I’m trying not to cry, a useless effort, since I’m pretty much crying anyway, and everything is a green blur as I stumble up the path, so I don’t see Taylor lying there till I trip over her and launch face first into the dirt. As I scramble to my feet, I hear something moving through the woods toward us. Belias.
I grab Taylor under the arms and drag her, but we’re moving too slowly and he catches us. I prop her against a tree and step in front of her, crouching into judo stance, as he bursts out of the woods and onto the path.
“Frannie! Thank God!” Luc grabs Taylor and throws her over his shoulder. “Let’s go!” He pushes me in front of him as we run up the path, and when we get to the road he throws Taylor into the backseat of the Shelby with Riley, who’s lying there unconscious.
We climb into the car and slam the doors.
“Jesus, Luc! What. ” But then I remember.
My heart stops. “Oh, shit!”
“What is it, Frannie? Are you okay?” The Shelby fishtails as he guns the engine, sending gravel flying up behind us.
I look in the backseat at Taylor and Riley, then back at Belias. What do I do? I breathe and try to think. And when I look back at the road there’s a tall, raven-haired girl standing in the middle of it. The girl from Luc’s bed. “Oh, shit!” I say again.
I expect Belias to slow down, but instead he stares out the windshield, determined, and speeds up. I bring my arms up, expecting her to come crashing through the windshield, but instead she evaporates. Poof-gone.
When we get near the main road, I grab the steering wheel and yank. The car swerves to the right, nearly swiping a tree before Belias yanks the wheel back and brings the car up onto the dirt road.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
“Go to Hell!” I yell and try to grab the wheel again, but he pushes me back.
“Frannie, please! Stop trying to kill us, will you?”
I look in his eyes. God, he looks just like Luc. And then it hits me. what he said when he found us on the path. He said, “Thank God.” Would Belias say that? Would Luc?
“Luc?”
“Who were you expecting?” The rasp from the backseat makes me jump, and the smell of rotten eggs chokes me.
I turn to see the real Belias-I think. But he doesn’t look like Luc anymore. There’s no mistaking what he is: steaming, crimson skin, flat, pinched face, and horns, with one clawed hand around each of my best friends’ necks. But what gives him away as Belias is the black ooze dripping from where his left eye once was.
Luc slams on the breaks and I nearly slide onto the floor. Then he turns and points a glowing fist at Belias.
“Do you really want to do that?” Belias says, shaking Riley and Taylor’s unconscious bodies. “Course, Frannie didn’t come out all that worse for wear, did she?” A grimace pulls at his leathery lips, exposing a mouthful of fangs. “Go ahead. Give it a shot.”
Luc
“Luc?” Frannie says, urging me with her eyes.
“I can’t,” I say, dropping my fist. “He’s right. If he doesn’t shield them it would kill them.”
“Good boy,” Belias smirks.
“What do you want?” I say.
He coughs out a rasping chuckle. “You have to ask? I thought you were smarter than that, being a First Level and all.”
I look back at Riley and Taylor. Can I sacrifice them for Frannie? My head says yes, but my annoying new conscience tells me it’s wrong. Plus, if we survive this, Frannie would never forgive me.
“So how is this supposed to work?” I ask past the lump in my throat.
“Frannie gets out of the car,” Belias says, gesturing to the side of the car, where Avaira is now standing, a scowl gracing her flawless face, “and she and I have a little party in the woods,” he finishes with a heinous grin.
I look at Frannie as she reaches for the door handle, the tangy citrus scent of her terror replaced with the spicy-sweet of clove and currant-her soul, ready for the taking. My hand shoots out involuntarily and grabs her wrist. She tries to pull away, but I shake my head, pleading with my eyes.
“There’s no choice, Luc,” she says, her expression calm, resigned.
She tugs her arm away and I let her, my mind racing. Pushing open the door, she looks back at me one last time before climbing out and standing next to Avaira. With a burst of brimstone, Belias is standing next to her, slamming Frannie’s door.
I pull slowly forward and watch in the rearview mirror as Belias takes Frannie’s wrist and starts to drag her across the road, toward the woods. As he moves, I can see he’s weak. The crucifix did more damage than he let on. He shouldn’t need Avaira, but she’s following behind for backup, her glowing fist targeting the back of the Shelby.
And then I drop the Shelby into reverse and floor it, sending Riley and Taylor to the floor in the backseat. I duck as Avaira’s blast takes out the back window. Belias drops Frannie’s wrist and lifts his fist just as I slam into him at full speed. He goes careening over the car and onto the dirt road in front of me, but I don’t wait to see if he stays down. I throw it into first and push open the passenger door, slowing as I reach Frannie. She throws herself into the seat, and I floor it, door still open, running over Belias on our way to the main road.
She pulls herself the rest of the way into the car, slams the door, and looks out the shattered back window at the lump in the dirt-Belias. Avaira is nowhere in sight. “Is he. dead?”
“Unfortunately, it’d take a lot more than a 1968 Shelby Cobra to kill him, but he’ll feel it for a while.” I can hear the shake in my voice. “Truth is, your crucifix to his eye probably did more long-term damage. That’s going to set him back a bit.” I grab her hand. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” she says, checking herself over as we pull out onto the main road.
I feel her shake as I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her close. This is as far from me as she’s ever going to get.
Chapter 19
Luc
Frannie straightens Riley’s legs and sits next to her friends on my bed. “Are they gonna be okay?”
“Yeah. It’ll take a little while for them to come around. Demon possession can knock the Hell out of you.”
“You can just jump into other people’s bodies whenever you want?”
I nearly gag thinking about it, but then I remember being in Frannie-how incredible it was. “If they’re tagged for Heaven they’re off limits, but otherwise, yeah. It’s usually pretty uncomfortable. It’s cramped. and sort of sticky and slimy.”
“How does it work? Are you, like, both in there at the same time?”
“Pretty much. It takes a very strong mortal to hold his own against a demon who is trying to control him, so it’s usually like the mortal’s not even there, aside from taking up space. But it’s not always like that.” I think about dancing with Frannie again and feel a tingle work through me, making me shudder.
She looks at Taylor and Riley on the bed. “Will they remember anything about Belias and Avaira?”
“Probably not. When a mortal is possessed it’s almost like they go dormant. They won’t remember, and it’s probably best if they don’t know what happened.”
