by Dakota Brown
I laughed. "Yeah, I'll come assuming nothing crazy is going on. Remind me when it's closer."
Aaron nodded, looking pleased.
Mal gave a noncommittal shrug, but that wasn't a no.
"You sure you don't want kids and a white picket fence?" I blurted out, then cursed myself. This was not the direction I had hoped to take the conversation.
Aaron tilted his head, blinking a few times before he raised his eyebrows in understanding. Slowly, he slid the sleeve of his T-shirt up to reveal the white eye that stood out in stark relief to his dark skin on his bicep. "Never had much luck with anyone finding out I had weird abilities. Usually drives people off."
"It's likely we're going to end up even deeper involved with the demons than we already are," I said. "It's going to get dangerous."
"It's already dangerous. Hell, you've already died once." Aaron shuddered.
"Yeah, exactly. Coulda been you."
"You want me to walk away?" Aaron crossed his arms.
"No. I really don't. I just want you to be sure you want to stay involved."
"Then I'd rather be with you, and Mal, and Sabian, than on my own in all this and I'm sure I'm going to be involved one way or another. How many Nephilim do you think are wandering the earth?"
"Not many," Mal interjected.
I nodded. "Okay then. Well, let's finish dinner then go summon an incubus."
That seemed to settle everything. I was sure it wasn't the last discussion any of us would have on the topic, but for now, everyone seemed happy.
∞ ∞ ∞
Mal triple checked the sigils he'd traced on my concrete floor both inside and outside the protective circle. "I think we're ready, but we should deal with this other demon first," he said.
Mayhem woofed softly from the corner of the room he'd curled up in to watch us.
"Yeah, good idea." I glanced at Aaron.
He tilted his head, then shrugged. "If you want me to melt the charm, I will."
"Hurts though, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but it's really not that bad."
"I don't have the stuff for the ritual and Ezra never got a chance to teach me the easier way."
"I believe I could come up with a crystal to sacrifice," Mal offered. "I'd just have to go get it."
Aaron shook his head. "No, this is fine. It's painful but I should get more used to doing stuff like this. You know, using my powers and all. Even if this one is kind of passive."
"Okay. So, you should be immune to possession. Just stand in the circle and don't mar any of the sigils and stay there once you release the demon," I ordered him.
"Should be?" Aaron cocked an eyebrow.
"Well, according to Ezra you are. Would take one hell of a demon to possess an angel."
Apparently, Aaron trusted me, because he stepped over the circle and, after making sure he wasn't touching any of the markings, he put his hand out to grab the charm and glanced at me.
I nodded that I was ready.
Aaron grabbed the charm and hissed as it melted between his fingers. He held his hand over the table and the molten metal landed on the slate top.
The charm's destruction released the demon in a swirling vapor of visible energy. It was tinged red, and it howled in anger, swirling around the containment circle before zeroing in on Aaron.
"Just stay put," I warned, and hoped Ezra was right.
Aaron nodded, eyes wide, breath coming fast.
As the swirl of angry demon energy zeroed in on Aaron, my half angel began to glow. Almost imperceptibly at first, but then with increasing intensity. As the demon approached, Aaron emitted a harsh, white light.
Mal shielded his eyes and stepped back. I squinted and the demon recoiled.
Aaron's glow faded enough that I could look at him again.
"That didn't happen last time," Aaron declared.
"Yeah, maybe because the demons weren't actually going to hurt you. This time, I'm sure that was the plan."
The swirl of energy stayed on the far side of the circle and seemed to turn its attention to me. Obviously, this was a demon that needed a host to properly manifest. I kind of wanted to know what kind of demon it was, but I also kind of didn't.
"You ready to go home?" I asked the swirl. It was a rhetorical question. There was no way it would be sticking around. Still, it seemed polite to warn the creature first.
Whoa, Price, getting polite with the demons now? Seriously?
