Enchanting Wilder

by Cassie Graham

  “Don’t move another step!” Wood screams.

  “Or what?” She cackles, taunting him before stopping a few feet from us. “You’ll shoot me? Those won’t kill me, and you’re not strong enough to be able to defeat me or my son.”

  Our guns won’t kill her? Shit. That’s not a good sign.

  “Clayton? You got to him, too. That’s why he left. He’s not your son anymore,” I say, putting all of the clues together.

  Mrs. Carlson shakes her head and stays rooted in her place. “Oh, but he is. Soon, everyone will be His children. Clayton asked me to come in, you know? He was a dreary boy. Abused by his dick of a father—he’s dead now, thanks to Clayton. He was just looking for a way out, and didn’t know I’d come traipsing through the door.”

  “Jesus.” I clear my throat.

  “He’ll be no help to you, either, boy. No one will. This is even far too big for God.”

  I shoot one wooden bullet straight into her chest. She’s thrown back a few inches, but she stays upright.

  She smiles. “If the real Mrs. Carlson were still alive—she’s not—but if she were, you would have killed her dead just then,” she tsks, gaining her footing.

  My eyes bulge. I’d never really taken into account about the human host. We’d always exorcised what was inside and all was well. But this thing—the demon—got into my head. I shot first. I didn’t even think twice.

  “Shut up,” Wood spits. “What are you even doing here? Why pick this family?”

  “They picked me, you see. When your little Strix got the instruction to warn Clayton of his eminent choice, they didn’t know, but I had already gotten to him. I tainted the boy way before the Strix had the chance to give him the choice. It’s all about cutting out the middle man, you see? Once I got in, it was easy to keep the door open for the rest of my family. And don’t act like I don’t know you’re connected to them somehow.”

  I shake my head and Wood asks in a brisk tone, “What are you?”

  “I’m a hybrid. Bred by Maker.” Her eyes bounce from place to place, looking at nothing for longer than a half second.

  Maker? Is that who Mrs. Carlson meant earlier by, ‘His children?’ Kai has mentioned Maker before, too. I shake my head. Information overload.

  My heart thumps dangerous in my chest and my eyes find Wood for a split second. “But why?” I ask. “What’s the point?”

  “Oh, it’s much bigger than even you can imagine.” Mrs. Carlson lunges at me, her eyes blood red, the beautiful blue I saw downstairs in the living room vanished.

  The full force of her body hit knocks me back, sending my gun under the desk. We fall into a heap on the ground, both of us grunting at the impact. Wood swiftly pulls the woman off of me, bringing a knife to her neck. I rise from the floor, reaching to pick up my gun in the process, and point the barrel at her chest.

  “Let’s say you do kill me, there’ll just be another one behind me.” She laughs manically, letting her head fall back on Wood’s shoulder.

  The look of disdain pouring out of Wood would be comical if we weren’t in serious shit now. We don’t know how to kill hybrids. This is entirely new territory for us.

  Wood’s knife begins to cut into Mrs. Carlson’s once-body, the red seeping onto her cream colored blouse. “What are you going to do?” She attempts to pull away from Wood, struggling in his grasp. “Cut my head off? That’s not going to work. You can’t kill me.”

  Wood grunts. “Then how exactly do we do that?”

  Mrs. Carlson, with all of her supernatural might, pulls away from Wood, out of his arms, and springs at me again. I oomph, falling backwards. Wood moves to attack her, but she shoves him hard in the chest, sending him sailing through the air. He slams into the floor with a thud, his head falling to the side.

  Shit. Two against one, I was okay with, but one against one? And to top it off, she’s got superhuman strength?

  Mrs. Carlson turns her beady red eyes back to me, sneering. Her manic stare filled with hate and disdain. I’m almost positive my expression parallels hers.

  “You’re all by yourself now, Declan,” she mocks.

  “You know my name,” I struggle, determined not to let my emotions overtake me. “How?”

  “Oh? You don’t know?” She cackles. “You’re famous in Beneath. The unbeatable Pursuer. Your brother, too. More so you, though. You’re the hotheaded one, you shoot instantly and worry about the outcome later.”

