I sized up her response; she didn’t appear to be as mortified about the situation as I was. She wasn’t agitated or frustrated with the idea that Samael and I were somehow in this body together. How could she accept this so casually? The person or whatever he was that stole more than two years of her life, that threatened her family, was inside me; all this and she continued to hold my hand.
“How much control does he have over you?” she asked.
“None physically, he can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do. However, his thoughts are sometimes hard to ignore.”
“Can you block him out entirely?”
“I wish. It’s an uncomfortable situation. He is able to see and comment on every aspect of my life. He critiques conversations, and he is extremely scared of Rewsna. He knows when I don’t want to hear from him, and, for the most part, he keeps silent on topics that I really do not want his input on. He’s got a much different take on Rewsna and the Council. I’m not saying I like him or trust him, but he definitely has a different vantage point. I don’t know that I’ve successfully blocked him or his thoughts ever, he just seems to choose not to share his with me when he knows I don’t want them.”
“You say he’s scared of Rewsna? That’s strange because she called me a couple days ago and said she couldn’t connect with you telepathically, as if you were a brick wall to her. She asked me if we were still seeing each other.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I said you were pretty freaked out about the whole situation. I told her that I had moved back to my rental to give you some space, but that it was only temporary, that I was still seeing you every day.” Lauren’s eyes went to the floor, “It wasn’t technically a lie. I’ve looked in on you every day since you came back.”
I sighed out deeply, “I know.” How much should I tell her? She seemed to be sharing everything with me and Samael was so far not interjecting himself. I saw her confusion and replied, “I can feel when you’re watching me, at least most of the time. I haven’t noticed Rewsna trying to contact me, though, but Samael told me he was able to block her, so he must have been telling the truth.”
We sat on the porch for several minutes, both trying to figure out the best course forward. Finally Lauren said, “So how do we get him out?”
I shook my head. If I knew the answer to that one, I wouldn’t be having this conversation with Lauren right now. I wanted so badly to have a normal life, to go on with the life we started years ago.
She asked innocently enough, “Maybe Rewsna would have an idea?”
I could feel Samael’s response as much as I could hear him scream, “No!!” That feeling of fear, rage, hatred all mottled into his response. He was quick to follow with, “Tell her! Tell her now! She needs to get this possibility out of her head right away. If Renny knows that I am inside you, the entire Council will seek us and kill you in the process. Tell her now!”
I know my delay in responding to Lauren was probably interpreted as contemplating her suggestion rather than listening to a stern warning from Samael. “Samael seems to think that if Renny knows that he is inside me, that the Council will hunt me down and kill me in an effort to eradicate Samael. I don’t know if it’s true. All I know is that he feels very strongly that this is the case.”
“So why did you tell me to bring my Glock?”
“I thought that was obvious. I don’t believe Samael can take control of my body, but I wasn’t going to take any chances with you.”
We sat on the porch a long while. Lauren and I didn’t speak much, Samael didn’t interject any thoughts: it was almost normal. I’m not sure if I was daydreaming or if my body was going into sleep mode after working all night, but Peanut looked at the driveway and made a low gravely snarl. It quickly brought both Lauren and me back to the reality of the situation.
Samael screamed in my head, “Max, we have to go now, now!”
I still didn’t trust him, but in the days since he had invaded my body, I had learned to believe his fear. I blurted out, “Lauren, something’s wrong. Samael says we’ve got to go, now.” Lauren didn’t hesitate for a second. She was on her feet, keys in one hand and carrying her gun with her other hand, running for her van. Peanut loped beside looking back at me. She was several strides ahead of me but got to the van and had it turned over as I was opening the passenger door.
As she put the van in drive, I could see what had Samael so nervous. Cars began driving through my gate one at a time creating a seriously long string. I recognized Rewsna and Mike, who had helped Lauren rescue me from the vault; the others I’d never seen before. Lauren asked, “What do we do now?”
I shrugged my shoulders but knew what was going to happen next. Samael could feel it, too.
Rewsna was the first to approach the van. Lauren had left the engine on and somehow plastered a huge smile on her face as Renny placed her hands on the door. “Rewsna, was there some meeting I didn’t know about?”
Rewsna, ever cautious,
