ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection) (83 page)

Caleb caught Lillian’s glance across the room. He had made sure to give the impression that the was not concerned, but deep inside he was worried for her. For whatever reason, the demon seemed fixated on Lillian and had launched all kinds of attacks on her. Caleb was sure that another attack would come later that evening, and he felt uneasy. He sighed deeply. He had assigned Rock to her—and he knew that the burly muscular man would keep her safe at virtually any cost. Caleb would do the same. It would be so easy to take her into his arms and to just walk away with her. A part of him wanted to flee his life in Department 99. Yes, they were agents sworn to protect the public—but they were also humans, and they needed a break. Working for Department 99 just meant a lifetime of moving from one catastrophe to the next, and suddenly Caleb found himself fantasizing about life with Lillian outside of this world. Perhaps they could build a little cabin out in the woods somewhere. Maybe he’d get her pregnant, and she’d give birth to a few little shifter children, that might even also be blessed with her good looks. Maybe after this was over, they could find a way to be happy together in the long run.

Caleb glanced at Finn, suddenly remembering why they were there. Finn was spinning in circles, laughing, and playing with some kind of invisible playmate. Finn picked up a little ball from the floor and tossed it up in the air. The ball stuck there for a moment and then tossed itself back down to Finn, who laughed and giggled.

The demon had to know that they were about to attack—but it wanted them to know that it wasn’t concerned. Instead, it was biding its time playing catch with Finn.

In part, Lillian wanted to stop Finn from playing with the demon—yet, the damage had already been done. His soul was already in peril, and a simple game of catch wasn’t going to change that. Nonetheless, it disturbed Lillian so see Finn so engrossed in play with the entity.

After about an hour, the team was ready for battle. Everyone knew their responsibilities, and they had all agreed to watch each other’s backs. Manuela had researched the demon Cerebus, and had shared her findings with the group. He was one of the original fallen angels, and was thus one of the most dangerous they would ever encounter. Yet, all of them were willing to put their lives on the line in order to save Finn and to stop the madness that the demon was causing. After all, they were all Department 99 agents, and were no strangers to danger.

At the last minute, Caleb decided that they should do battle with the spirit in the living room—the place farthest away from where the strongest fear signatures were located in the house. Manuela poured a small circle of salt in the middle of the room, and then put a larger circle of salt around the inner one. She’d left a small gap in each circle, intentionally not closing either one all of the way. Without warning, Bea grabbed a hold of Finn by the shoulder and tossed him into the innermost circle. Then, Manuela quickly poured salt down at the gaps—completely enclosing the boy in the two circles. The demon must have expected them to do this, because Finn simply sat down and started to suck his thumb. He did not even try to get out of the two circles.

“I’ve never seen this kind of reaction before,” Manuela whispered to Caleb. “Usually they’re willing to do just about anything to get away from the salt,” Manuela added.

“Well, let’s try and make the demon a little more desperate.” Caleb shrugged and took a few relics out of his pocket. He threw them inside the innermost circle with Finn. When Caleb did this, it was almost as if an explosion went off inside the house. There was a loud boom that shook the very foundation of the building. The noise was so load, it was almost like the roaring of jet—and it moved through Lillian in a way that made her uneasy. Now Finn was lying flat on his back in the middle of the circle. Dark red blood was flowing out of his nose, and he appeared to be unconscious. The two interns had never seen anything like it.

“Shouldn’t one of us go in and check his pulse?” Jordan asked.

“He doesn’t look like he’s breathing right now,” Valery added sounding worried.

Caleb was about to answer, but Lillian jumped in. “Demons are tricksters. It wants us to go into the circle, because Cerebus knows that he isn’t able to come out. We need to continue with the ceremony at any cost—even if the demon decides to kill Finn. No one goes inside the circle for any reason.”

Caleb was shocked at how cold her voice sounded, but he also admired her. She knew the games that creatures within the realm of the occult sometimes liked to play, and she wasn’t going to allow any of them to put their lives in jeopardy unnecessarily. Lillian also understood that there was a high likelihood that Finn would not survive. The interns were visibly shaken.

