Page 43 of The Tracker's Dawn: Sunderverse
“I think you’d better leave the back massages to Rosalina,” Eric suggested.
I sputtered a laugh and had to bite my lower lip to stop it. Damien became very interested in the ceiling, and Rosalina blushed deeply, though she recovered quickly with a clever comment.
“That might be moreyourdepartment, Eric,” she said. “I’m sure it won’t be the first in you all’s long bromance.”
This time, I let the laughter roll out of me, making no attempt to stop it. Eric’s grimace of disgust was priceless as was Damien’s raised eyebrow at his friend. He seemed to be sayingexcuse me, but you could only wish we really had a bromance.
“As if!” Eric exclaimed, not missing a beat. He knew Damien too well not to read the commentary in his expression.
This lightened the mood considerably. The tension across my shoulders eased a bit, especially when I took in the amusement in Jake’s features. Despite everything, he didn’t look as frazzled as when he’d first come in. After I stopped laughing, he circled back to what we all wanted to know.
“So when do you start practicing?”
Damien turned his attention to Jake. “Right away.”
“Good.”
The mage had one more question. “The wedding is still scheduled for Saturday, correct?”
Jake nodded.
“So if we do the cleansing on Friday night that gives a few days to perfect my technique. It involves powerful telekinetic control. I possess a wide range of skills, but telekinesis is not one of them. I can certainly move things using my magical abilities.” He wiggled his fingers at one of the heavy books on the coffee table and made it slide a few inches to the left. “But... I don’t have the finesse that years of practice or an innate ability can give someone. As you might imagine, a demon’s essence is different from that of an inanimate object like that book. They’re made of matter, of course, though not like this sofa or that table. No, their makeup is more like that of light or air. Those things are harder to control.”
“So what you’re saying,” I started, carefully putting my thoughts into words, “is that you’ll need to control the demon’s essence while it’s inside of Jake so that it can’t reach his heart.”
“Precisely!” Damien exclaimed, holding a finger up for emphasis. “Once the demon enters Jake’s bloodstream, it needs to be held in place for several minutes while Jake’s heart does its job and pumps blood. However, the creature cannot be allowed to get anywhere near the heart. The idea is that each beat will deliver more blood until... it’s all gone.”
I almost choked. “But that will kill him.”
“If he were a Stale, yes,” Damien said. “But he’s a werewolf, a strong one at that. Once I pull the demon back out, we will do a transfusion and hydrate him really well.”
The hell?!I grabbed my head and glanced at Jake, a plea in my expression.
“I’m sure I can get through that,” he said with conviction.
What did he think he was? A sea cucumber?
Jake turned to Damien. “So do you think you have enough time to learn how to control the demon?”
“I hope. I will certainly do my best. Now,” he reached for the Demonology Register, “I’ll let you read about a couple of blood demons I found. I think either one of them could do the job, but I figured I would let you choose.
Jake threw a squeamish glance toward the book as the mage pushed it across the table. “What difference does it make?”
“None, really,” Damien said, “if it makes no difference to you whether I use a demon that is said to have created hemophilia or the one who convinced physicians that bloodletting was a good idea.”
Rosalina gasped in horror. “Are those the only choices?”
“We’re talking about demons, not unicorns,” Damien put in.
At the thought of such filthy creatures entering Jake, I shuddered. The possibility that he might die was terrifying, but something I hadn’t considered was the likelihood of something else going wrong.
“Damien,” I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling my heart speed up as a host of horrible thoughts rushed into my mind, “could there be any side effects? I mean... if you manage to keep the demon from killing Jake, could going through the cleansing affect him in any other way?”
The mage thought for a moment, then said, “To be honest, I have no idea. I’ve never done anything like this and don’t know anyone who has either.”
Jake huffed. “Well, if I lose my mind or anything like that, just throw me in the nuthouse, and don’t bother to visit. I’m sure I won’t mind.”
I gave him a pointed glare.
