Page 94 of Wicked Deeds

Fuck. We should have spent more time teaching her how to shield.

“You’ll still die.” I managed. “No one survives a demon. Not for long.”

“Too many idiots try. I’m far from an idiot.”

I would have laughed if he wasn’t so terrifying. If he believed what he said, then he was insane, not just stupid. No point tryingto reason with a crazy man. I had to play along and buy myself time to get us out of here.

I pictured my hand smashing into his nose, the way Callum had taught me, but my wrist barely twitched. What thefuckhad he drugged me with? I had to move my wrist a certain way to activate the panic button in my chip. I tried again, failed, and bit back a curse.

Jack laughed. “Much as it’s charming to see you again, Maggie, I have places to be. And so do you.” He held up a cuff in the hand not holding my arm.

I tried to jerk away, knowing what it was, but his grip and the drug or spell or whatever it had been held me motionless. “This will keep you quiet until I need you. If I do.” He slid the cuff into place and snapped it closed.

Pain pulsed through my head, worse than before, and suddenly I was inside an unpleasantly familiar plain white room.

He’d locked me into a VR environment.

Again.

But this time, Jack didn’t know I had a potential escape route. And I didn’t want to let him suspect I wasn’t as freaked out as I’d been the first time. I scrambled to my feet, cursing and demanding to be let out, just like I had then.

“Feel free to waste all that energy, darlin’.” His voice boomed out of nowhere. “You’ll be easier to handle in the end.”

“Fuck off and die.” I didn’t have to fake that response.

No response. Had he gone? Was he watching? Pinky had freed me the last time I’d been locked in one of these things. He didn’t know I didn’t need the cuff removed this time. So he probably thought I would be stuck until he came for me.

I had no way of knowing. Unsurprisingly there was no response when I waved my hand to try and bring up a menu and only silence met my attempt to send an inquiry to the system through the chip.

Right. So it was free myself, or nothing.

But I had to be sure Jack was gone. So I would wait. Bide my time. Let the drug clear my system, though the lingering pain of being forced into the VR by the chip was now making it hard to tell if my headache was easing at all. I sank down to the floor, resting my head in my hands, breathing slowly. Let him think I was slumped there, despondent.

Instead I tried to push the pain away, move it outside my shields. I knew little about healing, and was usually bad at what I’d tried, but it seemed to help a little. The pain felt more distant, leaving me room to think.

Jack said he needed Gwen, so presumably she wasn’t in immediate danger. Well, not of him killing her. But when it came to demons, death wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. So I had to try to thread the needle. Give Jack long enough to stop paying attention to me and for the drug to wear off more, but not long enough to let him hurt Gwen.

And hope he didn’t have too many others helping him.

Demon summoning seemed to be a solitary activity. If you wanted the power a demon offered, you probably didn’t want to share. Or were more than willing to stab anyone you convinced to help you to keep the power for yourself at the end.

Jack must have help to stay so well hidden for all this time. Not to mention getting back into the country. But even if he had minions, so to speak, I doubted there’d be many of them with him or he wouldn’t have come for us himself.

I didn’t have a weapon, but I could fight and I could sneak around like a pro thanks to Callum. So I’d cross the deal-with-minions bridge if I had to.

Besides, Damon would be looking for me. Once Cassandra realized we were late, she’d raise the alarm. Presumably Jack was smart enough to ditch the car, but that wouldn’t stop Damon. He’d find me.

I couldn’t afford to believe otherwise.

I started counting my breaths, waiting for the pain in my head to ease, soothing the coil of anger and fear in my gut. I’d deal with how I felt about knowing Jack was my father when we were all safely out of here. I could use the emotion for fuel, but it couldn’t control me. I’d reached thirty minutes by the time the pain receded, time enough to focus, to dial into my magic and get ready to try to break out.

Hopefully no one was watching me. Jack had no reason to think I could get free and if he was arrogant enough to think his cuff was enough and no one needed to be guarding me, then I was delighted to use his delusion against him.

I tested the simple way first, sending a disengage command to the system. Nothing. Which didn’t surprise me.

Right. So we were going to do this the other way. And while I was sure that if I gave into my panic, I would be able to use the emotion to break myself free as I had in the past, Gwen’s way—if I could use it—would be faster. And less draining.

Find the energy. Break the energy.

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