Dark Hauntings: A Paranormal Times Novel

by C C Solomon

  Not wanting to drop my sword, I fought against my painful left arm and punched my fist out into the air. A swirling force of magic lifted the woman off her feet and into the nearest wall, plaster crumbling around her human-sized dent. She looked at me with wild crazed eyes and kicked her feet, struggling to move.

  I stumbled forward, vaguely aware that Felix was still in battle, but I had to get rid of her first. My maimed arm hung loosely at my side. I could no longer feel it. It was numb but it wasn’t the only thing going numb. My whole left side began to sag until I found myself limping toward the woman.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Paralyzing agent. Our first bite causes you to go numb. It’s actually humane. That way you don’t feel us eating you whole. But in your case, I wouldn’t mind you feeling pain the whole time.” The creature woman laughed.

  I shook my head as if pushing away drowsiness and limped on in spite of my injury. I was beginning to feel weak. Not just physically but magically. I didn’t have to ask to know that this bite probably numbed powers as well, so paranormal victims couldn’t use their magic to free themselves if their body stopped working. Clever design. This only meant I didn’t have much time to finish her off before I became her main course.

  As if sensing her own demise, the woman broke free of my weakening magic and slid backwards up to the popcorned ceiling with her taloned fingers and toes. She turned her head sideways to hiss again at me.

  How did I take her down without killing her? I needed to keep her alive to get answers. This was going to be tough.

  Chapter 14

  The sounds of a struggle behind me, threatened to take my attention. I knew if I turned away, the demon woman would pounce. I could kill her and hope Felix didn’t kill his guy or I could maim her in some way.

  She decided she didn’t feel like waiting around for me and began to crawl across the ceiling toward Yusan and the child. Bits of plaster fell to the ground as she clamped her steel-like talons into the ceiling.

  I crouched low before taking a flying leap up, my sword swinging across me before I sliced into the back of the woman’s legs. They detached and fell to the floor in one clean swipe. Of course, the cut didn’t come without a nice spray of blood over my face and hair. I landed on the ground and wiped the blood off my face, which I know only smeared it. A shower would definitely be needed.

  The woman screamed in agony as she hung by her taloned fingers to the ceiling. A pool of blood spread under her from her dripping knees. She couldn’t possibly keep hanging on with all that blood loss. She’d have to pass out soon.

  Of course, I wasn’t fairing much better. I crumbled to the floor as my remaining working right leg betrayed me and went numb. “Felix!” I shouted.

  I could no longer play warrior woman. I turned my head, thankful that my neck wasn’t yet paralyzed and saw Felix stand up over the now dead body of the skin demon. The man, or rather the deflated body of the man, lay sagging on the ground. Felix’s hands glowed white and when he looked over to me his eyes shown so brilliant, they were like tiny flashlights coming out of his head. His angel power was still so mysterious to me but I also knew it to be frightening. Angels were pretty powerful beings already, another reason I didn’t like them much. For only being half-angel, Felix still had the ability to kill with just one touch. He couldn’t do it much so I was surprised he would waste his gift on such low-level demons. Of course, I called them low level, but there I was, paralyzed.

  Felix headed over then stopped before reaching me and looked up at the hanging woman. He grabbed her by her torn legs and tore her from the ceiling against the background of her agonizing screams. A few of her talons were left in the ceiling as she broke away and was slammed to the ground.

  Geez, he was ruthless. Not that I was complaining. It was always interesting trying to reconcile the big oaf that he usually appeared to be with how hardcore he was in battle. It made sense seeing as we used to be hitmen.

  He pointed to the woman, who rolled back and forth in pain. “Stay.”

  He hunched down in front of me, assessing my predicament.

  “I can’t move,” I exclaimed through closed teeth. “They have some type of paralytic in their saliva.”

  He looked over to my shredded shoulder and hovered his hand over me. At first, I felt nothing, but soon the feeling of his cool healing magic began to spread down my shoulder and through my body.

