He became even more frustrated when he realized that if Katie supported Elanah and became friends with her, he’d never find out what was going on. He got through the afternoon only to have another bomb dropped on him at home.
His parents had spoken to Clara Innes and she’d agreed to break her agreement with Nathalie and give the old apartment over her shop to Elanah to live in. On top of that, his father was offering Elanah a job on the town council, earning a generous salary as the town witch.
Max was floored. “Excuse me, did you just say ‘the town witch?’”
Max’s horrified expression prompted his father to add, “Well, that won’t be her public title.”
Luke joined them, happy at the news. “And it looks as if Dean’s agreed to move in with her.”
“Her, who?” Max asked his brother wildly.
“Why, Elanah of course. God, you’re so out of it today. Are you in the same conversation as we are?” Luke laughed.
Max felt as if he kept getting hit by the same bus. Dean move in with Elanah? He spent enough time at the Croft household to know that Dean loved Nathalie more than his own life and always had. They were supposed to move in together. Nathalie would be devastated, and if Dean was ever in his right mind again, he would be devastated too.
Max was so angry his eyes filled with tears as he ran up the stairs to his room. “This is terrible!” he shouted, slamming his door and then screaming into it. “What the FUCK is wrong with you people?” He turned and shrieked in fright.
Sadie, his new sister-in-law, was floating outside his second-story window.
“Let me in,” she hissed, tapping at the glass with her long nails.
Max’s heart let out a huge beat of terror and then he fainted.
Chapter 26 – The Devil in the Demon
Limerick: 1595 – 1596
Willow was gone. She had been hung and her body burned in Barrington County.
The day it happened, Danner had appeared at her home in a whirlwind of hot air and breathless excitement. She was in her garden, digging. “Elanah, it’s today! They are going to burn Willow today. We have to go and watch them murder her!”
Elanah felt sick and terrified. Without Willow as a buffer for Danner, there would only be her. She threw up in the bushes.
“Come on Elanah,” he purred, running a black, razor-sharp nail along her arm, drawing blood. “Don’t be like that. I will take you myself.”
The mob stormed Willow’s house and put it to the torch. Danner danced with glee as they watched from their hiding place, but Elanah shrank from the terrifying scene. “Burn,” he said viciously. “There needs to be more blood. I hope Willow kills someone.”
Even if Danner could have saved her, Elanah didn’t want him too. Willow was too far gone as a demoness now. She could no longer be saved.
When the screaming mob left with their witch in tow, Elanah went into the burning house. The fire didn’t touch her. A blue nimbus of power protected her, but she could imagine the heat. She shuddered at what Willow would soon suffer.
The two spell books were craftily hidden and undamaged. Neither could be destroyed as both were magically protected with the lifeblood of human sacrifices. The three girls had done the Von Vixen spell book. It was covered in human skin, and it made her skin crawl. Willow’s grimoire was also covered in skin now.
Danner laughed, stroking the grimoire’s cover. “Do you know whose skin this is?”
Elanah felt a knot form at the pit of her stomach.
“Yes, Elanah, my darling. This is all that is left of your brother. He committed suicide, you know, but only after Willow was done with him. He’s going to Hell.”
Elanah felt faint, wobbling on her feet. Poor Karl.
“Now, now, steady there,” Danner said smiling gleefully. He took her and the books back to Limerick. When she arrived at home Hiram was looking for her, but Danner knocked him out. She hid both books in her mattress then looked at him with trepidation. His ocher part was hard and stiff and he was rubbing himself with long, steady pulls. “That was a very enjoyable trip, my lovely,” he said, licking his lips and exposing his needle-sharp teeth. “Let’s finish the day off with a bang, shall we?”
He ripped off her dress and threw her to the floor. He spread her legs and climbed top of her, pinning her down so hard she thought her hips would pop. He entered her violently. He laughed when she screamed in agony as he tore into her, his humping body a furious blur as he thrust. She struggled underneath him but he just held her tighter, biting her neck and using one claw to make bloody slices on her body. “This is how I enjoy ending my day,” he roared. She shrieked as he released his seed and it burned like fire inside her, and then she passed out.
