I try to catch Elizabeth’s eye, but she refuses to look my way. Not that I blame her.
“Killroywasa legitimate attorney,” I reply, “although not likely your mother’s. At some point in his recent history, he was possessed by the chaos demon Ozikai, whom you had the distinct pleasure of meeting tonight. That demon orchestrated the sham of your mother’s will and testament in an attempt to get closer to you and ultimately gain control of the portal.”
“Possessed,” Kate says in a dreamy whisper. “How awful.”
“Yes, well. Before you go feeling sorry for the man, a demonic possession can not happen without informed consent.”
“Wait…” Rachel narrows her shrewd gaze, and I know what’s coming next. “Are you?—”
“No,” I reply. “We three were humans, long ago. Now, we’re demons. And that’s all that needs to be said on the matter.”
I can tell she wants to push, but Elizabeth doesn’t give her a chance.
“Why would Ozikai need the rest of the hunters?” she asks. “Why all the blood contracts?”
“From what Ollie and I were able to glean before they shot us up with neurotoxins,” Warren says, “the Wielders of Flaming Bullshit were planning to kill the three of you immediately after the transference ritual as a sacrifice to the chaos demons, whom they hoped would be summoned en masse by the act.”
“They tried that with Calista,” Elizabeth says. “But that didn’t work out so hot for their great-great-granddads.”
Warren sips his tea. “They assumed they’d worked out the kinks.”
“How?”
Oliver sets down the tea tray and joins me on the sofa. “Fuckers were betting that the power of a triple sacrifice, combined with their newly acquired ability to open the portal to any damn demon who wanted to come through, would be enough to call forth an army from Hell.”
“The demon-pocalyse,” Elizabeth says.
Oliver nods. “However, not all demons can take immediate form in the earthly realm. If they want to physically manifest—enough to have any sort of power of their own—they need human vessels to serve as incubators.Willinghuman vessels. In exchange, the humans forfeit their lives, and commit their souls to an eternity in Hell.”
Elizabeth gasps. “So every lawyer that signed those contracts—the so-called Wielders—agreed to be possessed by spider demons? And spend eternity in Hell? That’s some fucked-up self-flagellation level of crazy.”
“The so-called spider demon was the form Ozikai’s chaos energy chose to incorporate,” I explain. “Every demon is different. That’s part of what makes them so unpredictable and dangerous. Ozikai was not even operating at his full strength tonight. Likely, he’ll need another vessel to complete his full manifestation. Similarly, if the summonshadbeen successful, the other chaos demons would need vessels as well, in order to attain full strength.”
“I’m guessing we took out a lot of their potential vessels,” Elizabeth says.
“Fuck yeah.” Oliver raises his cup toward her. “Nothing I love more than the sound of rotten bastards exploding in a fiery inferno. The way their eyes burst is just…mmm. Chef’s kiss.”
Kate, still staring out the window, begins to giggle maniacally. Oliver lowers his cup, the humor gone from his eyes. He goes to her, rubbing her back and murmuring something in her ear that makes her settle.
I really, really hope it’s just an effect of the shock.
Rachel’s on her feet again, the conversation agitating her anew. She paces the living room, very nearly wearing a groove in the rug. “Magic is real,” she says. “And the three of us are witches. Do I have that straight?”
She’s looking at me when she says it, so I nod.
“You guys are demons,” she continues, “but not the nasty ones, because apparently not all demons are bad, but not all of them are good, and there’s a lot of gray area in between. We had a grimoire that was passed down for generations, but Lizzy’s boyfriend?—”
“Ex-boyfriend,” Elizabeth says.
“—stole it, and now it’s nothing but ashes. And thatsameboyfriend?—”
“Ex-boyfriend!”
“—is now the leader of a cult of psycho lawyers calling themselves the Wielders of the Righteous Flame, and they all want us dead, and we just burned down the mansion of one of their members who sacrificed himself to become a meat suit for spider demon nightmare fuel, and he’s just one of about a gazillion more exactly like him, but different, and they’re banging down the door to earth, ready to turn us into their personal buffet. And the only thing standing between those hellbeasts and the complete extinction of the human race is a portal that’s falling apart and… me and my sisters.”
“Nailed it!” Elizabeth sing-songs, her smile undimmed. “See what happens when you listen, Rachel? You got almost everything right!”
“I’m thrilled for myself,” she deadpans. Then, “Remind me… what the fuck are we supposed to do now? Other than roll out the red carpet for our new demon overlords and pray for a quick death?”
