The Demon Within

by Linda Kay Silva

  “What the fuck are you? Something out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales?” Denny did not take her eyes off the demon—and she paid the price for it when two of the others grabbed her arms. She did not release Epee, but retracted the blade.

  “Your Master is not happy with you,” the demon purred, his overly large face peering into Denny’s. “You have destroyed, maimed, or obliterated many of his soldiers, and for that, you will have to pay.”

  “Fuck you, Goat Boy. If Asmodeus was half the demon as my Hanta, he wouldn’t send vermin like you to clean up his messes.”

  The demon’s retort was a backhand across her face, splitting her lip.

  Denny laughed. “Pussy.” It was the Hanta’s deep growling insult. “You always did hit like a girl, you fuckwad.”

  The demon stood back, tilting his head. “Interesting. You control him not at all. I wonder why he’s even allowed you to remain anything but a passenger.”

  “As usual, you underestimate the situation.”

  This made the demon laugh. “Oh no, my friend, it is you who has underestimated the situation. Your days of wandering free in this world are over. The Master must make an example of you for all who wish to betray him. That lesson, as you’ll see, will come at quite a price.” The demon raised his fist behind his head and that was when Denny struck.

  Dropping to her ass, she felt the wind from his errant punch above her head. Before she could unsheath Epee, one of the minions kicked it from her hand.

  A sweeping leg kick brought two to the ground, where she pulled one of her boot knives from her Doc Marten boots and drove it so hard into his eye the point came out the back of his head—but she knew it wouldn’t be enough. There were too many of them and just one of her.

  Then she thought back to one of Peyton’s entries.

  He’d been outnumbered in a small room as well, and had escaped by hurling himself through a window and making a stand in the parking lot. She’d been mesmerized when she read the tale of how he just blasted through the window and came up on his feet ready for battle.

  And that’s exactly what Denny did.

  As she landed, shoulder first, she rolled over once, jumped to her feet, and was running into the darkness as fast as her legs would carry her. She fully expected to hear gunshots from behind, but there were none.

  Why in the hell were they letting her get away?

  Just when Denny thought she might be home free, she rounded a corner and ran right into the demon—only now, the goat legs were gone and he looked more like a bald bouncer at a bar.

  “Where would you run off to, Golden Silver? There is no place you can run, no place you can hide that my Master will not find you.”

  “Look. This is between Asmodeus and my Hanta. Can’t you leave me out of it?”

  The demon laughed. “I’m afraid not. You see this pitiful human shell is going to contain your Hanta for all of eternity. And even though you’ll still be alive with a legacy demon within, there will be no place to go but insane. You and your Hanta shall live out the rest of your short life caged together in torment.”

  With that, the demon punched Denny so hard, he knocked her out.

  ****

  When Denny woke up, her jaw was throbbing. When she tried to sit up, she hit her forehead on something.

  “No. No. No. No. No. No.” Panic set in as her hands felt all around the wooden box encasing her.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Denny’s heart raced as the realization struck her like a fist in her chest.

  They’d buried her alive.

  Searching for her phone, she realized she only had one thing on her she could use for light—her new watch.

  Heart pounding against her chest, she tried to bring her wrist to her face when an invisible power stopped her. It was the same power as when Ames had her put the dagger to her chest.

  “What the hell?” Denny was inches away from complete panic. No light, no air, no way of knowing what was happening to her; she was nearly frozen with fear.

  “Come on, man. I’m not trying to kill myself. I just need some light.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “And some air.”

  Suddenly, she felt movement. Like someone was now carrying her.

  “Let me outta here! Someone help me!”

  No reply came except the sound of rattling chains as they scraped across the top of her prison.

  She didn’t have the nerve to call it what it was.

  A casket. Her final resting place.

  “Listen to me, Golden Silver.”

  Denny held her breath.

  It was the demon’s voice from outside her cage.

  “You know so little of the world you’ve entered. You do not know how demons are created. Do not know why they move so easily among you. Well, let me elucidate some history for you. Your demon was once a terrible, terrible man. When the people he’d victimized put him in a box and tossed him into the ocean, he prayed to every deity he could until at last, one heard his pleas. That would be my Master. So, he saved the Hanta from a watery death and allowed his spirit to be reborn as a Hanta Raya in order to show everyone, time and time again, what a powerful darkness Asmodeus possesses. And what did your Hanta do in exchange for having his prayers being answered? He turned his back on our Master and allowed the one woman who knew how to defeat us to live.”

  “Fuck you.”

  The demon laughed. “No, Hanta. Fuck you. Your legacy ends here. When Golden Silver dies, there will be no place for you to go. You will remain in her until she is nothing but dust, and then, you shall die.”

  “You’re going to drown me?”

  The demon laughed. “Actually, no. Not yet. You’ll sink to the bottom of the bay, where you will languish until your air supply runs out, killing you and your demon in the watery grave he should have experienced a millennia ago. My master is nothing if not poetic. He does not wish to collect your demon. He wishes to make an example of him. I would have simply shot you in the face, but he wishes to—”

  “To prove a fucking point?”

