Demonically Tempted (Frostbite)

by Stacey Kennedy

  With warmth replacing the iciness in my veins, I opened my eyes and relished the strength that he gave to me. The one that said I never asked for any of this and that meant I deserved to do this on my terms. I’d fought hard every step of the way for what was right, not out of duty, but because I believed in it.

  That couldn’t end here. Not now. Not because of some demon. And certainly not because my abilities brought me to this moment. I controlled my future. I said when and where. I said who I let in and who I didn’t. I had put Dane in his place and I could do the same with this demon.

  I fixated on the shadow spiraling through the air straight ahead of me, pulled on that heat burning in my gut, and held onto my belief of what was good.

  Kipp, our love, ghosts, and the desire to see them find peace. I’d wrestled with my ability and purpose until things settled, and this demon couldn’t destroy it. He couldn’t steal the happy depths of me with empty promises because he controlled nothing. I held all the power.

  I raised my voice and pushed all of my strength into it. “Demon belonging to Baal, return to your house. By the protection of the Guardians to my north, east, south and west, I banish thee.”

  A loud roar erupted, a squeal of absolute terror as the deep scent of sulfur nearly suffocated me. The shadow sped around the room and transformed into a rope of fire. I held the mirror out in front of me and within a blink of an eye, the line of fire soared straight toward me then entered the mirror.

  Without pause, I pulled the black silk out of the bag, flipped the mirror over, and then covered it in haste.

  My breath hitched to break free on a cry, but was halted when sudden gasps filled the space around me. I jerked my head up, waited two-point-two seconds, then screamed.

  Loud shouts followed mine.

  I sucked in a harsh breath to stop my screaming, not to scare the ghosts in front of me and composed myself. “Err…” I scanned the room spotting more than ten ghosts. Their energy washed across my skin making me shiver. “I wasn’t expecting…err…this. For you all…um…to appear.”

  They all stared at me wide-eyed, yet one woman standing near the back of the crowd caught my attention. I blinked a couple times for good measure to ensure I wasn’t imagining this, but she remained.

  “It’s you,” I whispered, calling her forward with a jerk of my hand. “You. Come here.” She stepped free from the crowd, stopped in front of me, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Is your name Lizbeth?”

  She exchanged a look with the others who all wore masks of shock before she turned to me. “Yes, that’s my name.” Her pretty blue eyes were just as I remembered from the picture I’d seen of her when I was first introduced to the case, and her dark long hair flowed over her white nighty. “How do you know my name?”

  My mind spun in the same confusion they all appeared to hold. “Because I’m part of the police department and we were working your case.” Was this seriously happening? “That is, until it became unsolvable.” I shook my head to gather sense. “This is why you died?”

  “It possessed me,” she said on a whisper that oozed with sadness.

  The world for all of a second stopped. Memories rushed into my mind piecing it all together. “Your soul was devoured, trapped in the demon, and that’s why your ghost was missing. Then, the demon used Hector that night at the creek as a host because it needed another body after you died, and that’s why he didn’t remember anything of the past years. He wasn’t himself.”

  Each piece seemed to fit perfectly together and I could hardly catch my breath. “The blue uniform the man’s wearing, I knew I recognized it.” I smacked myself in the forehead. “Now it all makes sense. The demon must have failed in stealing Hector’s soul, so he possessed one of the guards at the prison and that’s how it got out.”

  My heart thumped at the clarity of it all. “And that’s why there hadn’t been any cases like yours since then. No evidence of the demon. No scared ghosts. The demon has been locked away in Hector.”

  Lizbeth’s mouth had dropped open and she finally blinked. “What?”

  I shook my head, not wanting to confuse an already baffled ghost. “Forget it. It’ll take way too long to explain. All that matters is you’re free.”

  “I remember the demon attacking me, trying to take over my soul, and I remember trying to fight it.” Sorrow reached her gaze. “He won then? That’s what this means. He killed me?”

