Gran’s death had started to unravel things again. It took away the one person I loved who wasn’t causing me any pain. I couldn’t stand to see Lucy making the same terrible decisions with men, over and over again. She wasn’t learning from her mistakes. She was just finding a fresh new arsehole every time she discarded one. She wouldn’t listen when I tried to help her, and anything she saw as meddling only drove a wedge between us even further.
I couldn’t stand to see Mason get closer and closer to the girl the girl he’d suddenly started dating about six months after he told me he loved me. They’d seemed so happy together. I was convinced he’d pop the question any second. It was driving me insane. I couldn’t understand what he was doing. Why needle me into falling for him and then drop me the second I confess my feelings?
I stopped getting close to people. Piper was a fun friend to hang around with, but she didn’t know more than surface stuff about me. Jimmy was single-minded, but that was okay. I didn’t want him to get to know me. I ran away before I could lose Lucy and Mason completely. I’d thought I was protecting myself.
Now, I wasn’t quite so sure. It was going to take time to put things back the way they were. It might not even be possible. Lucy likely wouldn’t want anything to do with me anymore. Mason was probably married to the girl he’d replaced me with by now. Things were never going to be the same again.
I’d had to leave, but I knew deep down that it wouldn’t be forever. I’d had to come back sometime. This was still home, even if everything had changed.
I went into my bag and pulled out the card with Jimmy’s number on it. Feeling less shitty about everything would be nice. I only hesitated after I put the number into my phone. He was saved now, stored. I could call him at the weekend, see if he’d meet up.
The thought of an actual date made my stomach churn. There’s no way I could handle that. But, if I could talk him into meeting me in a club, maybe we could sink back into our old habits. That would be better. Anything else would be another change I didn’t want to have to deal with.
Chapter Nine
Day two, Monday, I hung around in the hotel room for a few hours before deciding the waiting was driving me crazy. I had to get out, I had to do something. Walking into town, I started to just wander around, walking past the Demon’s Lair nightclub and wondering how much damage the fire had actually done. The building’s exterior gave no clues. How far had it spread? I tried looking in the windows, but it was too dark to really see anything. There was a sign up; ‘Closed Until Further Notice’.
There had to be damage beyond the room I’d been in. That part of the building hadn’t even seemed to be in use. If it had spread from there, it had spread much faster than it seemed to be while I was in that room. I frowned, remembering the guy had left the room and come back. Unless he’d seen me, that seemed weirdly suspicious. Had he set more than one fire in the building? He had to have, didn’t he? Did that mean there was more than one body?
I shuddered at the thought. It was a possibility. With the demon’s influence, the host would never lose the desire to spill blood. The actual method of murder was tailored to the host’s preferences but the desire to continue to kill was being fed by the Wrath. If the demon was exorcised, the host might be mournful. He might regret the actions he made in the heat of the moment, the actions that brought the demon to him. He might not understand why he was able to continue to carry out the depraved acts. Or he might be a stone-cold psychopath who would continue on that dark path, with or without a demon inside.
Either way, the demon had to come out. That was my job. What came after wasn’t my business, as my grandmother had so often liked to remind me. I might make an anonymous call to the police, if there was enough evidence for them to make an arrest. I didn’t feel like my job was over when that was done, if there wasn’t enough evidence to call the cops. So, usually, I watched the host for a short while after. If it seemed like they were unlikely to attract another demon, I walked away. If they were still up to no good, I’d wait for the right moment to tip off the police.
I walked around close to Lucy’s flat that afternoon, hoping to encounter the skater-boy. I didn’t see him. It probably wasn’t where he lived. He’d been too well dressed. I was sure I’d run into him in town some time, so I wasn’t going to worry about it. It wasn’t as if he was going around killing people.
I must have walked for miles. Moving around town, trying to figure out what to do. When I got back to the hotel I was too tired to keep my eyes open. I kicked off my boots and crashed out on top of the covers in my clothes.
