DEMON DOOR (#2 GHOST PORTAL series)

ELEVEN

Jessamine's scarlet eyes bore into Avery's, burning through every fiber of him. His eyelids trembled, and he forced them to remain apart, but sensed water gathering in his lash-line.

Don't cry. Don't fucking cry.

He wasn't positive how much time had passed, how much liquid was blurring his vision. Had he fainted? Blacked out? Was he still there, being held up by her? Glowered at, ogled as if he were a juicy piece of steak about to be tossed into her mouth?

To his shock, she lowered her arm, releasing her hold on his throat. He crumbled immediately to the floor, hitting his knees hard, gritting his teeth through the pain. That pain knocked him awake, out of the trance he'd been in while connected to her eyes.

He looked up in time to see demon-Jessamine wiping her hands off on her pants, snarling. "You are stopping me." She tucked a strand of silky, red-hued hair behind her ear. "Because you may still be useful to us. You may be able to go back and open the doors we can no longer open, and release the demons we were forced to leave behind. But we haven't quite decided if we're going to risk you remaining alive for that. You're defiant, and we're uncertain we want such defiance in our ranks."

Avery pressed his scraped hands to his aching knees as he got to his feet. His legs wobbled with such force, it took him twice as long to straighten up and face her. Her energy swirled around him, hot and painful, filtering into his head and causing a migraine.

He squinted at her, tears still clogging up his view.

Don't fucking cry!

If he did cry, it wouldn't be in fear or sadness—it'd be in pain, in intimidation. He had no control over his tear ducts; no control over the power she radiated and how it shot through him and choked all his organs. Even when he opened his mouth to speak—though unsure what he'd say—he felt his jaw tightening and refusing to let any words past his lips.

"And she," demon-Jessamine jammed a thumb between her breasts, "is in there begging us to spare you, for now at least. Her affection," she snickered, "for you is strong. Almost too strong. It's distracting and annoying. And it's throwing us off balance. We haven't been able to overpower her enough to squash it."

"Huh?" Her words prompted Avery to perk up. He dragged a hand down his face, quickly using his thumbs to smear the tears that had fogged up in his eyes, hopefully without demon-Jessamine noticing.

Jessamine is in there, bargaining with thousands of demons to keep me alive?

A thin, frail thread of hope weaved through his heart. If Jessamine's soul was still actively awake inside her, if she was fighting those demons, then maybe she'd be able to hear him if he spoke to her directly. Maybe it'd help her fight harder. Maybe, somehow, with Avery's strength and hers combined, she could evacuate those demons from her.

Was that how he'd save her and the world at the same time? Ada had implied she'd need to die to save everyone; but what if there was another way? There had to be. In the past, when he'd been possessed, he'd always managed to rid himself of his possessor with strong thoughts of positivity and mild cleansing rituals. Granted, these possessors were nothing like the things Avery had had inside him. These were evil-inclined, destruction-loving monsters who'd found their home within their destined vessel. But the rules had to be similar—if the vessel was powerful enough, if it expelled them from its body, they'd have no choice, right?

Jessamine was powerful, clearly. She'd shut the door before all the demons could escape. And she'd been able to stop the demons from instantly killing Avery moments ago. He still felt her, the essence of her, in the air. He breathed her in, sweet and spicy, and knew the demons weren't lying—she was there, stuffed deep within herself, battling for oxygen and a chance to speak. Stubborn as he'd known her to be, never giving up.