“But what if I want you to? I don’t understand why, but when you’re around I get this feeling that I know you. I feel safe with you. And when you’re not around, you’re all I think about.” Her words were music to my ears, but a teenage mind could easily warp their feelings. For all I knew, it was just a phase. She could just have a crush on me because I was the ultimate “bad boy” and once she had me in the palm of her hand, she would throw me away.
“Feeling safe with me and wanting me sexually are two very different things, Etta.”
“That’s not what I meant. I feel connected to you. I realized that first day when my dad and I came to look at the house that I am meant to be with you, that you would always protect me and I would always protect you.”
“Etta Marilyn Divad, get downstairs now!” John yelled as he slammed the front door behind him before I could dig into what Etta was trying to say.
“Crap, my dad’s home. Let me go take care of him and I’ll come back up.” Etta kissed me quickly on the lips and jumped up to her feet.
“He sounds upset,” I said trying to further stall her departure from the attic.
“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll rip into me cause of what happened at school today,” Etta said with a crack in her voice.
“What did happen at school?” I lowered Etta down into the closet by her wrist. Etta’s face went white as her eyes dropped to her feet.
“He showed up in the bathroom. Lucky for me another girl walked in before he got anywhere. I ran out of the bathroom and right into the principal.” Before I could say a word, Etta skipped out of the room.
I would let Etta and John have their private father and daughter talk this time. I was almost completely drained from the physical interactions we shared, and I could use some rest before her return. I sat in the corner for a few moments with my eyes closed, reliving the euphoric feeling of Etta’s kisses when a hissing voice spoke.
“You gave me up to the Arches for a girl?” Alastor asked. “That’s just sick.”
I opened my eyes to find a bleeding Alastor leaning up against the attic wall. He had figured a way out of the golden shackles and back to the house. Gabriel must be losing his touch.
“I gave you up for nothing. You know the rules as well as I do. You are the one that caught the attention of the Arches, not me.” I stayed sitting on the floor with my hands folded in my lap and my ankles crossed so as not to show concern about his presence or my exhaustion. If it was a fight he sought right now, I needed to appear calm and rested.
“You’re a fool. It wasn’t me that caught their attention. It was the girl. She has been chosen.” Alastor sucked in a deep, labored breath. By my guess, if Gabriel’s sword had been just an inch higher, he would have taken care of Alastor permanently.
“Whatever the case is, it changes nothing. This is my house, Alastor, and I did not invite you in. You have trespassed upon it, so I am not obligated to you in any way.”
“I am in no condition to fight you this day, but trust me, brother, the time will come for you to pay for your betrayal.” Alastor held his ribs tightly. I could save some worry and just finish him now, but there would be no honor in the kill, and I was out of energy.
“If that is how you feel, then I will be waiting.” As I replied to his threat, I closed my eyes and tilted my head back against the studs.
Alastor vanished from the attic. With his wound, he was too weak to hide himself and I could sense his presence no longer lingered in the house. I will admit he left me confused. John freed him, but he attached himself to Etta. And if she had been chosen as the next virgin mother then the simple act of raping her would taint her and leave her unviable for impregnation. So there would be no need for him to continue following her. It was time for answers. I had to know what I had myself caught up in the middle of. I had to start from the beginning; I had to start with John.
Chapter Ten
Not having the energy to flash, I jumped down into the closet and walked downstairs.
In the family room on the couch sat my gorgeous Etta and René in yet another hideous bright yellow pantsuit. The woman had a thing for looking like an Easter egg. John took a seat on the coffee table across from them in his tan Marine Corps uniform. He was stressed and he wore it horribly. I couldn’t even guess what he may have done to free Alastor. Whatever it could be, he already started paying for it.
“Tell me the truth. Are you taking your medication?” A frustrated John furrowed his brow at his daughter.
“Yes. You watch me take it every morning.” Etta was a horrible liar, and John knew it.
“Then what happened at school today?” John asked Etta.
“I told you it wouldn’t be any different here, John. The girl is psycho, end of story,” René said with irritation.
“René, you’re not helping.” John clenched his fists down at his sides. The man tried desperately to keep his cool and his family together.
Etta remained quiet, staring down at her fidgeting hands. John and René studied at her, waiting for a response, as did I. She took too long thinking about what to tell her father.
“Answer your father.” René slapped Etta on the back of the head.
“René, I swear if you don’t stop…” John threatened, but caught himself before losing his temper completely.
“Etta,” I said, “tell him the truth. Tell him about Alastor.” Etta looked at me from the corner of her eyes, but said nothing. I should have encouraged her to lie, but right now was not the time to play games.
“The Demon showed up at school today and attacked me in the bathroom. But, it’s okay now. He won’t be back. There’s another Demon in the house that is protecting me from him.”
“You see, John? I told you. She’s psycho. The medications, the doctors, the weekend getaways aren’t doing a damn thing except wasting our time and money. I can’t keep feeding into her crap.” René stood up.
