Possessed By You (Overworld Underground Book 1) (42 page)

The officer motioned to his partner and said something. Tyler's entire body went taut. Joe's look went from confused to angry. He said something. And then the other officer made him turn around and put him in handcuffs.

Chapter 38

My stomach went taut. "What the bloody hell is going on?"

Tyler moved his hand from my shoulder, and looked me in the eye. "I need you to get out of the car, Emily."

I remembered him saying the same thing as Thomas, and a harsh chill raced down my spine, followed quickly by a hot surge of anger. "I will do no such thing. Tell me—" I gasped as the realization hit me. "They're not police, are they?"

He shook his head. "We don't have time to go into this. In a moment, they'll come ask you to get out for some bogus reason, and they'll arrest you to isolate me. They probably have a stun gun or tranquilizer."

"What about your security people? Are they on the way?"

He nodded. "But they probably won't be here in time."

"What if you call the real police?"

"I've tried that before. The Exorcists have contacts everywhere. These might even be real police officers who work for them." He shook his head. "My only option is to run."

"I'm not leaving you this time."

His jaw tensed. "You have to, Em. I won't put you in danger."

I gripped his shirt and pressed my lips desperately to his. "Don't you dare try to leave me again, Tyler Rock. Don't you dare leave me confused, lonely, and hurt. If you try to kick me out of this car, I will hunt you down and exorcise you myself!"

Tyler's green eyes flashed with an inner light, and he stared at me in open confusion. "But—but why would you put your life in danger for me?"

My mouth dropped open, and words failed me.
Heaven help me, but I think I'm falling in love with this bloody gorgeous fool!
"Because I can," I said at last, looking back as the officers guided Joe into the back of the cruiser.

Tyler kissed me, his lips sending a streak of heat to my stomach as excitement and fear swelled in my breast. In a smooth motion, he slipped into the front seat. I slithered between the seats, managing to situate myself in the passenger seat without flashing my panties at everyone on the sidewalk.

The police took up positions outside, their faces creasing with concern, most likely at our actions. Tyler leaned out the window, and smiled congenially.

"Did the driver give you some lip, officer?"

"Sir, step out of the vehicle."

"Oh, I'm fine to drive, officer. I'll get us home and get the bulb replaced."

The officer drew his weapon, held it to his side, pointed at the ground. "Out of the vehicle, sir."

"Whoa," Tyler said. "You mind telling me what the problem is?"

"I'm not going to repeat myself." The officer opened his mouth to say something else.

Tyler shifted the SUV into drive and squealed out into traffic.

The police raced back to their car. Tyler swerved around a clot of traffic at a light, narrowly missed a car emerging from a side road, and turned down a narrow road next to a tall parking deck. I shrieked in terror and delight as he revved the engine and squealed around three more turns in quick succession, moving smoothly through traffic as though it weren't there.

"Have you ever been in a wreck before?" I gripped onto the door handle as tightly as possible.

"Yeah. But that was because I didn't care about the body I was in."

"You intentionally crashed?"

He checked the rearview mirror and shook his head. "No. Even my enhanced reflexes aren't perfect."

I gripped the center armrest with my other hand as he drifted the SUV around another corner, and somehow managed not to scream. "How lovely. Where are we going?"

"My place."

"Do you think Stephen tipped them off about you?"

His lip curled back into a snarl. "I guess he must have."

"Doesn't that mean they'll know where you live?" I looked back over my left shoulder, expecting to see the blue lights of the police car, but saw nothing but normal traffic.

He nodded. "Most likely. Especially since all they'll need to do is ask Joe or run the license plate."

My heart sank. "What will we do? I can't bear it if they take you again."

Tyler slowed the car, merging with the normal flow of traffic. He reached a hand across the center armrest and gripped mine tight. "I won't let them Emily. We can run away together. Go someplace they can't find us."

"And where, exactly, would that be? Are we talking Europe or Antarctica?"

He growled. "I haven't figured out that part yet."

"Surely these people aren't omnipotent, are they? There must be some way to stop them."

