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Mary reappeared and handed me a jacket. It smelled like lavender. I loved that scent. So of course, immediately, I couldn’t smell it. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Let’s go.”
The Winterses went outside to watch the snow, and neither one of them wore shoes. I followed them, wrapping myself up in Mary’s coat. Maybe that came from knowing they’d be warm most of the time. They didn’t have to worry that they’d get stuck outside and lose their toes. Maybe it had been a long time since Mary had been in that situation and didn’t remember it.
Willow bumped me from behind. “I hate the snow. Why are we staring at it?”
I didn’t know. “Thank you for this.” I had to say it while she would still let me. “The hunters are coming tonight. Nathan told me where to hide, but it would be a nightmare night. The snow. The hunters. I appreciate having somewhere safe to sleep.”
Cruise looked at me. “Nathan will make sure those monsters don’t get you. So will I. I bet Ryker would, too, if you’d let him.”
Hard for me to believe. I wasn’t very important. Why would any of them care?
Chapter
Four
Mary and Willow walked me to the room they were loaning me for the night. The entire situation struck me as bizarre. To get to spend the night in a house like theirs? It was like a vacation from my life.
A thought I didn’t like dawned on me. “You know, if something happens—if I trash the room or I steal something—it’s not me. I’ve never stolen in my life. I was poor, but I was working my way up, and I was honest.”
Except to Ryker. You never told him the truth.
True but different. Telling someone you love them when they only like you as a friend was hard. And I tried to tell him—went to confess when I found him with his girlfriend for the first time. Minutes later, I got possessed. My luck was shit even when my intentions were good.
Mary touched my arm. “I believe you, but I don’t think you’ll do anything tonight. If you do, so be it. We’re not concerned. We understand what it’s like to be around possessed people. My brother understands better than most, and Willow loves me, so she takes my word for it what it’s like.”
“Would have loved you anyway.” Willow repeated the refrain from earlier.
“What do you two do? When you’re not taking in the homeless?” I touched the doorknob but hadn’t entered my bedroom yet.
They looked at each other. “Willow is the manager of the hotel X downtown.” Mary beamed, pride in her gaze as she stared at her wife.
“One ofthreemanagers. It’s too big a job for just me. That’s why I can be here tonight, hang out and have dinner. Otherwise, I’d always be there. And Mary is getting a Ph.D. in history at the university.”
Her wife shrugged. “I’m a little behind. My demon wasn’t much interested in studying or teaching.”
They were so interesting, doing things I probably never would’ve attempted, if not for my demon. They were amazing, basically the women I once daydreamed of becoming, somehow.
“Thanks again.” I nodded to them and turned to leave.
“Addalee.” Mary caught my attention. “Willow won’t like this, and I know that Cruise would be really upset to hear it, but sometimes I miss my demon. I wanted you to know that. They get into our cells, they wrap around our organs, become part of who we are in such nefarious ways we don’t even notice all of it. Sometimes I miss how bad she could be. That’s not me, but there was an element to it…that was refreshing for someone who felt she had to be good all the time.”
Willow rounded on Mary. “You’re right. I don’t like that. You might just be inviting them back by saying something like that.”
“No.” I shook my head. “My demon said it earlier, and I’ve heard it before. Once you’re exorcised, they can’t come back inside of you. You’re done.”
She nodded. “Yes, that’s what the demon told me on her way out. One of the things she yelled at me, like I was going to regret it. I was almost dead when I finally told Cruise to help me. Our sister was dead. It was a mess.”
“You’re our mess.” Willow kissed her and they left me to finally enter the guest room.
It was a bigger bedroom than any I’d ever slept in before. I whirled around, thinking the room could have been featured in a magazine. The burgundy bedspread matched the drapes, and in the adjoining bathroom, it also complemented the shower curtain. I kicked off my shoes and wiggled my toes in the soft rug.
Shower first, I decided. I tried my best to stay clean, and some churches let me shower there on occasion, but I’d lived without the luxury of a good scrub for years.
I stood under the spray and let it rinse away my day, pretending it could somehow cleanse my whole life. If someone told me what would happen, I would’ve stayed home and not sought out Ryker that night.
I didn’t take you because you happened to be out. I could have just as easily gotten you in your bedroom,my demon pointed out.
