The Demon's Possession

by Kiersten Fay

  “Brave little one.” He stepped forward, and she lunged. She realized her mistake immediately, but it was too late. He grabbed her wrist and twisted her around so that he was at her back and had managed to lock both her hands in place behind her. Cale had demonstrated a similar move many times, and she chastised herself for not seeing it coming.

  Hadn't even got in a hit.

  Ethanule secured both her hands in one of his, and raised his other hand to her face. She flinched, expecting him to strike her, but he only moved her hair aside, revealing one pointed ear. Her heart began to thunder.

  “What?” She feigned nonchalance as she struggled against his hold. “Never seen pointed ears before?”

  “I've seen ears like yours more often than you might think.”

  She stilled. “You have?” Interest rapidly replaced fear.

  Could he know of my people?

  “Yes. I'll tell you about it if you like, though I much prefer conversations face to face. If I let you go, will you promise not to attack me again?”

  She nodded, not sure if she really meant it. As soon as he released her, she darted away from him.

  As if trying to project a non-threatening persona, Ethanule took a seat in one of the nearby chairs. Leaning back, he crossed his arms over his chest, looking very relaxed. But the fact that he'd just subdued her without any effort kept her on guard.

  She moved to put one of the other large chairs between them. Not that it would stop him if he wanted to get to her, but it would give her time to react if needed.

  “Please have a seat. I've already given my word that I will not hurt you.”

  “My friends are locked up against their will. Some of them are still unconscious from the drug you shot into them. The word of a pirate does not hold much weight with me at the moment.”

  “Touché,” is all he said, and resumed watching her.

  For the moment, his energy was benign. There was also something more. A familiarity. Almost as if…“Tell me, where have you seen ears like mine?”

  “Before we get to that, would you like a drink? Something to eat?”

  Raising her chin, she waited for an answer.

  “You must be hungry after two days of restful sleep.”

  Again, she only stared.

  “Suit yourself.” Ethanule stood, and she jumped back. He gave her a chafed look as he moved past her to stand behind the desk. Placing his hand on the large book he said, “This will tell you everything you need to know. All you have to do, Analia, is open it.”

  She stood motionless for a moment. He'd used her given name.

  Reading her expression, he added, “Yes, I know who you are. I know more about you than perhaps you do.”

  “Like what?”

  “You don't remember your people, your home planet, what happened there?”

  She looked at the book and then at the empty package on the floor. “Is that book what we came to deliver?”

  He nodded.

  “And it holds the answers that I seek?”

  “Yes.”

  The book was as thick as her fist by two. The cover was dark red leather framed by a decorative gold border that weaved over the front and back. It radiated an energy, similar to the wards she'd felt on Marada.

  “But you seek these answers as well?” Anya surmised.

  “I do.”

  “Why, then, do you need me? Why not just open the book and see for yourself.”

  He gave her a knowing smile. “It's been enchanted to open for only three people in the universe.”

  Three? “And somehow I'm one of the three? Where are the others?” Were they like her?

  “That's what I hope to find out.”

  To exploit them?

  If what he claimed was true, then this book would hold the answers to her lost people. And if she opened it here and now, then this pirate will have the information as well. What if this knowledge was locked away for a reason? What if her people were in hiding because of people like Darius and this pirate?

  She moved in close. “How do I open it?”

  “You must only touch the lock.”

  Placing her hands on the book, she ran them over the cover. The aura she felt was comforting.

  “Tell me,” he said from behind her. “What do you know of a man named Darius?”

  Anya grabbed the heavy book with both hands and heaved it off the desk. Her aim was perfect, though the book was much heavier than she'd first imagined. With a loud crack to his skull, Ethanule crumbled to the floor. In a delayed reaction, her heart began to pound in her chest.

  Clutching the thick book in one arm, she turned to the door. The doorknob squeaked lightly as she turned it, and the hall seemed darker after being in the brightly colored room. No guards were in sight. Perhaps they figured Ethanule could handle one small girl. Inwardly, she chuckled.

  Easing the door closed behind her, she transferred the weight of the book to her other arm and began retracing her steps. Distant echoes reverberated through the hall. Desperately glancing around, Anya couldn't see very far. Her senses were more astute than her vision at the moment. She could feel that people were near, but not in the same hallway as her.

  With the sounds of her feet crunching against gravel, she kept moving. Reassuring herself that she was going the right way, she reached out to scan for Sebastian and the others. She caught a glimpse of their energy and continued on through a second tunnel. Sebastian's angry roars confirmed that she was on the right track.

  He quieted as she reached the edge of the chamber, as though he sensed her as well. No doubt he did.

  Two guards were still against a wall, facing the center of the room. She wouldn't be able to overtake them both. She would have to move quickly before they could catch her. Knowing that she would need both hands to disable the lock, she laid the book against the wall of the corridor.

  The control for the lock was just left of the door. It looked like the kind that required a keycard. She should have searched Ethanule before she'd left him. Too late now. She would have to, as Cale would say, pull a light bulb on it.

  But for this to work, she would need to be close to the lock. Very close. Touching would be ideal, but she doubted that would be possible.

