Demonosity (8 page)

“Cass,” Nash said in a low whisper as his hand reached out and grabbed hers. “Please tell me that it isn’t what I think it is.”

“I-I don’t know,” she croaked as bile rose in her throat. This encounter was
nothing
like her run-in with Thomas the previous night.
But
, she reminded herself,
Thomas was human, and whatever this thing in front of her was, it definitely wasn’t.

That was another thing she’d been wrong about. She’d thought it was the owl/Thomas who had been watching her through the grimoire, but the familiar fear that had been clawing at her chest for three days now was even more intense than ever, and it told her everything she needed to know.

This was the creature that had been watching her.

This was the thing she’d been scared of.

The skin on her arm where the tattoo had been began to tingle as the creature turned to them, its dreadful eyes locking firmly in on them like a heat missile. Then it charged. It moved at incredible speed, racing toward them, completely indifferent to the moans and screams of the people it knocked out of its way. A small fire erupted as it kicked over the patio heater, but still it didn’t stop until it reached them, its fetid breath and decayed yellow teeth just inches from them.

Celeste let out an ear-piercing scream and darted behind a surprised Nash, just as the creature lunged. Cassidy was thrust out the way and she was forced to watch, in slow-motion horror, as the creature used a giant foot to slam into Nash’s chest, sending him stumbling back onto the patio floor, where he landed with a sickening thump.

“No!” Her scream echoed around the now-silent patio. The blood thumped in her temples as the creature raised the sword and was just about to bring it crashing down into Nash’s exposed chest. She had to get up. She had to move her legs. But before she could move, the creature suddenly doubled over in pain. It lowered its sword, then turned and tore back across the lawn and into the dark night.

As soon as it was gone, the silence was broken as dozens of voices all seemed to be talking at once. Someone was debating whether to call an ambulance, and someone else was frantically trying to put out the small blaze that had been started by the knocked-over brazier, but she didn’t pay any attention as she dropped down to Nash’s side.

She grabbed his hand and studied his face. His brow was covered in a fine layer of sweat. Next to them Celeste was still screaming hysterically, even though, from what Cassidy could see, the only thing that had happened to her was that she’d ripped her Marilyn dress.

Nash tightened his grip on her hand, and his eyes flickered open. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” Her voice quivered, and she noticed that some color was returning to his face. Her heart pounded in relief. “H-how do you feel?”

“Like I’ve just had my coccyx kicked,” he retorted in a weak voice.

“What’s a coccyx? Is it bad?” The words caught in her throat.

He gave a slight shake of his head as he cautiously moved his arm. “Sore ass. I’m just a bit stiff, but I should make a full recovery.”

Cassidy let out her breath, almost faint with relief. “Are you sure? Perhaps we should go to the emergency room just in case?”

“God, no.” Nash looked at her in horror as he gingerly managed to get up into a sitting position and paused for a moment as if to double-check he really was okay. “Have you ever seen the emergency room on Halloween? Nightmare. Besides, I’ll get my dad to check me out when I get home.”

Cassidy chewed her lip, still undecided if she should try to convince him to go to the hospital. However, since he was the genius and she wasn’t, she supposed she should take his word for it.

“Fine, but make sure you do. Can I get you anything? An ice pack? Water?”

“No, I’m good. Just give me a minute or two, and I might even be able to stand up,” he said before lowering his voice and catching her eye. “But Cass, that thing wasn’t wearing a costume, was it?”

“I-I don’t think so,” she started to say, just as she heard a familiar scraping noise and looked across the patio into the dark night. The lawn was now ripped up from where the creature had crossed it, and some of the Halloween lights were flickering, unsure whether they should be working or not. But just on the edge of the woods, Cassidy could see a familiar pair of amber eyes. They were somber and intense and seemed to be staring directly at her.

These eyes didn’t belong to the demon that had just attacked them; they belonged to the owl.
To Thomas.
The thing that was responsible for all of this. Rage and annoyance bubbled away inside her.

“Cass. You’re hurting my hand,” Nash croaked, looking at her in alarm. “What’s wrong? Is it coming back? Because I know I was playing tough guy before, but I don’t think I’m quite ready for round two with a demon knight yet.”

“No.” She instantly loosened her grip. “But will you be okay here? There’s something I’ve got to do.”

“What?” He looked at her in alarm, as if reading her mind. “Because if what you want to do involves going into the woods, then I have to say that I think it’s a very bad idea. A terrible one. In fact, now I think about it, I should definitely go to the hospital.”

“I promise I won’t do anything stupid, I just really need to sort something out. Wait here, okay?” She jumped to her feet and scanned the patio, looking for someone who could keep an eye on Nash, but it was a sea of unfamiliar faces apart from . . .

Reuben. She let out a soft groan. He was standing by himself, idly playing with the long straps that dangled from his straitjacket. There was no sign of the girl he’d been talking to earlier, and Cassidy had the feeling he hadn’t gotten lucky. He was also hardly her first choice, but there was no way she was leaving Nash on his own, so she raced over to him and dragged him to where Nash was still sitting.