“We’re just going to let him die?” Jordan asked, sounding outraged.

“No. The plan is to save his life, but sometimes it just isn’t possible,” Lillian retorted. Jordan pushed his thick glasses back towards the bridge of his nose. The reality of battle with a demon was a sobering one. Valery wasn’t as easily swayed.

“He’s just a kid. How can you have so little compassion?” Valery asked Lillian.

Caleb jumped in. “It’s not a matter of not having compassion. If you go into that circle, you’ll die. If you die, the demon will just take life after life—countless children. It’s a matter of common sense.”

Caleb’s admonishment was a bit harsh, but he was correct. Bea the vampire, was leaning against the wall watching everything unfold, when she suddenly stood up straight and sniffed the air. Caleb caught her glance. Bea slowly shook her head from side to side. The other spirits were here.

The first spirit to attack was Ries. She was human, but the demon had convinced her that she was a god. Her human soul had been driven to the brink of insanity. With some kind of channeled power from Cerebus, Ries momentarily took on a human form. Strangely enough, she took the physical form of a Native American woman with long dark black hair. Instead of engaging anyone in battle, Ries ran towards the boy lying in the middle of the circle. Rock wielded a giant knife and stepped in front of Lillian while the others drew their weapons. The circles had done their job. When Ries hit the outer circle, it was as if she had hit an invisible barrier. She was knocked onto the ground with a loud thump. Then, she lunged at Valery.

Lillian squinted her eyes and waited for the sound of their bodies clattering to the floor, but it didn’t come. Instead, Ries simply slipped inside of Valery, who immediately started flailing around.

“Get it out of me!” Valery screamed as she flailed around, trying to buck the spirit out of her body. Manuela took some holy water out of her purse and splashed it on Valery. “You bitch!” Valery screamed as her skin bubbled up- she was horrifically burned and some of her scalp had fallen away.

“Valery, stop flailing around!” Caleb demanded.

“Get it out of me!” Valery continued to scream. Now she was moving towards the boy. Finn’s hands were outstretched and Valery’s body moved against her will. She was inching her way towards the circle, ready to sweep the salt away at any moment. It was clear that the spirit inside of her wanted her to break the circles, so that Finn could escape.

Valery’s body slowly inched towards the salt, as everyone in the room started to scream. Rock grabbed her ankles and pulled her back, and she flipped up and punched him square in the chest. Rock grabbed his chest and sunk to the ground.

Jordan started to scream, but it was of no use. The Valery that he had known was no longer in charge. Jordan dove to the ground and grabbed Valery’s ankle. Again, she popped up. Yet, this time instead of punching him—Valery quickly wrapped both of her arms around his neck and pulled until there was a loud popping sound. Jordan’s limp body sunk to the floor.

Then, a sharp bang filled the air. Harold lowered his gun as Valery sunk to the ground—a bullet lodged in her skull right between her eyes. The circle was unbroken.

Both Valery and Jordan were dead. Lillian was visibly shaken, yet Caleb demanded that they all press on. She admired his courage. Caleb was willing to do virtually anything in order to destroy this dangerous entity, and he was not deterred despite the deaths of the interns. Lillian glanced down at Valery’s body. Dark red blood seeped out of the hole in her head. The blood was pouring out, and before Lillian could scream—it had happened. The blood had washed away a section of both the inner and outer circles.

As if on cue, Finn sat up and dove out of the circle, laughing. At first, his laugh sounded like that of a child, and then the sound darkened and turned malevolent. Cerebus was mocking them.

The team filed into the kitchen and covered the frame of the door with salt. Cerebus wouldn’t be able to follow them in there. Yet, now they needed to come up with a new plan quickly. Traditional methods didn’t seem to be working. No one on the team had ever seen a spirit regain its human form like that. Clearly, Cerebus was playing by a different set of rules.

While they talked, Caleb’s hand lightly brushed against Lillian’s. She wondered if he had simply touched her accidentally, but knew that the touch had been intentional when it came a second time.

Finn started to cry. Obviously, something was going on out in the living room. If Cerebus decided to kill Finn, they would lose their link to the demonic realm. They had to keep the boy alive as long as possible.

