by Kat Bostick
Mari twirled her fingers in the fibers of the rug, trying to hide the guilt from her face as all eyes were suddenly on her. “Yeah. Yes.” She gulped a breath. “Why didn’t it do to me what it did to Veronica?”
“Because it cannot.” She almost choked on relief with that answer. “Possession and shadowing are not the same. A demon shadows someone for different reasons. Sometimes they are simply creating chaos. Other times they are looking for a way in. Unlike the mundane, magic folk cannot be easily possessed. We must give permission if a demon wishes to have sway over our physical body.”
Alexey turned another page in the book, glancing down at it before adding, “That does not mean shadowing is harmless. Men have been driven mad by the shadow of a demon. Certain circumstances can make it worse. Alcohol, for example, is never safe to be consumed when a demon is about. Inebriation makes the spirit porous, offering more opportunity for the demon to strike at the heart of his target.”
“No wonder the aggression was cranked up to a ten tonight.” Mari murmured. She looked over her shoulder at Jasper and asked, “What about werewolves? Can they be possessed?”
“A demon can have an effect on any corporeal creature, but they cannot take a vessel that is already occupied.”
“Are you implying that werewolves are already possessed?” Clem asked in her scientist voice. His answer was to flip three more pages, turning the tome so Clem could get a better look. “Very unsettling imagery.” She hummed to herself. “How old is this book?”
“Older than my grandfather’s grandfather.”
“I would very much appreciate a translation of this page, if you are willing to share.” Clem seemed to remember why Alexey was there and amended, “In the future.”
“Perhaps.” He placed the tome back on the table and turned it in Mari’s direction.
A jagged word was scrawled across the top of the page. Beneath it was a crude drawing of a man bearing a wolf’s head, his hands sporting dagger-like claws. His eyes glowed yellow and there was blood dripping from his open maw. Whoever was responsible for the artwork had either never seen a werewolf themselves or they were dramatizing.
“I knew it.” Mari nudged Jasper with her elbow.
Alexey returned to his search for a ritual, skimming pages and whispering to himself in his mother tongue. After several minutes he went still, his gaze flicking back and forth over a page as he pinched it between his fingers. “Is all of your pack present?” He frowned, looking to Dad for the first time. “Do you have more magic folk in this pack?”
“I’m not in their pack.” Dad snapped.
“This is an engagement party.” Charlie explained. “There are two more upstairs.”
“Bring them, please. Every person must have eyes on them until this is done. Alghuls are notoriously manipulative. You do not want anyone else under the demon’s spell.”
Clem and Mari took the stairs together, Mari going to Aubrey’s door to knock and Clem doing the same with Emma’s. Aubrey cracked the door, glancing around the hallway when she saw it was Mari.
“Hey.” She said, pulling the door open a bit more. “I was looking for some ibuprofen. I guess I didn’t pack any.”
“Are you okay?”
“I just…” Aubrey stared at her feet. “Have a headache.”
Mari could see the lie etched into the stress lines on Aubrey’s face. If she could sense emotions the way Jasper could, she knew she would feel fear coming from her best friend. “I know this is a lot to take in, Aubrey—”
“Are they really werewolves?” She stuck her head through the doorway to peek at Clem, who was still waiting at Emma’s door.
“Yes.”
“Werewolves are real.”
It wasn’t really a question but Mari answered anyway. “Yup.”
“And you really can do…that.” Aubrey waved her hands up and down her legs, obviously referring to what Mari had done to Veronica. “Is that how you...” she swallowed thickly. “Y’know.”
“How I...?” Oh. Aubrey was trying to decide if that was the sadistic way that Mari murdered someone. “No.” Somehow, admitting that she stabbed Lyse didn’t seem like it would be reassuring. “I’ve never done that before tonight. I didn’t know I could.”
Aubrey blew out a long breath. “Shit, Mari. I thought all that witchcraft stuff was just a fantasy.”
“You’ve seen me cast!”
