Hell Is Coming (The Watcher's Series Book 1) (20 page)

I sat by her body and cried. She didn’t deserve the hand she was dealt. A sensitive soul like her should never have been trampled on. At least she had found peace, even if it was at the hands of a vile demon.

It was dark by the time I put her cold body into the hole I’d dug. As I shovelled the earth on top of her, all I could think about was exacting vengeance on the demons who had taken my brother. They had already taken my best friend from me, I wasn’t about to let them have my brother as well.

I shovelled the last of the loose earth into Kasey’s grave and flattened it down with the head of the shovel, banging the earth harder with every motion until I screamed and swung the shovel at the nearest tree. The head of the shovel snapped off and flew into the woods somewhere, leaving me holding a broken shaft which I used to beat against the tree, screams of pain and frustration spewing out of me with every hit. Eventually I flung the shaft of the shovel into the woods as hard as I could then bent over, out of breath, tears dripping from my eyes.

I stood and vowed again to wreak vengeance on her behalf.

Even if it killed me.

Chapter 15

Frank was sat in his usual chair by the fireplace when I got back to the cabin. “Here,” he said handing me a glass of whiskey.

“No, thanks,” I told him. “I think I’m just going to go my room.”

“Take a drink. Toast your friend.”

I stood for a moment then nodded and took the glass. He gestured for me to sit, so I sat in the chair opposite him as he held his glass out. “To your friend.”

“To Kasey.” We touched glasses. I downed the whiskey in one and he poured me another.

“I know it’s not easy losing people. But people die in this game we play. That’s how it’s always been and how it always will be.”

I scowled at his cynicism. “Is that what all this to you?” Weariness deadened my voice. “Just a game?”

“In a way. But that doesn’t mean I don’t take it seriously. You’ll understand what I mean when you’ve been doing it for a while.”

“Well, that’s the thing.” I gulped more of the whiskey, despite the foul taste. “I’m not sure I want to be a part of this anymore, despite my desire for some kind of vengeance or whatever. It’s too much, I can’t handle it. Josh is lost to me now anyway.” Tears welled in my eyes and threatened to spill over but I’d cried so much over the last week or so I didn’t think I had any more tears left in me.

“Come on now,” he said in as tender a voice as I’d ever heard him use. “It’s not over yet. The battle hasn’t even begun. Trust me.”

“What do you mean?”

Frank downed his whiskey and then poured another, offering to put more in my glass too before I stopped him and he shrugged. “Okay, so we know this demon is creating an army out of Nephilim children,” he said. “He’s turning them into demons, which means he’s probably feeding them his blood—that’s how it’s done, the more blood they take the farther gone they get. To turn them back you have to stop giving them the blood. They’re like addicts, you need to force them into cold turkey, dry them out. That’s the theory anyway, whether it will actually work is another matter.”

“Are you saying Josh might  be saved?” I allowed myself a glimmer of hope for the first time since I’d learned  my brother’s fate.

“There’re never any guarantees with this stuff, but I think there’s a good chance we can save him and the others, if we can get to them that is, and get to them in time. At a certain point there is no turning back and they’ll remain  demons  forever. That’s a possible reality you have to be brave enough to face.”

“Alright. So how do we find them?”

“I called Eva, she’s working on it now. She has a plan—she’ll be here soon.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“A summoning. We’re going to summon your brother here, tonight.”

Eva arrived  sometime after dark. She wore a long dark overcoat and black knee high boots, looking like some kind of sexy witch. I was glad to see her again and she gave me a comforting smile when she saw me. She asked me if I was ready and I nodded and even though I wasn’t sure if I was. Sensing my dread she put a maternal arm around me as the three of us went down into the cellar.

Frank and Eva got to work, while I looked on, feeling like a spare part. I’d had no experience in these rituals, except the ones I had tried to conduct myself over the years, but those were all nonsense, based on information I’d found online and in dubious books on the occult. That was wrong information from people who didn’t know any better,
for
people who didn’t know any better, like teenage girls who’d seen
The Craft
too many times wanting to indulge their fantasies of being a “wicca”. My motivations were different, wanting to contact supernatural forces so I could find out about my parents. Given what I know now about demons and the like, I’m glad none of my bedroom rituals ever worked; they could have ended in disaster without the proper guidance.

