Chapter 19 #2
Then it hits me. That’s what the demon was doing when it was jumping from body to body.
There are people who walk around every day with no idea they come from magical lineage.
People like that might consider themselves lucky, or very intuitive because they seem to know when certain things are going to happen.
They’re the social media witches, mixing potions that just kinda work well enough to make them believe in themselves but not outright or obvious enough for the public to fear them as a real witch or warlock.
Before we have time to come up with a plan, the necromancer jerks his head in our direction.
The bodies half lying in the creek spring up.
If they hadn’t been faced down in water for God knows how long I would think they would still be viable and we could possibly save them.
They come at us with jerky, unnatural movements, mouths open, and eyes grayed-over yet bloodshot.
“I’ll handle them, you handle him,” Leo tells me. I throw my right hand out in front of me, sending a wave of energy at the necromancer. It hits him yet he hardly moves. He keeps chanting.
Dammit, he has some sort of protection around him. I move closer and try again. This time he’s pushed back and he desperately reaches forward, trying to protect whatever is in front of him.
I don’t need to destroy him… I need to destroy the altar. It won’t vanquish him, but we won’t have to deal with the demonic zombies anymore.
Florence.
I freeze, hearing Vaelrik’s voice in the back of my mind.
“What do you want?” I say out loud. “I’m here. I’m doing exactly what you asked of me!”
The necromancer scrambles forward, protectively wrapping his arms around the altar. He starts chanting, faster and faster, and I look behind me, checking on Leo. He takes out one zombie only for the other to pop back up, like the weirdest game of undead Whack-a-mole.
One of the zombies grabs Leo on the waist and I don’t think twice before I spring over to help him.
I shove this one back with a wave of energy and it falls, nearly taking Leo with him.
Back on his feet in no time, Leo whirls around, brandishing his knife through the air.
He stabs it in the zombie’s face and when he pulls the blade out, the eyeball comes with it.
I turned back to the necromancer, and he picks up a handful of dirt and throws it at me. It gets in my eyes, and I blink, unable to see for a few seconds. I throw both hands out in front of me, pushing him back.
“Wren, look out!” Leo shouts as I desperately blink, trying to clear my vision. It’s dark out here and clouds are covering the moon, making it hard to see regardless. A low growl comes from behind me, and I turn at the last second, diving to the ground to avoid being trampled by a deer.
One of his antlers is broken and the flesh on its shoulder is torn, hanging down and exposing rotten muscles. This has definitely been hit by a car and brought back to life. What the fuck? Reanimating the corpses of humans is one thing but bringing back zombie Bambi is another.
I roll back and spring up onto my feet. I hold my hands out, expecting the necromancer to try the same trick. He does, and this time I magically throw the dirt right back at him.
The human inside reacts to the pain by whimpering, but the demon keeps chanting. The ground around us starts to tremble as the necromancer attempts to call forth anything that has died in the forest.
My heart pounds and the second I take to try to figure out what the hell to do feels like a lifetime.
The deer has broken legs and is moving slowly.
I never realized just how large a full grown buck was until it was undead and trying to maul me alive.
Leo kicks one of the zombies in the chest and it falls down the embankment, splashing as it hits the creek.
The deer is making its way toward him and, feeling guilty, I throw a ball of energy at it while, at the same time, shoving it to the side.
The energy hits it in the chest and it rolls down the embankment on top of the zombie that’s already there.
They scuffle as they try to get back to us, which will buy us just enough time.
Leo takes on the second zombie, and I turn back to the necromancer, holding my hands out and forming a telekinetic shield. The demon has the man rise to his feet. He stops chanting, but grabs a knife and puts it to his own throat.
“No!” I yell. The demon inside wouldn’t take the time to kill the host unless there’s a good reason.
This fucker doesn’t want me to catch him, but he doesn’t want the man to tell us what he remembers if we get the demon out.
I drop the telekinetic shield and mean to shove the knife out of the man’s hand, but I accidentally throw an energy ball at him instead.
It hits the guy’s cheek, burning his face.
Wincing, I rush forward, and the second my fingers touch his arm, I cast the sleep belt on him.
The body drops, but the demon whooshes out, disappearing into the forest before I have a chance to go after it.
The reanimated corpses go still. I turn, panting, and look at Leo, making sure he’s okay.
He nudges the zombie in front of him with his foot, making sure it’s really dead.
This time, he comes over, pulling his phone from his pocket so he can use the flashlight to look at the altar.
There was some sort of symbol drawn in the dirt in front of where the man sat.
We take a picture of what’s left of it and then I pick up the stones and the random bits of bone and hair that were used to cast the spell.
They’re all in a pile of dust—or ashes more likely.
“Can you carry him back?” I ask Leo. “If the demon wanted him dead, I’m guessing he knows something he doesn’t want us to know.”
“Yeah,” Leo says, and hoists the guy up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. “What are you gonna do with him once we get our information?”
“I’m not going to let anyone kill him if that’s what you’re asking,” I say pointedly. “We can just have Xavier wipe his memory and then send him on his way.”
“I guess having a vampire around can come in handy every now and then.”
I pull the one zombie out of the creek, dragging it up so it’s next to the other. “I’m sorry,” I tell him, feeling a little knot of guilt in my chest. I know it’s not my fault the demon possessed them and burned through their bodies, but I feel bad I didn’t stop it sooner.
“It doesn’t look like there’s anything significant here.” I hold my hands out, feeling for any sort of negative energy that could be associated with the demon. “If there is some sort of buried treasure , I would think the demon would be digging, right?”
“Yeah,” Leo agrees. “So this demon possessed a body who could reanimate the dead yet this was all rather anti-climatic. Trust me I’m happy,” he adds quickly. “But don’t you think we’re missing something here, sis?”
“Definitely,” I say. “I think the sooner we question this guy the better.”
Keeping my guard up, I lead the way back to where Antonio, Devon, and Xavier are. They’re more or less right where we left them, and Xavier and Devon are piling the bodies together.
“Hey,” I say softly, as I quickly scan our surroundings.
We’re away from any main roads, but it’s a nice summer night and, even though the park is closed, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for someone to be here.
Though it is one look from Xavier to wipe their memories and make anyone forget what they saw.
“You brought a friend?” Antonio asks, eyeing the man slumped over Leo‘s shoulder.
“He was possessed by the demon and cast a spell,” I explain.
“The demon left and tried to kill this guy, so we’re thinking he must know something the demon doesn’t want us to know.
He’s under a sleep spell right now,” I continue.
“We should probably bring him back so we can question him when he wakes up.”
“Put him in the trunk:, Xavier says, and Leo turns, giving me a look
“Maybe we could buckle him in the back,” I try, wrinkling my nose. “He was possessed and didn’t do anything on his own volition.”
“Fine,” Xavier says with a bit of a huff. “We will put him in the back.”
Devon takes the man, and we start back towards the cars.
“There’s a lot of bodies back there,” Antonio says. “A lot of bodies with missing and gouged out eyes. How is that going to be handled?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Xavier tells him.
“That makes me worry even more,” Antonio mutters.” Even with how well connected the Order was, a dozen dead people in that state of decay would cause alarm.”
“You’re assuming they will be found,” Xavier says casually. “They won’t be.”
“That shouldn’t be as reassuring as it is,” Leo says under his breath, playfully elbowing me.
I chuckle and try to get rid of the feeling that I am being watched.
I concentrate on counting my steps in an attempt to keep the demon’s voice from echoing inside my head.
Seventy-three steps later, I realize Antonio has fallen behind.
“Hey,” I say. “You okay?”
He looks at the bodies behind us. “If this is how it’s going to be, you should have just let me stay dead.”