Burning (26 page)

"Better make that a long break.  Maybe we'll see you in the morning," I said in a rough voice.

I tossed Chloë over my shoulder, and she laughed.  "
I'll see you later.  He forgets we literally have forever for what's playing in his mind." 

"That sound's like a challenge. 
I could drag out what I've got in mind for a very long time," I told her. 

"Give me the condensed version tonight.  After I banish this demon
, I'm all yours," she replied. 

"You are already mine," I
said and went into the house. 

Dean

"What should we do while we are waiting for them?" I asked Anita, suggestively
waggling my eyebrows at her.   

She sauntered over to me and slid her hand up my chest.  I felt my pulse increase.
  She pressed into my side, her soft curves molded to my body.  Her warm-vanilla scent flooded my senses, and her breath hit my neck as she turned to whisper in my ear.

"Why don't you and I go somewhere alone..."
She paused.  My breath hitched before she continued speaking.  "And read this book to figure out how to banish a demon."

I narrowed my eyes at her.  "You are a cruel woman." 

She smiled wickedly.  The slight emergence of her fangs told me that she wasn't unaffected by me either.  "The sooner we get this done, the sooner you will have me all to yourself.  Unless an hour is all you need," she taunted.

"You are a naughty kitty.  Give me the book.  I know you've read it once already,"
I answered.  I opened the small, handmade, leather grimoire to the page she marked with a ribbon. 

I stopped when I reached a description of a different kind of bonding ceremony. 
"Anita," I said, getting her attention.  She was searching through the trunk I’d carried back from our basement.  I pointed to the passage.  "Do you think this is what they were doing with the executions?" 

"What?" she asked, peering over my shoulder.  "I...I didn't get that far.  To bind to humans, the demon must lead them to commit human sacrifices.  Three must be killed by fire and the last by fire and brimstone," she said, reading from the book.  "There have already been three burnings, and Bridgett was stabbed.  Do you think they are already bound to Astaroth?" she asked me. 

Cold fingers brushed against the back of my neck, and I turned
, looking for Grey.  There was nothing.  I rubbed at the spot to chase away the chill.  "I don't know, but I think the spirits of the women killed by them won't be at rest until this is over.  There wasn't any fire with Bridgett, which makes me think there will be another victim if we don't stop them."

I felt my phone buzz an alert in my pocket.  Anita reached for hers too.  She looked up at me with fear in her brown eyes.  "I think we know who the next victim will be. 
Does it have to be Cynthia? As much as I hate her, I can’t let this happen to her,” she said.

"Carlos
!" I shouted.  He stepped away from his conversation with Eli and Marguerite and strolled over.  "The campus alert system sent out a message saying that Cynthia Rojas was seen being forced into the back of a dark sedan in the library parking lot," I said, showing him my phone.

"I don't mean to sound cold, but we can't divide our attention to search for your classmates right now," Carlos said, handing me back my phone.
  Anita pointed to the passage in the grimoire.  Carlos pinched the bridge of his nose.  "It could be, but it also might not be.  We need to focus on the demon, not this girl."

"There isn't a spell in here on how to locate a demon, only how to summon one, which requires black magic," Anita countered. 

"And there is the fact that Cynthia's advisor is Dr. Tuttle," I reminded them. 

"I see.  Well, that does change things.  Someone needs to access her dorm or apartment and get something personal from her.  We can use it in a locating spell
," Carlos instructed.

"Would a picture work?" Anita asked. 

"You have a picture of Cynthia?" I asked, surprised. 

"I might have
…hypothetically…taken a picture with my cell phone to put on my dart board," she said with a smirk. 

"That's my girl," I teased her.
  I turned to Carlos.  "When would this happen?"  I hoped we had some time.  Cynthia was a giant pain in the ass, but she didn't deserve to be burned alive. 

Carlos thought for a moment.  "Samhain.  The demon will want to perform the last sacrifice when the veil between the living and the dead is open."

"Samhain?" I asked. 

"It's an ancient Druid holiday when they
honored their ancestors to get luck in the new year.  It is more complicated than that, but that's the Cliff's Notes version," he answered. 

"
When is it?" I pressed.  "Halloween. Tomorrow after sunset," he answered.

"I don't think Chloë and Finn are going to get that hour," Anita
thought aloud. 

"I'll go get them. We don't need everyone else right now.  I guess they're lucky," I said. 

"Or getting there," Anita deadpanned. 

I cast her an amused look
before I rushed into the house.

Chloë

Finn's vivid blue eyes bored into me.  He strode over and cupped my face in his hands.  He tilted my chin to look up at him.  I had to crane my neck to lock on to his brilliant eyes.  He was so much taller than I was—by at least eight or nine inches. 

"I love you," he whispered and kissed me softly. 

"I love you too," I said against his mouth. 

"Talk later," he muttered, still kissing.
  He maneuvered us backwards until we toppled onto the bed.

I slid my hand up his shirt and felt the lean muscles bunch and flex under my fingers. 
I thought to follow the trail my fingers made with my mouth until a persistent banging rattled our door.

"Son of a...
What!" Finn shouted. 

"Sorry
, man,” Dean apologized, “but it's hitting the fan.  Anita needs you, Chloë." I pulled my hand from Finn's shirt.  "You can come in, Dean."  Finn rearranged himself and scowled at the door.  "I'll make it up to you later," I promised him quietly. 

"I have some ideas on how," he grumbled.
 

I raised my eyebrow.  "I'll bet.
"

Dean opened the door. 
His hands were in his pockets, and he stared down at his boots.  When his head came up, there was a barely contained rage burning behind his hazel eyes.  He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to me.