Their plan wasn’t exactly well thought out—there was no time for that. Rock would defend Lillian at all costs, while Manuela would try a few chants to draw the demon out of Finn. If any of the spirits took human form again, Caleb and Bea would be the first to try to fight them off.

The small team filed back into the living room and was shocked at what they encountered. The form of the Native American woman was back. Next to her, there was a yellow haired man with red bloodshot eyes, and a man dressed like a mobster—that must have been Chachi. Cain had his arms wrapped around Finn’s neck, and the boy’s face was turning a horrible shade of reddish purple. They needed to act fast.

Even with all of their plans, utter chaos ensued. Manuela forgot half of the words to her chants and just started throwing holy water around. It helped though—each time the water splashed onto one of the unclean spirits, it burned them. Somehow, they had taken physical form though, which was worrisome. Caleb dove towards Finn and wrestled with the man with the yellow hair. He identified himself as Cain, and lifted Caleb off of the ground with one hand. In a matter of minutes, Bea was face down on the floor with Ries stomping on the back of her head. At that moment, both Lillian and Rock rushed forward towards Caleb. Their combined attack made Cain drop Caleb, and yet it seemed as though they could not harm him. Cain’s eyes were a terrible shade of red, and his lower jaw dropped open—wasps started to fly out of his mouth. They flooded into the room.

As the wasps flooded into the room, Ries and Chachi started to laugh. They stopped kicking Bea for a moment, in order to assess the damage. Perhaps they had taken Bea for dead, or maybe they just didn’t care about her in that moment. Either way, they had made a deadly mistake. As soon as their backs were turned. Bea leapt up to her feet and unsheathed her dagger. She drove to sharp edge straight through the back of Ries’ neck, and then swung the blade around. It caught in Chachi’s stomach and he stumbled back and disappeared. Chachi wasn’t dead, but Ries most certainly was. Ries let out a low scream as flames slowly started to engulf her body. The scent of burning flesh filled the room, and then a hole opened up beneath her and she was sucked down into the floor.

The battle raged on. Now all of their efforts were focused on Cain. His demonic red eyes were unsettling. Bea lunged for Cain with her dagger and he caught her arm in mid-air and then snapped it backwards. Bea screamed and collapsed to the ground as the sound of bones crunching filled the air. Manuela heaved a jar of holy water at Cain and when it hit him, his skin immediately turned a fiery shade of red, boiled up to the surface, and started to smoke. Rock and Caleb took the opportunity to attack. They both drew daggers and started to stab at Cain. The wounds they inflicted seemed to make little difference. Then, Manuela approached—slowly muttering a chant. It was obvious that the older woman was terrified, yet she would not be deterred.

illian noticed that Manuela had a bunch of salt in her hand. The old woman was repeating all of the names for God. Then, she threw the salt into Cain’s face with all her might. The salt moved through his form like bullets. Cain screamed at the top of his lungs while hundreds of holes the size of pinheads cut through his body. A cloud of red blood formed at the back of his figure. Despite her broken arm, Bea grabbed a dagger with her other hand and buried it deep in Cain’s chest. Cain’s head rolled backwards and he screamed. More wasps continued to fly out of his mouth, but it was finished. His body erupted into flames, and was then sucked into some kind of black vortex. Onus and Chachi were the last ones left before they could get to Cerebus. They were almost there. All of the wasps that had entered the room immediately vanished.

Chachi had reappeared sitting cross-legged on the living room couch. He was clapping slowly. “Well done, guys…really and truly. I couldn’t have done it better myself.” Just the sight of him made Lillian feel enraged. She wanted to lunge onto him and rip his throat out. Then she noticed that Finn was sitting silently at his left side. A thump came from the back of the room, and a giant man filed in. This was Onus, the child killer. There was no doubt about that.

Just the sight of Onus filled Harold with rage. He pulled his gun and held his breath, readying himself to pull the trigger. Onus smiled back. Then, against his will—Harold turned the gun around and placed it up to his own temple. “No!” Harold screamed as he pulled the trigger and blew his own brains out.