I sighed. It didn't act like it was objecting, so, forgoing the normal squirt of holy water, I began the exorcism. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus..."
The energy signature of the demon shivered as my words compelled it, but it didn't fight me, and as I spoke the last words of the rite, the demon vanished with a small clap of displaced air.
"It's so much easier when they don't fight," I said, not even experiencing the normal wave of tiredness I usually got after an exorcism.
"Is it safe to come out now?" Aaron stared at his hands, which, like the rest of him, were no longer glowing.
"Yeah, you're good."
Aaron carefully stepped over the chalk drawings and breathed a sigh of relief once he was clear.
I went over to him and wrapped him in a hug. "You're pretty amazing," I stated.
He hugged me back. "Thanks," he replied, his deep voice rumbling through me. "So are you."
I didn't reply, uncomfortable at the praise I didn't feel I had earned. I pulled Aaron back over to Mal's side and we looked at the vampire. He was the one in charge of the summoning as he'd done most of the research. I knew what we were up to, tonight, but he was more expert in this area of the occult than I was. Not that either of us had ever summoned a demon. Mal had summoned helpful spirits from time to time, so that put him far ahead of me.
My old crowd had wanted to get into demon summoning, but I'd backed out before they'd gone that far. I just hoped they'd been smart enough not to go down that path. Their intentions had been far less pure than mine tonight.
Mal nodded that he was ready, took a lighter from my other workbench and set about lighting all the candles he had placed around the room. Then he flipped on the lamps he had brought down and turned off the harsher overhead light.
I shivered at the, well demonic, ambiance.
Aaron blew air out between his teeth. "Well, it certainly feels like a demon summoning," he breathed.
Mal nodded and took his place around the circle. I fell in where he directed me, and Aaron did the same.
We were too far apart to physically join hands, but we held them out, palms up. If we were closer to each other, we would have been touching palm to palm.
Mal started the incantation. It was in Latin and I followed along as he set the expectations of the rite with his initial statements. I could feel the energy that responded to his commands flow through us, could imagine I saw sparks of blue energy from myself, white from Aaron, and earthy red from Mal, twine together in a spinning circle and Mal called out the next phase of the summoning. We directed the power flowing through us down into the sigils inside and outside the containment circle. They lit up with orange light.
Aaron exclaimed wordlessly and I had to admit, I was seriously impressed. I'd seen some crazy stuff in my time, but most of it was so off the cuff, even my own magic. Mal's efforts were so precise and controlled. Everything proceeded exactly as he had detailed, and he intoned the last of the incantation. Then all three of us called out Sabian's full name.
"Sabianamon," we called in unison three times.
At the last utterance of his name, all of the candles flared brightly then went out.
"Fuck," I growled as soon as my vision cleared. There was no naked, or even clothed, incubus in our circle. The summoning had gone exactly right. Even having never done one before, I somehow instinctively knew that it should have worked.
"What's that?" Aaron pointed at a red oval object that had appeared in the middle of the circle.
Mal grabbed me before I could
cross the circle, his arms tight around me. "Wait a minute," he whispered. "Let's make sure it's not some sort of trap first."
"Sabian wouldn't send a trap," I argued, not fighting against Mal. There was no way I could win that one anyway, and he was right even though I objected.
"No, but if Sabian wasn't in some sort of trouble, he would have answered our summons. He wants to be here, and even if he didn't, that ritual would have called him without some sort of powerful interference."
I sighed, taking a deep breath, and turning my head so I could bury my face in his shoulder for a minute.
Mal focused his energy and attention completely on me, doing that thing he did that made me feel like the center of his world. I melted a little, though my heart still clenched at our failure.
Mal kissed my neck. "Let's do a reveal spell on it." His breath tickled my skin and I shivered in reaction.
"Okay."
The vampire released me and stepped back. I studied the object that had appeared in the middle of my protective circle. It looked like a rock. That, more than anything, made me think it was from Sabian. He'd given me a desert rose–a barite crystal–not long before I'd accidently sent him back to hell.
