Dream of Me

  “Your voice is beautiful,” she said, finally breaking the intense moment.

  “I have a slight advantage; being immortal leaves a lot of time for practice,” he told her with a wink.

  Okay, so the wink was just about her undoing. Nothing should be that sexy. Truly Dair should be kept out of close proximity from any female because if he went around flashing that lust-worthy smile and winking, he would create a mob of women desperate to have just a few seconds of his attention. He took her hand and led her from the dance floor to an empty space at one of the makeshift bars. Serenity took the water he had ordered from the bartender and downed the whole glass. She couldn’t help it. Her throat was dry and she needed to occupy her mouth with something before she lost control and occupied it with Dair.

  “You alright?” he asked her as he brushed her hair back away from her face. His fingertips grazed her neck causing her to shiver.

  She needed to take a breather for just a few minutes and clear the lust induced fog that was clouding her brain. She nodded. “I’m good, just need to run to the ladies room real quick.”

  As she started to walk away, Dair caught her hand and she looked back at him. His eyelashes swept down as he gave her a hooded look. “Don’t be long; I’ve missed you today.”

  Serenity was pretty sure she whimpered at his words and the emotion his voice held. From anyone else it would have been cheesy, but from Dair it was as smooth and effortless as breathing. The only thing she could give him was a nod. That’s the only thing her scrambled brain could manage. She turned back, letting her hand slip from his, and headed to the ladies' room.

  Serenity stood at the bathroom sink staring at the person who looked back at her. Her hands were sweaty and her heart was pounding out a rhythm that she was pretty sure was to the tune of I love Dair. It was on the tip of her tongue when he had been holding her and singing to her on the dance floor. Why hadn’t she said it? The only thing she could come up with was fear. She was afraid to care so deeply for him, knowing that she might lose him. As she turned on the cold water, Serenity let out a steadying breath and then stuck her hands under the cool stream. She cupped her hands to gather the water and then splashed it onto her face. Serenity was surprised no steam rose off of her heated skin. It helped, a little. She at least was beginning to feel like she could breathe again, and she might not combust if Dair winked at her again. But there was no guarantee.

  Serenity was drying her hands when she felt her cell phone vibrate in her back pocket. She pulled it out and looked at the screen. It was a local number but not one that she recognized. Normally she might not have answered it, but for some reason, she felt compelled to.

  “Hello?”

  “Serenity,” Emma’s voice came through the phone but Serenity could tell immediately that something was wrong.

  “Emma, are you okay? Are you sicker? Do you need to go to the hospital?” Her mind was running a million miles an hour as she considered the possibilities of why the girl would have called her. Serenity immediately thought it had to do with the fact that she hadn’t been feeling well. She hadn’t even considered that it could be worse―much, much worse.

  “I hate to ask this of you, but could you please come to my aunt’s house?” Emma’s voice shook as she spoke and the tears she was crying were evident in the quick intake of breaths that she took in between words.

  “Of course, I’m on my way. Are you okay?” Serenity asked again because she needed to know that Emma wasn’t hurt.

  “I’m not really sure how to answer that.”

  Emma’s words were drowned out by a slurred voice. “Quit your chit chatten, little girl, and tell yer friend to hurry up and git here.”

  Serenity’s stomach dropped to her feet as she heard the voice was Rat’s. At that point, she was no longer thinking. She was simply on auto pilot. In hindsight she would realize that she should have taken a few minutes to go and tell her aunt and uncle and Dair, but her only thought was get to Emma. She flew out of the bathroom. Instead of going back out through the large room full of people, she raced toward the other direction, down the hall, and out the back door. The cold air rushed into her lungs as she slammed through the door and into the night. Serenity hadn’t bothered to stop and grab her coat, and as she reached her car she was thankful that she’d taken her car key off the key chain and stuffed it in her front pocket. She hadn’t wanted to carry a purse with her and all her keys were too big to fit comfortably in her pockets.

