“If you let them knock down this house, Oracle, I will have no choice but to unleash my powers on you.”
Gordon grabbed my arm. “Where is the demon? It’s the demon talking to you, right?”
They wouldn’t be able to hear every demon that spoke to me, but this one seemed to be making a point to be understood by their ears, too. That was the least important thing at the moment.
“Demon, I am not the Oracle.”
The last time I had even heard the word Oracle—before the contractors said it yesterday when describing the baby the Sisterhood took from Peter’s—I had been in the old Sisterhood. Charged from divinity with the ability to find newborn Sisters, the Oracle had a very unfortunate life. Although The Oracle was a Sister, she didn’t actually fight demons. She lived secluded and waited for divinity to show her where newborns with the gift were born. Then, other Sisters went out with their Guards, forced the parents to give up their child, and returned with the baby. It seemed like a special kind of hell.
I was absolutely not the Oracle.
The creature grumbled, it might have been a laugh. “If you say so, Sister Mika. How little you humans know of yourselves. Years pass—so many they can’t be kept track of –and you all always remain the same. If you take down this house, I will be forced to rise. You don’t want that. We have co-existed and will continue to do so as long as you don’t take down this house.”
Well, that was interesting. It made little sense. “This house matters to you?” I was admittedly attached to it myself, but the demon was really invested in it, too. “Why?”
“That is not for you to concern yourself with, Sister Mika. Just know you don’t want me to rise. I am not interested in the affairs of the humans and the demons. Don’t make me change my mind. You beat the demon the other night. You cannot win against me.”
I didn’t know if that was true or not. Demons lied. Bob might be a strange demon, but a demon, nonetheless. That being said, the way my powers burned, I’d encountered the demon of all demons. He was certainly very powerful.
“You’re smart. Follow that train of thought.”
Teagan had said he read her mind. It looked like he was doing the same to me. I sighed. “Listen…”
“They can come down and fix the plumbing. I won’t bother them. If they need me to move, I’ll know and move. They have to fix the house, these Guards of yours.”
For all that this demon was able to read minds, it really didn’t know what was going on. “They’re not my Guards.”
“Sister Mika, the demon that came the other night was only the first. They will keep coming until things are settled. He couldn’t get through the gate because of my power. But they will not always be that easy.”
Easy?
“Yes, foolish human, that one was easy. Fix this house.”
I’d thought things couldn’t get any more stressful; I was wrong.
I sipped some tasteless tea and watched from the window while the guys worked in the front yard. Neil and Wayne had gone to get wood while I’d been under the house with Gordon and Ren. Lennon had joined them when they got back, and now everyone was either cutting wood, measuring siding, or writing in a notebook.
It was hot and humid—I supposed that was why they were all shirtless.
I set aside the tea and pressed my forehead against the window. No one could see me—I didn’t think. The windows were tinted in the hallways. Men didn’t usually interest me, and I’d always assumed it was because at the other Sisterhood Katrina had insisted we take men to our beds whether we wanted them or not.
I’d managed to avoid her charge, but doing so had been practically a full-time undertaking. But here were five guys, who had nothing to do with demons, had managed to grow up without seeing them, and were fearless around them. They were handsome, unbelievably so, and they were making me think about things I had no business contemplating when I had a demon under the house and, apparently, a lot more to come.
Neil raised his eyes to the window, and for a second, I wondered if he saw me. Then he dropped his gaze before he stepped away from his sawing. He wiped his brow. Yes, it was very, very hot out there. They had to be sweltering.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I got to the kitchen. The tea was tasteless, but it was cool. I grabbed some glasses and brought them out. Usually after the rain, it cooled. but that hadn’t happened. Instead, it seemed almost worse than before the storm.
All five of them turned to me, and I held up the pitcher and glasses.
“Thank you,” Ren called out. “That’s incredibly nice of you.”
“Hey,” Neil said, “can you come with me for a second? I want you to look at something. Unless you’re busy.”
