Dark Hauntings: A Paranormal Times Novel

by C C Solomon

  Didn’t I have any other friends I could contact that I didn’t mind knowing I had a friend in a demon King? I really didn’t have a lot of people on my side. That was depressing. Then one name popped in my head. I threw my head back in frustration because it was not a person I wanted to rely on either. I would definitely have to owe him but he was one step better than Herrod.

  “There’s Marcus. We got back in touch recently.”

  Herrod gave a curt nod. “I am aware.” He really had been keeping an eye on me. “You don’t mind him knowing?”

  “You think he’ll use our connection against me?”

  “Of course. But whatever he wants, you’ll be able to give him.”

  Not if it was giving him my body. I wasn’t a whore.

  As if sensing my thoughts, Herrod raised a hand. “If it’s undesirable, I will kill him. Not to worry. But it won’t be.”

  I narrowed my eyes. He seemed awfully sure of himself. The others would be wondering if I collapsed in the shower, so I didn’t have time for all the questions. “And you know this how?”

  “I know more than you imagine. You will learn that I will not steer you wrong. Marcus won’t betray you. However, I will continue contacting Nadia. One way or the other, you will be rescued before tomorrow night, even if I have to send my hordes. As a last resort.”

  “Thank you.”

  “And in the meantime, if you can, kill that demon Yasmine. Wraiths are made by demons and witches. She controls them all.”

  “So, if she goes, they all die?”

  “Not that simple. But they will lose direction and their numbers won’t grow. They can’t procreate. The magic in them from her will weaken. They will be less formidable and thus easier to kill.”

  Someone pounded at the door. “Can you hurry up in there? Some of us have to use the bathroom,” Faith called.

  I kicked my shoes off. I needed to get undressed to pull my lie together. “Okay, be done in a minute.”

  I looked at Herrod. “Thank you.”

  He nodded before disappearing.

  I quickly jumped in the shower and took an unnecessary speedy wash, and then wrapped myself in a towel, grabbing my clothes in a pile in my arms.

  Faith stood outside the door when I opened it, arms crossed. “Took you long enough,” she grumbled, pushing past me.

  I headed into the bedroom and sat down on my bed. My heart was racing and I had to acknowledge that I was a little scared of being caught talking to Herrod. Fear wasn’t my usual go to button but the angels always made me nervous. Except for Carlos. Azrael still freaked me out.

  Angels were mysterious and powerful. They were the first paranormals, according to everything I’d read. I didn’t like being around them because I didn’t understand their full power. The fact that we were trapped in here with a guardian angel, which was one step down from an archangel, confirmed to me that Yasmine was no low-level demon. She could make wraiths, shoot lasers out her eyes, and put up a ward that prevented us from contacting our friends and most likely from getting out.

  “Everything all right?” Azrael asked.

  I sucked in a breath and looked up at the angel, leaning against the door frame to the room. Did they know about Herrod? Did I have I’m-keeping-a-secret written all over my face?

  “I’m fine, stop asking me that.” I got up and grabbed some fresh clothes from my suitcase.

  Azrael walked further in the room and sat at the foot of the other bed. “You seem distracted. This is a time to have your head in the game.”

  I rolled my eyes and put my fresh clothes on the bed and sat back down not planning to give the angel any type of show.

  The angel continued talking. “I know you don’t like me. I know you don’t like angels and you think Monica is playing us. I suppose you have every reason to doubt us. We didn’t do you any favors and in retrospect, what we did was overkill but you have to admit that we’d have had a hard time getting Felix to the Six without him giving you up.”

  Why was the angel wanting to rehash old issues with me right now? While I was vulnerable in my damn towel with the air conditioner giving me goosebumps?

  “What do you want to talk about, Azrael?”

