Experiment in Terror 05 On Demon Wings (35 page)

rubbing it dramatical y.

“Sorry.” It seems that’s al I’d be saying.

“Kiddo, I’d let you brand me with a hot iron if you wanted

to.”

“Stil a sucker for punishment?”

He grinned. “Something like that.”

I felt Ada’s eyes boring into me. I gave her a sharp

glance. “What?”

She eyed Dex, then smirked. “Nothing, nothing. Just

thought maybe you two could stop this Booth and Bones

bantering thing so we could talk a bit about where we’re

going and who this exorcist is and al that. You know, before

her head starts spinning around?”

“Ah ha,” Dex pointed his finger at her. “You have seen

The Exorcist
!”

“No, that’s from
Scary Movie
,” she protested.

“Where
are
we going?” I asked Dex before he could tel

Ada she had terrible taste in film.

“Idaho,” he said. “Hope you like potatoes.”

I didn’t understand. “Why Idaho? There’s an exorcist in

Idaho?” I looked out the window at the blackness. “Where

are we now?”

“We just passed The Dal es. Heading straight through

Wal a Wal a and then Lapwai. That’s where he is.”

“Where who is?”

“The medicine man.”

Ada and I exchanged a look. Medicine man?

I snorted. “Uh, Dex, I don’t think a medicine man is going

to-”

“Perry, listen to me,” he said curtly, his eyes growing

dangerously hard. I listened. I was wrapped in duct tape, I

had no choice. “As weird as this might sound to you, this is

our only option. Exorcists aren’t exactly in the phone book

and the people I did cal yesterday were al too quick to tel

me to fuck off. You’ve seen what medicine men can do. You

saw that in Red Fox. We both did.”

He paused and eyed my wrapped legs and arms. “I

couldn’t just sit back do nothing. I couldn’t just give up on

you. I cal ed Bird. He said he knew of a guy close by; I knew

I wouldn’t be able to get you on an airplane or anything like

that. He said this Roman, a Nez Perce medicine man could

help us. That he’s done this kind of thing before.”

“He’s performed an exorcism?”

Pause. “Yes.”

“And did it work?”

Dex sucked on his lip. “Not exactly. The boy that was

possessed? He kind of died.”

I gasped. Dex quickly continued, “It had nothing to do

with Roman. He got the demon, spirit, whatever it was out

of the boy. Bu the boy died a few days later from heart

failure. He was too weak. This is what Bird said, anyway,

and he said if you were stil you, stil Perry, stil strong little

Perry, then you’d have a fighting chance. It’s our only

chance, kiddo. I don’t think you realize the consequences of

just leaving this.”

I raised my brows incredulously. “You don’t think I know

the consequences?! I’m fucking covered in duct tape,

you’re both treating me like I’m a monster...and I am a

monster. I know it! That’s the worst part!” I felt the tears

coming and blinked hard to cul them back. If I started

crying, there’s no way I’d be able to wipe them away.

Ada put her arm around me and squeezed me against

her. “You’re not a monster. We know who
you
are.”

“I’m just so scared,” I said so softly that the words

seemed to evaporate in the car. One tear blinked out of my

eye and landed on my t-shirt. I watched the damp spot

spread.

Dex tensed up, his dark eyes observing careful y, like he

couldn’t decide what else to say or if he should come in the

back to comfort me. Part of me wanted him to stay where

he was. Part of me could have used his strong arms around

me. No wonder it was so easy for an entity to come and

divide me. I never real y knew who I was to begin with.

He didn’t do it, either. He just started the car and pul ed

the car out into the road, doing a U-turn.

“Next stop, Idaho. Hang in there, kiddo,” he said.

I’d hang in there as long as I could. But I was hanging by

a thread.

We fel into a silence as we sped along the highway. The

cars out there were few and far between and Dex was

driving as fast as he possibly could, sensing the urgency

with each passing second. I felt curiously fine at times, then

I’d see a shadow lurking in the corner of my mind and I was

reminded that “fine” was only an il usion. I wasn’t tired at al

and that was good because I wanted to have al my power

available to fight back the final takeover when the time

came. Because I knew it would come. There would be a

time when I wouldn’t be able to get back and I would be

ousted, to who knows where, for al eternity. The thought did

my brain in, as did everything else. So I didn’t think about it.

I tried not to think about anything. But I knew.

Dex put a Stone Temple Pilots greatest hits album on

his mp3 player and I was struck at the shade of normalcy it

gave to things. It could have been any other trip for us. Dex

putting in his music, me staring out the window, heading

somewhere unknown to explore some strange thing. But

everything had changed. Our relationship was different – it

was barely even a relationship at al . The man wasn’t my

lover, he wasn’t even my friend. There was no show

anymore either, no ghosts to hunt. Yet here we were, stil

together, in his Highlander, preparing to fight our demons.

This was another thing it seemed I couldn’t escape in my

life. Only this time, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a

bad thing.

I watched the back of his head, the way his dark hair

stuck out to the side, like he’d left his house in a hurry and

didn’t even bother looking in the mirror. I wondered about

his place. If he was stil with Jennifer. If he stil had the dog,

Fat Rabbit. What he’d been doing for the past few months.

If what Rebecca said was true, that he was as destroyed as

I had been, if he missed me at al and if the guilt weighed

down on him. He looked handsomer somehow, stronger,

healthier. It didn’t seem like I’d had much of an effect on him

at al .

