Drinking Demons

by Kat Bostick

  “Hey Mari!” Veronica lifted her hand and waggled her fingers, making the chain around her arms rattle. “Long time no see. How’s my favorite stepdaughter? You seem like you’re not doing so hot lately.”

  The freakish claws that tipped her fingers earlier were nowhere to be seen. That unsettling red glow hadn’t dimmed from her eyes. Veronica was reclined against the back wall, her legs crossed, one ankle bouncing in perfect imitation of a bored teenager. Her nonchalance did nothing to mute the tangible darkness that resonated around her.

  “What are you?” Mari crossed her arms, not an ounce of fear showing. Because she genuinely wasn’t afraid. Disturbed, but not frightened. Maybe she was just a little crazy.

  Veronica giggled. “Mari! Where are your manners? You haven’t even asked me how I am.”

  “What are you?” Mari repeated.

  “Buy a girl a drink first.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Veronica leaned forward, grinning maniacally. “I want to be like you.”

  “Like me how?”

  “I want to be whole.” She attempted to lift her hand again, staring down at it as she flexed. “I want to walk this earth like you. Do you have any idea how tiresome it is to flit about with no anchor? Hopping from person to person as they do unspeakable things? I’m bored of petty games. I had my way out and you ruined it. You owe me.”

  Now Mari was the one laughing. “How do you figure that?”

  “You killed my vessel.” That awful grin stretched wide again when Mari paled. “Yes, that’s right. You remember poor, sweet Lyse? She had such a good heart. And then you went and cut a hole in it. Why would you do that, Mari?” Veronica pouted, ducking her head. When she looked back up, she was practically glowing with excitement. “Do you have nightmares? Because you know what you did? Do you dream of darkness?”

  Mari’s confidence was slipping. “You already know the answer to that.”

  “What you dream will come to pass, will it not? So, if you’re dreaming of me, doesn’t that mean we’re meant to be? We have a future together, love.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You want me to use my power for evil. How do we get you out of Veronica and send you back to where you came from? Do I call a priest? Say your true name? Dump salt all over you?”

  “It wouldn’t be very fun if I told you that.” Veronica awkwardly stood from the ground, swinging her torso forward until she was right up against the bars. “You’re not sure.”

  Mari waited, but eventually her impatience won out. “Not sure of what?”

  “If you’ve already let me in.”

  Jasper felt the snap in Mari’s carefully practiced calm as if it was a rubber band against his skin. She backpedaled, bumping into his chest in her panicked attempt to leave. He grasped her hand to guide her out when Veronica’s voice purred across the room, sending every hair on the back of his neck straight up.

  “Wait! Don’t you want to know what I know about you, Red?”

  Mari squeezed his hand. “She’s trying to provoke you. We need to leave.”

  “She’s right. I don’t know anything about you, little Tavin.” Her deep throated chuckle made Jasper’s skin crawl but he moved closer despite his instincts. “Bastard. Your mother was unwed and unwanted. She wasn’t supposed to keep you.”

  “How do you know my mother?” He gripped the bars that separated them.

  Veronica sashayed over, pressing herself into the cool steel. “One father sought to kill you in the womb, one father sought to kill you in the world.”

  “Do you know who my father is?” Jasper was quiet, his words as fragile as his heart felt. He always claimed he didn’t care to know about his family and who they were, but it wasn’t entirely true. Not when he suspected the werewolf responsible for his mother’s death was also the werewolf that sired him.

  “Mommy dearest didn’t tell you?” She pouted. “She didn’t think you would be one of them. I wonder if she would have kept you had she known…”

  “What do you know about me?” He whispered urgently.

  “C’mon, Jas. You were right. We shouldn’t be here. She’s manipulating us both.” Mari pulled at his arm.

  “She knows my name!” He held fast to the bars, snarling when Mari tried again to move him. “Tell me who my father is. Was it him? The one who killed her?”

  “Was it?” Veronica cocked one eyebrow.

