Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
He appears almost human, with messy, long gray hair and a face like wrinkled leather. He’s wearing a brown tunic with matching linen pants. I don’t understand why nobody else is reacting. He looks seriously out of place as he walks down the row of reporters.
“Holy shit,” I whisper.
Theo, several feet away, looks over at me and gives me the side-eye.
“Keep it together,” he says through gritted teeth.
“I would,” I say back, smiling as the crowd claps and cheers at something Xavier just said, “but the demon is here.”
“What?” Antonio exclaims. I’m thankful for the crowd’s reaction because his voice gets lost in the noise.
“You can’t see it?” I ask, still smiling as I clap. “It’s standing in the middle of the room.”
“I don’t see anything,” Leo says.
“I don’t either,” Mabel replies. “Are you sure it’s here?”
“Positive.” And now the demon is looking straight at me. He laughs, then starts walking toward the stage. I spring to my feet, my hands flying out defensively.
“What the hell are you doing?” Theo growls, reaching for me.
But it’s too late. He pulls me back down right as the demon rushes over to Governor Richards. It stops behind him and whispers something in his ear. Nobody reacts. Not even Xavier.
Am I the only one who can see the demon?
Governor Richards stiffens. Then, without warning, he grabs the microphone from the stand and starts whacking himself in the face with it.
I stand there horrified, transfixed, watching everything unfold.
The demon laughs and runs back into the crowd, disappearing into the sea of reporters.
Xavier takes the microphone away from Governor Richards, who immediately starts smacking himself in the face with his own hands.
Xavier easily subdues him and holds him spellbound.
“Calm down,” he commands.
His voice echoes through the room over the loudspeaker system.
He just publicly held someone spellbound, though I don’t think that fact has quite registered with everyone yet.
Governor Richards fights against the spellbinding, and Xavier has to repeat the command before he finally stops. The governor looks around, confused.
“What is going on?” he demands, ripping his hands free of Xavier’s grasp. “What did you do to me?”
“Can you still see the demon?” Antonio asks me.
“It disappeared into the crowd,” I tell him.
“What is going on?” Mabel asks, her voice tense.
“I don’t know. I saw the demon. It went up to Governor Richards, whispered something in his ear, and then ran away.
But you guys can’t see him?” If it weren’t for Governor Richards’s reaction, I might think I was going crazy.
But I’m not imagining this. And when I look back into the crowd, I see the demon pushing its way toward the door.
No one can see him. But they can definitely feel him.
Someone shrieks and turns around, looking confused.
Another reporter gets shoved into the person in front of him, who drops a very expensive camera.
The two of them immediately start arguing.
Security rushes in, ushering Governor Richards and the rest of the family members away, including us.
I’m pushed back behind the curtains of the stage and completely lose sight of the demon. Xavier rushes over, his hands landing protectively on my shoulders.
“The demon is here,” I rush out. “For some reason, I’m the only one who can see him. He went up to Governor Richards, said something to him, and then he started hitting himself with the microphone.”
Xavier processes all of that remarkably quickly and nods. “Is the demon still here?”
“No. Or, well, I don’t know. It disappeared into the crowd. It was heading toward the doors.” I let out a breath, adrenaline rushing through me. “We need to go after it.”
“I don’t think you should go anywhere,” Xavier says.
I give him a look. “Do I have to go through my whole speech about how this is what I do for a living all over again?” I say, desperate to get to the demon before it gets too far. “And Delphi’s out there.”
“Wren, this has trap written all over it,” Xavier tries to reason. “It came right up onto the stage.”
“I know. It was very brazen, I’ll give you that.
And it’s definitely trying to get me to go after it, but I can’t pass this up.
We can’t pass this up.” I lower my voice.
“I have the weapons. And I have one advantage it probably doesn’t know I have—the exact potion needed to kill it.
Plus, I have all of you.” I try to appeal to his softer side while still keeping things logical.
“The thing could’ve come up and stabbed you, but it didn’t.
It could’ve tried to command you, but it didn’t.
” I pause. “Maybe it can’t command vampires. ”
“What did it look like?” Xavier asks, shifting his eyes from me toward the sliver of the room he can still see from behind the curtains.
“Like an old man dressed in cheap Jedi clothes. Otherwise, pretty human.”
