The anger he had felt was now floating around inside her, something she no longer had a defense for. Her demon side loosened but never broke free, not strong enough to rebuild from the damage. Nausea roiled through her belly as Noah slid from her body and released her to the ground, holding her arms to steady her. She turned her head away, avoiding Noah’s knowing gaze, not wanting him to see or feel her distress.
“No, Jessie, you can’t pull away from me now. I’m here and I’m sticking.” She wrapped her arms around her waist, willing her stomach to calm. “Talk to—” Noah pulled her arm and brought her around to face him. “What’s wrong with your arm? Does it hurt? Holy hell, it’s glowing, the branding…”
Alarm ricocheted through her as she looked down to see the now familiar orange glow of the pentacle on her shoulder, with one distinct difference than all the other times. The Reverend wasn’t here performing his ritual and stealing her magick piece by piece. The heat in her brand continued to build and burn, the pain close to an unbearable level. What was going on?
“This isn’t right, Noah, it’s only been like this when Scott performed his ceremonies with me, when he took my magick, under extreme duress, I’d like to add.”
“My magick maybe? Whatever it is, I don’t like it and have a damned bad feeling about it.”
Chapter Six
“It’s burning, Noah, it hurts—I can’t—” She wavered in front of him, her eyes rolled back in her head.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She was going down and fast. He scooped her into his arms and ran for the door, using his power to yank the damn thing off the hinges in his hurry. He rushed into the bathroom and turned on the cold water, shoving them both underneath the frigid spray coming out of the showerhead. The cold liquid splashed directly onto the glowing brand, popping and sizzling with each drop. It didn’t seem to have any affect on it and he didn’t know how long she could stay like this before something tragic happened. He sat her down on the seat behind him and dropped to his knees in front of her. With the multiple showerheads in the stall, water still cascaded onto her arm, but this way he would have his hands free to try and help, too. He concentrated on the heat as he laid his bare palm across the wound, taking it in as his own.
He gasped at the shot of darkness that struck through him, fighting for breath as his lungs contracted. What the hell was this? His own vision blurred as he concentrated on removing the heat, desperate to relieve Jessie of her pain. The magick fought him, not wanting to let go of her. Noah put his second hand on top of the other and pulled every shred of power up that he could, chanting an amplification spell as he did. Long painful minutes later the struggle eased and the heat leapt to his hand forming a small sphere in his palm when he turned it upward. But, unlike the blue clean magick he was expecting, he was faced with a sizzling red flame ball. Demon magick. Holy Hell what had his uncle done to her?
He needed to get rid of this shit, but he didn’t want to leave her like this, slumped against the wall unconscious, water pouring over her. Assessing the seriousness of the burning, growing entity in his hand, he decided she would be okay for a few minutes while he did what he had to. He ran through the house to the back deck. Once there he quickly flung the red ball in the air above the water with his right hand while his left shot it with a blast of his stronger white magick.
The sphere sizzled and burned larger than before until exploding in a flash of white light that engulfed the house and cove. Noah guarded his eyes and held his breath until the fine ash of the destroyed demon magick drifted down on him. Now he needed to figure out what demon he was dealing with and find the link between the demon and his uncle. Finally, something tangible to sink his teeth in—demon hunting, his specialty.
He strode back inside the house, grabbing towels on his way to the bathroom. He turned the water off and inspected her shoulder. It was now cool to the touch, but it had darkened to a smoky black from the heat. He pressed his fingers to her wrist, finding her pulse thready but strong, and when he peeled her eyelids up to get a look at her eyes he found them still dilated. Her body was stressed but she would be fine, he would make sure of it. Taking her too thin body back into his arms, he carried her to his bed. After toweling her dry he tucked her between the sheets, relieved that her body had a pink and healthy tinge to it with some color returning to her cheeks.
The wet strands of her hair fanned out across his pillow, so beautifully. She looked good enough to eat all snuggled in his bed, and he couldn’t wait to curl around her and bury his face in her hair, breathing in her scent as he fell asleep holding her tight. His shoulders sagged on a regretful sigh. The simple pleasures would have to wait, he needed to talk to someone familiar with ceremonies that can transfer demon magick to a witch. That kind of thing was against nature and it amazed him how many people did it anyways, be damned the consequences.
Unfortunately at the moment there