  “Tell me what you know!”

  “Maybe I will. For a price.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Two things.” She stretched and wiggled her two fingers. “I want her,” She inclined her head at Mari. “And I want the dagger. A fair trade, is it not?”

  “No!” Mari finally managed to dislodge him from the bars by startling him. “You can never have me.”

  Veronica tilted her head. “Just the dagger then. That’s all I really need to get what I want.”

  “Jasper—” Mari was cut off when his elbow crashed into her stomach. He hadn’t intended to hurt her, but he wasn’t going to leave until he got what he wanted. Even if he had to break every bone in Veronica’s body to make her talk, he was determined. He needed to know. He had to.

  The growl that came as Mari uselessly tugged at him was as inhuman as it got. A feral animal had taken his place, wild and vicious and completely disconnected from any part of himself that was man. Any moment now he was going to change, to burst from one skin to another and tear apart anything that stood in his way.

  Destroy. I want to destroy everything.

  “Shit!” Mari dropped all of her weight backwards, heaving until they both lost their footing and almost landed on the ground. “Out! We need to get out of here.”

  It took her too long to drag him through the doorway and shove the steel door into place. Sealing that disgusting thing behind a door did nothing to quell him. His spine was arching, his bones rearranging as his strongest instinct came alive. Jasper needed to kill something. Mari kept dragging until they reached the back exit of the barn. The lights were off on this side, hiding the mess of tools Teal left lying in piles all over the floor. Mari tripped out the door, stumbling, stepping, stumbling, until finally she landed in the snow.

  She was beneath him in an instant, the war drum of hate pounding in his ears. Destroy, it thumped over and over. Jasper wanted to rend flesh. He wanted to rip someone to pieces. He wanted to destroy everything.

  Everything but the lips that came softly up against his. Not her. Never her. She was his heart, living and breathing outside his body. He needed her more than he needed air. Much more than he needed to cause pain, to feel blood on his tongue.

  Sweet nectar spilled from Mari’s lips, a teasing touch of magic humming up his spine. She shuffled from under him, arms outstretched, tone rising as she became rooted in that place where the heavens met the earth. Then her voice cracked through the air like lightning and everything stilled, every tree, every star, every beating heart turned toward her call.

  Her song was beautiful in that same sharp way that she was. Unyielding, it crashed over him, slicing through the hatred and the destruction until he felt cleansed. Pure. Her spell came to a crescendo and she glowed; an otherworldly creature, spilling moonlight from her mouth. Jasper had the sudden urge to kneel before her, so he did.

  Mari was the coming of spring and he basked in her delicate warmth, bowing to her beauty, her power, her strength. Peace as he had never known it before overflowed within him.

  Finally, finally, Mari was calling him home.

  ✽✽✽

  Mari

  Even as she stumbled from the barn, the voice of the demon followed Mari. She could feel it whispering along her skin, choking and cloying the way Veronica’s perfume was. Jasper was worse, the growl coming from him as he thrashed against her hold growing ever more violent. And his eyes were bright enough to light the moonless sky. Clearly Mari had underestimated the pull of that evil creature locked in the barn.

  She knew what n
eeded to be done the moment she hit the ground.

  Whatever that demon was, wherever it came from, whether or not she let it in, Mari was stronger than it. For now, she was stronger.

  With her feet planted in the snow, the earth humming beneath her, she felt her soul settling back into her body. She’d been adrift, unmoored as she let her practice wither. Now Earth Mother was welcoming her home, her ancestors murmuring their ascent as she made her choice.

  A witch could not live with one foot in each world. She reigned over her power or her power would reign over her. It was the nature of all magic.

  The song that came to her was new, born of the place where magic and inspiration met with divine wisdom. Clem was translating one of the older tomes aloud when Mari felt the music forming. It was a version of the old Bavarian spell scrawled out on ancient pages, twisted to fit her practice.