  She found that every object emitted its own energy signature, and she was unfamiliar with the signatures here, which suggested an unpredictable outcome. With the light bulbs, she'd been able to take her time, get a feel for each one. If she wasn’t careful, she could wind up blowing up her friends.

  Shaking herself, she focused on her task. Get past the guards, disable the lock.

  Sucking in her chest, she shot forward into the chamber, the guards saw her immediately and yelled their surprise. They didn't waste time in coming after her, but she was ahead of them by a few feet; it was all she needed.

  Reaching out for the lock, she focused her energy on it, trying to get inside it with everything she had.

  A large arm wrapped around her torso, pinning her arms to her side.

  “No!” She'd almost been there.

  “Anya!” Sebastian roared.

  As the guard ripped her body back, she screamed, “Bastian!” She struggled relentlessly, but the guard’s grip was painfully tight, so much so that she could hardly breathe. Sebastian roared again, this time his timbre was more ferocious. The sound of flesh ramming into metal rang out from behind the door. He was trying to break it down. She didn't want him to hurt himself, but she was in pain, so when she cried his name again—meaning to calm him—it was like throwing fuel on a flame.

  The guard, she sensed, was confused by the turn of events and unsure what to do. The door to Sebastian's cell was visibly bowing with each merciless ram. The guard was riveted, his heart hammering against her back. Dust and rocks began to crumble from the walls at the onslaught, and the guard tightened his grip once more, making her gasp and thrash.

  She needed to get the door open before Sebastian really did harm himself. His energy had spike
d to a killing rage and would not be eased unless… “Take your hands off me!” she warned the guard.

  “Shut up!” he replied, pulling out a gun from a holster at his back aiming it at the door.

  “No! Bastian!” Again she sounded panicked and Sebastian misunderstood. His wild rage worsened. The bone crunching sound of him beating himself against the door was agonizing.

  Fighting against the guard’s iron grip, Anya did the only thing she could think of in her panicked state: she began to focus on the lock once more.

  Trying to single out its energy alone, while all of the intensity around her was heightened to a fever pitch, was proving nearly impossible. Every source of energy within two hundred feet bombarded her senses.

  When Sebastian threw himself at the door once more, it was followed by a muffled groan of pain. The sound cut her deep in her chest, driving her into an uncontrollable urgency to stop this. With reckless abandon, she fixed her attention on every single energy source, allowing it all to flood into her at once. It washed over her like little sparks of light floating in and out of her every cell. Like sizzling bubbles invading her mind and massaging the very essence of her being.

  It felt…good, as though something else inside her was taking over. A driving instinct that had been buried deep. She relinquished control to it and heat washed over her. A welcome heat.

  “What the…” The guard released her and backed away still clutching his weapon. The second guard backed up as well.

  In her mind, the energy began to solidify, becoming like thick wires stringing directly into her. She gripped them and held them tight. The power was massive, unlimited, and all hers.

  The heat grew to a swelter. Becoming too much.

  Anya hunched over and closed her eyes. She was forgetting why she'd started this. A terrible ringing flooded her ears, but Sebastian's roar pulled her back from surrendering completely to the instinct that threatened to overpower her.

  But the snaking wires had buried themselves deep, intertwined with her essence, and she had to mentally rip them away. The act brought pain. With each wire she managed to remove, she vaguely comprehended a corresponding popping sound. In one swift pull, she pried them all out at once.

  The dim lights in the room surged before erupting in loud bursts, veiling the room in darkness. Distant pops sounded down the hallway as the chain of lights exploded, one after the other.

  There was a soft click, and the door to the cell was unlocked. And then nearly torn off the hinges by Sebastian. The demons poured out, ready for a fight, but the guards had fled. Aidan and the other crew members, still groggy, followed behind.

  Sebastian scooped her up, squeezing her to his chest just as hard as the guard had, but instead of pain, she only felt a deep satisfaction at being in his arms again.

  “Let's get to the ship,” Cale said from out of the darkness.

  “Agreed.” Sebastian, still holding her, began to move.

  “Wait. The book!” Anya nearly forgot.

  “What book?”

  She pointed through the darkness to where she thought the book might be. Her vision had not yet adjusted to the pitch-black chamber, but she figured that Sebastian's had. Sure enough, Bastian followed her directions without the slightest care for his steps.

  “I left a book on the ground here, just by the wall.”

  “Anya, there is no book.”

  “There must be. It must be here.”

  “There is nothing, love. We must go.”

  Because she still couldn't see clearly, Sebastian continued carrying her as they made their way through the tangle of caves. The demons all seemed to be in silent concurrence about the path they followed. When she quietly questioned this Sebastian told her they could smell the ship.

  Eventually they traveled far enough through the caves that some of the lights remained undamaged, and she had Sebastian set her down.

  Just as they began to move once more, he froze, putting himself protectively in front of her. “The ship is just up ahead, but we're not alone.”

  Anya once again felt the familiar energy. Ethanule and roughly ten guards with weapons appeared at their front.

  Ethanule was holding the book.

  “Analia,” Ethanule started. “We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. I apologize.”