“I mean, maybe. We were kids then and I was always dipping into my parent’s liquor stash. I thought I was just exaggerating it in my head.”
Mari shifted on her feet. “It’s going to be okay. We have a wizard here who knows how to deal with demons.”
She snorted a humorless laugh. “A wizard? That deals with demons? Is this a prank, Mar? Please tell me this is a shitty prank.”
“I’m sorry, Aubrey. I never would have asked you to come if I’d known what would happen.” An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, so Mari said, “We need you downstairs. It’s important that we have everyone in sight.”
“Are they going to kill Veronica?” She whispered, hesitating in the door.
“Of course not!” Not if they didn’t have to.
“What about me?”
“Aubrey, no one is getting killed.”
“But I know their secret.” Her voice dropped even lower.
“Are you going to go tell the next fifteen people you meet?”
She swallowed hard. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Mari forced a smile. “See, it’s all good. Come downstairs. We’ll make some coffee.”
Aubrey was just stepping through her door when Clem pushed open Emma’s, politely calling her name. She disappeared into the room, reappearing less than thirty seconds later. “She’s not here.”
Mari hurried over, double checking that Clem hadn’t missed her in the bathroom or maybe curled up under the covers. The room was empty, spotless but for the clothes strewn about on the bed. They checked the room next to hers, where Dad and Veronica were staying. Nothing. Just for good measure, they checked every bedroom, Aubrey following on their heels.
“Shit.” Mari hissed. “We need to check the barn.”
Dad left with Alexey, since they were the least impacted by whatever the demon was putting out. The pack waited outside the house, this time donning jackets and boots in case they needed to take off on a hunt for a missing teenager. Three quiet minutes passed before it was clear it wasn’t Emma they would be on the hunt for.
Emma was limp in Dad’s arms, making Mari’s heart race as he hurried to the house with Alexey by his side. “Please,” The word was a puff of steam all around him. “I don’t know what happened to her.”
“Where’s Veronica?” Charlie asked, a touch of menace in his tone.
Alexey met them at the door, his eyes ominously dark. “She’s gone.”
Chapter 24
Mari
“I’m going.”
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”
Mari zipped her coat over her double layer of thermal shirts. “No, Dad, I haven’t done enough until that nasty thing is kicked to the incorporeal curb. We doing this, Red?” She turned to Jasper.
After Dad rushed Emma into the parlor and laid her on a lounge, Clem got to work checking her vitals. There was no sign of head trauma or any other injury. Her heartrate was normal, her pupils the same. Dad was about to drag her to the jeep and drive her to the nearest emergency room when she sat up, blinking as if she’d been deeply asleep.
The story she told had just about everyone in the parlor furious. Confused and afraid for her mother, she’d snuck out the kitchen door and gone to the barn to check on Veronica. “You people are insane! I didn’t know what you were going to do to her!” Emma wailed. Dad rested a comforting hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it away, giving him a glare as nasty as the one she shot Mari’s way. “She was so scared. I was trying to help her!”
“I thought only a witch could use the Vincuulum.” Mari sai
d softly.
“An enchanted item?” Alexey asked.
“Yes, a chain that binds to itself.”
“There is no reason a demon couldn’t use it with the proper knowledge.”
“She told me to read her the inscription on the chain. I didn’t know what it would do!” Emma continued defensively.
The pack mobilized immediately, ditching dress clothes for sturdy jeans and winter gear. It was fascinating how quickly Charlie went from the polite party host to pack leader. His voice was sharp, cutting pack members into pairs and easily dividing the territory by memory.
“You’re going to cast?” Jasper asked when she finished with her coat. His surprise spoke volumes about her behavior the past month. Mari was isolating herself and locking away her powers exactly as Dad wanted her to. No more. Whether or not this was her fault, she was going to make it right. And she was going to use magic to do it. The Blue Goddess granted her a gift not meant to be squandered. If that demon couldn’t control her, there was no reason not to utilize her magic.
