“He didn’t,” Simon gritted out. “It was an accident.”
“Is that what your mother tells you? Oh, the lies humans will tell to sleep at night. What is one more deception among wizards, especially those of a dying line? You were the hope of the Bostwicks, and now they end with you. You could have brought glory to the Adeniji family tree, but instead, your branch withers and dies.”
“You can’t get to me, demon. Try again. There’s nothing here for you to feed from. Let the girl go, and we’ll allow you to return to where you belong.”
“Ooooooor?”
“We expel you ourselves and trap you. There’s a shelf waiting for you in a special room at the Cook County SBA office along with others of your kind caught over the years. It will be my pleasure to add you to the count.”
Holly sneered. “You don’t have the stomach for the deed. You want this body alive.”
“What I want doesn’t outweigh my duty, and Holly knows that. She would do whatever it took if she were in my place.”
The demon studied us in silence, eyes narrowed to slits, body tense as a spring. Something about the way it moved, a slow and near-imperceptible sway, like a cobra, made me uneasy. A moment of sudden insight prompted me to jerk Simon out of the way a split-second before the demon leapt at him.
Denied its prize, the demon hit the wall and, in a terrifying feat of agility, climbed up rather than falling. Her hands gouged into the plaster, allowing her to skitter like a spider across the ceiling.
“Alpha team, report.” Gabriel’s voice crackled over the earbud I wore. “We are still unable to enter the residence. What is your status?”
Getting our asses kicked, I wanted to reply.
“Anji is wounded. Liadan and Pilar are safe at the moment,” I relayed, only to quickly add, “and unharmed.” Dain and Oberon deserved to have their minds set at ease.
“Sky? Oh, thank fuck. Are you able to get us inside?”
“Negative! Working on it.”
“Watch out!” Pilar cried.
Holly dropped on Simon, hissing and gnashing her fangs.
The next few seconds were a haze of spells and physical attacks. Pilar used up some of her precious strength to expand her light, forcing Holly off Simon, in the same instant our mage mentor speared his staff upward into Holly’s face and I blasted her with a surge of wind. She flew across the room, smacking into the opposite wall with a crack that made me sick to my stomach.
That had to be it. A blow that hard surely meant we could do what was needed to free her from the demon.
No. Holly stood, her face a mask of rage, and the scream she released was straight from the depths of hell.
Pulling a gun on a friend was always a crappy possibility in our work, but I never imagined I’d be pulling mine on one of my girls. Holly charged, unafraid, and I squeezed the trigger.
Two silver bullets punched through Holly’s flesh, one into her right shoulder and the second in her left thigh. She dropped to the floor.
“Secure her now!” Simon directed.
From the Neverspace, I brought out a heavy silver crucifix gifted to me by Gabe’s abuela over the summer. Holly’s flesh sizzled on contact and blistered beneath the cross I pressed to the center of her chest. It affected her as if I’d pinned her with a thousand-pound weight, but it also made her shriek in agony. I didn’t know if it was the silver content or the holy symbol itself that burned. Maybe both.
“I can feel the Twilight again,” Lia cried.
“Then go. You and Pilar get Anji out of here.”
“Once the ritual begins, it can’t stop. The demon will regain control. No matter what happens, you can’t allow anything to interrupt me,” Simon reminded us.
“Right!”
I straddled Holly’s midsection and kept her pinned while Simon began the ritual. His voice rose and practically thundered in the room as he read Latin from the ancient spellbook. My friends vanished, but I could tell Liadan did so reluctantly. We all cared about Holly. We all wanted to help.
“Skylar, please! Please don’t kill me!” Holly begged, appearing herself again. The horns and strange protrusions were all gone. “It hurts.”
Ignoring her tested my strength of will.
“You’re killing me, you’re killing me! It hurts!” Holly shrieked, bucking her hips and scratching at me. I focused my Prismatic Barrier as needed, manifesting it a few seconds at a time whenever she swung at me. Her claws dragged against the surface and sent up sparks. She grew wilder and more frantic.