It’s strange what happens to a town when a demon decides to take up residence there.
Milk curdled right from the cow or would not churn to butter. Babies were born sickly and failed to thrive. Animals were going crazy, stampeding and attacking each other.
Superstitions came true.
The townsfolk were scared. They blamed it on witches. They killed all the black cats in case they were familiars. Even though they were devout Christians, they painted old symbols on their homes to ward off evil. They wanted their problems to burn.
Sean was exhausted. He had put together an official witch-hunting group of hand-picked men and one woman. A tribunal mixed of council and esteemed town members had been assembled to hear cases. There were five women currently locked up in the town jail under suspicion of witchcraft. Their wails and pleas of innocence tore at Sean’s heart.
Because he knew they were true.
Elanah had told him as much. She played a key role in the witch-hunting group. She was the only woman, and because her family and husband were well respected, it was allowed. She had told the council that the hand of the Lord touched her when she was around a witch. So she joined the witch-hunters and picked the town’s “witches,” the women she knew whose deaths were imminent. She could tell by the marks on their foreheads. Three of the women had black marks that were bleeding red. She knew those three suffered from terminal illnesses—consumption, rabies, pneumonia. The other two women had black marks but no red yet—not imminent but very close. One had an infection she’d ignored and was turning septic, the other Elanah couldn’t identify. She had no outward signs, but she was dying.
A few teenage girls had been found dead in the woods, their lower bodies almost ripped in half, with bite marks and purple bruises all over them. Some had limbs ripped off. Danner had become obsessed with Elanah. He left the girls as gifts for her. They were messages. Warnings. This is what could happen when he visited…but didn’t. His visits had become more frequent since Willow’s death. Not only had he been her lover, he and Willow had had a goal, and he’d been helping his protégée. Now that Willow was gone, he was working on another project.
Her.
Having a demon burst into your home and do horrific things to your body terrified her every day. She never knew when he’d visit—only that it would be at night. She didn’t know what he did or where he stayed during the day.
After the first violent rape of her person, she learned to use magic to heal and prepare her body for his. Witches had been the playthings of demons since time began, and there were spells you could do and potions you could take to erase most of the pain, and to fix any damage. There were good spells written by the Von Vixen witches, who had gone through similar experiences. They explained how to reduce swelling, remove bruises, regrow hair, and mend broken bones. Thankfully, she had her book back. Willow’s grimoire contained spells needed to fix more serious injuries, such as resetting teeth and repairing large tears in the skin. She didn’t want to think about what Willow had endured. According to the records of the three girls, she should be thankful his penis wasn’t barbed, his fingers lined with suckers, or his tongue covered in pustules. Some demons were.
Danner’s sexual appetite was huge, but he usually liked to kill at the
same time he raped his victim, so he only visited Elanah a few times every couple of months. He amused himself elsewhere the rest of the time. For some reason she’d grown important to him. He was obsessed with her white skin and golden hair. He encouraged her witchcraft and delighted at the witch-hunting stories. He ignored Hiram, but he hated Sean with a passion because Elanah loved him, and Elanah was his possession.
She threatened to kill herself if he touched a hair on Sean’s head. Danner had laughed at her, but Sean continued to live his charmed life physically intact. She realized then that she had power over Danner. She also found out that Danner had a thrall in town. Klaus’ name had slipped out of Danner’s mouth during his last visit. Klaus Deitriche was a professor from Germany who’d moved to Limerick to do research on the native people. All Danner cared about was that Klaus could read and write. He wanted his own book filled with his exploits. Klaus knew about Elanah but was under a geas never to speak of the demon.