“Cass, you know I love it when you turn all alpha on me,” Reuben slurred as he tried to wink at her. Cassidy ignored him.

“Okay, I need you to stay with Nash until I come back. Do you understand?”

“What?” Reuben blinked, obviously not quite getting the response that he was after.

“Stay. With. Nash,” Cassidy repeated with a growl. “As in, don’t leave his side, even for a second. And if you do desert him, then I’ll tell everyone what I caught you doing that time at—”

“Hey, whoa. No need to go there. I’m in, okay? I’ll stay with Nash until you get back,” Reuben interrupted. Cassidy didn’t even bother to look at him. Instead, she crouched next to Nash, pushed his white wig back off his damp forehead, and squeezed his hands.

“I’ll be back soon. I promise.” She gave him one final nod and then got to her feet and ran.

B
ranches scraped and prickled against her arms, but Cassidy hardly noticed as she went flying into the woods. Thankfully, she had decided to wear her Dr. Martens instead of the high heels that her mom had suggested.

“Thomas,” she called out, her eyes frantically searching for any sign of the bird, but there was only darkness and trees and the sound of her own heart hammering frantically in her chest. “Thomas,” she repeated, but there was still no answer, and Cassidy felt her annoyance grow as she finally stumbled into a small clearing.

It was dark with only thin slivers of moonlight pushing down through the canopy of the overhanging trees. She had no idea where she was, but for some reason it felt like the place she should stop. Anger pounded in her veins as she fumbled around in the pocket of Nash’s jacket until she found his ever-present Zippo lighter. Never had she been so thankful to see the stupid thing. She quickly held it up to give herself a better idea of where she was.

“Thomas,” she called again. “I know you’re here somewhere. I can feel it. I want answers. Was this your doing? Was it?”

Silence answered, and she was about to start retracing her steps back down the trail when there was a rustle of feathers and the owl appeared, its sleek feathers casting a radiant light.

“Ah, so you’re finally ready to show yourself,” Cassidy snapped, her annoyance lending her strength. “Did you make that
thing
attack my best friend and terrify all of those other people? Well? Did you? Thomas, answer me.”

“Non.”
The owl disappeared, and Thomas was once again standing before her. Tonight his coarse brown shirt was covered in heavy chain mail that glinted and gleamed from the moonlight and only served to make his angry red scar stand out even more against his pale, sullen face. He didn’t exactly look happy to see her.

“And why should I believe you?” She started to pace around the small clearing, suddenly conscious of the fact that she was out in the middle of the woods with only a Zippo to protect her. “How do I know you’re telling me the truth? Just because you say you’re a knight doesn’t mean that you’re honorable.”

“Honor?” Thomas spat in disgust, his words a disturbing contrast to the mail he wore. “There’s no such thing as honor. There is only duty. However, in this case I do not mislead you. That attack was not of my doing.”

For a moment Cassidy blinked, taken aback by his response. “Yes, well, why did that . . . did that—”

“Demon,” Thomas supplied in his cool, blunt voice as he folded his arms tightly in front of his chain mail. His jawline was taut and grim, reminding Cassidy just how infuriating it was to try to talk to him. “It was a demon.”

Cassidy glared at him. “So why did this
demon
come into a Halloween party and attack so many people? Including my friend. What did it want?”

“It wants what we all want. The Black Rose.”

“Are you seriously telling me that some virginal vessel was at Cade Taylor’s Halloween party? So who was it?”

“I-I don’t know who it was.” A flicker of frustration crossed his face, as if it pained him to admit any weakness. “Being in this world . . . drains me. All my strength went toward trying to stop the demon.”

“That was you?” Some of the fight drained away from her as she realized that while the demon had tried to kill Nash, it was Thomas who had saved him. “How?”

“How is not important now.” His voice was still tight. “What matters is that it will keep happening. The demons will come after you, your family, your friends, and they won’t stop until they get what they want. No one will be safe. Now do you see why I need your help?”

“My family?” The words caught in her throat. “Wh-why would the demons come after them?”

“Because you are the guardian, and the grimoire leads a trail that ends at your door. The demons will follow it, and they won’t let anything stand in their way.” Despite the darkness, his mismatched eyes were blazing with such intensity that Cassidy struggled to believe he wasn’t really standing next to her.

Her throat tightened.

What if the demon she had just seen tried to attack her father?

What if Thomas wasn’t there to stop it like he had done this time? It had been easy to refuse him the first time. But now that she knew what it was capable of, knew what it had done to Nash and might do to her family, saying no wasn’t quite as simple.

Indecision clawed at her chest. Then she remembered something else.

“Please don’t get mad, but there’s something I need to tell you. About the grimoire. I sort of destroyed it,” she confessed, not quite looking at him.

“One mortal cannot destroy the grimoire,” he corrected. “You only
tried
to destroy it. Look in the sack on your shoulder, and you will find it there.”

