Chapter 18
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
SAMANTHA
I moved up the stairs slowly, carefully, when all I wanted to do was run up them. But that was the wrong move.
The enemy loved to rush people. Rushing meant mistakes. No time to think. Speaking and moving on emotion rather than thoughtful words and steps. But man, did I want to rush. I hated staircases.
Demons loved in-betweens, like stairs, and this one was no exception. They were everywhere.
I ignored the ones hanging from the ceiling, tugging on my hair, screaming in my face, telling me I was dumb, worthless, ugly. I didn’t think so highly of myself that I didn’t have my own doubts every once in a while. That was normal insecurity. But the vile things the demons were saying? Those were lies.
Demons loved to tear people down. They lived on drama—anger, fear, anxiety, violence—that was their food. The best way to fight them—other than prayer—was by shutting down all those anxious thoughts. To let go of fear. To control your actions and anger.
So, I shut it down. I tuned it out. I pretended there was a shield around my body and that the words would bounce off, never touching me. Never hurting me. And I kept moving.
I stepped over demons in my way, and?—
Tessa screamed.
Dastien spoke in low tones. I wasn’t sure what was wrong back there, but one glance back told me Tessa, Phoenix, and Dastien were struggling to keep up. I knew there wasn’t anything on this plane that could hurt them, so I kept moving up the stairs.
A demon grabbed my arm. I wrenched it free, twisted its arm, and flung it behind me.
Tessa cussed, and there was a crash.
“Sorry!” Even though I trusted that they were fine, I looked back.
Tessa was hunkered down on one of the stairs, trying to be as small as she could be, while Dastien spoke softly to her.
Right. Tessa could see right now, but she didn’t understand that she couldn’t interact with the spiritual realm like I could. A demon swiped at her face, and she threw herself into Dastien.
Dastien held onto the stair railing, trying to keep his mate from falling. Not that falling would really injure her—or if it did, she’d heal fast—but it would still hurt .
Phoenix was doing better, watching the demons but making slow, steady progress despite them.
Alright. Tessa needed a little help, or this was going to take forever. “They can’t touch you,” I said. “You can see them, but they’re not strong enough to do anything to you. Those rules don’t apply to me because I straddle realms. They can touch me, but for you, they’re ghosts. They’re not on the realm that you live on. Just ignore them. Walk through them. The more attention you give them the more power they have over you. So. Cut. It. Out.”
“Easy for you to say,” Tessa said. “I can see that thing, and I definitely don’t want it touching me.” Tessa shouted her last few words into the face of the demon, and then she punched it.
Or tried to.
Instead, she’d punched her way through a wall.
Bits of drywall exploded around her, and the cackles of the demons echoed through the house, raising every hair on my body.
I wasn’t afraid. Not of these demons. Lessers were weak.
But there was something I was very afraid of.
That demon I’d tossed to Hell had yelled for my father.
There was a very real chance he could be rushing toward the portal right now, and that was something I wanted to avoid.
We had to hurry. “Seriously, Tess. Ignore them or leave the house. I mean it.” I looked at Dastien, who gave me a nod. He’d get her out of here if she kept freaking out. “Don’t give them fuel. Don’t give them your fear or anger or anxiety. That just gives them more power, and they don’t need any more power. Do you understand?”
Tessa’s wide, wolf-bright eyes looked at me. “Yes.”
“Good. They’re not corporeal right now, but the more attention you give them, the more they can interact with this realm. I know it’s hard, but you have to ignore them.” It was one of the many reasons I didn’t like sharing my sight. I understood demons. They were monsters. Legit monsters. They were made to be scary, but that didn’t mean you had to be afraid of them.
“How come we could fight the ones that came through before?” Dastien asked.
He was talking about the battle in the church in Santa Fe. A battle they’d fought before they met me. I wasn’t there so I didn’t know exactly what had happened, but it made international news. “Probably because my father lent them the juice to fully cross over. The ones you fought then were in this realm, but these aren’t. I doubt he’ll ever make that mistake again. It cost him years to rebuild his strength.” And I was pretty sure that nice little lull I got was over now. “Just…please. Ignore them and move on. We have bigger things to worry about.”
Tessa closed her eyes. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ve fought demons before—seen ones just like this—but I was able to hit them. It freaks me out that I don’t have any control over this right now.”
“Yeah. I get that. But they’re winning the battle with you right now. So, suck it up and fight.”
There was a roll of power that went through Tessa. A ripple of fur ran over her body—there and gone so fast that I almost thought I imagined it. But then she looked up. “I’m better now. Sorry.” Her eyes were even brighter now. I assumed she took some power from her wolf to give her confidence, but it didn’t matter how she’d done it. Just that she was better.
My gaze went to Phoenix, who gave me a nod. He was fine.
I studied him for a second to be sure, but he truly did seem okay. He always seemed to go with the flow, more than any person I knew. He was more okay with all of this than Tessa, which honestly, I shouldn’t have been surprised by, but I was.
