Page 22 of Stegian: Project Exorcism 4

Chapter Eleven

Gently,Christian caressed the hand of the young woman on the bed. Jacquelyn had not moved in all the years since she’d been lying there, and a tiny piece of him believed she never would. He'd been the one to tie her mind to a computer interface and to gift her the chance to appear as a hologram for years, but even that had ended a while back. No one had seen her or been able to get her to appear to them since Lorelei's attack.

"Sweet little Jacquelyn, what has become of you?" he asked softly, his voice barely above a whisper. "Are you there, or is what I saw earlier true?"

The events he’d witnessed haunted his mind. How could it be? How could she be alive again, in full form, separate from the body before him?

A warm hand touched his shoulder, drawing him from his thoughts. He leaned back in his chair to find Lorelei there. She offered a soft smile and patted him. “Sevan told me about what happened.”

“Are we mad?”

“No.”

He sighed. “Is it one of Stegian’s tricks?”

Lorelei went to the other side of the bed and touched Jacquelyn’s body. “I do not sense her there anymore. Wherever she is, Christian, it isn’t here.”

The compound’s alarms went off, announcing a breach to section eleven. Christian glanced at Lorelei and gave her a warning look. “Do not attempt to interfere. We will handle this.”

“Of course,” she said, a little too quickly for his liking, as she headed in the same direction. They ran, shoulder to shoulder, until they reached the area of the compound in question.

As they rounded the corner, they found Jordan standing there, holding a gun on his brother.

“Back up, Sevan.”

“Let me at him,” Sevan said, snarling. “He almost cost me my wife and sons!”

“I know, back up. I’m the one who found him and I’m telling you, something is off," Jordan said, nearly shouting. "I'm not a fan of his either. But something isn't right."

Jordan took a step back and Christian saw the person Sevan very much wanted to kill. An unfamiliar pair of blue eyes stared out from where gray ones had been. The man, who had always seemed so put together was on one knee. A jagged gash crossed his throat and looked to have only just begun to heal, and his hair was down. Something Christian never remembered seeing. It was almost too much to believe the mighty Stegian was there, in his compound, at the mercy of his people.

Bradi launched at the man who had terrorized their people for over a century.

Christian caught his friend around the waist and held him in place.

“Let go of me!”

“Jordan is right. Something is off.” Christian let his magik scan the area. “Am I the only one who notices the absence of…”

“Evil,” Lorelei said, finishing his sentence. She shot past Sevan and came just shy of touching Stegian.

Christian went to pull her away, but she tossed her power up, blocking anyone from getting to her. “Lorelei, no!”

Stegian did the oddest thing. He didn’t strike out, as Christian would have thought. No. He took Lorelei’s hand in his and bent his head. His shoulders slumped, and as he shook, Christian realized the man was weeping.

“Jacquelyn,” he whispered, his voice barely there. The wound on his throat had been intended to be fatal. Christian wasn’t sure how he was still alive.

“What the fuck have you done to my baby sister?” Bradi slammed into Lorelei’s power. He went no farther. He pounded on the wall of power. “Dammit, let me in! I’m going to gut that son of a—”

Lorelei put her hand up, silencing her twin almost instantly. She focused her attention on Stegian. “What has happened to Jacquelyn?”

“He,” Stegian rubbed his throat, “took her from me.”

“Who took her?” Christian asked.

“Me.” The man he’d always thought to be a monster shook his head, appearing confused. “Not me, but the demon I carried.”

Lorelei drew in a sharp breath and dropped to her knees before Stegian. She lifted his head and everyone gasped, fearing he’d attack. “It’s gone, isn’t it? The demon—the vampire part of you is gone. Jacquelyn did it. She freed you from the monster.”

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