Claimed by the Demon

Prologue

Someone’s coming.

The demon blade told Devin James as much, drawing him to the expansive window of the old Rio Grande bosque estate just southwest of Albuquerque. It was a primary blade...a powerful blade. It claimed this entire region for its own, and it kept track.

It whispered to him of encroachment. Of changes. Of danger.

It suggested it should take control.

“Go to hell,” he muttered at it, arms crossed and scowling out into the early morning darkness.

A quiet step from behind; arms wrapped around his. A slightly sharp chin pressed against his shoulder. He shrugged against it, briefly increasing the silent contact.

Something’s coming.

The demon blade was named Anheriel, and it had changed everything.

It had killed his brother, threatened his sanity, remolded his life.

It had given him Natalie.

And now it had given him responsibility. This estate, inherited from the man who would have killed him—who would have taken Anheriel, combining their blades to create of himself an invincible creature—not so much possessed as in collusion with the demons within. Demons turned to trapped entities who craved redemption...but who could find it only through those wielders strong enough to resist their insidious corruptive influence.

The endless battle within.

And the estate’s library was giving him the means to fight that battle, providing information about those demons. Natalie was giving him the means to fight it.

Devin James, back from the brink.

Just in time, it would seem.