  Her hands were shaking as she reached into her pocket to get the key. The ridges got caught on the fabric and she heard it rip when she forced the key out. The lock was frozen so Serenity had to be careful not to break the key off attempting to unlock the door. Her mind was filling up with horrible scenarios as she leaned down and breathed warm breath over the key hole, all the while praying that she would get there in time. In time for what, she didn’t know. She just knew she needed to hurry. Mercifully, she felt the key finally slip into the lock after her fifth attempt. Serenity was pretty sure something or someone was helping her along because she had never moved as fast as she did in those few minutes. She threw herself into the seat, closing the door and starting the car at the same time. She had it in reverse and was flooring the small car through the ice-covered parking lot faster than she could sing the first ten presidents of the song she’d learned in the fifth grade. For whatever reason, when she was extremely stressed, that song popped into her head and she would sing it in her mind. Weird, she knew.

  Her car was on the road to Mildred’s house in a flash, slipping and sliding, but somehow, miraculously, she didn’t end up in a ditch. There were no other cars on the street, which was a massive blessing. Something about the dark night seemed so sinister in that moment. The emptiness of all the parking lots and the lack of people loitering around the stores was eerie. Considering everything within the city limits was practically in walking distance of each other, Serenity was sure that Mildred’s house had somehow jumped up and walked clear across the county as long as it was taking her to get there. Her fingers tapped a beat to the worry that was bouncing around in her head. She wanted to kick herself for not going and getting Emma. Serenity should have known that Mildred would be throwing some sort of sick soiree with the vermin she called friends.

  Her hand slammed down against the steering wheel as she shouted, “DAMMIT.” How could she have been so foolish? And now because Serenity had talked herself out of picking the little girl up, Emma was stuck in the hands of those monsters. Where the hell was Raphael she wondered? She couldn’t imagine that he would leave Emma, especially if Mildred’s friends were around.

  Serenity’s foot pressed harder on the gas pedal as her destination came into view. She hit the driveway at a speed that caused her low front end to bounce off the uneven concrete. Serenity didn’t care. All she could think about was getting to Emma. She threw the car in park and was out the door without even realizing that she hadn’t shut the engine off. Her feet pounded against the unforgiving frozen ground, causing a jarring pain to shoot up her legs. She ignored it. She also ignored the pain of her shoulder slamming into the front door as she turned the knob and shoved her way into the house.

  With all of the scenarios she had built up in her mind, she hadn’t come close to hitting the mark. The scene before her was like something out of a horror movie. The room was dark with only a small lamp casting a low light. Serenity quickly found Emma standing against the far wall with her eyes wide and her body stiff. Raphael stood behind her but she could tell no one else could see him. In that moment she wanted to yell and scream at the angel. What the hell was he doing just standing there? How could he not be getting Emma out of the house while a drunk, high―and who knew what else―mad man waved a gun around muttering under his breath. Rat didn’t even seem to register that Serenity had entered the room. Mildred sat slightly dazed on the couch, her eyes shifting from person to person. She truly didn’t seemed bothered by Rat or his gun. Serenity wondered why p
eople like this were allowed to live. They only existed to hurt others. Their lives seemed like a serious waste of space, and she knew those thoughts were utterly hateful, but she couldn’t bring herself to care as she watched tears stream down Emma’s face.

  “Mildred,” Serenity practically growled. “What have you done?” She pointed at Rat and her lips curled up like a vicious predator ready to devour its prey. “Why would you let that man in here with a gun while your niece is in the house?”

  Her voice finally jarred Rat from his demented rambling as he stopped his pacing and turned his head slowly towards her. It reminded Serenity of a scary movie she had once watched where a demon had crawled across the ceiling and then stopped to turn its horrible face on its victim just as slowly. She battled with herself to stand her ground, to not step back away from the evil that stood before her. And that’s what he was―pure evil. There was something in his eyes that hadn’t been there the first time she’d met him. Almost as if Rat wasn’t the only one home, something else had taken up residency in his body and was influencing his actions.

  “Pretty, pretty, pretty.” His voice was slightly higher than last time, and Serenity hadn’t thought she could be any more freaked out. She was wrong. “Pretty.” His body turned towards hers as he whispered the word that would now be forever burned in her mind, in that voice. Serenity was sure that if anyone ever called her pretty again she would vomit on them.

