by Jessi Gage
“I want to hear it from you. What details did you notice? How did the entity make you feel?”
She told him everything she remembered. Then he asked her about her recent sightings of the shadow man. He sat back and listened intently, occasionally jotting something in a dog eared, wire-bound notebook. After she finished, he looked pensive, then confused.
Finally he shook his head and said, “This is so weird. Some aspects of what you told me make me think this is an intelligent-human haunting. But other aspects make me think it’s something much more sinister. A human spirit wouldn’t appear to you as a large, winged thing, and most of the time, human hauntings are fairly innocuous. This thing definitely attacked. It wanted to scare you, maybe even to hurt you, though, you said when you tripped on your computer cord, you didn’t land hard on the floor?”
She nodded. “It was like something caught me before I hit and then lowered me the last few inches.” Remembering the enveloping cold, she shivered and leaned into Emmett’s embrace.
Emmett said, “But the coffee pot left her with cuts. She’s lucky it was mostly empty or she might have been burned, too.”
Nick tapped his pen against his leg. “It’s almost like there are two different entities, or a single one that can’t make up its mind what it wants from you.”
“What do you mean, what it wants from me? What could it possibly want? It’s dead, isn’t it?”
Nick tossed his notebook and pen on the coffee table. “If it’s a human haunting, then yes, it’s most likely the spirit of someone who used to be alive. But if it’s an elemental—a demon—it was never alive as we think of life.” He rolled his beer bottle between his palms. “Regardless of what it is, it clearly wants something. Human entities are often simply curious. They want to observe or interact, but they’re not powerful enough to be more than a minor nuisance, in most cases. Demons, on the other hand, are all about power. To grow in power, they tempt, and then feed off the resulting sin, or at least that’s my mentor’s theory.”
She frowned. “Like how vampires feed off blood?”
Emmett arched an eyebrow at her.
“What? Vampires are demons, aren’t they? They were on Buffy.” Maxi had gotten her hooked on the old Joss Whedon show. They’d Netflixed all seven seasons in a single weekend after final exams.
Nick appeared thoughtful. “I don’t know of any actual proof of vampires, but yeah, I suppose. There’s plenty of cultures where blood was used in ceremonial demon worship. It’s not a huge stretch to think it could sustain them. But from my studies, they seem to prefer feeding on sin and strong emotions, like fear or lust. The classic example is a succubus, a demon with female qualities who gains strength by inciting lust in their male victims.”
“Ew.” Shaking off that disturbing thought, she said, “You mentioned fear. Could we have made it stronger, today? We were pretty scared this morning.”
Emmett nodded his agreement. It gave her a little thrill that he wasn’t ashamed to admit how scared he’d been. Everything about him was honest. Refreshing.
“Maybe,” Nick said. “But to pull off that kind of stunt, it must have been building up power for a while, maybe years, unless it found a really potent source or something. There’s also the electronics theory. Have you noticed batteries draining faster than usual? Laptop, cell phone, camera?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how it’s getting energy, but I don’t think it’s been getting it from my grandmother. I mean, saw it when I would spend the night at the house as a kid, but when I tried to tell her, she scolded me for making up stories. She didn’t believe her house was haunted. She would know about it if it’s been feeding from her, right?” The thought of that thing scaring her grandmother made her fists clench.
Nick shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I do know one thing. It expended a lot of energy today, so you’re probably safe for now.”
“Yeah, she’s safe.” Emmett pulled her tighter against him.
If she had had feathers, she would have preened at his protectiveness.
“She’s not going back there until this is taken care of. You can take care of it, can’t you?”
“I’m no exorcist,” Nick said, “but I’ll go over there tonight with some equipment and check it out. Don’t get your hopes up, though. Whether human or demon, the entity most likely needs time to recharge. If I can gather any data, I’ll be able to form a plan of attack. But it might take time to pinpoint what this thing is and how to get it out.”
Time she would be spending in Emmett’s house. Good thing there was no demon here, because…talk about temptation.
* * * *
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Jade asked Emmett. Her amazing hazel eyes were tight with worry.
“No.” Understatement. His hands were clammy, and his heart was racing at the mere possibility of running into that winged thing again. “But I can’t let Nick go in there alone.”
The three of them were in his living room, standing at the door. He hugged her tight and long, gaining courage from her warmth. It was only the determination to back up his buddy and help his girl that made him eventually let go.
“You make yourself at home here. If you’re in bed when we get back, I’ll come up and give you a kiss goodnight.”
He’d shown her his room, a long space with a pitched ceiling that took up the whole second story of his 1920’s house. Since it was the nicest and most private place to sleep, he’d decreed it would be her room as long as she was here. Nick would take the futon in the man-cave, a.k.a. the game room in the finished basement, and he would take the couch in the living room.
“Sleep? Ha. I’m going to be on pins and needles ’til you get back.” She swept her thumbs over his cheeks.
His stomach fluttered at the tender touch. And the sentiment.
“You be careful,” she said.
He nodded, kissed her soundly, and left with Nick to go demon hunting.
He’d never done anything this stupid before, and that included spray painting Elvis lives on the roof of the high school gym junior year on a dare from Theo. He got into Nick’s hybrid, silently praying for their safety.