“René, shut up and sit down! This is a family meeting and we are going to act as a family, do you hear me?” Without waiting for a response, John turned to Etta. “Etta, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth, baby. You know those things aren’t real. Why didn’t you tell me the hallucinations returned?”
“They are too real. Why won’t you believe me for once? Ask René. She used to see him until she became a drunk.”
“How dare you imply….”
“Stop it, both of you!” John kicked the coffee table from under him as he stood up and put his hands on his head.
Etta looked at me. I could tell she was confused and scared about why I asked her do this, but it was the only way I would be able to get information I needed from John.
“What did I do? What can I do?” John talked more to himself than to anyone in the room as he paced in circles around the family room. Rene gulped down her glass of vodka and began making her way toward the bar. That was my cue. I concentrated on the bar then flipped my hand forward, causing the bottles of liquor on it to fly across the room and shatter against the wall. René fell down from surprise. John jumped over the couch to her side. My smart and beautiful Etta picked up right away on my plan and jumped in, too.
“See, Dad! I told you! They’re real,” Etta said with frustration.
“She did this! She did this!” René cried out as she pointed toward Etta.
“All right, Etta, I give. They’re real. So why can’t I see them?” John asked with doubt as he lifted René off the floor. I could sense what he was thinking: time for a trip to the shrink.
“I don’t know, but one is here right now. His name is Raha-something.” Etta hoped he would sense my presence in the house by mentioning my name. I wondered how he could ignore the flying bottles.
“And this Raha-something is the one that’s been causing everything, the night terrors…the screaming fits…the hallucinations?”
“No. That was Alastor,” Etta tried to explain.
“So there are two of them?” John tone was condescending. He didn’
t want to believe in a force outside of his precious Marine Corps.
“Yes! That’s what I have been trying to tell you!”
“Etta, tell him exactly what I say word for word. It’s very important.” Etta nodded her head at my command.
“Ask him if he served anywhere in the Middle East,” I encouraged Etta.
“He did. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, a few times. Why does that matter?”
“Who are you talking to, Etta?” John stared at her as she answered me.
“Okay, Etta, I need you to ask him and let him answer. What happened while he was there? Something he did released Alastor, and I need to know exactly what he did. It had to be something very bad.”
Etta nervously turned to John. “When you were deployed, did you do something really bad?”
“What are you talking about?” John seemed irritated.
“Etta, it had to be extremely horrible. Innocent blood had to be spilled. What did your father do? Ask him!” I shouted, causing her to jump.
“Why don’t you just ask him yourself, Ra?” Etta’s eyes were pleading with me not to make her do this.
“I don’t have the energy for that now. I’ll show myself when it’s the right time. Now ask him!” I exclaimed with an exhausted sigh.
“Okay. Dad, you did something really bad. You hurt innocent people. What exactly did you do?” Etta demanded an answer from her father.
“You know what I’ve done, Etta. I was a grunt. What do you think I did over there? Sipped tea and played cards? War isn’t pretty and polite. It’s all really bad. I’m done having this conversation. Just go upstairs right now and take your meds because nothing you’re saying is making any sense. I’ll come talk to you after I get René situated.”
Etta stormed off upstairs, giving her door one heck of slam. The yelling between René and John resumed. René convinced herself that every wrongdoing, every misfortune fell on Etta’s shoulders, and John tried to defend Etta without hurting his marriage. I felt for the guy, really. He seemed to be trying his hardest to keep his family together. The way they both treated Etta gave me the urge to pop up in front of John and René to show him we Demons did exist and give them one hell of scare, but I didn’t have the energy. It would have to wait for now. Etta needed me, and I needed a break.
Chapter Eleven
I slowly pushed the bedroom door open to find Etta sitting on the floor playing her guitar with her headphones on. She closed her eyes as she lost herself in the music she created. She strummed the same notes over and over. Whatever song she was playing, it was one that she knew well. I sat on the bed and watched for an hour as she replayed the song over and over again until she finally felt the comfort she needed from it.
“Oh crap! You scared me. I didn’t know you were there,” Etta exclaimed as I removed her headphones and pushed her guitar to the side. I needed to know if any feelings she had for me had changed since I got her sent to her room. My interference in her family meeting might have been enough to crack the crush she had on me and bring her to reality.
“You seemed peaceful so I didn’t want to disturb you, but I couldn’t wait any longer.” I kissed her, searching for any differences from the kisses we’d shared in the attic. I prepared for her to shy away and tell me no, but the “no” never came. Etta put her hand on my cheek. I got the answer I was looking for, but I wasn’t completely sure it was the answer I truly wanted. Pulling away from her before it got too intense again, I asked, “You really didn’t know I was there?” I hoped the question would keep the topic off of our physical activities.
“Yeah, I kind of zone out on the guitar when I’m really tense or stressed out.”
“Everything will work out. Your father will see the truth, eventually.” I stroked her back with my twisted claws.
“Yeah, I hope so. It just sucks for right now. I wish my mom was still around sometimes.” Etta had such sadness in her voice as she spoke.
“I thought René was your mother.”
