Carnal Sin

In all of history, demons themselves rarely, if ever, acted among the masses. They didn’t show themselves, or cause disasters. Whether by choice or design, Moira didn’t know. Maybe there were guardian angels preventing the major catastrophes. Demons still used humans to do their dirty work, picking up souls one by one.

But thunder without clouds? A demon-it had to be the succubus possessing Nadine-had done something. Moira couldn’t even see Nadine with all the people.

A nearby scream had Moira picking up the pace, sprinting toward a commotion on the corner of Wilshire and Westwood, an incredibly busy intersection. The lights were annoying enough, but the horns and people were making Moira claustrophobic.

And there was Nadine, standing on the corner, screaming.

“What happened to her?” Moira heard one woman asking her boyfriend as they passed Nadine in distaste.

“Help me!” Nadine screamed.

Nadine Anson screamed for help, pulling her hair so hard that clumps of golden brown came out in her hands. She definitely wasn’t glowing with the demonic aura, and Moira had no idea where the demon had gone. She whirled around, looking at everyone, looking above them, trying to spot the demon’s shadow, but there was none.

The demon had disappeared.

Moira realized she’d never before seen a glowing aura, that her senses had always been focused on her own physical reaction to things she couldn’t see. She’d experienced a heightened awareness of all her other senses, but not sight-until now. She pushed the new talent aside-not just because the idea scared her, but because right now Nadine’s life was in jeopardy as the woman stood too close to the curb. The honking cars didn’t faze the distraught witch, nor did she seem to notice that she’d drawn a crowd.

“Where’s the camera?” a teenager next to Moira asked, eagerly looking around.

This girl thought Nadine was acting? Moira stepped in front of her, to a chorus of, “Hey! I can’t see!” from the girl and her friends.

“Nadine,” Moira said. “Look at me!”

“Help! Oh, God, oh, God, I’m sorry!”

“Nadine, it’s over. It’s gone. Step away, you’re going to get hurt.”

Nadine was sobbing without tears. She looked too thin, too weak, as if she hadn’t eaten in days. Her eyes were hollow and her skin-which had seemed so smooth and lustrous in her photograph-was splotchy and stained dark. What had the demon left behind? What had it stolen from Nadine?

Moira had been possessed once. She’d wanted to kill herself when it was over, because she’d killed the man she loved-the demon used her to kill the man she loved. Willing or not, Nadine couldn’t have known what the demon was going to use her for or how it would affect her.

Or when the demon suddenly left, without the protection of the coven’s circle, how lost and terrified she would feel.

Once the bystanders realized that this show wasn’t a movie, they moved away from Nadine as if she were a leper. Nadine flinched as Moira held her hands out, palms up. “Nadine, I’m a friend.”

“Stay away! Get away from me! It’s your fault. You saw and didn’t do anything! You didn’t help me!”

Nadine pulled more hair from her head, eyes wild and bloodshot. Moira stared at her eyes. They weren’t bloodshot-Nadine was crying tears of blood. Traffic sped by, causing Nadine to sway.

“I need to get you home. Nadine, let me take you home, okay?”

“I know you! I know you! Why didn’t you help me? You didn’t help me! Oh, God! What’s wrong with me?”

“Nadine!” Moira shouted because the woman didn’t seem to hear anything she was saying. “I will help you.” She took another step closer and Nadine took a step back, off the curb. Another horn blared. Where was help?

While most of the people stayed far from Nadine, Grant Nelson ran up. Shock crossed his face as he watched Nadine; then he turned to Moira and asked, “What happened?”

“I saw her walking down the street and jumped out-”

“I know. I saw you get out of the truck and cause a fucking traffic jam on Wilshire at the worst time of night.” Looking into Nadine’s dilated pupils, he made a quick assessment. “Damn drugs.”

Moira couldn’t very well tell the guy Nadine had been possessed for a few days by a psycho demon who’d left her half crazy.

“My partner’s calling an ambulance,” Grant told her, keeping his eyes on the hysterical woman. Someone took a picture with his iPhone, and Grant nearly decked him.

“Watch it,” Moira warned. “Everyone has a fucking camera-phone.”

Grant told the crowd to back off, then turned to Nadine. “Nadine, it’s me, Grant Nelson. You remember me, right? From Velocity?”

“I hate you!” Nadine screamed.

Moira didn’t know whether Nadine was talking to Grant or the crowd. She watched Grant closely. He had a familiarity with Nadine.

“You know her?” she stated.

“I go to the club a lot. I know most of the staff.” Grant stepped forward. “Nadine, I’m here to help you. I want to help. Step back from the curb.”

“Get back! Get back!” Nadine screamed. “I can’t see!”

If she couldn’t see, how did she know Grant was there? Moira wondered. Was she missing something?

Nadine felt around wildly.

Grant said, “Honey, it’s okay. You’ll be okay, I promise. Come here, I’ll take care of you.”

“No! No! I killed them. I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know it was going to be so awful, no, no, no! Don’t do this to me! Don’t!”

Grant mumbled, “Shit.” He said to Moira out of the side of his mouth, “Circle around the other side; I’ll go this way.”

“She’s going to get herself killed,” a bystander said.

“Grab her,” Moira said. “Get her away from the traffic.”

Grant moved away from Nadine’s line of vision and Moira distracted her by moving in the opposite direction. “Nadine, my name’s Moira. I can help you. You need to let me help you.”

“I know you! I know you! No, no-” Her face twisted and she put her hands on both sides of her head, her fingernails clawing her skin, drawing blood.

Grant ran toward Nadine, but she whirled around and screamed at him. “It’s your fault! Go away! Leave me! God, help me, I’m dying!”

Grant got ahold of her wrist, but she scratched his face with sharp nails and he stumbled backward, unable to keep his grip.

Moira grabbed Nadine from the other side and held her tightly around the waist. Nadine threw her head back once, twice, into Moira’s face and she tripped, trying to pull Nadine back with her, away from traffic, but Nadine dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand, which was still healing from the deep cut two weeks ago.

Moira saw black. Blood poured from her nose as Nadine wrenched herself from Moira’s hold and ran off the curb. Grant reached for Nadine, but the crazed woman turned and lurched headlong into the traffic, slamming against a car. Brakes squealed, but not before Nadine fell onto the pavement and was run over by a bus trying in vain to stop.

Moira screamed, her hands on her face, shaky from Nadine’s quick and surprisingly violent assault. Grant wore a bewildered expression, his face bleeding from where Nadine scratched him. Bystanders shouted, some woman cried hysterically, but Moira stood stock-still. She was stunned, shaken to her core.

Strong hands from behind pulled her back. She turned and found herself in Rafe’s tight embrace. She held on as if he were her lifeline, and then the tears fell.

FIFTEEN