Governor Richards storms over, furious and accusing Xavier of doing something to him. “It’s against the law to hold someone spellbound against their will—”
Xavier reluctantly tears himself away from me to deal with the situation.
“Review the cameras,” he says calmly. “I saved you from yourself. I wasn’t even looking at you when you lost your shit.”
“He’s right,” one of Governor Richards’s daughters says. She can’t be older than thirteen or fourteen, and she’s clinging to her mother’s hand with terrified, wide eyes.
My heart in my throat, I grab Xavier’s hand and give it a squeeze.
“Now it’s my turn to say you can hate me later.
I love you, but I’m going after it. Stay here and deal with this.
” Then I take off running into the crowd.
My brothers follow me, along with Mabel and Devon.
It’s complete chaos in the reporters’ section of the room.
People are fighting and blaming each other for pretty much anything they can think of.
We shove our way through and emerge into the hallway, where regular people had gathered to watch the event live.
I find Delphi near the windows, looking stricken. “Who the fuck was that guy?” she asks. I grab her wrist, pulling her closer and instinctively stepping in front of her.
“You saw him?”
“Yeah. Like some old Jesus wannabe.” I stare at her without blinking for a moment. Then it hits me. I can see him because I’m a witch. She can see him because she’s a werewolf.
The demon is cloaking itself from humans. And vampires, at their very core, were human.
“It’s the demon,” I tell her. “And it seems humans can’t see it. Did you happen to see where he went?”
“Yeah. He just walked out the front door like he was the fucking king of the place.” She lets out a shaky breath.
“I’ll text Ryder,” Leo says, already pulling out his phone. “He’s downtown. I’ll have him meet us with the weapons.”
“Can this demon move at superhuman speed?” Antonio asks.
“I don’t think so.” I look at Delphi.
“He just walked out of here,” she confirms.
“Then he can’t have gotten far.”
Antonio squares his shoulders. “Leo and Devon, go find Ryder and get the weapons. Mabel, you come with us. We might need your strength.”
Mabel claps her hands together excitedly.
“I can’t see him, so just tell me where to punch.
” She holds up a fist in front of her face.
She looks so adorable in her pink dress, her hair hanging in loose waves around her face.
But she is still a vampire. And she has several advantages over us when it comes to beating the crap out of something.
We rush outside. Devon and Leo head down the street to meet Ryder and retrieve the potion-soaked stake as quickly as possible.
The streets of downtown Charlotte are surprisingly busy for a city full of people worried about a serial killer on the loose.
Though, in today’s age of morbid curiosity, I suppose having a serial killer around might actually bring out a whole new crowd.
Delphi and I pause on the sidewalk, looking in both directions. I don’t see anything. Then suddenly, a group of people standing outside a bar starts yelling and fighting.
“Guess that’s where he went.” We take off, running several blocks down the street chasing the demon. I don’t know if it realizes we can see it yet, but it’s going to catch on pretty fast.
“Every fucking time I wear heels, I end up chasing demons,” I mutter when we slow to a stop in front of a piano bar.
It’s packed tonight, apparently because some popular headliner is supposed to perform.
The bouncer outside suddenly shoves his podium over and makes a move to run into the street.
I see the demon slipping inside the bar. I have to make a split-second decision.
Go after the demon or save the bouncer.
“Somnum,” I say, casting the sleeping spell. He collapses to the ground, and people scream. “Having people run into traffic is really getting old too,” I say.
Antonio gives me a confused look. “I’ll explain later.
” Risking looking like complete assholes for leaving the bouncer unconscious on the ground, we rush inside.
Delphi points down the hall. The place is cool and definitely somewhere Mabel would want to come back to so she could film content for her TikTok account.
It has a dark, Gothic vibe with just a touch of Victorian flair.
And, of course, it’s packed. I lose sight of the demon as it weaves through the crowded seating area.
“Shit. I lost it.”
“Me too.”
Delphi comes up beside me and links her arm through mine as she scans the crowd. “Of course it picked this place. It’s packed.”
“That’s exactly why it picked this place,” Antonio says.
I catch the way Delphi looks at him, her eyes lingering on him for just a moment too long. Mabel notices it too. A huge grin spreads over her face as she looks at me. I just shake my head. I do not have time for her to play matchmaker tonight.