  “Of course. Again, your ignorance rings loud like a bell. My master is the king of pain and suffering. A simple death is never how he operates. The pain and suffering you must consider now as you slowly suffocate is that you will not be the only one to die this day. When your witch friends receive a call from you to bring the Magyar forth, they will, and he will kill every single one of those cows. I want you to think about that as you die. Think about the power of my master and what havoc your demon caused in your life. Think about that, Golden Silver, as you and your Hanta die together.”

  Suddenly, the box felt like it was being lifted and then dropped. She heard the splash of the water and felt the slow movement as it sank.

  “Calm. Stay calm, Golden,” she said to herself. Reaching for her other boot knife, Denny hit her head three times before she finally reached it. “Think...come on, Golden, think.”

  Closing her eyes and fighting off the panic seeping into her soul, she could feel the Hanta coming back to life...only stronger...angrier.

  “We’re fucked, big guy. We—” She opened her eyes once more.

  Suddenly, she felt it in her chest—in her arms, the fire radiating outward to all her extremities. She felt it stronger than she ever had.

  Ever.

  It was survival for them now, and the Hanta was not about to roll over or give up.

  Inhaling deeply, Denny closed her eyes and let two tears run down the side of her face. “Help us,” she whispered. “Please get us out of here.” She knew if it did not, the Magyar would kill them all...Quick would rot in jail. Sterling and Pure would die.

  She had failed.

  Horribly.

  As much as she wanted to thrash about like a crazy person, she felt an odd sense of calm wash over her. The Hanta was filling her, taking over, coming more to life than it ever had.

  But why? After all, what could she do to get out of this?

  Ten seconds later, she realized she’d asked th
e wrong question.

  The better question was what could the thousand-year-old Hanta do?

  Denny opened her eyes.

  Plenty.

  “Save us. Do whatever you have to, but fucking save us.”

  As Denny felt the thinness of the air, she started to nod off only to feel the heat of lava flowing through her.

  It had awoken now and took complete control of her. Complete. She was barely even in the passenger seat this time, as the demon consumed her, taking over her arms, legs, mind, heart, and soul.

  Everything she’d been was now all Hanta Raya.

  Placing her palms on the sides of the coffin, she started pushing...and pushing. The more she pushed, the stronger the Hanta seemed to become. There was a slight give to the sides, as if the coffin were bending to her will. Ever so slowly, and by degrees, the sides gave way, allowing water to stream into her tomb. It did not matter to the Hanta, who kept pushing and pushing until the left side of the casket bowed open. Water filled the tiny space instantly, but the chains that had caused the casket to sink made it difficult for the side to break free completely.

  Denny could only hold her breath now and count the seconds before the game was over. Freezing water was rapidly filling her tomb, washing over her body now.

  But still, the Hanta did not give up, and forcefully pushed on the weakened wall.

  When the left slat snapped in half, it was still caught by the chain.

  Reaching for Fouet, the Hanta pointed it out the small opening, opened it up, and sliced the chain in half before putting Fouet back in her vest.

  Once the chain fell away, she grabbed the jagged wood in her bare hands and slowly pried it away from the nails in the corner. She was almost out of breath, but feeling the utter determination from the Hanta gave her the courage to hold on. He tore through the wood like it was Play-Doh.

  When the left side of the casket was gone, and water completely filled the inside, the Hanta scooted them out the opening and swam as quickly as he could toward the surface. Denny’s lungs burned, her face throbbed, but she was at least free of the casket.

  Now if only she could break free of the water before her lungs burst.

  She could see nothing up ahead and had no idea how much further it was or how much longer she could hold her breath, but the thought of failing her family and friends helped her to hold on…hold on until, with one final surge, Denny and the Hanta kicked and kicked until she breached the surface, inhaling both water and air at the same time, causing her to sputter and gag.

  But she was alive.

  The Hanta had saved them.

  “Thank you,” she uttered, starting to swim toward the only lights she could see. As she swam, she could feel herself regaining control. “Thank you for your strength, but we have to save my friends. We need to get to those lights and…”

  Once again, the Hanta took over and with stronger arms and legs than Denny truly had, and got them to shore much faster than she could have.

  Swimming to the nearest land, she realized she was at the furthest point of the bay. It would take her easily thirty minutes to get to Cassandra’s and another fifteen if she swung back by the motel to get Epee. That was too much time.

  With no phone and no wheels, she made it to a small boat slip and looked for anyone sitting on their boats. When she found three guys smoking cigars and drinking on the back of a twenty foot boat called Endless Dream, she walked over and asked if she could use a phone.

  No one answered. They just stared at what could only have resembled a drowned rat.

  “Look, some guy just dumped me in the bay and I need help. Please.”

  “I’ll call the cops for you, lady, but...well...no offense…”

  Denny shook her head and took off for the nearest house. She didn’t have time for the cops or time to explain to people why she was soaking wet.

  The summons was to start in less than an hour. She would either get an answer at the first house, or she would break in and use a landline.

  When a gentleman around fifty answered the door, Denny was all Hanta. She knocked him out, grabbed his land line and tried calling Cassandra.

