“And okay, having it take over is really fucking horrible. Watching your hands do dirty work that you’d never do.” Raina shook her head.
“But once it’s gone...” Raina trailed off and her eyes went distant. “It reminds me of Mom,” she said finally. “I loved her more than I’ve ever loved anyone. I hated her more than I’ve ever hated anyone. But once she was gone, I ached for her to return.”
Willa didn’t realize she was crying until the tears were running down her face.
“All I ever wanted to do was take care of you,” Willa said. “To make up for what Mom couldn’t do.”
“I know.” Raina pulled a thread loose from her gauze. “But I don’t need you to take care of me.” She wrapped the thread around her finger and pulled it tight. Her fingertip turned redder. “I want the demon back, Will, and I want the collar.”
Willa’s first reaction was to say no. Absolutely not. She would not give up on her sister.
But at what point would she stop sacrificing herself to save someone who didn’t want to be saved?
When Raina was dead? When Willa was dead?
Wasn’t being possessed by a demon already too much?
The last five years ran like a film through Willa’s head.
All those dark nights she lay awake in bed straining to hear if Raina was whispering to the shadows. The quiet desperation. The constant state of near-panic.
The loneliness.
The emptiness.
The fear.
Now she had followed Raina into Hell. Did Raina belong here? No, Willa couldn’t believe she did. But she’d still chosen it time and again.
And now it was time for Willa to make a choice. Because she didn’t fucking belong here either.
Willa took a breath. She leveled her shoulders and wiped the tears from her face.
“Okay,” she said. “If Poe comes back with the collar, you can have it and your demon.”
Raina’s expression turned to one of stark relief. It broke Willa’s heart but she saw it now. Raina had to want to be saved and be willing to fight for it. Otherwise there was nothing Willa could do for her.
“And when you have both,” Willa sucked in a deep breath and continued, her voice wobbly, “I will walk out of your life and I won’t come back.”
Willa blinked, waiting to feel sad and heartbroken. Waiting for the rush of tears.
Instead, she felt liberated.
Chapter 31
POE
Poe knocked on the door of the A-frame house at 1223 Kippy Creek Road.
“Smells like dog out here.” Dae scowled.
Poe had no clue who to expect to answer the door, but he was relieved to see the large black man on the other side of the screen.
That explained the musky smell.
“Billy!” Poe said.
“Mr. Blackwell,” Billy said and then frowned. “Where’s Willa?”
“She...” How much did Billy know? Poe vaguely recalled that Billy had been part of Corvin’s security team. As one of the older werewolves in the city, having him on the team was likely a boon.
“Willa is in trouble,” Poe said. “I need the demon collar.”
Billy took in a deep breath. An animalistic grumble sounded in the base of his throat. “She said you were helping her.”
“Well, she lied, Billy,” Poe said. “But I think it was for a good cause.”
Billy came out of the house and started down the steps. “That girl has been through the muck. They both have.” He shook his head and went around the house. There were no yard lights but seeing as they were all of the supernatural sort, they didn’t need it.
They followed a foot path to a shed where Billy pulled out a shovel and handed it to Poe.
“I don’t like to pry into other people’s business, but you know the term codependency?”
“I’ve heard of it,” Poe said.
Billy started into the woods. “The more Willa tries to save her sister, the worse it becomes. They need a break. They need to fail on their own and heal on their own.”
“You should be a therapist, Billy,” Dae said.
Poe looked at his brother in the darkness. Was he joking?
“I’m serious,” Dae said.
Billy laughed. “That’s kind of you, Mr. Blackwell, but schooling costs money and I don’t have a lot of it.”
“We can make a deal,” Dae said. “I’ll give you straight wishes.”
They stopped at a grove of birch trees. The air smelled of turned earth.
“I don’t deal with djinn,” Billy said. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Dae and Poe said in unison.
Billy scraped the ground with his boot. “Here it is. About three feet down in a box.”
“Thanks Billy. We can take it from here.”
He nodded. “If you need me, I’ll be in the house.”
Poe stuck the point of his shovel into the ground and started digging. It didn’t take long to uncover the small wooden box.
“If the demon knew where the collar was hidden, then why didn’t it retrieve it on its own?” Dae asked.
Poe unlatched the box and held the collar to the moonlight. The forest was a chorus of noise. Crickets and tree frogs and other night creatures. Poe had always felt more at ease in the darkness. He liked that he could hide in it.
“I’m assuming the demon is lazy,” Poe said. “It would have to drive here to get it. Furthermore, coming here would have been a risk, what with the big scary werewolf. Whereas having the collar brought to it on its territory is a far greater advantage.”
Dae looked out over the forest. An owl hooted in the distance. There was a troubling frown on his face.
Dae had always been the one to worry for the both of them.
Poe waved his hand through the air. “We should hurry this along.”
“Haste leads to mistakes.” Dae took the collar. “I would like to return to my caeli whole and well when the night is through.”