That was the problem. There was really nothing left for me to do. Without demons to fight and routines of meditation and silence to follow like we had in the other Sisterhood, I was really at odds. Krystal stayed to herself. I didn’t know if she was trying to get her powers back or not. Or if that was even something she could work on. I wouldn’t pry; powers were private.
I couldn’t get the place ready for Teagan and the influx of Sisters she’d bring back with her until some things got fixed.
“Sure.” I stepped toward him and let him guide me toward the guesthouse. They’d moved some of the furniture around. The table was away from the window and the chair faced the opposite direction. It would be easier to sit at it now. It was sort of… homier.
The guesthouse had been empty as long as I’d been there, and it was nice to see some life inside of it. Empty rooms were everywhere, and sometimes I thought I could hear the ghosts of the past when I wandered through them.
“How do you see this place? I need to know. We’re basically going to have to reconstruct within old construction. So piece by piece, how does this compound look to you?”
I almost told him he should wait and speak to Anne. She was due back any day. But then I remembered Anne said this was my project. She wanted me to handle it. Okay, I would do so. “Our vision is to have this place working as a real Sisterhood. It won’t be exactly the same. I don’t have Guards, for example, so we’re going to have to figure out how to handle Sisters without Guards. But Sisters with their real Guards, presumably they’ll be in the main house in their rooms. They’re in love; it’s like family. I… I guess this place could be used as a place for the non-guarded Sisters.” The second, smaller guesthouse could be for actual guests. I mean, how many guests were we really going to have?
He scrunched up his face. “If your Guards suddenly showed up you’d move into the other house? Because you would love them? Why does love determine location?”
“I…” I shrugged. “Look, the truth is I’m like half a Sister. I can’t do what I’m supposed to do because I don’t have the second half of the team with me. We’re supposed to have partners. So, I guess when Sisters start arriving who do have them, they’ll need the space to do things like make love after a battle.”
I’d no sooner uttered the words than I wished I hadn’t said them. My cheeks reddened. A second later, Neil gave me a slow grin. “Is that what they all do? Come back here and make love after battles? So they have to have special rooms to do so? Funny, my experience is people will find a way to do that just about anywhere they want if they are properly motivated. Is it all five together at once?”
I didn’t know all the details of how everyone handled it. “I think most of the time it’s one to one or two to one or such.” I looked away. “Maybe the less said on that the better. I don’t have Guards. So I’m not making love to anyone. The back of the house here could work as a library. We used to have one in the other Sisterhood. There’s so much mystical stuff to learn it’s just ridiculous.” I quickly headed toward that area so I didn’t have to say another word about making love in front of shirtless Neil.
“I don’t know if that part is safe, Mika. We haven’t been going back there because I want to secure the loft.” He charged after me.
I’d no sooner rushed into the room than the loft he’d just mentioned tilted forward. I could get away from demons fairly easily, but a half a ceiling rushing down on me was a different story altogether. In fact, I was fairly certain I would have been killed if Neil hadn’t grabbed me and launched both of us back into the hallway.
He was on top of me. The crash to the floor made my back sore, but not nearly as much as being crushed to death would have. He pushed my hair off my face, his eyes huge as he stared down at me. We both breathed heavily. “Are you okay, lovely? Hmm? Did you get hurt?”
I shook my head. “I’d be dead if not for you.”
“If I hadn’t been teasing you back there, you wouldn’t have run away into that room. We’ll say it was my fault.”
I shook my head again. “I was the one who talked about sex to begin with. I shouldn’t say those things.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
“Hey, we heard a big crash. Are you guys okay?” Wayne’s voice sounded. A second later, Neil was ripped off of me, and I was picked up off the ground by Ren. Lennon poked his head in the now loft-less room.
He turned to speak. “Wow that would have been bad.”
“Neil saved my life.” Although he was dusting himself off, Neil’s gaze didn’t leave me.
Wayne patted him on the back. “Good work.”
