ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection) (74 page)

“How long have you been at this with Department 99?” Caleb asked her, growing frustrated.

“I’ve been with the department less than a week, but I’ve been dabbling in the occult for a long time, and I’m telling you…” Magda pleaded.

Caleb cut her off, “Let us do our job and stick to your cats and your painted car. I’ll be writing up a report about you after this, and hopefully you’ll be dismissed shortly.” He spat nastily. Magda looked down, defeated.

Quickly, the group decided to re-enter the room and to try and make contact with the voice of Finn’s grandfather again.

When they were back up in the room, Finn’s mother Kelly had lit a few candles. The candles gave the child’s room an eerie glow, and as Finn lay still on the bed, Caleb got the sense that he was attending a wake. Caleb blinked his eyes rapidly and tried to push the thought from his mind. Again, Magda called out to the spirit while Lillian monitored the black box.

“Are you still there?” Magda asked. There was a long moment of silence, followed by more cackling. The voice had a different quality this time. Then again, the cruelty seemed to wash out of the voice and it sounded almost human.

“I’m telling you son, you’ve got to get Cain away from the boy NOW.” Suddenly, all of the candles in the room went out. A voice to Caleb’s right began to howl, and then the lights flickered back on. The man with the thick glasses was on top of Finn, punching at the boy’s face, screaming obscenities. Caleb jumped into action and immediately tried to pull the man off of the boy. Suddenly, everything made sense.
The short man with the thick-framed glasses was Cain.

Cain pulled out a long dagger from within his coat and cut his own hand, and then started to cut the boy’s forehead. The entire time, both Cain and the boy were chanting in Aramaic.

Caleb lunged onto Cain’s shoulders, and was thrown back by some horrible force. He flew across the room and hit the opposite wall with a loud smack, and then clattered to the floor, landing hard on his right arm. Next, Lillian sprang into action, attempting to throw her body onto Cain in order to stop him from attacking the young boy. Her fate was similar to that of Caleb, except she was flung up to the ceiling and seemed to stick there.

Finn’s parents grasped at each other screaming in terror. The woman from the Philippines —whose name was Daisy, buried her head in her knees and began to rock back and forth, while praying. Only Magda had the sense to uncap her bottle of holy water and throw it in Cain’s direction. When the water hit them, both Cain and Finn screamed in low terrible guttural voices. Caleb seized the opportunity and lunged yet again for Cain. This time he was weakened by the holy water and Caleb’s bear strength overcame Cain’s demonic strength. Cain fell to the ground and Caleb quickly cuffed his hands behind his back. Then, Caleb pulled a device out of his pocket and zapped Cain in the back of the head, rendering him unconscious.

At that moment, Lillian fell from the ceiling, and then got up and dusted her pants off as if nothing had happened. Caleb couldn’t help but admire her strength. Nothing seemed to deter Lillian Smithson. Her green eyes looked intense and angry.

Caleb reached down to the radio at his waist and called in back-up. Within ten minutes, a Department 99 paddy wagon had pulled away with Cain stuffed into the back. “I knew something was off about that guy,” Caleb said softly to himself as he watched the ambulance peel away.

The group returned to the room, and again Lillian tried to take the lead. “Tom? Are you there, Tom?” Lillian asked.

Magda shook her head. “Who are you?” Magda asked.

“I’m not Tom,” a tiny but evil-sounding voice crackled over the speakers. The demon seemed to be unwilling to speak with Lillian.

Magda stepped in, “What is your name?” Magda asked the demon. “Come closer, and I will tell you, cat woman,” the voice said. The orange cat ran across the room, jumped onto Finn’s chest, and sat there.

