“Out. You and me. You need to get out of this house, and I need a stiff drink. We’ve been cooped up here way too long.”
Rolling off to the side, Dorian realized she hadn’t actually been out longer than a quick trip to the grocery store in the last four months. She’d thrown herself head-first into a failed training and Briar was right, she needed some space. Maybe, if she was lucky, it would offer her some perspective.
Grabbing her wallet from the bed, she shoved it into her pocket, popped into the bathroom to tidy up, and met Briar in front of the stairs a few minutes later.
“Ready, kid?”
Dorian nodded, feeling a little nervous, but she reminded herself nothing could happen. Nic couldn’t touch her again, and considering if there was any power it was hiding deep in the recesses of her mind, the chances of seeing a demon tonight were slim to none.
They headed down the stairs, and as they rounded the kitchen corner toward the garage, Lennox popped up from his seat at the table and grabbed Briar’s arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Out. This girl needs some space and a drink. And so do I.”
“Oh no. That’s a terrible idea. Taking her out when…”
“When nothing,” Briar said, her eyes narrow. “No one’s seen hide nor hair of that priest dude, and she’s been exorcised. Even if they wanted something from her, she doesn’t have anything to give them. So get your kilt-wearing hands off me and let us go have a girl’s night out.”
Lennox looked at Dorian who threw her hands up as if to say, I have no part in this, and he sighed, taking his hand off the Reaper’s arm. “Fine. But you bring her back in one piece.”
“Yes, dad.” Briar rolled her eyes and grabbed a set of keys from a hook near the door, and within minutes the pair were in one of the smaller cars, zooming down the road.
Dorian felt a rush of excitement run through her. She only had a handful of memories where she felt carefree and safe. Just a few moments in her life when her meds were working and she felt like a normal girl. And for the first time, she was one. Protected and safe, and untouched. A smile bloomed across her face and she couldn’t help a small laugh escaping.
“See, I knew this is what you needed.” Briar hit the gas harder and Dorian was thrown back against the seat. “Trust me, I think it’ll make all the difference.” She reached over, turning up the music. It was a pop hits station, the thumping techno bass and hip-hop lyrics blaring. Briar sang along, her head nodding to the beat, and Dorian let herself forget they were in the midst of a potential supernatural war between dimensions. Right now, she and Briar were a couple of friends going for a night on the town and a couple of drinks.
***
Three drinks in and she was starting to loosen up. “Okay so, I’ve been holding on to something for months now,” Dorian said, leaning over the table toward Briar. “I have to know… you and Markus? How the hell does that even work?”
Briar, who had been taking a drink of her beer, choked and swiped her hand over her mouth, a laugh bubbling up. “Oh my God, girl, who told you?”
“Lennox and Dash,” Dorian said with a wave of her hand. “But also you two are kind of obvious after the training sessions.”
Briar rolled her eyes, her head following them, and she hung back in her chair. “Jesus.”
“How long. Seriously. Do you even like him? Is he always like… like how he is? Even when you two are you know…”
“Having sex?” Briar supplied, and Dorian nodded. “He’s okay.” She took a breath, and couldn’t stop her smile. “Actually he’s great. Really great. That accent is so sexy. And he’s really giving, if you know what I mean.”
“I don’t,” Dorian said with a shrug as she picked up her gin and tonic, “but I can definitely guess.”
Briar froze and stared at her with a quirked eyebrow. “You’ve had sex, right? I mean, I was kidding about the whole virgin thing.”
Dorian shook her head as she took a drink. Setting the glass down, she jabbed the lime at the bottom with her little black straw. “I had a couple boyfriends when I was younger. The system type, really messed up, emotionally stunted. The usual shit. A lot of the guys in the group homes were pretty abusive. My old therapist called it a defense mechanism. But yeah the closest I ever got was with this guy Grant. We fooled around a lot before…” She trailed off, her head shaking a little.
“Before?”