Tyler shook his head, and pulled into a narrow alley between two high-rise buildings. He put the car in park, and rested his forehead against the steering wheel. I reached a hand across to him, stroking his soft hair. I felt tears welling in my eyes and could do nothing to stop them as they overflowed and trickled down my cheeks.

He looked up, eyes sadder than I had ever seen them before. "I'm sorry, Emily. God, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," I said, my voice a trembling whisper. "We'll figure this out."

"Why would you want to be with me?" He lifted his head, eyes focused somewhere not here. "I thought I could do this. I thought I could make it work. I feel
happy
with you. You make me feel...content. At peace. But I'm being selfish, as always. I was born a monster and I'll never overcome that."

"No, Tyler, don't say that." I grabbed his hand and pressed it to my chest. "You care about me. I can see it in your eyes. You're not a monster!"

He pulled his arm away. Threw open the driver side door and got out. "Take the car. Go home. It's over, Em. I won't put you in any more danger."

My sorrow blazed into anger. "Don't you dare leave me, Tyler Rock. You get back in the car this instant, or I will—"

"Why?" he said. "They know where I live. They know who I am."

"Then leave this body and find another." My words choked to a desperate whisper. "
Find me
."

"I don't want to do that." He ran a hand through his hair. "I like who I am now. I'm
Tyler Rock
, and I want to stay that way. I want to be normal. I want to be...human. How would you feel if I had to keep coming back to you in new bodies?" He didn't wait for an answer. "You'd feel dirty, that's what. And so would I."

I got out of the car, walked around to his side, and threw myself into his arms as angry tears rolled down my cheeks. I didn't know what to do, or what to say. All I knew was I wanted him to stay with me, and for the God-damned Exorcists to leave us alone.

He sighed. Kissed the top of my head. "If they exorcise me, send me back to my realm, I won't be strong enough to come back for a while."

"How long?"

"Months, maybe years." His voice came out a ragged whisper. "But that's not the worst of it. My former companions will find me again. And when they do..." His body shivered violently. "I might never escape again. I might never see this world again."

I looked up at him, but tears blurred my vision. I couldn't stand losing him. Not now. Not after everything we'd been through. "Can't we tell the Exorcists that Hugo is dead? That the body was free of another soul when you took it?"

His jaw tensed. "I don't think they'll care. I tried to make contact with Exorcists in the past, mainly so I could learn about them—understand them, even. They aren't in the business of being found or doing favors. They're in the business of finding demons and removing them from the mortal world."

I wiped my eyes, and stepped back from him, my mind working furiously. "There must be something we can do." Unfortunately, running seemed the only ready answer.

Tyler's phone rang. He answered, said a few terse words, and disconnected. "My security detail is coming here. But I'm certain they won't intervene with the police. Several of them have ties to law enforcement."

"Let's leave," I said. "You have money. Get a fake identity, and we can make a new life."

He looked at me for a long moment. "Are you sure that's what you want to do? You'll have to leave behind friends, family, everything you know, and trade them away for a life of never settling in one place, paranoid that the Exorcists will find you at any minute."

"Well," I said, rolling my eyes, "when you put it like that, how can I refuse?"

He flashed a grin, which vanished almost as soon as it appeared. "I'm serious, Em. It's going to be rough."

I took his hand, pressed it to my heart. "Do you feel that?"

His eyes locked on mine, the pupils dilated. "Yes."

"The thought of being without you makes me hurt right there. It hurts so much, I can't bear it. Even when I was scared of you, it still hurt." I wiped at my eyes. "I don't want to live like that, Tyler. I'd rather be on the run for the rest of my life than live without you."

The saddest look came over his face, and a single tear sparkled in the corner of his eye. He looked away, brushing at the tear. "It's not much of a life."

"I don't care. Let's make a run for it," I said. "Let's do it, now."

He gripped my hand. Grinned. "Let's do it."

We hopped back into the car. I felt like a naughty schoolgirl who'd just decided to skip class for the first time to run away with her boyfriend. With the decision made, I felt almost happy, heady with relief.
Things will be okay.

