Page 23 of Stegian: Project Exorcism 4

He nodded. “Mate. My…mate.”

Bradi launched into a slew of curses amounting to how unhappy he was that the fates had paired his baby sister with the likes of Stegian. Christian was never more thankful to see Marissa and Nina rounding the corner. Marissa took one look at Stegian and then her husband. She ran to Bradi’s side and helped to cage the beast stirring.

Nina glanced at Jordan, her mate, still holding a gun on his brother, and shook her head. “Dare I ask?”

Lorelei stroked Stegian’s cheek tenderly. “She found a way to free you and somehow the vampire side of you survived?”

Stegian tried to speak but couldn’t. Christian repeated several of Bradi’s curses as he tapped on Lorelei’s power. “Let me in so I can heal him enough to tell us where Jacquelyn is.”

“Like bloody hell!” Nina shouted before taking a giant step back. “Wait. Jacquelyn?”

Lorelei did as asked and dropped the power, only permitting Christian to walk through. As he bent to heal the man he’d sworn to kill, he waged an inner battle. Every ounce of him wanted to snap Stegian’s neck, but the thought of never seeing Jacquelyn again was too much. She was beyond special to him.

He reached out to begin the healing process, but Stegian shook his head.

“No… I…deserve to die.” He swallowed hard. “Save Jacquelyn…and…the baby.”

Baby?

Bradi’s ranting returned, this time louder than before.

Lorelei grabbed Christian’s hand and put it on Stegian’s neck. “Heal him. I will not allow my baby sister’s mate—her husband and the father of the child she now carries—to die because we were unable to distinguish the man from the demon.”

Christian shook his head and before he could utter the word no, the morning suns rose, casting their light through the open bay doors. He waited as the sunlight crept up Stegian’s legs, fully expecting the man to burst into flames, as all creatures of the night did when exposed to the rays. He didn’t. Instead, he turned and faced the light, squinting at first as he lifted a hand to shield his eyes.

It was all the proof Christian needed to know the demon truly had been exorcised from the man.

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