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Back For a Few Demons More
Chapters (48)
  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. The Undead Pool: An Excerpt
  44. Chapter 2
  45. About the Author
  46. Also by Kim Harrison
  47. Credits
  48. About the Publisher

The gentle sound of her words became the shushing of my blood in my head, and I listened, hovering on the edge of consciousness, bathed in the oblivion of whatever drug they had given me. It was a relief not to have to fight the curse. I’d made a mistake. I’d made a horrible, immense, irrevocable mistake. And I didn’t think there was a way out of it.

It was a shock when I realized my cheek was cold. I wasn’t moving anymore either, and the echo of voices came from everywhere, confusing me as I tried to give them meaning where there was none. The warm arms around me slipped away, and I felt dead. I think I was in the church. Yeah, I was lying on the floor like a sacrificial lamb. That was about right.

“I don’t know if I can,” a soft voice said. It was Ceri, and I tried to move. I really did, but the drug wouldn’t let me. The confusion was starting up again. It seemed as if the more awake I was, the more the curse could exert itself. I was beginning to feel anxious and jittery. I had to get up. I had to move.

“I can help,” came Keasley’s gravelly voice, and an unexpected fear joined my bewilderment. Keasley was my friend, but I couldn’t let him touch me. He was a witch. A witch could put me back in prison. A witch had done it before. I wouldn’t let it happen. I had finally gotten free, and I wouldn’t go back!

I could feel the drug slipping away, but I couldn’t move yet, so I pretended to be dead. I could be still as well as run. I’d been still for millennia. And then, when the time was right, I would run.

“It’s not that I can’t do the curse,” Ceri said, and I felt someone brush the hair from my eyes. “But her psyche is mixed with it. I don’t know if I can lift the curse away without taking a chunk of her. I’m calling Minias. He owes her a favor.”

Panic slid through me. Not a demon. He would see. He’d put me back! I couldn’t go back. Not now. Not when I had tasted freedom! I had to get up!

I winced at the brush of air and the clatter of wings. “She’s waking up again,” that damned tiny voice shrilled.

A presence smelling of aftershave and shoe polish came close, making the floorboards creak. “She’s had enough to put down a horse,” said a man, and I tried to pull back when my arm was lifted. “I don’t want to give her any more.”