Burning Midnight

by Rose Wulf

  Ben couldn’t possibly have the kind of enemies who would do something like hurl objects through his windows. Meaning that had to be her enemy. The jolt of adrenaline now flooding her system had her oddly tense as she remembered the events that had brought her—and Knox—to her brother’s home.

  “Holy crap,” Ben exclaimed from somewhere out of sight. “Gwen? Are you okay?”

  Move, Gwen. She couldn’t be frozen in fear at a time like this. Don’t let the assholes win.

  “She’s fine,” Knox called back, pulling her hand properly into his and guiding her with him out of the kitchen. He kept himself half a step ahead of her and his grip solid. Reassuring.

  When they re-entered the living room and Gwen’s gaze landed on the chunk of tree that had crashed through the window, her brain finally snapped into gear. “Oh my God,” she said. “Ben, are you hurt? Were you—”

  “I’m fine, I was in the office,” he interrupted, angling wide around the mess in order to approach them.

  Even as she spoke to Ben, Knox flinched ever-so-slightly. “Would you please learn another phrase?”

  “Huh?” Realization dawned on her a beat later and she winced. “Oh, I’m sorry. Force of habit.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Knox groused. “Regardless, we need to go. Now.”

  “Go?” Ben asked. “I can’t leave my living room like this. Besides, whoever did this didn’t stick around.” He gestured past the mess of glass and tree, out the destroyed window and to the seemingly empty backyard. “What I need to do is clean this up.”

  Gwen shook her head, releasing Knox’s hand in order to step toward her brother. “No, Ben, he’s right. It’s not safe. I’ve seen this before. Now that the window’s broken, Jae’s warding is—”

  “Down!”

  Knox’s shouted instruction came only a heartbeat before he bodily shoved both Gwen and her brother to the floor. They landed at an angle from where they’d been standing, with Knox braced between their positions and what appeared to be a downward sweeping scythe constructed of demonic energy. From Gwen’s angle, it looked like Knox had blocked it with his arms. But if that were true, he was probably wounded…

  “Knox!”

  “Don’t just sit there,” he ground out between clenched teeth. The pain in his voice was hard to miss. “Move!”

  Her heart slammed painfully against her ribs.

  Ben took hold of Gwen’s shoulder. “Gwen, c’mon, we need to run,” he said.

  “Yes,” the eerily familiar, always condescending voice of the demoness responded as she stepped from the shadows of the wall between them and the front door. “By all means, flee. Abandon the traitor. He’s no loss, anyway.”

  “You’re the one,” Ben started, his voice barely more than a shocked whisper.

  Gwen shot to her feet, rage suddenly boiling beneath her skin. “Shut up! I’m sick and tired of you just popping in and attacking me anytime you please! I don’t belong to you or your dumb master! Just get out of my life! And leave Knox alone!” Sometime during her rampage, Gwen had picked up the nearest table lamp, begun stalking forward, and as she finished her declaration, she hurled it at the demon bitch with all her might.

  Not that it did any good.

  The lamp sailed through open air only to crash against the wall, its intended target long gone.

  “Dammit!” Knox exclaimed with a grunt just before he tackled her again to the ground with an arm around her waist. This time she landed mostly on his chest, half surrounded by darkness that somehow felt comforting rather than threatening, and the breath rushed from her lungs.

  “Gwe—” Ben’s outcry cut off with a strange choke and Gwen’s heart skipped a beat.

  Ben, no! She pushed against Knox’s chest, twisting around, trying to get to her feet, desperate to see her brother. Needing to know he was okay.

  Knox brought them both to their knees, keeping firm hold of her shoulder, and Gwen swept her gaze around until she found her sibling. She breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing him on his feet, rubbing lightly at his throat as if he’d simply swallowed the wrong way. He appeared unharmed. But just as she relaxed beneath Knox’s hand, she felt him tense, and a curse slipped from his lips.

  “Fuck.”

  Gwen turned her head a bit, simultaneously realizing that their assailant seemed to have vanished again, but Ben spoke before she could ask what the problem was.

  And she figured it out on her own.

  “I should have done this sooner. Poor boy has zero defenses.”

