Possessed (Bozley Green Chronicles Book 1)

by Bradford Bates

  Oh, that had just the right kind of flirty note on the end of it that let me get a peek at the woman she was before all of this started happening to her. She bruised my ego a bit there, but then had me wrapped around her finger by the time she finished the sentence.

  I was going to have to kill that fucker, Benny, for always stealing my mojo. “So, you went to see Benny, and he sent you to me.”

  “Nope, Benny sent me everywhere but to you. When none of them could do a thing, he came over to inspect the place for himself and then he called you. He told me you might be out of the game, but if anyone could help me, it would be you.”

  At least Benny hadn’t pulled me into this without some thought. It was just like that bastard to save his “you owe me one” card for when something truly bad was happening. “So, is it still just noises and attacks at the house?”

  Rain frowned down at her food as Kelly C slid it in front of her. She looked at it like it was the last thing she wanted. Kelly C looked over at me, and I hit her with my best roguish smile. “More for me.”

  She just shrugged, gave Rain one last slightly worried look, and headed away to deal with her other customers. In this place, you got used to not asking too many questions.

  Rain pushed around some of her fries in the ranch on her plate before just letting them sit there. She met my eyes for the first time since we had come into the restaurant and it was easy for me to see just how tired she really was.

  “No, they just don’t happen at home anymore. I’ve been attacked at work, in my car, and finally, last night at a motel.” She looked down at her plate. “I just want my life back.”

  Was it rude to eat when the other person was having a breakdown? I guess when it came down to it, I didn’t really care. I wouldn’t be able to help her at all if I keeled over. In fact, if I passed out during a ritual, it would probably lead to both of us never having to eat again.

  I munched on a few of the onion rings while mashing a few fries on top of my burger. I took a sip of my drink and debated if it was burger time or if I needed a little more grease in my belly before I risked it.

  “So, do you think you can help me?” Rain pleaded.

  “I can promise you this, you’re going to sleep like a baby tonight.”

  Rain smiled and reached back towards her plate. “If you promise that, I’m going to eat this whole damned burger.”

  “I can guarantee you’re going to sleep like the dead.” Her fries dropped back onto her plate. “Just an expression.” A badly fucking timed one. “Just like this place, my house is warded against demons. You’ll be fine there while I try and sort out the best way to deal with your problem.”

  She watched me for a moment longer to make sure I wasn’t full of shit and then dove back into her fries. It seemed as if I wasn’t the only one that hadn’t been eating right. Granted, I was trying to wash away my sins in a bottle, and she was fighting for her life. Not exactly an even playing field; her reason for not eating trumped mine by a mile.

  I worked diligently at stuffing everything I could into my mouth. It probably wasn’t the best idea to go from no food to so full that if Rain poked me I would burst. The damage was done already, so I sat back and enjoyed it while trying to keep from burping. Kelly C showed up to take our plates, and I slipped her a twenty. One of the first rules I learned was good service should never go unrewarded.

  Rain looked like she might fall asleep right there. I was tempted to have David come and get us, but if it came to it I could probably drive a stick again if I had to. I mean, seriously, it couldn’t be that hard, right? Driving stick was one of those skills just like riding a bike. Once you learned how you never forgot.

  Zed didn’t come to see us out, but the restaurant stilled again as we left. It was so odd to walk into a room and have everyone stop talking. Normally, it meant you did something wrong, like letting one rip in an art gallery, but here they all just hoped to get a glimpse of me in action. I had no intention of putting on a show for the Reverie, so they were shit out of luck.

  Rain’s Jeep was waiting for us just where she left it. There was a slight mist in the air, and the clouds were gathering for one hell of a storm. We started to move forward, and Rain dropped to one knee on the muddy ground. I turned back to help her when I heard a groan of flexing metal. I spun around just in time to see the Jeep smash together before flipping into the air coming straight for us.

  Dropping to a knee beside Rain, I wrapped an arm around her and flung my other arm into the air in the direction of the Jeep.