She searched methodically for Klaus throughout Limerick until she found him. When she’d approached him in the street, he’d given her a blank stare at the mention of her name. She chatted with him for a bit and shook his hand. At his touch she knew right away why he didn’t recognize her. A week later, she orchestrated another meeting with Klaus, but at his home. As she said her name and touched his hand, his eyes had opened in horror. Klaus forgot Danner once the demon left. For some reason Danner didn’t allow that to happen to Elanah.
He would regret that.
When Klaus tried to close the door, Elanah threatened him. He would help her, or she would tell the town he was a demon’s thrall, and that it was he who killed babies and drove animals mad.
It was partially true. Danner’s presence did those things, but Klaus wrote about them.
She wanted Danner gone. Not just for the mischief his presence in town caused, but because his presence was driving her mad. She didn’t want to live in constant terror of being raped and hurt as the obsessed demon showed her what he called “love” by punishing her body and tearing into it like an animal.
She couldn’t stand his long, black-clawed hands sliding down her ribs, leaving long, bleeding gashes on her sides, his shark-like teeth biting her breasts and the tender skin between her legs. And his tongue…it was agonizing when he put it inside her or licked her skin. She wanted to rip it out and smash it to a pulp. It rolled out when he laughed, and she hated it when he laughed. It meant more excruciating pain.
She was going insane.
All she wanted was a simple life with Sean full of love. Her time with him now was precious. When they made love she held on to the memories greedily, replaying them over and over in her head.
She hated Hester, who strolled around town, helping the sick and comforting the families of the condemned witches, spouting how God’s will would be served.
The witch herself.
According to Sean, Hester was a time twister and a caller of the dead. Elanah had been secretly awed. Hester was much more powerful than she was, and Elanah wished she had a tenth of Hester’s power and ability.
She was very jealous. Hester wasn’t being raped, and she lived the life of a queen with the man Elanah loved.
Elanah had mentioned Hester to Danner in passing. She was a witch, and a pretty one at that, but Danner wasn’t interested. He wasn’t going to mess with a time twister. She could send him anywhere in time, and if she did that, then how would he visit her and enjoy her lovely charms? Besides, Danner didn’t want Sean free to claim Elanah should anything happen to Hester.
Elanah would have pointed her witch finger at Hester, but Sean told her that Hester was to be left alone. She was too important in the town. He’d given the same instruction to his wife, who was fully aware of Elanah’s growing power. Hester had been the one to explain Elanah’s special gift of identifying the dying. “She’s a death seer. Big deal,” she’d shrugged but had provided more information at Sean’s insistence.
After the witch trials had started and they’d executed the witches, Elanah broke and told Sean about the demon and the trouble he was causing with his presence. She did tell Sean the demon hurt her, but omitted the more vile things he did to her. She wanted to confide everything to her strong, beloved Sean, but she couldn’t take the chance he’d leave her in disgust. A demon’s whore…it didn’t bear thinking about.
At the news, Sean was shocked, and slightly disbelieving. Witches he understood. They were humans with magic, but a demon? A creature of Hell? To prove it, she took Sean to visit Klaus. Sean looked at the demon tome Klaus was writing, but it was in German, and some passages were in a lettering and language they didn’t understand.
“It’s demonic script,” Klaus explained.
That was proof enough. Sean was angry. It hurt Elanah. The demon had to be stopped.
Klaus shook his head with regret. “There is no vay to get rid of ze demon. He is immortal and cannot be killed. Only ze native people can do zis. Ve vould need their help.”
Sean was stunned. Get help from the Indians? If they went anywhere near their land he’d get an arrow in the throat for his trouble, and he said as much.
Klaus smiled. “I came here to study the “native” little folk, not the Indians. I refer to the Fae, of course. They have been here since time began. Zey are very powerful and vould be ze only race who could help banish an entity like a demon.”
Sean stared at him. “Would they help us?”
“It’s possible.”
“Can you set up a meeting?”
Klaus inclined his head. “I vill try.” They only had everything to gain by trying.
