Song of Midnight Embers

by Dana Marie Bell

  “Mirrors have a strong link with water, though. Would a fire demon use one?”

  “To get to a water elemental?” Gideon nodded. “Oh, hell yes. Think about it. Sympathetic magic.”

  “Which means they could use other scrying methods in sympathetic spells to get to any of us.” Selena cursed. “Neither Lily nor Bernadette was a kidnapping victim, so neither of them was injected with demonic blood.”

  “Bernadette would have come in contact with the blood when she helped transport it, or when she worked in the labs.” Greer scooted over, then hopped down next to Mollie. “She could have become infected that way.”

  “We need to run tests on all the people who work in the labs, then.” Frisco glanced at Gideon. “And find out what other methods this demon could be using to get to us.”

  “We also have to figure out what type of demon we’re dealing with.” Greer wanted to know badly. You couldn’t defeat a demon until you knew its weaknesses.

  “We know it can create shadows of itself to torment someone it’s attached to.” Selena began ticking points off on her fingers. “We also know it uses fire to kill its enemies.”

  “It’s not a lot to go on, but it’s a start.” Mollie rubbed her hands together. “Greer and I can do some research at the library, see what we come up with.”

  “While Selena and I try to use our own scrying to come up with some answers.” Gideon nodded toward Ash. “With you to guard us, of course.”

  Ash crossed his arms over his chest. “Of course.”

  “Dragos and I will deal with the investigation into the boys.” Mina exchanged a look with her mate. “We’ll make sure they’re innocent.”

  “Eddy won’t like it,” Dragos added, “but it must be done.”

  “Who’s going to check on the blood connection?” Greer really wanted to know if he was right about that. “Where did it go, and is the demon using it to get into the town?”

  “I will.” Noah stood and nodded to Gideon. “With the help of one of the witches, of course.”

  “I’ll ask Charla. She’s good, and she won’t be afraid of you.” Gideon stood. “Someone needs to tell Amara and Parker what’s going on. The Hamadryad should know that we might have another fight on our hands soon.”

  “I’ll call her.” Mina also stood. “Dragos and I will take off now, talk to the boys before they head for bed. The rest of you get some rest and start in the morning.”

  “Yes, my queen.” Ash and Greer both bowed, their words echoing one another.

  Chapter Eight

  Mollie groaned as she put yet another huge frickin’ pile of books on the table she and Greer were sharing. “Are we sure these weren’t some of the books the others went through already?”

  Greer grunted, placed his finger over a specific line, and looked up at her. “I checked with the head librarian. None of these were checked out yet.”

  “Damn.” Mollie collapsed into her chair. “Who knew there were so many books on demons?”

  “Or so many different demons?” Greer lowered his head to his book once more. “Each religion has their own set with their own powers.”

  “And unless you know what you’re dealing with, you have no idea how to defeat it.” She opened a book at random and read. “This one’s useless. It talks about vengeful spirits being the demons of the world, but these spirits are the deceased who wouldn’t depart because of their own anger issues.”

  “Spiritual anger management classes don’t exist as far as I can tell,” Greer muttered. “Maybe we should talk to Selena about that.”

  She whimpered softly. “So. Much. Research.”

  “Shh.”

  Mollie glanced over to find the librarian staring at her sternly. She hunched in her seat and mouthed Sorry!, but it didn’t seem to appease the woman. Mollie turned back to Greer, her eyes wide with apprehension. The librarian was notoriously hard on anyone who broke the rules on being quiet in her library. If they weren’t careful, they were going to get kicked out.

  Greer wasn’t even looking at her. His head was bent studiously over his book, but from the way his shoulders were ever so slightly shaking she knew he’d seen her get shushed and was amused by it.

  She sat up and started reading through the next book in her stack, looking for key words like “fire” and “shadow man,” but so far she hadn’t found anything that would help identify the type of demon they were dealing with. She set the book aside with a yawn. “This is useless.”

