The Reaping: Language of the Liar (21 page)

“Let me guess, big sob story, turned out to be a total asshole?” Briar asked, her eyes narrow.

“Not exactly.”  She twirled the glass in her fingers.  “Grant told me his parents were Wiccan.  Or something like that.  I can’t remember what he called them.  But when I told him how my blackouts affected me, what happened and everything, he told me I was possessed.  He said I had to go off my meds and he could exorcise me.”

Briar took in a sharp breath.  “And you did.”

“And I did,” Dorian repeated.  “Went off my meds, had several incidents.  Got violent with a few of the younger kids in school.  I was grounded in my room one day after getting suspended, and Grant broke in with a bunch of sage and oil.  He was chanting all this crap, I thought it was Latin or whatever.  I think he watched the Exorcist too many times.  Anyway he burnt the sage and the last thing I remembered was feeling really dizzy.  I woke up in my bed and it was morning and he told me it worked.  That I could stay off my meds.  And you know, for like two weeks it was all good.  We got really hot and heavy, got to the almost-sex.  Then in the middle of a make-out session, Nic came back.”

The story stopped while Briar ordered another round from the waitress, then looked back at Dorian.  “And?”

“And I hurt him.  Badly.  Trashed the house, came at my foster parents.  I didn’t remember anything at the time, just that I woke up covered in blood as I was being dragged out of the house in cuffs by a couple of men.  I was sent to inpatient after that, mandatory thirty days.  My therapist told me if I could keep it under control the family would take me back but…”

“They didn’t.”  Briar let out a long sigh.  “I’ve been there.  Exactly where you are.  My possession didn’t start until I was twelve, but it got that bad.  CPS intervened, took me away from my mom.  It was group homes and hospitals until a Seeker found me.”

Dorian’s face was hot, and when the server brought her drink, she gulped half down, then pressed the chilled glass to her cheek.  “My therapist let me see the injury report on Grant.  He was in the hospital for a few weeks.  Busted collar bone, gashes all over his face.  Torn lip, fractured wrist.  I felt bad, but I also felt like an idiot for believing he could cure me.”

Briar shook her head.  “Don’t.  You were a kid, you just wanted to get better.”  She paused, then said, “Strange he knew about the sage and oil, though.”

Dorian shrugged.  “Isn’t that like exorcism 101?”

“Not really.  Most of the Hollywood crap is just holy water and the power of Christ compels you.”

Dorian couldn’t help her laugh, and shook her head.  “It wasn’t like that.  Who knows, maybe he knew.  Maybe he’d seen something.  Either way, after that, after what I did to him, I didn’t trust myself in relationships.  So I stopped trying.”

“I guess I understand that.  But you’re better now, you know that right?”

She bowed her head and stared down at the ice floating in her glass.  “I guess.  I mean, it doesn’t feel different.”  When Briar looked alarmed, Dorian held up a hand.  “I mean it does.  I don’t feel
him
anymore, but I still feel like that walking hot mess ready to explode at any second.  I don’t feel like I’m a different person.”

“Because you’re not,” Briar said, her voice hard.  “It took me a while to figure that out.  My training was probably the worst anyone could have in this business, and I had all these expectations.  I thought I was the goddamn butterfly.  I thought my old form had liquefied and reformed into something different.  But it didn’t.  I’m still the messed up system kid with attachment issues and a fierce attraction to old white dudes with big dicks.”

Dorian choked on her drink, holding her hand over her mouth as she laughed.  “Oh my God.”

Briar gave her a wink, the left side of her lip twitching up into a smirk.  “It’s cool though.  I’m me.  And I think once you figure that out for yourself, who
you
are, everything will fall into place.”

“Even if that means I’m the first post-possession exorcism to come out of it without powers?”

Briar nodded, her face drawn and serious.  “Even if you don’t have shit.”  She leaned across the table, folding her hands together.  “You’re still part of this.  That’s what you need to get.  Even if there isn’t the smallest spark of magic in you, you’re part of this world.  You know what’s out there.”

