Ian Bucknell sat still within his body, feeling as if Jalzebel had his demon fingers clenched tight over Ian’s mouth—and every other body part somehow, too.
Markum, his human captor, grouched into a phone. “Look, the old man was retired and we didn’t know about the boy.”
Jalzabel’s grip weakened. Ian wiggled his hand, his own hand, for the first time in months. He scanned the room for some way to do himself in before Jalzabel betrayed any more of Ian’s friends. The medieval dagger on the wall should work.
Markum paced. “No, Janus should not go after the Justice Family. We’ve got to make him accepted, and killing America’s most beloved hero is counterproductive to that. I got a rolodex of people that could do the job and not harm the Janus image.”
Ian stole towards the dagger.
“Yes,” Markum said. “I know. I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of everything. Didn’t I get you this job, Rick? Haven’t I taken care of you?”
Ian grabbed the dagger and raised his right hand, aiming for his heart. He thrust.
Jalzabel redirected the knife into Ian’s left shoulder. Intense pain sizzled through Ian’s body. Jalzabel laughed.
“Hold on. I’ll call you back.” Markum ran over. “What happened?”
Jalzabel said, “I had some fun.”
Markum examined the wound and cursed. “I need to call Dr. Malner and put a tourniquet on this so it doesn’t bleed out. You can have fun with Bucknell later. We’ve got to get ready for your next trip.”
Ian’s body pulsed with the lust of the demon to slay him and show Markum who was really the boss of this outfit.
Instead, Jalzabel answered with false humility, “That’s not for two weeks.”
“Hopefully, by then, we’ll have a new way to come at this.”
“I’ll kill them all off eventually.”
“At this rate, it’ll take two years and a lot of luck to get rid of them all. We need this taken care of in three months.”
Continued next Monday
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