  “Defende nos nocere!”

  The Jeep bounced off the shield I had cast and rolled away from us. Rain’s eyes went white and rolled back into her head. I set her down as gently as I could and pulled out my phone.

  David answered on the first ring. “Hello.”

  “I need a ride.”

  “Jesus, Boss, you couldn’t even make it through lunch.” His tone scathing.

  “No, damn it! Something happened, and I need to get her back to the workshop. We’re at Zonk’s.”

  I hung up the phone and lifted Rain from the ground. I carried her back towards the patio as the Reverie watched. I wished those bastards would put their heads back into their books and leave me the hell alone. I was just starting to feel my anger boiling over when Zed showed up with a blanket. He tucked it around Rain as she rested in my arms.

  “You’ve got a real live wire there,” Zed said, looking shocked.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” It wasn’t your everyday demon that had possessed Rain. Whatever was in her had to have some real power behind it to toss a jeep at us. Time was of the essence now, we needed to get back to the lab.

  Zed just shook his head. “What do you want me to do about that thing?”

  The Jeep had been completely destroyed. Parts of the once proudly maintained vehicle littered the dirt lot. “Just get rid of it. I’ll send Benny by later to get a stolen vehicle report started.”

  “You got it, Bozz,” Zed said and turned to head back inside.

  “If you need anything from me to get it done, just let me know.”

  Zed laughed and slapped his leg. “Are you kidding me? You just made my quarter. This is now the lot where a demon threw a car at Bozley Green, and he deflected it as if it were a baseball.”

  “A baseball might have been a little easier to handle.” I smiled at him.

  “Don’t stay away too long now; it’s bad for business.” Zed closed the door behind him.

  Less than fifteen minutes later, David pulled the car in front of Zonk’s. The man must have shattered every speed limit known to man to make it here this quickly. He jumped out and opened the rear door. I slid Rain into the back seat and then jumped in the front as David took the wheel.

  “Boss, what happened?” David said looking grim.

  “No time for that now. We need to get back to the house and into the lab.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  “Worse.”

  David punched the gas, and we peeled out of the parking lot. I only hoped that this time I would be able to save her.

  5

  The car slid to a halt, and David made it out almost as fast as I did. He opened the door and held an umbrella over us while I pulled Rain into my arms. We had to get her inside quickly or it wouldn’t matter what we did.

  I’d been too busy drinking to work on the real problem. There had to be a way to free a soul from the pit. Even then it wouldn’t bring them back to life, but at least they wouldn’t be tortured for eternity.

  What was the point? I kept telling myself if I wasn’t strong enough to save them in the first place, how would I ever be able to free them? Now, looking at Rain, I wished I’d done the research.

  David ran towards the front door. “Tell me what you need, Boss.”

  I carried Rain up the steps into the old Victorian that was my home and office. “Once I put her down, strap her in. When she is secure, and I mean very fucking secure, go and grab
my bag.”

  David opened the front door for me and then closed it as I ran through. He moved past me again to open the door to my lab. I hadn’t done any actual work in the lab in six months. Mostly, I used it as a place to hide out from David after I got drunk. No one looks for you in the office when you’ve been on a week-long bender.

  The air inside smelled dusty and had a hint of tobacco from the cigarettes I’d been smoking. If the storm outside wasn’t trying to drown us, I’d have told David to open a window. At least all the artifacts were still secure and locked behind the wards. I’d never dreamed of bringing one of the possessed into this room—too many cursed objects for a demon to play with.

  The one thing I needed now was a devil’s trap made for me by a shaman from Louisiana. The trap had a way of binding demon powers that I’d been unable to duplicate with my own research. While the devil’s trap wasn’t one of a kind, it might as well have been. To me, it was priceless, a one-time gift after dealing with a particularly nasty possession far away from home.