For whatever reason, the matter of fact tone in her voice struck a chord in Dorian, and it lifted her mood.  Maybe it wasn’t the insanity she missed.  Maybe it was the feeling that she belonged to a group of people.  She’d never been part of the masses, and losing her identity because of this demon was too much to bear.  But Briar was telling her now, no such thing happened.  No such thing
could
happen.  She still belonged.

The door to the bar opened, and there was a subtle shift in the air.  She felt it, and she looked over at Briar who was on guard.  Following the Reaper’s gaze, Dorian spotted the couple at the bar.  A man and a woman, mid-thirties, trendy clothes, styled hair.  And when they glanced around the room, their gazes passing over Dorian and Briar’s table, it happened.

There was a glow in their eyes, and a feeling like all the air was being sucked out of the room.  Dorian was frozen in place, and everything seemed to stop, and she saw it.  The vision she had when she was watching Dash and Lennox exorcise the boy.  The vision she had when Nic was holding her in the doorway, threatening her very existence.  They were demons, and she could see straight into them.

They were no longer human.  Taller, thin, claws and fangs present like the absence of light, and Dorian felt her heart thudding in her chest, the thumping pressing in her ears.

“You see them, don’t you?”  Briar’s voice cut through Dorian’s trance, and she snapped out of it.

The noise of the bar came rushing back, overwhelming her, and she slumped forward, trying to catch her breath.  “Oh God.  Yeah I did.”  When she looked up, the pair were gone, and she frowned.  “What the hell?”

“They saw us and took off.  They probably thought we had a team here.”  Slapping money down on the table, she rose and beckoned Dorian to follow.  “When they travel in pairs, they’re usually up to something.  We need to get back to the house and talk to Markus.”

Still shaking a little, Dorian followed Briar out of the bar and into the dark parking lot.  The sound of her shoes crunching gravel was almost too much for her to bear, and she winced a little at the sound of Briar pulling out the keys.  She was so overwhelmed by everything she almost didn’t notice the change in the air.  Everything around them went cold, and it wasn’t until Briar shouted, “
Duck
!” that she reacted.

Hitting the dirt, Dorian skidded, rolling onto her back, her hands flying up just as the woman lunged on top of her.  Her eyes were flaring bright, making Dorian see spots, and her dark, shadowy claws were tearing at Dorian’s arms.

“Little Reaper bitch,” she spat.  “I’m going to rip the flesh from your bones and devour you!”  Her face bent down, fangs elongated, and Dorian could smell the rot on her breath.

Panicked, she let out a scream as the thing’s teeth made contact with the skin on her shoulder. Something flared to life in her gut as she felt the fangs pierce her, and after a moment, she couldn’t hold it in.  With a shout, it exploded from her chest, a burst of white-hot energy, and the woman went flying thirty feet across the parking lot.  Her body hit a car with a sickening crack, leaving a huge dent, and with a dull thud, the body slumped over onto the ground.

Dorian felt panic welling up in her, and she shifted to her knees, trying to stand.  To her left, Briar was crawling up to her knees as the shadow of the man ran off into the distance.  Briar’s face was drawn, a small cut on her forehead dripping blood down her cheek, and she looked confused.

“What the hell did you do?” she asked as Dorian walked closer.

Dorian’s head shook for a moment before she could answer.  “I don’t know.”  There was a tremble in her voice, threatening to break into tears if she didn’t get control.  “I felt this… this I don’t know what.  Energy or something.  It was rushing through my body and before I could do anything, she went flying into that car.”

Jumping into work-mode, Briar hurried across the pavement, kneeling behind the fallen body.  She used the edge of her shirt to cover her fingertips as she felt for a pulse.  After a second, she sat back on her haunches and looked over at Dorian.  “She isn’t dead, but we should call an ambulance.”

Dorian was about to pull out her phone when Briar pushed past her and threw open the car door.  Digging into the glove box, she pulled out a cheap, disposable phone and dialed 9-1-1.  After a moment, she stated the address, saying there was a woman lying unconscious in the parking lot.  She gave a bare description, then hung up and cracked the phone in half.

