RECRUITED: A Mike Humber Novella (Demon Series Book One) (14 page)

And now it wants more. It wants me because I am stronger than Williams and I am the result of the destruction caused. This demon brought me down for pleasure, for entertainment and now it thinks I am weak enough to be taken.

I can’t fight it. The darkness is too deep inside me to fight off. It’s past the point of no return and I watch as Williams slowly drains from the life force that used him for so long. My hands, shaking and trembling reach up inch by inch towards his neck. I can’t get there, I can’t stop this thing from breaking my will.

Fuck you. I deny you. I deny you and I allow this pain to happen. I deserve it so I welcome it. My hands wrap gently round his throat but his eyes are glassy and unfocussed. I need to grip and squeeze but I have nothing left. Nothing left? I’ve had nothing left for a long time but I’m still here and I’m still breathing like the stubborn prick I am. My hands grip hard and solid as the trembling ends with a surge of pig-headedness that refuses to be told what to do.

The demon feels the change and it tries to get back, to flee from the hidden strength it finds within me. A hidden reserve of spite kept back purely for my own self-loathing and that stubbornness that drives me to inflict pain and agony when my body demands sleep and peace.

‘Having you inside me is just one more pain to add to the rest,’ I glare deep into his eyes and watch the spark of panic and fear show true within them, ‘I deny you….’ I growl and pull him down closer to my face, ‘but I’ll fucking keep you.’

The whole of me latches onto the demon and drags it back inside my gut. It squirms and fights and the pain threatens to tear me apart but I grit my teeth and swallow hard.

‘I was a detective,’ I force that pain out into the words that hiss from my mouth, ‘I caught the bad guys…and you…hear me now and hear me well….you…are…mine.’

Williams dies at my hands. The breath choked out of him and just as that last spark of life ebbs slowly away, so his head is jerked back by the slender fingers of Elizabeth that yank him by the hair as she drives the point of a steak knife deep into his right eye.

Trapped inside me and the demon fights but with nowhere to go it is terrorised into submission by the power of my self-loathing that suddenly finds something else to torment.

The lifeless form of John Williams slumps to the side while a demon writhes in the cage of my soul.

I have you.

Fuck you.

I win.