“Hey! What gives?!” yelled Theresa. “Let us out of here! We can’t help you if we’re inside!”
I looked over my shoulder. “Yeah, that’s the point. No one else is going to die here today.” I mouthed the rest of the words to them silently so he wouldn’t hear. “Except the demon.”
Felicia looked at me, pleading, “Please, Jayne, don’t! You can’t go against him alone. You need us!”
I turned back to the demon but yelled so she’d hear me. “Sorry. He’s got no soul or spirit for you to suck out and I’m pretty sure his energy is poison anyway. I don’t want you to get hurt for me. My mom already paid ... the ultimate price.” I was choking up again, but I continued, “No one else is going to do that. Not today.” Except me, maybe.
I took one more step towards the demon, carefully and casually putting Blackie back in its sheath, hoping he would disregard my weapon like he did the others. I still had hope it might save the day.
Now the demon and I were only about a foot apart. “Come on, you ugly ass demon. Take me to bed or lose me forever.” The thought of a demon wiener getting anywhere near my hoo-hah was absolutely gag-worthy, but I had to try to be convincing. I swallowed the bile that came up into my throat and willed myself not to gag on it. It burned my mouth and esophagus, reminding me how much I hated even just a little bit of pain. I knew the chances of me getting out of this without suffering any more of it were slim to none, but I was okay with that so long as I lived – or at least banished him forever. If I had to die too, well, that would suck the big honkiss, but at least I knew Tony could come and guide me to the right place and that my mom would be waiting for me. That made me feel a little better. She was kind of a crappy mom on Earth, but I was willing to bet she was awesome in the Overworld. Then there was also the fact that Chase would eventually be there. Maybe sooner rather than later.
The demon held out its disgusting hand, covered in blood from the neck and chest wounds that had bled down and saturated everything below.
I reached up to take it while my friends behind me sent up a chorus of angry warnings and fearful pleas. I ignored them and walked out of the room, being led by the monster who wanted to be my demon lover.
Chapter 21
The thought of doing the nasty with Mister Nasty himself was giving me the heebie jeebies, but I played the part of the resigned mistress as we walked through the dining room and headed to the family room. His hand held mine, and its rough, leather-like texture made me feel like I was walking with a giant, cold-blooded lizard. When we got to the narrow dining room doorway near the stairs, he dropped my hand and kept me in front of him, occasionally pushing me or jabbing me with a claw to steer me in the direction he wanted.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To the special place I have prepared for the ceremony.” He led me to the bottom of the stairs, and something told me this special place was going to be in my bedroom. The idea of being bedded by a demon while surrounded by my high school memorabilia was funny to me for some reason, so I giggled. My mind was probably detaching from reality to help me stay sane. I forced it to come back, so I could be fully, mentally there and have the energy I needed to kill him off. I quickly went from giggling to gagging, nearly barfing.
“If you had cooperated before, your mother would still be alive,” he said in a menacing tone, pushing me up the stairs in front of him.
I ignored the painful words he was trying to hurt me with and said, “I guess it would be too much for me to ask you to be gentle, then? I’m still a virgin, you know.”
He pushed me so hard, I fell painfully to my knees on the stairs.
“Of course I know that. This would be a useless exercise if you weren’t.”
“Why?” I gasped, trying to push past the sharp throbbing in my knees and the near-breathlessness of my fear.
“Because the first time will bring the firstborn. It has been foretold.”
Great. Not only was I going to be one of those ultra-fertile types I’d read about in health class but some soothsayer had also apparently been talking about my virginity. How rude. How embarrassing.
We were three quarters of the way up the stairs now, and I hesitated a couple seconds there, searching my brain for a plan and my heart for more courage. I berated myself for not going all the way with Steve Polson, the guy who had taken me to the junior prom and thought he was going to get a reward in the backseat of his car after buying me dinner and dancing for an hour. To think that prom sex could have saved me from a demon rape was too ironic and awful to fully appreciate right now; but if I survived this horror story, I was definitely going to be analyzing the shit out of it with Tony later.
The adrenaline was pumping through my veins at maximum levels, making my thinking go haywire. Anyone who says situations like these sharpen the mind is a lying asshole. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack any minute, it was beating so fast. Sweat was coming out of my every pore. I could hear the blood rushing around in my ears. My brain felt like it was bulging out of my skull. Things were coming to a head and I still didn’t know how I was going to pull this demon killing off. My brain was like a plate of scrambled eggs. I had to keep the shield up around my friends, so I didn’t know if I could take care of them and this demon at the same time – one force of power to protect, one to kill. It was too much of a conflict in my mind and I couldn’t sort it out.
Just then I heard the buzzing of wings. It struck terror in my heart. Funny to think it was a pixie doing that and not a demon, but I was afraid for Tim’s little life. That stupid pixie was fearless – and unfortunately, he was also super easy for a demon to kill or maim.
I had no time to intervene. One minute I’m hearing the buzzing, the next I’m watching Tim zoom directly over my head, straight towards the demon. I twisted around to follow his flight path and realized what his plan was a split second before he executed it. His knife was out in front of him and he was flying Superman-style again.
