“I think they’re cousins,” Briar offered when she saw Dorian studying them. “His family’s entrenched in this. Deep. They’re like the Community Blue Bloods.”
“Jesus.” Dorian couldn’t imagine what it would have been like growing up in this environment. Granted her life hadn’t been a picnic, but she’d been able to console herself with the idea that medication could help her and there weren’t really monsters under her bed trying to kill her.
A few minutes later, Markus returned and nodded his head. The nearest Exorcists, two men with light brown hair, began lighting and levitating the candles. Once that was finished, there was a chant in the room. All the Exorcists had their hands up, and the symbols along the floor and the walls began to glow.
Dorian kept her gaze trained on the door, and when it opened, she saw two men guiding a chained Grant down the stairs. She was surprised to see him conscious, and it was clear by the wild look in his eyes, he wasn’t drugged.
“He has to be sober. The only way to give him a fighting chance.” Briar was telling Dorian what she already knew, but she felt her heart clench at the sight of his apparent fear. Grant also knew about the Community. He knew exactly what could happen to him when this was all over, and she couldn’t imagine what was going through his head.
She fought back the physical urge to run to him as the two men guided him into the center of the room. The chains were already on the ground, bolted into the cement, and they clamped them down with heavy hooks.
Lying on his back, Grant’s head rolled to the side and his eyes narrowed as he saw Dorian standing there. She gave him a small wave which he attempted to reciprocate, but the cuffs on his wrists held him down tight.
“Maybe we can grab coffee after this,” Grant said, his voice shaking. “Catch up?”
Markus’ eyes narrowed, a furious look on his face, but Dorian took a step forward, going down to her knees. “Yes. We absolutely will. When this is over. You owe me for that botched exorcism, anyway. A fancy dinner. An expensive one.” She did her best to convey her faith in him, the belief he would walk away from it.
Grant laughed and looked back up at the ceiling. “I know a couple good ones. French and Italian.”
Markus took a step forward, making a motion for Dorian to step back, and then nodded his head. The Exorcists all moved forward, taking their hands around the circle, and the chanting resumed. Dorian remembered this much. The feeling of the magic flooding into her body as everything went black.
Seeing it from this side, though, was far more frightening. Grant’s entire body went rigid, then he lifted at the chest, his head planted firm against the concrete, and his eyes rolled back in his head. An inhuman growl erupted from his mouth as the chains around his wrists and ankles began to glow an almost violent white.
Dorian shielded her face as a rush of magic erupted through the room and when she blinked against the retina burn, she saw the demon laying there in Grant’s place. It was growling, snarling, fighting against the chains, but it was also smiling. Which turned into a laugh.
Its head turned and it locked its gaze on Dorian, the lips spreading out even further. “There she is,” it hissed. “Pretty little bitch.”
Dorian felt her entire body go rigid and she looked around to see if anyone saw what she could. The Exorcists were chanting, and the two Reapers stood one north and the other south, letting their magic flow into the exorcism circle.
Far off near the stairs stood Markus, and he was watching with a still expression. His hands were clasped, wringing together, and Dorian could almost feel his fear and anxiety. She sank to her knees to get a better look at the creature through one of the Exorcist’s legs. It was Andrew, she noted in the back of her head as she peered over.
“You want to come and play, pretty little bitch?”
“Let him go,” Dorian hissed, trying to keep her voice lower than the chanting. She knew the creature could hear her, like they were linked, and she shivered when it threw its head back and howled with laughter.
“You have no idea. No idea.” The laughter trailed off and for a second, the creature wailed and writhed. She thought perhaps it was working, perhaps Grant was fighting, and then something in the room shifted. The entire building shook for a second, and the form of the demon shivered and flickered in and out of existence.
When it returned, solid and reformed, it was different. Dorian didn’t need a demon lexicon to know who was laying there now. Her breath was caught in her throat as the familiar eyes locked on her.
“There you are.”
“Nic.” The word came out a bare whisper, and she scrambled back, but she couldn’t get far enough.
“You’re in danger,” he said, but he didn’t speak it aloud. The voice sounded in her head and she shook it, trying to shove him away.
“Stop!” She felt her power gathering in her stomach, and she felt a wave of panic coming from Nic.
“You don’t understand. I don’t have a lot of time. You must come and find me. You’re all in danger. You’re…” Nic roared and the room shifted again. When Dorian dared a glance over, the other demon had returned and in spite of the chains, it was sitting up.
“Markus!” Dorian called, but her voice couldn’t carry over the waves of magic.
“No one can hear you,” the creature sang in a high voice. “No one is going to hear you scream.”
Dorian jumped to her feet just as Andrew turned his head, and she let out a piercing wail when he grinned and his face split. Standing there, holding on to the exorcism circle, was a demon. He let out a bellowing laugh before he turned, shooting something out of his hands, and one by one, the conclave fell.
Dorian scrambled back against the wall, her powers gathering in her fingertips, but when she looked around for help, there was no one. Breaking the chains, the demon in Grant’s body climbed to his feet and fixed its predatory gaze at her.
“Isn’t she just delicious?”
