Home for the Holidays by Jeaniene Frost

Author:Jeaniene Frost
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Sixteen

I JUMPED OFF Ian like he’d burned me, even the lure of more blood unable to keep me from responding to the true sound of my husband’s voice. Bones’s eyes were glowing ­emerald-green, the rage in them aimed at Ian, and the currents rippling off him made me nervous that the chains wouldn’t hold.

Then Bones looked at me, and that seething rage changed to something else. Pain sliced across my subconscious, so sharp and poignant that I ran those last few steps to him.

“Welcome back,” I said, touching his face, one of the few places on him that wasn’t weighted down with chains.

He closed his eyes and inhaled near my palm, a spasm crossing his features. “You smell like Ian. Tell me you were only pretending, Kitten, or I’ll have to kill him.”

I smiled through the sudden pink sheen in my gaze. “Me and Ian? Come on, Bones. You know better.”

His mouth twisted. “The pair of you looked very convincing.”

“That was the point, wasn’t it?” Ian asked, sauntering over. “Though I’ll admit to mild enjoyment on my part.”

Mild enjoyment? My femininity was affronted but the rest of me could care less. I was too busy staring into Bones’s eyes and feeling overwhelming relief that I recognized the person staring back at me.

“So you’re not having sex.” Balchezek made a noise of disappointment. “Now I am bored.”

Bones glanced at the demon and then back at me. “He’s right about everything. I woke up the morning after Wraith appeared and suddenly I was a spectator in my own body.”

“It’s easier to possess strong ­people like vampires when they’re asleep. Then their guard is down,” Balchezek offered. “Otherwise, she’d need to shed buckets of your blood to weaken you enough to force her way inside. A lot messier that way.”

Buckets of blood. I flashed back to Annette’s hotel room and her odd behavior the night of Bones’s birthday party. So she’d been the first one possessed. Wraith had been her attacker, but she hadn’t accused him, because everything that had come out of Annette’s mouth had been directed by the demon piloting her.

The same demon who was piloting Wraith, if Balchezek was right about him being the demon’s main “anchor.”

“There are a few things I need to say, Kitten,” Bones stated, directing my attention back from piecing together the possession chain. “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold the demon down. She’s very strong.”

“She’s still in there?” The realist in me expected that, but I’d hoped his rage had miraculously booted her out.

“Yes,” he replied shortly.

“Of course she is.” Balchezek shook his head. “You think I was lying to you?”

I didn’t point out that he was a demon, so lies went with the territory. He was our best source of information and I didn’t want him leaving in a huff.

“You’ll need to record me rescinding my disownment of you and your reinstatement as heir to my line,” Bones said, fury skipping across his features before he went on. “I’ll also expose Mencheres, Kira, Spade, Annette, and Wraith as being possessed.

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