Hexed

by Michael Alan Nelson

  “Lucifer,” one of the Sisters said. Her voice crackled like rocks over broken glass. “We know this name.”

  Another witch flicked a clawlike finger, and the mark on Lucifer’s shoulder began to glow. “Hexerei!” the witch said. “You are heir to the Keeper of Secrets. We would very much like to speak with you.”

  As one, they extended their hands. Shadowy tentacles burst forth and wrapped themselves around Lucifer, squeezing her. Though she didn’t need to breathe, the crushing pressure was still agonizing. Lucifer brought her mind into focus, past the pain, and dematerialized. She fell away and slipped under the earth.

  The tentacles burrowed into the ground, pursuing her like the roots of an angry tree. Lucifer resurfaced under the cage, mingling with the other spirits in their chaotic attempt to reach David and Gina, but the Sisters’ tentacles tore at the shadows, tossing them back into the air.

  Lucifer was able to slip back inside the cage. David and Gina sat in the center, clutching one another just out of reach of the spirits clawing at them. It would only be a matter of time before the other spirits realized how to move through the bars like Lucifer had.

  “Hold on,” she said. “Just one last mark and we’re going home.” Lucifer reached for the buckle, but her hand passed through it. She was confused. She had been able to shift her spirit back and forth from solid to specter with relative ease. Why was she unable to do it now?

  Gina had her face buried in David’s chest. Lucifer swallowed her jealousy when David’s face twisted in confusion. “Lucifer,” he said. “You’re fading—”

  David winked away.

  Lucifer’s back arched, and she sucked in huge lungfuls of air. But how could that be? She didn’t have lungs. But she could feel them filling, her chest rising and falling. Her skin was cold and wet, but her chest was burning. Lucifer blinked water from her eyes and saw Buck kneeling over her, holding a defibrillator paddle in each hand. Trish was next to her with a syringe in one hand and the heat blanket in the other.

  “Lucifer, we did it!” Trish said. “You’re alive!”

  CHAPTER 28

  Lucifer rolled to her side and tried to stand, but her body wouldn’t obey. Her legs felt rubbery and thick, and her arms hung as uselessly from her shoulders as damp socks. Buck grabbed her and helped her sit.

  “Lucifer,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Did you . . . did you see her?”

  Lucifer nodded. “I have to go back. I almost had them.”

  “Go back?” Trish asked. “Uh-uh. No way am I going through that again.”

  With Buck’s help, Lucifer wobbled to her feet. “Yes,” Lucifer sneered, “it must have been really hard for you.”

  “We need to get you to a hospital,” Buck said.

  “No. They’re in trouble,” Lucifer said. She slipped on the wet wood under her feet, but Buck caught her before she fell. Steadying herself against his muscled arm, she said, “I have to go back. Right now.”

  “Lucifer, Trish is right,” Buck said, his voice all sand and gravel. “You can’t do that again. I had to shock your heart for two full minutes before I got a heartbeat. You do this again, I don’t think we can bring you back.”

  As much as she hated to admit it, they were right. And she was so close. One more line, and the transport glyph would have been completed. Now they were trapped in the cage, and once the Sisters were able to fight back the ghostly hordes, David and Gina would be at their mercy once again.

  Lucifer found her trick bag next to the pile of her clothes. She reached inside and grabbed the book. “Buck, Trish, don’t look while I read this. I need to see if there’s something I missed. Something else I can try.”

  “Why can’t we look at the book?” Trish asked.

  “Because you might become possessed by a—”

  “So this is where the party’s at,” a new voice said.

  Lucifer looked back. It was Ethan. He held a wooden baseball bat in his hands, tapping the fat end against the palm of his hand. Isis was behind him, her arms folded across her chest, looking confused and angry.

  “Go home, son,” said Buck.

  “Nah, I’m not doing that, Mr. Pierce,” the boy said as he stepped into the room.

  Isis pulled at Ethan’s arm. “I told you, I don’t want to be here.”

  Ethan pulled his arm free and bared his teeth at Isis. “And I told you to wait in the car!”

