The Devil's Third (2 page)

“I forgot about that,” Carrie said, tapping her finger on her lips, as if she were pondering those events.

I scratched my head, and Nathan sat up. He looked at Carrie, then shifted his gaze to the floor. I could hear his heart beating faster, which told me he was seriously considering this. I didn’t know what to think, and as my mind quickly reviewed the examples she had presented to us, Nathan laughed, startling me.

“Of course!” he said.

“What?” all three of us asked in unison.

He turned to me, grinning. “Remember when you had the nightmare about the dark spirits chasing you, and one of them kept saying, ‘Vos ero pessum ire’?” I nodded, and he went on. “Then Aosoth repeated it to you?”

“Yeah,” I said apprehensively, not wanting to revisit those creepy memories and actually had done a good job forgetting about them so I could sleep at night.

“What does it mean?” Tree asked, trying to repeat it, but failing miserably.

“Wait,” Nathan said, focusing his attention back on Carrie. She was staring off into space, her brown eyes wide with horror. “Carrie?” Nathan asked, his voice soft with concern. “What is it?”

Tree cupped his hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

Noticing the tears brimming her eyes, I jumped up and kneeled in front of her, taking her hand. “What’s wrong?”

She blinked and a tear trailed down her cheek. She looked at Tree. “It means, you will be destroyed,” she choked.

“How did you know that?” I whispered, my heart thudding in my chest. In the back of my mind, I knew the answer but needed to hear it from her own lips.

She sniffed and took a deep, shaky breath. “Sometimes Aosoth’s memories come to me through dreams, and last night I had a nightmare of you stumbling through the forest while black, ghostly entities chased you.” She paused, and I shivered at the memory. It was so weird she experienced the same dream. “Aosoth happened to be one of those beings, but not the one who said those words to you.”

“Who said it?” Nathan asked.

“Volac,” she answered.

Nathan groaned.

I glanced over my shoulder at him, and he looked worried. “But I thought Volac doesn’t like Aosoth. That’s what Ameerah told you, right?”

“He doesn’t,” Carrie said before Nathan could respond, “but she butted in anyway, wanting in on the fun of scaring you. Afterwards, when Aosoth was laughing, Volac rounded on her. He told Aosoth, unlike her, his intentions toward you were pure. ”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” My voice raised in confusion, and I was silently grateful to Anwar–of all people–for casting Volac out so he wouldn’t bother me for a while. I just wondered how long it would take for Volac to regain his energy. Hopefully a long ass time because I didn’t need him on my tail.

Carrie shook her head. “I don’t know, but then he told Aosoth to leave and never to show her face around him again.”

I combed my fingers through my hair and leaned forward on my knees, dropping my head in my hands. I didn’t understand any of this. I mean, I was dreaming, so how could dark spirits enter my dream? The whole idea of it made me never want to sleep again. I almost felt like I was trapped in a
Nightmare on Elm Street
movie. This was so not good.

“Why didn’t you tell me this?” Tree’s asked. “And do you know Latin now?”

Carrie turned to him apologetically. “I’m sorry. I was planning to this morning, but couldn’t stomach it. I just wanted to forget about it for a while. And no, I don’t know Latin well enough to speak it fluently. I can comprehend it when I have one of Aosoth’s memories and Latin is being used, so I’m starting to understand it more.”

I sat next to Nathan and shook my head. “I don’t get any of this.”

“I think I do,” Nathan said, and we all stared at him. “I think when we sleep, our spirits sometimes go to a different plane of existence. To the spiritual world, where our deceased loved ones can sometimes visit with us while we’re in slumber. So I’m sure dark spirits can reach us there as well.”

“I don’t think I’m ever going to sleep again,” I mumbled, not liking his theory, even though it made sense.

“If what you’re saying is true,” Carrie said, “then why haven’t the dark spirits pestered Paige every time she fell asleep?”

Nathan thought about it for a minute. “Maybe because her spirit hasn’t traveled to that plane of existence since then.”

I frowned. “I think you’re grasping at straws.”

 “I’m with Paige on that one,” Tree said.

Carrie made an agreement sound. “Yeah. Me, too.”

