xan cocked her head. It wasn’t a normal sneer. It was what she did when she wanted to flash her fangs. Frizzy brown hair hung over the eyes. Xan couldn’t tell what color they were other than dark.

How dark? There was a huge difference between rich brown irises and full-on ink-black eyeballs. Xan’s shades hid her own telltale eyes.

A niggle in the back of her mind bugged her until she paid attention to it. There was something familiar about this couple.

The woman murmured something to the man before they crossed the street to Brooklyn’s apartment. He nodded and faced them. She continued on.

Xan’s sickly feeling didn’t make her think the woman was going to visit a friend.

The man’s unruly hair wasn’t enough to cover his eyes and from the way he was grinning, he’d meant for her to see the darkness in his eyes. Behind him, the woman tugged on the heavy glass entry door. It didn’t budge. And the woman obviously didn’t have keys. What were the odds at least one demon was up to something in the same building as Brooklyn, Quution’s host?

Xan studied the man. Recognition tingled through her mind. The middle-aged guy in front of her was demon possessed and not afraid to try to scare her with it. His clothing had been quality at one time. Khakis and a polo shirt that had faded to a greenish camo look.

“Are you following us, bro?” The cultured voice didn’t fit the statement.

Marcus was jittering inside her. The answer was on the tip of her—

Aha! This was the couple who’d been missing for months. Pinnacles of society. He’d run a car wash that hosted fund-raisers for youth groups and she was a former addict who ran a respected halfway house downtown. The announcement streamed constantly over the TV. One had played earlier today before she’d shut the TV off.

Xan’s heart twisted. They’d just lost a kid. That was how the demons had gotten to them.

Why? When there were so many other hosts who played around with the occult, why this couple?

Xan knew the answer without being told. Because they could. Because their grief made the possession more fun.

She slowly removed her shades, letting her eyes answer the demon’s question.

He hissed, revealing yellowed teeth that had probably done time in braces. A nice, normal couple ruined by half-breed demons.

Her kind sucked.

“My turn for a question,” she said. The exterior door of the apartment building rattled and the woman shrieked. There wasn’t time to waste. “Why are you here, and who do you work for?”

Xan’s attention peeled off the male. The woman backed up and took a run at the door. Did the crazy demon think it could break through reinforced glass with a human body?

A thud shook the door and the woman flopped backward. She rolled to her side and popped up. And backed up again.

That demon was going to kill the human.

“No!” Xan lunged forward, but the man in front of her sidestepped into her path. She shoved him off and ran across the street.

In one of the windows, curtains were pulled back and Brooklyn’s pert face peeked out. Her brows were drawn when she took in the scene at the door, but when her gaze landed on Marcus, her eyes flew wide.

The man charged and jumped on Xan’s back. She grunted and stumbled, dropping her shoulder to flip the guy off. He hit the ground with an oomph.

The door rattled again as the woman banged off it. Her body made a sickening thud against the ground, but the woman rolled to her hands and knees to get up again.

“You’re not going to break it like that, you idiot.” Xan didn’t know what else to say to get her to stop. The human’s body couldn’t take much more.

He glanced up at Brooklyn’s window. She had a phone to her ear.

Damn it. She was probably calling the cops. Living in a place like this, she probably didn’t take a wait-and-see approach.

The woman was on her feet, swaying, and now the man was as well.

“The cops are coming.” Xan couldn’t hear sirens yet. “You two need to leave, and if I hear of you coming back, I’ll hunt you down.”

Xan couldn’t get a good sense of who the two demons were.

The woman smiled, blood trickling down her face to stain her chin. “Spaeth wants the host killed.”

Spaeth had spies. How had she forgotten? Quution switched hosts so frequently, she hadn’t worried, and she’d assumed Spaeth either didn’t know or didn’t care who her host was. But these two minions had probably found Brooklyn by spying on Marcus’s place the last few days. They hadn’t gotten close enough for Quution to sense them. So it made sense that they hadn’t recognized Marcus if they’d only seen him from a distance and not usually in a hoodie.

The man leered up at the window. Brooklyn slinked back, letting the curtains fall shut. With strength Xan hadn’t expected out of the human couple, the man grabbed the woman and threw her into the plate glass door. He crashed after her, using her body weight and his unnatural strength to finally smash through. Glass splintered, parts of the door shattering, the rest cracking into ragged edges.

The couple landed in a tangle on the other side. The poor human woman’s legs had been slashed and impaled by shards of glass. The guy pushed off her and took off up the stairs.

Xan crouched and jumped through the opening, sharp edges tearing at her clothing. She paused to check for signs of life in the woman. Unconscious and barely breathing, she bled through her clothing onto the floor. Xan pried an eyelid up. No blackness. Regardless of whether she survived and the demon left her alone, her life was ruined.

Sprinting up the stairs, Xan chased down the human man. He was beating on Brooklyn’s door, using the same method as his partner, only this door wasn’t as solid as the exterior one.

Bursts of screams inside from a terrified Brooklyn spurred Xan down the hall. She charged to tackle the man, but he ducked out of her way. Xan tripped trying to stop herself and tumbled to the floor, but she jumped up again to face the human. Spinning, the guy aimed a solid kick where the deadbolt would be.

The door splintered open, swinging slow and ominous, and the man stepped inside. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”

Brooklyn didn’t respond. Xan hoped she was tucked into a corner and hidden from sight. Running into the apartment, her heart sank. There were no corners to hide in. The space was too small, too open. A laptop was open on the tiny table by the kitchenette. A futon that was currently functioning as the couch took up most of the living room.

The only other room was the bathroom. That had to be where Brooklyn was hiding. Xan tensed to lunge at the human stalking toward the closed door.

He closed his hand around the knob. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, worthless human.”

Xan was about to take him down when he turned the knob and pushed the door open. Why hadn’t Brooklyn locked it?

Sirens blared in the distance. Xan was partly relieved, for Brooklyn’s sake, but, well, she’d just fucked over Marcus by putting him in the middle of a crime scene.

Xan was readying herself to jump on the man before he laid a finger on Brooklyn when the yellow-daisy-covered shower curtain flew open. A heavy frying pan swung out and clanged against the man’s skull. He dropped. Xan wouldn’t be surprised if the demon inside had vacated the body before impact.

Brooklyn’s hands shook as she gripped the handle and stepped out of the bathtub. Tears streaked her cheeks and a beat of relief passed through her before she met Xan’s gaze.

A gasp echoed off the walls of the compact room and she tightened her grip.

Her eyes—Marcus’s eyes were black and Brooklyn was experienced enough to know what that meant.

Xan held up her hands, pointing her fingers at herself. “His name is Marcus and he’s a good guy. A really good guy, and he was tricked into hosting me. I’m leaving him now.”

And with that, she released her hold on him and went back to the underworld.

What would happen to Marcus? Would he get the blame? Would his reputation be destroyed so badly he lost the business he’d worked so hard to build? Brooklyn would be fine. The human couple’s life was irrevocably altered at best.

Brimstone surrounding her, Xan opened her eyes in the same spot she’d left in, the same place she’d fought her sister.

She had to find Quution. Because he was right. The human realm was better off without them.