  The angel pursed their lips and scratched their neck as they gathered a response. “Angels aren’t saints. The only saints are actual saints. We have our infighting. We have our own hopes and dreams. Monica is no exception. But you have to know whose side to be on. Your doubting of Monica might not work in your favor. She has a lot of pull. Trust that her goal is not to see your demise. That doesn’t help her. Having a demon ally would actually be good for her. Help keep tabs on the underworld.”

  Did they think I was going to be some type of snitch? That was not my calling.

  “She will get you the answers you’re looking for. And the more good you do for her, the cleaner your aura. Don’t go down that dark path to the demons. And don’t pull Felix with you.”

  Ah, so this is what it was all about. Azrael was, as I thought the angel would be, concerned about my connection to Herrod. Keeping my alleged true identity was a good thing after all.

  “Is this because of my meeting with Herod?”

  Azrael leaned back, balancing on their arms. “And that minion, Yusan.”

  “I can’t help that I’m a demon magnet.”

  Azrael cocked a brow as if they weren’t buying what I was selling. “We can help with that.”

  He was going to proposition something and I probably wasn’t going to like it. “How so?”

  “Like I said, the better your aura, the lesser the demon part of you will thrive.”

  “Now how does that work?”

  “Let me let you in on a little secret. Angel and demon blood? Not that different. It’s easy for an angel to become a demon. We all know that. A little harder the other way around. Well, a lot harder. I’ve only heard one tale of a demon becoming an angel. In the few cases we can convert a demon, we are only able to neutralize their blood for them to become just a normal human. It takes more than good deeds but that’s a start.”

  Suddenly everything made even more sense. They didn’t care about saving our proverbial souls or removing us from evil. No, the angels, especially Monica, wanted two less power threats running around, especially one that was half-angel and part of the magical Six. “So that’s the end game here. You want to remove us from our demon side and if you succeed, we would just be un-gifted humans. In a paranormal post-apocalyptic world.” I twisted my lips so the angel could clearly see how undesirable I thought that alternative was.

  Azrael gave a tight smile before sitting upright. “It’s better than having your souls damned to hell because you are part-demon.”

  Felix appeared in the doorway with Faith peeking under his arm. “Why would we go to Hell? We’re good people.”

  I cut my eyes at him. By the look on his face, it appeared that his guardian angel hadn’t filled him in on the plan. “You know about this?”

  “Not fully.”

  Faith ducked under his arm. “If Felix becomes a regular human, would we even be the Six anymore after Amina wakes up?”

  Azrael turned slightly to her. “That I don’t know.”

  She sat down on the bed near the angel, her face a mask of concern. “Well, that’s a pretty big risk then. We were brought together to do good because of our magic. We don’t know that the original soulmates were the only mega threat in this world. Not to mention we’re all more powerful individually because we bonded as the Six. So, we could all lose power in this.”

  “Would you want Felix going to Hell because you’d lose a little power?”

  Faith scrunched her face up and gave Azrael a look that was a mix of annoyance and confusion. It was a dumb question but even dumber if one wasn’t a believer. I wasn’t sure where Faith’s religious beliefs fell, but the look on her face said she wasn’t one for regular Sunday worship.

  I rubbed my arms. It was getting chilly in here, and I was starting to
feel exposed with only a towel. I wasn’t interested in this conversation or the angel agenda. Azrael thought I was a fool and they were playing us like we were some weak-minded followers.

  Felix cleared his throat, still standing in the doorway. He looked down at Azrael with a stern gaze. “We all know Hell or the underworld is real but it’s not a certainty if any of us go there just because of who our parents are. We are more than blood and bones. Now I’m fine with doing good deeds to help the world and if it makes my aura a little bit shiny, I’m all for it. But I like who I am and I believe in what brought the Six together. I don’t know the demon side of me. Maybe I don’t need to. I do know my mother raised me well and she was a good woman. That’s the important part.” He tilted his head over to me. “And maybe Fran’s father was a good man, too.”

