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As if to demonstrate her power, she used my left hand to punch me in the face. It was awkward, but my cheek still stung from the blow, so I rolled my jaw to ease the sting. Danvers frowned and dropped my right hand.
“That was just childish behavior. I thought everyone said she was an important demon? Just looks temperamental to me.” The woman leaned back in her chair, arms folded while her expression seemed kind. “My name is Maura, and I’m Nathan’s sister.” Her gentle voice pulsed with a kind of hypnotic quality. I could imagine zoning out while watching a video narrated by her telling me to take deep breaths to center my core.
Her hand stretched out in a delicate way that reminded me of a ballet dancer, all genteel grace, as she said, “This room is filled with people who can’t be possessed. Nathan and I were born with a natural immunity. Danvers has already been possessed, and thankfully was freed because of you. We’re also being observed.” She nodded toward the window, her hand flowing in another graceful pose. “By two people whocanbe possessed. They’re a distance away from this room for their own safety, butI don’t think you’ll mind them observing. The two observers are Cruise and Ryker.”
I swallowed. “I’ve spent a lot of time with them, and they’ve been fine.”
“Cruise has never been possessed, but we’re not sure why. His sisters both were, so… Ryker is relatively new to the study of demons. Perhaps you’ve been protecting him or maybe he has a natural immunity? In any case, it made sense to keep them away for their own safety. We’re about to make your demon very angry, and her fury can draw other demons to us. No one here needs to be exorcis ed, except you. I’m hoping the same instinct that drew you to fix Ben and Danvers, despite her hurting you afterward, can be used to exorcise yourself now.”
I doubted it. I would always be possessed. Until the day I died.
“Take my hand.” I wanted to squeeze her fingers back, to take her hand with my own, but my demon refused to touch her. She side-eyed her brother. “Nathan, a little help, here?”
He rolled his eyes and then took my hand, rubbing his thumb over my wrist before he placed it gently in hers. “Sorry if the demon made that hurt, Addalee.”
It only burned a little. “How do you guys know so much about this?”
“Our family has been involved in all things demon for a long time. Our great-great-great grandfather, I think? It comes with the angel blood.” Nathan smiled as he spoke. “An obligation to help.”
No one told me I had angel blood, and I certainly couldn’t help anyone. “If I have angel blood, why am I possessed? I mean, how strong can it actually be? Like, my great-whatever had sex with an angel a lot longer than yours did?”
“We’re pretty sure we get it from both sides, which is highly unusual. And maybe it’s just luck. There are some very strongangelic people who are still getting possessed. Maybe your demon is so strong or particularly able to do it. We don’t really know, and we don’t have a great way to research it. Realistically, we won’t ever know for sure. What we do know is you are strong. You can do exorcisms while you’re still infected with that thing yourself.”
Infected?I shifted in my seat. That was a new term for it. Interesting, like I just picked up an illness. My head pounded, proving my demon wasn’t a huge fan of being compared with the flu. In fact, she could now see why Maura pissed off Nathan so readily.
“My demon feels sorry for you, Nathan.” I said the words because she made me do it.
“Oh, she’s getting pissed off by my sister, too? Look, Maura, you’re even annoying the demonic now.” Nathan grinned, and Danvers looked between him like he wasn’t sure either of them were real.
Maura smiled. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Are you ready to see if you can do this?”
“I know I can’t, so it’s your time you’re wasting. I think you should all put me outside and leave me there, just mind your business and get on with your lives. I’m not special. Who cares what I can do?”
I hoped they would understand. I really was nothing.
“Right. Then let’s get started.” Maura ignored me. “You are naturally better able to be hypnotized. It comes from the possession. Why is that? We don’t know.”
“Wow. Your family has been doing demon things for so long, and you know jack shit about them.” I laughed. It really was ridiculously funny, how bad they were at even dealing with demons.
She kept talking as if I hadn’t said anything. “We’re going to bring you back to your possession.”
She was going to dowhat?I sat up. “I really don’t like that idea. It wasn’t a great day for me.”
I do.Her laughter echoed through my head like someone had rolled barbed-wire-covered dice in my skull.
“Of course you don’t. It must have been painful, but you need to see your demon in your mind’s eye so you can see it here. That’s going to help you feel the separation.”
She wants you to see me? Fine. You can do that. No hypnotism needed. You want to see me, Addalee? Here I am.
As though my mind was thrown from there into somewhere else, I could suddenly see my demon as if she stood in front of me. She hadn’t changed over the intervening years, and her massive wings extended to take up most of the space in the room. Her red body and black hair still gleamed just as awful as I remembered, and all of it topped off with her cute little hairless pointed ears. Yep, same nightmare, different day.
“Where are we?” I asked and swallowed, trying to look around despite my gaze being drawn back to her as irresistibly and lethally as a moth to a light bulb. I hated looking at her, satisfied most of the time pretending she was something else. Almost anything else…
“We’re right here in your mind, Addalee. You and me. Let’s see each other face to face, so I can remind you how much of nothing you are. Congratulations! You managed to exorcise two demons who weren’t paying attention. I am paying attention. I always am, and you’re nothing to me.”
Nothing she said was news to me, since I knew all those facts as well as her. And yet…A memory stirred at the edge of my thoughts, something she couldn’t really touch.
In the memory, I walked down the street with Ryker. We wore our school backpacks, so we likely had just gotten off the bus, and I recognized the block. My brief happy time, I remembered with a smile. Our parents, newly married and stilldewy in love, both still sober and mostly on the same track. Overall, just a brief window of perfect.
