Page 75 of Israel

She looked up at him, making her eyes wide and admiring. “Yes, please,” she said. “You’re so clever, you fooled everyone. I’d love to know how you did it.”

He smiled at her. “With this,” he said. He twisted a gold ring he wore on his finger, then pulled it off and held it up in front of her face. He leaned in so far she could feel his breath. “It’s magic.”

Ashley made her eyes wide. “It is?” she breathed. “Where did you get it? What does it do?”

“I got it from my uncle,” he said. “It was passed down in our family, and he had no kids, so I’m supposed to get everything, right? I just took it early, because he ran his business into the ground and I wasn’t going to get any money. But with this I can get everything I want.”

“That’s so amazing,” she said. “Like what?”

“It makes me invisible,” he said. “And I can…change. Not like your filthy guard dog. I can be anything I want. Anybody I want.”

Hell’s bells. That was an old, powerful magical artifact. The stone in it looked like it came from the original Dragonlands, the place from which all the worlds had been created.

There was no telling how much damage he could do with it.

“That’s amazing,” she said. “You’re so special—I always liked you. I wish you had asked me out before.”

He shook his head and slipped the ring back on. “Oh, no. I wanted to wait till I had our special place ready.”

He walked away and picked up a leather satchel that sat on the floor by the bed. He set it on the comforter and opened it. It split in the middle like an old-fashioned doctor’s bag.

Out of it he took a rolled leather strap—a belt, with a gleaming brass buckle on the end. Then a scalpel. And then a small handheld blowtorch like chefs used to make crème brulee.

He laid them side by side on the bed.

Then he turned and looked at her.

“This was going to be such a beautiful evening,” he told her, regret in his voice. “I had it all planned out. I’d been dreaming about it for so long, and it was going to be perfect.”

He wandered around the room, trailing his fingers across the surfaces of the furniture, making tiny adjustments to the pillows and the comforter.

“We were going to make love for the first time,” he told her. “I was going to bring you here, and you would bare yourself to me, and worship me with your body.”

Barf. Ashley didn’t even want to imagine what had gone on in those fantasies. After being with Israel, she couldn’t imagine letting this maniac put his hands on her, let alone touch her with any other part of his body.

“And then you had to go and ruin it,” he said. “You had to defile yourself, fornicating with that creature.”

His body morphed until he was an exact duplicate of Israel—except for his eyes. They were the right color, but there was no love in them. No soul.

“I almost killed you then,” he said conversationally. “After you ruined yourself.” Those words coming out of Israel’s face, in Israel’s voice, were unnerving.

“But then I realized, I could save you. I could redeem you.”

This guy was totally, completely, batshit crazy. Ashley started pulling unobtrusively at her bonds, trying to figure out how strong they were. She was stronger than the average human female, even with her powers bound, but she didn’t know if she could break them all before he was on her.

The fire wouldn’t hurt her, but the scalpel definitely would. Not to mention being cut with it would hurt like hell. And she didn’t especially want to be beaten with the belt, either.

“So I killed him,” he said. “You can get almost anything on the internet if you know where to look. And I found a poison that would take out werewolves. I shot him up with it when I took you. And,” he glanced at his watch, “by now he should be dead.”

Horror washed through Ashley. No. “You’re lying,” she said.

He shook his head, laughing. “No, it’s true,” he told her. “You can be free of him now, free of his demonic influence.”

Ashley shook her head. She was done playing along.

“If you hurt him,” she said, “I swear to God I’ll never rest until I rip you limb from limb with my bare hands.”

His face darkened, and he lunged forward and gripped her chin hard, fingers digging in. He yanked her head up painfully. “That’s the demon talking,” he hissed. “But I’m going to get it out of you. I’m going to purify your flesh with blood, and fire, and the Hand of God until it departs.”