Entity Mine (25 page)

Chapter 36

Thank God
. Devon crumpled to her knees as Kyle grabbed his phone to call John. She didn’t think she had another knock in her, outside energy or not, pushing out the ‘E’ had left her even more insubstantial than before.

Minutes later, John appeared with a beautiful, dark-haired woman with a strawberry birthmark curving on one cheek.

“Thalia!” Anjali stepped up to the woman and hugged her. “It’s good to see you, but I didn’t know you were coming.”

John strode deeper into the study. “As a priest, I performed exorcisms, but only on demons, not spirits, so I called her for advice.”

Jake almost spit out the coffee he’d just sipped. “A demon priest?”

John grimaced. “Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it someday.”

Thalia nudged him with her elbow. “Yes, yes, do that, right now, we’re running out of time.”

Ethan had been leaning on the desk, arms folded, but now he jumped to his feet. “What do you mean?”

John shook his head. “It’s a good thing I called her. Tell ‘em, Thalia.”

The woman sent a somber gaze around the room. “As the Witches’ Champion, I’ve run into these ‘step-ins’ before. If the spirit that’s been displaced hasn’t moved on, as in this case, and the body in good shape, as it is here?” She raised her eyebrows at Ethan, who nodded. “The odds of expelling the step-in and re-integrating the original spirit are good—within seventy-two hours. After that they reduce significantly.”

Ethan tensed, that sexy mouth a tight line. “How significantly?”

“People who’ve awakened tell me as time passes they start to fade. After a week—” Thalia pressed her lips together, her blue eyes apologetic. ”—I’ve never been successful.”

A shaft of panic speared Devon’s chest. No. This couldn’t be true. Not after all they’d been through.

Ethan sagged back against the desk, and the others shared a horrified look, but Thalia raised a hand. “However, Devon is a chimera. She’s stronger, and she has the benefit of the mate bond.”

The room was dead silent for a moment, then Thalia clapped her hands together. “That doesn’t mean she has forever. Chop, chop! This exorcism isn’t going to perform itself!!”

Devon clasped her hands together as Thalia opened a black, leather-bound book and began to speak. It hadn’t taken long for everyone to assemble in the step-in’s bedroom prison.

It was freaky to watch her body convulse on the bed. “What are you doing, woman!” The step-in writhed and bucked, pulling against her manacles. “Without me, this body dies and so will his child!”

No one bothered to answer the being. Kyle prowled the area by the door.

A hand on Ethan’s broad shoulder, Jake clasped Anjali in a one-armed hug at the foot of the bed. John stood slightly behind the Witches’ Champion as Thalia continued to exhort the spirit to leave Devon’s body.

Devon prayed under her breath as Thalia’s insistent words grew louder and more commanding. The step-in screamed insults at the gathering, spitting and biting at the air.

She didn’t know if the others could see it, but to her eyes a charcoal overlay began to cover her stolen skin like cream rising to the surface of a bowl of milk. The being’s spirit seemed to bubble up through the pores of her body, clinging to her, a shadowy mist in the shape of a body.

Perspiration shined on Thalia’s face, and dampened the hair at her temples, curling it into little wisps. She swiped her forehead with her arm and continued to speak, calling on the step-in to leave her body in Jesus’ name.

The mist began to peel away from Devon’s body. The being dug its nails into the bed, as if it could physically anchor itself inside.

Finally, it peeled back like soap film stretched between a pair of hands and snapped, resolving into a shadowy form with a misshapen face seeming to be made up of more than one person.

Wasting no time examining the abomination, Devon dove for her body. The being grabbed at her arms, its fingers wrapping around her wrists.
Dear God! It can touch me!

She yanked away and tried for her body once more, but she was weak from being separated from her body so long, and it knocked her back, sending her careening through Thalia and John.

Behind her, another warmer, more tempting light than the sun beaming in the floor-to-ceiling windows, heated her shoulder blades. She glanced over her nearly transparent shoulder. The light had returned. A voice that wasn’t a voice whispered in her ears that this was the last time it would come.

The spectacular brilliance and sense of homecoming the light possessed called to her with an almost irresistible allure. Glancing at her barely there form, she took a step in its direction. If she left now, there was a chance she would be with Ethan again. If she stayed and failed . . .

She glanced back at Ethan and became conscious of what was happening with her body. His face a rigid mask of desperation, Ethan performed CPR on her unresponsive form, while the others watched, tension rolling off them in waves.

Damn it. No. She wouldn’t give up.

She lunged for her body once more, but the step-in blocked her way. It tried to shove her back toward the light again, but she grabbed its deformed arms and pushed back. She was too weak to advance, but she planted her feet and held her ground.

“Give it up!” The abomination’s voice was like several voices blended together, some male, some female, with different accents from East Indian to Cockney.

“No!” She opened her medium senses, hoping to learn something she could use against it. A storm of information flooded over her. She saw the original step-in, a witch, steal one lifetime after another, most recently an East Indian woman whose body it had used for forty years and lastly, a young sailor from the East End of London. She felt the evil spirit’s jealous longing for the powers and riches of others. Its patient stalking, waiting for the opportunity to make it’s next victim deathly ill or take advantage of a moment’s loss of concentration to cause a fall or an accident. She shuddered. This being was one sick puppy.

Her concentration wavered and the thing forced her to stumble back. She fell inches from the unearthly light, its addictive waves of love and peace washing over her, urging her to turn and slip inside. To leave her pain, her worries and concerns behind on this plane.

The step-in seemed to notice where she’d fallen and rushed at her, attempting to propel her into the light. Again they struggled, but she managed to fling it off over her head. It screamed as it passed through the light and fell to the floor, moaning in agony. It rocked onto its knees and crawled toward her, like a large black crocodile.