“Hee-yah! Take that demon monster!” he yelled, flying straight for the creature’s one good eye.
Before the demon had time to react, he had a pixie knife sunk up to its hilt in his eyeball. He roared in anger, and possibly pain, reaching up to remove the offending object. He was effectively blinded now, and because the knife was so tiny it was impossible for his clawed fingers to grab. He was scratching his own eyeball out trying to get to it. Nothing could have been more gruesome to watch, except possibly the sex the monster wanted to have with me.
Tim zoomed up the ceiling screaming, “Jayne! Push!”
I saw my opportunity and took it. From my twisted position on the stairs, I put both hands on the demon’s chest and pushed as hard as I could.
It was like watching him go down in slow motion. He tilted backwards and started pinwheeling his arms to regain his balance.
He was virtually blind and couldn’t see me, so I risked it, turning fully around to get better footing, and kicked him hard with the bottom of my foot to shove him backwards. It tipped the balance in favor of gravity – specifically the gravity that was at the bottom of the stairs.
His roar of displeasure, at the realization that he was going down and unable to see where he was going, rang out and bounced off the walls around us. I covered my ears to try and block it out. It was as if his screams were drawing pure evil up from the Underworld and bringing it right into the house – some sort of demon power thing.
He toppled through the air and landed with a big boom at the bottom of the stairs. I ran down after him to the last few steps and stopped. I had to do something fast before he gained his footing. I was pretty sure that our deal where I’d have sex with him in exchange for my friends’ safety was null and void now. As my lawyer dad would say, I had breached a contract with the devil.
Without thinking about the consequences and with little finesse, I pulled up as much of The Green as I could. I moved it to the palms of my hands and collected it there, forming it into round balls of energy
that I intended to launch at him. I could feel the energy burning through my eyes. I tried to leave them out of the equation, but they didn’t seem to want to obey.
The demon was halfway up on his feet again when suddenly the front door burst open.
I was never so happy to see one face, and as mad to see another, as I was in that moment.
Chapter 22
“Chase! What are you doing here?!” I honestly thought he had blown me off. I was so thrilled that I didn’t have to question his dedication any more, seeing him standing there in my mom’s front hall. Then I turned to look at the other fae standing with him, getting instantly cranky. “Why did you bring him?” Ben. Like I wanted to deal with his stupid ass right now. Like I wasn’t having a bad enough day as it was.
“You need him, Jayne.”
“Fuck that! I need him like I need another hole in the head.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Listen, I’d love to debate this with you, but not right now. I have a demon to kill.” I turned my attention back to the black monster that had now gotten to its feet.
“Elementaaaal,” it growled, turning its bloody head towards the spot where Ben was standing. “Stay back or I will kill her.”
Ben ignored him. “Jayne, I can help you.”
“Just get the hell out of my house. It’s probably you who sent this asshole after me in the first place!” I took two steps back up the stairs, trying to put some distance between the demon and me.
“That’s not true and you know it! I’ve been watching over you for a year. I’m sorry this demon got through. I failed you. Let me help you send him back.”
“What? What are you saying?” I was so confused. The demon took a step up towards me, feeling his way using the bannister. I took another step up too, praying I wouldn’t trip while I was holding these green bombs in my hands.
“A demon can only be sent back through the elements. We must combine our forces together to send him to the Underworld.”
I shook my head from side to side, part of me wanting to deny what he was saying. But my logical mind took over, reminding me that every weapon we’d used against the demon so far hadn’t done a damn thing, other than blind him and make him bleed, which didn’t mean much since he was now another step closer to me than he had been two seconds ago and he’d bled enough that he should have been dead by now.
“Fine. Just this one time. Tell me what to do.” I felt like I was escaping the bed of one demon to get into the bed of another. My sense of morality was taking a hell of a beating today.
“You need to pull in Earth and Water. I will bring Fire and Wind. Channel through your hands, not your eyes. Keep your eyes clear. Don’t lose your concentration.” He took four long strides into the room, so he was standing at the bottom of the stairs but off to the side a little. “Look at me. Focus on my eyes. Do it now!”
I looked at him as he commanded but couldn’t keep my eyes there. I kept glancing back at the demon who was advancing, step by step, towards me. I took two steps back, but if I went any farther, I’d no longer be able to see Ben.
Ben’s very worried, angry, and admittedly beautiful face, that was starting to glow with the red fire rising up from behind him, never turned away from me.
Wind blew through the house, entering the front door left open by Chase – my daemon who was now also on the stairs, staying a few paces back from the demon.
“Chase, on my count,” said Ben, his face showing a fierce concentration.
I had no idea what they were going to do, but I decided not to worry about it. If we couldn’t kill this thing with the combined force of all four elements, I was just going to have to resign myself to losing my virginity to a blind, murdering demon and giving birth to its spawn or committing suicide by going into my element and never coming out. I’m pretty sure I could figure out how to disappear like that, too. The temptation was always there, actually, hanging around in the dark recesses of my mind whenever I touched my elements. Ironically, my mom’s standard, go-to threat echoed across my brain as I considered the demon-baby option – “Someday, you’re going to have a child just like you. Then you’ll see what it’s like to be your mother.”
