By the time they got Nathan up the stairs, the tranquilizer had nearly worn off. He dangled between them—Bella at his feet, Max lifting his shoulders—like a very drunk, very heavy piece of supertenderized meat.

“Take him to the bedroom,” Max ordered, nodding in the direction of Nathan’s room. “He’s got a brass headboard. We’ll be able to cuff him to that.”

“You came up with that pretty easy,” Nathan mumbled with a tired-sounding laugh. “Been fantasizing about me?”

“If he is lucid, perhaps it is unnecessary to restrain him,” Bella suggested, her gold eyes locking with Max’s for an uncomfortable moment.

He looked away. He didn’t want to be accused of staring googley-eyed at her or anything.

“No!” Nathan stiffened, and Max struggled to keep hold of him.

Grunting with the strain of supporting his friend’s body, Max motioned toward the bedroom with another quick jerk of his head. “I saw what he was going to do to you. No offense to either of you, but until we get this mess sorted out, we’re keeping him locked up.”

Bella looked as though she would argue, but closed her mouth in a tight line. “It is a good sign he is talking,” she said, clearly trying to sound cheerful for Max’s benefit.

“Is it?” he asked through clenched teeth. He didn’t need her pity optimism.

She dropped the act at once. “I do not know. Maybe?”

“It means he’s not possessed. At least, not by a demon.” If he were, he’d be completely out to lunch, with no occasional popping into the office as he’d been doing. Max wasn’t an exorcist or anything, but he’d seen a few cases of demonic possession in his time. Whatever had hold of Nathan wasn’t controlling him full-time.

They shuffled down the hall to the bedroom. Max considered making a snide comment about this being the place where they’d first met, but he didn’t want to chance giving Belle even more of a wrong impression. “Get him up here.”

Nathan groaned as they lifted him onto the bed. For the first time, Max noted the dark bruises marring nearly every inch of his body. Before, when they’d first captured him, it had been dark, and they’d been more concerned with the weird symbols carved into his skin to notice the state of the rest of him.

“Jesus Christ,” Max exclaimed on an exhale. It was all he could think of to say.

Bella covered her mouth, her gold eyes wide in shock. “What happened to him?”