This rock looked more like a flattened sphere, and was a deep orangish red, but I couldn't tell more than that in the low light. All of the candles had melted to nothing in the last flare of energy and the only light we had was the low light from the lamps.
"Want to flip on the light for my poor human grade eyeballs?"
Mal did so, not commenting on my quip. I had to stand there blinking in the harsh overhead light for a moment or two before I could see again.
The brighter lights revealed that the stone was translucent and polished. It was beautiful and I had to blink a few tears out of my eyes. I'd rather have Sabian, but this was a nice gift. What did it mean?
After I'd studied the smooth crystal for a few moments I went over and grabbed some incense off of my workbench and lit it.
As soon as it was burning properly, I blew the flame out then went over to the circle and waved the smoke toward the stone as the words to the reveal spell sprang to my lips.
The smoke drifted in an unnatural line toward the object of my spell and settled around it, swirling then dissipating. If there had been anything nefarious about the stone, or even friendly, the smoke would have clung to it and then I could have investigated further.
I glanced at Mal for his opinion and he nodded, so I crossed the circle and scooped up the rock.
It was warm to the touch, about the size of my palm, and fit very comfortably in my hand. I traced my fingers over the smooth top before flipping it over and seeing something etched in the bottom. I ran my fingers over the grooves. The markings were some sort of symbol.
I came out of the circle and showed it to Mal and Aaron.
"It's a word, I think," Mal said. "I don't know what it says, though."
"Yeah, no idea," Aaron replied. "But it does look like a word."
Sagging, I might have collapsed to the floor in despair, but Aaron put his arms around me, and I leaned back against his solid warmth.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure it doesn't say 'leave me alone,'" Mal said, brushing his knuckles along my cheek. "This is one word. Best guess, he's asking for help, but I have no idea what we can do."
"What about your demon prince?" Aaron suggested. "Can he help? Sabian is his subject, or whatever. Right? He'll want to get the incubus out of trouble I would hope."
"I got no idea how to contact him in hell," I answered. "And we can't summon him without some sort of pretty significant sacrifice. I love Sabian, but I'm not going there."
"He wouldn't want you to," Mal agreed. "So, that's the next step. Figure out how to contact Ezra."
"So, this might be off the wall, but isn't that what séances are for?" Aaron asked.
Mal and I glanced at each other, eyebrows raised.
"Now, there's an idea," Mal said slowly, thinking while he talked. "Not exactly, but maybe we could do something like that."
I frowned, something tugging at my memory. Something from one of my older occult books. Nothing like Mal's collection, but I had a few gems I'd come across over the years and I went over to my bookshelf and grabbed the book I was thinking of. I flipped it open and scanned the pages until I found what I was looking for.
It was a communication across the planes spell, probably intended for the very thing Aaron had suggested, but maybe we could adapt it somehow. I showed it to Mal.
Aaron looked over our shoulders. "Is that Latin?"
"Yeah, mate."
Mal ran his fingers down the text, muttering under his breath as he studied the incantation.
"You know Latin?" Aaron gave me a surprised look.
"Yeah. I'm fluent in Latin. I know a smattering of a few other ancient languages but most of the occult stuff that isn't already translated into English is in Latin. I don't like the translations much, though. I always worry someone got it wrong." I shrugged.
"A fair concern," Mal said absently.
"That's impressive," Aaron marveled.
I glanced up at him. "Might not be a doctor of physics but I know a few things."
Aaron's eyebrows rose. "I did not intend to even imply anything of the sort. Your knowledge base is just so different from mine that you're going to surprise me from time to time."
"Nice save." I nudged him to hopefully take any sting out of the words.
He sighed. "Truly not what I meant."
"S'okay."
"This will work. Come here and let's see if we can get a hold of Ezra," Mal interrupted. "It's more like a request than summons. He'll be able to ignore us if he wants. Assuming we get this right."
