The Reaping: Language of the Liar (29 page)

Dorian shielded her face as a rush of magic erupted through the room and when she blinked against the retina burn, she saw the demon laying there in Grant’s place.  It was growling, snarling, fighting against the chains, but it was also smiling.  Which turned into a laugh.

Its head turned and it locked its gaze on Dorian, the lips spreading out even further.  “There she is,” it hissed.  “Pretty little bitch.”

Dorian felt her entire body go rigid and she looked around to see if anyone saw what she could.  The Exorcists were chanting, and the two Reapers stood one north and the other south, letting their magic flow into the exorcism circle.

Far off near the stairs stood Markus, and he was watching with a still expression.  His hands were clasped, wringing together, and Dorian could almost feel his fear and anxiety.  She sank to her knees to get a better look at the creature through one of the Exorcist’s legs.  It was Andrew, she noted in the back of her head as she peered over.

“You want to come and play, pretty little bitch?”

“Let him go,” Dorian hissed, trying to keep her voice lower than the chanting.  She knew the creature could hear her, like they were linked, and she shivered when it threw its head back and howled with laughter.

“You have no idea.  No idea.”  The laughter trailed off and for a second, the creature wailed and writhed.  She thought perhaps it was working, perhaps Grant was fighting, and then something in the room shifted.  The entire building shook for a second, and the form of the demon shivered and flickered in and out of existence.

When it returned, solid and reformed, it was different.  Dorian didn’t need a demon lexicon to know who was laying there now.  Her breath was caught in her throat as the familiar eyes locked on her.

“There you are.”

“Nic.”  The word came out a bare whisper, and she scrambled back, but she couldn’t get far enough.

“You’re in danger,”
he said, but he didn’t speak it aloud.  The voice sounded in her head and she shook it, trying to shove him away.

“Stop!”  She felt her power gathering in her stomach, and she felt a wave of panic coming from Nic.

“You don’t understand.  I don’t have a lot of time.  You must come and find me.  You’re all in danger.  You’re…”  Nic roared and the room shifted again.  When Dorian dared a glance over, the other demon had returned and in spite of the chains, it was sitting up.

“Markus!” Dorian called, but her voice couldn’t carry over the waves of magic.

“No one can hear you,” the creature sang in a high voice.  “No one is going to hear you scream.”

Dorian jumped to her feet just as Andrew turned his head, and she let out a piercing wail when he grinned and his face split.  Standing there, holding on to the exorcism circle, was a demon.  He let out a bellowing laugh before he turned, shooting something out of his hands, and one by one, the conclave fell.

Dorian scrambled back against the wall, her powers gathering in her fingertips, but when she looked around for help, there was no one.  Breaking the chains, the demon in Grant’s body climbed to his feet and fixed its predatory gaze at her.

“Isn’t she just delicious?”

Andrew nodded his head.  “I think we’ll enjoy this, won’t we?”  As he took a step forward, Dorian let out a scream and everything she had came flying from her hands.  She needed no spellwork, no incantation.  The power wrapped itself around the thing inside Andrew’s body and began tearing it to pieces.

Grant’s demon howled with frustration as it fought against the chains, but instead of coming to Andrew’s rescue, it gave her a wink and a nod before tearing up the steps on all fours.

Dorian couldn’t go after him.  Her power was inside Andrew, pinning him to the floor.  The demon was screaming now as she tore at him, ripping his consciousness from the body.  She couldn’t tell if there was anything human in there any longer.  She could see the doorway, her mind rushing into that endless void, and she had the demon by the neck.  Her power was like claws, tearing at his gut, pulling off chunks of flesh as it screamed.

“I will not tolerate you attacking my people,” Dorian hissed as she gave him a shove toward the door.  Her claws sank into his neck, feeling the pulse of his life’s blood just under her fingers.  “Let this be a message to any of them.  We are ready for you.  We will no longer live to serve you.”  With that, she ripped into him, tearing out his neck before shoving him through the door.

As it slammed and the power from the realm was cut off, Dorian was flung back into herself.  On her knees, she found herself next to Andrew’s fallen body.  Blood was flowing freely from his nose and ears, and she didn’t need to check for a pulse to know he was dead.

She had done it, too.  She hadn’t given a second thought to the human soul inside the body as she tore the demon apart.  Shaking, she backed up against the wall as the bodies in the room began to move.