  “Nope. We’re narrowing it down.” Greer pointed toward the stack of books they’d already gone through. “It’s not a rakshasa, or a djinn, or an edimmu, or—”

  “Stop, please? My brain hurts.” Mollie rubbed her forehead wearily. “You think we should have left this up to the witches?”

  “Nah. You and I can read just fine. We know what we’re looking for, and we might be willing to try something they wouldn’t.” He slid a book that surprised her onto the table. “This, for instance.”

  “Um. Greer? That’s a role-playing book. As in paper, dice and pizza nights role-playing.”

  “Yup.” He patted the book fondly. “And there’s a whole section on demons in it.”

  She sat up straighter. “Ooh, clever man.” Some of the books he put on the table had been in his home. Why hadn’t they thought of this earlier?

  “Yup.” He buffed his nails on his chest. “That’s me.”

  “Shh!”

  Mollie slunk back down in her seat. “Oops.”

  He grinned and flipped open the book. “Go find another gaming system. Maybe the answer is in one of them.”

  She nodded and stood, heading for the front desk. “Can you point me to your role-playing section, like Dungeons & Dragons?”

  The young man behind the counter gave her the directions, and soon Mollie had an armful of monster manuals. She put them down on the desk, shoving aside the more esoteric offerings for a bit of fun.

  “Hey, look at this.” Greer pushed a book across the table to her. “This one is called a Shadow Demon. It serves a greater demon or evil master, moves jerkily, appears to be a gaunt humanoid...all the things we were dealing with.”

  “You think it lied when it said it was nothing more than the shadow of a greater evil?” Mollie stared at the words on the page, seeing more and more similarities the more she read. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

  Greer nodded. “Which means we might be dealing with something a lot more powerful than even Selena thought. If it can command something like this—” he tapped the image on the page, one that was eerily familiar, “—then it could simply waltz through our wards with ease.”

  She nodded. “We need to see which kind use fire from a distance, then.” She went back to the table of contents and frowned. “Did you notice that they broke this down by demons and devils?”

  “I think that’s a game mechanic, like devils are Lawful Evil and demons are Chaotic Evil.”

  She blinked at him, utterly confused. “Huh?”

  He laughed softly. “Okay. Do you know what an alignment is?”

  She shook her head. “I’m far more familiar with video games than pen-and-paper RPGs.”

  “Fair enough.” He sat back and closed his eyes. “So. Think of an alignment as a moral compass. You have directions like North, South, East and West, but in this case it’s Lawful, Chaotic, Good and Evil, with Neutral being dead center.”

  “Okay.” She picked up a pencil and flipped her notebook open to a clean page, drawing the compass with his points. “So Lawful would be North, Chaotic would be South?”

  “Exactly.” Greer took the notebook and added Good to the East and Evil to the West, with the center circle being Neutral. “So, here you are, ready to play your character, and you need to decide where your moral compass points to. Ar
e you someone who obeys the law above all else? Then you’re Lawful. Are you someone who would obey the law even if it means harming innocents? Then you’re Lawful Evil. Someone who follows his or her own morals is Chaotic. Robin Hood would have been Chaotic Good, for instance, because he robbed the people who’d robbed the peasants and gave most of the spoils right back to the peasants, while the Sheriff of Nottingham would have been Lawful Evil, obeying Prince John to the letter of the law, no matter who it hurt.”

  “Okay then.” That did make sense. “But where does Neutral come in?”

  “Neutral is someone who does what is right, period. If that means obeying the law or not, so be it. He doesn’t concern himself with either law or chaos, but what works in the moment. Neutral Good and Neutral Evil are like that.” He held up his hand. “But wait, there’s more! Neutral can also go along the Lawful and Chaotic lines as well, ignoring good and evil like they don’t exist. Someone who is Lawful Neutral obeys the law whether it’s good or not. Think...robots. A robot will obey his programming no matter what that means for him personally. And Chaotic Neutral cares only about himself. He’s the ultimate selfish alignment, willing to do almost anything to cover his own ass.”