“Well I quite like Ashley, so I promise her and you that you will.”
Dae got a feel for the collar’s leather. “Willa told you she didn’t know your caeli?”
“In the heat of the moment, yes, but...I’m not sure I care any longer.”
“Really?” Dae brought the collar to the moonlight to survey the metal clasp. “That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
He could think of no one else in this moment other than Will. How could he possibly give himself to some other woman after he knew what it was to have a woman he—
Bloody hell.
He was about to say a woman he loved.
“How much longer?” Poe pressed.
Dae narrowed his eyes. “I can’t just pull a dozen demon collars out of a hat. Besides, it isn’t like she’ll disappear. We literally have the very thing the demon wants.”
“Yes, but imagine all the lecherous things the demon could do with Will’s body. If it—” He ground his teeth together. “Please hurry.”
“All right. All right.”
Dae sniffed the collar, then rubbed the leather between his fingers.
Poe tried to shake off the rising anxiety with conversation. “Looking back, did you see any signs that Ashley was your caeli before you knew?”
“I don’t know…magnetism, I suppose. I was drawn to her. She was the sun and I was her votary. I could think of nothing else other than her when she was gone. Never had I felt that way for a woman. And a human no less.”
I feel that way about Willa.
He wanted to say it out loud.
But that was absurd.
She was not his caeli.
She was just a girl who he—
Loved.
Otherwise you would not be willing to risk everything to save her.
There was a constant buzz in the back of his head and in his chest that said…
If you do not do this, you will lose everything.
“How much longer?”
“Demon magic has it
s own scent. It’s coppery and sweet. But overwhelming too, like black pepper. Getting it right will be difficult.”
“I have faith in you. But please do it quickly.”
Dae gave him a look and then slipped the collar over his arm. He held it outright and the collar dangled in the moonlight. With his other hand, he snapped his fingers scenting the air with his spicier magic.
His eyes glowed red and in an instant, his arm was covered from wrist to elbow in matching demon collars.
Poe snagged one from his arm. The leather was soft between his fingers. The small iron latch was rusty and pitted. The etchings were the same. Same harsh lines cut exactly at the right depth. “Well done, brother.”
“I still don’t think this will work.”
“We just need to buy a few minutes.”
Dae slipped the collars off his arm. “Well all right then. Shall we?”
“Yes, there’s no more time to waste.”
“Tuck your balls in,” Dae said and grabbed Poe’s arm to vade.
Chapter 32
POE
A hundred years ago, the city’s lower east side where the Corvin Compound was located had been known simply as the Harbor and soot had covered everything. The air had been hard to breathe, and everything stunk of rotting fish.
“I hate the lower east side,” he said, once they’d reappeared in the park along the Rine River. The tension and worry made him quick to complain. He did not like this feeling, like everything was at stake and all of it out of his control.
“I quite like it,” Dae said and ran a hand back through his hair.
“That’s because you own half of it.”
Dae flashed a smile into the night. “More like three-quarters, if I’m being honest.”
The brothers left the empty park and crossed the deserted street. The Corvin Compound was a block to the north.
Dae lit a cigarette the old-fashioned way, the smoke permeating the air. The lighter clacked shut with a satisfying snap. At the next street corner, a stray cat stopped to watch them with eyes that flashed in the night.
“Can you tell where everyone is within the building?” Poe asked, eyeing the windows for movement.
Despite the fact it was the middle of the night, the Harbor was still loud with ambient noise. The sewers were particularly deafening here and the electrical infrastructure hummed like a hive. Poe was having a hard time zeroing in on anything within the Compound, but Dae had his magic at his side and so he could hear much farther.
Dae narrowed his eyes as he turned his focus to his hearing. “Corvin is on the top floor. Sounds like he’s alone. Willa is…I’m not sure. All I hear on the ground floor is white noise.”
“Let’s go to Corvin first. He might know where to find Will. And we’ll see if we can sway him to our side and if we can’t—”
Dae blew out a breath of smoke. “If we can’t, let’s throw him out a window.”
“Works for me.”
Dae took another hit from the cigarette and then flicked it, the embers arching into the night. He grabbed Poe around the arm again and they left the street behind, reappearing not ten feet from Caleb in the top floor of the Compound.
Caleb, sensing the shift in the air, grabbed a gun and pointed it at them.
“Mother fucker,” Caleb said and lurched to his feet. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Dae dropped into one of the leather side chairs and said, “Sit the fuck down, Caleb.”
One of the very good things about demons was that they did not have the heightened hearing that djinn had. Demons were limited by their host’s senses. But Poe and Dae still needed discretion if they were to operate outside of the demon’s awareness.
“Where are Raina and Willa?” Poe asked.
“How the fuck should I know?” Caleb sat back on the couch and closed his eyes. “I don’t seem to be part of the plan anymore.”
“Well what did you expect?” Dae asked. “It’s a demon. You of all people should know how very little control you have over them.”