For a moment, fear gripped her and she swore they all looked around with those demon eyes.  But as her heart calmed down, she saw only scared humans.  They were groggy and confused, moving like their limbs were weighed down with bricks, but as Lennox found her, he shoved himself to his feet and stumbled across the room, falling to a crouch beside her.

“What the hell happened?”

Dorian shook her head, not trusting herself to speak just yet.

“Grant?”  Lennox looked back at the empty space in the middle of the circle, and then back at her.  “Did he hurt you?”

Licking her lips, she took in a shaking breath.  “Andrew was possessed.  He used some sort of power to knock everyone out and then he came at me.  Grant broke his chains and escaped but Andrew…”  Her voice went quiet and she nodded her head to the corpse.

Pulling her close, Lennox held her tight as he looked around the room at everyone slowly gaining their composure.  Markus, who had fallen by the stairs, was on his knees, speaking rapidly on the phone in Swedish.

Briar was coming to, leaning against the wall, and she caught Dorian’s gaze, giving her a nod before she closed her eyes.

It was all too much.  Whatever this was, Dorian was terrified.  She knew the demons had power, but not like this.  Not enough to infiltrate a conclave exorcism.  Dorian was positive nothing like this had ever happened before, and she knew her threat wouldn’t go unheeded.  They wanted war.  They were no longer content to use humans as some mental highway between worlds.

And she had just declared war against them.  She was untrained, unskilled, a terrified young woman, and she had declared war against a realm of demons.  Perhaps she did have a death wish after all.  And not just for herself, but for every human destined to walk the earth.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“We have a problem.  A big fucking problem.”  Lennox stormed into the living room where Dorian was laying with her head in Dash’s lap.  They had been binge-watching some sci-fi show he had on DVD while Dorian recuperated.  Her spell casting had left her with a violent migraine which extended late into the next day, and medication wasn’t touching it.

Briar was in her room sleeping it off.  The spell the demon had cast took a toll on the members of the conclave, and even Lennox found himself groggy and irritable throughout the day.

He’d been upstairs on the phone dealing with the aftermath of the botched exorcism, and had been in contact with a few of the Seekers who were trying to get a location on Grant.  Channeling their police resources, the only mention of him was a carjacking about four miles from the main road where the exorcism took place.  After that, he’d gone radio silent, and not even their strongest spellcasters could get a lead on him.

Moving away from Dash, Dorian pushed herself up and rubbed her face.  The headache was slowly ebbing away which gave her some measure of relief, and she looked up at Lennox’s face as he stared down at her.

“Markus needs us to come over.”  He dropped into a seat and hung his head low.  “There’s… they found a leak.”

Dash immediately sat up straighter.  “A leak?  What do you mean?”

“He wouldn’t explain over the phone, but he sounded upset.  Genuinely upset.  I’ve already got Briar up.  She’ll be downstairs in a minute.  Markus is at his hotel and he expects us there in twenty.”

Dorian had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.  Not only were they playing with fire going rogue, but she had a feeling whatever this is probably hit close to home.  A wave of paranoia hit her as she looked between the two men in the room and wondered if it wasn’t one of them.  But no.  She couldn’t believe that.  She couldn’t allow herself to even think it.

Getting up, she muttered about grabbing her things and hurried upstairs to her room.  Under the guise of freshening up, she shut the door and went to her dresser.  Gripping the edge, she stared at herself in the mirror and found that for a second, she didn’t recognize the face staring back at her.  She had aged.  She looked tired, dark circles under her eyes.  Her hair was frazzled, tied back into a lazy knot, and she found herself thinking back to the times when she was at her worst as a child.  When things were out of her control, she was blacking out constantly, and—as she now knew—a demon had been running rampant in her body.

It was why in spite of being new and unskilled, she had to go through with her plans.  She couldn’t let people suffer the way she had, and exorcising them wasn’t enough.  Trusting the Community was out of the question when there was no telling who had been manipulated.  She felt out of place thinking it, though.  She had been part of the group for such a short time.  It was systematic, ingrained in a lot of them from birth, and who was she to come in and shake the foundation like this?

Taking a breath, she grabbed the brush from the dresser and ran it through her tangles. She tied her hair back up neater, changed into a clean shirt and pair of jeans, and headed down where Briar was waiting for her in the kitchen.

