by Cat Devon
“Don’t waste your energy,” Silas said. “You’re going to need it for the ritual.”
Zoe kept one eye on Silas and the other on the spiders. She needed a plan. Looking down, she realized the dress barely covered her breasts. She didn’t want to know how Silas had put her in that dress. Some things were too awful to think about right now. She just needed to stall him long enough to devise a plan.
He pulled out … an iPad. “Before we begin, here’s a short informational video about the ritual.”
“I can’t see anything laid flat out like this,” she said.
Laid out on an embalming table, she silently continued. Keep calm and carry on. The table was cold and hard and very uncomfortable but it wasn’t slimy with blood or anything. That was a good thing.
She needed to figure out why Gram’s protection spell had stopped working and then figure out how to regain that protection. If she really had no magic, then what were her other options? Slim to none was her first thought, but she refused to surrender to the panic circling inside her. If she couldn’t use her magic, she’d use her mind.
“What do you know about my mother?” she said.
“I know she couldn’t protect you from all this, although she did try.”
“What do you mean?”
“That dark magic she was working on? She meant to direct it toward me. But that didn’t work. Ditto for the spell your witch coven cast to keep you away from books. They never told you that, right? They are the reason those books all talked to you in the library. You’ve always had sensitivity to books. Which is another reason the Book of Darkness sought you out.”
Zoe tried to register what he was saying. “You killed my mother?”
“No, dearie, she did that herself when she used black magic.”
“But it was you. She was trying to get rid of you!”
“Trust me, you’ve got bigger problems at the moment,” Silas told her. “It’s time to start the ritual.”
Zoe yanked at the bonds holding her.
Silas held the iPad in front of her face, mere inches from her nose. “Watch this.”
Zoe squeezed her eyes shut.
Silas pinched her nipple hard.
Her eyes flew open. “Ouch!”
“Don’t be a coward, dearie. No one likes a coward.”
“No one likes demons, either.”
Silas took a step back with mock horror before laughing. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
Zoe wanted to break every bone in the evil demon’s damn body.
“Anger is a good thing,” Silas said. “You should direct it against the Demon Hunter for putting you in this untenable position. Had he kept his vampire pants zipped then you wouldn’t have lost your magic.”
There had to be a way out of this. Zoe just had to find it. But it was hard to think when there were spiders everywhere and Silas was forcing her to watch the gruesome video. Couple that with the memory of Damon warning her that demons sucked out a witch’s brain and Zoe was freaking out. While brain-sucking wasn’t shown in the video, there was a lot of slicing and dicing of body parts in a ritual that represented all things evil and depraved.
Blood, guts, and gore were not her thing. They made her sick. Everything here in the tunnel made her sick.
She couldn’t afford to throw up. She could choke and die on the table.
He plans on killing you on this table anyway, her inner panicky voice said.
Shut up. Can’t you see I’m trying to stay calm here?
Good luck with that.
Great. Her inner wimp had a sarcastic streak. Just her luck.
This demon was the reason her mother had resorted to black magic, resulting in her death. Zoe couldn’t afford to let panic blind her. Her mother wouldn’t want that.
“If you kill me, then I can’t open the book,” she said.
“I don’t have to kill you. I can carve you up, as you saw in the ritual video. A charming witch’s circle on your left breast, a delightful pentagram on your right. And maybe that Phoenix of yours on your tummy.” He held up a scalpel. “The Book of Darkness will appear if you express enough emotion. Fear is a powerful emotion. And pain makes the fear even greater. A win–win situation.”
“I want my Dr Pepper,” Guy said.
“I’ll get you a truckful if you help me,” Zoe implored.
Silas laughed. “Not going to happen, dearie.”
“Why not? I sensed some good in both Guys.”
“Only because I wanted you to. I thought there was a chance they could get you to remove them from hell and that you’d find a nerdy demon was more approachable and relatable. But there’s no need for that illusion any longer. I don’t need these Guys.”
Moving to the foot of the table, Silas gestured the two Guys to his side. Flames rose around them as he pulled them close until they merged into one demon. Silas. Now she could see his horns. And his scales. His fingers had turned into blackened claws. The spiders scuttled closer, onto the table at her feet.
“What did you do?” she whispered, too scared to scream.
“I just took back what was mine.”
“Just like I’m going to take back what is mine,” Damon said from somewhere behind her head.
“So glad you joined us, Hunter,” Silas said. “Let the festivities begin.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Screw keeping calm. “Get the spiders off me!” She could feel them crawling along her ankles and her calves. She froze. Maybe they’d go away if she didn’t move.
Wrong. Instead they scuttled farther up her leg.
Zoe was terrified.
Something heavy dropped onto her stomach. A giant Godzilla spider? No, it was the Book of Darkness. A split second later Bella was sitting on the book. She wore Zoe’s mother’s amethyst necklace wrapped several times around her neck like a collar.
“You have angered the cat, demon,” Bella declared, her tail switching back and forth.
Silas was startled by Bella’s appearance and was distracted by the sight of the book so near at hand.
Before the demon could take advantage of the moment and grab the Book of Darkness, Damon moved with vamp speed to stand beside Zoe and lean over her.