  Serenity was frozen under the sinister glare. Everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath as they waited for the puppet before them to say something more. The fear rolling off of Emma was palpable, and Serenity just wanted to cross the room and gather her up in her arms, shielding her from Rat and his gun. But she couldn’t move so she did the only thing she could in that moment, she prayed, God help us. The thought repeated itself over and over as she waited for Rat to make his next move.

  Chapter 13

  “If you dream that you are in a circus, tied to a spinning board, and the knife thrower is flinging his blades at you, it means something painful is about to happen in your life.”

  Emma was like stone against the wall staring at Serenity who looked as shocked as she felt. How had this happened, she kept asking herself? Her mind sifted through the events of the evening, trying to determine where her situation went from ‘kind of bad’ to ‘category five hurricane bad’. She and Raphael had been sitting in her room, attempting to entertain themselves by drawing up the plans for a large scale incendiary device, or BKB, as Emma had called it. When Raphael had asked her why she called it a BKB, she just rolled her eyes and said, “Big Kablooey Bomb, duh.” Raphael had refused to get her the material but he at least agreed to let her sketch it out on paper. There had been a wall jarring bang and then the sound of Rat’s voice filled the house. Emma recalled the look on Raphael’s face when he’d heard Rat’s voice.

  “Raphael, what’s wrong?” Emma asked him. She knew that he was worried about Rat hurting her, but the look on Raphael’s face went far beyond worry. Fear, then anger, then resolve, flashed in the angel’s eyes.

  Raphael didn’t answer her as he stood and went to the bedroom door. She watched as he did something to the door knob, working his angel mojo she decided. He didn’t move from that spot. Emma sat still, trying not to hear the things Rat was yelling and cringing when she did. He sounded frantic, almost out of control. She wondered what drug could bring out such a reaction, because the only effects she’d seen so far on her aunt and the others were the sluggish kind. Rat was anything but sluggish.

  The sound of shattering glass filled the hall, and for a brief moment, she imagined the glass was her own life breaking into a thousand tiny little pieces. She knew that all her efforts to keep it together had been futile. The cracks were too many and too deep. How had she thought she could handle living here? How did she think she could possibly survive in the care of one such as Mildred, who wouldn’t care if people hurt her? Emma felt like an optimistic fool. She was eight years old for goodness sakes. Who was she that such ugliness couldn’t touch her?

  “Emma,” Raphael’s voice was sharp.

  She looked up at him and saw the stern glare that pierced her.

  “Do not let it taint you.”

  “What?” she asked, her voice sounding hoarse.

  “The evil that has entered this house; it is not just the evil of a man’s flesh. Something supernatural is happening and it is affecting you. I can see it in your face; do not let it crush you. The lies it is whispering to you are just that—lies. Fight back with truth.”

  She was trying to catch up with what the angel was saying, but negative thoughts swirled in her head clouding her mind. Raphael had said something about supernatural. Her eyes narrowed and she sucked in a breath. “Do you mean a demon, like what you were talking about earlier? Is it because you told me about them―sort of like that saying, speak of the devil and he will…,” her words trailed off as she watched his reaction.

  Raphael’s shoulders tensed. He was so rigid that Emma thought if she pushed him he would fall stiffly to the ground like a statue being toppled on its side. His jaw flexed as he ground his teeth together. “Rat is a weak man,” he finally said. “I told you that the minions find people who are weak and influence them. They gain their power off of those like Rat who have no willpower to fight back. Rat has practically rolled out the red carpet for the beast.”

  “Cookies and lemonade,” Emma said with a sad shake of her head. “Like mama said, 'What do you expect if you offer the devil a recliner and hand feed him grapes?' ”

  Raphael’s lips twitched. Emma thought it was funny that the angel got such a kick out of her mama’s sayings. She was glad someone appreciated them as much as she did. Another crash had her attention snapping back to the present. It was quiet suddenly but Emma didn’t think the chaos was over. No, it was more like the calm before the storm. She couldn’t have been more right. Her door smashed inward under the force of someone either kicking it or ramming their shoulder into it. Emma stood quickly and backed away, looking from Raphael to the door. The look in the angel’s eyes was one of complete helplessness. Finally, the door crashed in and Rat stood in its place.