***
Jimmy’s lips worked their way along my collarbone as the thumping bass from the club made the cloakroom wall seem to vibrate at my back. It was one of our favourite hiding spots in one of our usual nightclubs in town. We’d discovered it by accident after realising the main cloakroom was a terrible place to do anything that was supposed to be private. People were entering and leaving the club constantly. The attendant was always poking around the coat racks. The room used to be bigger. The part we were in had been sectioned off. I didn’t even think the attendant knew it was there.
He moved back. “You’re so tense.”
I tried to relax but I’d barely downed one drink before he appeared to whisk me away to our secret spot. It wasn’t enough to wipe out the day I’d had. I blew out a breath. “I got fired today.”
“Again?” He raised an eyebrow as he played with the strap on my dress, fingers stroking over my shoulder. His thoughts were clearly still on what we came into the cloakroom to do. “What happened?”
Ugh. I shouldn’t have brought it up. Here I was with a hot guy ready and waiting to please, and all I could think about was the shitty day I’d had. I’d come out to forget my troubles, not to wallow in them.
“Same old whatever. Waitressing sucks, anyway.” Especially when a demon decided to pull me into the dreamscape when I was carrying four plates loaded with hot food. It wasn’t as bad as it sounded. I only spilled a little in my rush to put them down on the nearest table and get to the bathroom. My manager only thought I was puking in the toilet for an hour, instead of the more criminal sleeping on the floor. I’d been fired on the spot. Went straight home and showered until my skin hurt. Maybe passing out on the restaurant floor would have been better for my work prospects, but I seriously doubted it. Either way, I was a liability.
I’d thought the night out would make me feel better. Now I was wondering if it was a mistake. Spending the last of my tips before I have another job. Lucy would kill me. I should probably feel bad about that.
Jimmy smiled and finally put his lips on mine. He always tasted of smoke. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to it, but I doubted I’d need to worry about it. Every time felt like the first, and the last. He never called, I never had to worry about him figuring out my deal. We just ran in to each other erratically, and wound up letting our hormones do the talking, every damn time.
I kept promising myself this was the last time, and he just kept convincing me to break the promise. I didn’t know how something so wrong could feel so right.
***
I woke up with the taste of smoke lingering in my mouth. If it wasn’t for my special abilities I might have wondered if I was having a stroke. Being on the trail of a demon can really screw with a dream walker’s senses. There was something weirdly erotic about fire to me right now, and I knew it was his influence. It wouldn’t fade until I exorcised the Wrath from his host.
I wondered if it was why I’d dreamt of Jimmy. I wanted to tell myself it wasn’t, but that would have been a lie. I hadn’t wanted Jimmy back in my life until I locked eyes on that demon. Call it a coincidence. I might, if I believed in those.
Groaning, I reached for my phone. I didn’t read his response to my message the other day. I hadn’t wanted to think about it. I checked it and it did nothing to make me feel any better. I hadn’t really thought it would. I started to message him back, trying to come up wit
h the right words to cancel the date. I found out I couldn’t do it. Had to be the Wrath’s influence.
I knew what I needed to do to make it all stop. I couldn’t start another job while a demon still had his hooks in this deep. I needed to do the ritual, go astral and hunt him down on his own turf.
The thought made my palms sweat. I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. My grandmother would have skelped my arse so hard for just thinking about doing this. I was good to no-one dead. Sorry, Gran. I don’t know what choice I have left.
Chapter Ten
Rituals were funny things. Some took seconds. Some were more complex and required trinkets and/or chanting. In my experience, the latter were the fake ones, or at least, they were exaggerated versions of the true rituals. People just expected the spectacle.
My grandmother used to say that. I didn’t understand what she’d meant until I paid more attention to her tarot card readings. Each card she turned over meant something specific to the person getting the reading, yet if she only gave them the basic meanings it wasn’t so impressive. She’d had to elaborate, observe their reactions and give them something more. Make the readings come to life. Only then did they become rapt in the moment, hanging on every word, listening closely to hear what they needed to.