  How to answer that? Instead of some response that would never comfort her, I merely nodded, then added, “But he’s gone now. You’re all safe.”

  “I remember something like that,” another woman called out.

  “Me too,” a man said.

  One by one, they told of the devastation the demon caused in their lives, and I sat and listened. After each of their stories spilled from their lips, they vanished. A bright light surrounded them as they made their journey to the beyond.

  I couldn’t say I wasn’t relieved that’s all they needed. That many ghosts would have taken a long time to help and time was something I didn’t have right now. Plus, a few of them by their clothing looked to have lived during the Great War. Who knew if the people they needed to settle their peace with were still alive. I was glad that all they wanted was someone to hear how their lives had met a terrible end, and even happier that they crossed over.

  By the end, only Lizbeth remained, and her gaze searched mine. “My sister?”

  “She’s still around and living at your house.”

  The dismay in her features deepened, and coming from a dead woman it couldn’t get much worse. “Will you go to her and tell her what happened? Tell her that I wasn’t crazy and why I took my life.”

  “Of course.”

  She smiled, the exact smile I remembered from her picture. “Thank you.”

  Those were the last words Lizbeth said as the light surrounded her, then engulfed her just like the others. I looked down to the mirror covered in silk. My thoughts were so spun around it was hard to think anything through.

  Kipp.

  Demon.

  Lizbeth.

  My only concern was finishing with the instructions from Gretchen. I stood, left the circle and went outside. The moment the sun shone down over me, I removed the silk and let the light hit the mirror.

  Nothing came out of it. Not that I really expected it to. From what I’d seen of the protection I had against the demon, I believed whatever I had to do worked. Wasn’t magic so different than what I thought? No sparks of energy, obvious signs it held power, but hadn’t I been proven wrong?

  I kept the mirror in hand and entered the home again. I stepped into my circle, faced east and as I spoke I turned in each direction, “Raphael to the east, Michael to the south, Gabriel to the west, Uriel to the north—bless this house with your protection.”

  After which, I closed the circle, then strode over to my bag. I took out the charcoal mixture with the spices and set the jar on the floor, then lit it on fire. Just as I did, the man on the ground groaned, drawing my attention to him.

  “Where am I?” he said, pushing himself off the ground and rubbed his head. “Why am I here?”

  I thought up a plan super-fast. “You clearly got very drunk last night, and I heard you moaning in here. You really shouldn’t drink so much.”

  He blinked. “I got drunk?”

  “Yes,” I lied. “Really, a man who works at a prison shouldn’t drink so much. Now go home.” Just for his benefit, I added, “And go to church. You need it.”

  He blinked again. “I need to go to church?”

  I didn’t know if that was accurate, but I couldn’t help think it’d do him some good. If I had a demon inside of me at any point in my life, I’d live at church to make damn sure it never came back. “You need to go at least weekly, if not more, and do some charitable work to make your soul good.”

  He said nothing more, almost like a zombie, he exited the house. I couldn’t really blame him. Having a demon overtake your body had t
o leave you more than confused. I hoped that he’d come up with a good reason for why he’d forgotten days of his life instead of driving himself crazy, and more so, that he remembered what I said to him after a good night’s rest.

  With the house empty, I dropped to the ground, inhaled the pleasant aroma of the spices burning as the smoke filled the air to cleanse the space.

  I raised my hand to the necklace, still so warm beneath my touch. I had no idea what was on the other side, or what awaited me when I got there, but in this moment, I had the real sense I wasn’t as alone as I thought.

  Tears formed in my eyes and I allowed myself the moment to shed them. Cry for what I’d been through. For the moments that I seemed to have no control over my life. For how dark the world could be. And for Kipp.

  Who knew how much time had passed while I released the emotions consuming me. But enough that I suspected Max might have been losing his mind.

  I wiped the tears from my face, reached into the bag, took out the radio, and clicked the side to initiate it. “Max. I’m done.”

  A beep followed. “Hang tight.”