Andrew nodded his head. “I think we’ll enjoy this, won’t we?” As he took a step forward, Dorian let out a scream and everything she had came flying from her hands. She needed no spellwork, no incantation. The power wrapped itself around the thing inside Andrew’s body and began tearing it to pieces.
Grant’s demon howled with frustration as it fought against the chains, but instead of coming to Andrew’s rescue, it gave her a wink and a nod before tearing up the steps on all fours.
Dorian couldn’t go after him. Her power was inside Andrew, pinning him to the floor. The demon was screaming now as she tore at him, ripping his consciousness from the body. She couldn’t tell if there was anything human in there any longer. She could see the doorway, her mind rushing into that endless void, and she had the demon by the neck. Her power was like claws, tearing at his gut, pulling off chunks of flesh as it screamed.
“I will not tolerate you attacking my people,” Dorian hissed as she gave him a shove toward the door. Her claws sank into his neck, feeling the pulse of his life’s blood just under her fingers. “Let this be a message to any of them. We are ready for you. We will no longer live to serve you.” With that, she ripped into him, tearing out his neck before shoving him through the door.
As it slammed and the power from the realm was cut off, Dorian was flung back into herself. On her knees, she found herself next to Andrew’s fallen body. Blood was flowing freely from his nose and ears, and she didn’t need to check for a pulse to know he was dead.
She had done it, too. She hadn’t given a second thought to the human soul inside the body as she tore the demon apart. Shaking, she backed up against the wall as the bodies in the room began to move.
For a moment, fear gripped her and she swore they all looked around with those demon eyes. But as her heart calmed down, she saw only scared humans. They were groggy and confused, moving like their limbs were weighed down with bricks, but as Lennox found her, he shoved himself to his feet and stumbled across the room, falling to a crouch beside her.
“Wha
t the hell happened?”
Dorian shook her head, not trusting herself to speak just yet.
“Grant?” Lennox looked back at the empty space in the middle of the circle, and then back at her. “Did he hurt you?”
Licking her lips, she took in a shaking breath. “Andrew was possessed. He used some sort of power to knock everyone out and then he came at me. Grant broke his chains and escaped but Andrew…” Her voice went quiet and she nodded her head to the corpse.
Pulling her close, Lennox held her tight as he looked around the room at everyone slowly gaining their composure. Markus, who had fallen by the stairs, was on his knees, speaking rapidly on the phone in Swedish.
Briar was coming to, leaning against the wall, and she caught Dorian’s gaze, giving her a nod before she closed her eyes.
It was all too much. Whatever this was, Dorian was terrified. She knew the demons had power, but not like this. Not enough to infiltrate a conclave exorcism. Dorian was positive nothing like this had ever happened before, and she knew her threat wouldn’t go unheeded. They wanted war. They were no longer content to use humans as some mental highway between worlds.
And she had just declared war against them. She was untrained, unskilled, a terrified young woman, and she had declared war against a realm of demons. Perhaps she did have a death wish after all. And not just for herself, but for every human destined to walk the earth.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“We have a problem. A big fucking problem.” Lennox stormed into the living room where Dorian was laying with her head in Dash’s lap. They had been binge-watching some sci-fi show he had on DVD while Dorian recuperated. Her spell casting had left her with a violent migraine which extended late into the next day, and medication wasn’t touching it.
Briar was in her room sleeping it off. The spell the demon had cast took a toll on the members of the conclave, and even Lennox found himself groggy and irritable throughout the day.
He’d been upstairs on the phone dealing with the aftermath of the botched exorcism, and had been in contact with a few of the Seekers who were trying to get a location on Grant. Channeling their police resources, the only mention of him was a carjacking about four miles from the main road where the exorcism took place. After that, he’d gone radio silent, and not even their strongest spellcasters could get a lead on him.
Moving away from Dash, Dorian pushed herself up and rubbed her face. The headache was slowly ebbing away which gave her some measure of relief, and she looked up at Lennox’s face as he stared down at her.
“Markus needs us to come over.” He dropped into a seat and hung his head low. “There’s… they found a leak.”
Dash immediately sat up straighter. “A leak? What do you mean?”
“He wouldn’t explain over the phone, but he sounded upset. Genuinely upset. I’ve already got Briar up. She’ll be downstairs in a minute. Markus is at his hotel and he expects us there in twenty.”
Dorian had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Not only were they playing with fire going rogue, but she had a feeling whatever this is probably hit close to home. A wave of paranoia hit her as she looked between the two men in the room and wondered if it wasn’t one of them. But no. She couldn’t believe that. She couldn’t allow herself to even think it.
Getting up, she muttered about grabbing her things and hurried upstairs to her room. Under the guise of freshening up, she shut the door and went to her dresser. Gripping the edge, she stared at herself in the mirror and found that for a second, she didn’t recognize the face staring back at her. She had aged. She looked tired, dark circles under her eyes. Her hair was frazzled, tied back into a lazy knot, and she found herself thinking back to the times when she was at her worst as a child. When things were out of her control, she was blacking out constantly, and—as she now knew—a demon had been running rampant in her body.