  Isis blanched. She looked at Lucifer and said, “This is all your fault, you crazy bitch. Ever since you attacked his dad and got him arrested, Ethan’s been a straight-up dick.”

  “Ethan just hasn’t been himself lately. Has he, Isis?” Lucifer asked as she carefully stood. “You were the one who drew the Sister’s Wheel,” she said to Ethan. “Your dad said you never read the book. But you did, didn’t you? You’ve been possessed this entire time. You put the book in the library knowing Isis would ‘find it’ during one of your little make-out sessions. Then it was just a matter of time before she and her friends used the summoning ritual.”

  Ethan smiled. It was a foul, violating expression that made Lucifer’s skin crawl. “Oh, yes. But you’ve been a bad girl, Hexerei, and the Sisters are pissed. It took them a long time to prep for their little coming-out party and you done screwed it up. I’m here to put a stop to your meddling. And a little paprika and a stuffed bunny aren’t going to help you this time.”

  “There’s more than one way to skin that cat,” Lucifer said.

  Isis took a step away from Ethan. “What are you two saying? What sisters? Have you been dating the Schnyder twins behind my back?”

  Buck pulled his gun but kept it pointed at the ground. “Ethan, drop the bat and turn around.”

  “Don’t, Buck. I’ve got this,” Lucifer said.

  “You can barely stand.”

  “Put the gun away. That isn’t Ethan. It’s the filcher demon inside him.”

  Isis said, “Did everyone have meth-flakes for breakfast this morning? What the hell is wrong with all of you?”

  “Isis, stand over there,” Lucifer pointed to the floor next to Trish. “Buck, put the gun away. Now.”

  Reluctantly, the man holstered his pistol. “Do you know what you’re doing, Lucifer?”

  Lucifer slowly moved toward Buck, keeping her eyes locked on Ethan and said, “I have a plan of sorts. And you’ll be happy to know, it doesn’t involve me dying.”

  “Funny,” Ethan said. “Because you dying is exactly what my plan involves.”

  Buck stepped forward, the floorboards creaking under his weight. “I’ve got a gun and a hundred pounds on you, son.”

  Lucifer gently nudged Buck to the side. “I’ve got this. You just stand over there and look intimidating.”

  “So what Olivia said was true? About tying her up or whatever,” Isis said. “And now Ethan is possessed by one of those . . . sneeze monsters, too? Ugh! I can’t believe I made out with you!”

  Ethan didn’t respond. He kept his oily smile on Lucifer.

  The good thing about filcher demons was that they were stupid. That’s what made them ideal minions. Their stupidity made them easily controlled. It also made them easily provoked. But that’s what Lucifer was counting on.

  The horrible sacrifices needed for a living person to travel to the Shade served to keep the denizens from tearing the person apart. But filcher demons were living things, too, in a manner of speaking, but they came from a dimension so corrupted and foul that Lucifer hoped the denizens of the Shade would want nothing to do with them. If Lucifer were possessed by a filcher demon, she might be able to move through the Shade without being torn to pieces. It was a horrible plan, but right now a horrible plan was better than no plan at all.

  The problem was that she was immune to their possession. She could read the book cover to cover a thousand times, and it would never happen. If she wanted to be possessed, she was going to have to do it another way.

  “Tell me, Ethan,” Lucifer said. “What’s it like knowing Isis is only dating
you because she wanted to make David jealous.”

  “What the hell, bitch!” Isis said. Lucifer held up her hand toward Isis to calm her. Ethan was still focused on Lucifer. She was the reason he was there, and she didn’t need anyone else distracting him.

  “Think about it. Do you honestly think a girl like Isis would ever willingly go out with you?”

  “Shut up,” he said.

  “Every time she kisses you, she’s wishing she was kissing David instead.”

  Ethan came at her, ready to bring the baseball bat down on her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Buck reacting to intercept. Lucifer had to be faster. She crouched and grabbed the defibrillators at her feet. As Ethan began his swing, Lucifer pounced forward and slammed the defibrillators against his chest. There was a ZAP! and the bat fell from Ethan’s hands. His head fell back and he howled in pain.

  And howled.

  The howl gurgled in the back of Ethan’s throat, growing in intensity until the filcher demon came crawling out of his open mouth. Paprika wasn’t the only way to exorcise a filcher demon. It was just the kindest.