Caleb’s grandfather had battled for years against a demon. It was why Corvin and his father moved to Blackwater decades ago. They were running from their family problems.
But apparently, as humans were wont to do, Caleb did not learn his lesson.
Caleb reached forward for his drink, a tumbler filled to the brim with an amber liquor. “Raina said she could handle it.”
“Well surprise, she can’t,” Dae said.
“Obviously.”
“So what do you plan to do about it?” Poe asked.
Caleb sipped from his glass. “I plan to do nothing.”
“Wrong answer,” Dae said.
He came over to Poe’s side and grabbed him. They disappeared and reappeared behind Caleb. Caleb turned but not fast enough. Dae set his hand on Caleb’s shoulder and took them all to the Compound’s roof.
Caught off guard, Caleb stumbled forward and Poe grabbed him at the collar of his t-shirt to haul him, head first, over the roof’s edge.
Cold wind rushed in off the river, stealing the sound of Caleb’s screaming.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
Poe loosened his hold and Caleb dropped an inch.
“I will kill you!” Caleb yelled.
“Not if I kill you first.”
“What do you want?”
“Your full cooperation.”
The wind shifted. Caleb clawed at Poe’s arm.
“Okay! Let me go!”
Poe yanked him back up.
Caleb doubled over to catch his breath.
Sometimes Poe felt bad for mortals, for their weaknesses and how someone like him, an immortal supernatural, could so easily exploit their vulnerabilities.
But he did not feel bad for Caleb. He brought this upon himself when he started playing with dark magic and dark things. He knew the risks.
“What do you need me to do?” Caleb said.
“You have security cameras all over this place,” Dae said. “Where are the monitors?”
Straightening, Caleb put his hands on his hips. “Second floor. Southwest corner of the building.”
“Will there be security present?” Poe asked.
Caleb nodded. “Should be one guy. Human.”
Dae moved to grab him, but Caleb backtracked. “Wait,” he said and held up his hands. “There’s something you should know.”
Poe and Dae exchanged a look.
“What is it?” Poe asked.
“You have to understand,” Caleb said, “I had no choice. The demon…it made me give the command.”
Fear surged through Poe.
Caleb Corvin will bring chaos to your door.
Poe had thought that meant Raina, the demon, when she’d arrived with runed blades she’d sunk into his flesh.
“What did you do?” Poe asked.
“My team,” Caleb said, “they’re on their way to Blackwell House with orders to ambush the place.”
Chapter 33
POE
Poe grabbed Caleb around the throat and lifted him off his feet. “Call off the command.”
“I can’t,” Caleb croaked as he scrabbled at Poe’s grip.
“Why not?”
“The demon took my phone. All of my coms. And then it made me give the order for the team to go dark. There’s no way to contact them.”
Dae put a steadying hand on Poe’s shoulder. “You can’t kill him,” he said. “At least not yet. We need him.”
Fury roared through Poe. Not even the chilly wind of the Rine River could cool him off.
“Take us down to the security room,” Poe said to Dae. “Then you need to go back to the house.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Dae said.
“You need to go warn Mad and Red and Thorin. And get Oddie out of the house.”
Dae cursed. He put his hands on Caleb and Poe and vaded to the security room. When the guard at the desk caught sight of them, he lurched to his
feet and reached for his gun, but Dae gave a snap of his fingers and the man slumped over in his chair fast asleep.
Gods, what Poe wouldn’t give to have access to his magic right now. He hated this restlessness, this feeling that he could do so much more.
“Can you get—” Poe started, but Dae disappeared mid-sentence. He came back a second later with the bag full of collars in his hand. They’d hidden it, wanting to get a lay of the land first.
Poe took the bag.
“You good?” Dae asked.
“I’m good. Go.”
With a nod, he vanished.
Poe turned to the dozen security monitors attached to the wall.
When he caught sight of Willa in the great hall sitting still on a bench in the choir loft, he nearly lost it.
He wanted to run straight to her.
He wanted to feel her skin beneath his to reassure himself that she was whole and well.
But she wasn’t.
Not with a demon in her body.
“Where’s Raina?” Poe asked as he scanned the rest of the monitors.
“Last I knew, she was in her room,” Caleb said. “There aren’t cameras there.”
“Where would her room be from here?”
“Third floor. Third door down on the north side of the building.”
Dae was supposed to get Raina out, but Poe would have to improvise. “Go to her,” he said. “Take her somewhere safe and then get back here so you can help me exorcise the demon from Willa’s body.”
“What are you going to do?”
Poe lifted the bag clutched in his hand. “I’m going to give the demon exactly what it wants.”
Chapter 34
WILLA
When Willa left Raina, she went to the great hall on the ground floor of the Compound. It had always been Willa’s favorite room.
It had an arched ceiling with curved wood beams that met at a point at the room’s greatest height. There was a choir loft on one end of the room. In the daylight, when Caleb and Raina were sleeping off the party from the night before, Willa would go up to the loft to read. It was always cozy and full of sunlight.
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