It was why in spite of being new and unskilled, she had to go through with her plans. She couldn’t let people suffer the way she had, and exorcising them wasn’t enough. Trusting the Community was out of the question when there was no telling who had been manipulated. She felt out of place thinking it, though. She had been part of the group for such a short time. It was systematic, ingrained in a lot of them from birth, and who was she to come in and shake the foundation like this?
Taking a breath, she grabbed the brush from the dresser and ran it through her tangles. She tied her hair back up neater, changed into a clean shirt and pair of jeans, and headed down where Briar was waiting for her in the kitchen.
“Ready?”
Dorian nodded. “I guess. You have any idea what’s going on?”
“Not a clue.” Briar hesitated, and before Dorian could reach the door, Briar reached out and grabbed her. “When we get back, can we talk? About what happened?”
With a frown, Dorian nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
There was a tense silence and then Briar nodded. “Good. Okay. Let’s get this shit over with.”
***
Markus was in a suite on the top floor of one of the more posh hotels in the city. Dorian had to wonder where the money came from. In fact, she realized no one she’d met so far had a regular job, and it’s not like people were paying for their own exorcisms. It was yet another item in the column of things she didn’t understand about the Community.
She had clothes, food, a place to live, transportation, but no idea how these things were being taken care of. The entire situation made her uneasy, and she hung back closer to Briar as Lennox managed Dash’s wheelchair up the elevators and through the massive suite doors.
Though she expected something out of a movie, marbled floors and French furniture, the inside was more homey, like an apartment. There were two bedrooms, a living room with a large couch, a dining table, and sliding doors which led out onto a small balcony overlooking the city.
Markus was standing beside the open terrace door with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He tipped his drink to the group as they walked in, but said nothing for a while. Dorian could understand. In spite of everything going on, Grant was his son and not only was he possessed by what seemed like any demon who felt like taking a stroll in a human body, but he was also missing.
“Where’s Matias?” Lennox asked after helping Dash slip out of the wheelchair and onto the couch. He dropped next to his partner and leaned back against the cushions. “If we’re being interrogated…”
“That’s not what this is about.” Markus dropped his cigarette on the balcony floor, crushed it with his shoe, then shut the door with a loud bang. “I have Dorian’s statement which lines up with everything the Seekers could pull from the room.”
Dorian, who was still next to Briar, walked further into the room. “What do you mean?”
Markus looked over at Lennox with a nod, who answered her. “There are spells we can cast which will show a sort of echo of past events. It only works when magic is being used. Sort of like an instant replay.”
Dorian’s eyebrows went up and she wondered why she wasn’t being interrogated if that were true. She had explained what happened, but failed to mention her powers ripping Andrew to shreds from the inside out. She told Markus she used what Briar taught her about reaping a demon, using her power to shove them through the doorway and seal it shut. She hadn’t mentioned what else she had done.
“That’s all beside the point. Obviously we have a leak.” Markus crossed the room to refill his glass, and he turned the bottle to the room, offering it out, but no one accepted. With a shrug, he poured himself a double and took a couple of long drinks before taking a seat. “This is the second time in the last two months an Exorcist has been possessed.”
There was a collective moment of shock that hit the room, and Lennox leaned forward. “I’m sorry, what?”
Markus’ head bowed. “We thought it was a fluke. An accident, but after this, I can’t consider it anything other than a pattern.” He paused a moment, and when he spoke, his voi
ce was low and pained. “Matias has been taken into custody.”
There was a crash, and everyone turned to Briar who had dropped her phone on the tile. “Matias?” Her tone was incredulous and she took a few steps toward Markus. “Why? What the hell?”
Shaking his head, Markus pressed his glass to his temple and let out a bitter laugh. “Adelaide pointed it out yesterday. I verified through the records. Grant, Andrew, and John had been cleared by Matias. They’d been under his direct supervision at some point and…” He stopped and took another drink. “He hasn’t been charged, but the evidence is overwhelming.”
Dorian blinked rapidly, feeling confused. Matias had been arrogant and strange, but she hadn’t pegged him as a bad guy. At least, not like this. “Is he possessed?”
Markus looked at her for a long time before he answered. “No. At least not as far as we can tell. There are… steps we’re going to take to ensure his cooperation and to ensure he’s not being unduly influenced by something outside of the Community.”
There was something in his voice, an undercurrent of malice which Dorian didn’t like, but it wasn’t her place to question it now. She merely nodded at Markus and he looked relieved to move on.
“I called you here today to release Dorian from her probation. I apologize for letting the situation and Andrew influence me in the other direction. Perhaps if she’d been allowed to participate, things might have turned out differently.”
“No sense in speculating,” Lennox cut in, and Dorian gave a sigh of relief.
She didn’t think things would have gone any differently. No one had suspected Andrew of being anything more than an Exorcist with a jerk complex. No one had even bothered to get to know him, which made Dorian wonder if that was his plan all along. He was just unpleasant enough for everyone to give him wide berth. If it was the demon’s plan, the creature was very clever.
The Reaping: Language of the Liar Page 28