  Ethan fell back, unconscious. Lucifer could hear both Isis and Trish gasp in horror as the demon skittered on the ground, its lidless eyes fixed on Lucifer. The demon lunged for her so quickly that it only registered as a blur in Lucifer’s mind. It hit her and knocked her back onto the ground, placing its hideous claws inside her mouth.

  Lucifer didn’t resist as the demon forced its way in, dissolving like bitter candy at the back of her throat. She swallowed, the monster now fully absorbed. She could feel its malice rolling in her stomach like bad sushi. Buck was hovering over her, his bloodshot eyes wide.

  “Lucifer!”

  “It’s okay. I’m okay. That was intentional.”

  Buck helped her to her feet. She patted him on the arm and said, “Don’t worry. It takes a few weeks for the possession to fully take hold. And I only need the demon for a few minutes.”

  Lucifer turned to Trish and Isis, both with their mouths open in mute shock. “Trish,” Lucifer said, “check on Ethan. Isis . . . just try not to get in the way.”

  “Lucifer, what are you doing?” Buck asked. It was obvious from the look in the man’s eyes that his hold on sanity was quickly slipping.

  “I’m going to save your daughter.” And the boy I love.

  Lucifer quickly dressed. She slipped her trick bag over her shoulder then walked to the vanity and stood in front of the mirror, completely unsurprised by the disheveled mess she saw staring back at her. She had died, traveled to the Shade, fought with seven angry witches, had been brought back to life, and then possessed by a filcher demon. It was a wonder she didn’t look any worse.

  She looked over at Buck and winked. “Be back in a minute.” Without another word, she dove through the mirror and into the Shade.

  Lucifer tumbled into darkness. She was back in the Shade, though now she could feel how horribly cold the dimension was. Everything smelled of wet ash and rot, and the floor under her feet gave slightly, like walking on a stiff sponge. Instead of a spectral body, Lucifer now had her own, only it didn’t have the golden light that David and Gina had. Because Lucifer was possessed by the filcher demon, the light emanating from her shifted from deep violet to a blistering hue of jaundiced green.

  She ran. Lucifer was out of the house and racing down the dark streets toward Witchdown. This time, however, she had lungs that desperately needed air. Her body wasn’t even close to having recovered from being dead just moments earlier, even with help from the mending elements of the Sister’s Wheel. Everything ached, her limbs felt awkward and cumbersome. It was like running in a dream, always moving forward but never getting closer to the destination.

  Several spirits converged on her only to turn away in haste when they felt her sickening light. In the distance, Lucifer saw a mountain of ghosts and specters rising up from the center of Witchdown. The occasional beam of light would break through the writhing mass, though Lucifer had no idea how much longer that cage would protect David and Gina.

  Arcs of putrid magic sliced at the spirits, calving the mountain only to see it rise up once again. The witches were still struggling to keep the spirits of the Shade from stealing their prize. In the short time Lucifer had been gone, the number of spirits had grown tenfold, and the Sisters of Witchdown could not keep them at bay.

  Lucifer reached the edge of the horde and burrowed straight ahead. Spirits dispersed at the touch of her foul light. Lucifer ran along the tunnel they created in their attempt to get away. Thankfully, they were also keeping her out of view of the Sisters.

  When she reached the cage, she saw David and Gina together in the center. They were forehead to forehead with David’s hands on the side of Gina’s face as he spoke to her, obviously trying to calm her, to comfort her as ghosts battled to be the first to taste their life.

  Jealousy cleaved Lucifer’s heart. She could see the genuine affection in David’s eyes as he looked at Gina. In that moment, Lucifer would have given anything to be the one trapped with him. Instead, she was the one who had to save him.

  Without missing a stride, Lucifer unlocked the cage and slipped inside. Gina yelped as David put his arm protectively around her.

  Lucifer pulled a knife from her trick bag and said, “You two ready?”

  Not waiting for an answer, Lucifer carved the final piece to the transport glyph in the floor of the cage. The cage suddenly twisted, folding around them. When it morphed back into shape, they were inside the room of the Worcester House, the Sister’s Wheel glowing beneath them.