  Don’t let her get to you, Declan.

  One of my eyes twitch and I step back toward the wall, switching the safety off of my gun. I attempt to keep my cool. “Damn. I’m famous. Want my autograph?”

  She screams, but it’s not a normal, woman-type scream. It’s echoed and hallow. It’s exactly what you think a demon would sound like. It’s shrill and frenzied. Her mouth opens wide, and the blood-red color of her eyes deepens.

  I’d shield my ears but it would only push her to keep screaming. Had I not already known she was a hybrid, I’d think she was a banshee. It’s almost as if her screams are trying to force me to succumb.

  Wood begins to stir on the floor and Mrs. Carlson stops her assault on my ears and looks to him, chanting something under her breath. Wood curls in pain, clutching his stomach. He coughs into the floor, unable to catch his breath.

  “What are you doing?” I panic, my feet moving toward Wood on instinct.

  She hears me shuffling, so she shoves the palm of her hand in my direction, her magic pinning me to the wall. I will my limbs to move but I stay cemented in place.

  She continues to chant over and over, and soon, my insides begin to twist. My intestines coil in my gut and my heart pounds like it’s grown to an unhealthy size in my chest.

  “What are you doing?” I choke out again. “Stop.”

  Mrs. Carlson smiles, stopping her persistent humming and tilts her head back, breathing in deep, relishing in the agony she’s causing Wood and I. As I swear I’m about to explode from the inside out, a bright light of white and black burst into the room, knocking Mrs. Carlson back, allowing me to fall to me feet. My weak knees lock just in time to keep me from dropping onto my ass. My breath comes out in shallow gasps as the bright, evasive light encapsulates the room, causing me to throw my arm over my face.

  When the light disappears, McKenna, Candy and Kai circle Mrs. Carlson, hands connected. Moving back and forth, they repeat unintelligible words I don’t understand.

  “Proeit, extriem, vos, qui, reverte,” they chant, growing in volume each time they repeat it. Wind begins to rustle around us, as if manifesting from within the circle, the force pinning me to the wall again.

  The three of them move in unison, back and forth, not fazed by the hurricane. As their sound fills the room surrounding us, Mrs. Carlson begins to yelp. Not her hysterical, demon shriek, but one that sounds of pure terror. She grabs at her face and ears, pulling at the skin. When that doesn’t help, her hands ball into white-knuckled fists. That doesn’t work either, so she covers her ears, slapping her hands against her head.

  Wood shifts on the floor again, finally able to breathe, and opens his eyes. He lifts his arm to block the wind. His eyes go wide in surprise and he scoots back with force against the wall. He looks over at me, but I can’t move or talk above the howl of the wind.

  Their movements become jerky, side to side, back and forth, their chanting never ceasing nor decreasing in volume. Mrs. Carlson falls, clawing at the ground. Her nails seep into the wood, creating long, jagged marks. Blood seeps from the tips of her fingers. Her screams radiate over McKenna, Candy and Kai. They step in closer to Mrs. Carlson, closing in on her, chanting in her face. Every word, a slap to her armor. Every syllable a fist reaching into her undead soul, pulling it out.

  “Stop!” she begs, putting her hand up as if it would help.

  Together, they bend on their knees, magically beating Mrs. Carlson into submission.

  “Stop,” she cries, her sobs muttered on the cold floor. “Stop.”

&n
bsp; Long moments of pleading, their chanting subsides. Still linked, they don’t break their connection.

  “Why are you here?” McKenna asks in a calm voice. I wonder where she finds the strength.

  Mrs. Carlson takes a deep breath, attempting to control her sobs. “We have…” she stops, shudders wreaking havoc on her body. She pounds once on the floor.

  “You have what?” McKenna asks, becoming agitated.

  “We have…” Mrs. Carlson looks up to McKenna and then slides her eyes to Candy. “We have your parents.”

  “We have to kill it,” Kai whispers over the cowering body of the woman we just brought down, now trapped and almost lifeless. “It saw me.”

  Declan makes his way over to the demonic mouse trap, rubbing the back of his neck. “I agree, but we can’t do it now.”

