Styx & Stoned (The Grim Reality Series Book 2) (15 page)

“You okay?” Worry tinged Nate’s
question.

“Yeah.” I inhaled, keeping my eyes
locked on the demon. “We got this.”

The creature hanging from the
ceiling didn’t seem to have any intentions of coming down. Propping his hands
on his hips, Cam stared at it. “If you don’t come down, I’m coming up.”

Could he do that? He was an angel,
after all. My gaze darted from the demon to Cam several times. I won’t lie, I
was seriously hoping to see some angelic awesomeness. Bolts of fire or quaking
earth. Maybe trumpets preceding his supernatural smiting.

What I got was even better. Blue-white
light emanated from Cam, surrounding his entire body. The demon hanging from
the ceiling cringed and screeched, as if Cam’s brilliance burned. Giant white
wings rose from either side of Cam’s spine and unfolded. When completely
expanded, he gave several shallow flaps, as if shaking out his wings.

At the sight, the demon shot with
surprising speed across the ceiling, but Cam was quicker. He launched into the
air and with a single flap, skimmed a foot below the ceiling. The demon dodged
around the wide, round light fixtures, but failed to elude the angel.

I couldn’t take my eyes from Cam.
Imagining what seeing an angel would be like was nothing compared to the full
visual. Power thrummed through the room. The demon’s fear was tangible and to
be honest, I couldn’t blame the thing. The expression on Cam’s face wasn’t
anger or even concentration. Righteous determination, as if this were his true
calling, the one thing that completed him.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt that
way about anything. Reaping—Zumba—even motherhood—never garnered this kind of
reaction from me.

When Cam tucked in his wings, his
body spun like a missile. At that point the demon had no chance. His speed
increased, and Cam shot toward it, grabbed its leg, and peeled it off the
ceiling. Its talons dug into the plaster but lost its grip. The creature
dangled from Cam’s hand, flailing and screeching, but couldn’t get free.

They circled the room and when Cam
headed toward us, I braced my feet and leaned into the weight of the mirror. A
few yards away his wings extended, pulling him to a full stop in midair. With
what looked like not more than a flick of his wrist, he chucked the demon
toward us. The creature spun head over feet, its arms thrashing, trying to stop
its inevitable imprisonment.

When the demon hit the mirror the
front wavered as if the creature had jumped on a waterbed. Nate and I grunted
against the force. A dull pain ricocheted across my shoulder where the metal
frame dug in, no doubt adding another bruise to my already vast collection. No
matter how much it tried to get away, the surface held tight. Inch by inch the
creature sunk and disappeared under the glass, until the mirror again appeared
solid.

I hadn’t fully recovered from
capturing the first demon when the second sprung from the wall. Like a dog, it
ran on all fours across the carpet. Its talons ripped at the fibers with each
lopping gate, heading directly for me. Chaos erupted. Mara spun and took off
after it, jumping onto a chair and literally ran across the tables. Cam dove,
coming at it from the opposite direction. Nate and I held fast with the mirror,
but to be honest, I was frozen with fear and couldn’t move when I should have.

The demon took a final leap. At
first I thought it would hit the mirror, but at the last second it veered left,
slamming into me. We toppled backward and landed on the floor, the creature on
top of me. For a split second it leered down, its claws digging into my flesh.
A scream lodged in my throat but I couldn’t expel it. In the next second the demon
disappeared—inside me.

My body convulsed several times as
the demon pushed its way inside me. No way was there enough room for a
full-sized demon and all my personalities. When it tried to elbow me aside I
got pissed. Though I had no idea what I looked like from the outside, I bet it
was disturbing to say the least. I had no control over my muscles, but could
feel my arms and legs twitching as we fought for control.

Our wrestling match reminded me of
my twin boys. Lots of pushing, shoving, and kicking, but nobody really getting
the leg up.

“Get out!” I don’t know if I
actually shouted or if I only thought the command. 

I mentally reared back and slammed
my fist into the creature’s jaw. It hissed at me and braced its legs against
the inside wall of my body and shoved. It felt like being pushed down a drain
hole, my soul compacting to fit. I grabbed a taloned foot and used my imaginary
legs to push upward until I was face to face with the demon. It hissed at me
again, its yellow eyes growing wide with shock.

I don’t think it usually had this
much trouble possessing somebody, but I was getting really tired of people,
spirits, and now demons encroaching on my personal space. This thing needed to
go back to Hell—now.

I felt the familiar stirrings of
what I referred to as my reaper superpower. Though the attempt to possess me
was happening inside my body, it helped to treat it as if everything was going
on outside me. Black ribbons streamed, and when the first tendril touched the
demon, it howled and released its hold. It threw itself backward, ripping free
of my body’s constraints.

My limbs when limp and I flopped
onto the floor, the battle over. Or so I thought. I opened my eyes just in time
to see the demon leap from me to Nate, and disappear.

“No!” Without thinking, I jumped to
my feet and grabbed Nate around the waist.