“She’s something,” Nick said as he squeezed behind the wheel and started the car.
“She sure is,” he agreed.
“You two are good together.” His buddy flicked on the headlights and pulled out of the driveway.
“And you know this after two hours?”
“Hey, it doesn’t take stacks of personality tests and years of acquaintance to figure out you’re compatible with someone. With Ali, I knew the minute she smiled at me in Social Sciences 300.”
“Did you know you’d marry her?”
“Naw, not at first. I wasn’t thinking that far ahead, but I knew I wanted to date her.”
He was a little jealous of how simple Nick made relationships sound. “Well, I’m real happy for you two lovebirds,” he said, trying to keep his voice sarcasm-free.
“What are your intentions with Jade?” his friend asked, like he was the girl’s father or something.
Parroting Nick, he said, “I know I want to date her.”
“By the look on your face whenever she walks in the room, you want to do more than date her.” Nick’s crooked grin told him he meant “more” as in horizontal, carnal things.
“Yeah,” he agreed, “but I’m not going to.”
“But you could if you married her.”
His palms started sweating. “Even if I could stomach the thought of marriage, what makes you think she’d want to tie herself down to a guy like me?”
“A good-looking, responsible, easy-going business owner with his own house. Gee, I can’t imagine what she might see in you.”
He rolled his eyes even though he wanted to believe Nick’s description of him would be enough for a fast-paced city girl like Jade. She was the first girl he’d dated who made him think marriage might be possible for him. But it was kind of early in the dating game to
think about that.
Come to think of it, Nick was out of line.
“Hey, man, you promised you wouldn’t try to sell me on marriage. What happened to, ‘cross my heart and hope to die?’”
“If you recall,” his buddy said with a finger raised off the steering wheel, “I said I wouldn’t try to persuade you once Ali and I tie the knot. I’ve got months to work on you until then.”
He wanted to slap the smug grin of his buddy’s face. “Well, shit.”
Nick chuckled. “It’s only because Jade’s a keeper, Em. I’d never try to push you into something if it wasn’t so obvious she’s the right girl for you.”
He shook his head, but he wasn’t as annoyed as he wanted to be. He changed the subject. “What do I do to help you out tonight? I don’t know how to use all your fancy equipment.”
“It’s not that fancy. It’s all stuff you can buy at Radio Shack or build yourself from a few simple circuits and parts. All I need you to do is help me set up a couple IR cameras and then hold the digital audio recorder while I walk the house. I’ll take the thermal cam and EMF detector. And I’ll do all the talking.” Nick glanced at him. “Thanks for coming, man. I know how freaked you must be after this morning. But you know that nothing demonic can hurt you, right? You belong to God. We both do.”
He swallowed in a dry throat. “But Jade doesn’t.” She seemed open to going to church with him, but he had the feeling he was the draw more than God.
“That’ll change,” his buddy said with confidence. “If she’s the girl for you, which I’d bet my hybrid she is—” He patted the dash as he pulled into Jade’s driveway. “Then God will call her to Him. And in the meantime, she’s got us to protect her from whatever’s messing with her.”
He turned off the silent car, something Emmett would never get used to. “You ready to document some demon scum?”
“Not really.”
Nick thumped his shoulder once before heaving himself out of the car.
He got out, too, scanning the house for signs of impending doom.
Across the roof of the car, Nick’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “This could be some awesome stuff, man. From what you two told me, she’s got a pretty active son of a bitch in there. If it’s had time to recharge and we catch something, I might make all the ghost-hunting blogs. Chiboza will crap himself.”
Chiboza Owusu was a professor of theology at Gordon Cromwell Theological Seminary, which Nick shortened to “Go-Crom,” and also Nick’s demonology mentor. Nick spoke about Chiboza’s movements with all the reverence of a Trekkie recounting Captain Kirk’s acts of heroism. Emmett hoped the prof had taught Nick more than how to talk big about demon hunting.
“All I care about is getting that thing out of there so Jade doesn’t have to live in fear. Man, that shit is not okay. I can’t believe what she’s been through the past week.”
“We’ll take care of it, man. We’ll take care of it.” Nick slapped the roof. “Now let’s go catch us a demon.”
* * * *
The incessant stroking of Mercy’s tendrils over the downy feathers of his chest was wearing on Draonius’s patience.
Take the form I love, she said. I want to pleasure you.
Be still, he snapped, nipping at her ethereal fingers with his raven’s beak.
She withdrew, curling in on herself with dejection. He rolled his eyes heavenward, wishing his little witch had the sense to see the precarious position they were in. He’d given up several millennia worth of hard-won essences to buy his way free from that bedamned house and then used a good portion of his remaining power to take this wretched avian vessel so he could follow Jade. He would be next to worthless until he could feed from the woman again, and with her tucked away in a believer’s house, he could touch neither her nor her dreams.
But his heart was soft where Mercy was concerned. She was...precious to him. Her suffering was only sweet if there was purpose in it, and just now, there was no purpose, especially when his hope was in her hands.
