“Why would anyone summon a demon?” Brooklyn asked, the disbelief plain on her face.
After a deep sigh, Grandpa said, “To be taken.”
“Taken?” I glanced at Jared, then back to Grandpa. “What does that mean?”
“When someone is possessed by a demon, and that someone knows how to control it through spells and incantations, that person becomes very, very powerful. We believe he was purposely inviting Malak-Tuke, Lucifer’s second in command, to possess him.”
Brooklyn spoke as though from a dream. “Is that what happened to me?” She focused on Cameron, who clearly knew more than we did. “Jared said I was taken. Was I possessed?”
Brooklyn’s mother scooped her hands into her own. “Not by a demon, honey,” she said, rushing to reassure her. “You were possessed by a dark spirit.”
“It’s why we moved here in the first place,” her father said. “The Sanctuary knew how to help you when we didn’t.”
“Oh, my god, I remember,” she said, thinking back. “I remember being prayed over and”—her shimmering eyes found Grandpa—“and you freeing me.”
A sad smile slid across Grandpa’s face as Brooke’s parents wrapped her in their arms.
“When you couldn’t recall what happened afterwards,” her dad said, “we didn’t feel the need to tell you, to bring all that up again.”
Brooke sobbed into her mom’s jacket, then stopped suddenly, as though she’d had an epiphany. She glanced at Cameron and socked him on the arm.
He rubbed it, pretending it hurt, then said with a frown, “What’d I do?”
“That’s why my aura’s different, isn’t it?”
“Her aura?” her mom asked.
Cameron shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s not a bad different. It’s just a different.”
“Do you remember what it was like?” Glitch asked in awe.
She shook her head. “I don’t. I can’t remember a thing about it other than having bad dreams and being prayed over.” She turned to my grandparents. “You saved me.”
“No,” Grandma said, “your mom and dad saved you. If they hadn’t brought you here, you wouldn’t have survived much longer. You were barely alive as it was.”
“Unlike demons,” her dad said, “dark spirits don’t have much of an agenda other than causing pain and wreaking havoc.”
She hugged them again as I stewed in a numb, soupy kind of silence. Brooke was possessed when she moved here? I couldn’t help but wonder if she was saved before or after our throw down.
“We have maps,” the sheriff said to Jared. “We think we know where the majority of the dark spirits went. They left quite a trail to follow.”
Jared nodded. “I’ll need them.”
“Wait,” I said, putting a stop to the strategic planning committee. “We can prepare for World War Three later. What happened to Mom and Dad?” I gave my grandparents the once-over, trying very hard not to be bitter. Had they known all this time? And they let me believe they’d just disappeared?
“We’re not absolutely certain, honey,” Betty Jo said when they didn’t answer right away.
Was everyone in Riley’s Switch in on this? I felt like a complete idiot.
“From what we’ve been able to piece together,” she continued, “your father tried to close the gates while your mother tried to protect you from the dark spirits coming through. And then they were just gone.”
“That’s when it stopped,” Grandma said. “Everything stopped. And as far as we can tell, you haven’t had a vision since.”
“Are you kidding?” Glitch scoffed. “She has visions all the time.”
“What?” Grandma’s surprise quickly turned to hope. Her face brightened with it. But she was wrong about me. Everyone was wrong. They had to be.
“I have visions,” I admitted, vowing to stab Glitch later, “but they’re stupid. They don’t make sense.”
Grandma and Grandpa smiled at each other. They were going to be so disappointed.
I took in Jared from underneath my lashes. He still had a death grip on my hand, and I knew this wasn’t over. I sighed aloud and tried to fill in the blanks. “What about me?” I looked up at Grandpa. “I was taken too, wasn’t I?”
His breath hitched, and he hesitated. Then, with his posture wilting, he whispered, “Yes.”
My lids slammed shut. I knew it. Deep down inside, I knew I’d been taken just like Brooke, only I didn’t remember being prayed over like she’d been. I didn’t remember the release of freedom, the purity of being cleansed.
“We tried for a year,” Grandma said, her face despondent, forlorn. “We did everything.”
“It was like you’d absorbed it,” Grandpa said. Then he stabbed me with a look of encouragement. “You were stronger than it, pix. It never controlled you. You always controlled it.”
I took a mental inventory of everything I’d learned, including the gates of Hell opening, the impending battle, the possession. But still Jared clung to me, waiting, anticipating.
And then the truth dawned.
I closed my eyes, took a soft breath, then whispered, “It’s still in me.” When nobody argued, I opened my eyes and let reality sink in. “I’m still possessed.”
Every gaze in the room suddenly had somewhere else to be. I stood and placed my free hand over my heart, fear suddenly gripping me to a blinding degree.
“I want it out,” I said, losing the fragile hold I had on my sanity. “I want it out, now.”
“It’s too strong,” Jared said, speaking at last, his voice airy with regret. “If we exorcise it now, it will kill you. It will fracture your soul and leave you for dead. If your grandparents had succeeded, you would not be here today. And they probably wouldn’t be either.”
“But they got one out of Brooke. I don’t…” Then it hit me. The looks of despair. The air of hopelessness. I focused on what Brooke’s mom had said and stared at everyone aghast. “The man who opened the gates of Hell had the power to summon demons.” I swallowed hard. “It’s a demon. I was possessed by a demon.”
Again, no one argued.
I stumbled back, remembering the vision I’d had of Jared, the one in which he’d been fighting a demon. A huge beast with razorlike talons and sharp, shimmering teeth. “The man summoned Lucifer’s second in command to be taken by him, but he took me instead.”
“I’m so sorry, honey,” Grandpa said, his voice cracking with sorrow, “we tried everything.”
But I barely heard him. The idea of having something so heinous inside me, so incredibly evil, reminded me of the nightmares I used to have of being covered in bugs. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get them all off.
“And now you know all there is to know,” Jared said, regret thickening his voice. “You know my trespasses. If you had died, Lorelei, if you had gone to Heaven, you would have been freed. But I brought you back. I broke the law. And now you are the one who has to pay the price.”
I stood and tried to leave, suddenly unable to breathe in the cramped, crowded space, but Jared stood as well and placed a hand on the back of my chair, blocking my path.
“I told you she didn’t need to know,” Cameron said under his breath. “It’s not always better knowing the truth.”
I placed a hand on Jared’s chest. “I just need some air.”
“Lorelei,” Brooke said, her eyes saucers of shock and fear, “we can figure this out.”
Her concern crushed me. What could they do? What could any of them do?
I ducked under Jared’s arm. He didn’t stop me.
“Wait,” Glitch said. “You’re not alone, Lor. We’re in this together.”
I looked back at him. “Not this time.” When I got to the door leading to the store, it wouldn’t budge. I felt a surge of energy, as though Jared had released it, then slid it open.
“Lorelei,” Grandma said, but when I turned back to her, she wilted under my pleading stare. Clearly, she had no healing balm for demon possession.
“Don’t just let her go,” Glitch said, jumping to his feet. “Why did you release the door?”
“I didn’t,” I heard Jared say.
With hurt and despair pushing me forward, I strode through the store to the front door. As I shoved it open,