“We keep these for emergencies.  Lennox likes to have at least ten in the car.  Trust me, you’ll use them more than you like.”  Briar wiped her hands on her jeans, then rushed back to the car and returned with a bottle of water.  Pulling off the cap, she began to pour water all over the woman’s face, and Dorian realized Briar was washing the blood off the woman’s face.  “We erased you from most of the systems, but we can’t be too careful.”  She used the edge of her shirt to mop up what was left, then tossed the bottle into the trees.  “Okay, we need to get the hell out of here before the cops arrive.”  She glanced around, but the girls were lucky no one had come outside to see what the noise was about.

Dorian nodded and followed Briar to the car, jumping into the passenger seat.  This time, she barely noticed how fast Briar was taking each corner, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they were on the main road and there were no signs of cops anywhere.

“Has that ever happened to you?”  She had been afraid to ask Briar that question because if the answer was no, she wasn’t sure what that could mean.  But she didn’t have a choice.  She was terrified.

“Can’t say that it has, but if you’ve been suppressing your powers for this long, I think it’s to be expected.”

The answer made her feel a little better, but not much.  She swiped her hand across her brow and felt the sting of a few cuts from the gravel.  “You think Markus will have some idea?”

“I goddamn hope so,” Briar said, gripping the steering wheel tight.  “Because it’s not just your funky powers.  Demons don’t travel in packs and they don’t attack unprovoked.  Not usually.  Something is definitely up and we need to figure out what.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Dorian winced as Lennox dabbed a cotton swab covered in alcohol across the teeth marks on her shoulder.  She was keeping her gaze trained on Briar who was sporting six stitches just above her eyebrow.  Markus was in his pajamas, his shirt undone at the collar making him look more ridiculous than intimidating, though his scowl was ever-present as he paced behind Briar’s chair.

“So you saw the demons?  Their actual form?”

Dorian tried not to sigh as she clenched her jaw.  “For the literal sixth time, yes.  I saw them.  Gangly and scary with big fucking claws and teeth.  Just like Nic had.  They were angry and really damn mean.”

Lennox snorted and covered it with a cough when Markus leveled a glare at him.  “I don’t know why you’re so fussed, Markus.  Demons attack us all the time.”

“But they don’t travel in pairs, and they certainly don’t try to draw Reapers out of a bar to attack them in a public parking lot.”  He crossed his arms and stopped pacing.  “Can you describe them again?  As detailed as you can get.”

Dorian and Briar took turns recounting the exact look and nature of the demons while Markus checked over his notes, then he nodded.  “I’m sending this to the research team.  See if they can pull something from the database.  Demons using bodies for attack like that are usually multiple offenders.”

When Dorian frowned, Lennox explained in a quiet voice.  “Only a handful of demons hang out in one human body.  Most of the time they come up for reconnaissance, and they try not to double dip, if you will.”

“Gross,” Dorian muttered.

“Either way, if they were able to get the jump on you, it meant they had good control over their human hosts.  And good control means…”

“They’re in those bodies a lot,” Dorian finished for him.  “I get it.”

“But I
don’t
get what the big deal is,” Briar cut in.  “It’s not like they were deliberately after us.  They looked pretty damn surprised to find us sitting in that bar.”

“We can’t be sure that wasn’t a ruse to draw you out.  Sounds to me like it was by Dorian’s power surge alone that they were scared off.  And if they’re working with someone…” Markus trailed off, rubbing his hand down his face.  “If they were waiting to see if she’s showed any powers…”

“How would they have known?” Dorian asked, shoving Lennox away.  She was patched up enough, and the sting of the ointment was worse than the bite itself.  “I mean, it’s not like I’m some big name in the demon world.  And I haven’t been out on a hunt or exorcism or anything.”

“Except you
are
some big name.”  Markus leaned on the table, staring directly at her.  “The demon in your head was someone big and powerful, and I’ve no doubt he sent minions out to watch over you.  To see what kind of Reaper you’d become.”

The idea that Nic was sending his demons to gather information about her was horrifying, and she sat back with a huge sigh.  “So what?  I stop training?”

“Far from it.  If your powers are active, we need to get you ready.  The more exorcisms you participate in, the more demons you fight back, the stronger you become.  You need to be quick on your feet.  Learn the spells, control what you have inside you.  We need to double our efforts.”

Dorian fought back a groan.  She was already working from dawn to dusk, and now he wanted her to double that?

