Demon of Vengeance: Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 4 by Brenda Huber

that was wrong, would only cause her temperature to rise once more and all the misery he’d just put her through would have been for nothing.
    So he conjured himself clean and dry and clothed in jeans and a T-shirt, and then carried her to his bed. There he laid her down and eased her wet hair from her face. He conjured bandages for her shoulder and, not knowing what else to do, sat by her side and held her hand. And he prayed.
    Her eyes soon fluttered open, but she seemed dazed. He managed to coax her into taking a couple Tylenol and drinking most of a glass of water.
    Unfortunately, neither stayed down long. The violent spasms wracking her body as she got sick scored him with guilt all over again.
    There had to be help for her somewhere. Desperate, he called Kyanna, but neither she nor Xander had heard of a cure for a human infected with Diffenidus venom. Kyanna suggested some herbal concoctions to alleviate the symptoms, and crystals to reinforce his ward stones in case the demon that had bitten her had forged a link. But he was pretty certain he’d already killed that bastard. More the pity. He’d happily decimate Sïnsobar’s nest all over again to seek vengeance over what they’d done to her.
    He glanced at Phoebe. He couldn’t think of her as the Professor any longer, not after having tended to her in the shower. Desperate, he picked up the phone one last time. He didn’t know what else to do.
    “Talk.” Asher’s deep, sleepy voice came over the line.
    “Is there a cure for Diffenidus venom?”
    “Hmm…not a cheap one.”
    Asher was a legendary and lethal demon mercenary the Fallen had come to regard as—if not one of their own—then an ally, of sorts. He wouldn’t straight out agree to join their ranks, yet he hadn’t sold them out to the highest bidder either. That was saying something, considering the highest bidder was Lucifer himself, and the bounty on their collective heads was so high no demon in his right mind would turn it down.
    There was very little Asher didn’t know or couldn’t find out. He never reneged on a contract. And he never failed when he was hired, be it for something as simple as locating an item or as damning as carrying out a cold blooded assassination. Of course, Asher’s assistance always came with strings.
    And a very steep price tag.
    “At least, not cheap for a demon or angel,” Asher clarified, sounding a little more awake now. “Now if you got a human on your hands, you might as well call the priest and buy a shovel.”
    “There’s nothing I can do? Nothing at all?” Sebastian asked, his voice catching despite his struggle to remain calm.
    A long moment of silence stretched on. A deep sigh. “So we are talking human.”
    “Yeah.”
    Another long pause. “Bring her to me.”
    The fine hairs on the back of Sebastian’s neck stood up. “I didn’t say anything about this being a female.”
    “Am I wrong?”
    “Where are you?” he asked, ignoring the smirk he heard in the other demon’s voice.
    “Home,” Asher said, and then hung up.
    Without a second’s hesitation, Sebastian conjured a T-shirt—one of his own—to cover her and scooped her up in his arms.
    When Asher said home, he meant the castle. A castle of which, to the best of Sebastian’s knowledge, no one but a very select few even knew about. Possibly no one else but him. Centuries ago, Asher had called in a steep debt Sebastian had owed. As repayment of that debt, Sebastian had helped Asher lay siege to an honest-to-God castle in the highlands of Scotland and claim it for his own. And he’d been sworn to secrecy on the castle’s location. Asher’s home boasted turrets, tower rooms, and dungeons…the last of which, rumor had it, Asher made ample use.
    Sebastian shimmered them to the courtyard and waited for Asher to come to them. The mercenary had his own protections over his lair. Protections Sebastian wasn’t stupid enough to mess with. Not even in the current circumstances. He