  The voice was Ben’s, but the tone was all wrong, and he’d never had a look like that in his eyes before. It was Ben’s body, but Ben wasn’t in control anymore.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Now what will you do?” Trix asked in a twisted variation of Ben’s voice.

  Knox hadn’t known Gwen’s brother long, but even to him it was strange to hear the guy’s usually friendly, companionable voice in a tone like that. He could only imagine the way Gwen felt about it.

  Ben’s arms lifted out in an exaggerated, slow-motion shrug as Trix said, “Looks like you have to choose. You could strike me down right now, but if you want to kill me, you’ll have to kill poor, innocent Benjamin, too.”

  Fucking Hell. She was right. She was taking full advantage of it, too, because she knew damned well they weren’t going to strike her down. Not while she was wearing the body of Gwen’s brother.

  “You bitch,” Gwen said, her escalating words more snarled than enunciated, “get out of him!” She leaped to her feet and lunged for their enemy, no doubt lost to a blind fury over her beloved brother’s predicament.

  Knox shoved to his feet as well, left with no alternative but to grab at Gwen’s flailing arm as she moved and tug her backward, into him. “Don’t!”

  Trix laughed, the sound loud and aggravating as it echoed around the room.

  “Let go!” Gwen demanded, struggling against Knox’s restrictive embrace. “Let me go, Knox!” The animalistic rage in her voice was already giving way to tears and fear. Frankly, he preferred the former.

  “Yes, Knox,” Trix said, smirking. “Let her go. She seems to think body-slamming me will force me out of my new body.”

  “It’s not yours!” Gwen exclaimed, doing her best to throw herself forward. Forcing Knox to hold her tighter. There was a chance his grip would leave bruises at this point.

  “It won’t work, Gwen,” Knox said, keeping his voice as calm as he could manage and his mouth near her ear. “Physical impact won’t do anything other than hurt him.”

  “Then do something!” Gwen begged, remaining stiff in his arms. “There has to be a way!”

  The truth was removing a demon from a body they’d taken possession of was tricky. Incredibly so if the goal was to do minimal damage to the host. They didn’t have Trix contained, they weren’t prepared, and their angelic ally had conveniently disappeared. Their choices were pretty damned limited at the moment. Retreat—avoid further immediate conflict—or fight back. With all the obvious risks that came with it. Knox didn’t need to ask to know Gwen wouldn’t be a fan of either option, or which one she’d choose if he could make her see the necessity.

  It still fucking sucked.

  “Well,” Trix drawled as Knox tried desperately to think of a solution, “I might be willing to strike a deal.”

  The words stopped him cold.

  Gwen tensed up in his arms. He felt her suck in a breath. She wasn’t immediately shooting the demoness down.

  “No,” Knox said before Gwen could make the biggest mistake of her life. “Fuck no.”

  Trix cocked one of Ben’s brows at him. “I wasn’t offering the deal to you, traitor.”

  “What deal?” Gwen asked, her question overlapping the end of Trix’s needless statement.

  “Gwen,” Knox said, his voice a sharp hiss as he hauled her more properly into his chest.

  Gwen shifted her weight as if to struggle, but Trix didn’t wait for a repeat of the question.

&nb
sp; “I’ll give you two choices. You can betray him,” she gestured to Knox, “and kill him. Or, if you’d prefer, you can volunteer to be my new host in your brother’s place.”

  Gwen had stilled again, as if she were listening. As if she were actually considering this insanity.

  “But you have to choose now,” Trix added. “Or I’ll just attack again and force Knox to cut this body down.”

  Gwen reached up and curled her fingers over Knox’s forearm. “I won’t kill Knox,” she said. His stomach dropped. It didn’t take a fortune teller to guess where she was leading. Her body trembled as she drew another breath. “So, if you swear you won’t hurt Ben, I—”

  “I’ll kill him.” Knox practically spat the words, and he schooled his face into a hard mask the moment Gwen stiffened. She shifted a bit, attempting to turn her head to look back at him. He didn’t wait for her question. “If you ever throw your life away for him again, I’ll kill him. On the spot.”