  I worked hard to keep my face neutral at that last sentence. I was certainly iffy on how much good he’d done versus evil. He had a slew of believers who he helped but I wasn’t sure what evil he did to balance it out. Most importantly, I wasn’t going to give up my powers to become a regular human. I couldn’t even imagine what’d I do without magic. I was barely forming a path when I thought I was just a faerie. Who knew what my mind was like before magic? I didn’t know if I was focused or not but I did know that of all the things I could have become with fae magic, I’d willingly chosen to become a hitman. And even when my mind was screwed over by the angels I still went to fighting.

  I stood up with my clothes, heading back to the bathroom to change. Before leaving the room, I looked back at Azrael. “You keep working off the premise that angels are the greatest good. That we should follow you without question. Just because you’re old and work for the man or woman upstairs doesn’t mean you know everything. Maybe we’re all equal. How scary would that be to you if you found out angels weren’t the most powerful paranormals out there? I mean, didn’t Amina and Phillip do your dirty work?”

  Azrael turned quickly to me with blazing eyes and I gave the angel a saccharine smile. “I’m not going to stamp out my light to make you brighter.”

  Chapter 19

  I had just zipped up my jeans when Yusan appeared in the bathroom. I jumped, falling back on the toilet seat. “You’re doing this on purpose!”

  Yusan bowed his head. “Sorry, Francesca. I was in a rush.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here. I need you to try to get out and send word to someone.” It wasn’t that I didn’t fully trust that Herrod was working on it but- No, it was exactly that.

  Yusan nodded quickly. “Yes, yes. I tried to get out as soon as I saw what happened to you at the mayor’s office. No joy. The ward keeps even spirits out.”

  I sighed. Well at least he was smart enough to try.

  “I can help sneak you out of the hotel if you want to check. I’m not very strong so my not getting through isn’t that shocking. But we can do that later. I came here to tell you that Yasmine is on her way.”

  I jumped up. What the hell did she want now? I thought we had until tomorrow. “You could have led with that.”

  I raced out of the bathroom into my room where the other three still stood. “Yasmine’s on her way here.”

  Felix, now sitting on his bed, looked over at me with surprised eyes. “How do you know?”

  “Yusan told me.”

  I felt the demon’s presence behind me and I moved to my side. “Maybe she’s going to kill you now.”

  Azrael stood up calmly. “It would probably be me. As a full angel, she couldn’t get any strength from eating me. We cancel each other out. But my skin is still valuable.”

  Faith shook her head, frustration in her eyes. “We have to hide you.”

  Azrael wasn’t my favorite person but I knew that the others would be devastated if something were to happen to them. Plus, the angel was powerful, losing that strength would be to our detriment right now. “I could try my invisibility cloak. All fae can do it.”

  Azrael walked toward the door. “It would do no good. She could probably still sense my presence at her power level and it might put the rest of you in danger. The only other option I would have if we cannot defeat her is for me to leave to the heavens, without my body. I’m certain the ward can’t contain an angel’s essence. Very few things can.”

  Well, what was the hold-up? Why hadn’t he done that in the beginning? “Okay, well then leave your body and go get some angel help.”

  Azrael continued to walk. “Yes, I can do that. Of course, once I leave my body, if I don’t return in a certain amount of time, I won’t be able to get back in it. And of course, there are many other beings itching to get into human skins, as we all know. Anytime one leaves their body they are risking permanent eviction the longer they are gone from it.”

  Like I cared. This wasn’t the angel’s body to start anyway. Yes, angels took on human bodies through consent, unlike demons, but the bodies still weren’t their own. “Get a new body.”

  The angel turned slightly to me before heading to the hotel door, their eyes slightly saddened. “I like this one.”

  Faith raced past me to grab Azrael’s hand. I suppose she would be upset that her angel with benefits was possibly leaving their body permanently. “So do I.”

  They touched her cheek, giving her a nostalgic smile.

  Suddenly, the front door swung open and I quickly made my way to the living area, with Felix on my heels, in time to see Yasmine, back in human form, walk casually in. Her minions stayed on the outside. Her arm was in a sling as it healed, I assumed. I took only a mild satisfaction since she was able to get her arm reattached.