Right now, lying on my back staring up at the ceiling, I kind of wished this ritual had more to it. I supposed I was just like everyone else. I took deep breaths to stay focussed. I imagined myself floating above my own body. I stared past the ceiling until I could picture sky beyond the room and roof above. It was only dark out there because the sky was overcast. I watched the grey clouds move, and it happened. I could feel the paralysis of my body left behind. The feeling only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to signal that it had happened. My spirit form looked like my physical form, only less solid and more glowy.
I forced my drifting spirit to move down to the bed and then stand up. Being disconnected from my body is a feeling I would never get used to. Spirit form took a fair bit of getting accustomed to in general. It didn’t like gravity and it took a lot of concentration to move like a human. Gliding around was a bad idea. It was way too easy to lose control.
This was only the first part of the ritual. Going astral was one thing. Finding the demon was the other. I thought of him and moved. Thinking of him picked up his trail. A thin mist of red light guided me onwards, out of the hotel and into the town. I knew at the end of the trail he’d be there. It twisted and wound and I took each corner slowly, waiting for the instant I locked eyes on him. I was sure a plan would form once I was staring him dead in the face. I hoped.
I doubted my weapon would form. It didn’t the last couple of times I did this. I didn’t know why that came as any kind of surprise. It wasn’t supposed to form until I was in the dreamscape, inside the memory of what corrupted the demon’s host body.
I walked around town as if I was a ghost. No-one saw me, but I see everyone. I took great care not to walk into anyone, knowing from first-hand experience that it’d feel bad. Spirit was more sensitive than flesh. Bruises, I could handle. Mental torture dealt out by walking through someone took a lot longer to fade. My own demon-ruined dreams were shitty enough. I didn’t need the average person’s fears and anxieties lumped on top of those and running rampant through my head night and day.
The trail seemed to get thinner, and I realised I could see smoke on the ground. I slowed my walk, stopping at a corner by a building. I knew he was lurking a few feet away, just out of sight. My certainty that a plan would pop into my head when I got to him had faded.
He was going to kill me. What the hell was I doing?
I stared down at my hands, willing my weapon to appear, whatever it might be. I could care less if it was a fucking pencil right now. I needed something, anything.
Then it happened. He turned the corner and smiled at me. The monstrous thing, free of his host, stared me down with pulsing red eyes in his scarlet spirit form. I ran, back the way I came.
Heroic, I know. Here’s the thing; every second a demon was free of his host’s body was a second of the host being in full control. I take this thing out for a run and maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t get back inside his host. I was praying for a crisis of conscience, basically. That’s what would stop the demon from being able to return.
I felt the demon’s heat as he gave chase. My slightly pathetic plan was working.
Like the ritual, there was a second part to my newly formed running away plan. If I could get back inside my body before the demon got to me, I’d have the chance to head straight to the dreamscape. If there was any hesitation on the host’s part to let the demon back in, it might be enough time to find him and send him back to hell.
Everything hinged on ‘might’. I ran into the hotel and raced to my room. I couldn’t feel him behind me anymore. Maybe he’d realised my plan. I got back into my body and concentrated, swearing every time I failed to connect my spirit to my body. Panic began to set in. If I couldn’t re-connect, I was dead-meat.
I stared through the ceiling and the clouds I saw become thicker, darker. Then I realised they weren’t clouds at all. The mass above me was smoke, and it was billowing down towards the bed, getting closer and closer to my prone body.
I felt my lungs fill with the deadly air and I started to choke. I still couldn’t make my body move. It wasn’t connected. Tears dripped from the corners of my eyes. It took me a few seconds to figure out what the hell was going on. I was wrong about not being able to re-connect. I could feel everything, I was connected to my body. It was just caught in the grips of sleep paralysis.
I closed my eyes and the room floated away. When I opened them again, I was in the dreamscape. The hope I felt faded quickly, as I realised the demon brought me here, not the other way around.