“Holly, I know you’re in there. I know this thing speaking to me isn’t you. Say something—do something—to show me you’re still there.”
The demon grinned up at me, red-tinted spittle on a mouth filled with inhuman teeth. The aberrant features it sported now appeared more evil than before. “Holly has given up.”
“Fight, dammit!”
“For what?” it hissed, laughing hysterically beneath me. “She is hated, loathed. Her friends despise or pity her. Her peers resent her existence. Her family fears her. Her own mother despairs when she is home. Her siblings see her as a monster.”
“They don’t! You’re lying. None of us have ever hated Holly. We love her!”
“Are you so sure, little fae? I am in her head. I fester in her heart. I know what she has seen and the path she has walked. All little Holly Burke wants is for the pain to end. I offer her that. I am the freedom from her pain.”
“Alpha team, we have Liadan, Pilar, and Anji. Stand by for Bravo team to provide backup.”
“No! Simon is performing an incredibly delicate ritual. Don’t send any guns in here.”
“Sky—”
“Tell Dain to turn the day into night.”
“Say again?”
“I know that Oberon said the sunlight is what’s keeping her here, but I’m telling you that we need the dark to come now. We need darkness because you’re going to have to fetch the one weapon on this campus that can help us save Holly.” I hoped he understood my meaning, and my mate didn’t disappoint.
“Victor?”
“Yes!”
The air around me warped with energy. Magic flared and pulsed before slamming into my Prismatic Barrier with tremendous force. I screamed from the shock and pitted my willpower against the demon’s. No matter how much Simon chanted, its power seemed without limit.
And my friend continued to look more and more like a darkling.
Was it a trick, or was this Holly’s true appearance, no longer concealed beneath magic and illusion?
Niggling doubt worked its way into my thoughts. What if my friend could no longer be saved? What if, in our desperation to save her, she broke free and harmed someone outside?
“She’s gone,” the entity cackled, forked tongue emerging.
Outside, the world darkened as gray storm clouds emerged from behind previously ivory cloud banks. They thickened and converged, blotting out the sun within seconds. I felt Dain’s handiwork and saw the mastery in it as lightning flashed in the bleak clouds.
“He will never take her back,” the demon hissed. “Not after what she has done.”
“Holly has done nothing Victor won’t forgive.”
“Are you soooooo sure?”
Pilar’s words returned to me in a flash of panic. There was no way that Holly would cheat.
The demon must have sensed my split second of hesitation. It laughed uproariously.
“What a shame Victor didn’t arrive moments later. Still, it was a delight that he stumbled in just in time to see dear sweet Holly planning to hop on his brother’s cock.”
I froze. Instinctively, I almost punched the demon with my free hand, until I remembered it was Holly’s body.
“He’ll understand it was you. Holly would never cheat on him. She loves him. Something you’d never understand.”
Sparks and magic ebbed and flowed around us. It was shackled securely against the ground by whatever spell Simon cast, but I felt it fighting and resis
ting with tremendous strength.
“I won’t surrender this body. I’ll take her with me. If I leave, she dies.”
I smelled him before I saw him, with a heightened sense of smell that wasn’t normal for a fae. Burnt flesh, ashes, and blood, and the dull throb of agony yielding to determination. Victor burst into the bedroom with embers still fresh on his body, bits of his skin flaking away.
It was the kind of damage he couldn’t have taken unless he’d tried leaving his apartment while the sun still shone.
Victor breathed heavily, and the pained expression on his face contorted into one of anguish when he saw us. “Holly.” He staggered over to us and stood beside Simon, who had yet to break his arcane chant. “What do I do?”
“Talk to her. Get her to fight.”
Simon dropped to his knees and began drawing symbols on the hardwood floor with a stick of iridescent chalk. It gleamed like crushed opal compressed into a stick. As he did, the spellbook floated beside him. Power filled the air and columns of light streamed toward the ceiling. It was beautiful, a gorgeous sight I had no time to appreciate given the circumstances.