“Ready?”

Dorian nodded.  “I guess.  You have any idea what’s going on?”

“Not a clue.”  Briar hesitated, and before Dorian could reach the door, Briar reached out and grabbed her.  “When we get back, can we talk?  About what happened?”

With a frown, Dorian nodded.  “Yeah, of course.”

There was a tense silence and then Briar nodded.  “Good.  Okay.  Let’s get this shit over with.”

***

Markus was in a suite on the top floor of one of the more posh hotels in the city.  Dorian had to wonder where the money came from.  In fact, she realized no one she’d met so far had a regular job, and it’s not like people were paying for their own exorcisms.  It was yet another item in the column of things she didn’t understand about the Community.

She had clothes, food, a place to live, transportation, but no idea how these things were being taken care of.  The entire situation made her uneasy, and she hung back closer to Briar as Lennox managed Dash’s wheelchair up the elevators and through the massive suite doors.

Though she expected something out of a movie, marbled floors and French furniture, the inside was more homey, like an apartment.  There were two bedrooms, a living room with a large couch, a dining table, and sliding doors which led out onto a small balcony overlooking the city.

Markus was standing beside the open terrace door with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  He tipped his drink to the group as they walked in, but said nothing for a while.  Dorian could understand.  In spite of everything going on, Grant was his son and not only was he possessed by what seemed like any demon who felt like taking a stroll in a human body, but he was also missing.

“Where’s Matias?” Lennox asked after helping Dash slip out of the wheelchair and onto the couch.  He dropped next to his partner and leaned back against the cushions.  “If we’re being interrogated…”

“That’s not what this is about.”  Markus dropped his cigarette on the balcony floor, crushed it with his shoe, then shut the door with a loud bang.  “I have Dorian’s statement which lines up with everything the Seekers could pull from the room.”

Dorian, who was still next to Briar, walked further into the room.  “What do you mean?”

Markus looked over at Lennox with a nod, who answered her.  “There are spells we can cast which will show a sort of echo of past events.  It only works when magic is being used.  Sort of like an instant replay.”

Dorian’s eyebrows went up and she wondered why she wasn’t being interrogated if that were true.  She had explained what happened, but failed to mention her powers ripping Andrew to shreds from the inside out.  She told Markus she used what Briar taught her about reaping a demon, using her power to shove them through the doorway and seal it shut.  She hadn’t mentioned what else she had done.

“That’s all beside the point.  Obviously we have a leak.”  Markus crossed the room to refill his glass, and he turned the bottle to the room, offering it out, but no one accepted.  With a shrug, he poured himself a double and took a couple of long drinks before taking a seat.  “This is the second time in the last two months an Exorcist has been possessed.”

There was a collective moment of shock that hit the room, and Lennox leaned forward.  “I’m sorry,
what
?”

Markus’ head bowed.  “We thought it was a fluke.  An accident, but after this, I can’t consider it anything other than a pattern.”  He paused a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was low and pained.  “Matias has been taken into custody.”

There was a crash, and everyone turned to Briar who had dropped her phone on the tile.  “Matias?”  Her tone was incredulous and she took a few steps toward Markus.  “Why?  What the hell?”

Shaking his head, Markus pressed his glass to his temple and let out a bitter laugh.  “Adelaide pointed it out yesterday.  I verified through the records.  Grant, Andrew, and John had been cleared by Matias.  They’d been under his direct supervision at some point and…”  He stopped and took another drink.  “He hasn’t been charged, but the evidence is overwhelming.”

Dorian blinked rapidly, feeling confused.  Matias had been arrogant and strange, but she hadn’t pegged him as a bad guy.  At least, not like this.  “Is he possessed?”

Markus looked at her for a long time before he answered.  “No.  At least not as far as we can tell.  There are… steps we’re going to take to ensure his cooperation and to ensure he’s not being unduly influenced by something outside of the Community.”

There was something in his voice, an undercurrent of malice which Dorian didn’t like, but it wasn’t her place to question it now.  She merely nodded at Markus and he looked relieved to move on.

“I called you here today to release Dorian from her probation.  I apologize for letting the situation and Andrew influence me in the other direction.  Perhaps if she’d been allowed to participate, things might have turned out differently.”

“No sense in speculating,” Lennox cut in, and Dorian gave a sigh of relief.