  My shoulder was fully healed but I was still working up to the movement part. However, that wouldn’t stop me from getting answers. I looked over to the woman who had now stopped moving and was panting heavily on her back, her eyes unfocused. “We need to question her before she dies.”

  Felix glanced at her and then turned back to me. He picked me up and sat me in a chair at the kitchen table. He then went and crouched in front of the woman. “Tell us everything we want to know.”

  She shook her head.

  Felix took out his machete hanging from his jeans pockets and stabbed it in her arm. I’d seen Felix in action before but this seemed more hardcore than I was used to. Not that I thought he was wrong but torture didn’t seem like his thing. I realized that I didn’t want it to be his thing. If I could move I’d take over to spare him this. “Tell us everything we want to know, or I will slice you up in small pieces and make sure you feel every bit of it.”

  “Damn,” Yusan whispered, and the child behind him whimpered.

  I suppose Felix would be frightening to a kid if in a bad mood. Which he definitely was at the moment. I felt bad for the little girl. Sigh, I really was becoming more of a bleeding heart but she was a child after all. I could only imagine her state of mind right now.

  The woman stared at him with horrified eyes and then slowly nodded.

  He took the knife out of her arm. “Smart lady. What are you?”

  Her mouth was more human-like as she pressed her lips tightly together. She looked over to Felix’s machete and then closed her eyes. “We’re wraiths.”

  I raised an eyebrow. Huh, that was new. I didn’t pretend to know about all the paranormal creatures but I’d seen a lot. Of course, I had no idea what I knew five years ago. For all I knew maybe I had come across a wraith before. I looked to Felix to see if that rang a bell to him but his brows furrowed in thought.

  “What’s a wraith?” He growled, seemingly annoyed that he had no idea what she was.

  “We are physical spirits who use human bodies.”

  “Like demons,” I guessed.

  “Close, except we just need the human skin and wear it like our living armor,” she replied in an annoyed voice.

  I suppose no one was jumping up and down to be compared to a demon.

  “So, we don’t need to exorcise you,” Felix stated, still crouched in front of her. “If we strip you of this skin, we’d see the real you?”

  The woman scrunched her face in either continued pain or fear of being skinned. “Yes.”

  Although I was curious to see her true form, it wasn’t necessary for now. “What’s with eating people?”

  “Once we find a body to wear, we need to feed on humans from time to time to survive and maintain our form.”

  I adjusted in my seat, fully mobile now. “Is that why your skin sags? When you haven’t fed in a while, your body starts to deteriorate?”

  She nodded.

  I looked over to the small child, still cowering but less visibly frightened now that we had the situation contained. We’d need to find her family after the questioning, assuming they were still alive. “Why eat kids?”

  The woman wiggled in discomfort. “They are the most powerful. Other paranormals are strong too. Once you eat them, you don’t need to feed for a long time, and you gain strength.”

  I wondered if the mayor knew that she had such a wraith problem and that children were their main food source. If she couldn’t get rid of them, it made sense that she would ban children from coming here to protect them. Of course, it didn’t excuse her for
letting other tourists like us come and get snacked upon. “How many are you? Do you live in town?”

  “We are many and some do,” the woman croaked out, closing her eyes. She was sweating and looking very pale.

  She wasn’t going to last much longer. “Does the mayor know?”

  The woman coughed and a spray of blood left her mouth. “She knows of issues but not of the wraiths.”

  I snorted in annoyance. “So, she at least suspected maybe there was a serial killer on the loose and said nothing.”

  Felix grumbled something unintelligible and then stood up. Guess he wasn’t so happy that his new girlfriend wasn’t so innocent. Ok, I sounded really jealous there. It’s probably because I was. “I imagine her talking about skin-stealing monsters invading her town would be bad for business. Maybe she thinks we can help.”