“This thing claimed her family hates her. Said you hate her. It’s been telling the worst lies and breaking her down, Victor.”
“No. Fuck, no, I don’t hate her. I…” He swallowed and turned his gaze down to Holly. Despite the claws protruding from her fingertips, he wrestled the demonic hand into his grip and held it. “I should have realized you weren’t behaving like you anymore. I don’t blame you, Holly. I’m not mad at you.”
“What happened, Victor?”
“I thought she cheated on me with my bro. Funny thing is, Thad’s been on the phone trying to talk to me all day. All fucking morning, telling me how he’d never do that to me. How he doesn’t know how Holly’s fang marks got in his neck, that he doesn’t remember biting her.”
“This thing manipulated them.”
Victor nodded quietly. He looked like fresh hell, his eyes darkly shadowed and flesh taut over his cheeks. He was low on blood and hurting. “I think so. No, I don’t think shit. I know it. I was just too stupid and up my own ass to realize the two people who love me wouldn’t do that. Holly, listen to me, baby, I love you so much I’d give up daylight a thousand times over again if it meant you’d be here with me. I know you weren’t in control.”
“She’s always wanted your brother,” Holly cackled. “Thad’s the handsome one. She wants his dick down her throat!”
“What about her family?” I asked, ignoring the demon and trying to ensure Victor did as well.
“Her mother called me five days ago to ask what the fuck they can do for Holly because she stopped visiting them at home. Won’t answer her little sister’s phone calls, won’t respond to emails from her brother. Holly’s family is worried sick.”
“This monster has been feeding her lie after lie, breaking her down and making her see what isn’t there, Victor. For weeks, maybe. She thinks that they hate her.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Those people love Holly. They love her so much they’ve been blowing up my phone like crazy for a week so they could talk to her. I looked for her too. Everywhere I went, it was like I just missed her. Then she started skipping classes, and I couldn’t even catch her outside a lecture hall at night.”
“That’s not Holly. She loves school.”
“Right? This morning, Thad sent me a text, said to get back to my place ’cause he saw Holly let herself in…fuck! If I hadn’t been so caught up in my own bullshit, I would have noticed. I would have realized shit was off. Why the hell would my brother try to sleep with my girl when he just told me to come home?”
“He wants her tight cunt. He wanted you to watch, to know he can take everything you have. To make you suffer.”
My face flushed hot. I’d always known demons were despicable, awful creatures, but we didn’t cover them much in school. They were a footnote on most pages. “You were upset. Accidents and misunderstandings happen. This thing—this creature squatting in her body, is just spewing shit at us for shock value now.”
“I should have known.”
“But you didn’t, and it’s not too late to fix this.”
Victor met my gaze. “You’re right.” Then he leaned down closer to Holly. “I love you with everything that I have, Holly. And I don’t blame you for what I chose to sacrifice. I’ve never blamed you. I know you think I do. I also know you’re in there, no matter what this evil bastard says. I love you. You did a heroic thing taking this evil on yourself, and now it’s time for you to kick this demon out of your body. You can do it.”
“We all know the reason you’re here, Skylar Corazzi,” the demon cackled in its insidious voice. “Is it to save her, or to save your reputation? Always the hero. Always the savior! You can’t help yourself, desperate for favor and attention.”
“This isn’t about attention. I’m here because Holly is my friend. I’m here because saving her is the right thing to do. I’m here because I want to see Simon kick your ass.”
Simon’s voice rose in volume, growing louder with each magical word. Power swirled in the air and tingled on my skin with a static buzz. I stole a glance at him to see he had begun to support himself with his staff.
“We believe in you, Holly. We love you, and your family misses you,” I blurted out desperately.
“Your friends are worried about you. Your mother wants to hear your voice.”
“We miss you.”
“My mom thinks you’re the best thing to ever happen to me. She looks forward to your brunches because she likes you for who you are.”