“Hell no! My real mom died when I was ten,” Etta said as a tear ran down her cheek.
“So how did your dad meet up with a winner like René?” I asked, wiping her tear away.
“My mom was killed by a drunk driver on her way home from work one night. René was my mom’s best friend. She took care of me when my dad got deployed to Afghanistan for eighteen months. He would call to check in on me when he had the chance. He’d talk to René for hours about how I was doing, if we needed anything. I guess that’s when their relationship developed, because six months after he came home, they got married.”
“So that blue dress belonged to your real mother?” I felt horrible now for having ripped it. Though I still believed it to be a hideous dress, I could understand why Etta would want to wear it, making it seem all the more beautiful.
“Yeah, she wore it to her graduation dinner so I thought since she couldn’t be there at mine, I would bring a piece of her with me.” Etta sniffed the snot running down her nose as she tried to hold back her emotions.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” I sincerely apologized to Etta. I didn’t want to stay on the topic anymore. I’m sure she missed her birth mother even more now that she had been replaced with a wretch like Rene, and I didn’t want her dwelling on it. “Why would your father marry such a useless troll?”
“Who? Rene? She hasn’t always been that way. She used to be really cool. She would teach me all sorts of craft stuff and every Thursday, we would have a girl’s night out. We would typically go to the movies to watch chick-flicks that would make my dad squirm. But, after Alastor started coming around, it all changed. He started messing with her first and that’s when she started drinking heavily. I guess he doesn’t care for drunks either because that’s when he moved on to me.”
My efforts to keep Etta from dwelling on sorrowful memories failed as she remembered her good life before the world of Angels and Demons collided with her world. This whole family had enough pain, anger, and trouble to feed ten Demons. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and tell her it’d be okay, but I couldn’t trust myself not to kiss her and be able to stop.
“So, what song were you playing?” I asked.
“Oh, just some song my mom used to play. She was into the whole ‘mod-rock’ thing,” Etta said, a proud smile on her face.
“Play it again.” I wanted Etta to play her guitar to get her mind off the loss of her mother, but I also wanted to see the passion in her eyes that her body had shown earlier as she played.
“It’s What Difference Does it Make by Morrissey and The Smiths. I could play it for you if you want, but I’ll warn you I’m a horrible singer.” Etta picked up her guitar and unplugged the headphones. Just as she began playing, the house shook as the front door slammed. My first instinct first told me that it was Alastor, but the shake wasn’t violent enough to be done by one of us.
“Can I come in?” John spoke through the door.
“Yeah, sure, Dad.”
“Hey. Playing that ol’ song again? You were always a fan of that one. It used to drive me nuts when your mom would blast it in the car. You remind me so much of her.” John rested on the bed. If he’d known how close he sat next to me, he probably would have had a stroke.
“Yeah, Dad, I know. You tell me all the time,” Etta said, annoyed.
“I know I do, but sometimes I just can’t get over it.” John patted the bed next to him. The look on his face told me that this father-daughter talk would be anything but fun. John looked tired, worn out, and frankly, beaten down. He was probably going to get on her about not taking her medication or offer to order more pizza.
Etta got up from the floor and plopped on the other side of her father. It would have been funny if she landed on my lap. Maybe Etta levitating on my lap would be proof enough for John.
John held Etta’s hand on her thigh and delivered the best news I’ve heard to date. “René left us, baby. She’ll be back tomorrow to get the rest of her things, but after that,
she won’t be coming back.”
Etta shrugged off the news. My guess is she didn’t want to sound too enthusiastic.
“You guys used to be so close. What happened to those days?” The man seemed oblivious to the damage Alastor caused to the lives of the women around him. I’m sure a lot of their problems could have been avoided if René had showed half the strength Etta did instead of using a bottle to cope.
“Oh, well you know, addiction and mental illness tend to take their toll after a while.” It was good to see Etta use her sarcasm on someone other than me and greedy, overweight realtors.
“I thought everything was going along great for us, but it seems it’s just gotten worse.” John choked as he tried to hide the sound of desperation and uncertainty in his voice.
“Dad, everything is fine.” Etta curled her head into John’s chest, wrapping her arms around him. She knew all too well the man was breaking down and tried to console him. If hugs could build people up from ashes, I’d be out of a job.
“Well, humor me right now. Tell me what’s going on. Is it the stress of graduation next week?”
Etta looked at me from across John’s chest. She didn’t know what to say. Usually, I would whisper in a person’s ear to lie, but this situation proved much different. I needed him to believe she really wasn’t insane, so I could get the truth out of him.
“Tell him, Etta.” I needed her to push deeper into John’s past, to get him to open up so I could learn firsthand how he freed Alastor. It was the only way I would know how to break their bond.
“Well, I tried to tell you earlier, I’ve been hanging out with that Demon named Raha-whatever,” Etta explained to John.
“It’s Rahovart, Etta.” I corrected. Butchering my name was pet peeve number two of mine, which was the reason why I wanted her to just call me Ra. Maybe she thought using my full name would make her story more believable.
The Demon Side Page 7
