by Sara DeHaven
But the longer this part of the process went on, the bigger the chance the demon might try a sudden offensive move. And neither of them had their personal wards up yet. A demon would have smelled that on them upon entering the church. Bree felt vulnerable without the wards. This was the down side of being second in an exorcism. The primary might not play it like you would, and that could be nerve wracking.
“Come on, Geoff,” Daniel chided, voice gentler now, “you know something’s off. When have you ever not liked music? There’s a sort of illness that causes all this, a kind of infection. All your normal responses are off. You like things now you didn’t really like before, violent things. You have a terrible temper now. You’ve hurt people, people you love. It’s time for all this to stop. You want it to stop.”
Bree could see sweat breaking out on the boy’s forehead now. His hands were out of his pockets, and they were visibly trembling. The fear was back on his face, and Bree felt cautiously hopeful again. Daniel was reaching him. In spite of the strength of the demon, they may have gotten to the boy in time.
A subtle change in the boy’s expression was all the warning they got. A wave of heat shot out of Geoff’s body, and in an instant, Daniel triggered the outer warding circle. Bree activated her personal wards a beat behind. It wasn’t a killing heat, but it meant the demon had taken control. Bree’s concentration sharpened, and she felt an odd sense of relief that they were in the active engagement phase now. Father Steuban was outside the outer ward. She was vaguely aware of his presence at the edge of her vision, on his knees in prayer. All her attention was on Daniel and the boy.
“I see you, demon. I feel you,” Daniel said, keeping eye contact with Geoff while taking a step closer. He was closer than Bree would have gone. The part of her that wasn’t screaming with tension was very interested to see Daniel’s methods in action.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re creeping me out,” Geoff replied, but it was clear from the timbre of his voice that Geoff wasn’t in control anymore. It was subtle enough that someone without Demonsense might not catch it.
“You know I’m powered, you feel my wards around you. You can’t escape this place. It’s time to leave your host.” Daniel’s voice hardened into a tone of command, but Bree could feel he wasn't using his Demon Master power.
Geoff turned again and moved toward the door. He only got five steps before he ran into the wards, bouncing off awkwardly, a betraying hiss of demonic frustration leaving his lips. Bree braced herself to back up the wards in case the demon really pushed them. She wasn’t high power as a Warder, but she wasn’t bad either. However, the demon didn't try to test the wards yet. It didn’t want to reveal itself openly, and it was an important part of the exorcism to get it to do so.
Then Daniel did something Bree never would have done. He moved up behind Geoff, put a hand on his shoulder, and forcibly spun him around. You never, ever touched a subject during an exorcism if you could at all help it. Some demons could go to a new host through touch. And besides, with your Demonsense fully open, touching someone possessed was like being bathed in slime and bugs. She shuddered involuntarily just watching it, but she had to admit the effect was impressive. Geoff’s face contorted in rage, and his voice was so demon-laden that the least sensitive normal on the planet would have known something was very wrong with the boy. “Release me!” he shouted.
“No,” Daniel replied, facing him with every appearance of calm and confidence.
“Release me now!” Geoff advanced on Daniel, and this time, Daniel avoided contact. He moved back and to the side in a careful dance. “You aren’t strong enough to escape me. I doubt you are even Pultekis,” he said, naming a class of demon clearly two levels lower than this one.
“I am not Pultekis!,” the demon roared. “I am Mumeka!”
Yes, Bree thought in satisfaction. The first admission. They were getting close, fast. Daniel was really pushing the pace.
“Then prove it. Give me your name,” Daniel replied, circling Geoff, his back to the wards.
“My name is my own,” the demon replied angrily. Geoff was sweating freely now, and the air was starting to smell.
“Your name is something you took from our minds. All you demons are nothing but a reflection of our darker myths and fears. You are nothing on your own.”
“I am not nothing! I exist, I have existed longer than you, longer than your father or father’s father have been alive!”
“You don’t exist without a name,” Daniel taunted.
