Free Demon Demon Burning Bright, Whisperings book four by Linda Welch Page A

ball up. “You can
sense him, can’t you? You can find him if he’s in Bel-Athaer. If
he’s not here, I’ll know to narrow my search to my world.”
Yeah, as if finding Royal when he could be anywhere on Earth would
be a breeze, but easier than searching two worlds, if I
could take Bel-Athaer out of the equation.
    His lips ticked as if he found me
entertaining. “We can detect individuals among the comparatively
few in your world, but here, among millions of our people?”
He casually rubbed one finger back and forth over the chair arm’s
brocade upholstery. “I believe you have an idiom . . . a needle in
a haystack?”
    “But you’d know whether he were in the High
House, right?” I said, hearing the desperate note in my voice.
    “He’s not here,” Lawrence said, watching me
with a guarded expression.
    I breathed in deeply through my nose,
willing my heart to stop thudding erratically. Don’t panic,
Tiff, you know more than you did five minutes ago. And, you’re fine, they won’t hurt you.
    Time had passed since I pitted my wits
against demons. Now, in their stronghold without Royal’s
protection, I knew how deeply I feared them. They could do anything
to me, and nobody back home would know. I could disappear without a
trace; my Xterra, parked on the street in Clarion a clue which
would lead the police nowhere.
    Sweat dampened my scalp and drizzled down my
spine.
    “You were brave to venture here,” the woman
said.
    I lifted my chin, summoned bravado. “You
think so?”
    “A lone, helpless female. . . ,” she mocked,
her gaze washing over me as she let a disdainful breath sigh
out.
    Only one thing to do when faced with
super-beings who can beat you to a pulp and not break a sweat. Get
pissy.
    I answered her sneer for sneer. “You’re
making a grave mistake if you believe I’m helpless. It’d take more
than you to bring me down.”
    “Indeed?” She snuffed through her nose.
    “Yeah, indeed.” I smiled unpleasantly and
moved my hand to my hip, which brought it nearer my Ruger. “Don’t
believe me? Get your bony ass up out that chair and - ”
    Gareth’s voice barked out. “Miss Banks!
Imeld!” He moved to stand between us. “This is unseemly.”
    I swung on him. “You people sure have short
memories. Who found Lawrence and sent him to you? Who shot Dagka
Shan? And - ”
    A hiss of distress interrupted me as a
councilor flinched.
    “Yeah, Dagka Shan, one of those Dark Cousins
you don’t like talking about,” I continued relentlessly. I’m damn
sure I prevented Shan wreaking murder and mayhem on the Gelpha, and
I may well have saved the High Lord’s life. My voice dropped to an
undertone. “You owe me.”
    “Miss Banks, it is not that we refuse to
help you, we cannot tell you what we do not know,” Gareth said.
    “Yes, regretfully we cannot point you in
Ryel’s direction,” a demon with long, waving lemon hair said
testily. He flapped his hand at the door. “Gareth will take you
back to the Way.”
    I squinched my eyes. “The what ?”
    “The Way. The road which links our plane and
yours.”
    “The ways between worlds, huh? How
original,” I murmured.
    I expected more from the Council. I thought
they would probe me about Royal’s disappearance, how long he’d been
gone, why I felt the need to come to Bel-Athaer to find him. It
seemed to me they more than took my announcement in stride. They
were altogether too calm, indifferent. They didn’t ask the right
questions. They barely asked anything.
    I could almost smell the stench of deceit.
As I stood before the councilors, I imagined it as a fog filming my
limbs.
    Gareth hurried forward, lips scrunched
sourly, hand outstretched as if to take my arm, but I wasn’t
through yet. My eyes flicked to Lawrence. I saved your life,
twice!
    The councilors watched me so did not see
Lawrence make eye contact and shake his head as if he desperately
tried to convey a message with his narrowed, glowing bronze eyes.
My senses quivered, a