Looking deep into her eyes, he said, “I love you.”
Zoe was speechless. She couldn’t talk anyway because his mouth covered hers for a kiss.
Despite her desperate circumstances, she still felt the powerful bond linking her to Damon. And then she felt something else.
Her magic was back.
While he’d been kissing her, Damon had released her hands from the chains holding her.
When Silas made a grab for the book on her stomach, Zoe held him back with her hand outstretched. She also dispatched all the spiders to a land far far away.
“Bye, gotta go,” Bella said. She disappeared and took the book with her.
“No!” Silas howled.
Sitting up, Zoe wanted to undo the bonds holding her ankles but she couldn’t waste a second. Time was very limited.
The protection spell could only do so much when she was mere feet from an über-demon like Silas.
“Your magic can’t save you now.” Silas’s face was contorted with fury. “And neither can your vampire lover. I put you in hell before, Hunter, remember?”
Silas tilted his head toward the left side of the tunnel, which turned into a projection of Damon writhing in agony on a slab of some kind. The rack. He was being tortured on the rack.
“I did it to you before and I can do it again,” Silas said. “Your dagger won’t work on me. Not here, not now.” He spread his arms apart. “Go ahead, try throwing it at me.”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Damon said.
“He’s three demons in one. It’s going to take both of us to defeat him,” Zoe told Damon.
“How sweet. You need a girl to help you,” Silas mocked. “She’s a stupid little bitch.”
“No on
e calls my witch a bitch,” Damon growled and leapt at Silas.
While Damon was slashing and dashing, Zoe used magic to undo her ankle shackles. She stood. She was wobbly but upright.
She’d never seen Damon in vampire Demon Hunter mode before. His face was etched with rage as he bared his fangs. Using his demon dagger, he sliced Silas’s arms. The demon lashed out with his claws, but Damon was too fast for him. With a single move, he ripped the demon’s throat open.
Silas gurgled and fell to the ground, dead.
Damon returned to Zoe’s side.
Silas leapt to his feet. “Nice try.”
“The power of the pen is stronger than the sword,” Zoe said. Ever since her magic had returned, she’d sensed a strong message coming from her mother telling her to use the Latin words to destroy Silas.
She started reciting the Latin sayings. She wasn’t sure how she remembered the exact wording, but she did. And Damon, translating her visual message, recited them with her.
Zoe had never spoken so fast in her life.
Corpora lente augescent cito extinguuntur.
Cinerigbria sera venit.
Non sum qualis eram.
It only took a few seconds but it felt like years to Zoe.
Cocky from his survival after Damon’s attack, Silas just stood at the foot of the table, grinning at them with malicious intent. “Words will never hurt me, dearie.”
Damon had his dagger in hand, ready to attack Silas again.
Zoe reached out to touch the tattoo on the small of Damon’s back.
“Venator,” she said.
“Ad finem,” Damon added.
Bam, Silas went up in flames. It happened so fast that Zoe couldn’t believe it was real. But the smell of sulfur was nearly overwhelming.
Her tattered red dress was suddenly replaced with the clothes she’d worn when Silas had taken her, which was the nightgown she’d put on in the middle of night. The ruby-red shoes were gone and she was in her bare feet … on the ground where spiders had crawled.
Zoe thought she was going to pass out. She started to sway, and her ears started to ring.
“Don’t wimp out on me now,” Damon told her.
She blinked away the black spots blotting her vision and turned to face Damon. “I am not a wimp! I’ve just been chained to an embalming table with an über-demon threatening to cut me in pieces. And I had spiders on me.” She shook so hard her teeth chattered. “I hate spiders!”
“We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Ya think?”
He scooped her into his arms and leapt straight up through a vertical shaft she hadn’t noticed before.
“You can fly,” she whispered.
“Only when I have to,” he said.
“Same here.” By the time the words were out of her mouth, they were in the living room of her rental house. Gram was waiting for her with open arms as Damon released her from his hold.
“Are you okay, honeybun?” Gram said.
Nodding, Zoe got tears in her eyes. Her grandmother hadn’t called her honeybun since she was a little girl. Zoe rushed into Gram’s arms for a much-needed hug.
“Is the book here?” Damon said.
“Of course it’s here,” Gram said as she released Zoe. “Bella and Pat have been guarding it.”
“We have to destroy it,” Damon said.
As a former librarian, Zoe was opposed to destroying books. But she could see where it would be necessary in this case.
“Bella has been telling us what happened.” Gram engulfed Zoe in another huge hug. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“The demon is gone,” Zoe said. “We destroyed him with the Latin phrases. Damon and I recited them together. I don’t know how I remembered all the Latin sayings but I did. It was as if I could feel my mother’s presence and she was guiding me.”
“Maybe she was,” Gram said.
“I need to sit down,” Zoe said unsteadily before sinking onto the couch.
“Let me bring you up to speed,” Pat said.
“Let me help,” Bella said. “Zoe, you and Damon had sex last night and that made you lose your magic. We didn’t realize that until a very short time ago, when it suddenly appeared in the Adams Book of Spells.”