  The horrified shock in her eyes told him he had her attention. She was finally noticing something other than a demon possessing her brother. Sort of. It took her several seconds before she exclaimed, “But … he’s my brother!”

  Knox narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t care.”

  All at once, Gwen resumed her struggle, shoving against his hold. This time he let her go, fairly confident she wasn’t about to throw herself bodily onto the enemy. The real enemy, at least. “I can’t believe you! That you’d even say that!” The hurt in her voice cut through him, but he didn’t let her see it. He needed her to believe the worst.

  “Trouble in Paradise?” Trix teased, amusement lacing the twisted tone of Ben’s voice. “The first offer’s still on the table, Gwen.”

  Gwen’s eyes widened and she slid a quick glance to her possessed brother before looking back at Knox. Pain radiated out of her hazel eyes. Pain and fear. She didn’t know what to do, because angry or not, she still didn’t intend to turn on him. He hoped that fact meant she’d give him a chance to explain himself once they got her brother back.

  Bright, searing green light flooded the room from all sides, pouring in from every window and down from the light fixtures. For the briefest, possibly most terrifying moment of his life, Knox panicked. He was convinced, in an instant, he was about to be purified out of existence by the angels he’d thought himself aligned with. That they’d heard the wrong part of the exchange and weren’t inclined to have a conversation before swinging out their overly-righteous divine wrath. His stomach heaved, his vision blurred, sweat broke out on his skin, and he hit his knees—in grass.

  Bent over on his hands and knees, Knox fought the physical need to revisit his last meal as he stared in confusion at thinning, green blades of grass. Everywhere. Tiny pebbles and what felt like twigs dug into his palms and with each ragged breath, the cleaner, fresher outdoor air penetrated the haze in his mind a little more. The horrendously unpleasant sensations of having been yanked around by an angel were beginning to fade.

  He was not dead. The angels had not decided to smite him—at least not without warning.

  He let his eyes close as he dragged in another breath of mountain air. Wherever they were, it was definitely not Ben’s backyard. Wait. He was making an assumption.

  Knox’s eyes flew open and he straightened, pushing to a knee in order to look around. It only took him a moment to find her.

  Gwen was slumped on the ground, her back against a tree and head tilted up toward the sky. She looked … defeated.

  Guilt and anger clenched his heart simultaneously and Knox ground his teeth before standing properly and brushing the dirt from his knees. He could only assume Jaelyn was the one who’d sent them to this forest, but she’d sent them without her, because he couldn’t sense any angels in the vicinity. How long that would last, he had no idea. “Gwen,” he said, keeping his tone quiet and cautious. She was furious at him and he knew it.

  Her eyes narrowed but she didn’t shift her gaze. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  Knox drew a long breath, moved a couple of feet closer, and sat in the dirt. He crossed his legs, facing her, and said, “Then listen. Because I need to say this while we have time.”

  “Let me rephrase,” she interrupted, her tone a bit sharper. She darted a sidelong glare in his direction but quickly looked away. Not before he caught a glimpse of tears in her lashes, though. “Leave me alone. I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  Forcing his voice to remain calm, Knox said, “I’m sure that’s true right now. Because I needed you to believe me back there. But I—”

  “I said to go away,” Gwen snapped, wrapping her arms around herself now and leaning bodily away from him. “I got un-cursed,” she continued, her voice wavering now, “just to lose everyone, anyway. What the hell … kind of life is that?”

  Knox frowned and curled his hands into fists in his lap in an effort to remember to stay where he was. “You haven’t lost anyone. Not yet. Not really.”

  “Liar!” Gwen surged forward unexpectedly, finding a rock barely the size of a nectarine by her knee, and hurled it at him. “She has Ben!” The rock flew past his shoulders, at least a half a foot from him. “And you—you’re betrayed me!” Her tears were falling now. All he could do was watch as her lips formed the angry, wounded words the followed. “You really are a traitor! You betray everyone!”