With a breath, Dorian met Briar’s gaze. “When I was sixteen things were going really well. My meds were working, I was in this really nice foster home. I’d been there six months and I was doing well in school, I was even in an afterschool art class. I heard my foster mom and dad one night even considering taking me on as a permanent member of the house.”
“Adopting you?”
Dorian shrugged. “Maybe. Or just keeping me as a permanent foster kid. Anyway, they got this kid, Grant. The emo type with his leather coat and eyeliner. He liked that retro stuff from the ‘80’s. Bowie and the Cure. He was nice to me, though. I thought he was going to be a creep, but we became friends right away. He started going to my school and after a few weeks, we started dating. We had to keep it quiet, it was a house rule no dating, but I think our foster parents were happy we were getting along.” Dorian took a breath and finished off her gin.
“Let me guess, big sob story, turned out to be a total asshole?” Briar asked, her eyes narrow.
“Not exactly.” She twirled the glass in her fingers. “Grant told me his parents were Wiccan. Or something like that. I can’t remember what he called them. But when I told him how my blackouts affected me, what happened and everything, he told me I was possessed. He said I had to go off my meds and he could exorcise me.”
Briar took in a sharp breath. “And you did.”
“And I did,” Dorian repeated. “Went off my meds, had several incidents. Got violent with a few of the younger kids in school. I was grounded in my room one day after getting suspended, and Grant broke in with a bunch of sage and oil. He was chanting all this crap, I thought it was Latin or whatever. I think he watched the Exorcist too many times. Anyway he burnt the sage and the last thing I remembered was feeling really dizzy. I woke up in my bed and it was morning and he told me it worked. That I could stay off my meds. And you know, for like two weeks it was all good. We got really hot and heavy, got to the almost-sex. Then in the middle of a make-out session, Nic came back.”
The story stopped while Briar ordered another round from the waitress, then looked back at Dorian. “And?”
“And I hurt him. Badly. Trashed the house, came at my foster parents. I didn’t remember anything at the time, just that I woke up covered in blood as I was being dragged out of the house in cuffs by a couple of men. I was sent to inpatient after that, mandatory thirty days. My therapist told me if I could keep it under control the family would take me back but…”
“They didn’t.” Briar let out a long sigh. “I’ve been there. Exactly where you are. My possession didn’t start until I was twelve, but it got that bad. CPS intervened, took me away from my mom. It was group homes and hospitals until a Seeker found me.”
Dorian’s face was hot, and when the server brought her drink, she gulped half down, then pressed the chilled glass to her cheek. “My therapist let me see the injury report on Grant. He was in the hospital for a few weeks. Busted collar bone, gashes all over his face. Torn lip, fractured wrist. I felt bad, but I also felt like an idiot for believing he could cure me.”
Briar shook her head. “Don’t. You were a kid, you just wanted to get better.” She paused, then said, “Strange he knew about the sage and oil, though.”
Dorian shrugged. “Isn’t that like exorcism 101?”
“Not really. Most of the Hollywood crap is just holy water and the power of Christ compels you.”
Dorian couldn’t help her laugh, and shook her head. “It wasn’t like that. Who knows, maybe he knew. Maybe he’d seen something. Either way, after that, after what I did to him, I d
idn’t trust myself in relationships. So I stopped trying.”
“I guess I understand that. But you’re better now, you know that right?”
She bowed her head and stared down at the ice floating in her glass. “I guess. I mean, it doesn’t feel different.” When Briar looked alarmed, Dorian held up a hand. “I mean it does. I don’t feel him anymore, but I still feel like that walking hot mess ready to explode at any second. I don’t feel like I’m a different person.”
“Because you’re not,” Briar said, her voice hard. “It took me a while to figure that out. My training was probably the worst anyone could have in this business, and I had all these expectations. I thought I was the goddamn butterfly. I thought my old form had liquefied and reformed into something different. But it didn’t. I’m still the messed up system kid with attachment issues and a fierce attraction to old white dudes with big dicks.”
Dorian choked on her drink, holding her hand over her mouth as she laughed. “Oh my God.”