I looked at the
campus alert, something that had been enacted after last year's student disappearances, and had to read it twice.  I silently handed it to Finn.  "Is there a plan?" I asked. 

"There will be.  As soon as you get downstairs and we come up with one," Dean answered.
 

"Let's go then," I agreed, and we followed him down.

Anita and Carlos hunched over a map spread out over the kitchen table.  Anita dangled a quartz pendant over the map, but it kept moving repetitively in an odd pattern.  I cocked my head to the side, studying it. 

"What is it drawing?" I asked Carlos. 

"Huh?  It seems to be a pattern, doesn't it?  I missed it.  I thought perhaps we didn't have enough with the picture to triangulate her location," he answered.

I conjured my wand and pointed it at the pendant.  "Illuminate," I ordered. 

The tip of the pendant shot out a thin beam, and the map smoked under the stream.  When the movement went back to the beginning, I reached out and stopped the string.

We all stared at the map
, speechless. 

"Is that...
I mean, shit," Anita stuttered and pointed at the image.

"An inverted pentagram.  Well now
, I can't believe I missed this," Carlos mumbled to himself and sat back in his chair.

"The demon is screwing with us.  How could he use her image against us to block the trace?" I asked Carlos. 

He closed his eyes and released a weary sigh.  "The only way I can see is if he has already begun to torture her.  He could carve spells into her skin.  He knew we would try and find her."

"What is the point?" Finn asked. 

"To stall.  He isn't done setting up the trap, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to screw with us," I answered.  "How long does she have?" I asked Carlos again.

"I'd wager he will wait until the witching hour on the eve of Samhain.  That will be the moment the veil is the thinnest
," he replied. 

"I'm going to step outside for a few minutes.  I have to think of something, because this isn't going to work
," I said. 

Finn reached out and grabbed my wrist.  "I'm coming with you." 

I started to argue.  "No, I just need to think." 

He rubbed the edge of my tattoo with his thumb.  "I'm coming.  I know you can protect yourself, but I'm going to be there to watch your back regardless."
 

I nodded and opened my hand for him to slip his into mine.

We walked out into the crisp fall night and headed away from the house.  I sat down in the grass, which was turning slightly brown as winter grew closer.  It cast a glittering sparkle under the moonlight and crunched underneath me.

I placed my hands on my knees and released my stress
with a forceful exhale.  I released the cords that attached my spirit to my body and felt myself float away.  I raced through the night and landed next to my spirit guide, Mickey, the red-tailed hawk. 

She turned her head to one side and then the other
, studying me with her keen eyes.  I looked at myself and realized that I had transformed into a ghostly specter of a hawk.  I hadn't consciously planned to seek her out, but she was exactly what I needed.

I flapped my translucent wings and raced back to my body. 
I came to with a start and found myself lying in the grass with Finn hovering over me. 

"What the hell was that?" he nearly shouted. 

"I think it's called a spirit walk," I squeaked, still coming back to myself.

Finn opened his mouth to question me further but was cut off by Mickey's screech. 

I looked up at him and said, "You need to move back a bit and sit down.  I need her to stay and she won't if she sees you hovering."

I could see
that he didn't want to move too far away from me, but he moved back several paces and sat down.  A moment later, Mickey swooped down with an efficient flap of her wings and landed in front of me. 

I knew the routine by now.  I stared in her dark eyes and felt the dizzying fall into her vision.
  Trees were scattered around a ramshackle old house.  A creeping mist rolled across the ground, and the briny smell of the ocean filled the air.  A ghostly scent of death mingled with the salt.

I watched as skeletal ghosts pulled together out of the fog. 
They walked through the walls of the house and disappeared.  There was desperation in their movements, their faces frozen in a mask of terror.  I felt like an old wound had been ripped open, and they were pulled from a restless slumber.

Their clothes were Victorian,
hanging from their emaciated bodies.  I felt myself being led closer and closer to their ceaseless movement through the outside wall.  I followed them through and saw Cynthia bound in an old tub. 

Dr. Tuttle hovered over her and held an old
straight-edge razor in his hand.  I noticed that Cynthia had been stripped naked, but she no longer seemed to be concerned about her exposure. 

Her body was a patchwork of shallow cuts and trails of dried blood.  I looked into her former advisor's face and
observed that his eyes were completely black.  He dragged the edge of the blade across her stomach, marking her with an inverted pentagram.  Cynthia had blood trailing away from her mouth, where it appeared she had bit into her own lip.

My vision pulled back and I could see signs welcoming me to Olalla, Washington.  Pictures and images flashed rapidly through my mind like I was a computer downloading information.

I rushed back through the layers of the vision and rolled over, dry heaving.  I heard the creak of stairs and the worried mingling of voices, but I continued to heave.  Finn returned to my side and rubbed my back while the last of the tremors racked my body.

My voice trembled
, and acid threatened to rise in my throat while I relayed the contents of the vision.  Dean pulled his phone out of his pocket, his fingers moving over the touchscreen, and explained what he’d found.

"In Olalla
, there was a sanitarium the locals called Starvation Heights.  There was a woman, Linda Hazzard, who claimed she could cure illnesses with fasting.  During her career, she reportedly starved several dozen people to death and fraudulently obtained their estates.  She was convicted of manslaughter but only served two years at Walla Walla State Penn.  She was paroled after that and apparently went on to practice medicine in New Zealand before returning to Washington.  More people died under her supervision until she died of a fast in 1938."