“It’s a theory explaining things until a better one comes along.” Nathan shrugged. “Paige was sick when it happened, so maybe being ill had something to do with it. Because if you think about it, when a human is being occupied becomes sick, the entity vacates the vessel. So the night Paige wasn’t feeling well, her spirit left her body.”

“But if that’s true,” Carrie argued, “how come malevolent beings don’t take advantage of every sick person when they fall asleep? And when Paige was in a comatose state, they didn’t take advantage of her then.”

“You have a good point, Carrie,” I said, feeling better about the situation. I mean, seriously. If they could, they’d totally ambush my dreams. They’d also do the same to other people, especially since they despised humans.

“There’s a connection there somewhere because it did happen,” Nathan mused. “Maybe Paige does have a connection to the spiritual world, which would stand to reason why it happened to her.”

Carrie sounded exasperated. “Yeah, but,
again
, if what you’re saying is true then how come it only happened to her that one night? It doesn’t make sense.”

My head was whirling.

“Then I don’t know,” Nathan said, throwing his hands in the air. “But I don’t want it to happen to her again because there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Hey!” Tree barked, and when we looked at him, he flashed us his famous goofy grin, drawing a smile out of me. “This is going nowhere, and since we can’t do any research on the caves in Africa, let’s talk about Paige having a connection to the spiritual world ‘cause I think Carrie was on to something.”

Nathan inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, making a loud whooshing noise. “Good idea,” he admitted.

I thought so, too, though it made me a bit uneasy–until Tree’s next suggestion. Then I was nervous as hell.

“I think with the present circumstances”–Tree swept his hand in the air, gesturing around the room at the candles–“Paige should try conjuring her grandmother to see if we can get any answers out of her.”

To my horror, Carrie squealed with delight, and Nathan nodded in agreement.

Chapter Two

Paige

Opened-mouth, I looked at Tree. “Are you serious?” I couldn’t believe that not only was he suggesting I should try to conjure my dead grandmother, but both Carrie and Nathan had sided with him. When he grinned and nodded, I turned to Nathan. “Why are you agreeing to this?”

“Oh, come on, Paige,” Carrie said. She picked a candle up from the end table and rose to her feet. “It’ll be fun.”

“I’m agreeing,” Nathan said, “because I’m curious about it.”

“My grandmother,” I replied, narrowing my eyes on Tree, “appeared before Nathan and me on her own accord. I had nothing to do with it . . . Where you going, Carrie?”

“I’m going to get some salt to keep the dark spirits away,” she said over her shoulder, heading toward the kitchen.

“It’s not necessary here,” Nathan told her. She stopped and looked at him, raising the candlestick level with her face. The flame flickered wildly, and her features seemed to twist in an eerie fashion. I knew it was an illusion, but it still bothered me. “With Zeruel around, we’re safe from the intrusion of malevolent entities.”

Carrie gestured to the window. “But it’s raining, and I didn’t see him earlier.”

“Just because it’s raining and you didn’t see him, doesn’t mean he’s not here,” I said with a sigh, my heart pounding against my chest. I had no idea how I was going to do this, and I tried to recall shows and movies I’d watched that had characters summoning spirits. But was it real or just made-up Hollywood crap? Of course, the writers had to have done research on those scenes in order to make them seem realistic. So there had to be an element of truth to it, right?

Carrie sat beside Tree, perched on the couch. “How does she do it then?”

“You can get your whistle and play a song for your grandmother,” Tree suggested. “If we’re going by your actions connected to the spiritual world, that’s what you were doing when you saw your father and heard your mother.”

“But then you guys won’t be able to experience it,” I pointed out and at the same time, thought about what Tree just said.

That was totally true. The last two times I’d played my whistle with my father and mother in mind, I’d experienced their presence. But why? I then thought about all the other times I’d played it, trying to recall how I felt. My eyebrows pulled together as I considered long and hard about it, but nothing unusual came to mind. All I could remember was feeling happy and enjoying playing it.

“Why don’t you concentrate on your grandmother, like you would if you were playing your whistle, because personally,” Nathan said, “I think maybe that was how you did it. It had nothing to do with the whistle, although the music probably made it a lot easier for you.”