  I was counting on that gift to aid me now. The devil's trap was hand-carved from the wood of a rowan tree. Every inch of it was inscribed with runes from a language that I didn’t understand. The best way I could describe it was that it looked like a giant pea pod or an empty canoe.

  The possessed was supposed to be placed inside, and the demon would never be able to escape. It was kind of horrible to think about, life imprisoned in what might as well have been a coffin.

  I’d tried to find out more about the devil's trap and how it worked, but the shaman refused to speak about it. That kind of summed up magic users as a whole. If there was one thing we hated more than someone with more power than us, it was sharing the knowledge it took us years to uncover.

  After hours of harassment, the shaman told me a story about his people and how they had interred the possessed. Once the victim passed away, the demon’s soul was bound while theirs was allowed to go free. It seemed humane compared to my soul blade, but either way the victim died. I kind of liked the feeling I got from saving people too much to think of using the trap on anyone, but today was different.

  I nestled Rain into the opening, and once she was lying comfortably inside I turned to scan the room. David had moved forward and was strapping the devil’s trap to the table. The bindings would have to be enough to hold it in place while I got to work. I knew Rain wouldn’t be able to escape from the trap, but that didn’t mean I wanted the thing spinning around the lab and destroying all my stuff.

  Rain cried out inside of the trap, and her eyes fluttered open. Her milky brown eyes had been replaced with yellow. The demon had her fully in its grip. To free her, I had to force the demon to give me its name. That wasn’t going to be any small feat. David’s footsteps retreated from the room. He was going to get my bag, and that meant I had a little time to come up with a plan.

  I just hoped that it would be enough.

  Moving away from the devil’s trap and the screaming demon contained inside of it, I peered into the glass cases that lined the wall. I tried to drown out the sounds and tapped my fingers against my chin. Something about tapping my chin helped me to focus, and right now I needed all the help I could get.

  What did I have that could force a demon to reveal itself? The answer that kept coming back to me was a big fat nothing. A scream tore from Rain’s throat behind me, this time sounding utterly human. The demon wasn’t playing fair, but they never did. If it was pain the demon wanted to cause, well, two of us could play that game.

  Running to the other side of the room, I dropped to my knees and started tapping in the combination to the small safe built into the wall. It clicked open on the second try and revealed a small cache of pins fashioned in different shapes.

  Reaching in, I moved them around until I found the one that I wanted. It was a Templar pin, worn by one of the holy knights during the crusades. Although crudely fashioned, it carried with it all the conviction of the man that possessed it. The red cross was made out of rubies and set against an obsidian background. There was nothing else I had that would help me find the conviction needed to pull Rain back from the abyss.

  David came in with my bag just as I was approaching the table. “Tell me what you need, Boss.”

  Looking down at Rain, I felt like the battle was already lost. Her naturally tan skin was pale, and her veins had moved closer to the surface and were turning black. Her eyes were still human enough in shape, but that would start changing as the demon cemented itself inside of her.

  Fuck you Benny, I thought. Why did you have to call me in on this one? I wasn’t mentally equipped to handle losing another soul to the darkness.

  “I’m going to need holy water and Sir Aaron’s cross.”

  David tossed me the cross and chain. I draped it over my neck. It felt weird to have it there again after I failed so spectacularly at my last exorcism. The cross was made of pure silver, four inches from top to bottom, and had pointed ends. The damned thing was the throwing star of crosses. It was rumored to collect a little bit of power from each exorcised demon. The records didn’t show how many demons Sir Aaron had sent back to hell, but I’d exorcised over fifty demons with this cross on. I was going to call on whatever power I had helped add to the talisman over the years to help Rain make it through this.

  Rain bucked but couldn’t break through the opening in the devil’s trap. The straps held the trap against the table. Stripping off my coat and rolling up my sleeves, I took deep breaths while trying to calm the panic that I was feeling.