“I exist! I exist!” Geoff’s voice was high and near hysterical with emotion now. The air was so thick with heat and with mineral smells that it was becoming hard to breathe. But at the same time, the demon’s particular energy signature was starting to emerge.
“You are nothing, a mere parasite of the air,” Daniel mocked.
“I am Bulteka!” the demon cried. “And I will destroy you! It is you who are nothing. All of you are food, nothing more!”
Here’s where it got really dangerous. There was a point when a demon left its host where it could take physically destructive form, in the form of fire. What it wanted most was to stay in its host, but at some point, it might want to kill Daniel even more.
And at this time of most danger was when the exorcist had to attune his energy to that of the demon, wrap it in the ritual energy raised by the spells of exorcism, and eject it from the subject. In Daniel’s place, she would be raising that energy through prayer, would, in fact, have begun before trying to get the demon’s name. Daniel had managed to move around the area encircled by the wards until he was next to the silver tray holding the salt, holy water, bread and blessed wine. He gathered up a handful of salt as he replied. “Your host is more than food. He loves and is loved. He has physical form. Do you have any of that?”
The demon began to laugh in a way wholly unlike an eighteen year old young man. Geoff’s whole body was shaking with it. “I have this host. I have all that I want to eat, and all of it is good. That is all I need.”
Daniel began moving around the circle, letting the salt trickle from his hand onto the ground. “By Sky Father, by Thor, I command you. By Odin, Father of Knowledge, I command you,” he intoned. As he moved, Bree could read the pouring of magical energy out of Daniel’s body and into the salt. As he finished the circle, he blew gently on the remaining salt in his cupped palms, then cast it forward into the air, onto Geoff.
The demon roared in protest, a wordless roar, and Geoff charged Daniel. Daniel closed his eyes, clearly focusing on his personal wards. The boy managed to grip Daniel by the shoulders, but the strength seemed to go out of him almost immediately. His arms slowly dropped to his sides, and a blank look descended on his face. So long as the demon stayed in Geoff’s body, Daniel could deflect him.
Daniel’s eyes opened, and Bree could see by the rise and fall of his chest that he was breathing hard. He stepped back outside of the salt circle, took up the bowl of holy water and began circling again. “By Mother Frigg, by Freya, by Ostara, I command you.” More power rushed into the water.
Bree found herself strangely stilled and entranced by the ritual, her tightly held fear calming even as she watched Geoff start to come out of the paralyzing affects of the defensive wards and become more agitated. This was more power than she and Seth together could have raised, and her confidence that the exorcism would be safely concluded solidified. She focused her Reader sense on Daniel, curious about what he was doing on the energetic level with the demon as he built up the magical energy through ritual. To her surprise, his Demonsense was only lightly engaged. She would have been started the attunment at this stage.
Daniel cast holy water onto the demon, and this time, Geoff shrieked in what sounded like genuine pain. He crouched down, arms wrapped around himself, and started rocking, a stream of syllables coming out of him in a rush, nonsense or some other language, Bree wasn’t sure which. Daniel took up the chalice of blessed wine circled again. “By Skadi,
I command you. By Frey, I command you. By my ancestors, I command you. By the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost of this sanctuary, I command you.” He completed the circle a final time, sprinkled the wine over Geoff, whose rocking and keening increased. Tears poured down his face. Daniel put the chalice back and raised his arms in the final ritual gesture, his face was tilted toward the ceiling, when Geoff sprang at him, throwing himself against the wards raised by the ritual.
Daniel paused, eyes drawn by the movement, and it was a good thing he did, because he was at least partly prepared when the demon left Geoff’s body with a last howl torn from the boy’s throat as the boy collapsed to the ground. It quickly formed into a vaguely devil-shaped form of fire, lacking in detail, but not lacking in strength. With a hissing and flaring of energy, it turned and was on Daniel before Bree could do more than take a breath. Fear drenched her with shocking suddenness.