“Have you ever seen spirits before you saw your father?” Tree wanted to know.

I shook my head. “The ghostly voice was my only connection.”

“I think Bael’s presence is what triggered it,” Nathan stated. I stared at him, shocked at how sure and confident he sounded. “Because when Bael was inhabiting Matt, his spirit over-rode Matt’s humanity, which is why our ears ring whenever a dark spirit is dwelling inside a human. Their spirit is at the very surface of the human vessel. I think, having direct contact for three months, like you did with Bael’s spirit, might have unlocked an unknown door within you.”

I thought about the out-of-body experience I had at The Lion’s Den when Carrie, Matt and I were there. We were dancing, and the next thing I knew, I was hovering way above the floor. I remembered not being scared and having this wonderful sense of release. But then I saw Matt watching my swaying body, and when he looked up at me, his eyes were glowing.

“Do you think Matt . . . or I mean Bael . . . actually saw me, when my spirit left me at the Lion’s Den?” I’d never thought about it before and wondered if dark spirits possessing humans could see spirits lurking around. Then I recalled when Aosoth tried to kill me, and my spirit shot out of my body. Again, I had felt free and more alive than ever. As I relived those two, wonderful moments, something in my heart ached.

“I think he did,” Nathan answered, and when I looked down, remembering how freaky that moment was, he tilted my chin up so I had to look at him. His eyes were gentle on my face, sweeping away my fear. “I don’t think he heard your premonition, though.”

“Why?” Carrie asked.

Nathan’s eyes were still on my mine, his thumb rubbing soft circles around my cheek, shooting electrical waves through my body. “When they’re in the human body, they’re free from many restrictions placed upon them when they’re in the spectral form. However, they can’t involuntarily hear or see spirits around them. They have to focus their energy on it in order to achieve that.” He paused long enough to whisper to me not to be afraid. When he saw the infinitesimal nod I gave–
God, I didn’t want to do this
–his gaze went to Carrie and Tree. “I think Paige can be the same way.”

Confusion flickered across Carrie’s face. “But she’s not a dark spirit possessing a human.”

“But we’re all spiritual beings, housed inside these human bodies,” Tree said, following what Nathan was saying.

Nathan smiled. “Correct. I think Paige’s spirit is closer to the surface than most people’s. Not to mention her DNA is saturated with psychic power from her bloodline.”

“But she comes from an ancient line of witches, not psychics,” Carrie said, sounding frustrated now because she just wasn’t getting it.

I had to give Nathan credit for being patient with her, because he didn’t sound the least bit annoyed when he responded. “To be a witch, you have to study and practice the beliefs of one. You can’t be born a witch.”

I didn’t know what was up with Carrie. Maybe it was that time of the month, but she was in an argumentative mood. She raised her chin, as if it would validate her statement. “Well, I think since Paige has witches’ blood coursing through her veins, that makes her a witch. She doesn’t have to
practice
”–she made air quotes–“the beliefs of a witch in order to justify she is one. The beliefs are already ingrained in her.”

“I have to disagree,” Nathan said. “I think in Paige’s case, her psychic ability comes before being a witch. And it would be something she’d have to choose to become.”

Tree raised his eyebrows at me, a look that said,
what’s with these two?
We’d never seen Nathan and Carrie go at it like this. They were totally acting like siblings. I wondered if Tree thought the same thing.

Carrie vehemently shook her head. “You’re wrong.”

Nathan scooted to the edge of the couch and leaned forward on his knees. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” Carrie shot back. “Now, if we were talking about anybody else who didn’t have a history of witches in their family tree, I’d agree with you. In order to become one, me for example, I’d have to study and practice and follow that path for me to honestly say I was a witch. Not Paige.”

“How can you think such a thing?” Nathan asked, his tone edging toward exasperation. He was losing his patience, and I seriously hoped this wasn’t going to get ugly. “Paige knows very little about witchcraft and their beliefs.”

Carrie folded her arms across her chest and gave him a smug look.

Uh-oh.

I knew that look and so did Tree. He glanced at me.
Here it comes,
his expression told me,
and I noticed him shifting a few inches away from her. Carrie was going to light Nathan up. This was so not good.