Vessel: The Demontouched Saga (Book 4) (3 page)

“That was you?” I shout. “Back in Nal’s office when I brought the head?”

She nods and smiles. “I don’t use a vessel to walk this earth like most.”

“Then why don’t you hide this place? Keep it safe from attackers like this asshole.” I point over at Astaroth, who laughs.

“To hide it from them would be to hide it from the rest of the world,” she says. “I was sent here to protect as many of the survivors as I could for the return.”

I still would do it by keeping the place hidden from view. It makes a lot more sense to send out search parties to find groups of people and bring them back rather than sending an open invitation to the demons.

“So, what do we do about him?” I say, kneeling next to Astaroth, knife to his throat.

His head jolts up, looking me in the eye. “Do it,” he says. “Send me back to my master.”

“As you say,” I say, pulling my knife back for the killing blow.

“Wait!” Uriel says, holding my hand back. “There is another way.”

“I’ve seen what angels can do to them,” I say. “This way is a little less painful on my eyes.”

“Not a smite,” she says. “Reap his soul.”

“I thought I did that after they died.”

“That is one way. But you can also reap the soul of an angel or demon from its vessel. There is no guarantee, but there is a chance you can save the human he is possessing.”

“I’ll give it a shot,” I say. “Ready, tough guy?”

I place my right hand on Astaroth’s head, palm over his eyes with my thumb and pinky fingers on his temples. From there I close my eyes and focus in my hands.

To tell the truth, I’m not really sure how to work this. Before I was able to draw the soul from the body as they were dieing, but so far it isn’t working. “Any tips would be nice,” I say, looking at Uriel.

Astaroth laughs loudly in my face. With my free hand I wipe his spittle from his face before placing it over his mouth.

“Try Exorcizamus,” she shrugs. “Worth a shot.”

“OK then,” I say, closing my eyes again. “Exorcizamus!”

I feel heat radiating from the palm of the hand on his head, feeling it reflect onto the one covering his mouth. I open my eyes to watch the black smoke of his soul swirling in his eyes. His jaw drops slightly, and he takes in a deep breath. I’d almost swear he was going to blow chunks on me. But instead of releasing his lunch, the shadowy tendrils came out of his mouth in a rush, knocking me to the floor as it collides with my head.

I hear the man’s body drop to the ground. Dusting myself off, I crawl over to check on the man.

I have to know if this works.

With my head on his chest, I listen carefully for the sound of a heartbeat. I use my hands to check for a pulse in his wrists, but come up empty.

“We lost him,” I say, lifting my head form his body.

“Look!” Uriel says, pointing at the body.

My jaw drops slightly when I notice movement under his eyelids. “Anyone there?” I say.

I jump back slightly when his eyes open. He stares at me for a few seconds before saying a word.

“Who are you?” he says, looking around the room. “And where am I?”

“Somewhere safe,” Uriel says, taking his hand. “They can’t harm you anymore.”

- 4 -

“Is he going to be OK?” I ask Uriel.

“He should be fine,” she says. “As you can imagine he is very disoriented and confused.”

I feel for the guy, I can’t say I would be the most pleasant person to be around if I had a demon taking over my body for who knows how long. Lord knows I’m not the most pleasant person with Eunie taking over occasionally.

“Don’t take this personally,” Nal looks over at me. “But what compels a person to allow a demon to take over in the first place?”

“Maybe he was like me and looking for a way to save someone,” I say. “Maybe just save himself.” My situation is probably not that unique. Looking at the state of the world now, I can only see it getting much worse. The demons have nothing to lose by making someone a host. In the worst case, they take a body that’s unable to handle the functions they wish to do. All they have to do is stay in that form until another, more suitable host comes along and strike another deal. With loved ones still gone, and survival becoming harder as the months go on, they have a virtually unlimited amount of people to pull from.

“There is another option,” Uriel says. “It is possible he didn’t strike a bargain at all. There is a good chance he was just possessed.”

