Demona narrowed her eyes at Darius. Why is he being so cooperative?
“When will your people be prepared for the exorcism?” Darius asked.
“We’ll be in touch,” Demona said. “After…I have confirmation that Kearne is safely out of the dungeons.”
Demona turned and walked away leaving Darius to stare after her. She grinned as soon as her back was turned and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Yes, Darius had the artifact, but Demona now had a few new tricks up her sleeves, as well.
Demona made her way back to the old parking lot, where her friends waited for her. She found them leaning up against Felix’s red sedan. She walked towards them with a smile on her face.
“You seem happy. Did it work?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah, he agreed to my terms,” Demona replied. “Now, we just wait.”
“This is not going to be easy,” Kaleb said.
Demona crossed her arms. “Psh, none of this is going to be easy.”
“But we have a really cool secret weapon that he doesn’t have,” Ileana said.
The group looked at Demona.
“Yes, I know let’s all stare at Demona, because she is special. Can you at least act like I’m your friend?”
Hannah and Ileana threw their arms around Demona’s back, one on each side.
“Of course,” Ileana replied.
“You have always been our friend,” Hannah said.
“But you are still pretty darn awesome!” Kaleb added.
Felix pulled her away from Hannah and Ileana. “She might be the chosen one, but she’s all mine.”
Demona leaned against Felix and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her heart fluttered as he held her in his arms. She reached up to meet his lips and pressed into him. Felix’s lips molded to hers for a long moment.
“Owe! Owe!” Kaleb yelled.
Ileana tapped her foot impatiently and rolled her eyes. “Get a room!”
“I think it’s sweet,” Hannah replied. She looked at Kaleb and he smiled back at her.
Demona pulled back from Felix and looked into his eyes for a moment before turning to the others. “It’s going to take forever for me to get used to this.”
“What?” Felix asked.
“The feeling of my beating heart…breathing, too. Sometimes I catch myself forgetting to take a breath.”
“You’ll be used to it in no time,” Hannah said.
Demona nodded. “We have to make a stop before going back to headquarters.”
****
Demona walked through an old unkempt cemetery in the middle of a forest. The plots were scattered and in no particular order. It had been neglected and filled in with brush that hid the majority of the headstones. Demona was uncertain that she would be able to find her parents among the mess. She continued to walk through the brush and pulled the high grass away from any of the headstones that she stumbled upon.
“They’ve got to be here, somewhere,” Demona said. She was getting frustrated with the search.
Her friends walked through the brush in a fanned out fashion each looked at the names on the headstones that they passed for any indication of who was resting below. It was difficult to see the stones that were half buried in the brush and grass. Many of the headstones were also in disrepair. Some were very worn by the elements, others broken, and still more placed against tree trunks away from any plot. The group searched nonetheless.
Hannah stood up quickly from a grave marker. “Demona, I think...” She could not finish the words.
Demona briskly walked to the gravestone that Hannah had recently uncovered. Hannah moved to pull more brush away from the marker and the other beside it, while Demona studied the plot. The first one had a simple S. B. engraved in the smooth stone surface. The second stone identical to the first read D. B.
Demona’s head hung low. “It’s them.” She pulled the grass away, so that she could have a better look at her parents’ headstones.
Hannah and Felix helped clear the brush farther away from the plots.
Demona crouched in front of the two headstones. She brushed some dirt and moss off of the cracks in the surface. “They’ve been here this whole time and I didn’t know.”
“But you know now,” Hannah said. “It’s not like you had a choice in the matter.”
Demona stood again and stared downwards at the ground where her parents rest. At least they are at peace, together now. It did not matter how much she cleared dirt and brush away from the stones, she still felt empty inside.
Felix stopped what he was doing and went to Demona. He put his arm around her and pulled her into an embrace. “It’s okay to cry.”
As if on cue, Demona buried her face into Felix’s chest and let her emotions loose. Demona gripped his shirt up into the balls of her fists. The tears soaked through his clothes to his skin as she pressed her face into him. She felt as if her heart would burst with the pain and emptiness she felt knowing that her parents lay below her feet.
“They were heroes,” Kaleb said.
Demona looked up at him and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“They sacrificed their lives for you to survive,” Ileana said.
Demona nodded. “Heroes.” She sniffed.
