The rest of the room looked like some sort of study or library. A large leather topped desk took up part of the medium sized room. Bookshelves lined three of the four walls, with a few more highbacked chairs scattered around. Books filled most of the shelves–large leather-bound volumes, and thinner ones. No novels or anything that looked modern or familiar. Here and there, random objects sat on the shelves in front of the books.
"Ash?" My voice cooperated that time.
The door to the study opened, and another familiar face came in. I glared at Alex, remembering running into him earlier in the day. Well, I hoped it was still the same day. He'd offered me a latte as normal. I had tried to decline, saying I didn't feel right taking one from him, but ended up accepting it anyway. He had already figured out I wasn't going to date him and told me he didn't mind.
And then I woke up here.
Damn it.
"Ash finds it more agreeable to sleep until we need him again. I can wake him if you like. He's typically grumpy, unless he's being forced to behave."
"Forced?"
"He's a lesser demon currently in my possession." Alex shrugged and pulled a chair over to sit down across from me.
"What exactly do you want from me?"
Alex grinned and told me.
I stared at him wide-eyed, my heart pounding in fear. I jerked at the ropes that bound me to the chair, and this time, my arms cooperated. I still couldn't get free. Even knowing they were probably too tight, I kept jerking, ignoring the pain from the bindings, desperate to escape.
"You'll tear your arms up," Alex said, though he didn't sound terribly concerned. "Tell you what, cooperate, and we'll let your friends survive. Fight us, and we'll kill them."
I stopped fighting for the moment and stared at Alex, trying to decide if he was serious. My heart pounded, and I worried about my friends, too.
"I'll give you a few minutes to think about it." Alex smiled and left the room.
Furious, I looked around to see if there was anything that could help me. Alex didn't know Doc had helped me access my powers, so I at least had that advantage. I still really didn't know how to use them, but I might be able to do something. Alex thought I was completely untrained and unable to do anything consciously. Well, he was going to find out otherwise here in a minute.
One of the objects on the shelf caught my eye. A very simple, clearly ancient dagger. Besides the obvious usefulness of a knife in my current situation, something else about the blade called to me.
Drawing on a little magic and hoping that no one would be able to sense it, I carefully grabbed at the knife. Lavender sparkles surrounded the hilt, and far more strongly than I had ever managed before, the knife flew across the room toward me.
I gasped, hoping I wasn't about to stab myself. I couldn't really control it. At the last minute, I managed to get the knife to spin, and instead of impaling my hand on the blade, the hilt slid into my grip.
Supporting the knife with a bit of my power, I turned it so the blade was pointing at me once again and managed to slide it under my forearm.
The effort of that much fine control sapped me for a moment, and I sagged against my bonds, but the knife was hidden before Alex returned a few minutes later.
"So, what will it be? Cooperate, and your boyfriends get to live. Wait, are you actually dating all three of them? Really?" He shook his head. "If it takes three to keep you happy, I guess I wouldn't have been enough, even if I had actually been interested. I just wanted to figure out why you were so obviously using magic. You had no idea."
I let him ramble for a minute while I thought. The guys would come after me once they realized I was missing. I just didn't know how long it would take, since they weren't expecting me until tomorrow. Victoria had probably already alerted them, but would they be able to find me?
"What's your choice?"
"I'm not cooperating with you, Alex." I jerked the arm that wasn't hiding a knife.
"I thought you liked your boyfriends."
"I think they can take care of themselves." I hoped they could. I doubted Alex would leave them alone regardless, so I didn't feel like I was changing anything by refusing to cooperate.
"Ash, wake up," Alex ordered.
The demon jerked awake and immediately glared at Alex. He didn't even glance at me.
"Go kill the vampire and his pet dogs." Alex watched me while he gave Ash his orders and acted disappointed when he didn't get more of a reaction from me.
I glared at him.
Ash left the room without a word, though I could see the tension in his shoulders, and almost feel the anger radiating off of him.
"Maybe I'll make you a wolf pelt rug when Ash is done with your friends. Do you think Victoria might want one as well? Won't be anything left of Cassidy when we're done with him, though. You didn't seem surprised, so I guess he told you his little secret." Alex shrugged. "So, I guess we wait for Ash to come back."
I hoped waiting would entail him leaving. Unfortunately, he leaned back in the chair, content to sit there and watch me. I didn't dare try to cut my ropes or use magic with Alex in the room. I gritted my teeth in frustration. Every minute I was stuck here was one less that I could potentially warn Doc that Ash was much more than we had known. Or had Doc known?
I glared at Alex and willed him to go away. He smiled back and settled in