I nod. Demons play by a totally different set of rules than the angels do. Where an angel needs a host that not only allows them to take over in the first place, they are forced to vacate the host any time they decide they want to come back. It rarely happen to an angel as they take the time to ensure the host is in it for the long haul.

Demons, however can possess anyone they want at any time. Of course, they prefer to get a pure bond as well because it offers a large advantage. It becomes nearly impossible to evict the invader. Sure, you can do an exorcism to bring it out, but they don’t always work when you are up against a possessing demon. Your odds of success are near zero if the host is willing.

“Do you think that’s why it was so easy for me to pull Astaroth out of him?”

She nods. “Speaking of that. How do you feel right now?”

“I feel fine. Why?”

“I’ve never been able to see a reaper do its work,” she says. “While they are angels, the only way you can normally see one is if it was coming for you. By then, it was too late.”

“Does that mean I was near death too? If Eunie is a reaper, anyways.”

“If Einuir is truly a reaper, then yes, you were near death.”

“If you talked to people back then like you do now, I could see it,” Nal laughs.

I shake my head. “I was a good boy back then.”

“I find that hard to believe. It’s far too natural for it to be a new habit. It would take some of my dad’s guys years before they could come up with half the shit you do.”

“Believe it or not, it’s true.” I was the type of guy who showed up to work every day without complaint. Not only was I never late, I was that guy who would show up twenty minutes early every day just to make sure I was there on time. Sure, some of the guys called me a kiss ass, but I ignored them. I just liked my job.

“You need to keep an eye on it, Mitch.” She leans forward, looking me in the eyes. “I’m being serious. You teeter too close to the edge now. I fear for what might happen if you fall too far the other way.”

“You know me,” I say.

“Yeah, so do we,” Nal says. “Take her seriously.”

Sara walks through the doorway with our dinner. Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and a side of cole slaw. I’m not sure where she got the food, but I’m not going to complain. It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper meal like this.

“Any luck finding people to help with the power?” I ask.

“I’ve got about a dozen volunteers ready to go first thing in the morning.”

“Any electrical engineers?”

“Didn’t ask,” he says. “I didn’t have any last time, either.” He takes a drink of his cold Busch beer. “Besides, it shouldn’t be difficult to fix. Probably just a brownout.”

“How can the grid have a brownout now?”

“We’ve had a steady influx of visitors recently, Mitch. Quite a few have moved inside the gates with many more moving in nearby,” Uriel says.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Nal says. “The grid was fine with a few things running on it. I’m thinking we need to keep a team of people there full time now, just to make sure it stays up.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Uriel says. “I’ll talk to Commander Stevens about getting a unit or two stationed there.”

“I’m sure the guys will appreciate that,” he says.

“You don’t have anything going on, do you hon?” Sara asks. Have to love when your loved ones set you up for volunteer work. Not that I don’t mind, but I was looking forward to a little R&R.

“Nah, I’m free.” I look over at Nal. “Need another body?”

“I can use all the bodies I can get,” he says. “But there’s one thing you need to know.”

“Sure, what’s that?”

“I call the shots,” he puts his beer on the coffee table and leans over towards me. “All of them.”

“Afraid I’ll screw something up?”

“It’s not that, Mitch. This is serious work. One wrong move can get someone killed. I don’t want to go through that again.”

“What happened?” Uriel asks, taking a seat next to him.

“About six months after,” he looks over at Uriel, who nods. “We had just taken control of the hotel, not that we had to fight for it or anything. After a few weeks it became clear that someone needed to restore the power. Being the entrepreneurial type I am, I figured it would be a good way to cash in.” He places his plate on the coffee table and kicks back on the couch. “I wasn’t doing it to take advantage of people though. I was doing it to get my people supplies.”

Uriel nods.

Nal may have set up dozens of businesses handling the seeder side of life, he did it knowing the people that were left would typically be attracted to those things. I think if he could have built his empire doing anything else, he would have, but he was looking out for his people.