  My hand grew warm where the pin was pressed against my palm. David tossed me the first jar of holy water. I cracked it open and poured a small amount into my hands and rubbed it on my exposed arms while saying a quick prayer. Using my trusty knife, I cut my finger and mixed it with a drop of the holy water before activating my tattoo. Now that I was as safe as I could be, it was time to bring Rain back.

  The demon continued to throw Rain’s body against the devil’s trap, but it couldn’t break free. I took the jar of holy water and covered the top with my thumb while splashing the contents inside of the devil’s trap. The demon screamed in fury and continued to try and break free.

  “Silentium daemonium!” I splashed her again. “Fuge Ex haec corpus” I splashed her for the third time. “Et reditus ut quod ignes autem infernum.”

  Rain screamed, and her body fell still. There was no way this was going to be that easy.

  I looked down at Rain’s still body and willed her to fight. There was no way she was coming out of this unless she wanted it with everything that she had.

  This time, as I splashed her, I repeated the words in English. “Silence demon! Flee from this body, and return to the fires of hell.”

  The demon cried out, and the force of it dropped me to my knees. Rising to my feet, I heard the straps breaking, but the demon couldn’t break free from the trap. I was going to have to send Remi a big fucking thank you card for making this thing for me. The demon grew still, and its eyes searched the room before stopping on me.

  The demon’s voice poured from Rain's mouth. The word came out harsh, almost as if the demon was snarling. “You’ve failed again, Bozley. It was a good effort, but your soul and power are lacking. How many more people will have to die before you just give up?”

  “Rain’s not going to die. She’s a fighter.” I felt the truth of the words as I spoke them. The pin in my hand helping to wash away any doubts that I may have had.

  “Her soul is mine already.” The demon made a sniffing sound. “And it’s a sweet one at that.” Then it laughed. “Did you know that she actually kind of liked you? Too bad you let her down, just like you did with Gabriella.”

  Reaching forward I slammed my hand through the barrier the devil’s trap created and pushed the Templar pin against Rain’s forehead. The demon let out a scream, and Rain’s flesh started to burn where the coin was pressed against her skin. I held the Templar’s pin there despite the fact that it was b
urning into my hand as well.

  “Not this time demon! Her soul is her own!”

  Laughter erupted from Rain’s mouth. “You don’t even know what’s coming. It’s kind of sad, really, watching you fail again and again while we grow stronger.” The demon smiled up at me. “It would truly be a kindness to let me take her now. This way she won’t suffer like all the others.”

  The demon started to laugh, the kind of laugh you only heard when someone was about to tell you something they knew would hurt you, but instead of feeling a shred of sympathy they relished in the pain they were about to cause.

  “Let me give her this kindness, Bozley. Let me take her into the dark where she won’t suffer the same fate as you.” The demon stared deep into my eyes. “We are coming for you, Bozley Green; the darkness is rising.”

  The demon’s laughter turned to a scream of rage, and the giant bay window in the lab shattered inwards, peppering me with glass. David ducked down quickly and managed to avoid the worst of it.

  My back was a different story entirely.

  It almost felt like an itch you had to scratch, but you couldn’t reach it. The biggest problem I could think of was I felt that feeling in more than one place. That was fine, I would gladly step into death’s embrace as long as I could save her. She had to live, that was all that mattered.

  I heard David gasp from somewhere in front of me. That was never a good sign. Trying to ignore him, I focused all of my energy into the pin I held against Rain’s forehead. The smell of our burning flesh rose to fill the room.

  With my left hand, I grabbed the cross on my neck and whispered. “I know we don’t always see eye to eye, but if there was ever a time for you to bestow upon me some of your strength, this is that time.”

  The sides of the cross pierced the flesh on my left hand as my grip involuntarily tightened. A rush of pure power moved through me and exited into the pin I was holding against Rain’s head. I thought this is what it must feel like to get hit with a bolt of lightning. Rain screamed, and a bright white light engulfed us. My hand tore free from her head at the same time my feet left the ground. The last thing I remembered was a sense that I was flying. It felt amazing—right up until I hit the ground.