  David helped Gina to her feet. “Lucifer? How . . . I . . .”

  “Less talk and more getting the hell out of here. Through the mirror, both of you. Hurry!”

  David and Lucifer helped Gina up and through the mirror. Lucifer saw Buck on the other, his mouth noiselessly screaming Gina’s name when the cop saw his daughter coming through the mirror. He grabbed her and pulled her through so quickly her shoe came off in Lucifer’s hand.

  She tossed the shoe through the mirror and said, “Okay, David.” David looked at her and smiled. He was tired, frightened, confused, but he seemed grateful. Still, Lucifer couldn’t help but think something was missing. Something about the way he looked at her seemed different. Of course, being trapped in Witchdown would change anyone, and now wasn’t the time to think about it.

  She laced her fingers together, allowing David to use her intertwined hands as a foothold. He was up and through the mirror. Lucifer was about to follow when seven dark figures suddenly appeared in the room, surrounding her.

  “Lucifer,” one of the Sisters said. “Leaving so soon? You must stay and tell us how you can be a ghost one moment and a living girl the next. That is a secret my Sisters and I would very much like to possess.”

  Lucifer rushed to climb up the vanity when another Sister said, “Stop.”

  Something inside Lucifer seized. She told her body to climb into the mirror, to get away, but the filcher demon inside her prevented her. Apparently it took less time to take hold than she thought.

  “You have only delayed the inevitable,” said the Sister. “Both the boy and girl have summoned us. Once summoned, we can find them anywhere, pull them through any reflection.”

  Lucifer nodded. She could feel that she still had complete control of her body, so long as she didn’t make a move toward the mirror. “That’s true. Unless I destroy the book.”

  All seven Sisters laughed. “How charming that you think you’ll have that opportunity.”

  Their fiendish claws clasped each other, forming a complete circle around her. Horrible light filled the room.

  Something smacked Lucifer in the chest. Only it wasn’t the witches’ spell. It was the defibrillator. Someone from the other side had tossed it through the mirror. As quickly as she could, Lucifer grabbed the paddles and pressed them to her chest.

  Then the Sisters’ magic hit her.

  Lightning ran through h
er, igniting her. The pain was excruciating, so much so that darkness played at the edge of her vision. Lucifer knew that, for a moment, her heart had stopped, but she wasn’t sure if it was the defibrillator or witches’ magic that started it again. It didn’t matter. The jolt was enough. She felt the filcher demon inside her rising like bile in her throat. She screamed, an awful gurgling sound. The filcher demon fell out of her mouth and spilled onto the floor. Its tiny head swiveled back and forth as it took in its surroundings.

  Then it jumped at the nearest Sister.

  The Seven Sisters of Witchdown unloaded on the creature, turning it into a cloud of acrid gas. But the distraction was long enough to allow Lucifer to half dive, half fall through the mirror.

  She collapsed to the ground in the living world with a dull thud. Her arms twitched, and her legs didn’t want to work. She looked up at the vanity to see the witches’ hands reaching through the glass, their arms smoldering as they desperately grasped for anything.

  Lucifer quickly rolled over and dumped the contents of her trick bag on the floor. She grabbed the book in one hand and a lighter in the other, but her thumb simply wouldn’t work properly. She couldn’t get it to light.

  Lucifer felt something warm close around her hand. It was David. He held her hand in both of his and helped her flick the lighter to life. A tiny flame popped into existence. He looked at her with that perfectly crooked smile that would have turned her legs to mush if they weren’t already useless. She put the flame to the pages of the book.

  In an instant, the book was engulfed in fire. Tiny demonic faces rose into the air and then faded with the rising smoke as the pages popped and crackled in the unnatural heat. The witches howled and spat curses through the mirror. Lucifer could see their faces crowding together, all staring hate directly at her. And then, just as quickly, the mirror cracked and every window in the room shattered. The entire room of the Worcester House seemed to deflate as the floorboards dissolved into the same rotting husks found in the rest of the house. The Sister’s Wheel that had kept the room whole was useless now that the book was nothing more than a smoking pile of ash.