What in hell had happened? Daniel had been fully in control, the ritual energies flawless. She stepped forward, closer to the demon as she began attuning to it for all she was worth. She didn’t have the ability to pull it off of him by main strength, but she might be able to attune well enough to conclude the exorcism. Her only choice was to trust Daniel to fight off the demon while she did so.
Her fists clenched with the intensity of her concentration as Daniel grappled with the demon. His personal wards seemed to be keeping it out for now, but it was clear he wasn’t able to get control of it. The ritual energy he’d raised was still pulsing in the room, but he was too busy keeping the demon from burning him to use it.
Bree almost had the attunment, she could feel it, and she started to reach for the ritual energy, shouting, “By the Father, by the Son, I command you!” She had only a moment to register the strange look of relief on Daniel’s face as the demon’s form suddenly collapsed and flowed into him. The heat that had been building in the room immediately began to disperse. The demon had given up on trying to kill Daniel and had possessed him instead. Daniel’s wards must have given out. She hadn’t been quick enough.
Father Steuban’s voice had become much louder. He was praying his heart out. Geoff was still unconscious. And Daniel rose from the half-crouch he’d been in as he struggled against the demon. There was an orange light in his eyes, and his face was stiff. Bree's Demonsense was hammering away at her, and her stomach turned at the thought of the demon inside Daniel’s body. She was partly in shock. Her chief fear had been that the exorcism might hurt or kill Geoff if they didn't get it right, as that was always a risk with exorcisms. She had never been afraid a demon could possess Daniel when he was prepared and had his personal wards up.
Now she had to try to come up with a way to get a demon out of a man whose magical abilities outclassed hers on just about every level. If the demon got full control of Daniel, they were all fucked. She found herself seriously considering calling on Gelsenim for help.
A ripple of expression came and went on Daniel’s face, one of desperation. In that moment, Bree knew Daniel was fighting the demon, and she remembered he had the power to simply order it out. The question, of course, was whether he had the will left to do so. She had a brief moment to consider that if he did, Father Steuban would be in the know about Daniel’s Demon Master abilities, but right now, getting the demon out of Daniel was more important. The best she could do on that score was move to put herself between Father Steuban and Daniel. She did so, then moved closer to Daniel, feeling for and strengthening her own wards as she did so. “Daniel,” she said softly, “listen to me. You have to get it out.”
“I do not want out,” the demon said with Daniel’s voice. Bree shuddered with revulsion, but she made herself step closer and meet Daniel’s eyes. “Daniel,” she tried again, “I need you to do this. Fight it. Make it leave.”
Daniel took two swift steps and grabbed her by the arms. His face contorted as the demon fought the influence of her wards. Bree had to leave off the attunment she’d been re-building and put all her efforts into her wards. She was trembling all over and so afraid, on such a primal level, that she wasn’t even sure she could tell if her wards were working. Daniel’s hands felt hot even through the sleeves of her sweater, and he was holding her hard enough to bruise. “Please, Daniel,” she said desperately, “please try.” She saw the orange light in his eyes flicker, and his face registered doubt. Taking a great risk, Bree raised her hands and laid them gently on his face. “Do it for me,” she whispered. Daniel closed his burning eyes, and his whole body shook. Then his eyes shot open, he pushed Bree away, and his voice, his own voice, said, “Demon, I command you! Leave me!”
Bree stumbled backwards, caught her balance, then moved further back as the demon left Daniel’s body.
She felt the power in the room double, then triple as the demon whirled, beginning to coalesce again into a physical form. She felt Daniel’s energy merge with the ritual energy and move to encircle the demon. The demon felt it too, felt how it was losing the fight.
“You think you have won,” it’s voice slithered out of the red cloud. “But this is only one battle. A war is coming, and when it does, I will find you. And it will not be slow, your death!”
Daniel gestured sharply, and said, “Be gone!”
Bree could see its fiery form solidify an instant before Daniel’s hands turned palm down, and all the energy of the circle landed on top of the demon. “Into the earth, disperse!” Daniel cried furiously.