  “Huh.” She tapped the book with her finger. “So what does that have to do with our demon?”

  He grinned sheepishly. “Absolutely nothing. But you asked, so I answered.”

  “Shh!”

  Greer rolled his eyes and shot the librarian the finger.

  Two minutes later they stood on the steps of the library, both of them rubbing their earlobes. She hadn’t been taken out of a room by her ear since she was five years old, let alone out of a building. Mollie glared at Greer, but she couldn’t help but be amused. “You know, I think this might be the first time I’ve ever been kicked out of a library for disorderly conduct.”

  “You’ve been tossed out for other reasons?” He grinned at her, approval all over his face. “You little rebel you.”

  She laughed softly. “Think we should let the others know what we figured out?”

  Greer nodded eagerly. “They’ll never believe us, but it’s worth a try.”

  “We should pick up more of those books, see what we can find.” Mollie began walking down the steps, aware Greer was following right behind her. “Do you have more at home?”

  “Not really. Most of what I’ve got we already found here. But I do know who has an extensive collection, one he might be willing to share with us.” Greer took her hand, walking down the street as if they did this every day.

  “Who?”

  “Rock.”

  Mollie burst out laughing. “Rock? He’s a gamer?”

  “Big time. He used to play with me when we were kids.” Greer smiled fondly. “It was him, me, Lore, Frisco, Zander and Charla. Rock was usually our Game Master. He can tell a mean story.”

  “Okay, then. Let’s see if he’s willing to give us a hand.”

  “He’s probably at work right now, so we’ll grab some lunch and call him.” Greer tugged, and Mollie followed him. “Italian sound good?”

  Mollie’s stomach rumbled, reminding her it had been hours since they’d had breakfast. “Oh, God, I could totally go for a chicken parm sandwich.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  It didn’t take them long to walk to Main Street, where most of the shops were located. Greer led her toward the best sub shop in the area, at least in her opinion, and got them a table outside where they could enjoy the warm weather and the people roaming up and down the street.

  “So. MM Night is next week. Want to go?”

  Mollie stared at Greer for a moment. “Like, go-on-a-date go?”

  His brows rose. “Yes, that sort of thing is usually called a date.”

  “Don’t test me, Greer. And yes, I’d love to go with you.” She smiled at the waitress and gave her order before turning back to Greer. “Last time I went it was with Carter.”

  He gave her a sweet smile, the one that made her think she should tell Carter to barricade himself in his house for the next year or three. “Oh? What movie was it?”

  Mollie hid her flinch. He got pissed every single time she mentioned Carter. “Robot Monster.” She’d have to try and get him past his jealousy toward Carter, because the wolf was a good friend. “What will we be seeing?”

  “I think it’s The Giant Claw. Someone wanted a mutated bird movie. Probably the owl shifters.”

  “I didn’t know it was their turn to pick.”

  “The dragons get to pick the next movie.” Greer grinned, the expression much more natural than the syrupy smile of death. “Last I heard, Trajan was pushing for Age of the Dragons. I hear it’s absolutely horrible.”

  “But is it horrible good, or horrible bad?” The whole point of Monster Movie Night was to laugh at the truly worst of the worst.

  “I have no idea, but I’m not about to argue with a fire-breathing lizard over two hours of my life.”

  “You might change your mind after the credits roll.” Mollie shivered. “I still gag at the thought of having to sit through Highlander 2. I mean, Zeist? Really? What the hell was that all about?”

  “I swear, the witches pick the worst movies.” Greer patted her hand. “When it’s our turn again, I’m going to talk the dryads into picking The Cabin in the Woods.”

  It didn’t take long for their lunch to arrive. Mollie found she enjoyed simply sitting and chatting about nothing and everything with Greer. His witty comebacks and unusual insights kept her amused all through lunch, so long as Carter’s name never came up.

  When their desserts came, Mollie stirred her spoon through her sundae, mixing the vanilla ice cream with the hot fudge. “So.”