  I huffed, twisting my lips. “Then she should have said something. Don’t make excuses for her. She has to know some of her own people are wraiths. This problem isn’t new.”

  This also explained why there were no old people. If you were going to take a skin, I guessed that a more youthful skin was preferred.

  This also explained why people were dressed so oddly. The wraiths could be of various ages just holding on to what fashion in their prime looked like.

  We weren’t geniuses. Why had no one done something about this problem? We’d seen so much in just a few days. Either killings were few and far between and had just happened to increase upon our arrival, or the people here were just too incompetent to handle the issue. Maybe it was both.

  Felix glanced back at me. “Any other questions to ask?”

  I looked up at the ceiling in thought before looking back down. “Do you have a den or a place where you all liv—Oh, shit, she’s dead,” I said, grimacing at her quickly deflating body.

  Felix swore. “And we didn’t even get to see what she really looked like.”

  Yusan cleared his throat. “What are we doing about the crying kid behind me?”

  I got up. Between us, I probably looked the least scary. However, when I walked closer, the girl huddled even tighter to herself. “I won’t hurt you, little girl,” I said in as sweet a voice as I could muster.

  “You’re drenched in blood,” Yusan cracked. “I don’t think she believes you.”

  I looked down at myself. He did have a point. I waved a hand over my body and did a little Cinderella magic as I called it and cleaned myself up so that I was sparkling and new again. I then smiled at her and offered my hand. “Come on, honey. Let’s find your family.”

  Unsurprisingly, the girl’s parents had been slaughtered. Once we got her to her house, located in a small town not far from us, all that was left of her parents were their skinless dead bodies. I asked if the wraiths we killed earlier were wearing her parents, for lack of a better word, but thankfully they were not. The girl would have enough trauma for a lifetime, glad there was one less thing to add to it. Of course, now I had to figure out who was walking around wearing her parents. I grabbed a photo of the parents to take with me. If I saw anyone that looked like them walking around, I’d know they were wraiths.

  We left the girl with a kind neighbor whom she seemed to trust and had no evil aura around them. Once we got back to the hotel, Felix went to fill in Azrael and Faith, and I went back to my room for a proper cleaning. My magic as a half-fae was diluted and only allowed me a show of looking brand spanking new. I was still funky under the façade.

  I went to the bedroom and pulled out clothes from my suitcase, still refusing to unpack and get too comfortable. As I bent over my clothes, the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.

  What now? Couldn’t a girl get a proper wash before she started something new? If this was Yusan again, popping up unannounced, I was going to have Azrael exorcise him.

  I sighed, turned and sucked in a breath.

  Squiggly red lines floated in the air in front of me, taking shape to make what I could only assume were words.

  Well, this was new.

  I waited patiently as the lines quickly came together to form sentences.

  I request a meeting with you. Tonight, at midnight. A portal will appear at that time for you to enter. Only you will be able to pass. You will not be harmed.

  King Herrod

  The words then started to melt, dripping like blood to the carpet but disappearing before they hit the floor.

  One of the most powerful demon kings wanted to meet with me. And I had no idea why. Oh, shit.

  Chapter 15

  “I’m going with you,” Felix stated, his arms crossed in resolution as he sat back on our couch.

  Azrael, who was currently pacing back and forth in the living area of our hotel room, paused. “You won’t get through the portal. Herrod wants only her and if you try, you could get killed or maimed. Don’t test him. My bigger question is why would he want to even meet with you?” Azrael gave me accusatory eyes. “Do you know him?”

  I sat down at the dining room table and narrowed my eyes at the angel. “No. I think I would have told you if I was friends with another demon King. I hadn’t even met him when I was with Alister. The first time I met the guy was in the soulmate battle.”

  Faith twisted her lips, looking slightly doubtful. “Right, when he just let you live for no reason.”

  I shrugged. I didn’t care if she believed me. I knew the truth. “Yes, that’s what happened. He knew my mother. Maybe nostalgia kept me alive. We couldn’t really have a deep conversation at that time.”

