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“Where is she?” Dev asked, his headlamp nearly blinding me.
I couldn’t find the words. Could only shake my head. I was terrified. She didn’t have protection and we had no idea what this thing would do to her.
“I feel her,” Birdie said, and I looked over at her. She had her eyes closed and a focused expression on her face, her flashlight hanging by her side. She batted her lashes open and pointed to the right.
We all ran over there and looked around frantically. Finally, I saw something, a flash of white that I thought might be herWho Left The Bag of Idiots Open?shirt. I moved in that direction and stopped short in my tracks. There was indeed a body there, but it wasn’t Sky’s. Bones gleamed in the low light, playing peek-a-boo with us through the dirt on the floor. Clearly, nobody from the construction crew had made it up this far, or we probably wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to investigate the place. It would have been a crime scene. Seemed we’d found where the coven stashed their bodies.
I carefully moved around the remains, as did Dev and Birdie, and headed farther back, closer to the corner. My light snagged on a shape, and I exhaled when I saw the white tee I had been looking for earlier. Her favorite leather jacket hung off one shoulder, and she was still slumped, but if Birdie had felt her earlier, that meant she was alive. I wouldn’t say okay, but she was alive.
I moved to her as fast as I could and crouched down, carefully feeling for a pulse. It was strong, and her breathing, while a little shallow and uneven, was steady. I looked at Larken.
“Can you tell if she has any injuries? Can I move her?” I asked.
Birdie closed her eyes and concentrated again. When she looked at me once more, she appeared solemn but hopeful. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t sense any acute injuries. But she’s clearly unconscious, and there’s . . . there’s something else. I don’t know exactly what.” She looked at Dev.
“Yeah, I sense it, too.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gris-gris bag, murmuring over it and blowing on it before handing it to me. “Put this somewhere on her person. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.”
I took it from him and did as he suggested, slipping it into the front pocket of her jeans. I picked her up as carefully as I could, cradling her against me. Dev and Birdie led me to the opening and then told me to sit and wait with Sky as they got out and figured out a way to get her down safely.
Sooner than I had anticipated later, they called up and told me to bring her to the edge. When I maneuvered us over there, I saw that they were all positioned just under the opening on a long table, arms staggered and outstretched to accept her from me and gently lower her down. We got her out, and they pulled the makeshift gurney out of the way, repositioning the ladder so I could make my way down and over to the table.
“Sky, can you hear me?” I said, gently touching her face. Nothing. No reaction at all.
“Uh, Dev,” Dakota said, speaking up for the first time. I looked up and saw him turn to her, then we both looked in the direction she pointed. There was a huge floor-to-ceiling window across from us, and each of us was depicted in the reflection of the dark glass. What showed there that we didn’t see with our own eyes, was the undulating, miasmic shadow that rose from Sky’s body, covering her from head to toe.
“Merde,” Dev said, and nearly everyone echoed him with a curse of their choice.
I looked back down at Sky and wondered how to help her. This thing had its claws in her and I didn’t think I was strong enough to get rid of it. I didn’t even know if Dev, Birdie, and me working together would be able to vanquish it. A sense of failure started to swamp me, but I batted it away. That was what the malevolence wanted. It wanted to break me down. Make me feel inadequate. It wanted me to give up and let it have her.
I wouldn’t let that happen.
I needed to remain calm and keep my composure, even if I wanted to absolutely lose it right now.
“Can someone bring me my bag? It’s near the door.” I was afraid to take my eyes off Sky, but I needed my gear. Hanlen hurried up next to me and set the bag near me on a clear bit of the table. I undid the clips and flipped up the top, rummaging inside for my crucifix, holy water, Bible, and exorcism rite literature. I placed all the items on the table and then dumped the bag to the floor, making room.
“Are you prepared for this?” Dev asked, and I looked up to meet his turquoise eyes.
“Honestly? I don’t know. And I’m trying really hard not to lose my shit right now.” I shook my head. “I’m not sure I can tackle something this big alone.”
Just as I said that, Sky started to stir and opened her eyes. Only it wasn’t her soulful brown eyes we saw. Her pupils were so big, it looked as if the black were bleeding into the sclera, and her lips were twisted into a snarl I couldn’t ever imagine her perfect mouth making.
“That’s not Sky,” Birdie said and started mumbling an incantation under her breath. I heard Dev join in, speaking in a language I didn’t understand.
“You four.” I pointed to the closest team members. “I need help holding her down. Secure her to the table. Don’t hurt her, but don’t let her move around too much either. The rest of you, hold hands. If you can’t join in with Dev or Lark, say the Lord’s Prayer—even if you don’t believe. If you don’t know it, listen to the person next to you saying it and just tap into that energy. Do it. Do it now.” They all did as I said, the murmurs becoming a background buzz that helped me to focus. I was just happy that I’d at least had the presence of mind to do that.
When I looked back at Sky, she snapped and snarled, the evil entity clearly making its presence known. Then, just as suddenly, her eyes cleared, and she looked around, seeming confused.
“Pax? What’s going on?” she asked, and James moved to let her go.
“No!” I yelled, looking the younger man in the eye. “There are several stages to possession. Presence—which we just saw. The evil entity making itself known. Pretense—which we’re seeing now, where they pretend to be back to normal, and then there are a few others before expulsion. Since it hasn’t gotten its hooks in too deep yet, we may be able to bypass some of those middle ones. But this still isn’t Sky. And don’t let it fool you into thinking it is. I want to believe it, too, but we can’t. Not now. Not yet.”
“O—okay,” he said and resumed his hold.
“Clever priest,” Sky growled in a voice that wasn’t at all hers. “Mmm,” she said, undulating a little on the table. “Do you know that it isn’t her since you spent so much time in her sweet, sweet body lately?”
I tried not to let it bother me. It wanted a reaction, and I didn’t want to give it one.
“Too bad you lost your collar, little priest,” the non-Sky taunted. “You may have defeated my minion back then, took back the tasty morsel that should have been mine and saved that child, but you won’t take this one. You won’t steal from me twice,Padre. Your little girlfriend should have become a part of me three decades ago. I will have my due!”
