A Cursed Embrace(8)
“How much do you know about demons?” he asked instead.
I shook my head, not realizing at first how hard I’d gripped his hands, until he shifted his grasp and caressed my fingers. “Not much. Just that they’re wicked bad and don’t belong here. Right?”
Aric lifted my hand to his face and brushed them against the stubble of his beard as if he’d done it a million times. “You’re right. They don’t belong. The power of good keeps them in hell. The strongest occasionally surface, except they’re never strong enough to stay for long.”
“How long is too long?” A millisecond seemed too much to hope for, especially judging by Aric’s serious disposition and the way he seemed to beat back a growl.
“Somewhere around five minutes.”
The image of someone with a stopwatch and a demon patiently waiting to be dragged back to hell didn’t follow evil creature protocol. Something had happened with enough witnesses to gauge the passage of time. My voice cracked, though I’d insisted it shouldn’t. “How do you know?”
Aric leaned closer, his tone lowered. “As guardians of the earth, weres have encountered an array of evil throughout the centuries. About ninety years ago, a demon appeared in Ireland, called forth by a dark witch seeking more power. My great-uncle had been hunting her. She’d violated several laws and needed to be put down. He and his wolf pack of five found her too late. She’d already called him and another forth.”
“Did the wolves kill him?”
“No. It’s damn near impossible to destroy a demon, Celia. You can hurt it. You can weaken it. Ultimately, you’re just buying time until it’s ordered back to hell.”
More good news. I cleared my throat. “What happened?”
“The pack found the first demon on top of her.”
I shuddered. “Killing her?”
Aric shook his head, his jaw setting tight. “No.”
My eyes widened, and I shriveled inward. “Oh my God.”
“He vanished when the other revealed itself. They fought the evil for about five long, agonizing minutes. By the time he disappeared, only three wolves remained.”
Across from us a group of teens laughed. The one in a UCLA sweatshirt pushed his buddy in play. Obviously they hadn’t heard Aric’s tale. I only wished I hadn’t, either. “And the witch?”
“She killed herself. The wolves then destroyed the spawn thriving in her dead uterus.”
“Oh.” I said it as if he’d just explained how to change a tire. What I really meant to say was “Oh, shit!”
I glanced at my uneaten food. Something told me my appetite wouldn’t return any time soon. I worked up my courage. “You think demons are being called forth?”
Aric shrugged. “There are rumors. The good news is very few beings of magic are able to summon such a strong evil. And like I mentioned, their time is limited. But something appears to have shifted in the demon realm. We just don’t know what it is yet.”
“Could they have killed those men? I mean, if they’d summoned them with some kind of magical, demon, evildoers artifact?”
Aric smiled at my attempt to lighten our conversation. “No. That shit only happens in movies. Like I said, it takes magical power to call magical power. The one doing the summoning has to possess a certain amount of mojo to get through.”
Aric’s large hands covered mine easily, stimulating the growing heat. It comforted me, and I wanted to just relax and enjoy it, but I needed to voice my fears. “Aric, Taran’s been having dreams. Bad ones. They involve what we think are demons, attacking us.”
“How many?”
“Excuse me?”
Aric watched me carefully. “How many demons appear in her dreams?”
“I don’t know. Lots of them. She describes them like a swarm of locusts.”
The tension in Aric’s powerful shoulders built. “I’d never heard of so many at a time. And no one has ever been able to bring forth two simultaneously. That’s why the one assaulting the witch disappeared when the second arrived.” Aric lowered our hands. “The rumors flying around and the mysticism of Tahoe energizing the air could be affecting her dreams. Try not to worry, okay? I’m here now to help keep you safe.” He said it. And I think he meant it. Yet he couldn’t hide the underlying concern in his voice.
“Okay, but if these demons didn’t kill the men, what did?” Aric didn’t answer, but the way he regarded me made me suspicious. “You don’t think I had anything to do with this, do you?”
“Of course not, it’s just that . . .” Aric’s hold tightened. “Tracking is one of my stronger traits. My wolf picks up the scent of death easily. I was the one who found the bodies while hunting the infected vampires and dismissed them as more of their victims. I should have suspected something else at play.” He let out a long breath. “My Elders feel I’ve been distracted lately. They believe if it wasn’t for my lack of focus, I would’ve recognized that a different being had killed the humans and possibly saved lives.”