That's what you think.
My inner ninny wasn't quite so sure.

Tyler backed out, looking up and down the street for any sign of police, and pulled out. He drove around town, taking back streets and avoiding police cars for hours. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because Tyler touched my shoulder to wake me as we traveled down a winding road lined with quaint houses. I looked at the time and was surprised to see it was nearly six in the morning. The first hints of morning light had lifted the black of night, turning it to gray.

"Where are we?" A yawn cracked my jaw.

"I bought a backup house a while back just in case something like this happened. It's a few hours outside the city."

"Smart."

He shrugged. "I had the money and options this time. Figured I might as well be prepared." He pulled into the driveway of a dark single-story house, and looked at me after turning off the car. "I'm pretty sure we made it out here without being followed, but we shouldn't stay long. The Exorcists might have the resources to find out about this place. For all I know they're tracking us somehow."

We went inside. The house smelled of varnish and paint, bare of all but a few pieces of furniture. Tyler turned down a small hallway, stepping inside a small empty room, and knelt on the hardwood floor, tapping it with his knuckles. One area near the back corner sounded hollower than the rest. He pulled at the baseboard, removing an unsecured section from the wall, and gripped a small knob on the hardwood behind it, pulling it up, and revealing a black duffel bag.

He removed it from the cavity, unzipped it to reveal stacks of cash and several passports.

"Goodness." I took a passport and opened it to reveal his handsome face with the name Dwight Smith beneath it. "You seem very well prepared."

"I didn't want to take any chances this time. Especially not after they found me as Thomas." He growled. Slammed the bottom of his fist against the floor. "Fuck! We were so close, Emily. So damned close to having something normal."

"We're anything but normal." I kissed his cheek. "Don't worry, we'll make this work."

"I want a life." His teeth clenched. "I want you. Why the hell can't I have that? Why did I have to be born a demon instead of human?"

A laugh burst through my lips. "Oh, Tyler, that must be the strangest and most adorable thing I've ever heard."

He looked at me, a smile breaking through his frustration, followed by a bark of laughter. "Universal question, huh?"

"I'm sure there are plenty of humans who'd love to switch places with you."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right."

I pressed a hand to my chest. "Of course I'm right, you silly man." I looked at the duffel bag. "Are we staying here tonight?"

He considered the question for a moment. "Maybe not. Might be best to go to a hotel, someplace anonymous." He zipped the bag, gripped it in one hand, and took my hand with the other. "Let's go."

We went down the hallway, through a charming kitchen with new granite countertops and varnished cabinets, and out a door into a small garage with what looked like a restored vintage car of some kind, with glossy black paint and shiny chrome wheels.

"We're not taking the BMW?"

He shook his head. "I bought this car with cash and registered it under another name. It'll be safer."

"Perhaps something more fuel efficient would have been wiser." I wrinkled my nose. "And it's a bit flashy."

He chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right. I saw it and couldn't resist."

"Boys and their toys." I climbed inside, noting the fresh smell of what had to be reupholstered leather. Tyler cranked the key and the engine positively roared to life. It rumbled beneath me, purring like an alpha lion. "Well, at least we should be able to outrun anyone."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." He reached up to the sun visor and clicked a button on the garage door opener. After it rattled open, Tyler shifted into reverse and hit the gas.

Bright lights whipped into the driveway behind us. Tyler cursed, swerved into the yard, avoiding a large black SUV as it tried to pin us inside the garage.

The Exorcists had found us.

Chapter 39

Clods of grass flew as Tyler whipped the wheel, flinging us around to face the road. He shifted gears. The tires spun in the grass, then squealed with the contact of asphalt. The engine roared, and we rocketed down the road. Two more SUVs blocked the narrow residential street, positioned perfectly between the decorative brick walls to either side of the road.

"No!" Tyler spun the wheel. The car shrieked a hundred and eighty degrees, smoke boiling past my window as the tires fought for traction.