  Azrael blocked her path. “Why are you here?”

  She patted their shoulder and moved around the angel. “I wanted to have more of a chat without fighting. Now that you know the truth, perhaps, we can have more of a sensible discussion. We’ve never been lucky enough to have any guest as powerful as you enter our town.”

  Had she lost her mind? We weren’t going to sit here and have a chit-chat like old friends just to pass the time. No, her tune had changed from just an hour ago. Could it be that she didn’t really want to kill us and if so, why?

  Faith stood beside Azrael, hands formed in fists ready to fight. “I call bull-shit, why are you here?”

  She continued to move into the room, sitting down at the dining room table. “Believe it or not, killing you, well some of you, was not in my plan when I first met you. As you have surmised, the wraith nest is in this town. If you know anything about wraiths, then you know they cannot travel far from the nest, which is wherever the creator, in this case myself, resides.”

  I silently moved into the living room, resting my back on a nearby wall. I wanted to ask a question but decided to keep quiet as I figured she’d quickly realize how much she’d given away. She’d basically said her people couldn’t leave her side. So, what happened if she left them? Would they wither and die? Could she leave them for any period of time? What if she visited another realm? If we killed her, maybe they would all die? Even if we kidnapped her, they could possibly die. And, if we escaped, they couldn’t come after us unless she was with them. The whole town would have to pick up and leave to find us. Not very efficient if they needed to focus on bringing in food sources. And now it made sense why they heavily advertised this place as a vacation town. They couldn’t go out far and get their food. Only Yasmine could, and who knew how long she could be off without them dying when she was away from residence.

  Yasmine tilted her head and looked up at me from the corner of her eyes. It was an unsettling look even in her human disguise. “I can feel your mind working overtime, Francesca. You won’t be able to use your magic to kill me right now, even if you tried. You are strong but not strong enough. At least not yet.”

  How’d she know how strong I really was?

  Azrael sat down at the table across from her. If the angel was nervous or scared, they never showed it. “Why are you really here? Aren’t we supposed to be the tastiest of treats on a full m
oon?”

  Yasmine nodded, tapping the table with her index finger. “Yes, you are. However, we could also use some scouters. Maybe some help bringing people to our town.”

  “To eat?” The angel’s face distorted into an uncharacteristic look of disdain. “You want us to kidnap people and bring them here for you to kill? Have you lost your mind?”

  “Not at all. See I know some things and have connections. I think we could make a good deal.” She looked over to Felix. “You could run this town with me.”

  I sucked my teeth and rolled my eyes. Of course, she’d want him by her side. She’d been eyeing Felix from day one but he didn’t want her.

  “Azrael, you don’t have to worry about doing anything since I know you could no longer be an angel if you did. I’d let you go if you keep the angels away. I’d even return your angels to you.”

  “How noble of you,” the angel replied with deadpan eyes.

  Yasmine looked to Faith, unfazed by Azrael’s sarcasm. “You and Fran could work for me. Even send us evil people so your conscious could rest.”

  I made a pff noise at the same time as Faith and we glanced quickly at each other with somewhat renewed respect. There would be no way I’d work for another demon. I barely wanted to work for Nadia.

  Yasmine raised her shoulders and widened her cold eyes. “This is the deal so you can live. You all sit here and judge me but you have no idea what life was like for many lost souls. They just want a chance to live a life they were prevented from earlier. I’m not saying everyone here is virtuous but many were just regular beings, killed before their prime.”

  I needed to stop her right there from making her sob story about everyone just being victims. “What is the benefit to you to even make wraiths?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “I’ll admit, I get more power from my wraith followers. What they eat, I get energized from that as well. We’re all just trying to survive. We eat or die, what more can we do? Listen, this is a great deal.”

  Felix pushed away from the wall he was leaning against. “No dice. We aren’t doing your dirty work.”