  I heard the squeal of tires a mere second later before Max ran up the front stairs. “Tess,” he shouted.

  “In here,” I called, not bothering to move.

  He stormed into the room, searching the space quickly before his gaze landed on mine. “Are you hurt?”

  “No.” I wasn’t physically injured, but inside was a whole different story. “I need you to do something for me.”

  He took the final steps to close in on me. His posture filled with tension. “Anything.”

  In all this mess, even after crying in hysterics, my soul demanded something. No matter how strange it was I couldn’t stop from asking for what I needed most. “Can I have a hug because…”

  Before I could even finish, Max had me in his arms and held me tight enough that breathing became difficult. And it was exactly what I needed. To be…loved. To experience warmth in the midst of all the coldness that had invaded my life.

  In his arms, I was safe, without danger, free from worries, and for now I didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  Apparently, Max held a similar attitude, because he didn’t let go. Didn’t bother with words that would be useless now, he simply held me exactly like I needed.

  Not until long moments passed did he finally pull away, but kept me in his arms, and smiled. “Job well done, Tess.”

  “Pfft…it was easy.” I laughed quietly, and Max chuckled along with me. The weight that rode my chest when I arrived at the house faded. It was a welcomed relief. “Let me tell you this, though, I take back what I said earlier.”

  “You take what back?”

  He stared at me so worriedly, genuinely concerned, and it did feel nice because even though Kipp was gone, I had Max, Zach, Caley, Eddie, and Gretchen who stood strong next to me. “I’d much rather deal with crazy-assed murderers than ever deal with anything like this again.”

  The tension in his features eased, slightly. “Let’s hope that’s the last demon who resides in Memphis.”

  “Ain’t that truth.” I drew in a deep breath, moved away from Max’s hold, and grabbed my bag. “All right, let’s get out of this stinkin’ house.” He kept his arm around me, as if he thought I’d fall over, and headed toward the door.

  I didn’t feel weak, but I didn’t mind him holding me. “Oh, and by the way, I found out why Lizbeth died.” He stared down at me with a curious brow, so I added. “The demon had her.”

  He stopped dead in his tracks, dropped his arm from my waist, and I kept on walking, ready to get the hell out of here. “Yeah, I know, shocking.”

  I waved him forward, but stayed focused on the door. “I’ve got something else to do, so I’ll tell you on the way. Really, I’m done with this house and this demon business.”

  When Max didn’t follow me, I peeked over my shoulder to find him unmoving, mouth agape. “Are you coming?”

  He shook his head, clearly to snap himself into the present. “Do I even want to hear what you have to tell me?”

  “Probably not,” I retorted. “But you’re going to. If I have to deal with this shit then so do you.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  By the time I finished telling Max about what happened with the demon and how he possessed Lizbeth plus many other people, he had paled and appeared on the verge of being ill. I thought it best not to include him in the next bit of my journey and had him drop me off to my car.

  After a short drive, I arrived at the Lichterman Nature Center and strode on until I came to the bridge that stood over the lake. The sunny day I could appreciate, and the view was pretty enough, but my mood was too raw to enjoy it like I normally would.

  I leaned over the railing, peering down into the murky water. I unwrapped the mirror and placed the black silk into my back pocket, just as my phone rang.

  Keeping the mirror in my hand, I used the other to reach into my jeans and grabbed my phone. I raised it to my ear. “Hello.”

  “Seems like someone is right up there with Luke Skywalker,” Zach said, amusement rolled off his tone. “You sure know how to fight off the dark side.”

  I chuckled softly. “Apparently.”

  “Where are you now?” he asked, his tone firm. “Max said you had something to do, but you could have called me. I would’ve gone with you.”

  “Oh, just some more shit to take care of, but it’s nothing I couldn’t do alone.” I held the mirror over the railing on the bridge, then let go, watching it fall into the river with a splash. The mirror floated on top for only a split second before it sank. “But I’m done now and am heading home.”

  “Good.” He paused and finally said, “Are you all right?”