Although the voice came out of the black box, Magda knew it wanted her to step closer to Finn. What choice did she have? Without the demon’s name, they would not be able to exorcise it. Magda took a deep breath and stepped closer. “Come closer,” the voice crackled again through the black box speakers. Now, Magda was standing directly over Finn. “Let me whisper my name into your ear,” the voice said. Caleb shook his head no, but Magda bent down over the boy anyway—feeling a sense of terrible desperation to save the boy and her beloved orange cat. Just as soon as she leaned down, Finn’s hands snatched up and snapped Magda’s neck—killing her instantly. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and her limp dead body slumped to the floor with a loud and terrible thud.

Again, everyone quickly filed out of the room (Finn’s parents included), leaving Finn locked inside with the orange cat. Daisy was visibly shaking and so Caleb told her to go home and get some rest. Together Caleb and Lillian walked out into the cool night air, trying to gain a bit of perspective. Lillian was a smart woman and it didn’t take her long to come up with a theory and a plan.

“There’s a reason that demon won’t talk to me,” she said—staring off into the vast darkness.

“What are you thinking?” Caleb asked calmly.

“It’s threatened by me for some reason. I have to figure out what that reason is, so that I can exploit it.” Lillian continued.

Caleb nodded. “There’s a small occult library down on Kenneth Street. Let’s go.” Lillian nodded her agreement as she hopped into Caleb’s car.

As they pulled up to the occult library, Caleb couldn’t help by admire Lillian’s beautiful curved body. The gentle rise and fall of her breath made him notice the curves of her rounded breasts and slight waist. Her legs were shapely and crossed in his direction at the knee. Caleb’s inner bear was screaming at him to reach down and touch her kneecaps, but he refrained.
Keep your mind on the task at hand
, he chastised his bear.

When they stepped into the occult library, a woman dressed entirely in black met them at the counter. Everything in the facility was free to Department 99 and both he and Lillian flashed their badges. The woman at the information desk nodded, immediately understanding that there was a serious matter at hand. Lillian began to explain the situation and the librarian started to ask some questions about Lillian’s ancestry. Lillian was somewhat confused by the line of questioning, but answered as best as she could. Most of her descendants were from Ireland and had immigrated to the United States during the Potato famine. This seemed to trigger something for the librarian and she rushed off into the maze of shelves in order to find what she was looking for with Caleb and Lillian close on her heels. After searching for a few minutes, she pulled a large and dusty book off the shelf and slammed it down onto a nearby counter. The librarian thumbed through a few pages and finally found what she was looking for.

“If I had to guess, I would probably say that you are some kind of distant relation to this man,” she said to Lillian. The name written at the top of the page read Aengus Smithson, which made Lillian shudder.

“We have the same last name,” she offered to the librarian who seemed to smile at this confirmation of her suspicions.

“According to the history books that I have, Aengus managed to trick the devil during a wager many years ago. Long story short, his descendants are off-limits and any demon that communicates with anyone in the Smithson clan will be thrown into a lake of fire to burn for all eternity,” the librarian smiled at the end, satisfied with herself for solving the mystery.

Caleb thanked her and started to thumb through the book himself. The pact seemed ironclad. If a demon so much as spoke to Lillian Smithson, it would be destroyed immediately. So of course, they knew that they needed to trick the demon into communicating with her. Caleb had an idea—what if they used some kind of shifter serum in order to try and change her physical appearance? But then, demons didn’t really operate based off of sight. This was going to be a tough situation.

Lillian walked back over to the librarian. “Is there any way for me to get this demon to talk to me so that we can destroy it? It’s terrorizing a young innocent boy.”

The librarian thought for a minute. “Demons operate on an entirely different plane, and they generally play by their own rules…but if you could somehow convince the demon that you were dead, and then maybe get it to curse your name—that might be enough to get the job done.” Caleb and Lillian quickly thanked the librarian and rushed back out into the evening night air. While they only had limited information, they were at least able to surmise that the creature who had made contact with Lillian was not of the demonic, which meant it might be willing to help. Plain old ghosts were generally more reasonable then most people gave them credit for.

