by Aly Westman
Quinn let go of my hair, his hand sliding down to my neck. He leaned in close, to my ear, as his thumb skimmed the edge of my jaw. He opened his mouth as if to say something but then the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs startled him. He stepped back just as Damion burst through the doorway.
He didn’t even pause as he came for me, pulling his red sucker from his mouth his hand wrapped around the back of my neck and his mouth came down on me hard. His tongue tasted sweet and like cherries as he caressed my mouth.
My arms wrapped around his neck and I moved to my tiptoes to get closer to him. I heard a clink and broke our kiss, looking behind me to see he had thrown his sucker into the sink. Damion brought my face back to him and that was when I saw pain and fear in his eyes, it was like he was warring with something.
“Please, help me.”
There was a crash downstairs as Seth’s cursing filled the house.
“Shit,” Quinn said. “What’s he angry about?”
“Something and someone but I can’t. I need to feel something else. Seth is usually controlled but right now he isn’t and either I feel something else or I need to leave.”
“I’ll go calm him down.” Quinn was out the door, closing it behind him, and my attention went back to Damion.
I moved and once my back hit the counter I used my hands to hoist myself up. I spread my legs and reached out to Damion. “I’m sorry to put you on the spot. We don’t have to do anything, I just… need to feel you.” Damion’s hands ran up my jeaned thighs until he reached my waist line. “You seem to be a good distraction. If it’s too much tell me to stop.” His honey eyes were serious.
“I know, I will.” I wrapped my arms around his neck just as he stepped closer and slipped his fingers under the hem of my shirt, so his fingertips were in direct contact with the skin on my hips.
I brought my hand up and slowly trailed the tips of my fingers across his forehead, moving his dark hair out of the way. His pupils were still very dilated, his breathing rapid and shallow. I wanted to ask what was happening because I could sense a change in him, but now wasn’t the time. He needed me.
“Don’t think,” I said. “Let me be in control.”
He nodded, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in through his nose. I brought my other hand up and cupped his face while my fingers continued to trail down his cheek. I leaned in closely my lips brushing the skin of his cheek. I remembered how easily emotions attached to memories so I tried to remember.
I brought forward the memories I had with him. I closed my eyes, my lips still softly brushing across his skin as I remembered the sound of his laughter, as I lay dying beside him. How it brought me out of the darkness and filled me with curiosity. I remembered the smell of cherries and the taste of sugar as I first kissed his lips in the lake. I remembered how much appreciation I had for him, that he allowed me to see my father one last time, so I could remember who he was. I remembered feeling scared and unsure and the amount of times he slipped his arm around me and that fear dissipated, and in its place I felt calmness, serenity almost.
The more I brought those memories forward, of all Damion had done for me, of all he made me feel, others began to slip out. Of Quinn, holding me and telling me he wouldn’t let me die alone. How he washed my hair when I had been too weak to do so myself. When he went out of his way to try different foods that may help my stomach. Of the times he reached over to touch my wrist when he thought I was sleeping or not paying attention, to check my pulse as if to reassure himself that he had, in fact, saved me.
Memories of Corey, as he made me peanut butter and honey sandwiches. How I lay against him, breathing in the sweet scent of honey as I drifted into my first sleep where I actually felt safe and secure. When he and Damion would start bantering or joking in such a way that every single worry I was holding literally disappeared and I was genuinely happy, in that moment, there with them. I remembered the warmth that seeped deep into my bones as he wrapped a blanket around me and held me, holding me in his arms and telling me about his past.
And then… Seth’s blue eyes looked down at me that first moment he opened the grate. When he looked at me and I just wanted to collapse because I was overwhelmed with this… this… relief. I couldn’t explain it. It was like my whole body had been pushing to survive. Running on nothing for so long. And then the moment I saw him, all of it caught up to me and I just couldn’t stand anymore. And I fell, ready to drown in that stupid well. But he wouldn’t let me, he grabbed me with his strong hands and pulled me out of there like a drowned rat and I couldn’t stop staring at him with this intense emotion that I couldn’t even describe. I felt it again during the storm when his arms held me tight as I fell apart. I screamed and cried so loudly I thought I was drowning out the thunder and he just held me tightly. He let me fall apart over and over again and he was right there with me.
Once the storm had passed I learned they were all right there with me. Waist deep in a murky pond. They hadn’t left me. Not once. And as they stood there in the freezing water I knew that it wasn’t just because I was a mission they had to complete. I was taken over by the immense feeling that I couldn’t even wrap my head around. It was like this intense emotion of security and belonging.
And I didn’t want to say it. How stupid was that? I didn’t want to give the feeling a name because if I did I felt like it took something away from it. Like the word to call it just wasn’t enough and somehow downgraded how powerfully it came over me.
I didn’t have to say the word, because Damion felt it. He didn’t need words. Ever so softly I brought my lips to his and revelled in the softness of his skin. His one hand moved to the small of my back, keeping contact with its bareness, and his other hand went to my pony tail. He pulled it out and fisted his hand through my hair, deepening the kiss and pulling me closer.
