"Okay, so, how do we find this bitch and defeather?" I hoped he had some ideas, because I didn't.
"It may take some magical detective work to findthe woman. Defeating her likely will be as simple as killing her and ascomplicated. She will have many defenses."
"Great. So, what role are you going to play inthis?" I was almost afraid to ask.
"I'm going to continue to keep you alive, Price.Hope I don't need to do more than that, as I'll have to act through you. Thelonger I possess you, and the more I act through you, the more significantlyyou will feel my absence when I'm gone."
"Do I even want to know what that means?"
Ezra didn't reply.
"So, you can't just step out of my body and bepresent on Earth?"
"Now that I've possessed you, I'd have to returnto my realm before I could be summoned again and manifest as Sabian does. Ifyou want to go that route, I can teach you to summon me."
"I feel like there's a catch."
"It requires sacrifice." Ezra smiled as ifthat idea didn't actually bother him.
"Right, that's a pretty big catch."
He shrugged.
"And if we send you back, they could summon youagain and all the bad things you mentioned before could still happen, but ifyou're still here they can't do any of that?"
"It is theoretically possible for them to summonme again while I am in possession of you. However, I do not think they wouldsucceed if they tried. Assuming you fought them, anyway. You are much strongerthan their occultist."
Fight to keep being possessed. Right. That wastweaking my brain a little.
"Yeah, okay, let's hope she doesn't try that."I really didn't want to know what that sort of battle would do to me.
"I also hope they do not think of it. If they trythe summoning they've been using, it won't work, regardless. However, if theydiscover you are alive, they might figure out what we've done, and that couldconvince them to try it. Still, you can't simply hide away if we're to stopthem."
"Yeah, right, mate. Lay low, but don't?"
He nodded.
"Great."
Ezra tilted his head as if he were listening tosomething, then suddenly I was back in my living room, the sound of Darius'ring tone blaring from my phone.
I did not want to talk to him. The phone stopped.
"You guys okay?"
I twisted around on the couch. Aaron was standing inthe doorway, staring at us.
"Yeah. We were just talking with Ezra. Gotsomething of a plan going on."
"Are you okay, Chris?" Aaron came the restof the way in the room.
I sighed and leaned back against the couch. "Asokay as I can be. I'm not dead, at any rate. That's a bonus."
Aaron sank down into the chair and stared at me.
"Anyone have a chance to fill you in on yoursecrets?"
He raised his eyebrows. "No."
"Guess you got angel blood, mate."
If anything, his eyebrows climbed higher. "Really?"
The proper term is Nephilim, or half angel.
I relayed that to Aaron.
"But, neither of my parents..." heprotested.
Likely his father is actually an angel. Also, likely,his mother didn't know. You don't have to tell him that, however.
"I don't know. Just, you've got angel blood.Pretty cool, actually. At least someone in this house isn't in thick with thedemons." I tried to smile. It didn't work.
"Sure. This, really is going to take a lot toprocess." He shook his head and hunched his shoulders. "But I supposewe've got bigger things to worry about right now. What did you learn?"
I filled him in.
Before he could reply, my phone started ringing again.
"Damn it," I muttered and grabbed the cell. "What?"
"Price, could you and your posse please come downto the sheriff's office. We've got another one you really should take a lookat," Darius said, voice neutral.
"Seriously?"
"Chris, it's important. I promise this isn'tabout you or your friends."
He's telling the truth if it helps.
"Yeah, sure, okay. Mal's not here, but I canbring everyone else."
"Yeah, that's probably fine. I'm not sure we needhim."
"All right, mate. See you in a few."
I glanced at the others and seeing their agreement,stood and put the phone in my pocket.
"Why don't I drive?" Aaron offered as weheaded toward the door.
I hadn't been awake long, but weariness dragged at mylimbs and I agreed.
Side effect of almost dying twice. I'm doing the bestI can, but it still takes some time to recover from that.
Probably still better than being dead.
At least you got out with your soul intact.
I shivered and hoped it stayed that way.
Chapter 16
Price
I stared at the holding cell in amazement. The demon hadused his hosts blood to paint the walls with symbols. Ezra was helpfullytranslating as I studied them.
The cops didn't know I was possessed, hopefullyanyway, but they knew about Sabian. The incubus was flitting around the room,translating the symbols as he went, while one of the officers recordedeverything. It amounted to a pictograph retelling of what had happened to thedemon.
I actually felt sorry for it. This demon was one ofthe more innocuous types, almost more of a demonic nature spirit than a truedemon. A trickster, but not particularly evil on the scale of demons. Still,his host had passed out from blood loss before it completed its tale of captureand imprisonment. It had begged to be released every few symbols or so, but thereally interesting thing was that the tale gave us clues. Really big clues as towhere to start looking for our occultist.
"You were right. This is important," I saidonce Sabian had finished performing for the cops. Ezra and I had already readeverything.
"Are you up to releasing the demon?" Dariusasked.
I almost felt like that was a test.
"Yeah, I can do it."
The demon prince didn't object, so I figured we weregolden.
"What's with the glasses?" Officer McClellanasked as she led us to the cell where the possessed human currently residedunder monitored restraint. They'd treated him then brought him back here,probably owing to the demonic possession.
"Bad hangover," I muttered and shivered asinvisible hands caressed my back. Did he even realize he was doing that?
The hellhound trailed along behind us, ignored byeveryone. That was a fantastic trick on his part.
"Surprised you