Gordon backed up two steps from all of us, and Ren set me on my feet, holding me steady for a second like he thought I might fall over. Gordon pointed at the loft room. “We’re doing that room first. She has to be safe wherever she walks.”
“Yes.” Neil nodded. “Mika has to be safe here. Nothing in her life is safe, but here will be. Every blasted inch of it. So that when her five husbands show up they can be safe, too.” He shook his head. “Sorry. Never mind that. Listen, I need to go to town. We’re going to have to get lots more wood, tools, everything. Find some day laborers to show up on and off. Do you want to come, Mika?”
Did I want to come? I never went to town without a purpose, and even then, I was quickly there and back again. I loved the idea, but it wasn’t a reality. “I’m the only Sister here with any power right now. Unfortunately, that means I have to stay.”
He nodded, narrowing his eyes when he did. “What is your favorite food? Just out of curiosity. Is there something you love to eat?”
Gordon slapped Neil on the shoulder. “Did you hit your head? You’re all over the place.”
“I love, just love, warm bread with butter. Cheese. Grapes. Total luxuries. We’d get them in the other place sometimes but it’s not a reality up here.”
Neil nodded, and Gordon took his hand off Neil’s shoulder. Neil spoke fast. “Wayne, stay here with Mika. Okay? The rest of you, you’re with me. We’ll be back by nightfall.”
The world shifted slightly. Like gravity had altered. And I didn’t know why.
4
Wayne sawed, and I handed him boards. He hummed to himself and did adorable things like wink at me every so often. Men didn’t flirt with me. Though, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that was what he was doing. What if there was something wrong with his eye?
Alexander ran up to me. I hadn’t seen him since the night I’d ordered him away. He’d been with Krystal and Daniella’s daughters. He threw his arms around me, and I caught him. He shook in my arms. I didn’t let go—something was wrong. He and I had a nice relationship—mostly teacher, student—although all of us acted as his caretaker on occasion. He’d been living on his own since he was five. Very rarely did he need actual tending. We were mostly educating him.
“What’s the matter?” I hugged him, even though to do so didn’t come naturally to me. No one had ever done the same for me.
Wayne stopped sawing, and over Alexander’s shoulder, he made eye contact with me. “What’s going on?”
Alexander pulled back to regard me, and his too pale face broke my heart. Was he sick? “Sister Mika.” I’d asked him to drop the Sister but he never did. I wasn’t going to argue right this second. “There are bodies. So many bodies.”
This child had seen a lot of death. If he said there were bodies—a lot of them—that meant a lot of them. “Where are there bodies?” I kept my voice low, trying to be a comfort. The first time I’d seen a lot of dead bodies had been my first trip out the Sisterhood to the South. There had been piles of them. I’d pretended to be brave. When I’d ended up throwing up over the side of the carriage, my number Three Guard had laughed at me. It had been a less than wonderful moment. I’d learned to keep whatever I was feeling to myself.
But Alexander was a little boy. And I wasn’t some cruel man who should never have been a Guard in the first place.
Wayne scooted over to us, placing his hand on Alexander’s back. “Hey, buddy. The Sister asked you an important question. I get how scared you are right now, but you are in her arms and she is the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen. You’re safe to tell her. I’m here, too. You don’t know me yet, I get that. But I wouldn’t let anyone or anything hurt you either. Where are the bodies?”
The little boy sucked in his breath. “Right outside the back gate.”
We almost never used that gate. I nodded. “Okay. I will figure out what to do about them. You’re safe here. I promise. I bet if you go in the house, you can talk Krystal into giving you some chocolate, and then you can go read with the girls.”
Daniella’s daughters almost never came out of their suites. The things those children had witnessed in their lives made them somewhat reclusive. For now, Daniella wanted us to go along with their desire to shield themselves. The babysitters took care of most of their needs.
With a final glance my way, Alexander took off running toward the house where the girls were studying.