  For days the notes haunted her, keeping her awake as they begged to be set free. Mari had resisted, too frightened of the potential influence her casting might have.

  Now instinct brought the words back to her, adding notes that matched the pitch of the Kulning—Ina’s ancestral song. Magic exploded through the soles of her feet, filling her lungs as she bellowed out her spell. Above her the clouds parted, the faintest sliver of Mother Moon beaming down at her. Jasper shifted in the snow, dropping to his knees before her with an expression of awed delight.

  She could feel the wildness of what lived beneath his skin, feel it as it gentled and quieted. The wolf still glowed in his eyes, but only to witness the magic as it stormed around him.

  As she sang she became something else—someone else. She was every woman that came before her, every witch that called the wolves home. They surrounded her now, slinking through the trees and circling ever closer. She was them too, feral and wild, born to run on four feet.

  She was the moon and the earth and all of her creatures. Mari expanded with her magic, growing and stretching as she was remade, stitched into the connection that held every piece of the world together. This would always be more powerful than darkness. This ancient, sacred bond could not be soiled by any manner of evil.

  Because Mari was darkness. She was the night that bore the moon and she was the morning when the sun was reborn. For the final heartbeats of her song, Mari was more than witch, more than pack. She was the goddesses, their strength and their balance.

  Welcome, they said to her. Welcome home, sister.

  Several sets of glowing eyes peered at her from the shadows. Teal was the first to emerge, his expression uncharacteristically cool. Charlie and Cash followed behind him, looking drunker than they’d been earlier that evening. A branch rustled and Cora tumbled forward, fixated on Mari.

  “How do you feel?” Mari asked Jasper without taking her eyes off the others.

  “Like you just made love to me without touching me.” He murmured, banding his arms around her waist and pressing his face into her stomach.

  She blushed, hoping that wasn’t what the rest of the pack felt. “Um, good. Good. We should probably get some space between us and that demon before you start feeling homicidal again.”

  It was only as Cora parted the branches of pine and stepped toward them that Mari noticed the rest of their audience. Deak stood with his shoulders back, stilling himself as his gaze flitted between her and the two wizards standing in front of him.

  That her father was accompanying Charlie was no surprise. It was the man at his side that had Mari’s hackles rising again already. “What the hell is he doing here?”

  “I am here,” Alexey held up a thick leather bound book and waved it in the air, looking far too pleased with himself. “To help you with your shadow.”

  Chapter 23

  Mari

  Mari wasn’t the only one put off by Alexey’s sudden appearance. While Alexey was allowed into the barn, seemingly unaffected by the bad demon vibes, Charlie shepherded the rest of them to the house. It took the walk back and then some for the wolves to come fully to their senses. They were a strange combination of slap happy and relaxed. Too relaxed, in Mari’s opinion.

  She needed to remember not to use that spell when they required focus. Like, right about now.

  “You told him where to find us?” Jasper demanded when they were all in the parlor.

  “It’s no secret that Humble Springs is my territory.” Charlie explained, then added, “He’s here to help us, so we will be as hospitable as possible under the circumstances.”

  “In other words, don’t off the guy, Red.” Mari thumped into a chair by the fire and kicked her legs over the arm. Casting was exhausting. “I thought you were going to call a catholic priest for an exorcism or something, not your P.I.”

  “He’s more than a private investigator.” Charlie said absently, murmuring to Teal about fetching Clem and hot drinks.

  “Yeah, I’m catching on to that.” She readjusted in her seat as Jasper dropped to the floor in front of her, putting one leg over his shoulder. “How do you know Alexey, again?”

  “We met under...curious circumstances. It was because of his other skills that our paths crossed. His prowess for investigating only became useful to me once I was alpha.”

  “That’s a great non-answer, Charlie.”

  “Werewolves are not the only ones who require secrecy. It is up to Alexey to divulge what he can do. You understand, witch.”