Only Klaus was permitted to meet with the Fae, and they agreed to help. They were displeased with Danner’s presence and his antics. The Fae’s secrecy and pursuit of pleasure had been undermined. Tithes left on doorsteps or in sacred places had stopped, willing female and male sexual partners had withdrawn, and the revelry normally found in the streets was subdued, so their hunting, carousing, and terrorizing was reduced. Mortals were their playthings, but fear was making them cautious. And boring. They agreed to help get rid of the demon if it allowed things go back to normal.
They made a pact. The demon would be banished on the spring equinox the following year.
It would take months of secret planning. Elanah was to design the banishment spell. Klaus to monitor the demon, and Sean to secure the site, get the labourers and materials, and convince the Limerick town council that they needed to build the new town of Superstition without explaining the main reason why.
Elanah worried as she looked over the plans for the prison’s structure, the sigils of containment, the runes to absorb and nullify power, and the spell to lock the demon in. Worry over Willow’s hex consumed Elanah as well. Power of that magnitude would free Danner, and she did not want him freed during her lifetime. While the prison would be impenetrable, it could be opened with a large calling of blood in the demon’s name, like a mass murder, if anyone were so evilly inclined.
That was the other problem. They still didn’t know Danner’s real name. While Elanah was able to spell Klaus and get around the geas forbidding him to speak of Danner, no power on earth could get Klaus to reveal the demon’s name. He simply didn’t remember it. Danner pulled it out of his head when he left. Names had power, and Danner was as susceptible as the next being. The only thing they had to go on was a symbol, but she couldn’t decipher the demon language.
Then Elanah was thrown a lifeline.
Sean was in negotiations with Jacob Barrington to move Barrington’s graveyard to Limerick. Jacob refused to explain why, just that he needed it done and Sean only had to name his price. Jacob also needed a witch to help set a protection spell around his town. His townsfolk were scared, and he’d heard from Father Brown that Sean might know someone with the skills to help.
At first Sean did not want to ask Jacob for anything in return. It wasn’t Christian to negotiate when someone was in grave need. He also didn’t want to confirm
Elanah’s skills as a witch and possibly put her in mortal danger, but Elanah convinced him to do both. She was desperate to ensure that once Danner was banished he never escaped.
Jacob agreed to have Elanah test him to verify he wasn’t on a mission for the church to root out a witch. He passed easily. He truly needed the help of a witch for his town, and bore no malice toward Elanah.
Elanah spent a month in Barrington, living in luxury while she built the spells Jacob needed. During that time the Barrington council approved the building of four barns, to be placed at the cardinal points in town, and a rotunda in what would become Town Circle to hide a small brass bar with a special marking on it. Elanah set the containment spell then primed it with her own blood, instructing Jacob how to activate it. The special windmill they built would serve as a warning, spinning only in the presence of evil.
When she was finished, Elanah was exhausted. She had used a lot of her magic and blood. She was also feeling guilty. The containment spell required black magic, and if unleashed, could have a negative side effect. If Willow’s hex happened in her lifetime, she would come back to Barrington and help Jacob right the wrong. If not, then she hoped another witch would be smart enough figure out the problem and fix it.
She hoped Willow never returned and the spell would never be needed.
Jacob was very pleased with her work and rewarded Elanah generously. She was sad to leave Barrington. The people were generous and welcoming, and she found it a great town to live in. If only Sean could live the life of a gentleman rather than a leader, but that just wasn’t her Sean.
Danner had not visited her in Barrington. He didn’t want to ruin her cover, especially with Dame Parquhar watching every move everyone made. Once she returned home, she dreaded the violence his renewed visits would bring.
The next lifeline she got was from Valentine, one of the Fae helping to banish the demon.
She’d been home only an hour when he showed up at her door, requesting entrance. He had travelled a long and difficult path to discover Danner’s full name, but he didn’t want to give it to Sean, only to her. For a price. After a long, hot kiss he whispered the demon’s name in her ear and disappeared.
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