Demona held her hand out and accessed the mageia and spiritual energy that now flowed freely to her from Aleph. The ground that had once been full of tall dry grass and thorn bushes came to life. It filled with new sprouts of green grass that seemed to roll over the land around them. When it had stopped the plots where her parents lay were covered in new life. Vines wound their way around the head stones and slowly sprouted deep green leaves. Buds appeared on the thorny stems and grew larger still. The buds burst open to reveal perfectly shaped dark pink roses.
Demona leaned down to one of the delicate roses. She inhaled the fragrant smell and sighed. She turned to Felix and grabbed his hand. She led him in the direction of the car and their friends followed behind.
When they had taken their seats in the sedan Felix drove in the direction of the headquarters. Felix drove slowly through town and kept glancing over to Demona in the passenger seat. She sat calmly staring out the windshield.
“I can’t wait for dinner,” Kaleb said.
“All you think about is food,” Hannah replied.
Demona nodded. “A cheeseburger sounds good. I haven’t had one of those in a long time.”
“If anyone deserves to have cravings it’s Demona. We’ll stop and get something to eat on the way back to headquarters,” Felix said.
“Look out!” Demona yelled.
Felix’s foot slammed on the brake pedal. The car screeched to a stop after several agonizing moments. Everyone was slammed back into their seats with the abrupt stop.
A man stood in the center of the street walking towards them. He did not seem to care that he had almost been hit. He did not seem to notice where he was walking or anything at all. Until he caught sight of the people inside the vehicle and then he began to make way for the car.
An RV came screeching into sight from a side street and slammed to a halt. Several men, including Ezekiel, burst from the doors with weapons in hand. Kaleb and Felix were out of the car staring at the other men.
Demona noticed that the man in the middle of the road had turned his attention to those that had just arrived.
“What do you need me to do?” Kaleb yelled.
“Get back in the car, we’ve got this,” Ezekiel replied.
Demona leaned out her open window to get a better look at what was going on. The man stood still as if he were not fazed by the commotion around him. He was not threatened by the knives in the hands of the men who had recently appeared. He was not afraid of the hand guns that hung from their holsters or the shotguns slung over the shoulders of others. He only stared at the men and his head seemed to twitch slightly as if he heard an annoying buzz.
Kaleb placed his hand on Felix’s shoulder. “Get back in the car, dude.”
“But,” Fe
lix said. “He’s just standing there.”
Kaleb slid into the back seat beside Hannah. “I know. Just get back in the car.”
“Wait. Is that one of the possessed?” Ileana asked.
Hannah nodded in agreement and clung to Kaleb’s arm.
“So, what now?” Demona asked.
“We wait,” Kaleb said. “Roll up your windows.”
The man began to take another step forward. Molony motioned for the men to surround him, and he also slowly approached. Molony raised a vial of holy water towards the man and held it out with each step that he took.
“I don’t get it. Who just stands there when a bunch of scary guys with weapons comes at you,” Demona said. “Does he have a death wish?”
“In a lot of ways they are already dead,” Kaleb replied.
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
This book could not have been completed without the continuous support from my husband, Josh Hepler. Thank you for the inspiration and constructive criticism. Thank you for being my first reader. Thank you for proofreading and for your patience throughout the process.
Thank you to Joey Krick, for giving me an insight about a military operating base and where I could find information on what bases consist of. Thank you, Mary Clayton for proofreading and editing the manuscript, and also writing the back cover blurb. Thank you to my beta readers: Steve Young, Eli Frey, Lichelle Moyer, Stefani Wilmoth, and Sue Delp. Thank you to Kate Cowan at K.C. Designs for another magnificent cover design.
I want to thank the American Public University System and my professors for helping me to expand my mind and give me inspiration. My Irish History and Viking History courses were a major inspiration for this novel. My religion courses have also had a major impact on my development of GLC’s structure and religious practices.
I must also thank my blog readers and social media friends/fans for showing your support. Thank you to all of my readers for taking the time to read my first novel. Thank you to all other friends and family for your continuous support and encouragement through this process. I could not have done this without you all.
Thank you to Mike Young, for getting a website up and running. Please, check out my website at meganhepler.com. There is also a series glossary located on my Demona series blog.
The Artifact of Dissium (Demona Book 2) Page 22