My body automatically moved, my legs wrapping around his waist. One of my hands moved to the base of his neck and the other slid down until I had it under his shirt, resting on his ribs. I pulled him closer until my chest touched his. My butt was now part way off the counter and I could feel his bulge through my jeans. As soon as I felt him, my muscles clenched on their own accord and I rubbed down against him.
Damion moaned and his hand on my back dug in as he ground into me again. This time it was my turn to moan.
The knock at the door had us pulling apart. “Yo, uh, Seth wants everyone downstairs. He’s cool now, Quinn threw some ice water at him.” Corey’s voice came through the door.
I looked back to Damion, his eyes still dilated and he was still breathing heavily but he had a smirk on his red swollen lips. His hair a mess. “We should probably head down. As much as I am fucking content to see where this goes, now and here isn’t the time. If that does happen, I want it to be because you wanted to, not because I needed to escape.”
“Who’s to say I don’t want to?” I smiled as I dropped my legs from his waist. Damion pulled me to him causing me to slide off the counter. I quickly grabbed his shoulders as a little squeak escaped my mouth, taken off guard. My feet touched ground.
“Oh I know you want to. Just, not yet, not like this.” Damion stepped back and adjusted himself slightly, moving his bulge around so it was less noticeable. I, on the other hand, could still feel my muscles clenching with desire, disappointed at not getting a release.
Damion took my hand, leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to my lips before opening the door and stepping out. Corey stood there, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. He opened his mouth.
“No.” Damion held his hand up and cut him off. “Before you ring my neck nothing happened. Cool the jets.”
I could feel my cheeks get warm as Damion pulled me down the stairs. I looked up to see Corey and he gave me a wink as he followed closely.
Chapter 16
Seth and Quinn were standing in the kitchen when we came in, they were both staring at the darkening sky. “What’s going on?” I asked. �
�Why is it so dark?” The sun was shining before I had my shower.
Corey slid into the kitchen table chair, his laptop set up on the table. With a sigh Seth turned around to look at us. His hair was wet, and his shirt drenched. His eyes went straight to Damion. “Izvinyayus’” Seth nodded to him. Damion waved him off. “We have a problem.”
“What?” I asked.
Still Seth didn’t meet my eyes. “We need to bunker down, hope this passes.” He turned to Quinn. “I need you to check the cellar, make sure it’s okay.” Quinn nodded, without meeting my eyes he left the room. “Dame I need you to run outside quickly and check the barriers. Don’t be too long, there isn’t much time.”
“Enough time until what? Seth?” I was getting pissed now. Damion gave my arm a little squeeze before walking passed me.
“Corey,” Seth continued while ignoring me. Corey seemed uncomfortable with this, his eyes going back and forth between Seth and I. I crossed my arms against my chest. “There should be a salt room somewhere, make sure to get all the windows and entry ways.”
“Sure thing.” Corey’s eyes skimmed the screen one last time.
“How much time do we have?” Seth asked.
“Maybe an hour, maybe less,” Corey answered before standing up and leaving the room.
Seth slowly turned to me, his eyes finally meeting my pissed off gaze. He sighed as I glared at him. “Do you want me to ask again? Did you not hear me the first time?” I asked.
“I can’t get a hold of Ty. I don’t know where he is.”
“What does that matter? I’ve never known where he is.” I told him truthfully.
Seth ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Okay, I’m just going to lay it all out there, don’t go nuts on me. Corey’s system detected a shift in weather patterns. A massive storm is on its way.”
Well…shit. I dropped my arms, understanding now. “So you’re afraid I’m going to run off again.”
Seth stepped closer to me, his eyes holding my attention. “You have to promise, no matter what, you will come to us. You cannot run. We’re going to go into the cellar, it’s soundproof and locks from the inside, but still. This isn’t a natural storm Ava, it was created for a reason. They’re trying to run you out to them. So promise me–”
“Yeah…” I could barely get my voice box to work. Memories of the last storm, of how much fear overtook me, filtered through my mind. I shook my head, trying my best to ignore those thoughts. When I spoke again I had more conviction in my voice as I spoke next, “Yes, I’ll come to you first. I mean, maybe I’ve changed. When that happened I was so… raw. I’ve changed, I know I have,” I said, trying to convince myself more than him.
“I get that, I really do, but we need to take whatever precautions we can. Our main objective is getting you to the Ranch.”
I nodded. I understood. This wasn’t a time to argue or anything, while their main objective was getting me to the Ranch, my main objective was to not be caught by those black eyed monsters.
Seth’s phone dinged and while he seemed occupied, angrily texting who ever it was and sighing in exasperation, I slipped out of the kitchen. I wandered around the bottom floor of the house until I bumped into Corey. He had a small white bag of, what I assume was, salt, and he was pouring it in a line along the window ledge.
“Can I help?” I asked him, wanting something to keep me busy and my mind off of the oncoming storm.
His bag was now empty as he stood up. “Sure, I’ll show you where it is.” I followed him to the laundry room and he opened a small broom closet to reveal bags and bags of salt. They were in sizes ranging from little pouches to large four pound bags. He reached for one and opened it up. “Most of them have a cross or rosary in them, just take it out and hang it up here,” he said, pointing to a nail on the wall that had a few beaded necklaces hanging from it.