“What?” Cassidy stared at him for a moment before she fumbled with the top of her purse and opened it up. Indeed, in among the clutter she could clearly see the corner of the leather-bound book. Her hands shook as she inspected it, but its faded leather showed no signs of being hacked into small pieces, nor did it smell of garbage or Dumpster. It was as it had always been.

Then she felt a tingling sensation on her arm, and she pushed back her sleeve to discover two black roses, their stems twisting and twining up her skin, exactly where the temporary tattoo had been before she had scrubbed it away.

“How is any of this possible?” Her voice little above a whisper.

“You are the guardian. The mark of the Brotherhood belongs on your arm and the grimoire belongs in your possession,” Thomas informed her, sending a chilly wave of panic down her spine as the truth of it hit home.

It was real. All of it was freaking real. The owl. Thomas. The demon that had just attacked an entire party of people looking for the essence of eternal life, and somehow she had managed to get stuck in the middle of it all.
Somehow she was meant to stop it?

Then the book began to glow, and Cassidy dropped it in horror. “Why’s it doing that?”

Thomas’s face darkened. “The demon is returning. If I could fight it, I would. But I can’t. I”—he paused for a moment and gritted his teeth—“please, I need your help.”

She stared at the fake zombie blood, which was now smeared on her fingers. If she didn’t do anything, the blood might soon be real. And not just hers. Nash, her dad, even her mom were all at risk. She swallowed her indecision and nodded.

“Tell me what to do.”

“Open up the grimoire to the middle page,” Thomas instructed, and without questioning him Cassidy dropped to her knees and picked up the book. Despite the glowing light, it was cool to her touch, and she felt the tattoo on her arm burn and tingle. “Lay it flat on the ground and press both of your hands into the pages, palms down. Good. Now repeat after me: ‘I pledge myself to protecting the Black Rose.’ You need to say it three times.”

What? Half of her wanted to protest that this was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard of, but her fears were waylaid by the thunderous sound of the demon knight as it charged through the trees, obviously indifferent to pain and obstructions. Judging by the way the crickets and other nocturnal sounds of the woods had faded away into unearthly silence, she knew there wasn’t much time.

She took a deep breath and did as Thomas instructed. The tattoo on her arm tingled as a surge of white light came racing up from the page and through her fingers, consuming her whole body with energy and vibrating atoms. It was.
It was—

“Prepare,” Thomas said, his voice blunt as the demon knight burst into the clearing where she was still kneeling. Instinct made her gather up the grimoire and place it by the base of a tree just as the demon let out a bloodcurdling wail. It was the sound of despair. The sound of victory. The sound of death. Cassidy suddenly felt her will slipping away from her as she fumbled around for Nash’s Zippo.

She flipped it open, the flame only serving to show her just how truly hideous the demon was. Fear rose in her chest as it lunged at her, and it took all of Cassidy’s willpower not to scream. Instead, she threw the Zippo over to one side, managing to distract the creature long enough to dart out of its way.

She heard the demon’s blade slice through the bark of a tree like it was butter, and panic surged up in her again. The creature spun around, the huge muscles on its neck bulging with annoyance. She scanned around, looking for some kind of weapon, while trying not to regret her decision to wear the Audrey Hepburn dress instead of the Lara Croft, which had a weapon—even if it was a fake one. However, all she had was a tiara, which she whipped from her head and threw at him.

It bounced off his chest like a fly, and Cassidy turned and darted out of its way again onto a pile of stones that crunched under her boots. Stones. Definitely not her first choice, but since that was all she could think of, she quickly dropped to her knees and grabbed a handful as the creature once again came charging at her. The smell of blood and herbs and decomposition caught in her nostrils, but she ignored it as she took aim and threw the small stones into the gleaming amber eyes before once again darting out of the way.

“
Non, non, non!
Do you have a death wish?” Thomas gave a savage snarl.

“Yes,” she snapped as rage and fear simultaneously welled up inside her. “Death wishes are my favorite pastime, didn’t you know?”

“Then your wish is about to be fulfilled,” Thomas retorted coolly. The creature let out a howl, which Cassidy reasoned had more to do with the appearance of Thomas than with her feeble attempt to throw stones at it. “Take the sword.”

There was a sword? What sword?

Cassidy blinked as a long, gleaming sword suddenly appeared at her feet. The creature saw it at the same time and increased its pace. Fear drenched her, and she found herself helpless to do anything other than just stand there and wait for—

“You need to thrust upward, directly under his ribs. The sword will do the rest,” Thomas hissed, his fury so palpable that it had the power to snap her out of her daze, forcing her to drop to her knees and grab the weapon.

The handle felt warm and familiar in her hands, and her fingers wrapped around it as if it were an Xbox controller. She used both hands to lift the sword vertically and thrust it under the creature’s ribs, ripping through its flesh until there was a painful scraping of bone. The creature let out a curdled wail, and Cassidy only just managed to roll out of the way before it went crashing forward, impaling itself completely on the sword. Then everything was silent.