Alright. I turned to continue up to the attic. “Let’s be quick. My father?—”
A demon reached down from where he was hanging on the ceiling and grabbed my hair, tugging so hard my head snapped back. I grabbed its hand, twisting it and tugging until it slammed into the stairs at my feet. I leaned down. “Don’t do that again.” I threw power into my voice, and as it started to shrink in size, I knew it saw the flames in my eyes.
I let it go, and it scampered up the side wall. It’s tiny spider-like legs scratched against the wall as it moved around us and down the stairs, disappearing into the house.
I watched it go, and then Tessa caught my gaze and gasped.
Dang it. I hated when people saw the flames. Now she was going to be afraid of me.
No. I couldn’t think that way. I was good. She was my friend. She’d seen far worse. Everything was fine.
But it wouldn’t be if I kept getting distracted.
Holy foxing sticks . That was the whole point, and I fell for it.
Enough . I needed this done.
I took the rest of the stairs two at a time.
I got to the room above the garage and paused.
It was dark, but enough light flickered behind the shades of the one window in the room that I could see. There were demons everywhere.
“We need to get the lights,” Tessa said.
“No,” I said. “It’s easier to see them in the dark.”
“I’m not sure I want to see them better,” Tessa said, and then she muttered something in French I couldn’t make out.
Dastien let out a small laugh at whatever she’d said, then he spoke to her softly, making her laugh. It was a good sign that Tessa was laughing now. That was really good. It meant there was less for the demons to pull from.
I studied the room, the demons, the portal, and then wanted to let out my own curse. At times like this, I wished I could let a few good ones out, but I’d already cussed outside. That was more than enough for today.
Think, Sam. Think.
Okay. Demons were fine. There weren’t any that I needed to be worried about. None with power. None that should give me any trouble.
There weren’t any other monsters in here aside from the demons, so that was also fine.
But the floor was marked with Satanic symbols, lining the portal, marking the boundary between Earth and Hell. The symbols glowed red with dark power, fueled by whatever sacrifice was made to forge the portal.
Well, at least now I knew why the portal was still open.
Usually portals collapsed on themselves after a few hours. Every once in a while, someone made a spell big enough to keep one open, but it was rare. This was one of those rare times.
This was going to be a royal pain to close, and it would take time.
I studied the symbols, trying to find a way to undo what had been done here, but I couldn’t get my eyes to focus on it. I kept looking into the portal.
Heat and screams and the scent of sulfur came from it, bringing up all kinds of pain, fear, and trauma that I didn’t want to think about. Not now. It was way too soon.
I felt myself stepping closer to the portal, drawn to it. My breaths started to come faster. My heart raced. I saw the demons scrambling below, and a drop of sweat dripped down my face. A scream ripped through the portal—one of pain and fear and desperation—and suddenly, I felt like I was back there.
Memories flashed through my mind of my father chasing me through Hell, of my skin burning in the fires, of the terror and the fear and?—
Someone warm and kind wrapped their arms around me, and my back pressed hard into his chest. “Don’t take one more step, Sam. Please,” he whispered in my ear.
Phoenix.
I blinked and looked down. I was right on the line, about to cross over the spells. One more step, and I would’ve fallen through.
He pulled me back a few steps. “Do you want to call for Eli?” he whispered.
“He’s busy or he’d be here already.” The last time we saw him, he’d been in his full armor. It meant that he was in on something really big. Much bigger than this.
Every move had consequences, and I didn’t know what pulling him away from battle would do. It’d been a few days, but that was nothing to angels. Their fights could last a millennia.
I couldn’t afford to distract Eli. So, no. I couldn’t call him. He couldn’t close a portal like this anyway. I had to do this myself.
I took a breath to steady my nerves. “It’s just a lot. Breaking the spell on the floor is going to take so much energy, and if I don’t do it right, then it could backfire on us and…” I closed my eyes, feeling along the tie to my father.
It was pulsing rhythmically. “He’s coming. I can feel him pulling power from me. That’s why I got so close to the edge of the portal. Honestly, I don’t understand how he isn’t already here, but maybe I’m having a little luck today. If I weren’t already tired?—”
“Let’s wait,” Dastien said. “Let’s get you some food and rest tonight. Come back tomorrow at peak sunlight.”
No. I felt a hard pass on that with every fiber of my being. “Can’t. Legit can not. Every hour, minute, second this thing stays open makes it worse. We still don’t know what’s killing the wolves. We leave this thing open with my father and his power and he comes through…” My mind started to spiral though all the ways this could go wrong. “No. Absolutely not. I have to close it right now . And then the clean up?—”
“We have the care team, and your mom can put us in touch with any priests that need to do anything else. Just focus on closing the portal,” Dastien said.
He was right, and it was always better to focus on the problem right in front of me.
“Man.” I scanned the markings on the floor. “This is a mess.” I gave myself another second of leaning back into Phoenix. “I’m not complaining. Just tired. This is going to drain me big time.”