  “So?” Greer was humming happily over his apple pie a la mode, licking the spoon clean with every bite.

  Fuck. Was there any way she could ask him how he felt about her without coming off as a stalker? Or worse, indifferent? “How’s Selena doing?”

  Gods, I’m such a weenie.

  He appeared confused for a moment before eating another bite of pie. “Good. Ash says she’s not having any further problems.”

  “Good.” She bit her lip, still stirring her ice cream. At this rate, it would be a mushy mess and she still wouldn’t have an answer.

  “You okay?” Greer put out his hand, and she took it, sighing with pleasure as he massaged her fingers. “You look like you’re either going to ask me a serious question or make a break for the ladies’ room.”

  She choked out a laugh. “Not exactly.”

  His brows rose. “So, what’s bothering you?”

  “You.”

  There was a flash of disappointment in his gaze before he attempted to withdraw his hand. “Oh.”

  Why couldn’t she say what she meant with him? Why did her tongue keep betraying her? “That’s not what I meant.” She clung to his hand, desperate to ask the one question that could make or break her entire life. “Um, do you...?”

  “Do I what?” His voice had gone husky.

  Mollie coughed, still unable to say the words. She might as well write a note, for fuck’s sake. Do you like me? Y or N? And if he circled yes, they could get matching broken coin necklaces and text all their friends whenever they had a fight. She could even start an Instagram page, M&G 4ever, and post pics of them sticking their tongues out at each other.

  “Mollie?”

  Fuck it. Her courage was gone, along with her sundae. She’d just have to wing it and hope she didn’t make a total fool of herself. “Thank you for lunch.” She kissed his cheek, surprised when he blushed. “I really enjoyed myself.”

  He smiled softly. “You’re welcome.”

  * * *

  Greer knocked on Rock’s front door. “Hey, stone-head! Open up!”

  The fr
ont door to Rock’s home opened, revealing the large park ranger. He was in a T-shirt and shorts, his hair damp from a shower. “Hey, guys. Come on in.”

  Mollie greeted Rock with a hug, making Greer want to growl in disapproval. He held back, however, knowing that Rock was hung up on a water elemental who wouldn’t even glance his way. The poor guy was never going to get her, at least as far as Greer could tell.

  When Mollie stepped past Rock, Greer reached up for his own man-hug, pounding Rock on the back. One of the few people in Maggie’s Grove who could handle Greer’s strength, Rock gave back as good as he got. “Hey, big guy. How’s it hangin’?”

  “Limp and to the left,” Rock replied, stepping back and closing the door. “Congratulations on finally getting Mollie.”

  Mollie’s brows rose, but hell if Greer was going to correct Rock. Let the whole world know that Mollie was his. If he could, he’d tattoo it on her forehead.

  “Thanks, man.” Though technically until they bound themselves together, he didn’t really have her. “We still need to bond, but it will come.”

  Rock put his hand on Greer’s shoulder, stopping him from following Mollie into Rock’s family room. He leaned forward, his tone so low there was no way Mollie could hear him. “Listen. Mollie didn’t know you were pining. She honestly thought you’d be fine.”

  Greer shot Rock a disbelieving glance. “Sure she did.” He put up his hand to halt the words he could see Rock wanted to give him, words that meant little now that Greer knew the truth. It was just more confirmation of what he’d already learned, that Mollie had been attempting to protect him in her own unique way. “No, I believe you. I’ll get over it eventually.”

  “Just...cut her some slack, okay? She really was trying to look after you the only way she knew how. You should have seen her face when you nearly died during the dragon fight, when Dragos’s dad tried to kill him and got you instead. If you’d died that day, I think she wouldn’t even be here right now.”

  Greer took a deep breath. “I remember that.” Not long after his near-death experience he’d deliberately fallen out of a tree, laughing when she’d started to race toward him. Mollie wouldn’t acknowledge that she’d miss him if he were gone.