“We need to get another Exorcist before we get all hyper about throwing Dorian in the field,” Briar cut in.

“Already taken care of.  In fact, I have your first job.  We’ve got him restrained, but…”  Markus trailed off, and Dorian noticed a flicker of pain cross his face.  “It’s a delicate situation, and I’ll give you more details later on.  We have a week or so before the exorcism becomes necessary.”

Briar looked confused, but shrugged and walked to the fridge to grab a drink.  “Fine.  We’ll get going on her training in the morning.  You can leave it to me now that her powers are active.  And no,” she said as he opened his mouth to argue, “I won’t listen to why you need to keep working with her.  I’m the Reaper, not you.  It’s my job.”

Markus deflated, then checked his watch.  “Fine.  I need to head out for a few days, but expect the Exorcist sometime around noon.  I’ll be back by the weekend.”

No one said a word until the garage door shut and Markus’ car pulled down the street.  When he was gone and everything was quiet, Dorian dropped her forehead to the table and groaned.  “Why does it feel like everything’s about to get so much worse?”

“Ah because it is, lass,” Lennox said, and gave her a gentle pat on the back.  “But at least you’re in good hands.  Besides, we’ve got some renovators coming in this week to prepare ramps.”

Dorian’s head snapped up.  “Does that mean what I think it means?”

Lennox grinned.  “Aye.  It does.  Dash’s coming home.”

***

“The words of the spell are a conduit, you don’t need them, but it helps focus your power.  Every human on the planet can use magic like this, but it takes skill to control it.”  Briar circled the table where Dorian sat, her gaze focused on the wick of a tall, white candle.

“So it’s demon.  The magic we use.  We channel it from the demon realms.”

Briar nodded, stopping at the head of the table.  “People like us have a stronger connection because we can reach through the doorway.  Also when the demons were exorcised, they left a little bit behind, and that allows us the control over the magic.”

Dorian let out a breath, then looked down at the writing on the paper.  She was supposed to be able to understand it, even though it looked like jagged scratches across the page.  Her powers should automatically translate what she saw there, but right now she was feeling nothing.

After a few moments, Dorian let out a frustrated growl.  “I’m not seeing anything.”

Briar nodded, pacing a little as she spoke.  “Don’t try forcing it.  You know you’ve got it.  Whatever is inside you, it’s strong.”

“Yeah,” Dorian said from behind her breath.  It was strong, almost too strong.  If it was true, if she still had a little piece of Nic inside her, she wondered what she might be capable of.  He was a monster and it triggered a small fear inside her that she could be one too.

When she glanced back down, the writing on the paper was fuzzy.  She blinked, attempting to clear her vision, but as she did, the marks on the page began to reform.  Not like English, but her brain could understand them all the same.  She muttered words that sounded like gibberish to her ear, and yet it came fluid, like a language she’d been speaking her entire life.  “Matzal plurarin.”  The words rolled off her tongue, and she let out a gasp when the candle in front of her roared with a massive flame.

Briar jumped back with a shout, Dorian pushing against her chair as a wave of heat hit her.  It was intense, melting half the candle in an instant, and then it fizzled out to a bare flicker.

“Is that… was that…?” Dorian stammered.

“Supposed to happen?” Briar supplied from her crouch on the floor.  She stood up, brushing dirt from her jeans as her head shook back and forth.  “No.  That was
not
supposed to happen.”

“Jesus.”  Dorian dropped her head into her hands and let out a shaking breath.  “First I’ve got nothing, and then I get magic on steroids?  What the
hell
is going on?”

Briar opened her mouth to reply, but a sudden banging noise from upstairs interrupted her.  It continued on for long enough that she threw her hands up in surrender.  “They’ve started on the ramps.  There’s no way we’re getting anything more done.  Why don’t you take the stuff upstairs and go over everything.  Try to memorize the spells I wrote down for you.  The phonetics,” she clarified when Dorian frowned in confusion.

Shuffling through the papers, Dorian found the hand-written spells which she would be using during her first exorcism.  “Okay.”

“Just don’t say anything out loud.  I don’t need you blowing the goddamn roof off the place.”  She said it with an air of humor, but Dorian could hear the warning underneath the light tone.