The energy of the demon dissolved in Bree’s senses, and she felt rather than saw the gateway to that other world open up inside the ground below them to receive the demon’s remains. For a moment, they were frozen in place. Then the gateway snapped shut, and Bree’s breath came out in a whoosh. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been holding it.
Daniel’s arms fell to his sides. Then he carefully crouched down, struggling a bit not to topple over in the process, and rubbed a hand across the triple circle he had made, muttering the words to release the last energy of the ritual spell. There was a sense of a minor concussion in the air as the spell was dismissed, and Daniel straightened up slowly, still breathing hard. Bree wanted to go to him, but at the same time, felt distaste at the idea. She couldn’t help but have the sense that he was contaminated from the demon contact. And in point of actual fact, he could be. He might have picked up taint. And if that were the case, it was her job to find out and get rid of it.
Father Steuban clambered painfully up to his feet and went to Geoff, who was still sprawled unconscious on the ground. While he tended silently to the boy, Bree walked over to Daniel. “You okay?” she enquired, crossing her arms in front of her.
He rubbed at his sweaty forehead with his sleeve and muttered, “Not really.”
“Stupid question,” she agreed, as she shifted her weight uneasily back and forth. He looked pale, and he was avoiding looking at her. She got the strong impression that he was struggling to get his emotions under control. As this was something she devoutly wanted him to do, she just stood quietly, allowing him time to gather himself. She didn’t even try to read him yet, focusing instead on calming herself.
“Every thing alright?” Father Steuban asked, coming up to them and laying a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “It looked like things got pretty rough there. What happened?”
“The demon tried jumping bodies. Fortunately, my wards fought it off and I was able to complete the exorcism. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.”
Bree watched Father Steuban closely for tells as Daniel spoke, and it appeared to her that he accepted Daniel's lie. Perhaps he’d been so involved in prayer that he really hadn’t seen and heard all that had gone on.
“Well, congratulations, both of you. You’ve done a good thing. I’ll just go fetch some water and some things to clean up the boy,” Father Steuban said. “I’ll wait to call his mother until he’s conscious. I don’t want to frighten her any more than she already is.” He hurried off. Geoff was more neatly arranged on the floor of the sanctuary, and it looked like he
was breathing easily.
“Well, maybe now you can tell me now what the hell that was,” Bree said quietly once Father Steuban was out of hearing range, and she was surprised at how angry she sounded. Daniel’s shoulders hunched a bit at her tone, and he stared at the floor as he said shortly, “That was a possession. I fought it off, with your help.”
“What I want to know is how the possession occurred,” Bree answered, frustrated. “How could you let it happen? You could have ordered it off you at any moment.”
“And let Father Steuban see I’m a Demon Master?” Daniel answered roughly, crossing his arms defensively as well.
“Better that than allow a possession. I trusted you!” she cried, revealing more about how betrayed she felt than she wanted to.
A muscle jumped in Daniel’s cheek, and he looked away and said tightly, “Obviously, you shouldn’t have.”
“Oh for God’s sake, don’t go all ‘I’m just hopelessly evil’ on me. I just need to know what happened here!"
Daniel huffed out a frustrated sigh, then turned to regard her, expression irritated. “I’m not sure what happened. I've never been possessed during an exorcism before. I haven't even really needed a second since doing my first few exorcisms. I've never been close to blowing it like that. And I've never been possessed except those few times I invited Gelsenim in as an experiment. And that one time..."
His voice trailed off, and she knew he was referring to the time last fall when Gelsenim had managed to possess him during a conflict with his psycho ex-girlfriend Franchesca. Bree knew how awful he felt about that. And she'd really believed that doing an exorcism wouldn't be a possession risk for him, or for her, because he'd be completely prepared. He'd once told her he'd successfully done over a hundred exorcisms during his time as a Keeper.
Bree felt better at that thought. She hadn't been crazy for trying an exorcism with him.