Frank drew magic symbols of some kind with paint around each point of the pentagram on the cellar floor. “If we’re successful in summoning Josh here, he won’t be able to move outside of the circle,” he said.

As Frank painted sigils on the floor, Eva mixed various ingredients in a large wooden mixing bowl, crushing things with her hands  and pouring various liquids from bottles that looked the same as the ones I’d seen back at her house. “There are certain ingredients needed for different spells,” she said. “For this to work we’ll need some sort of physical representation of your brother, like a photo.”

I went to my room and got the sketch I had drawn of Josh while I was in the woods that day. “Will this do?”

Eva took the sketch and put it inside the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Frank placed lit candles around the points of the pentagram. More sigils were etched into each of the candles. The whole thing reminded me of some sort of black magic ritual, which when I thought about it, it was. We were summoning a demon after all, even if it was my brother.

“All done,” Frank said standing beside Eva. “You ready?”

Eva nodded, her eyes dark focused. They both looked at me.

“I’m ready,” I said. I tried to sound like I was calm but I wasn’t. I’d no doubt they heard the nervousness in my voice, but they didn’t comment on it. I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was if the spell worked, then my brother would appear before us in the room. I also knew that if he did appear, that would mean that he was in fact a demon.

Eva stood at the edge of the  circle and spoke some sort of spell in what I thought was Latin. My eyes were glued to the inside of the circle. The wait was agonizing as I stood beside Frank, who yawned at one point like the whole situation was boring him. He had probably done this a hundred times or more already.

“Attenro bendum Eos, ad consiendrum, ad ligandum Eos, potiterer solvendum, et ad, congregontumeos, 'coram me….”

As Eva recited the spell I recited my own words to myself:
Oh God, oh God, oh God
…although I’m sure God wasn’t listening. Even if He was still in control of this mad house called the universe, I doubted he would help me in any way. That was okay. I never wanted His help, not since my parents got killed.

Eva finished the incantation. She stepped back from the circle.

The room was a bastion of silence and I could almost feel the electricity in the air.

I was afraid to breathe as I continued to wait in tortured suspense until finally I couldn’t help myself. “He’s not coming…”

No sooner had the words left my mouth when my brother appeared before our eyes inside the circle. My jaw went slack and my eyes widened as I stared in disbelief.

It actually worked
.

“Hello, Sis,” Josh said to me. “Nice of you to call.”

Chapter 16

“Josh!”

Without thinking I ran to him. All the emotion that had been churning in me like a tidal wave since his disappearance rose to the surface. I wanted to hold my brother again, but Eva gripped my arm and held me back.

“Wait!” she said. “No!”

I struggled as she grabbed both my arms, preventing me from moving with surprising ease. She was a lot stronger than she looked. “Let me go!” I said writhing in her iron grip. Eva said nothing, just continued to restrain me like I was an out of control child.

“I see you’ve made some new friends, Sis,” Josh said from inside the circle.

Sis? He never calls me that
.
He knows I hate it
.

“That’s good, so have I. In fact, my mentor wants to meet you. He wants you on the team actually.”

The more he spoke the more I realized it wasn’t my brother standing there in the room with us. I stopped my struggling and Eva let go of my arms. “You’re not Josh,” I said, choking back tears. Josh had unmistakable warmth to him that wasn’t present in the person standing before me. The Josh in the circle had an air of coldness about him that the real Josh never had.

“But I
am
Josh,” Demon Josh said. “I’m still your brother, Leia. I’m just new and improved.”

“You mean you’re a demon,” Eva said. Her voice held disdain. She obviously had as much love for demons as Frank did.

Demon Josh threw Eva a scornful look before switching his gaze to me again. “Who’s this bitch?” he said. “What are you doing with these people, Leia? You don’t belong here, you belong with me and the others, at Abigor’s side.”