The room was dark and the killer from the night club was sitting on the edge of the bed I was lying on. The room was glowing crimson. The demon smiled down at me.
“Dream walker. I thought you’d never come.”
I sat up and tried not to make it obvious I was doing my best to summon a weapon. He knew what needed to happen for the right weapon to appear, the one that would destroy him. This wasn’t the host’s memory. He wouldn’t let that happen. He was in control here, not me. All I could do was try not to die.
“If I’d known this was what it’d take to get your attention, I’d have gone astral sooner.”
He laughed. I was so funny. Stupid little human cracking jokes at her own execution. I could practically read his thoughts, I didn’t need to hear them. I summoned a knife. It was easy, and violent enough to be a good guess. He slit his victim’s throats. The type of knife might be harder to lock onto. But I was willing to keep trying. Maybe I’d get lucky. I tightened my grip on the handle.
I barely got the chance to think about moving my arm. He moved like lightning, his hands grasping my throat and squeezing. My grip on the knife faltered. I reminded myself I didn’t need to breathe here. This was a dream. It wasn’t real. Kind of hard to believe when I could feel him choking me, but mind over matter was important in these situations. All was not yet lost.
I acted as if he’d gotten me. I was fighting to breathe while my hand moved. There was no easy way to reach his throat with the weapon I had. He squeezed harder and I started to freak. There’s only so much zenning out a girl could do to keep calm under this kind of pressure. The knife wasn’t going to work. I swapped it out for a spear, and I stabbed upwards towards his head. The tip punched through the underside of his chin. I gave it another swift shove and he let me go, involuntarily. His eyes were bleeding as he stumbled backwards and pulled at my summoned weapon. I seriously needed to get out of here before he cut it loose.
I ran, taking the only exit in the room and running down a hallway. There’s only darkness out here and that might have been terrifying, if I wasn’t trying to get away from something that could kill me in a heartbeat. The stairs appeared very suddenly. I stumbled down th
em, falling partway and sliding to the bottom on my ass. It’s a bumpy ride but I didn’t complain when I saw the real exit. The blue glow around the door made me breathe out a sigh. My throat was constricting and it was hard to catch a breath, but not for long. Reality, here I come.
Chapter Eleven
Waking up in my room, gasping in air, I thank heaven that I made it through. Going astral was a horrible mistake. I would be thinking twice before I ever did it again. Time had passed just as quickly as the last time, which was odd, but not impossible. I did need to be at work in half an hour though, which kind of sucked, but gave me something immediate to focus on.
I got ready, my head reeling from the experience with the demon. He knew I was alive now, he knew I would be coming for him. I’d screwed up deciding to go after him like I did. It was impulsive. I was afraid that waiting would mean more dead. I was afraid it would mean losing another job when I inevitably had to enter the dreamscape at another inopportune time. It was a stupid decision, and it almost got me killed.
Shaken, I somehow manage to get dressed in the new work clothes I bought and make myself look semi-presentable by scraping my long hair back into a messy bun and applying the only make-up I have; lip-gloss and mascara. Lucy had told me I’d be given a waistcoat with the hotel’s logo, and that a shirt and trousers were fine to wear with it. There definitely used to be a hideous retro-looking dress that the female staff had to wear, but going by Lucy’s suit, and the classier new décor, I assumed that went out with the old carpets.
I left the room after I stepped into my new shoes. They kind of squeaked a little when I started to walk which was annoying, but I hadn’t noticed that when I bought them, and now my only other choice would be to wear my night-out heels. For a four hour shift, I might have considered it. All day in heels wasn’t happening. My instructions, texted to me when I was told I had the job, were to head to the front desk to start my shift with a staff member who’d been at the hotel for a while, someone who would be able to ‘show me the ropes’. I headed to the elevator without giving it a second thought. I had pressed the button to call it, before my tired brain reminded me. Doesn’t work, dumb-ass. Take the stairs.
Sinners Never Sleep (Seven Deadly Demons Book 1) Page 6