  “Time to come out and play,” he said as a sinister smile stretched across his wild-eyed face.

  Something was wrong with him and it wasn’t just the drugs. Raphael didn't need to tell her that. She could see the man. It was clear Rat was under the influence of something so twisted and evil that it made it difficult for anyone in the room to breathe. She took a tentative step toward the doorway. She’d much prefer to exit on her own rather than being man handled by Rat. As she walked past Raphael, she felt the brief warmth of his touch on her shoulder and heard him speak in a language that she didn’t understand. Rat’s head snapped up as though he had heard the angel. Emma looked from one to the other, waiting with baited breath. All of a sudden she was quite certain, judging from the look of utter hatred stretched across the gaunt man’s face, that Rat could see Raphael.

  Raphael’s eyes met Rat’s. But it wasn’t a man’s eyes that stared back at the angel. It was an ancient evil, one he had contended with many times before. This demon was extremely cunning. He knew with exacting certainty the rules that would keep him from being cast into the fire, and he was careful not to cross them. Raphael could see humor in the beast’s eyes. He was laughing at Raphael. The demon knew that the angel couldn’t touch him. Free will of the humans prevented the angels from interfering. Unless given a direct order by the Creator, Raphael could not intervene when the rules had not been broken. Raphael had received no such order.

  “Why are you even here, light bearer?” The demon’s voice was a hiss and sounded odd coming out of Rat’s mouth. “You know you can do nothing. You have no purpose.”

  Raphael’s muscles flexed with the urge to do battle. He had served in the Creator’s army and fought many foes, and still the demons of hell paraded across the earth wreaking havoc. Of course, the only power thes
e foul creatures wielded was whatever the humans allowed them.

  “I serve a greater purpose than you can imagine, ancient one. It is you who truly has no place in this world. You are nothing but a parasite, weak without your host.” Raphael could see that his words had hit a nerve. Demons were extremely prideful beings and hated to be insulted. This demon in particular was one that specialized in violence. These types of creatures seemed to be especially prickly. Raphael was surprised that Rat didn’t carry the demon of addiction, considering his recreational habits. A demon which, though no less dangerous, was much more subtle.

  “You know what must take place and what is ordained,” the demon taunted. “I have been given permission.”

  “Not to harm the human!” Raphael growled. “You may influence your host, but he must choose. It must be by his hand.” Raphael moved faster than a human could track and had Rat’s arm in his hand before the man could back away. He felt the demon squirm inside of the man as Raphael searched Rat’s mind. He had to know if there was anything salvageable left in the man. Could he be reasoned with so that he could fight off the evil that was attempting to coerce him to act? He could see Emma out of the corner of his eye. She stood, watching and barely breathing. He imagined she was attempting to keep from drawing Rat’s attention to her. Smart girl, Raphael thought.

  Raphael searched the man’s mind and found that it was depraved beyond his worst imagining. He fought the urge to crush him, to prevent him from playing his part in what was to come, but it was not his place. He would not be like Lucifer so many millennia ago who decided that he should be equal to the Creator. He would trust and obey, as he always had. Raphael released the man’s arm and stepped back. “I will be watching,” he warned the beast.

  A sick giggle bubbled up out of Rat’s throat. He motioned for Emma to move forward. She hesitated at first, but one hiss from the demon had the girl’s feet moving quickly across the stained and worn carpet. Raphael followed them both into the living room. Mildred was sitting on the couch with her eyes glazed over. As soon as Raphael entered the room, her eyes snapped up to meet his, and she let out a high squeal that should never have come from a human’s mouth. The demon staring back at him from her face was weaker than the one that occupied Rat. Raphael held its gaze, trying to get a read on what type of entity he was dealing with. He watched Mildred fidget as the beast inside her grew uncomfortable under the angel’s scrutiny.