  “So, he waits over two months to follow up?”

  “Maybe he’s busy. Look, why do any of you even care? I don’t have any secrets to give away. I want to go see what he wants. If you think I’ll be tainted after seeing him, I won’t come back to Silver Spring.” I wrinkled my nose when I spoke. They already thought I was a bad influence so what did this matter? I was done trying to look good for them.

  Felix uncrossed his arms and looked over at me with uncharacteristically stern eyes. “I don’t want that.”

  Azrael shook their head, running a hand through their hair in agitation. “We spent all this time trying to keep you from your demon side, only for you to keep walking right into Hell.”

  I chuckled. “Okay, you spent all this time keeping Felix from his demon side. I’ve been there the whole time. I was engaged to a freaking demon King. And look, I made it out okay. I’m not eating kids and flaying people alive.”

  Azrael tilted their head from side to side with a deep frown. “Fair point. Fine go, report back.”

  Clearly, this angel thought they were my boss. “If there is anything to share with you, I will.” I got up, done with the conversation. “I’m going to go take a nap before my meeting. You guys can go talk to the incompetent mayor about her wraith pack without me.”

  The others rose as well. Faith patted me on the shoulder before heading to the door. “Be careful.”

  I raised my brows in surprise. “Aww, you care about me?”

  Faith scrunched her face. “Uh, no. I just know if something happens to you that big oaf on the couch will be destroyed and we can’t have that.”

  I gave her a squinty eyed smile. “I’m still going to take that as you caring about me.”

  I tried to pretend I wasn’t worried about seeing a demon King but I was. I never took demons for granted, especially the high-ranking ones. I had no idea what Herrod wanted from me but I was really hoping I wasn’t walking into some kind of trap. I could have enemies I didn’t even know about. When you didn’t remember your past, you kind of open yourself up to not knowing what was really dangerous out there.

  Just as the red message stated, a portal opened up in my bedroom exactly at midnight. A large circle giving way to smoky blackness faced the foot of my bed.

  Felix coughed behind me and I turned to him. His arms were open wide and he waved his hands back. “I need a hug before you go.”

  I shook my head and walked to him. “I’m coming back,
” I said into his chest and he embraced me in a breath-stealing hug. I didn’t mind it. Any hug from him was welcomed even if I didn’t let him know that.

  “I know, I’ll be waiting here. If you aren’t back in an hour, I might do something stupid like rip open a portal into Hell. I’m not sure; let’s not find out.”

  I slowly pulled away from him. I really didn’t want to, he felt so comforting. “Well, we don’t want that. So, I’ll make sure I’m back.”

  I turned to the portal and headed through, waving a hand behind me. As soon as I stepped through, the portal snapped closed behind me. The cold, empty darkness soon gave way to what appeared to be a study. I faced a wall of books, behind me was a door, to my left was a desk and chair, and to my right were lounge chairs, a couch and a coffee table facing wall length windows overlooking an expansive, lush green lawn. In one section of the lawn were several rows of purple flowers that looked almost like morning glories. I was sure this place had to be a mansion; the grounds seemed so expansive.

  Many demon higher-ups lived in the underworld, others lived on earth with a foothold in the underworld where one could easily pass through the realms without even noticing, like Nadia. I assumed this was the same, otherwise we’d be shrouded in the darkness of the underworld, not overlooking a bright sunny day.

  I plopped down on the leather couch facing the windows and waited. Minutes later, the door opened behind me and I remained seated as Herrod appeared and took a seat in a matching leather chair.

  He looked less grand than last time without his crown and armor. However, he was still impressively dressed in a blue suede suit and crisp white button down. I felt a little underdressed in my black jeans and white short sleeved shirt.

  “So glad you decided to come,” Herrod stated. He leaned forward and waved his hand over the coffee table. A bottle of brown liquid and two glasses appeared. “Are you a whiskey woman?”