Briar gave her a wink, the left side of her lip twitching up into a smirk. “It’s cool though. I’m me. And I think once you figure that out for yourself, who you are, everything will fall into place.”
“Even if that means I’m the first post-possession exorcism to come out of it without powers?”
Briar nodded, her face drawn and serious. “Even if you don’t have shit.” She leaned across the table, folding her hands together. “You’re still part of this. That’s what you need to get. Even if there isn’t the smallest spark of magic in you, you’re part of this world. You know what’s out there.”
For whatever reason, the matter of fact tone in her voice struck a chord in Dorian, and it lifted her mood. Maybe it wasn’t the insanity she missed. Maybe it was the feeling that she belonged to a group of people. She’d never been part of the masses, and losing her identity because of this demon was too much to bear. But Briar was telling her now, no such thing happened. No such thing could happen. She still belonged.
The door to the bar opened, and there was a subtle shift in the air. She felt it, and she looked over at Briar who was on guard. Following the Reaper’s gaze, Dorian spotted the couple at the bar. A man and a woman, mid-thirties, trendy clothes, styled hair. And when they glanced around the room, their gazes passing over Dorian and Briar’s table, it happened.
There was a glow in their eyes, and a feeling like all the air was being sucked out of the room. Dorian was frozen in place, and everything seemed to stop, and she saw it. The vision she had when she was watching Dash and Lennox exorcise the boy. The vision she had when Nic was holding her in the doorway, threatening her very existence. They were demons, and she could see straight into them.
They were no longer human. Taller, thin, claws and fangs present like the absence of light, and Dorian felt her heart thudding in her chest, the thumping pressing in her ears.
“You see them, don’t you?” Briar’s voice cut through Dorian’s trance, and she snapped out of it.
The noise of the bar came rushing back, overwhelming her, and she slumped forward, trying to catch her breath. “Oh God. Yeah I did.” When she looked up, the pair were gone, and she frowned. “What the hell?”
“They saw us and took off. They probably thought we had a team here.” Slapping money down on the table, she rose and beckoned Dorian to follow. “When they travel in pairs, they’re usually up to something. We need to get back to the house and talk to Markus.”
Still shaking a little, Dorian followed Briar out of the bar and into the dark parking lot. The sound of her shoes crunching gravel was almost too much for her to bear, and she winced a little at the sound of Briar pulling out the keys. She was so overwhelmed by everything she almost didn’t notice the change in the air. Everything around them went cold, and it wasn’t until Briar shouted, “Duck!” that she reacted.
Hitting the dirt, Dorian skidded, rolling onto her back, her hands flying up just as the woman lunged on top of her. Her eyes were flaring bright, making Dorian see spots, and her dark, shadowy claws were tearing at Dorian’s arms.
“Little Reaper bitch,” she spat. “I’m going to rip the flesh from your bones and devour you!” Her face bent down, fangs elongated, and Dorian could smell the rot on her breath.
Panicked, she let out a scream as the thing’s teeth made contact with the skin on her shoulder. Something flared to life in her gut as she felt the fangs pierce her, and after a moment, she couldn’t hold it in. With a shout, it exploded from her chest, a burst of white-hot energy, and the woman went flying thirty feet across the parking lot. Her body hit a car with a sickening crack, leaving a huge dent, and with a dull thud, the body slumped over onto the ground.
Dorian felt panic welling up in her, and she shifted to her knees, trying to stand. To her left, Briar was crawling up to her knees as the shadow of the man ran off into the distance. Briar’s face was drawn, a small cut on her forehead dripping blood down her cheek, and she looked confused.
“What the hell did you do?” she asked as Dorian walked closer.
Dorian’s head shook for a moment before she could answer. “I don’t know.” There was a tremble in her voice, threatening to break into tears if she didn’t get control. “I felt this… this I don’t know what. Energy or something. It was rushing through my body and before I could do anything, she went flying into that car.”
Jumping into work-mode, Briar hurried across the pavement, kneeling behind the fallen body. She used the edge of her shirt to cover her fingertips as she felt for a pulse. After a second, she sat back on her haunches and looked over at Dorian. “She isn’t dead, but we should call an ambulance.”