He pulled out a small brown necklace, its string was filled with round beads and at the end there was a cross. “Why the cross?” I asked. “What does it do?”
“It's a rosary, to bless it. You don’t always have to bless the salt, you can use regular salt, but this has multiple uses. Now that it has been blessed it can be used to make holy water, it can also be used in exorcisms. Also, some say that it has divine power as protection and with healing.”
I raised my eyebrow at him. “Really? You believe all this.”
Corey grabbed a four pound bag of salt. He held it close to his body as his green eyes sought mine. “I get you have seen some horrible shit, but when you are an inch from death and someone hands you a bag a salt and says ‘here, it’s blessed and will save you,’ then you sprinkle that shit on everything. So yeah, I do believe it, hell, I’ve even seen it work.”
I didn’t mean to hit a sour note with him. I opened up a bag and pulled out a turquoise beaded necklace with a cross on it. I held the cross in my hand for a moment before looking at up him, trying to hold a straight face. “Did you really sprinkle it on… everything?”
He laughed, turning around and heading out the door. “Man, that stuff is worse than the sand at the beach, it gets in all the crevices.”
The door closed behind him and I looked down at the cross in my hand. I was never really religious, my father taught me a few things, but with all this going on did that mean God really existed?
An image of my dad’s throat being ripped from his neck flashed through my mind and had me nearly gagging. I took the cross and shoved it into my pocket, not exactly sure why, or what it meant. I took the heavy bag of salt, no idea why I picked one of the bigger ones, and left the room.
Corey and I went room to room laying salt along the window ledges. He showed me a few spots that I didn’t get all the way to the end and a tiny opening was left in the corner of the window. I didn’t argue, I just shook my head and filled in the few grains of salt. “If demons come, what will the salt do to them?” I asked.
He smiled. “Salt is used because it is pure. Sometimes, with lesser demons, salt can ward them off or even send them away.”
I moved to the next window, we were now upstairs in the master bedroom. “And a lesser demon is…? Like a weaker demon?”
He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Yeah, they are weaker. Though some are strong. Like angels, demons also have ranks. Lesser demons are bottom of the swimming pool, it’s not too often one will be able to form on Earth.” When Corey talked about demons there was a sort of spark in his eyes. He sat straighter and seemed filled with knowledge. It was easy to tell that this was his forte, he was comfortable with them.
“How do you know all this?”
He shrugged. “Experience mainly.”
It was this part of him that sort of drew me in. The fact that he had been tortured and held captive like I was and yet was still able to get up and fight them. Father always told me knowledge was power.
“Alright.” I concentrated on the salt, maybe a little more than necessary, it wasn’t a difficult job, but for some reason I didn’t want Corey seeing how much I wanted to know about demons… needed to know about them. The best way to get rid of your enemy was to learn more about them. “Give me a crash course on demons.”
He gave a little chuckle. “Most of our ‘crash courses’ involve actually crashing. What do you want to know?”
I turned around once the windowsill was done and leaned against the wall with the now half empty bag of salt in my hands. “Anything, everything.”
He nodded. “Okay, what do you know?”
“I know they have black eyes.” He nodded, encouraging me to go on. “I also know they smell like rotting eggs.”
“Sulfur,” he said. “Was it strong, or did you only smell it when up close.”
“Only up close,” I said, leaning towards him, it was exciting someone understood what I meant. “But, then at the gas station I could smell sulfur right away, I didn’t have to get close to those demons.”
“Yeah, so the sulfur smell actually comes from hell itself. It must be in the
environment, I’m not totally sure, but the fresher the smell the more recent the possession or the newer the demon. Those assholes that took you must’ve been on Earth long enough to lose some of their scent. It takes a long time for it to fully fade.”
I frowned, deep in thought as I stared at the carpet in front of me. “Interesting…” I murmured. “So when you say possession, I mean, the body we see isn’t the demons actual body?”
“Nope. See a demon is an entity, not a physical form. So when they come Earth side, in order to blend in, they have to take over someone’s body.”
“Like, do they have to kill them first?” My eyes met his.
Corey rocked his head side to side as he flipped his hand in a so-so way. “Sometimes yes, most times no. Our soul uses our body as a capsule, our souls are like entities as well. Though Dame knows more about that. But without a soul our body will start to decompose, as if we died. And if we do die then again the body decomposes. So a demon can evict our soul, or they can kill us, and use our body for maybe two or three days tops, depending on weather and that. Then people are going to start screaming zombie. No, demons don’t want that. What they prefer is to find a weak soul that will quietly sit back while they take over the body.”
“So those people at the gas station…”
“Yep, weak souls that were possessed. We didn’t kill anyone, just slowed them down.” Corey stood up. “I think we got every entrance, I wonder if there is an attic…”
My mind wandered to my demon captures, thinking about their bodies only and ignoring their black eyes and cold personalities, they could have been homegrown good men. “Core… When I killed Six… the soul that was in there–”