  I considered that, and thought it sweet he worried. “I’m not sure what I am. I think I need a bath, some sleep, then I’ll figure it all out.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” he corrected.

  No matter that Kipp had vanished into the Netherworld. No matter that my heart broke into a thousand pieces. And no matter that demons were quite real and I just had a personal introduction to one, I had my friends. Zach was among them. “That sounds even better.”

  He hesitated again “Listen, I hate to do this now, but we have another case to get going on. Max said you can take tomorrow off to rest up and I know there’s a lot going on with Kipp, but duty calls.”

  As much as I could’ve said more important things mattered. A job was a job. If Kipp was merely a human lover, I couldn’t put my job on the back burner to sort out my personal life and I wouldn’t do that now. “Tell Max I appreciate the day off and I’ll be at the station the day after tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good.” His voice cut out indicating he’d received another call. A scuffle came telling me he had glanced at the caller id, then he said, “I have to take that call, but get some sleep today.”

  “Bye,” was all I said, then hung up.

  I stared down into the water seeing nothing of importance. The mirror was now at the bottom of the lake where it’d stay. This business with the demon was over, and I hoped it’d remain that way. While I didn’t mind helping ghosts, I didn’t want a permanent position in fighting evil.

  With a final look, I strode toward my car and was on the road in a jiffy. After being in a hurry for the past days, I drove below city limits, and the wind breezing through the window ruffled my hair.

  Peace.

  The drive was simply too short since it was the most relaxing thing I’d done in days, and as my condominium came into view, my heart clenched reminding me that Kipp wouldn’t be there.

  Exhaustion couldn’t even allow tears to form. Emptiness touched my soul. Maybe after I slept, I’d cry again, shed more of the emotions that I knew were hidden. For now, I was the shell of the woman who once cared.

  I pulled into my parking spot, exited the car, and headed toward the door when suddenly police sirens drew closer.

  Just as I wrapped my hand on the
door handle, a car tore into the parking lot and squealed its tires. I turned around to see Eddie practically throw himself out of the car.

  “You need to come with me,” he said, breathless.

  I gasped as he reached me and wrapped his hand on my arm. “No way. I’m done in and going to bed.”

  He yanked me forward. “No time. Come now. It’s about Kipp.”

  I dug my heels into the ground, pulled my arm away and refused to move. “You’ve seen him?” I realized immediately how stupid of a statement that was since Eddie couldn’t see ghosts and added, “What about him?”

  Eddie wrapped his arm around my waist, ignoring my struggles and questions, and ran us both toward his car. He opened the passenger side door, tossed me in, then sprinted in front of the hood and got into the car. He slammed into gear and tore down the road.

  I straightened in my seat and put my seatbelt on because in all honesty his driving scared the shit out of me. He weaved in and out of cars. The siren above the roofing blaring loudly as he honked his horn, cursing.

  “What’s going on?” I demanded. “Tell me right now.”

  “It’ll take too long to explain,” he said, cursing again as we almost hit another car.

  He took a hard right, squishing me against the door and banging my head in the process. “Ouch. Fuck. Slow down.”

  He didn’t listen and drove like a mad man as I held onto the holy shit handle above the window and prayed to God that I wasn’t about to become a ghost.

  At some point I must have closed my eyes, because when he hit the brakes I soared toward the dashboard where my forehead smacked it before the seatbelt locked, and I realized I couldn’t see anything. “Ouch.” I glared at him. “Again.”

  “We’re here.” He slammed the car into park, and didn’t bother to cut the ignition.

  I rubbed my forehead and noticed that we were at a hospital. Before I had the chance to figure out why, Eddie had opened my door and attempted to haul me out. “Ow.” I groaned. “Would you stop pulling on me and tell me what the hell is going on?”

  He never stopped treating me like a rag doll and continued to wrench on me even though I still had my seat belt on. “I’m attached! Hold on, would you?” The seatbelt dug into my neck, but I managed to reach down and unlock it.