“Let’s go back to my house,” Lillian suggested as Caleb drove silently. Moments later, they pulled up to a small townhouse surrounded by beautiful shrubs. Lillian jumped out of the car and Caleb followed quietly. He couldn’t believe he was about to see the inside of Lillian’s home. He admitted to himself that he’d always wanted to know her better, but had never really had the nerve or the time to make a move. Yet, he’d always wanted to come home with her—and possibly be invited up into her bedroom.

A few moments later, Caleb found himself in Lillian’s kitchen, where she rushed around placing candles on the table. The scene would have been almost romantic were she not preparing to make contact with a dead person.

“I’m going to try and contact Finn’s grandfather again,” she said. “He gave us some good information before, and I want to see if he’ll help a little more.” Caleb watched her closely as she fiddled about, lighting candles, and placing them within a chalk circle that she drew directly on top of her kitchen table.

Caleb was completely distracted by Lillian. He couldn’t help it. She looked so beautiful in the dim light of the kitchen that Caleb found himself scarcely able to breath. Again, his eyes were drawn back to her beautiful and piercing blue eyes and to the roundness of her bottom. He wanted to pull her close, to smell her hair, to push himself up against her, and to take her upstairs into the bedroom…yet he remained silent and watched her work. He wasn’t normally so quiet, but Lillian seemed to bring out this part of him. He liked to observe her.

When she finished moving around the kitchen, she sat down across from Caleb and took his hands in hers. For Caleb, it felt almost as if an electrical jolt shot through his body the moment they touched. Instinctively, he wanted to reach across the table and ravish her. He wondered if she could tell. If she knew that he was attracted to her, she’d never given him any hints or encouragement.

Quietly, Lillian started to chant. First she invoked her ancestors’ protection, and then she called on Finn’s grandfather to speak to her again. This time, a disembodied voice grumbled overhead.

“Took you guys a while to figure out who Cain was. Finn almost got killed,” the voice complained.

“I’m really sorry about that sir, Lillian responded. Do you know anything about the demon that is stalking Finn?” Lillian pressed.

“Lady, I died of a heart attack in a nursing home after working in a car parts factory for over twenty years. When I died, I expected that I’d be going to heaven—I don’t even know what this place is called, let alone how to describe to you the thing that has attached itself to my grandson, but I’ll help you in any way I can.”

“What does it look like from your dimension?” Lillian asked.

“It’s very bright. It seems to absorb light, and then changes into a darkness that is darker than even the darkest night. When it gets close to Finn it looks almost like water—it changes from a human-like shape into something that resembles black water.” Finn’s grandfather explained.

“Did you know anything about your neighbor in the nursing home that also died, Tom? Is Tom there with you?” Lillian asked.

“No,” the grandfather responded matter-of-factly. “Tom isn’t here. There is a guy named Chachi though. I think he used to be a mob boss or something. The guy has some serious issues.” Lillian quickly thanked Finn’s grandfather and said a few words to close the invisible portal. She blew out the candles in front of her.

Caleb swallowed. “I’m going to guess that the demon which has attached itself to Finn took on the physical likeness of Tom for a while in order to trick the boy into trusting it. Since his grandfather said that the demon is very bright and looks like light, I’d say we’re dealing with one of Satan’s fallen—so he must be a pretty bad guy.” Lillian nodded in agreement, and then burst suddenly into tears. Caleb was shocked. He had never seen Lillian cry and didn’t know quite how to react.

“I’m sorry,” Lillian spoke—wiping the tears away from her cheeks and struggling to regain her composure. “I just feel bad for Magda. I judged her so harshly for the way she looked, and no one even said anything after she died—not even a kind word. I keep picturing Finn snapping her neck, and then my mind goes back to the way she just slumped down onto the floor dead… and it’s just so horrible.” Lillian struggled to push her tears back again, but somehow emotion overtook her. Caleb didn’t know what to do and so he tenderly reached his hand out across the table and placed it firmly on top of hers.