back and it scared me.”
Moira felt sick to her stomach. She found her phone and scrolled through her photographs. “Did it look like that?” She showed Craig Monroe’s demon mark to Julie.
“Y-yes,” Julie said. “That’s it. So you know what it is?”
“Yes,” Moira said. She stared at Julie, trying to figure out whether she was telling the truth. “Don’t you?”
She shook her head. “What is it?”
“It’s a demon mark. You’re familiar with those, I assume.”
Julie shrugged. “I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one.”
“Haven’t been a witch long, have you?”
“What do you want from me? Are you going to reverse the spell and save Grant or not?”
“Reverse what spell?”
“Wendy’s. Our coven’s spell. I think when we brought Kali into our world, we must have done something wrong. Wendy wanted to strengthen the ritual, called on Kali to claim three men we’d cursed, and I think the changes she made did something. Nadine died. That shouldn’t happen!”
Every vein in Moira’s body froze.
If they summoned Kali, how did the demon Lust get into the mix?
“You’re messing around with the darkest of supernatural forces. No wonder you lost control!”
Julie recoiled from Moira’s outburst. Rafe grabbed her arm and pulled her to his side.
“When did you perform the ritual?” Rafe asked. Moira tried to pull her arm loose from him, but he held on tight.
“Tuesday night.”
“Tuesday?” Rafe said. “Are you certain?”
“Of course-Kali claimed Monroe on Wednesday, Erickson on Thursday, and Grant was supposed to be last night, but-”
“Wait,” Moira said. She mentally ran through the timeline of what she knew. “Kent Galion died Friday.”
“That had nothing to do with us. I swear to you, the ritual was Tuesday night. It’s a special feast for Kali; we do it the same feast day every year.”
It didn’t make sense to Moira. Kent Galion died on Friday-and four days later the succubus was summoned? Yet Galion, Monroe, and Erickson all had the same demon mark.
Julie continued. “We tried the men who’d betrayed us, and gave Kali a taste of their blood so she would know them.”
Moira snapped, “You tried them? You’re the judge and jury and use a demon to execute them? You think you and your coven are demi-gods picking and choosing who should lose their soul?”
Julie’s lip quivered, but she tilted her chin up and justified their actions. “Craig cheated on his girlfriend repeatedly. He was an asshole. Belinda worked at Velocity and found out she was pregnant. Craig dumped her and told her to get an abortion. She dropped out of college and quit her job. She wasn’t a witch! She was just a sweet girl who got used by a douche bag. He deserved it! I loved Belinda like a little sister and he destroyed her. She went home and her father kicked her out of the house. She was so upset, she felt so alone-” Julie looked at the ceiling and blinked back tears. “She died in a car accident. I don’t know if it was suicide or not. So yes, I picked Craig because of that.”
Rafe pulled Moira back and asked, “What about George Erickson? From all accounts, he was a good guy.”
“That was Pamela’s pick. Pam was furious because he was sleeping around.”
“But they supposedly had an open marriage,” Moira said.
Julie raised her eyebrow. “Open? You don’t know Pam. Pam gets what she wants, but George wasn’t allowed the same privileges. I felt bad about him because I liked him, but those are the rules. And Grant-” Her face clouded.
“You wanted Grant dead,” Moira said flatly.
“No! He was Wendy’s pick. I–I went along, because I was mad. I didn’t know he’d slept with Wendy during one of our off-again times. Grant sleeps around, I know that, but he wasn’t supposed to go after the girls I work with! Talk about humiliating … I found out he’d slept with four of them, and once back when we were still together. But …”
“You think you love him,” Moira said. “You bitch. You’re jealous and you sold his
“Kent Galion died Friday,” Rafe said quietly.
Moira took a deep breath. “I was thinking about that-but can we even believe her?”
“She’s telling the truth,” Rafe said. He stared at Julie.
“I swear to you,” Julie said, “it was Tuesday. We had nothing to do with Kent. Wendy did not want him dead-Marcus is hugely suspicious of how she got half of Kent’s business without paying for it. When he gets back into town Wendy knows she’s gonna be on the hot seat.”
“And,” Rafe continued, “Skye told us there was a dead woman found frozen in his house, who’d been missing since last Wednesday night.”
Julie said, “Stephanie. She was a waitress at Velocity. But those deaths aren’t connected.”
“They are,” Rafe said. “Galion had the same mark on his back that Monroe and Erickson had. The same mark that Detective Nelson has.”
“It’s connected to Fiona,” Moira said. “Not Wendy’s ritual. It goes back to the Seven.” She asked Julie, “When did Nicole Donovan arrive?”
Julie frowned. “Why does that matter?”
Moira snapped, “Answer the question.”
“Two weeks ago. It was late Saturday night; she showed up at Velocity. Surprised Wendy. They don’t get along, but Nicole moved in with her.”
Moira said to Rafe, “What if she brought the demon Lust with her to Los Angeles? It’s the psychic leash- maybe the Seven are connected to the coven members. And the witches are immune because they were in the protective circle when the Seven Deadly Sins were released. That’s how Nicole could affect Hank Santos, but not be affected herself.”
“A catalyst,” Rafe murmured. “Like Typhoid Mary.”
Julie interrupted. “What are you talking about?”
“Nicole didn’t tell you? She was part of Fiona O’Donnell’s coven that released the Seven Deadly Sins from hell. They’re not your friendly neighborhood demons; they’re big, bad, bold, and brazen.”
“So Galion was affected before the ritual,” Rafe said. “Because he spent time at Velocity. The demon Lust would feed on a place like that-the sexual tension, the physical attractions. And the connection to Nicole Donovan keeps Lust in the vicinity.”
Rafe turned to Julie. “You said that Wendy changed the ritual on Tuesday?”
Julie nodded. “We wanted to give Kali more power so she wouldn’t leave after one, um, soul. I thought that if she didn’t get Grant last night she’d go back to the underworld, but Wendy said she’s still here and stronger than before. She nearly broke out of the spirit trap last night!”
“Don’t we know it,” Moira murmured. “Rafe, they had to have trapped the demon Lust. We knew it was Lust, but didn’t know how or why it was here. Now we do.”
She turned to Julie. “Get out. I don’t trust you, and we have to figure out how to save the man you claim to love so much you planned to kill him.”
Rafe pulled Moira out to the balcony and whispered, “We can fight this thing. Especially since it’s trapped in a body.”
“We tried it last night, but it didn’t work. We’re not dealing with a succubus-we’re facing one of the Seven. I