  ****

  His stomach had bottomed out, like that feeling of falling in a dream right before waking up. Except he hadn’t woken up yet. It’d been a while now—or at least it felt like it had. Everything around him was dark and with his stomach pitching and his body spiraling out of his control, Ben couldn’t really be sure of how long he’d been in this state. The last thing he remembered was the attack. His living room in shambles, his sister and her demon lover telling him to run. Had he listened? Had the whole thing been a nightmare? Or maybe he was still in the nightmare? That last theory made the most sense.

  The intrusion of a pinprick of light, bright, and rimmed with the faintest hue of green, drew his attention. It was the first color he’d seen since he’d started falling. It was so small, barely dot at first. It blinked, vanishing, but then it came back. Brighter, larger—more insistent. The contrast of the white-green on the otherwise eternal blackness surrounding him was captivating. For the first time since he’d lost sense of himself, Ben tried to reach out. He told his arms to stretch. Told his legs to move—to kick, to walk, to do something. But his body failed to respond. As if it were a dead weight his consciousness was merely resting upon.

  The light flared, pushing harder against the darkness.

  Ben’s body refused to cooperate. He couldn’t even flex a finger. So he looked toward the light and silently begged it to come to him instead. To save him from this free-falling misery.

  It responded.

  As if he’d caught hold of it with his very thought, the light shot toward him. Ben didn’t have time to second-guess his choice. In an instant, he was struck with the glowing, green-laced beam. It was warm, comforting—and he finally stopped falling.

  His body came to life, as if the blood had gone from all his limbs and returned to them in a simultaneous rush. It was overwhelming and he cried out, hitting his knees, then his hands, gasping for air. Seconds passed before his vision settled and he could see proper colors again. Before he realized he was collapsed on his own carpet.

  “Ben!”

  The voice was Jaelyn’s. Filled with relief and urgency, barely preceding the knees that landed in his line of sight and the hands that hauled him up until he could see her face. Her wide, worry-filled blue eyes. Her smooth, perfectly tanned skin. The single wrinkle in her brow as her expression settled into a frown. “Thank Heaven,” she said on a sigh. “I worried I hadn’t gotten here in time.”

  Ben worked on a swallow. He still felt like he was struggling somehow. Missing something. Finally, he asked, “What happened?”

  Her expression softened and she reached up, tr
ailing the tips of her fingers over his jaw. “The demoness, Trix, she took possession of your body.”

  His newly-settled stomach heaved again as his eyes widened. “Possession? I was possessed?” That actually happened?

  Jaelyn leaned back, her hands falling into her lap, and remorse flashed through her eyes. “Yes. I’m so sorry, Ben. If I hadn’t left to check in with Isabella, I could have prevented it.”

  The words hung in the air for a minute as Ben digested the news.

  He’d been possessed by a demon. Even worse, a female demon. He’d never live that down. He lifted his hands, flexing them, turning them over, studying them. As if he thought he’d see differences.

  Jaelyn’s smaller, feminine hands slipped into his upturned palms and gave them a squeeze, recapturing his attention. Her touch was warm and familiar. And it didn’t bother him so much. When he met her gaze, she said gently, “You’re all right now, Ben. It took me a minute because extracting a demon without harming the possessee is delicate work, but she’s gone. She fled, again.”

  Ben nodded. “Does that mean my soul is … okay? Or … however that works?” He didn’t understand a lot of this world still, but he did know demons and angels operated on souls. That always seemed to be what it was about with Gwen, anyway. In his mind, it made sense, then, that having a demon inside his body would be a risk to his soul.

  The down-turning of Jaelyn’s soft lips reaffirmed his suspicions. “A soul does not escape a possession unscathed,” she said somberly. “The physical unity of demon and human leaves a taint that is hard to wash away.”

  Ben tried not to shudder at the imagery of her phrasing. “But not impossible?”

  “Few things are impossible,” she replied easily, her small frown fading.

  He managed a smile. “Then what do I have to do?”

  She drew a breath, gave his hands another squeeze, and released him. For the briefest of moments, he thought he might have even seen a hint of pink on her cheeks. “A form of reverse unity is usually necessary,” she said. “Devoting oneself to their religion is common. Dedicating mind and body, or body and soul if you prefer, to the divine. A conscious choice, a commitment, will in time wash away all impurities.”