Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet

I managed a few words between a heave and a swallow. “What was that?”

I knew, of course, but it was just too unreal. Too horrible for me to fully absorb. I had no idea humans could really be possessed. Figured it was just a movie device to cause goose bumps and nightmares. Or something preachers said to keep their parishioners in line.

But that man had been possessed, sure as I was standing there. Or, well, being dragged across the floor there.

We were halfway to the door when Reyes whipped me around to face him, clutching my shoulders in a death grip, his expression more angry than, say, understanding. So, naturally, I got annoyed. I’d just barfed. Did he have no sense of decency? Sadly, I could do nothing about it at the moment. I swallowed again and tried to push at his arms.

“Get in that Jeep of yours and get out of here, or I swear by all that is holy—”

While I was totally into the conversation and had every intention of listening to his seven thousandth threat, certain I’d take it to heart, I heard another crack. It was quickly followed by a guttural moan. Then another crack. And another moan that seemed more like the screech of a wounded owl.

I looked to my left, to where Reyes’s opponent lay dead. Only he wasn’t dead. He was up on all fours, craning his neck from side to side as though popping it after a long night’s sleep. Blackness swirled around him again as though the demon inside him had a hard time staying within the confines of the physical body it inhabited.

Reyes jerked me forward until his face was inches from my own. “Leave.”

Then it leapt. Like a tiger in the tall grasses of India, the man launched himself toward us. Toward me. Reyes pushed me down so hard, my head bounced, this time off the cement foundation. But the stars that followed were upstaged by one thing. As Reyes stepped protectively in front of me, tensed, readying himself for the attack, another growl, deep and guttural, echoed from the deepest corners of the universe.

With a ferocious snarl, Artemis jumped out of nowhere and ripped through the guy as he leapt forward. His physical body drifted forward, then landed with a hard thud, skidding across the floor, while the demon shrieked and writhed beside it under the attack of my guardian. Its teeth clamped down on Artemis’s neck. Its claws swiped at her back. She let out a yelp, but kept at it, her head shaking the agonized demon, her teeth tearing until a blackness, like a gaseous blood, seeped out, crept along the floor, then dissipated just like the demon itself.

I spared a quick glance at my attacker. No doubt about it this time. The man was dead. His eyes stared at nothing, fixed and lifeless.

Then Artemis turned toward me, lowered her head, bared her fangs, and let another guttural growl rumble out of her chest. And I thought we were friends. But Reyes had turned around as well, and damned if he didn’t do the same. I got that feeling of insecurity, like when I had something stuck in my teeth. Only they were looking over me, just past my head.

That’s when I felt the cold desolation of hatred at the back of my neck, and I knew there was another one. I looked up and into the vacant eyes of the boy in the Slipknot hoodie. He was much smaller than the Hulk, but his curious determination, and the saliva dripping off his chin, was no less scary. Just as he pitched toward me, Artemis shot across the floor and bolted straight through him like a dart. She tore the demon out of him and proceeded to maul the thing to its smoky death.

The boy dropped the second the demon left him. He curled into a ball, and that’s when recognition hit. It was the kid from my backseat. The kid I thought was dead. His blond hair was matted and dirty. His blue eyes somehow darker. Had the demon occupying his body sent his soul somewhere else? Maybe there wasn’t room for the both of them.

I blinked in startled realization until Reyes lifted me off the ground. Again. Being manhandled by the son of Satan was getting old, but I was too weak to do much about it. He started dragging me toward the door once more.

“Wait,” I said, fighting his hold. “Get the boy.”

“No.”

With a jolt of stubbornness, I twisted and jerked out of Reyes’s grip. He stopped and glared.

“Fine. Glare, glower, scowl, I don’t care, but I am not leaving this warehouse without that kid.” When Reyes crossed his arms over his chest, I continued. “He was possessed. An innocent boy.”

Artemis leapt up to me then and barked playfully. I kneeled down and nuzzled against her before looking up at Reyes again, thrilled that she hadn’t attacked him.

“Why would they choose a boy like that?”

“They have their reasons. The same reasons you need to leave.”

“Can he be possessed again? Will they come after him again?”

He looked back in thought. “It’s possible.”

I rushed over to the boy, knelt down to push his hair back from his dirty face. Artemis came over and tried to lick it. When she realized she couldn’t, she hunched down beside him. “How can we make sure they don’t?”

Reyes knelt, too, and checked the kid’s pulse. Artemis seemed completely uninterested in him until he reached for the kid. “They can’t touch him on hallowed ground,” he explained as Artemis scooted forward and licked his wrist.

“Really?” I asked, surprised by both the information and Artemis’s reaction to him. I was worried that since he was the son of Satan, she’d try to rip out his jugular. “You mean like churches and cemeteries?”

“Yes.” He offered her ears a quick rub, then turned the kid’s face up and lifted his eyelids. “He’s in shock.”