“Hell yes. Unless you want to do this the old fashioned way.” Meaning crouch in the snow for painfully slow minutes while his body reshaped itself. With her help, his change could get a rush order.
Jasper’s smile was all feral. “Damn, I love you.”
“You can’t cast.” Dad killed her response before it could form.
“Oh, I definitely can.”
“Your magic—” The word was coated in angry spittle. “—is this reason for all of this. You’re only going to make it worse if you start broadcasting that dangerous energy.”
It was Jasper who stepped in first. “I’m done listening to you talk to her like that. You clearly know nothing about what she can do.” He loomed over Dad. “It’s best you stay here and out of our way.”
“You think you know her better than I do? I know precisely what she’s capable of.” That shade of red crept up his neck again. “I’m not going to leave my wife out there to be found by one of you animals.”
“Okey doke. Let’s go, Jas.” Mari yanked Jasper’s arm before there was a chance for a punch to be thrown.
“Mari,” Charlie stopped them. “I want you with Deak. Jasper is with Cora. And no casting. You’ll need your energy if you’re going to help Alexey.”
Jasper bristled. “Why?”
“The two of you together are too incendiary right now. I don’t want this escalating any further than it needs to.” Okay, he had a good point.
“You’re the boss.” Mari saluted him, kissing Jasper on the cheek and stepping over to Deak. Now was not the time to question Charlie’s authority. She just wanted to do whatever it took to get this over with.
Jasper glared at Charlie, obviously ready to protest, when Clem interrupted them by pumping her Mossberg 500 and loudly announcing, “Safety’s off, one in the chamber. Don’t jostle me, brothers.”
“What do you think you’re doing? You’re not going to shoot her!” Dad looked like a ruffled bird in his thick winter coat.
“Lethally.” Deak told him as he handed Charlie a loaded tranquilizer gun. “We’re not going to shoot her lethally.” With a shrug he added, “Unless she gives us reason to.”
The pack filed out the front door, ignoring Dad’s panic. Mari didn’t wait to hear what he said to Charlie. She knew Clem wasn’t going to shoot Veronica. The shotgun was mostly meant as a showy deterrent, protecting Clem while she stayed behind with Aubrey and Emma.
Mari jogged to catch up to Deak as he marched in the direction Charlie assigned them. She had to admit, she was kind of enjoying his “take no shit” attitude when it was directed at her father.
“Keep up.”
“Always such a team player.”
“This isn’t a party game.”
Mari trotted after him. Waiting until she’d caught her breath before saying, “Hey Deak?”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
His brown irises glowed brighter than the sliver of moon above them. “For?”
“What you said to my Dad.”
He continued his forward march, back to her. “I hate magic folk.”
“Ouch.”
They walked in relative silence after that. Relative because Mari was huffing and puffing, her boots shuffling loudly through the snow. Deak wasn’t noiseless on two legs, but he was doing much better than her. Every once in a while he would shoot a glare over his shoulder, pretending he was annoyed that she was slow, when in reality he was probably making sure she wasn’t out of sight.
“All those disgustingly scented body products are coming in handy for once.” He wrinkled his nose as he lifted it in one direction, then another. There was no breeze tonight, the stillness making it easier to lock onto a scent trail and follow it. Hopefully that meant Veronica wouldn’t make it too far before they caught up to her.
Deak sniffed again, brow wrinkling. “I think she’s trying to throw us off. The trail goes in two directions.”
“Can you tell which one is fresher?”
He scoffed. “Not when they were made right on top of each other.”
“O-kay. Pick a direction then.”
“You’re not very good at tracking.”
Mari ignored him, turning to where she’d last seen him looking. “This way?”
An irritated growl followed after her and she smirked. Deak only let her lead for about three minutes before he took over again, stopping, scenting, frowning, repeating. The further they went, the deeper the scowl sunk over his eyes.
“What’s bothering you?”