Dorian was about to pull out her phone when Briar pushed past her and threw open the car door. Digging into the glove box, she pulled out a cheap, disposable phone and dialed 9-1-1. After a moment, she stated the address, saying there was a woman lying unconscious in the parking lot. She gave a bare description, then hung up and cracked the phone in half.
“We keep these for emergencies. Lennox likes to have at least ten in the car. Trust me, you’ll use them more than you like.” Briar wiped her hands on her jeans, then rushed back to the car and returned with a bottle of water. Pulling off the cap, she began to pour water all over the woman’s face, and Dorian realized Briar was washing the blood off the woman’s face. “We erased you from most of the systems, but we can’t be too careful.” She used the edge of her shirt to mop up what was left, then tossed the bottle into the trees. “Okay, we need to get the hell out of here before the cops arrive.” She glanced around, but the girls were lucky no one had come outside to see what the noise was about.
Dorian nodded and followed Briar to the car, jumping into the passenger seat. This time, she barely noticed how fast Briar was taking each corner, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they were on the main road and there were no signs of cops anywhere.
“Has that ever happened to you?” She had been afraid to ask Briar that question because if the answer was no, she wasn’t sure what that could mean. But she didn’t have a choice. She was terrified.
“Can’t say that it has, but if you’ve been suppressing your powers for this long, I think it’s to be expected.”
The answer made her feel a little better, but not much. She swiped her hand across her brow and felt the sting of a few cuts from the gravel. “You think Markus will have some idea?”
“I goddamn hope so,” Briar said, gripping the steering wheel tight. “Because it’s not just your funky powers. Demons don’t travel in packs and they don’t attack unprovoked. Not usually. Something is definitely up and we need to figure out what.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dorian winced as Lennox dabbed a cotton swab covered in alcohol across the teeth marks on her shoulder. She was keeping her gaze trained on Briar who was sporting six stitches just above her eyebrow. Markus was in his pajamas, his shirt undone at the collar making him look more ridiculous than intimidating, though his scowl was ever-present as he
paced behind Briar’s chair.
“So you saw the demons? Their actual form?”
Dorian tried not to sigh as she clenched her jaw. “For the literal sixth time, yes. I saw them. Gangly and scary with big fucking claws and teeth. Just like Nic had. They were angry and really damn mean.”
Lennox snorted and covered it with a cough when Markus leveled a glare at him. “I don’t know why you’re so fussed, Markus. Demons attack us all the time.”
“But they don’t travel in pairs, and they certainly don’t try to draw Reapers out of a bar to attack them in a public parking lot.” He crossed his arms and stopped pacing. “Can you describe them again? As detailed as you can get.”
Dorian and Briar took turns recounting the exact look and nature of the demons while Markus checked over his notes, then he nodded. “I’m sending this to the research team. See if they can pull something from the database. Demons using bodies for attack like that are usually multiple offenders.”
When Dorian frowned, Lennox explained in a quiet voice. “Only a handful of demons hang out in one human body. Most of the time they come up for reconnaissance, and they try not to double dip, if you will.”
“Gross,” Dorian muttered.
“Either way, if they were able to get the jump on you, it meant they had good control over their human hosts. And good control means…”
“They’re in those bodies a lot,” Dorian finished for him. “I get it.”
“But I don’t get what the big deal is,” Briar cut in. “It’s not like they were deliberately after us. They looked pretty damn surprised to find us sitting in that bar.”
“We can’t be sure that wasn’t a ruse to draw you out. Sounds to me like it was by Dorian’s power surge alone that they were scared off. And if they’re working with someone…” Markus trailed off, rubbing his hand down his face. “If they were waiting to see if she’s showed any powers…”
“How would they have known?” Dorian asked, shoving Lennox away. She was patched up enough, and the sting of the ointment was worse than the bite itself. “I mean, it’s not like I’m some big name in the demon world. And I haven’t been out on a hunt or exorcism or anything.”
The Reaping: Language of the Liar Page 20