“You can do this, and I’ll be here to catch you when you crash.” He squeezed me tighter, and I wanted to stay in his arms forever. The guy gave the best hugs. “We can get milkshakes or cookies or whatever you want as soon as you’re done. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He pulled away from me just enough to spin me in his arms and duck down, leveling his gaze with mine. “Close the portal. And then we’ll deal with all the rest.” He brushed a quick kiss on my lips, and when I gasped, he deepened it. I felt myself sinking into it, into the feeling of him, and the way he made my heart race. It was as if he were feeding me his energy and strength and will through our tie and suddenly, I could breathe again.
He pulled away enough to rest his forehead against mine. “You got this.”
“Right. Okay. I can do this.” With one kiss, he’d shoved away all the exhaustion, spiraling thoughts of all the ways it could go wrong, and the feeling that I was in a Sisyphean battle against evil until it felt like it was in another realm.
I focused only on what I needed to do.
Close the portal, Sam.
It wasn’t a portal that I’d opened, which meant I needed to be a little careful with how I closed it.
Portals wanted to stay closed. They were an aberration. Most opened and then closed again within hours or a day. No more. Someone had to continuously feed the portal to keep it open.
This one had been open for days, or maybe a week, or it could’ve been even longer. That was why the situation in the city was getting worse and how something that could kill werewolves had found its way through it.
I didn’t know everything about Satanism, but I knew enough to know that the symbols used in this spell were powerful. There were some basic ones, and some that I’d never seen before. Those were the ones that worried me the most.
I bent down to get a closer look. On the mortal realm, they were just paint—or what I really, truly wanted to believe was paint—but in the spiritual realm, they glowed. Some of them black, some red, but all made me feel panicked the closer I got to them.
That was the idea. No one with any intuition would ever set foot in this house. They wouldn’t know why they rushed past the house or turned around when they approached, but it was because of these symbols.
They were protecting the portal.
They were fueling the portal.
And the way they swirled and linked together with streaming lines of power, I knew something truly evil had been done to open this portal.
If I was reading it correctly, the spell had to be canceled out first. If I tried to close it first, not only would it stay open, but by trying, an alarm would sound, signaling every evil thing in the area to come fight me for my power. And that was something I definitely didn’t have the energy for.
Demons back to Hell, yes.
Closing portals, sure.
Battling all the things that go bump in the night in this realm? Hard no.
I unzipped my belt bag and grabbed out the plastic bag of salt. It wasn’t a big one—I silently thought about going back to the car for more—but screw it. A little would be enough. If it wasn’t, I’d send a wolf to find my backpack.
I walked around the symbols on the floor, sprinkling salt on them as I quietly prayed. Asking for strength. For cleansing. For the power to do good.
When I was done, I put away the empty baggie and did the same thing as I walked around the room spraying holy water on the symbols.
I used the prayers that Frank taught me. The ones to bring forth angels and send demons back where they belonged, but it was slow moving. The prayers took time, energy, power, but slowly the light in the symbols started to dim. First, just a little. Just barely enough that I was tempted to focus on one symbol until it was gone, but that wouldn’t work with the way they were linked. It was almost like the time I’d put all my jewelry in one travel pouch. All the necklaces got completely tangled in the most impossible way. This was so much worse. I was uncoiling a complicated, tangled knot of horrific power.
I had to work a little at a time, going back to previous parts as I moved along the circle, and even as I made progress, I felt the clock ticking. Every second that I took felt like an eternity, until I was forcing myself not to grind my teeth.
My father pulled at the tie between us as I worked. Tugging at my power. Draining me bit by bit. He was raging—so, so angry. I could hear his voice whispering my name and the revenge he was going to take on me for getting away. His footsteps were in time with my heartbeat, which amped up my anxiety, and I thought about running away while I still had time.
I gasped as he tugged hard, nearly losing my balance.
“Whoa.” Phoenix gripped my elbow. “You okay?”
“No.” He was draining me. Quicker and quicker.
I couldn’t think about that now. I squatted down on the floor to get closer to the symbol I was working on.
Sweat trickled down my back in little rivulets.
No . I looked up at Phoenix. “He’s coming.”
There was a thud , and the walls shook.
“Samantha?” Tessa asked.
I glanced at her. She was huddled next to Dastien, his arm protectively around her as she watched me.
My father roared .
“Samantha!” Tessa yelled, stepping away from Dastien. “You have to finish this. Astaroth is almost here.”
“I know. But the power here is?—”
And then I heard his voice. “Samantha. My darling. If you wanted to play, all you had to do was call my name.” He kept talking, but I knew what he was doing. He was trying to distract me with fear and intimidation, but I was on this side of the realm. And he was on the other side . For now.
Move, Samantha. Fucking hurry. I thought the words, yelling them at myself.
I jumped over to the last symbol. It was a horned devil with flames coming out of its mouth. The flames flickered in the spiritual realm as I sprayed the symbol with holy water until they gutted out. I said the prayer one more time, and then?—
Something hit me in my stomach, and I flew through the air.
Oh, shit.