Released (The Eternal Balance #3)(11)

That question stumped the demon. It cocked Jax’s head to the left then, a moment later, to the right. “Simply do it.”

“I have no idea how to simply do it. Ask me to make you an Extra Fuzzy Alien or a killer Sex on the Beach, and I’m golden. Tell me to light up my alleged otherworldly mojo and you’re shit out of luck.”

“Then you must learn. We will remain here until you locate the stone.”

“Better get comfy then. We’re gonna be here a while.”

The demon caught my gaze and, in a way that was all Jax, said, “We don’t have a while.”

…

By the time eight p.m. rolled around I was seriously considering taking a hatchet to Azi—never mind that the demon was residing in Jax’s body. It had been standing over me for the past few hours, tirelessly demanding that I tap into my energy. Forget the fact that I had no clue how to do that, or that the only thing I wanted to tap into was a nice big keg.

“You need to focus,” the demon roared. It had taken to pacing from one end of the small living room to the other. “You are wasting time we do not have.”

“You’re the one wasting time. Instead of pounding the pavement hunting this thing down the old fashioned way, you’ve got us holed up here waiting on something that’s never going to happen.”

It stopped pacing and came forward, looming over me. “Perhaps you lack proper motivation.”

“Trust me,” I said, cool as ice, “my motivation is solid.”

“If Zenak gets the other half of the stone, there will be nothing on earth to stand in its way. It will kill me and hell will reign.” Azi leaned in closer and tapped the side of Jax’s head. “It will kill him.”

“And your point is…?” Obviously I didn’t mean the careless tone, but the demon never missed an opportunity to remind me that Jax was gone. For good. If that was the case, why would I care? “Not like you’re going to vacate the premises.”

“I still do not see why you complain. He is in here, as I was. You have not lost him. We are the same. Nothing has changed.”

“Nothing has changed?” The last thread of my patience broke. I shoved the demon hard and punched my fists against Jax’s chest. In that moment, it didn’t occur to me that I might hurt his body. It didn’t matter that he was buried somewhere inside and might feel the pain. All I saw when I looked at his face was Azi. “You are not the same.”

“Enough of this.” Azi shoved me away from Jax and folded his arms. “If you truly love my human—Jax—then you will do as I tell you. Now.”

I had two choices. I could walk away and let Azi do what it wished with Jax’s body, though it probably wouldn’t let me out of its sight, or I could try to figure out how to work this mojo. The demon had a point. If Zenak destroyed Azi, then Jax would be killed as well. A lot of people would probably die right along with him. The whole point of me living in this hell was to get him back.

“Fine.” I sighed. “Then give me something.”

“Such as?”

“I dunno.” I stomped my foot. “Tell me what a Pure can do.”

I didn’t think the demon would answer me. For what felt like an eternity, it just stood there, staring. It stood still as a statue, the subtle rise and fall of Jax’s shoulders barely visible with each breath. “I cannot answer that. Not the way I imagine you would like.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You are unlike your predecessors. They were nothing in life, and in death were merely powerful sources of transferrable energy. They had no access to it. A Pure wasn’t able to do anything. They were simply a means to an end. A device that could be used to complete a massive task or achieve a Herculean goal.”

I let out a growl of frustration. This was getting us nowhere at light speed. I needed a different tact. “Okay. Then what could the lucky bastard that claimed the Pure do?”

The demon frowned and cocked Jax’s head. “Whatever they could do before—only better. More powerfully.”

I stomped my feet again and screamed at the top of my lungs, vaguely happy that the cabin was in the middle of nowhere.

The demon took a seat across from me and gestured to the chair on the other side of the room. As I sat, the expression on Jax’s face changed. His lips weren’t set in such a grim line, and his jaw wasn’t as tense. He looked more like…himself.

“Now that you are activated, I believe you have access to every portion of your brain. Humans are, admittedly, interesting creatures. They have much potential but have only just begun to tap into it.” The demon slid off the couch and settled on a knee in front of me. Moving slowly, it took my hand and turned it over so that my arm was gently twisted, elbow up. “This bruise for example. You can make it disappear.”

“Yeah.” I snorted. “It’s called makeup.”

“You can make it truly disappear.”

“As in, heal it?”

“Yes.”

“I’m starting to think some of the funny fumes Jax and I smoked when we were younger are affecting you. I can’t heal myself.” Right? If I could do that, I’d know. I mean, something like that would have been pretty hard to miss considering some of the shit we’d been through lately.