“What did? That Damon and I had sex?” Zoe said.
“No, of course not,” Pat interceded. “That if the witch who touched the book had sex with a Demon Hunter, one of them would lose their powers. The warning also appeared in an illuminated manuscript on the occult in my library. The information about the Book of Darkness actually dates back thousands of years to a papyrus manuscript in the library in ancient Alexandria.”
“The world’s first library,” Zoe said in awe.
Pat nodded. “It needed all three of us near for the book to appear.”
“From where?” Zoe demanded. “Where did it come from? Did Gram have it all along but didn’t know it because it was cloaked? Did my mother see it and use it in error? Where has the damn book been? In an alternative universe? Or in the demon stratosphere?”
“Hell, it could have been in the Doctor’s TARDIS for all we know,” Bella said. “Yes, I watch Doctor Who. But we can discuss that later. Right now we need to get rid of the book before it disappears again.”
“Right. Irma and I think we’ve come up with the way to destroy the Book of Darkness,” Pat said.
“We have to move fast,” Gram said. “Let’s go to the kitchen. I already have the big spaghetti pot out. It’s the largest container I have.”
Zoe pointed to the fireplace. “We can put a cast-iron cauldron in there.”
“Right,” Gram said. “I should have thought of that. I left our cauldron in storage back in Boston but I can get it in a sec. First let me get a fire going.”
Flames
Take aim
Into this fireplace
Please make haste.
The fire was lit.
“Good,” Gram said. “That worked. Now for the cauldron.”
Cauldron of mine
This is the time
To come forth onto the fire.
I said I could do it, don’t make me a liar.
Appear
Here.
The cauldron appeared, hanging on a stand over the fire.
“Quickly now,” Gram said. “First off, I need a strand of hair from you, Zoe, as well as Damon and Pat. And a cat whisker from Morticia.”
Gram put each item in the cauldron. “This last one is tricky. I need the urine of a Russian aristocrat.”
“Where the hell are we supposed to get that?” Damon said.
Bella raised one paw. “Hello? That would be moi. But I’m not peeing into a fire.”
Zoe produced an empty plastic bin large enough for Bella to jump into and take care of business. The bin was brand new and had yet to be used. It certainly wouldn’t be used after this little episode. Zoe poured the liquid into the cauldron.
“One final thing.” Gram nodded to Pat, who added a raven’s feather.
“I happened to have it from my Tower of London days,” Pat said. “Irma warned me I might need it.”
Gram turned to Zoe. “As the youngest witch in our line, you must throw the book into the cauldron. Don’t touch it until I point to you. Understood?”
Zoe nodded.
Gram held out her hands.
Book of Darkness, hear my call
Your time is done and that is all.
Hell-broth, boil and bubble
Begone this evil harmful trouble.
Be short be swift. Give hope a lift.
Close the door to hell
And destroy this evil book as well.
Gram pointed to her.
Zoe’s inner librarian still hated the idea of destroying a book, especially one as old and rare as this one. But her inner witch knew that it had to be done. So she quickly did it.
The contents of the cauldron went up in a burst of wild flames that were a strange inky blac
k color.
“Are you sure we got it? What if it just went somewhere else?” Zoe said. “We don’t even know where it was while it was missing.”
“Do you feel different?” Pat asked Zoe.
“I’m sort of buzzing all over. Like when your hand falls asleep,” she said.
“Me too,” Gram said.
“Me too,” Bella agreed.
Morticia nodded as well.
“Then that is all the confirmation we need that the book was destroyed forever,” Pat said.
“What are you talking about?” Zoe said.
“It’s written here.” Pat showed her the illuminated manuscript he had on the coffee table.
“I’m not fluent in Theban,” Zoe reminded him.
“Whomsoever shall destroy the Book of Darkness shall enjoy immortality,” Damon translated.
“Holy Toledo,” Gram said.
“Holy shit,” Bella said.
“Sweet,” Morticia said.
Zoe stared at the calico cat in amazement. “You can talk!”
“Because all of you contributed to the ingredients to the spell that destroyed the book, you all became immortal. That’s what the buzzing is,” Pat said.
“Or it could be the flu or something,” Zoe said.
“You’re afraid to believe in the magic,” Damon said.
“Can you blame me?” she said.
“No,” Damon said. “The good news is that you will have an eternity to learn to believe.”
“Did you know about this immortality issue beforehand?” Zoe asked.
“I’d heard legends about the possibility. This is the first time I’ve seen it in writing,” Damon said.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Zoe demanded.
“That’s on me,” Pat said. “I couldn’t risk the chance that you might not want to be immortal and therefore not do the spell to destroy the book.”
“Who doesn’t want to be immortal?” Gram said.
“You’d be surprised,” Pat said.
“Does this mean I’m stuck in a cat’s body forever?” Bella grumbled.
Zoe was having a hard time processing what she was being told. She’d already been abducted by a demon, held captive in a tunnel filled with spiders, and had a vampire Demon Hunter kiss her after telling her he loved her. Now she got the news that she was immortal and it wasn’t even noon yet.