The momentary respite gave Devon a second to look around. If the light was here for her . . . Yes!

There, in a corner, a black pool pulsed, oozing fear, hatred, and anger. If she could muster the strength to drag the step-in over there, the world could be rid of it once and for all.

If only she didn’t feel so weak. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d felt strong. She didn’t think she could stop herself from being thrown into the light, let alone drag the step-in into hell.

As the evil spirit grasped her again, its powerful disfigured hands digging into her arms, her frantic gaze swept the room and landed on Ethan. He still performed chest compressions, his face gaunt from days of sleep deprivation and little food. “Come on, Devon. I need you. Come back to me!” he demanded, his voice was thick and muffled as if his lion lurked just beneath the surface.

The others watched with grim faces. She didn’t know how long her body had been without a spirit, but their slumping bodies screamed of resignation. They were just letting him continue for fear he’d shift in rage if they interfered.

Air exploded into her lungs. Her lion! Was she still there? Devon reached for her other selves and found her cat prowling the edges of her containment. She’d been there all the time, Devon had just been too panicked to feel her.

The step-in changed its position, gritting its overlapping teeth, enduring the pain of the light for better leverage. Devon tried to bat it away as she fumbled to release her leonine side, but it wrapped its arms around her and tugged.

Devon felt her spirit form slipping toward the light. One inch. Two. Only millimeters left now and her life with Ethan and her baby was lost.

No! The bastard wasn’t going to steal her life as it had stolen so many others. In a flash she shifted, her lion form still had some reserves. She buried her strong jaws in the abomination, yanked it out of the light and backed toward the bone-cold, seething darkness she could feel behind her. She would have to move through it or the evil spirit would see it and escape. Pray God, the darkness couldn’t take her, anymore than the light could take the step-in.

The other spirit was still strong. She fought for every step back with all her strength. She didn’t know how long it took to cross the yards between the light and the dark, but finally, her back paw seemed to dip into nasty, icy-cold muck. It seemed to bite down to the bone. Agony strafed through her.

She fought not to show her pain or weaken. The creature couldn’t suspect anything until it was too late.

She gained another step. The pain lashed through her, making her clench her jaw.

“Give up,” the darkness seemed to whisper. “You can’t win. They all hate you anyway. Everybody does. You’re worthless, Freaky Deevie. You don’t deserve Ethan. Everybody leaves you. He will, too. He said so.”

She closed her mind to the whispers. She loved Ethan and despite what he’d said about leaving, he loved her, too, and with one last powerful yank, the step-in entered the darkness.

It froze. Its grotesque eyes meeting her pitiless gaze. It opened it’s mouth to howl and sank down into the darkness, the sound swallowed up as the darkness vanished, leaving Devon to crash on the floor.

She’d done it. She’d destroyed the monster.

She tried to raise her head to glance at the bed, but she couldn’t lift it. She looked at her limp paw and tried to move it, tried to shift back to human, but nothing worked.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the light soften and vanish. It wouldn’t be back. She was stuck.

She could hear Ethan pleading with her. Again she tried to lift her chin, but her weakness kept her glued to the floor. The paw in front of her eyes began to fade.

Ethan’s arms felt like lead. He glanced at the clock. He’d been working on Devon’s unresponsive body for thirty minutes.

“Ethan,” Anjali said from behind him. “I can take over for you, but if there’s no spirit . . .”

Though she didn’t finish, he could fill in the rest.

It doesn’t matter what we do.

He rocked back and gathered her in his arms. He couldn’t even sense her anymore. He’d told himself it was because he was too exhausted, but it was time to face the truth. She and their baby were gone.

A sob wracked him. He was flat out bawling in front of five other people, but he didn’t give a fuck.

He stroked Devon’s face, pushing a strand of red-gold hair away from her creamy temple and closed his eyes, nuzzling her cheek, inhaling the scent of her skin for the last time. “I’ve been running away all my life, Devon, but I swear to you, I wasn’t going to run away this time. You and the baby were my life. I love the way you talked to the photo of a stranger you thought was dead. I love the way you talk to your dog. I love that you tackle things that scare you for those you care about. The way you go forward with plans you’re not sure of just to
have
a plan.” His whole body quaked as he held her. “Devon, don’t leave me. I love you.”

He watched her, every fiber of his being praying for some flicker of life, but there was nothing.

Everyone was silent as he laid her back and stood, devouring her with his gaze. Jake squeezed his shoulder.

Suddenly, Devon’s chest rose. Her eyes opened. She gazed up at their faces, her expression wondering, then triumphant. “Devon?” Anjali asked.

She nodded.

“Oh my God!” Ethan sank down beside her, knees too weak with relief to support his weight. He cupped her cheek with his hand and thumbed her soft, warm skin. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to drink her in. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“It was a near thing.” She tried to raise up on her elbows and fell back. “Whoa.” The crooked smile she shone at him was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “I’ll tell you all about it later. For now, come here.” She beckoned to him with a cooked finger. He didn’t have to be told twice.

The others murmured their excuses and slipped out as he scooped her into his arms and found her lips, capturing her in the kiss he’d dreamed of giving her for more than a week. The kiss he never thought he’d give.

She dropped her shoulder, and turned away. “You know I heard you in the kitchen when you said you should leave.”

He nipped her shoulder, suddenly nervous. Though he thought she loved him, she’d never said the words. No one had ever said the words. Not to him, scary foster kid, sleazy treasure hunter. “You heard that, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Did you hear what I said just now?” He put his head on her chest, so he could feel the strong, rhythmic beating of her heart. A heart he’d had to force to beat only moments before.

She nodded.

“I meant every word.”

She cradled his head in both her hands and drew him up until they were face-to-face, eye-to-eye. “And I mean this. Ethan Wade—”

“Mara,” he corrected.