  “Why?” Kai argues with worried eyes as he studies the symbol on the ground. It’s a square with a circle and tiny markings etched all around it. I’ve never seen anything so foreign. It looks like a bunch of scribbles to me, but apparently it keeps demons caged inside.

  He angrily places his hand on his hips and juts one of his feet out to the side. He’s looking more and more human every day.

  “They have our parents, Kai,” I say. “We need answers.”

  His face twists, but he nods. “Fine. We need to close the gateway, too.”

  “We can do that,” I say, liking that we aren’t going to leave this place as a portal for more demonic souls.

  “That mouse trap thing will keep the demon in there, right?” Candy asks as she takes a careful look at the woman heavily breathing against the floor.

  Declan made quick work of the mouse trap the second he could, taking a permeant marker to the ground. Mrs. Carlson was out of it for a bit after our attack, so he was able to cage her in. The symbol, so intricate and ornate, I’ve only come across it in books. A large circle with four stars in the middle and tiny icons, I can only be described as ancient symbols derived from, what looks to be the Bible. It looks so meticulous, but Declan made short work of it and had it done in just a few minutes.

  “It will,” Declan says. “It’s a demonic confine, but her son could come back at any moment. We have to take her somewhere we can interrogate her.”

  “The only safe place would be mom and dad’s house,” Wood offers, his eyes quickly sliding toward me and I wonder why he looks so weary.

  Declan sighs heavy. “He’s going to hate this.”

  “Mom’s going to hate this.”

  Declan shakes his head and walks the perimeter of the outlined mouse trap on the ground. “How did you do this? It’s almost as if the demon is gone.”

  Kai observes the once hysterical woman, his finger on his chin. “I guess you could say it is—in a sense. That incantation I did was to push out the demon. The spell twists and manipulates the evil into something good—or better. Demons as a whole are bad, but at one point or another, we have human interaction. As long as there’s a small string attached to a human life, even that teeny tiny contact has a lasting effect.”

  “It’s brilliant,” Candy admires, high fiving Kai. “It sees good and internalizes it and doesn’t even realize.”

  “Exactly, dear. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It really depends.”

  “Like you?” I say.

  “What do you mean?” Kai asks.

  “You held onto your humanity. Were you thrust into a human world for a while? Is that why you’re so different than them?”

  He laughs. “I don’t recall. Maybe? I was a human before. Possibly it had a lasting impression on me. Like I said, Maker concocted me, messed with my soul, and for some reason my compassion stayed intact. I seem to be the only one. Maker would say it’s a glitch, and I need to be rewired. My soul must have always been on the brink of humanity.”

  “Is that something that happens often?” Declan clarifies.

  “Not normally,” Kai says simply.

  “I thought demons were made by human decisions—bad ones. Do souls not have an identity?” Wood asks.

  “They do. I do. I just don’t remember my human life. I was shoved into this body when Maker finally saw fit to use me. Maker manipulated my soul and made me into this.” He gestures at himself.

  “Wait,” I stop him, lifting my hand up. “Is there another soul inside that body right now?” I point to him. “The original one?”

  Kai gulps, guilt pouring from him. “Not anymore.”

  Candy gasps and I stay silent, my mouth hung open.

  “I didn’t kill it,” Kai says softly. “I don’t like that part of the process. At all. Maker has armies for this sort of thing. I don’t get to choose who I overtake.”

  “That doesn’t make it right,” Declan says, his eyes hard with judgment.

  Kai looks down at his feet, ashamed, mumbling, “I know.”

  Wood combs through his hair, his feet shuffling on the ground. The four of us look at him but he simply shakes his head.

  Chewing on the inside of my lip, I cross my arms. “So, what happens after a person dies and is determined a demon?”

  Kai unfolds his arms and scratches his ear. “Normally, if a human soul descends to Beneath after their death, it’s automatically gets shoved into Limbo—sometimes for years, or even decades. We don’t just go to this other realm with free reign to unleash evil onto the world whenever we want. We’re put in cages. Paying our dues. When the demonized soul has no interaction for that long, it does everything it can do to survive. I was down there for much longer than even I can count. But eventually, I became a new person—being. Without a purpose, a demon soul loses hope. And what’s purpose and hope?”