He stopped, breathing deeply and scanning the trees. “It shouldn’t be possible for her to have made as many trails as she did in the amount of time she had. Each trail is just a big circle. When I pick another, we end up in a different circle. There are too many to untangle.”
“You saw her move. Maybe demons are super fast?”
“That doesn’t bode well for us. I have no idea where to go from here.”
On a whim, Mari closed her eyes and focused on the magic around them. There was Deak, gold and grumpy, and the trees, varying shades of green. Snaking between those like wispy smoke was a blackness she knew too well.
“I don’t know why I didn’t try that sooner.” She opened her eyes again, taking a few steps to her right. “Let’s go this way.”
“Did you take a nap and have some psychic dream?” He sneered.
“Just trust me, okay?”
“Not likely.” But even as he said it, he fell in step with her.
Every twenty feet, Mari closed her eyes and looked for more signs of black magic. If she’d been practicing during the past two months, she would have been able to do this with her eyes open. There was more than one disadvantage to ignoring her power, it would seem.
Snow made the going slow. By the time they came upon one of the ponds, covered with a thick layer of ice, Mari was sweating. “Do you smell anything?”
“Mostly you.”
“Try harder.”
Deak focused on scenting the air, his attention turning north. Mari was only peripherally aware of his presence when a strange draw had her walking toward the icy surface of the water.
“Mariella?” The voice was so faint she wasn’t sure if she imagined it.
Mari took one careful step forward, her boot struggling to steady her as snow became ice.
“Mariella?”
A silhouette appeared across the pond; long, dark hair cascading over slender shoulders. A flowy skirt swished around feminine legs. That was all she could make out. It was far too cold for someone to be this far into the woods in a skirt.
For a single heartbeat, Mari was overcome with a heartbreaking sort of hope. That soft, tentative murmur of her name sounded familiar and her first instinct was to call out, “Mom?”
“Come closer, sister.”
Ice groaned under her as she stepped further onto the pond. Even with the opening in the trees and the white landscape all around her, it was da
rk. So dark that Mari wasn’t sure she should trust her eyes when the first hints of a face became visible.
“Come, sister. Come.”
The bitter air whooshed into her lungs and she struggled to say the name that hovered on her tongue. How was it possible?
“There you are, Mariella.” The way she said it wasn’t quite right. There was too much eagerness. “We have some unfinished business.”
“Lyse?”
Mari scooted closer, testing the ice as she moved to the center of the pond. “You’re dead.”
“And whose fault is that?” Suddenly it was Veronica smiling at her, a grin that was too maniacal to be human.
She moved impossibly fast, darting across the ice and crashing into Mari. The collision knocked the wind from both of them. Mari scrambled to find her footing, slipping and landing painfully on her leg. Her ankle twisted with a crack and she knew immediately there would be no running on it.
“What do you want?” She kicked out at Veronica, barely managing to nudge her foot.
Veronica gripped the front of Mari’s jacket and yanked her to her feet. Her ankle throbbed—the same one she’d injured earlier that summer—as she struggled to plant her feet. Veronica was too strong, pulling Mari up until their faces were inches apart.
“I want what you have. Power. Life.” Mari raised an arm to swipe at Veronica but somehow, Veronica managed to tug her jacket even tighter, trapping her arms at waist height. “Do you know how miserable it is to be a shade and nothing more? Flitting from angry husbands with overactive fists to unfaithful wives who need a little liquid courage to spread their legs for strangers? It’s all the same. Boring, repetitive, useless drama. You witches, though,” She chuckled darkly. “You know how to party.”
Mari kicked, catching Veronica in the shin. She buckled but didn’t fall. “Ooh. Nice try. You going to stab me next? Take out this vessel like you did Lyse? I know you want to. I’ve seen into her head. I remember every time you looked at Veronica with hate in your eyes. You’re brimming with it.”
“I’m a lover, not a fighter.” Mari coughed out.
“Don’t lie to yourself. You were born for violence. Now tell me, where is that lovely dagger?”