“He’s very brave. If he is this shaken, whatever is by the back gate must be very bad.”
Wayne nodded. “Let’s get it over with.”
He was kind to offer his assistance. “Wayne, this isn’t your job. It’s entirely mine. You can keep working. I’ll manage this.”
“Nope, sorry. I’m unable to work when I hear there are dead bodies by the back gate. That’s a rule I have.” He winked at me. “You get company on this task.”
I decided against arguing. The truth was I could really use another person to go with me. If I needed someone to run for help, he could do so. I wouldn’t let him see me weak and grow to hold me in disdain.
I stiffened my back and walked by his side toward the gate. The back part of the property was mostly overgrown with weeds. There were no structures to maintain, just a long, winding path that eventually led to a wrought-iron gate. Nothing seemed amiss until I got right up to it. Strewn out on the other side were fields worth of bodies.
My powers surged to life.
“What in the world?” Wayne grabbed the gate and stared out at the scene. His eyes were wide. “What could have done this? Killed all these people.”
A silent dread filled me up from the inside out. “Any number of things could have killed them. Plague. Disease. Murder. But these folks were killed by a demon and walked here after they were dead.”
Wayne turned to me. “What?”
“Sometimes the demons do this. Like their personal calling cards. A wall of zombies to announce their arrival. I imagine Alexander saw the initial approach. Seeing that level of horror would be why he’s so afraid. The boy knows when to be scared, that’s for sure.” I put my hand on Wayne’s arm. He was a steady presence in a world that was about to become off balance. “This is the work of a chaos demon.”
He nodded. “What do we do?”
“This is where I draw the line, Wayne. I can’t allow you to get hurt. This is what I do, what I was born to do, my gift to the world.” Even as I spoke the words, I realized I meant them. It had been so long since I’d thought of the nature of my existence that I’d long stopped thinking about how I felt about my journey. “Not everyone is given the knowledge of just what they should be doing on this planet.
They come, and between birth, starvation, and death, perhaps they take a moment to question the nature of their existence. They ask why. I need never do that. I know why. I am here to serve. I am a Sister. It is a burden and a gift, one I share with a legacy of women who have come before me. We stand between the light and the darkness and tell all that is evil that despite evidence to the contrary, they will not win today.”
I put my hand on Wayne’s cheek. He was warm. I wanted to remember the feeling. Things were about to get cold. “Please go back to the house. Keep the doors locked. Chaos demons are powerful but low grade. He’s not going to get into the house with Bob underneath it. Please go there.”
I grabbed the latch and turned it to go through the gate. I really hoped he listened.
“Hey,” Wayne called out to me. I turned to look at him one last time before I proceeded through the fields of dead to find what I knew waited for me. “There is more than birth, pain, and death. There’s love. There’s babies. There’s laughter. Food. Sunsets and sunrises. There’s surprising yourself by doing something you never thought ever to do. There is a beautiful girl who doesn’t smile much that you want to make grin from ear-to-ear because she makes your heart jump whenever she’s nearby. There’s strength. Wisdom. Learning. The first snow and the leaves changing. The rain in the spring. A million things to go along with all that is hard. That’s what you do this for. That’s why you have your gift. For those things.”
I was so glad he had that life. More than I’d ever be able to tell him. “You should go back home, Wayne. Protect your place from this world. Thank you for sharing a piece of it with me. I did forget.” And just because it seemed the thing to do, I grinned at him. He met my smile with one of his own. I liked that he thought I was a beautiful girl, and he was right, I didn’t smile much.
The fields of dead were sort of beautiful in their grotesqueness. Most of these people had signs of possession on them. That made sense. Lesser demons—barely demons at all—possessed humans and slowly killed them, moving on to a new host when the previous body rotted to the point they couldn’t exist in them anymore. For a while, the host and demon shared a vessel. Then things changed. The human went mad, driven to death with the possession, and only the demon was left after that. Eventually, the body died with the demon still inside.