I pushed those thoughts away for another day because my mother’s painful last moments on earth and needless death were too fresh in my mind. I looked at Ben’s face. He was still staring at me intently.
“You can do this, Jayne. Just focus. Feel your elements. Command them. They belong to you, not the other way around.”
I reached out farther and farther. I called not only to the living things with their roots buried in the soil, I called also to the souls of those who inhabited this planet, who fed from and lived on and died within its bounty. Millions upon millions of these sparks of energy filled my body, and I struggled with everything I had to push it all through myself and into my hands.
The green glow at my fingertips increased a hundred-fold, completely engulfing the stairs and front hall and foyer in its brilliance.
“That’s it, Jayne!” yelled Ben encouragingly. “Now Water! Pull it in! Take it!”
I reached out for Water. It was in the air around me ... in the Earth that was communing with my spirit. It came from the heavens above us. It even came from the tears that were now coursing down my face in response to all this majesty.
A brilliant blue light surged out of my body. I reined it in, forcing it into my hands to join with The Green. The swirling chaos of green, and blue, then turquoise completely blocked my view of the demon.
“Not your eyes, Jayne, be careful!” yelled Ben. “You can do this. You control it; it does not control you!”
Not the eyes, not the eyes, not the eyes, I chanted to myself. Please do not let me screw this up. My vision cleared a bit and I was once again able to see Ben.
“Good! Now. On my command, we hit him with it. Ready?!”
“No!” I yelled in a panicked voice, “I have no idea what you’re talking about!” I was going to fuck this up, I just knew it. Utter humiliation. An elemental who was a slave to her elements.
“I know you can do this, Jayne. You have to know it too. Have confidence. You are the Mother. These Elements are of you. Now when I say so, give it all to the demon.”
I needed to clarify, since I wasn’t sure what ‘giving it’ to the demon meant exactly. “Do you want me to blast him with it?”
“Yes! Exactly!”
The demon had other ideas, apparently not okay with being blasted. I could hear his pounding footsteps as he raced up the remaining stairs, energized by blind rage – literally.
“Now!” yelled Ben.
I saw the demon claws reaching for me through a kaleidoscope of colors that not only had blues and greens, but now also reds and violets, courtesy of Ben’s elements joining with mine.
I physically slammed the balls of energy stored in my hands into the chest of the demon, who had by this time reached out and grabbed onto one of my arms.
Time seemed to stand still for a split second as the room exploded with colors. The sound was immediately snuffed out and I felt as if I’d suddenly been struck deaf.
The demon began falling backwards down the stairs again, only this time, he was taking me with him.
I had no more energy gathered into me. I was bare of it, slowly falling to what was probably going to be my death by broken neck. My other hand scrambled to pull Blackie from its sheath, and in the moments before I went completely airborne, I managed to swing it over and stab the creature’s arm with it. I instantly caught a whiff of burning demon flesh and felt its claws release me as I tumbled downward.
Too late. It was too late.
I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t see what my death looked like. There wasn’t enough time to curl up in a ball or otherwise protect myself from injury, so I did nothing, just sailed through the air as if in slow motion.
I waited for the painful impact to come, but for some reason it didn’t. I found myself landing in the arms of som
eone very strong. I could feel his muscles bulge beneath me as the force of my weight hit. Was it Ben? I kept my eyes squinched up because I didn’t have any idea what had happened and my mind was telling me maybe I didn’t want to know. But then I caught the scent of something other than demon stink, and I realized where I was.
I opened my eyes to see the face of my heroic daemon above me. He had caught me as I had been about to hit the floor, fifteen feet below my spot on the stairs where the demon had grabbed me. I looked down at the spot where I should have landed and saw the body of the demon there in a heap. He was pretty dead-looking and in a very grotesque way. Both of his eyes were blinded, black blood congealed not only in the sockets but also down the front and sides of his face. Broken arrow shafts protruded randomly from various parts of his body. He was one not-so-hot mess.
Chase walked over towards Ben, and gently put me down next to the only other elemental in the world I knew of. I wasted no time in grabbing Chase into a very strong hug, so glad to be alive and so amazed that he had arrived just in time to save my sorry ass. I knew Ben deserved a lot of credit too, but I wasn’t ready to give it to him yet. Part of me felt like blaming him for this shitfest. Something he said a few minutes ago nagged at my brain.
I let Chase go and turned to Ben. “Thanks. For helping.”
“You are most welcome,” he said, bowing a bit at the waist. “I’m glad I got here ... in time.”
“In time before I was raped, right?”
He cleared his throat. “A-hem. Yes. Exactly.” He looked up at the ceiling.
I looked at him through narrowed eyes but was stopped from verbalizing my next thought by the arrival of the others.
Tony, Céline, Finn and the twins appeared from around the corner, coming towards us hesitantly, glancing from the mess on the floor to me and back again. My release of The Green had apparently dropped the shield around them too. Tony stopped next to me, looking over at Ben and nodding his head in acknowledgment.