Mine, echoed in our joined thoughts. Gritting my teeth, I bent double and tapped a ley line. Newt had once tried to possess me, and I had burned her out with a rush of energy. I gasped when a scintillating stream of it poured in with the taste of burning tinfoil, but the presence in me chortled, welcoming the flood. Mine! the soul insisted in delight, and I felt my link to the line being severed. I stumbled, falling to kneel on the cold marble. It had taken control, cutting me out!

No! I thought, scrambling for the line in my mind only to find nothing to grasp. My chest hurt when my heart started to beat to a new, faster rhythm. What in hell was this thing! What sort of mind could make a soul this determined? I couldn’t … stop it!

“Rachel!”

Eyes tearing, I blinked at Pierce, struggling to focus. “Get. It. Out of me!”

He spun, motions fast as he found the unburnt signature still on the table. There was a swallow of water left in the bowl. It had to be enough.

I am Rachel Morgan, I thought, teeth gritted as the soul rifled through my memories like some people shake old books for money. I live in a church with a vampire and a family of pixies. I fight the bad guys. And I will not let you have my body!

You can’t stop me.

The thought was oily, hysteria set to discordant music. It hadn’t been my thought, and I panicked. It was right, though. I was powerless to stop it, and as soon as it looked at everything and claimed what it wanted, I was going to be discarded.

“Get out!” I screamed, but its fingers reached into my heart and brain for more, and I groaned, feeling control over my body start to slip away. “Pierce, get it out of me!” I begged, doubled over on the cold black floor, silver etchings like threads under my cheek. Everything I didn’t concentrate on was gone. The moment I lapsed, I would be too.

I smelled the scent of burnt paper, and the soft murmur of Latin. “Sunt qui discessum animi a corpore putent esse mortem,” Pierce said, his hand shaking as he brushed the hair from my face. Beside him was the empty bowl. “Sunt erras.”

“This is mine!” I cried gleefully, but it wasn’t me screaming. It was the soul, who had found the knowledge that my blood could invoke demon magic and held it aloft like a jewel. I got in one clean gasp of air as it was distracted, and I opened my eyes. “Pierce …,” I whispered desperately, for his attention, then choked when the soul realized I still had some control.

“Mine! ” the soul snarled with my lips, and I backhanded Pierce across the cheek.

Oh God, I’d lost, and I felt myself pull my legs under me to crouch before the fire like an animal. I’d lost my body to a thousand-year-old soul! My lips curled back, and I grinned at Pierce’s horror, even as I tried to claw my way back into control. But even my connection to the ley line belonged to it.