The hotel was a front, just the place where he did his business. It was also the place where he stored all the supplies he acquired from his deals. Most of that stuff wouldn’t stay in the hotel for long before being shuttled around to a few communities, much like this one.

His only downfall is that he had trouble protecting things. He was too spread out. It wasn’t long before one community fell, followed by the others. He went from leading nearly three thousand people to about three hundred overnight. Since then, he has been protective of what little he had left.

“Anyways, I grabbed a few guys and took a trip down to the power plant down by the river.” He leans forward, putting his head in his hands. “I should have been more careful about who I brought. We worked as a group at first, getting everything fully shut down. But when we went to turn things on, I had us split up. It had taken a lot longer than I thought it would, and we were fighting darkness, so we got in a hurry.”

Uriel hands him a tissue he uses to wipe off his eyes. He nods in thanks.

“I sent James and Paul to hit a few of the stitches near the cars, figured they could get them all warmed up for the ride home,” he says. “I smelled them long before I saw them.”

“What happened?” Sara says.

“Arc flash, I imagine. We weren’t wearing protective gear. No rubber boots, rubber gloves, nothing. We came in wearing the clothes on our back to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.”

“It’s not your fault.” Uriel puts a hand on his leg and her arm around her back. He leans in slightly, putting his head on her shoulder. This is a softer side of Nal than I’m used to seeing. He always seemed to to be the calm, collected type. I know he busted his ass to look after his people and keep them safe, but never once did I know he took it this far.

He wipes his eyes on the tissue before leaning forward again. “After that, we went back through the plant to shut things down and left. I didn’t bring anyone back there for a week after that though I was back there first thing in the morning to bury them.”

“Wow, you didn’t have one of your people handle it,” I say.

“I wanted to do it as a reminder of what happens if I get lax,” he says. “Growing up, I never thought I would be that guy who would lead a group of people at anything. I was that kid who was picked last in gym class, for God’s sake.”

“But you had the gift,” Uriel says. “And you will get the chance to use it again.”

Nal looks over at her and smiles. “I won’t fail you again.”

She brushes his hair behind his ear before kissing him on the forehead. “You didn’t fail me the first time.”

“OK, enough sappy time,” I say. “If you are going to be in charge, I need to know what to do.”

He reaches behind the couch, pulling out a large red three-ring binder. “I already have that figured out.”

- 5 -

The drive through the river valley is surprisingly pleasant. I never thought I could get used to living in a place like this, now I almost long for it. It would be nice to move into one of these abandoned farms and walk away from everything.

No more demons.

No more explosions.

No more problems.

Just Sara. Me. And a few dozen cows.

“You done daydreaming, princess, or do you need some more beauty sleep?”

I backhand him in his arm, making sure I don’t hit him hard enough to nudge the steering wheel. The last thing I want is to be in a car accident all the way out here.

“Way to ruin the moment,” I say.

“Sorry, but you’re up. From here out we can run into anything,” he says. “I just have to assume my people aren’t here anymore with the grid is as unstable as it is.”

I nod, focusing my attention on the horizon. As you can imagine, Nal has me firmly on guard duty. Out of all the people we pulled in from the mall, and that Uriel had in her compound, none of them has any combat or policing background except for the soldiers.

Commander Stevens told us he would set up a regular rotation of people to guard the plant eventually, but he needed time to get things in order after yesterday’s attack. We didn’t lose too many people, but many of the cars sitting out front were pretty much destroyed. It’s very hard to drive a car around that has a hole in the gas tank. Last I saw, he had sent a few men into the city to find a few tow trucks, something I’m surprised they didn’t have in the camp to begin with.

“We have two more turns before we reach the plant,” Nal says. “This was about the point I insisted on the guard being. There aren’t many roads in and out of here. As you can see.”

I look over to my right, noticing three black trucks sitting side by side about a hundred yards off the road. “Those look familiar?” I say.