As shal ow as it was to admit, it bugged me. I mean, it

real y, real y bugged me. He came al the way to help me, to

possibly save my life, and yet I wanted more from him. I

wanted him to suffer. Not in a physical way and certainly not

at my own hands. Suffocating him hadn’t helped anything. I

was stil angry. And that’s when I realized time hadn’t help

anything either. I
was
stil angry. I was stil spurned and

embarrassed and devastated over what happened. I

thought I had gotten over him, that it was al in the past. I

thought I was ready to move on. But just staring at the back

of his head made me realize I wasn’t over him at al . And if I

ended up getting out of this thing alive, if Roman could save

me somehow, I was going to have to work extra hard at

getting Dex Foray back out of my life again. Loving him had

been the biggest mistake I ever made.

I looked over at Ada. She was sleeping in a bal against

the door and snoring lightly, her blonde hair splayed al over

her head. Poor kid. She had never asked for any of this. I

thought she would have been spared the trauma I faced

when I was exactly her age. But it looked like things were

doomed to repeat themselves.

I thought about what my mother had said about things

“running in the family.” Then I thought about how little I

actual y knew about my family. They seemed so foreign to

me now.

I looked at the rearview mirror and, sensing my gaze,

Dex lifted his eyes to it.

He smiled, just a quick twitch at the corner of his lips.

“Did you get any sleep?” he whispered.

I shook my head. “I’m in and out. But I wasn’t sleeping. I

don’t think.”

“No. You weren’t. Or maybe you were. Do you speak in

tongues and sleep with your eyes open now?”

“No...”

“Didn’t think so.”

“Dex...” I started. I was almost afraid to continue. To find

out the truth.

“You want to know about Declan O’Shea,” he answered.

He always knew what I was thinking.

“Yes. How do you know my parents?”

He looked back at the dark road, the headlights cutting

through the wavering night.

“I don’t, real y. I barely remember them. I think I met them

once. I wouldn’t have remembered at al if Pippa hadn’t

said anything on the EVP recordings.”

OH, GOD. I had forgotten about what else was said on

the recordings. My eyes went wide.

“Don’t worry,” he said, noticing, “I don’t care about the

medication thing. You did me a favor, actual y.”

“Dex, I’m sorry. Look, that was low of me-”

“I don’t care, Perry. I could never hate you for that. You

were right to test it. You did it because you cared about me.

You did care about me, didn’t you?”

There was a rare shimmer of tenderness in his voice. I

didn’t let myself dwel on it.

“So why would Pippa mention my parents?”

He breathed out through his nose slowly and shook his

head slightly. “I think that’s something you need ask her.”

I almost spazzed at him. I was so sick and tired of

playing the vague game!

“I’m not trying to be a dick,” he explained hastily.

“No, that just happens natural y with you.”

“I mean it. I don’t want to be the one to tel you. This

involves you more than you’d think.”

“Oh, so that makes it easier to just ignore? I don’t think I

like that you know something that I don’t, especial y

something that ties you and Pippa and my parents

together!”

Ada stirred from beside me and I immediately regretted

raising my voice. But I was mad. I was so mad.

“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily. “She demonic

again?”

“Yes,” Dex said.

“

“No!” I yel ed, and squirmed in my duct tape cocoon.

“Ada, he’s holding out on me. On us. On how he knows our

parents.”

“What?” she leaned forward and punched him hard in

the shoulder. “You asswipe! Spil the beans.”

“Hey, Ali, I’m driving here,” he said, shaking his

shoulder.

She jabbed her index finger in his face. “Tel us. Why do

you know our parents? They never lived in New York.”

“I guess they were visiting,” he said, eyeing her finger

warily.

“Visiting who?” she demanded.

I wanted to ask that question too but I suddenly had this

insane tickle in my throat, like the kind I’ve gotten from my

kiwi fruit al ergy. My throat felt like it was swel ing,

stretching, spreading. A buzzing fil ed my brain and my

stomach churned angrily. It moved. Something was

happening.

Dex sighed. “Visiting my nanny.”

“Guys I-” I was interrupted by my own coughing fit. I felt

like something terrible was crawling up my throat, as if I’d

swal owed something stil alive and it had to get it out. The

duct tape didn’t al ow my lungs to expand; I couldn’t get

enough air to push.

“Phfff, as if you had a nanny,” Ada said. “What was her

name, Mary Poppins?”

I coughed louder, harder, unable to get their attention.

Final y, Dex brought his eyes up to the mirror and asked,

“Perry, are you OK?”

I shook my head, my face turning hot as I strained

against the convulsions. I was going to throw up. I had to

throw up.

“Are you gonna vom?” Ada backed away from me

slightly.

I felt something makes its way past my tonsils and onto

my tongue. A piece of food, maybe?

Nope. It started crawling slowly in my mouth, tiny

pinpricks brushing my palate.

Revolted, I spit with al my might and a black bal shot out

and onto the middle seat.

Ada and I peered down at it, disgusted but curious.

The black bal unfurled itself and I could see it wasn’t

black at al . Just black and yel ow. And moving.

A wasp.

“What’s going on?” Dex asked frantical y, trying to drive

straight and see behind him at the same time.

“Ewwwww,” Ada said. The wasp buzzed its wings in an

attempt to fly but Ada was faster and she smashed it into

the seat with one of her shoes she’d taken off.

There was a hush of relief among us. Then the sick

feeling intensified, like an entire nest of wasps was

crawling out of the recesses of my stomach and scurrying

up my esophagus, blocking me from precious air. I was

drowning in them.

I tensed and writhed in my constraints while Ada and

Dex watched me with horrified eyes. My mouth flew open

and I heaved up a mass of wriggling wasps that landed on