  We all sit silent, each of us taking in the new information.

  “Those are human emotions,” I offer.

  Kai snaps his fingers. “Exactly. A demon is only a true demon after years of influence. It earns its permanent stripes much later in the game.”

  “So you’re saying a demon can be saved?” Declan asks.

  “It seems to be the case.”

  “What about Hell? That’s where we were taught demons go,” Candy questions.

  “Sweet girl,” Kai says softly. “There’s no real Hell. At least not the Hell you know of. Hell is Earth. Hell is struggle. There’s no fiery down world. That’s Beneath, and it’s much worse than what you think is Hell.”

  My stomach churns and I look to Declan who has a scrunched face. “So in Revelations, when Lucifer was cast out, he came here? He never left?”

  “Well, he is an angel, so he’s still alive, if that’s what you’re asking. At least, that’s what we were told. Maker hasn’t seen or heard from him in some millennia. But, Lucifer never made a world of his own below our feet. He’s the one who created all the bad you see around. Murder, thievery, greed, gluttony. He did it all. Hell isn’t a place. Hell is trudging through life while you have a little voice in your head to do wrong. Hell is being thrown into the worst possible scenario and finding a way out with your soul intact. Hell is…life.”

  “My head hurts,” I sigh. “What about God? Is there really a Heaven?”

  “From what I understand, He’s still around and there is some sort of paradise to come after this life. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be good in the world, but have I seen the guy? Or been to Heaven? No.”

  Wood shakes his head and places his hands on his hips. “This is insane.”

  “What is?” Kai asks.

  “Everything we were taught as children has been thrown out on its ass.”

  “Man has a way of manipulating history,” Kai states unapologetically.

  “No shit,” Wood and Declan say together.

  Mrs. Carlson begins to stir again and I step back. Declan pulls Kai and I to the side.

  “The spell you all cast on her, will it keep her down for a while?” he asks.

  “Yes, for the most part, that demon is gone for now,” Kai tells him and I chew on my thumbnail. “This is only a minor fix.”


  “Will she remember everything that happened before you cast the spell?” Declan questions, giving Mrs. Carlson an odd look.

  “Yes. Memories are still intact. The demon is still a demon, we just boxed the wicked for a bit.”

  “So then why kill her after we get answers?” I ask. “Is there a way to save her?”

  Kai sighs. “This is only temporary. We don’t have time to save her. I don’t even know how to. She has to die. When a soul becomes a demon, it’ll always revert back to its original state. We can’t trust it.”

  Figures. But that also makes me wonder about Kai. Can he be trusted?

  Declan swallows and looks to me, his eyes saying something more in their silence. “Okay. How long will the spell last?”

  “It’ll last for a good while. Long enough to get to Colorado and interrogate her,” Kai says, his eyes seeking Mrs. Carlson.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  “Everything go okay?” Wood asks Declan as he sits down next to me. He brushes my thigh and my eyes find his.

  He turns his attention to Wood. “Sort of? I don’t know. I tried to call Dad but he didn’t answer.” Chewing on his lip, he looks down at the table with remorse. What’s that about?

  Wood’s nose flares and he slams his hand down on the table. “So you called mom?” Wood asks baffled. “Why would you do that?”

  Declan takes a bite of steak and chews, shrugging a shoulder. “Um, I don’t know, Wood. Because we have a half-dead,” he brings his voice lower, “hybrid in the car and showing up unannounced seemed like a bad idea.”

  Wood looks down at his plate, his jaw convulsing, clearly not happy with Declan. Candy’s eyes slide from Wood to look down at the table and then she smiles to herself as Kai continues pushing his food around.

  Picking at my BLT, I keep quiet, allowing the boys to take their time to—well, be brothers. A little family scuffle. Candy and I are like this sometimes, too.

  “What did she say?” Wood finally asks in a sulky tenor, not looking up.

  Declan bites his lip, now amused at his brother. “She said dad’s on a case in California. He should be home around the same time we get there.”