Page 129 of Legacy of Temptation

But she hadn’t told them about the hotel. Or Logan. Or Lilith. Or Harvester. And she wasn’t even sure why.

Elder Dmitri drummed the table with his fingers. “What does DART know about the blood event?”

“They didn’t exactly keep me in the loop.” It was true enough. “What does The Aegis know?”

“Very little. The liquid disappeared without a trace. But,” Maja said, “we got a report from the contractor who runs the Temple Mount’s demon detection system. The rain splashed one of the sensors. Before the sample disappeared, the machine identified it as blood. According to the tech, the system went haywire, saying the blood belonged to all species…and none.”

“Huh.”

Hammond spoke up. “One of our historians thinks it’s a sign from God, warning us that the barrier between Hell and Earth is weakening.”

Lukas snorted. “The historians always say that. They think everything is weakening the barrier between us and Hell.”

“Demons have taken over an entire country and infiltrated our schools, stores, and governments.” Dimitri slapped the table angrily. “Newsflash, the barrier is already weakened. You talk as if blood falling from the sky on top of a holy place isn’t a big fucking deal.”

“Obviously, it’s a big deal,” Maja said calmly. “And we need an answernow. The entire world is waiting for our analysis. We might want to come up with something fast before people start panicking.”

“From what I’ve seen in the media,” Eva said, glad to have the focus off her and her time with DART and Logan, “people are looking to NOAA and NASA and other agencies for answers. As long as people believe it might be a natural phenomenon, like a flock of birds getting squeezed by an atmospheric rarity or something, it’ll buy some time.”

“This isn’t natural,” Dmitri said. “It’s Satanic. And it might be exactly what we need to finally convince all the idiot demon lovers out there that it’s time to exterminate them instead of letting them live among us.”

Lukas glanced at the wall clock. “Let’s discuss this later.” He gestured to Eva. “Is there anything else we should know about your time with DART?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” She turned to her parents. “I got rid of the nightmare demon while I was there. Logan captured it in a trap. I’m free.”

It wasn’t her mom who reacted first. It wasn’t her father, either.

Lukas’s strangled, “What?” accompanied a shove back from the table as he stared at her, wide-eyed and stunned. “You didwhat?”

Before Eva could ponder Lukas’s bizarre reaction, her mom grabbed her forearm. “Eva, darling. What are you talking about?”

Eva jerked her arm out of her mother’s grip, too upset by all the secrecy and deception from every direction to stand anyone being that close to her. “You said the tattoo would keep the demon out of my dreams. You didn’t tell me it would also tether it to me. Why? Why would you do that? For the luck? Is that really why I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in over twenty years?”

“Pumpkin,” her father said, “The Aegis assured us the demon wouldn’t be able to harm you and would bring you good fortune. Don’t you think that was a fair trade?”

“No!” She gaped at her father as if he were a stranger. “Did you not hear the part about me not being able to sleep? That demon was always there. It didn’t cause nightmares, but it damn sure influenced them. It scratched at the edges of even my good dreams, and I woke up in terror multiple times every single night. It tormented me my entire life.”

“And look where you are, darling,” he said, clearly not hearing a word she’d said. “You’ve had a successful career, and you’re going to be the new Chief Spokesperson for the world’s premier demon management agency. It seems like a small price to pay.”

Maja coughed. “I was going to tell her that.” She turned to Eva. “Congratulations. Right after this meeting, you’ll meet with Jennifer for a press conference.”

Eva didn’t have time to digest that because Lukas leaped to his feet with a shouted curse. “Who cares about her job. You people don’t understand.” He wrung his hands so frantically they should be bloody. “She broke the nightmare demon’s bond.”

Her mother toyed with one of her bracelets. “We’ve gotten all the luck we need. It’s okay.”

“No, Mom, it’s really not.”

“Eva’s right.” Lukas’s wild gaze darted around the room as if he expected an ambush. “When the bond breaks, it reverses the luck. It takes things away.” He shoved a trembling hand through his hair. “Sig was conceived after we placed the tattoo.”

“What?” Tessandra shrieked, rounding on Lukas, a bundle of fury in a floral Hermes blouse, a navy skirt, and Stella McCartney pumps. “You didn’t tell us any of that when we came to you for help with Eva’s demon. You said you could end her nightmares and make sure it paid for what it had done to her by giving us all good fortune. You didn’t say anything about the rest.”

Lukas flung his hand out at Eva. “Because she wasn’t supposed to have the demon exorcised,” he shouted. Swearing, his hand shaking, he grabbed his jacket off the chair. “I-I have to go.”

Face dripping with sweat, he took off at a run.

They all sat there, stunned for a moment. Eva realized she was holding her hand over her belly, over the tattoo that had bound her to a demon for over two decades.

Which now might lead to even worse.

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