Behind us Logan doubled over in pain and made a moaning sound. “Logan!” Sam yelled, rushing to his brother’s side.
“It hurts! Oh God, it hurts!” he cried, falling onto his back and pulling his knees up to his chest.
How dare you bring them here! the powerful one screamed. A sharp pain radiated through my head and down my back. It felt as though he struck me inside my head.
“He thought you came alone,” Sam said, looking up from Logan, who was groaning in pain. Sam looked back down. “Logan?”
“It hurts too bad. I have to give in. He says if I do, then it won’t hurt anymore.” To my horror, large red scratches bloomed down his arms.
“Heven, how about some answers? What’s wrong with Logan?” Cole asked, coming to stand in front of me. His face was pale and drawn.
I shook my head and pointed. “The castle is just beyond that rock. He knows I’m here now. He thought I came alone.”
“Is he that stupid?” Cole asked.
“You should have been alone.”
We whipped around at the sound of Logan’s voice. It was deeper and harder than I had ever heard before.
“Logan?” Sam asked, pain cracking his voice.
Logan laughed a sick kind of cackle as he climbed to his feet, shoving Sam away. “Logan’s not home.” As he spoke, a filmy white aura bloomed around his body.
I gasped.
“I’ll give the kid credit, though, he fought. Harder than I thought the little brat would. Whenever his big brother Sam was around, he tried to get out.”
“What the hell have you done to my brother?” Sam screamed and lunged, only to be slapped backward.
The thing that looked like Logan, but wasn’t Logan, shrugged. “He’s in here somewhere. No matter. When I leave him, he will die!”
“No!” Sam wailed and sprang forward. My muscles tensed, ready to join whatever fight Sam was about to have. He caught Logan by the throat and lifted him off his feet.
“Be careful, Sam. Don’t want to hurt your baby brother,” the voice inside Logan taunted.
Sam dropped him like he had been electrocuted. Indecision battled within him. He didn’t know what to believe.
“What’s going on?” I screamed, taking Logan’s attention.
“The ‘powerful one,’” he mocked “The one you call Dream Walker needed someone close to you, to keep an eye on you.”
This was the Dream Walker’s doing? “Who is he?” I asked.
“Someone you will never defeat.”
“Why didn’t you just kill me?” I asked. “And take the Treasure Map, since that’s what you wanted.”
“I wanted to. So many times. But he doesn’t want you dead. You’ve become a trophy for him to acquire. His newest obsession. I tried to take the scroll a few times, but your boyfriend here was always watching. And then you hid it. Little Logan couldn’t even get the whereabouts out of big brother. No matter how hard he tried to get between you. My only consolation prize was torturing you with the false worlds,” Logan taunted. “That and watching Sam rip himself to pieces trying to ‘fix’ his baby brother.”
“I knew it was you.” But really, I had been wrong. It wasn’t Logan… it was…“What are you?” I whispered.
Gemma stepped up beside me. “He’s a demon, Heven. There’s a demon living inside Logan’s body. And now that demon wants out.”
Sam
Gemma’s words cut me like a knife. I stood there bleeding, aching and in pain. The words had been spoken. There was no going back.
The words were true.
For weeks a demon had been taking up residence in my brother’s body. Fooling us. Fooling him. I should have seen it sooner. I should have realized that it wasn’t possible for him to be a hellhound.
But now there was nothing I could do.
I couldn’t destroy it because it would destroy him.
I couldn’t destroy my baby brother.
“You sick bastard!” Cole roared and threw himself at Logan. They both went down in a tangle with Cole coming out on top, throwing punches, making Logan’s head spring back again and again.
“No!” I yelled, lunging at Cole, sick inside, and pulled him off my brother.
Logan stayed on the ground and laughed. “You’re pathetic,” he spat through a bloody mouth. I was beyond torn. The thing living inside my brother was sick and twisted. It was hurting Logan, but fighting it meant destroying someone I loved.
Logan got up from the ground. “You don’t want to fight me?” he screamed. “Then watch as I hurt her!” He lunged at Heven.
I roared and grabbed Logan by the front of his shirt, his body sagged like a ragdoll in my grip as he laughed. And laughed. And laughed. I paused.
“You won’t do it,” Logan taunted. “You will stand by while I kill you, and then Beelzebub will claim what he wants.”
Who the hell was Beelzebub? Did he mean the powerful one?
Pushed to the limit, I reared my fist back and brought it down. “Sam?” Logan said, except the voice was no longer the demon; it was the voice of my brother.
“Logan?” I whispered, his fist stopping mid-air.
“What’s going on?”
My voice caught. “Everything’s going to be okay, Logan.”
“I’m scared.”
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hurt him. Instead, I pulled him against me. “I’m so sorry, Logan. You should never have been involved.”
“I love you, Sam.” Logan said.
I let out a low sob.
“Sam!” Heven screamed just as I heard the whisper of a dagger being brought toward my back. I didn’t see what he was doing. I didn’t think about being betrayed.
I threw the demon away, the dagger leaving a long cut down my bicep. Where the hell had he gotten a dagger? The demon threw the dagger at me, but I caught it and without thought, sent it spiraling back. The demon dodged it and laughed.
Cole charged with his own dagger drawn, but the demon leapt a few feet off the ground and landed behind Cole. He picked Cole up, Cole’s feet dangling, and then tossed him up into the air like a father would a toddler, but instead of catching him, he grasped him around the neck and slammed him into a giant rock jutting from the earth. Cole went down and didn’t move. Gemma rushed over to where Cole was lying in a crumpled heap.
“Cole!” Heven ran toward him, dropping to her knees beside him.
But she didn’t stay there long. In the blink of an eye, Logan moved and grabbed her. Pinning her beneath him. “Get Cole away from him!” Heven told Gemma, more worried about her brother than herself.