For a second, he didn’t move,
staring at the far wall. Then slowly, he tilted his chin and grinned at me. The
blood in my veins turned to ice. Though I was staring at Nate’s face, it was
the demon leering back at me. A second later, Cam stopped behind him, putting
Nate in a wrestlers hold, locking his fingers at the back of Nate’s neck. Mara
hauled the mirror off the floor and slid it directly behind me.

“Do whatever it was that expelled
the demon,” Mara said. “That thing you did to me.”

Cam’s gaze cut from her back to me,
but he didn’t say anything. Nate started laughing, the voice nothing like his,
instead deep and grating. My arms twitched, wanting to let go and back away, but
this was my partner. That thought strengthened my determination. I focused on
Nate’s eyes.

“Get out.” That phrase had been so
effective in
The Amityville Horror
, I thought I’d give it a try. Instead
of the demon fleeing, it laughed louder. Anger surged through me. Heat burned
along my spine and again I felt the flutter stir around me. “Get out.”

The laughing stopped and Nate’s
now-yellow eyes narrowed on me. “I will not leave. This body is mine.”

Rage blanked my mind and I slipped
into the reaper zone. Usually the black vapor extended in tendrils and ribbons,
but this time it shot from me like a blanket of darkness. No gentle winding, or
testing the soul. It folded over us, wrapping Nate, the demon, and I in a cloak
of swirling blackness.

Instantly I felt Nate’s soul
struggling to break free of the demon’s confines. The only fear I felt from him
was from not being in control. The other presence was the demon, but there was
no soul to reap. It was like touching ash and smoke, sifting through the
tiniest crack in Nate’s will. The black vapors tugged against me and I released
whatever hold I had on it. Swooping forward, it plunged into Nate’s chest. His
body went rigid in my arms, but I held tight.

The demon condensed, shrinking away
from my touch, confused by the new invader. It was long enough for vaporous
blanket to wrap around the demon, capturing it. My arms fell from Nate’s waist
and I stepped away as the blackness spiraled back around me, holding the demon
to the side. Though the creature kicked and clawed at the black tethers, it
couldn’t break free. It shrieked and my hold tightened, cutting off the
piercing noise.

Cam lowered Nate to sit on the
ground and then ran around me to grab the other side of the frame. I slowly
pivoted and focused on the silver mirror. With a single thought, the black
vapors unfurled, piercing the glass, and depositing the monster inside. The
demon flung itself against the mirror, beating against the glass with a dull
thud
,
before disappearing.

The blackness evaporated and I shook
my head, clearing the muddiness doing in my head.

While they carried the mirror to
the door, I spun and dropped to the floor next to Nate. “Are you all right?”

His eyes were wide with either fear
or shock. Then his gaze focused on me, and before I knew what was happening, he
clutched the back of my head and pulled my mouth to his. I fell against him,
bracing one hand on his shoulder and one on the floor. His lips slanted over
mine and though he didn’t slip me the tongue, he kissed me like a starving man
and I was a juicy steak. I didn’t pull away. I’m just going to say it’s because
he took me by surprise.

When he broke the kiss, he didn’t
let me go, but instead rested his forehead against mine. “Thank you.”

I’m fairly certain he was thanking
me for getting rid of the demon and not the kiss.

“You’re welcome.” I sat back on my
heels, pulling out of his hold. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his hands over
his face and then looked at me. “How did you do that?”

I shrugged. “It’s kind of my thing.
Only works on paranormal beings.”

“Why haven’t you told me about that
before?” He shook his head. “Does Constantine know?”

“I don’t know.” It was my answer
for both of his questions. “The subject never came up.”

Cam and Mara squatted beside us,
cutting off our conversation. “Thanks, you two,” Cam said.

“Yeah, we could have handled one
demon, but two of them split our attention.” She patted Nate on the shoulder.
“Sorry about the possession.”

“It’s all right.” He shifted and
pushed to his feet. The three of us followed him up. “But I never want to
experience that again.”

“And you?” Cam laid his hand on my
shoulder. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” He rubbed my shoulder a
couple of times. “Are you okay?”

To be honest my head was still
spinning from the kiss Nate had given me more than kicking that demon’s ass.
“I’m fine.” I ran my hands up and down my arms. “Just a little shaken up is
all.” I held out my arms. “So, demons—in the Venetian? What’s up with that?”

“Nothing good.” Cam crossed his
arms over his chest. “The spirits who have been reaped but are popping back to
the physical plane are free game.”

“Wait, what?” I shook my head.
“That can’t be.”

“It’s the loophole Tabris told us
about,” Mara said. “They’ve been reaped, and normally would have been delivered
by now. But if the soul isn’t claimed within a certain amount of time, it’s up
for grabs.”

The weight of getting the souls
ferried pressed down on me with crushing importance. Hearing about the threat
was one thing. Being possessed by it was quite another. Even though we’d done
three ferry trips, reapers were still reaping, filling the shores. So, not only
were souls flooding the physical world, now we had demons sniffing after them.