  She tilted her head, eyes darting between Ethanule and the book in his arms.

  “There are things you need to know. Things about our people.”

  “Our people?” Anya asked dimly.

  “We are the same, you and I.”

  From behind her, Sonya huffed, “Ha! He's lying.”

  Then he reached up and brushed his hair to the side, revealing a pointed ear just like hers. Anya sucked in a breath and mindlessly reached out, Sebastian gently pulled her back.

  Could it be? After all this time?

  The whole of her life she'd longed to find one of her own.

  “I was about to tell you just before your pesky crack to my head. That hurt, by the way.” He gave a crooked smile as if he were secretly proud of her.

  Ignoring his chide, she asked, “Why did you lock us up? Why drug us?”

  “I feared you were being held captive by these demons. There are many who develop an unnatural obsession with our kind. I meant only to protect you.”

  “And the lock on my door?”

  “If—which it seems to be the case—you were with these demons by choice, I did not want you able to flee before I could speak with you.”

  “So you do know what I can do?”

  “I have been told, yes.”

  “By who?” she demanded.

  Ethanule paused, debating his next words. “Your father.”

  Chapter 21

  Anya swayed on her feet. Sebastian placed a hand on her back to steady her. She leaned against him for support, eyes growing stark.

  She whispered, “My father?”

  Sebastian felt a slight tremble run through her.

  Ethanule continued. “I can explain everything if you'll let me.”

  Anya narrowed her eyes. “Why did you ask me about Darius?”

  “What!” Sebastian bellowed. He exchanged glances with the others.

  Ethanule noticed their unease. “He contacted me, asked me about a woman fitting Analia's description.” To Anya, he said, “I didn't like what I saw in his eyes when he spoke of you, so I told him I'd seen no such woman.”

  “We must go. Now!” Sebastian motioned his crew forward despite the guards still blocking their way. “Tell me Ethanule, do you know how far away his ship was when he contacted you?”

  “I do not.” Ethanule allowed them to push past and followed beside Sebastian. “Who is this Darius?”

  Sonya answered, “You spoke of unnatural obsession? Well, he's the prime example.”

  Still looking utterly shocked, Anya began firing off questions as they walked. “What of my father? Where is he? How did he know I'd come to be here? How is it he knew to tell you of me? Does he still live? Does he know where I've been?”

  Ethanule edged, “As far as I know, he lives. As for the other stuff, we will have plenty of time to speak of it later. Seems the demon's in a hurry.”

  Anya halted, looking almost wild. “Does he know where I've been?” she repeated louder.

  With compassion in his voice and heavy sigh, Ethanule replied, “Analia, it's complicated.”

  “Do you know?”

  He paused. “I've been told very little. But what I was told…I'm…sorry.”

  Sebastian saw the truth of it in his eyes. Ethanule somehow knew something of Anya's history, and the pirate's remorse seemed genuine. That alone saved his life.

  “It's why I suspected the demons, but now I'm thinking…” He looked to Sebastian, “Darius?”

  Sebastian gave a tight nod. He could only imagine what Anya must be feeling at this moment. She'd just discovered a link to her people, a link to her father. And it seemed both had knowledge of her suffering and had don
e nothing about it.

  He knew there must be more to the story, had to be, but if Anya asked him to kill Ethanule for her right now, he would, with pleasure. Ethanule must have seen the darkness in Sebastian's eyes because he took a step back.

  “There's much I must explain. It's not as simple as you think. If your father could have done something, I know—“

  “Enough,” Anya interrupted. Sebastian could hear the pain in her voice. “I don't want to hear any more.” With a firm step, she pushed past them.

  They entered the docking station. The ship was intact, guards all around. Everyone must have been forced to remain on board for the duration of their not so hospitable stay. Good, that meant there were fewer people to round up, and the faster they could get going.

  From behind him, Ethanule said, “I'm coming with you.”

  “Is that what you think?”

  “Remember, I'm the one in control of all the guns.”

  Sebastian spared a glance to a nearby guard and kept moving. Bullets hurt, but rarely packed the power to incapacitate a demon, especially a demon as strong as he. Taking a bullet would only enrage him, which in turn would make him stronger.

  Ethanule continued, “It's important that I explain things to her. I must stay with her until I can. It's my duty, to my people, my king. After that, if she doesn't believe what I have to say, you can, I don't know, throw me into space or something.”

  That made Sebastian chuckle. “What is it with your kind and wanting to be thrown into space?”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. She was looking for a book earlier. Is that the book you carry?”

  “Yes, but only I can translate it. She'll need me for that.”

  A muscle ticked in Sebastian's jaw. The thought of Anya needing this male, one of her own kind, for anything, irked him. It brought out a possessive urge. But if Anya could finally learn about her heritage—something he sensed she was desperate for—then Sebastian would go against his instincts and allow it. Only if that was what Anya wanted, that is.

  “It's Anya's decision,” Sebastian finally said. “I'll abide by her choice.” A deep sense of foreboding washed over him. Sebastian was sure there would be a lot to Ethanule's story. And he was also sure he wasn't going to like any of it.