The sun had set an hour ago. Elise was tired, lack of sleep from this morning starting to catch up with her. Still, she didn’t take Mencheres up on his offer to have someone else guard Blake while she rested. It seemed too cruel to pass Blake off to a stranger just so she could sleep, especially since people were acting like Blake was already dead.

She took Blake to the kitchen, knowing there would be plenty for him to eat. The humans who lived with Mencheres as willing blood donors for him and his entourage meant that the kitchen was stocked. Blake was ravenous, wolfing down three plates of food before looking embarrassed at his excess. Elise’s stomach growled as well, but not for what Blake was eating. She pushed down her hunger with the same ruthlessness she’d used to forgo sleep. Blake didn’t have long to live. The least Elise could do was to make these last days as comfortable as possible.

With that in mind, she’d refused to pack Blake up and start the journey to the salt flats tonight. There’d be time enough after Blake was fed and rested, she’d insisted to Mencheres, and he didn’t argue. Bones was less agreeable, muttering that every minute they hesitated, the demon had a chance to possess someone else, continuing its carnage through a new person.

Elise could see Bones’s logic. Even a couple days ago, she’d have agreed with it, but a lot had changed in the last twenty-four hours. Blake’s first thought ever since she’d met him had been about what was best for other people. Well, Elise would be the one to think about what was best for him, and tonight, that wasn’t loading him up in a car to drive to his death. Death would come soon enough for Blake, and that knowledge gnawed at Elise worse than her hunger or lack of sleep. It wasn’t right. Long ago, Elise had been given a second chance. Why couldn’t one be found for Blake?

Mencheres walked into the kitchen, silent as a shadow. Elise was sitting next to Blake on a barstool by the counter-top, close enough that she could feel and see Blake tense when he noticed the other vampire.

“What did you do to me before, in the other room?” Blake asked Mencheres, his voice almost casual.

“I suffocated you until you were between life and death. It was my hope that I could use your weakened condition to force the demon out and send it into the dog,” was Mencheres’s equally calm reply. “It didn’t work. I’m sorry”

“And you did all that without even touching me.” Blake sounded bemused. “You must be one powerful vampire.”

For a second, Mencheres looked weary. “Not powerful enough. The demon in you is ancient and strong. It will grow stronger with each person it destroys, so I can’t let it go free.”

“No, you can’t,” Blake agreed, his jaw tightening. “I know better than anyone about the horrible things it will do. This needs to end.”

Mencheres stared at Blake. “You’re a very brave young man. I do regret what must be done.”

Elise glanced away. She felt a stinging in her eyes, even if it had been longer than she could remember since the last time that happened.

“Mencheres, I need a razor,” Elise said abruptly. “After Blake showers, he can shave.”

Blake gave her a surprised look, but Mencheres’s expression was grim.

“You can’t leave him alone with the razor,” Mencheres said. “The demon will know what we’ve planned. Xaphan will try very hard to kill Blake, so he can escape into an unknown host before Blake reaches the salt flats.”

Blake snorted. “Before, the demon wouldn’t let me kill myself. Now he wants to do the honors? And what are these salt flats I keep hearing about?”

Mencheres opened his mouth, but Elise answered, unable to keep the huskiness from her voice.

“Demons can jump into any living thing once their host dies, even an animal that’s several miles away. So when we…when you die, there can’t be anything alive nearby for miles.”

“Wouldn’t it be okay if the demon were to possess an animal?” Blake asked. “I mean, a possessed armadillo couldn’t do much damage.”

“Animal possession is very temporary,” Mencheres replied. “The demon’s goal is to get back into a person. It’s easy to compel an animal to kill itself once people are around. Haven’t you ever noticed that some animals seem to throw themselves into traffic? The driver of the first car to strike a possessed animal would, by virtue of closest contact, then become the next person the demon possessed.”

Blake sighed. “It just keeps getting more twisted, doesn’t it?” “There’s only one type of place where it’s safe to force out a demon,” Mencheres went on, filling the loaded silence. “The salt flats. Salt is a natural element for containing a demon. Once the host dies, the salt limits a demon’s range to only a mile in every direction, and there are no humans or wildlife living on the salt flats.”

Elise wished she knew what Blake was thinking so she could…what? Tell him things would work out? They wouldn’t. There were so few things she could do to help him, and that knowledge made her feel worse than useless. Not only had she failed to save him, she’d be one of his executioners.

“Okay.” Blake nodded briskly. “That makes sense. I’m glad you guys know how to stop it. I wish I had found you sooner.”

“It seems like fate that you found us at all,” Mencheres said, staring at Elise. “Demons feed on rage, hatred, jealously—all our lesser emotions. Once they’ve consumed everything they can out of a person, they move on. Elise tells me you were possessed when a woman ran in front of your car several months ago. You understand now what happened. The demon used her up, then it let her kill herself to find a new body. It would have eventually done the same to you.”

Mencheres paused, his gaze flicking back to Blake. “You must be very strong. As a rule, humans don’t last long before the demon controls them completely. For you to still have periods of control against a demon of Xaphan’s caliber—remarkable.”

Blake shoved his plate away and held out his hands. “Do you see the blood still staining these?” he asked, intensity pouring off each syllable. “There is nothing remarkable about being a murderer, and that’s what this thing has made me.”

Elise wanted to tell Blake that no, he wasn’t the killer. He was the weapon, and weapons didn’t have a choice. But even though she believed that, the words eluded her.

She stood. She might not be able to say anything to ease Blake’s guilt, but she could still do something.

“Let’s clean the blood off you, for a start.”