  No answer.

  Brianna.

  No answer.

  Iris.

  No answer.

  Then she remembered the coven rules. All phones off in the house.

  She had no way of warning them.

  Looking at the time on the phone, she knew Ames was at the studio teaching.

  She dialed one more number.

  “Lauren—I need your help.”

  Lauren, as usual, listened patiently to Denny before saying with steel determination, “I know exactly who we need. On my way.”

  ****

  When Lauren picked Denny up in front of the wharf, she’d brought Victor, Pat Patterson, and two other unsavory looking characters.

  Patterson was a football player who had once been an adversary, but was now a good friend of Denny’s. Denny had no idea who the other two were.

  The car, a souped up Lexus SUV with rotating chrome wheel covers, two sun roofs, and tinted windows, was straight out of Gangster Land—just like the guy wearing the hoodie behind the wheel.

  “This is Snake and Scar, brothers from another mother,” Lauren explained.

  Both nodded silently.

  “They’re twins. I figured we needed some muscle.”

  “We? There’s no we. This is serious shit, Lauren. Life and death shit.”

  “Denny, your forehead…”

  “How come you’re all wet?” Patterson asked.

  Denny shook her head. “Someone tried to drown me. Long story.”

  “No kidding? Jesus, Golden, every time you turn around, people want to take your head off. What’s up with that?”

  Denny shot Lauren a withering stare before turning to the twins. “Look fellas, while I appreciate the help and all, this is...well...pretty dangerous stuff that’s gonna go down.”

  “Den, relax. No one is going in there with you, but we can at least watch the perimeter so someone has your back.”

  “Destination?” Snake asked from behind the wheel. A man of few words.

  Denny directed them to the motel so she could retrieve Epee, and then gave him Cassandra’s address.

  “Please...hurry.”

  Snake ran three red lights getting to the motel, where they found a manager waving his arms and griping about the broken window.

  “Denny, your forehead.”

  That was the first time Denny realized she’d been cut. No wonder the guys on the boat stared at her. Denny wiped some of the blood from her face before running into the motel room and grabbing Epee. She started out the door when the manager reached out to stop her.

  “You can’t just take that. This is a crime scene.”

  Denny’s eyes flashed red. “You want to try to stop me?”

  The manager stumbled away as she scrambled back into the Lexus. “Hit it, fellas.”

  Snake drove like a pro. All she could really see under the hoods was their tattoos.

  Snake had several snakes crawling up his arms, while Scar had...well...scars. Tattoos of scars. That might appear odd to someone not living Denny’s life.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Victor asked, looking at the cuts on Denny’s face.

  “Ambushed. Long story. There’s going to be trouble at Cassandra’s. Big trouble.”

  “Well, that’s why Lauren brought the big boys. You okay?”

  Denny shook her head. “I came this close to drowning. And whereas before you got here I was scared, now...now we’re just pissed.”

  Victor stared at her. “We?”

  Denny nodded. “We.”

  “Well, that’s a first.”

  “Yes, it is. And it won’t be the last.”

  ****

  When they pulled up to Cassandra’s, the house was dark.

  “Shit. Nice driving, Snake. I still have ten minutes to spare. You guys stay here. Keep the car run
ning.” To Lauren, she said, “I appreciate the ride, but this isn’t something you all can help me with.”

  Lauren shrugged. “We’re here and we’re not leaving until we see this thing out with you.”

  Victor and Patterson nodded like two bobble-head dolls. “What she said.”

  Denny leapt from the car, ran to the door and didn’t bother knocking. She nearly ran Iris over when she entered.

  “Whoa, cowboy.”

  “Where’s Cassandra?”

  “They went to your house like you told ‘em to.”

  Denny felt the blood drain from her face. Even running all the lights, they’d never get there in time. “Stay here. If they call, tell them to get out of there. No time for questions, Iris. Just do it.”

  Back in the car, she gave the address to Snake and told him to give it everything he had.

  He did.

  And when they screeched to a halt in front of Denny’s house, she knew she had no choice but to rely on those in the car for help. She was out of time and out of options.

  “Okay, this is the deal. They will kill you, so do not, under any circumstances, come in the house. Stay out here. Don’t let anyone else in, and no matter what you hear, do not, I repeat, do not enter my house. Make sure no one follows me in. And if a really big, bad-ass looking motherfucker rolls up, run like hell.”

  “We got these,” Snake said, pulling out a Beretta.

  “Those won’t even slow him down.” To Victor she said as she nodded to Lauren, “Get her out of here. She makes me more vulnerable.”

  “Roger that.”

  When Denny took the porch stairs two at a time, she found Rush waiting at the door.

  “Jesus, baby, what in the hell is going on? This place is like a revolving door.”

  “Long story. Where are the witches? Are they okay?”

  “They got here and there was a note on the door telling them to meet you in the cemetery.”

  “Fuck. Which cemetery?”

  “Your favorite is what the note says.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Ten, fifteen minutes? The note said to start without you. I’ve been looking all over for you. That’s why I wasn’t here when they arrived. I felt…oh Christ, baby, I felt like you were dying.”