  They settled quietly into their thoughts after that, Dad huddled in the corner of the room looking anxious while the pack gathered together on the various couches and chairs. Mari was nearly in a doze when Clem and Teal came in from the kitchen with hot spiced wine.

  “I don’t know if my head can take anymore.” Mari groaned, still feeling the ill effects of too much at dinner.

  “It’ll warm you up real nice.” Teal promised, handing her a glass anyway.

  Clem excused herself to venture upstairs and offer Aubrey a drink. The silence in the room was just settling heavy and tense when the front door blew open and Alexey stomped in, bringing a chilling wind with him.

  He discarded his winter gear efficiently and hurried into the parlor when he saw Charlie waving toward him. A frantic look around the room had him throwing a hand up and demanding, “Don’t drink that!”

  “Why?” Mari got up from her chair, holding the untouched mug of wine Teal put in her palms. “Is it poisoned?” She tilted her mug and dumped the contents into a houseplant sitting near one of the couches.

  Alexey frowned. “Poisoned? I don’t know.”

  “Thanks for killing my plant.” Deak muttered.

  “I can bring it back to life.” She shrugged, turning back to the wizard. “What’s the deal with the wine?”

  “It’s demon fuel.”

  “What does that mean?” Charlie guided him into the room and offered him a chair.

  Alexey refused to sit, looking agitated. “Who has been drinking tonight?”

  “We’ve all been in our cups.” Cash answered merrily. “It’s hard to get a werewolf drunk. What’s the problem?”

  “What you have in that cage,” Alexey gestured to the barn. “Is an Alghul. It thrives on anger and sorrow. It has more sway over a vessel when there is heavy consumption of alcohol. The only way it could manage to possess that woman out there is if she was drinking herself into a stupor, frequently.”

  “That’s not possible.” Dad stood angrily. “Veronica isn’t a heavy drinker.”

  “Dad, Veronica has been an alcoholic for years.”

  “A few glasses of wine with dinner is not an alcoholic.” He crossed his arms, finally gracing her with his gaze only to scowl.

  “We can debate this issue all night. What I want to know is how we get rid of it.” Charlie cut through the argument.

  “There is a ritual, but I will need to study my book to find the exact details.” Alexey finally took a chair beside Dad and thumped his massive tome onto the coffee table.

  As if drawn by the scent of old books, Clem wandered in and gas
ped. “Is that a demonology tome?”

  “Here we go.” Cash grumbled.

  “Yes. It has been passed down to the wizards in my family for six generations.”

  “Incredible!” She grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to him, unaware of his personal space. “May I read over your shoulder?”

  Surprised by the combination of manners and enthusiasm, Alexey nodded slowly. It seemed werewolves weren’t all the bloodthirsty monsters he thought them to be. “I should warn you, most rituals cannot be done alone. They require strong power, at least enough to match the demon’s. I have not learned the name of this demon, but I can tell it is very old.”

  “So, you really can control a demon by saying its name?” Mari scooted closer to the book, her own curiosity getting the better of her.

  “Control it? No. But names do have power and a demon never wants to cede power to anyone.”

  “Names have power.” She repeated, inching even further along the floor. “Do you have to know it’s name to exorcise it?”

  “It is not an exorcism when you remove a demon from a vessel.” He answered absently as he flipped open the book and scanned pages.

  “What is it called?” Mari and Clem asked at the same time, their eyes locking.

  He mulled the question over, his lips forming soundless words. “The closest English translation is ‘to purify.’ The ritual cleanses the vessel of darkness.”

  “You can do that.” It didn’t quite come out as a question. Mari had a feeling she was very misinformed about all this darkness nonsense. Alexey was about to turn back to his book when she asked, “Can a demon occupy more than one vessel at a time?”

  A smirk lifted his shaggy beard. “You want to know about your shadow.”

  “Yes.” She breathed.

  Alexey let Mari sit on the edge for too long. Jasper made an impatient noise and the wizard finally said, “You are being shadowed by the demon out there. You could feel it, could you not?”