There, there, love. You know I desire the pleasure you offer, but we must wait and watch. Remember, we must fix you in the woman’s body so you can give me the form of the man. Now, pay attention. We must search for a way inside. Look, our Emmett returns home with the fat one. If we are lucky, he will go to Jade and his lust will be all the invitation we need.
The simple creature perked up and forgot her offense, given something else to attend to.
What Mercy didn’t know was that he felt the pull of the abyss. With so few essences remaining to him, his hold on the physical plane was tenuous. If he didn’t forge a link to Jade soon, he’d be pulled under to be trapped until someone in the physical plane summoned him by name or he could swindle some lesser demon out of his essence cloak. Both eventualities were unlikely enough he feared it could be eons before he managed to return to the physical plane. The thought was too terrible, especially after his recent incarceration.
He would give his prince no reason to think him weak and imprison him again. He would prove his worth.
From the azalea bush, he watched the lovely Jade greet a weary-looking Emmett with a tight embrace and a tender kiss on the mouth. Open up, sweet, he coaxed. When she broke the kiss without so much as a flick from her pink tongue, he cursed.
Ah, but what’s this? He was following her up the stairs, the fingers of one hand linked with hers. Draonius flew to a tree branch to peek through an upper window. The bedroom. Of course. They sought privacy.
If he had human hands, he would have been rubbing them together. He prepared to enter the house, confident it would be a matter of minutes.
He waited his minutes and more as the pair sat on the edge of the bed and talked. Jade rubbed soothing circles on Emmett’s back as he relayed some sort of disappointing story, judging by their faces.
Finally, at long last, she crawled under the covers. Alone. She had not removed her garments. Nor had he removed his. Why wasn’t he joining her? How could he resist the draw of that lean, perfect body?
Draonius’s muscles bunched in anticipation as Emmett leaned over Jade and kissed her. But the kiss was over too soon, and lacked even a hint of the sort of frenzied lust needed to weaken the blessing around the dwelling.
Blast.
When Emmett snuffed the bedside lamp, he hoped his moment would come.
It didn’t. The pair exchanged another chaste kiss, and Emmett left.
Damn it to the abyss, no!
He was not going to get an invitation tonight. And Jade was not going to come outside. Her dreams would be wasted if he could not reach her. And the pull of the abyss was strong. He was weakening fast. He needed to feed, at any cost. If he could not feed directly, he would have to do it by proxy. It was time to take a risk.
Do you strive to serve me, love? he asked, sending a tiny flare of pleasure to his little witch.
Oh, yes. Always. What would you have me do?
It will hurt, he warned. And it will be frightening. And it might not even work, he thought privately. Can you bear to be separated from me, if it means we can feed and be together again shortly?
In a rare show of wisdom, she paused in thought. For how long?
His stock in her went up. There might be something left of the crafty witch she’d been, after all. An hour, maybe two. But every minute will require your utmost strength and determination.
But then we will be together again? she asked cautiously.
He decided to be honest with her. If you can feed for me, then yes. She had done admirably when he’d let her taste Jade’s dreams, but this time she would not have his will to shelter and strengthen her. If you are not strong enough, then we will be forever separated. I will be pulled into the abyss where I will remain despite my longing for you, and your essence will move on from this plane. As he said it, he drew her close and tucked her under his wing in the best embrace he could give in his present form. The thought of losing his devoted, obedient witch was only slightly less terrible than
the thought of returning to the abyss with little to no hope of returning.
He awaited her answer, pleased to feel her thinking through the implications.
At last, she said with steely determination, What must I do?
Warming with pride, he told her what he desired of her.
Chapter 17
The moment Draonius cut her free, the physical plane tossed Mercy like a sloop in a raging storm. Icy wind sought to tear her essence apart. She hadn’t arms to steady herself or even a mouth to scream with.
Terror flooded her.
You must will yourself toward Jade’s warmth, he had said. She will call to you like a siren if only you stop to listen.
Oh, Draonius, I pray you are right!
She attempted to stop fighting the physical plane so she could be still and listen, but how did one relax when about to be ripped apart by invisible, unrelenting hands? It was agony!
How shall I ever survive this?
Recalling Draonius’s human image and the safe warmth of his embrace, she found deep within herself the strength to trust her wispy essence to the torrent. The moment she determined to succeed or lose herself trying, Jade’s familiar vibration sang to her.
She struggled toward it, though moving through the physical plane was like swimming in a whirlpool. No matter how hard she strained for the beacon of Jade’s mind, the physical plane did what it would with her. Finally, trembling with weakness, she groaned with desperation and lunged for the safe harbor in the storm.
She made it! But there was no time to celebrate her victory. Draonius was counting on her. She had work to do.
She sank her tendrils deep into the melodic warmth of Jade’s consciousness. The storm gave way to warm solace.
The journey through the physical plane had left her so drained that at first, all she could manage was to tremble against the semi-familiar environment of Jade’s sleeping mind. But before long, she began steering Jade’s dreams the only way she knew how, by recalling her own human life.
Draonius needed her to feed and feed well and then return to him and give him every emotion and sensation she swallowed down, like a mother bird with her young. She had just the right memory planned.