“Simon is giving this everything he has because you mean something to him. To everyone!”
The demon snarled and snapped at my face. I was too fast for it, jerking back in time.
“Fools! I will take her with me.”
One by one, slashes appeared across key points of Holly’s body, beginning with her wrists and inner elbows. I screamed and tried to hold my hands over them to stop the bleeding.
“Victor, help!”
Victor ripped one sleeve from his shirt and tried to apply pressure to her wrist and arm. Before my eyes, Victor’s fangs elongated. He tucked his head and breathed ragged, heavy breaths, resisting what had to be a tremendous temptation for him. So much blood.
“No, you won’t!”
Simon grabbed a snow globe from adjacent shelf, pricked his own finger, and wrote on the glass dome with blood. Instantly, it came alive with light and the nebulous form of the entity attempted to flee. It could not. The same power that expelled it from Holly blasted it into the transparent sphere. The water turned murky and dark as ink, with the creature held captive within.
Holly lay motionless, her body limp and cold beneath me. I scrambled off her, terrified that the cost had been too high, that we’d been too late to save her. What good was defeating the demon if Holly didn’t live?
“C’mon, baby, don’t do this to me.” Victor pulled Holly into his arms and cradled her against his chest. The horns and spikes were gone, but she was so pale her skin seemed almost translucent. “She needs blood. That thing tried to drain her before it went. She needs a lot of blood.”
“I have plenty of it,” Simon said.
“So do I.”
Simon shook his head. “Not this time, son. You barely have enough in your veins.”
“Then she can have mine. Fae blood is stronger.” I had cuts and scrapes all over my arms, and before either man could protest, I pushed my bloodied left forearm to Holly’s mouth and slammed it against her sharp fangs. They hurt. Badly. I’d read accounts before and heard stories from vampires that their saliva was an aphrodisiac.
Either they had lied, or the dry state of my unconscious friend’s mouth robbed me of that experience.
At first, nothing happened, and a fresh wave of hot tears welled in my eyes. Then her hands snapped up, taking my arm in an iron grasp.
“Come on, Holly,” I whis
pered. I was strong enough to give her more, though her bite burned like venom in my veins. She sucked harder than a Hoover, and lightheadedness almost made me swoon.
“That’s enough, Sky,” Victor said.
“She needs blood!”
A few seconds passed, and Holly took a deep, long suck that I felt all the way to my soul. I screamed involuntarily from the pain and the way my heart stuttered in my chest. Victor reached out one hand to separate us, but the moment he did, Holly jerked her mouth away from me of her own volition. Wild, frenzied eyes darted from me to Victor, to Simon, and back to my face as she scrambled away over the glass shards.
“It’s over now,” I whispered, shocked by how wispy my voice sounded. The room wavered around me, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was that Holly was alive. That she was safe.
Simon touched his radio. “Bostwick to all teams on standby. I am happy to report that the event is over with zero casualties. Send first aid and fresh blood. We’re going to need it.”
18
The Party Doesn’t Stop
Due to the nature of Holly’s possession, no one was allowed to re-enter the townhouse until it was cleared by a professional squad of sentinels from Boston. The pros came over at the first opportunity that evening and went through the place from top to bottom, searching every nook and cranny for signs of paranormal activity.
While I slept off the trauma, they found the compact mirror precisely where Holly told them it would be, in the interior left pocket of her mage robes. She’d been carrying the thing wherever she went. For weeks it had been a sinister constant in her life, the demon bound to it reaching with insidious thoughts into her mind.
Gabriel relayed all of that to me in a series of summarized events when I awoke around midnight with a rumbling, empty stomach. He assured me all my pals were safe, Holly was recuperating, and no one expected me to do anything but rest.
By morning, when I stirred, I felt warm, silky feathers against my face and knew Ama had joined me in bed. She crawled in beneath my chin and rubbed her cheek against my jaw.
The Puppet Master: The Paranormal University Files: Skylar, Year 4 Page 21