She didn’t think things would have gone any differently.  No one had suspected Andrew of being anything more than an Exorcist with a jerk complex.  No one had even bothered to get to know him, which made Dorian wonder if that was his plan all along.  He was just unpleasant enough for everyone to give him wide berth.  If it was the demon’s plan, the creature was very clever.

But all of that was beside the point.  The demons had done what they’d done in order to have Grant escape.  Perhaps they hadn’t planned on Dorian ripping the thing inside Andrew to shreds, but she had a feeling his death wouldn’t affect their numbers in the least.

Especially with Nic’s warning.

She hadn’t told them about that yet.  She couldn’t bring herself to discuss it, not until they had everything else sorted out.  She was distracted and absolutely shaken to her core by everything going on.

So much so, in fact, that she missed the rest of the meeting and only came back to herself when Briar touched her arm.  “You okay?”

Dorian’s gaze snapped up, and she jumped to her feet when she realized Dash was back in his wheelchair and Lennox was pushing him toward the door.  “Yeah.  Sorry, I was just zoned out.”

Briar nodded, giving her a little side-eye, but she stayed close as they ventured into the hall.  Entering the elevator, Lennox pushed the button, then turned to the two Reapers.  “So there’s that.  Dorian’s off probation and we won’t have another Exorcist until they figure out what the hell is going on.  I doubt we’ll be given anything more complicated than closing doorways for some time.”

“That works for me,” Briar said.  “This has been way outside of my fucking paygrade lately.”

Dorian nodded her agreement, not ready to say anything yet.  There was a lot to talk about, but she wasn’t sure how to go forward.  She could only imagine Lennox’s reaction when she told him she’d declared a war of sorts.  Or that Nic had come through.  Or worst of all, they needed to find the rogue priest because whatever he was, he was part of this.

***

In her room, Dorian was staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought.  She couldn’t get the vision of Nic out of her head, and she couldn’t shake the feeling like they had to move.  Sitting around waiting for some assignment to come in, waiting for something to happen next, would only lead to another catastrophe.

She hadn’t opened up yet, and the house wasn’t pressuring her.  Briar had gone off for a few days, cashing in some of her vacation time she said.  “If I don’t get some R and R, I’m going to explode.  Will you be okay?”

Dorian waved her away and smiled.  “I swear I’ll be fine.  Honestly I need at least a week to recoup before I’m for any more adventure.  And you deserve some time off.”

Briar’s eyes narrowed as she pulled her in for a hug.  “If anything comes up, the boys have my number.  I will be back in an instant.”

Dorian assured her things would be fine and watched as she headed out into the drive way and drove off.  Although Dorian didn’t feel as safe with one of their members out there in the open, she knew Briar could take care of herself.  Besides, for the moment the world felt calm and safe.  Trouble was brewing, that much was obvious, but Dorian was determined to take this lull to re-center herself and do everything she could to make a plan for the future.

With the betrayal of Matias shaking the Community to its core, Dorian knew it was the perfect time to ensure the boys were fully on board.  With Grant’s exorcism, it only proved that Dorian was right.  Things were changing and their old methods weren’t working anymore.

Dorian found herself venturing downstairs.  She made her way through the back door, and found Lennox sitting on the patio chair, leaning forward, a cigarette pinched between his thumb and first finger.  When she approached, he glanced up and nodded at the pack laying on the small table.

“You smoke?”

“Only a couple times as a teen.  Wasn’t for me.”  She lowered herself into the chair next to him and sat back.  It was getting darker, the sun setting on the horizon, and there was a chill in the breeze saying that winter was fast approaching.

After a bit of silence, Lennox crushed the cigarette under his boot and looked over at his companion.  “You okay there?  You’ve been quiet a few days.”

Dorian nodded.  “I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse.  Just… confused, I suppose.”  She nibbled on her thumb nail for a second, then let out a puff of air.  “I killed Andrew.”

Lennox quirked an eyebrow at her as he sat back.  “Is that so?”

“I didn’t mean to, but I didn’t try to save him either.  My powers were…”  She trailed off, not sure how to explain it.  “It felt animalistic, and I think for the first time I understood that we really are drawing magic from the realm of those monsters.  I tore that demon to shreds as I shoved him through that doorway and there wasn’t a bit of me that gave a second thought to whether or not Andrew was going to live or die.”