“Look, maybe I should just…”

“Markus wants you prepped.  I’ve only got so long before they relocate me, and tonight the new Exorcist is supposed to be coming in.  Markus is being all hush-hush about this exorcism coming up, which probably means it’s internal.”

Tucking the pages under her arm, Dorian leaned over the table and blew out the flame, ignoring the huge pile of hardening wax on the wood.  “What do you mean, internal?”

“One of ours.  Probably someone from the Community’s got a kid they never had exorcised.  It happens more than you’d think.”  Briar beckoned Dorian up, and they immediately fell silent.  The workers were contracted through the Community, however Markus made it very clear no one was to mention a word about the internal issues in the house.  Dorian’s in particular.

They passed through the kitchen, up the stairs, and stopped on the landing.  “Okay, so I’ll study.  Then…”

“Lennox wants to meet for dinner tonight.  So we’ll do that.  It’ll be good to relax for a while, and I know he’s spinning in circles trying to make sure everything’s ready for Dash’s homecoming.”

Dorian’s head bowed.  “So when he gets here, what’s going to happen?”

Leaning on the wall near Dorian’s bedroom door, Briar crossed her arms.  “You mean what’s he going to do?”  Dorian nodded, and Briar let out a breath.  “Well, he’s been training with Adelaide, and as far as I know, he’s taking over as a Seeker for the region.  He’ll be good at it, trust me.  He’s always had a knack for those kinds of spells.”

Dorian nodded, still feeling an ugly hole in the pit of her stomach.  Guilt, she knew.  Guilt because she was the one who forced him into this position.  It might have been Nic, but it was her body, her lack of strength to hold the demon back.  “I know I should just be glad he’s coming home and things can get back to normal but…”

“I get it.”  Briar reached out and squeezed her arm.  “You weren’t here long, but change is still change.  And everything is shifting.  The moment you’re trained up, I’ll be reassigned and you’ll take over for the city.  It’s not easy.  I got comfortable here, too.”

Dorian’s eyes widened when the realization hit her.  “I displaced you.”

Barking out a laugh, Briar shook her head.  “No girl, you didn’t displace me.  That’s the life of the Reaper.  You’ll get reassigned too, once a new kid comes along ready to take your place.  It’s no big deal.”

But it was.  At least, it felt like a big deal.  And not just because Briar would have to adjust to change.  This might be some sort of family, a tight-knit community of powerful people fighting demons, but she would still never have a home.  Nothing solid.  The connection she felt with these people might always be there, but she would be moved around and around.  She’d never plant roots.

And perhaps that was the point of her life.  Maybe that was something she was meant to do, but it didn’t make it easier to cope with.  Since she was a kid she thought if she could only get better, if she could only find a way to conquer her broken brain, she might be able to stop being shuffled around.  She might find a place to call home.

And now, it looked like that would never be the case.

Her heart a little heavier, she went into her bedroom and shut the door.  In the four months she’d been there, the room had become hers.  It was decorated, apart from the warding spells plastered across the walls and ceilings, with light colors and floral prints.  She had a dresser with a mirror, a window she kept wide open, her clothes hung neat in the closet, and every now and again Briar or Lennox would bring her pictures or trinkets they found when they would go out.

It was her home.  And it could be months or years, but eventually she’d be leaving it.  She supposed that was why Briar had nothing more than a couple trash bags full of clothes at Dash and Lennox’s apartment.  Travel light when you were always on the move.

Lord how she understood that.

Setting the pages on the bed, Dorian leaned against the pillows and closed her eyes.  As she took in a few deep, meditative breaths, the memory of the bar parking lot floated to the front of her mind.  She would never forget the pressing ache in her chest as the power burst forth.  The feeling, like manipulating a fifth limb, tossing the demon across the gravel.  It was terrifying, and it also felt good.  Much like erupting the candle into a pillar of flames.  Letting out her magic like that, it was a release.  Pleasurable.  She wanted more of it, and even now her fingers twitched, aching to grab the spell pages and cast them.

Something was wrong with her.  This wasn’t normal, and she knew it.  Briar had her game-face on, but Dorian wasn’t stupid.  They were trying to figure her out now, and she had to wonder what they would do once they figured it out.