“It’s like open season on souls,”
Nate said.

“What about the ones that aren’t
reaped?” My thought went to Tandy. “Can they be taken by demons?”

“No, only the ones who have been
reaped and unclaimed,” Cam said.

Mara and I glanced at each other.
We seemed to be thinking the same thing. We needed to get as many souls ferried
as possible. I brushed my hands down the front of my shirt and pants, as if
ridding myself of the last bit of indecisiveness. Everybody needed to pull
their heads out and face the problem. “Somebody should tell Tabris about this.”

Cam nodded. “I’ll do it.”

Nate still didn’t appear to be one
hundred percent.

“Maybe you should go lay down for a
while.” I smiled at him. “Until you feel normal again.”

“I have a splitting headache so I
think I will go to my room.” His eyes tracked over the three of us. “Thanks,
guys.”

With that, he left. Nate can be
annoying sometimes with his know-it-all attitude, but I actually felt sorry for
him. The poor guy had been so out of it he’d kissed me—really kissed me. Heat
spread up my neck and I tried to silence the flutter of butterflies that had
erupted at the thought of how that kiss had made me feel, and was still making
me feel, which was stupid, because it meant nothing.

“I’ll catch up with you two later.”
Cam stood. “Let me know if you run into any more problems.”

I nodded my head and Mara gave him
a half salute. When he was gone she turned to me. “We’ve got to go ferry.”

“My thoughts exactly.” I inhaled.
“Unfortunately, I think we need to do a lot of runs.”

“Yeah.” She scowled, her eyes
scanning the overturned tables. “This Charon thing is getting out of control.
Why does it seem like we’re the only ones trying to solve this?”

“I know, right? The last time we
talked to Tabris I got the distinct impression we’d reached our—” I made air
quotes by my head. “Need-to-know-limit.” A sigh eased from me. “I’m going to
run my bag to my room and change out of my swimsuit.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you there in
thirty minutes. I want to check on Cam and find out what Tabris said.”

We exited the hall. Neither the
security guard nor the mirror were anywhere in sight. I imagine GRS had some
kind of paranormal warehouse where they stored that kind of stuff. God knows I
wouldn’t want to chance breaking a mirror that imprisoned a couple of nasty
demons.

I stepped into the elevator and the
doors slid along the track. A second before they closed, Charon slipped in.
Irritation rippled through me. Because of this guy, Nate and I had just been
possessed by a demon. The supernatural world was seeping into the physical, and
not only was all my free time spent trying to fix it, I was actually spending
my trans-dimensional free time dealing with the aftereffects of his hissy fit.

He spun toward me, looking equally
as aggravated. “Where’s the money?”

My brow pinched, having no idea
what he was ranting about. “What money?”

“My money.” He waved his electronic
tablet in the air. “I just checked my accounts. No deposit has been made in the
last twenty-four hours.”

Oh, that money.
I screwed up my face. “How should I
know? I’m not a banker.”

“But you have been working with
Tabris.” He took a step toward me. “You also said something about them getting
another ferryman.”

I backed up, my heels hitting the
wall. “At which point you replied that there wasn’t anybody else.”

“It’s Thanatos.” His eyes narrowed
on me and his lips pinched together. “Isn’t it?”

For the first time since I’d met
him his power became evident. It filled the elevator and thrummed against my
body. It took all my effort not to shrink back. I squared my shoulders and
leveled a bored stare at him. “I think you’re being a little paranoid.”

“If I’m paranoid—” He took a step
toward me, pointing the silver end of his walking stick at my chest. “—than
explain where my money is.”

If I let him get the upper hand
he’d definitely know somebody was ferrying—because I’d spill my guts. I needed
to flip the situation and get control. It was a technique I used on my kids
when they tried to pin me down for an answer. “Let me get this straight.” I
propped my fists against my hips and channeled my southern church lady. “You’re
pissed because you’re no longer receiving the gold for ferrying souls?”

“That’s right.” He straightened his
shoulders but some of the certainty in his expression melted. “It’s part of the
compensation for being the ferryman.”

“Right, which you are no longer.” I
crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head as if any idiot could figure it
out. “And you think they should continue to pay you when not only are you
not
doing the job, but are creating a lot of freakin’ headaches for the rest of
us?” The elevator hiccupped and the doors opened onto my floor. I let my arms
fall to my sides and shook my head as I strode to the exit. I slapped my hand
against the metal slabs to keep it from shutting and craned my neck to look at
him, as if he were an afterthought. “Stop acting like a spoiled brat and either
get back to work or shut the hell up.” I stepped out and turned. “Because
everybody is really getting tired of your crap.”

Stunned, that’s how I’d describe
Charon’s expression as the doors glided closed. His eyes had rounded and his
mouth curved into a pouty frown. He may have awesome supernatural powers, but
he was acting like a thirteen-year-old drama queen—and that might have been
insulting the teenager a bit.