Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
“I’ll be fine,” I tell Xavier before he has a chance to argue otherwise.
I just got back to City Hall after running through an alley to avoid the police.
There are twice as many cop cars in town now, and I knew I had to hurry back before someone noticed I was gone.
I’ve already drawn enough attention to myself.
“You can stay here and finish the meeting because it’ll probably look bad if you leave. ”
“I think it’ll look worse if my wife wanders into a dangerous area of town on her own,” he counters.
I make a face, crossing my arms, well aware I’m on the verge of pouting but the sense of desperation is getting the better of me and every second that ticks by makes it feel like the demon is slipping farther and farther away.
“I’ll be fine,” I repeat and Xavier just stares at me incredulously, blue eyes wide.
A moment passes before he speaks, and in that moment, so much is said.
Everything I feel for him could easily consume me.
Emotion fills my chest, pressing against my ribs like it’s trying to break free and take over.
The scary part is how much I want to let it go.
Xavier is dangerous, not just because he’s a vampire with more than ten times the speed and strength of a human man, but because when I’m with him, I want to be consumed.
Totally and completely until there is nothing left.
And that’s the problem because right now, I don’t have the luxury of being consumed by anything except the ticking clock in my head.
“Wren,” he says, and hearing his deep voice say my name will always do something to me. He steps in, towering over me. “If the demon has sent one of its legions to the area, I am coming with you. Fuck the VC and fuck the meeting. You are more important to me.”
My heart swells in my chest but Theo’s words echo in the back of my mind. Should I argue with him? Insist he stay? Selfishly, I want him to come with me. He’s stronger and faster and can protect me.
“I know,” I reply softly. “I don’t want to go without you.”
“You won’t.” He kisses the top of my head and goes back into the meeting room, leaving me in the hall for only a few seconds before coming back out.
We go downstairs hand in hand and get into the G-Wagon.
I text Devon, reminding him again to bring me socks as well as shoes I can run in.
The plan is for him and my brothers to meet us in Tent City where I’ll try to do the locator spell.
I’ve tracked demons before, using the negative energy in the area as an anchor on the map.
Now that I have a more precise locator spell down pat, I’m positive it’ll work.
“Just so you know,” I start, buckling my seatbelt into place. “There might be some, uh, body cam footage of me using magic.”
Xavier looks away from the road for a moment, but instead of looking pissed, he grins and puts his hand on my thigh, fingers going under the hem of my dress.
“When human kids hear an ice cream truck, they run to the road to get ice cream. I’m starting to realize police sirens are your ice cream truck. ”
“I don’t know what that says about me,” I say, smiling back at him. “But you are right. Maybe one day I’ll actually get ice cream instead of stopping a cop from shooting himself in the head.”
Xavier raises an eyebrow. “I’ll have a conversation with the police chief tomorrow.”
“They knew who I was,” I go on. “They called me Xavier Malus’s wife.”
“You are,” he says and his fingers press a little harder into the flesh on my thigh. I swear, only this man could turn me on as we’re driving into an area filled with homeless people to find a demon who’s boss holds my soul in his grasp.
We stop in an empty parking lot a few blocks out of Tent City.
The plan is for Devon and my brothers to meet us here with supplies to do a locator spell that’ll narrow down where we need to be looking.
Xavier and I get out of the G-Wagon and go to a picnic table that’s pushed up against the back of a store.
A little clay pot full of cigarette butts is in the center of the table and ants are busy at work, dissembling someone’s leftover sandwich that was discarded out here after a lunch break.
Xavier pushes the clay pot to the side and sits on the table, bringing me into his lap. I close my eyes and rest my head on his chest, taking a few silent minutes to just sit with the man I have fallen so deeply for.
Not too long after, Devon, Leo, and Antonio arrive.
“I wasn’t sure what shoes to bring,” Devon tells me, handing me a pair of boots.
“This is perfect,” I say, kicking off my heels. “And you remembered socks.”
“You reminded me twice,” he adds and Xavier puts his hand out of me to hold onto as I put on the socks and hiking boots.
“What makes you so sure the sigil is here?” Devon asks.
“I can’t explain it, I just have a feeling,” I reply, zipping up the boots. My brothers look at each other, nodding in agreement. They know to trust me when I say I have a feeling. Xavier encourages it as well, and would never challenge my feelings on something like this.
Though it’s not quite the time to tell everybody that the demon put this thought into my head either on purpose or accidentally.
“The lesser demon that was possessing people downtown was looking for something or someone,” I say. “It wouldn’t have jumped bodies like that if it wasn’t on the hunt.”
“I’m not disagreeing,” Xavier says. “But I don’t see how this makes sense.
” He tips his head slightly as he looks at me.
“The demon recruited you through nefarious means to do something for it that it’s unable to do itself.
Why would it send lesser demons out looking for something when you’re on the case? ”
“I don’t know. What it was doing in Tent City before never really made sense either,” I think out loud. “There is an earthquake here too, but no fire.”
Xavier shakes his head. “There was a large hole found, but I don’t believe it was caused by the Earth splitting open the same way it happened in the warehouse.”
“Like it excavated?"
“Yes.”
“I hate to agree with him,” Leo begins. “But he makes sense saying this doesn’t make sense.
The demon is forcing you to do its dirty work because it can’t get its hands on the sigil itself.
Either because it’s unable to locate it or because of some sort of magical protection on the actual thing itself. ”
“I guess we’ll find out,” I say and spread the math out on the picnic table. Devon helps to quickly sets up the stones and gets the herbs out.
“You look like you’ve done this before,” Leo notes as we work in perfect sync.
Devon looks at me, a smile on his face. “Once or twice.” We get everything else ready and then everyone stands back, watching me work.
I pick up Vaelric’s sigil I drew on a piece of paper and hold it in my right hand, pressed against the little wound.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t hurt right now.
Like at all. If I didn’t see the red dot, I wouldn’t know it was there.
Closing my eyes to try and center my mind on the spell, I recall the burning in my palm again, imagining the gleam of hellfire on the metallic, sharp tip of the quill, pressing against my skin before pushing through my flesh.
“Ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela. Ostende mihi locum tuum. Ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela. Ostende mihi locum tuum.”
The herbs vibrate and start to come together, moving around the map until they form a tiny circle.
“The demon is here?” Devon asks out loud. Xavier moves behind me, ready to defend me if need be.
“No,” I say, brows furrowing. There is no demonic energy here.
“Maybe the spell didn’t—” I cut off as it hits me, and the realization sends a prickle down my spine.
Slowly, I lean away from the map and tip my head up, eyes on Antonio.
He’s holding his arms out slightly in front of him, looking at the scars on his wrists.
I don’t need to ask him to know the wounds and prickling and burning.
His eyes meet mine and the bad feeling worsens. The demon isn’t here, or even anywhere nearby. But part of it is…because of him.