“I don’t think so.” I was trying hard to keep my voice level and not break down like the hysterical sister I was on the inside. All I wanted to do was plead with Josh to come back to me but I knew it wouldn’t be good to show such weakness so I tensed up and straightened my back, and made a fist as I battled to keep myself under control.

“Abigor gave me the lowdown on my Nephilim background,” Demon Josh went on. “He showed me how strong I was, showed me how to be stronger, more powerful…more fucking
badass
.” He paced around inside the circle like a lion that hadn’t eaten in days, barely able to restrain himself. “Stronger than any of you will ever be!” His eyes rolled into black, a predatory smile on his face. The complete change in him broke my heart. He held out his hand. “Come back with me, Leia. Come back with me and we can be together.”

I looked at his outstretched hand. It was hard not to just step forward and take it, even though I knew if I did there’d be no going back and I’d end up as bad as him. I swallowed hard. “No.”

He snorted. “You really think you have to stay here and fight the good fight or some bullshit? You think you can find a way to save me, is that it?” He laughed, a mirthless laugh I’ve never heard from him before. It chilled me to the core. “Let me state the facts for you, Sis. For all of you,” he said his horrible black eyes burning holes in us. “There’s no escaping what’s coming. The world as you know it is going to end. Only the strong will survive and the strong are on
our
side, not on your side. You’ll all be wiped out, squashed like bugs under the
real
power.”

“That’s a nice speech,” Frank said. He moved in front of Josh so he was standing just two feet away. “Did your mentor write those lines for you? Bit clichéd, don’t you think?”

Josh’s face darkened, his black eyes smouldering. “You can make your little jokes. It doesn’t matter anyway; you’re all on borrowed time. And for the record, Abigor is more than just my mentor—he’s my creator. He opened my eyes to the truth.”

“And what’s the truth?” Frank said. “You going to take over the world, is that it? Or is your master just using you all as cannon fodder in a war that he plans to start?”

Demon Josh smiled like he was above everything Frank was saying. “You’ll see soon enough, asshole.”

“Josh,” I said, approaching the perimeter of the demon trap like I was about to try and calm down a dangerous animal. “If there is any humanity left in you at all, please use it to fight this and come back to me. Please, Josh, I need you here with me. Dad, Mom, they wouldn’t want this for you.”

Josh looked at me with his own eyes for a moment, the black demon eyes gone. For a second I thought I had somehow gotten through to him, but then that cold and mirthless laugh came out of his mouth again. “You dumb bitch, you haven’t a clue, have you?” He laughed again like he’d just heard some sick joke. “You don’t know do you, what our so-called Mom did?”

“Actually, I do.”

He wasn’t expecting that. The smile left his face. “Well then, you know where dear old mom lives these days. She’s a resident of Hell now, being tortured in ways you will never know.” His black eyes glared at me as I did my best to keep from falling apart right there in front of him. “I’ve been down there. Being a demon now, I get to go there whenever I want. It’s an amazing place really, more interesting than this shitty world could ever hope to be. I get to watch our  mother in her endless torment. Best of all, she gets to see me watch. She gets to see me revel in her pain and misery, every fucking ounce of which she deserves by the way. You know that, don’t you, Leia? You know what she did, how she was. The bitch screwed us.”

“No…”

“Yes! She fucked us! She deserves everything she gets!” He stood in a rage, his fists balled, his neck muscles straining.

“No! Fuck you! You’re just a fucking demon prick, you’re not my brother!”

“That’s it! Let the hate out!  Feel the power of it! Revel in it, Leia, revel in it!”

“Eva!” Frank shouted. “Get rid of him!”

“Don’t bother, bitches. I’ll go on my own.” Demon Josh looked at me one final time. “There’s a place for you, Leia, remember that. This world is going to end; you should be on the winning side with me. It’s either that or you die along with the other pathetic humans. Your choice.” His eyes bored into me for another second and then he was gone, vanishing just as suddenly as when he’d first appeared.

I ran out of the cellar knowing only one thing: I had to get out of the cabin, to get away. I needed to be alone.

I bolted through the front door. Eva chased after me, calling my name and telling me to stop, but I didn’t listen. I hardly heard her and only stopped when she pulled my arm from behind.