LAILAH
THIRTY-ONE
“You guys are leaving me here alone with Micah?” I asked, confused as they all pulled on their coats.
I had spent the last few days working with Jay on protecting myself, cooking for the boys, and helping catalog data.
We had stumbled upon some interesting information about the project that Brayden’s mom was working on.
They wanted to go back to the house and see if they could find out any information.
This then brought us to why I couldn’t go—no one wanted to cause trouble with Adriana, least of all me.
“Way to make a guy feel special there, Cookie Monster,” Micah drawled from where he was sprawled out on the couch.
I glared at him. “You’re going to need to let that go, Micah. Yes, I did make a dozen sugar cookies and eat them all myself. No, I’m not sorry I didn’t share, I made them—for me!”
“I wasn’t the one that was all butt hurt about it, that was Parker. I’m just impressed you could eat that many,” Micah said, swinging his legs around so he was now sitting up.
I turned to look at Parker, who was still pouting that I didn’t share last night. “I promised that I would make more later, I just really needed a sugar rush after all the training that Jay has put me through.”
At this, he perked up and grabbed my hands, his eyes glowing with excitement. “Does that mean there will be cookies when we get home?”
Rolling my eyes, I grinned. “If I survive the night with Mr. Killjoy, then yes, there will be cookies.”
“Fuck yes!” Parker shouted with a fist pump. “Let’s go, so we can get back already.”
Parker, Jay, and Hudson headed out while Brayden hung back, walked up to me and wrapped his arms around me.
“We will probably end up being there for dinner, so don’t wait on us. I’ll make sure to say hi to Charlotte and Hope for you,” Brayden said, kissing the tip of my nose.
“Thanks. I still feel bad that I couldn’t say goodbye to them when we left. I know Charlotte and I text, but it’s not the same as spending time with her in person,” I sighed, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Be safe and text me when you guys are heading home.”
Placing a searing kiss on his lips, I untangled myself from him and sent him on his way. I watched out the front door as they drove off until I couldn’t see the taillights anymore. Heading back into the living room, I settled on the couch to see what Micah was watching.
“Seriously? You're a Supernatural fan? Don’t you get enough of this in real life?” I laughed.
Micah just shrugged, flopping back on the couch. “You have a better idea of what to do in the middle of the afternoon on winter break? Because this is my ideal situation.”
“How is this any different from what you do back at The Manor?” I teased.
Raising his head, he glared at me, pointing the remote. “Watch it, woman. There’s no one to save you if you start a fight.”
Shaking my head at him, I shoved off the couch. “I’m going to the kitchen for some snacks, you want anything?”
“Yeah, bring the Cheetos and some beer. I’m going to teach you my favorite drinking game.”
I looked at Micah, wide-eyed. “You want to play a drinking game at two in the afternoon?”
“Hell, yeah. Now that all the uptight members of our fucked-up little family are gone, it’s time to get some real relaxing done. Something tells me that you need this too. Cami’s not around to force you to have fun,” Micah taunted.
I narrowed my eyes at Micah, unsure of if I trusted him enough to follow along with his idea. Going on this trip, I’d told myself that I wanted to get closer to Micah, and here he was, wanting to do something with me.
“Fine, but I’m getting us more snacks than just Cheetos,” I mumbled as I headed into the kitchen.
Rummaging around the kitchen, I found popcorn, Micah’s Cheetos, a large bag of M if the demons want something done, they will do it themselves. It’s much more common for them to possess someone or to brainwash them.
Their whole mission is to work in secret, not to draw attention to themselves. ”
“So what happened in the forest and on the sledding hill is really out of character,” I mused, munching on Cheetos.
Micah landed back on the couch, closer to me this time, crossing over to reach the M&M’s. “You could say that, but I think you being demon tainted and all might be making matters worse.”
It had been almost a week since that last freak out on the plane. Micah had witnessed firsthand what it looked like when I lost control of my powers. I shivered at the memory and tried to focus more on the TV show, but I kept getting distracted by the thoughts running through my head.
“We found demonic runes outside the wards. What kind of demon would be able to do that?” I asked.
Micah paused the show and shifted to face me, an odd look on his face.
“Depending on the symbol and what it meant, it could be a few different kinds. The small ones are what we call lesser demons, they are minions causing mischief. Let’s say they needed to scare someone or get them to leave, lesser demons would be used to ‘haunt’ a place.
The more someone fears something, the weaker it makes them against demons.
Fear gives them more power, and the stronger you believe in something that scares you, the more it works in their favor. ”
“So like, if someone doesn’t believe in ghosts and the supernatural, they would eventually frighten them into belief?” I asked.
“Close enough. The ones with wings are messengers, fairly self-explanatory. Then there are medium level demons, which are tricky because they’re still weak enough that you don’t notice them right away.
They are the newly dead that are so evil they get turned into demons.
We find them being used as scouts because they can be in the real world acting as real people for a short time.
Ever wondered where the whole zombie thing came from? Yeah, it was them.”
I scrunched up my face, grossed out at the thought of someone's face melting off while I was talking to them. It would definitely make me think of zombies.
“You’re most familiar with one of the two higher level demons, the trackers.
Once a mid-level has scouted out the perfect person, then this demon is sent out to bring them back to hell for a nice body takeover.
People think it happens here on Earth, that they just inhabit the human, but we’ve discovered it’s not true.
See, the host can’t have a soul if a demon is going to live in it.
So, the soul gets a one-way trip to Hell, and the demon fills the void it leaves behind,” Micah said, taking a long pull from his beer, his face shadowed in anger.
“Wow, that’s a lot to unpack,” I said, trying to break the tension that had settled between us at the talk of demons. “How many seasons are there of this show, anyway?”
“Twelve, I think,” Micah said offhandedly.
I gasped, choking on my beer. “Twelve! I’m going to die if we have to drink through all of them.”
Micah let out a surprised laugh at my reaction. “You're in luck, this game only works for the first two or three seasons.”
“I’m not sure that’s any better,” I whined as he turned the show back on.
As we got further into the show, the more I became uncomfortable with what was happening.
Something deep down in my gut was telling me something was wrong.
The creatures in each episode looked more and more like ones that had attacked us.
Others I’d never seen before but knew that they were demons who lurked in the dark.
When it came to the episode where they went back to their old house where their mother died, I was curled up in a ball, hidden behind pillows.
During a flashback of the scene, I saw a face appear in the flames.
As I squinted to get a better look, the fire changed to a mixture of black and green.
The flames began to pour out of the TV like a mist taking over the forest. The room started to heat up as tongues of black fire spread around the room like wildfire, trapping me.
I could feel my heart erratically beating as if it would burst out of my chest at any moment.
Then, before my eyes, the sea of fire morphed into a shape that froze my body in terror.