Mal crossed the circle and put the book on my workbench. "Let's clean this up first so we don't cross contaminate."
Aaron set about picking up all the stubs of the candles. I got a couple of damp cloths and Mal and I cleaned up the sigils he'd drawn. Mal also scraped the melted silver off the work bench and transferred it to the table outside the circle.
Then he picked up my heavy ass slate covered metal work bench like it was nothing and moved it out of the circle as well.
"Damn dude," Aaron breathed.
"Yeah, make sure you put that back. Takes like four of us puny humans to get that thing to move."
Mal glanced at me. "It's not that heavy."
"Yeah, it is," I objected.
"I'll be sure to put it back." He grabbed the book and gestured for us to join him inside the circle. "Sit cross-legged so we're touching."
He winced when Aaron's knee brushed his as we sat and positioned ourselves the way he directed.
"Sorry," Aaron apologized.
"It's fine. Join hands and repeat after me."
Aaron and I repeated the words that Mal spoke. Aaron a bit hesitantly since he didn't understand the language, me with more confidence. I let myself sink down into the trance that the words encouraged, reaching out for some sort of connection with the demon prince.
Nothing.
"Damn it," I snarled.
"Maybe the two of you should try without me?" Aaron suggested. "Could be that he's not interested in answering because of my angel blood?"
"I don't think that's it," I replied. "But we can try."
Aaron released Mal's hand and scooted out of the circle.
Mal flexed his hand, shaking it for a moment, before he slid his cool hand into mine. We began the chant again, but it still felt like we were coming up against a wall. Or maybe like we were looking in the wrong spot.
I was not about to cry over this, though my chest was tight, and I wanted to. We would figure something out. Mal rose gracefully and offered me a hand. I accepted and he pulled me to my feet and into a quick hug.
"Well, back to the old research, right?" Aaron said, sounding nearly as disappointed as I felt. "I'd help, but I don't read Latin."
Forcing a laugh, I let him give me a quic
k hug. "Yeah. We'll just have to try again."
"For something so esoteric, the process seems fairly scientific," Aaron mused as we headed upstairs.
"It is," Mal agreed.
"I think I need some ice cream, and then I want to go to bed," I declared when we got to the main level of the house. "I'm exhausted." I was, too. I hadn't felt it before, but the fruitless efforts weighed on my soul and my feet dragged with physical exhaustion.
"Sounds like a plan," Aaron agreed.
"Do you want me to stay tonight?" Mal stayed most nights but every once in a while, he went home.
"Yeah, if you don't mind." I didn't want to be alone, and Aaron and I weren't sharing a bed yet.
"I never mind."
Chapter 3
Price
Mal held me while I slept and was there, as he usually was, when I woke the next morning. Light filtered around the edges of the blackout curtains, throwing patterns across the vampire's stomach.
"What went wrong?" I whispered into his shoulder.
"Best guess? Ezra isn't in hell at the moment, though I have no idea what that means. Or he's somewhere we can't reach him. It didn't feel like we were being ignored."
"No, it didn't. Sabian?"
"He's in trouble, I'm guessing. This is a message, but it's in demonic. Why wouldn't he send us something we could read?" Mal wondered, tightening his arms around me.
"Maybe he couldn't. Or maybe he thought I still had Ezra." I sighed.
Mal clutched me in his arms. "I'll look into a translate spell while I'm at the shop today. I seem to recall something along those lines in one of the books I have in the back."
"Thanks, mate."
"Of course. I think I should bring a few of the books home for you to read, too."
I liked the way he called my house home. "Sounds good."
"You in any particular hurry to get up?" he whispered in my ear.
His breath tickled the short hairs on my neck, and I shivered as a thrill ran through me. "Not really."
"I seem to recall you demanding that I deliver on a certain tease last night." He kissed my neck right behind my ear. "Interested?"
