┌─────━┿──┿━─────┐

𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 : 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐒

└─────━┿──┿━─────┘

I woke up early the next morning still on the couch but the fire had been turned off. I silently thanked whatever ghost had passed through to keep me from somehow accidentally burning Crow's precious cabin down.

Sitting at the kitchen counter eating cereal, I finished up some assignments that were due today and tomorrow mostly because I had a good feeling that training later this afternoon would take up more time than we'd all want. The only thing keeping me from not crawling into bed was the exciting thought of actually working on the biology project Blondie, Winker, and I had been assigned. It was a wanted distraction.

Plus, behaving like normal teenagers meant we'd have to go to school, anyway. It meant we had to study and take exams (which meant I had to take one for French today) and attend boring classes when all three of us wished to be in the basement of Clandestine instead.

I drove nearly silently to school, only the sound of Crow's car humming under my fingers and legs filled the air. I wanted to keep my focus on what I needed to finish for homework but the majority of my thoughts kept going back to my mother.

She took her own life because it was the only way to keep true to the prophecy. But I'd seen my first ghost after so many years before she died but she still didn't want to take the chance. If it had been my own child, destined to save the world from this greater evil, I probably would've done the same or hoped I would've.

The air conditioner felt like ice against my face and my eyes began to water from the chill, but it felt comfortable. It felt familiar, that freezing cold crawling over my skin. I'd felt it when Beatrice first appeared to me, felt it when I walked into the cabin last night. I was afraid that cold would not protect me when it came down to it.

I had only four days after today to prepare for some mysterious package. A different array of ideas sprang to my mind for what the package could be and some of them included: a dead body, an explosive device, a body, someone to kill me, or something really, really dangerous. The things I was hoping it wouldn't be with everything in me: John, Ace, a demon there to kill me, John, the devil, or John Walker. Basically, I was terrified of John or any of his goons showing up on the cabin front porch ready to stab me.

I parked in the high school lot and grabbed my bag, clutching my biology textbook to my chest as I walked into the school. It'd only been a weekend but it felt like I'd been gone for ages. It felt different here, like it always did, without Pandora or Ace. But as I turned the corner to head to my locker, I saw Blondie and Winker standing near the wall closest to my row of lockers. Blondie was leaning back in a pretty skirt and Winker was chatting with a smile before his head turned and saw me. He offered me a smile and then a wave, Blondie's face lighting up more as she turned to notice me.

I gave them a smile and waved back and realized, even though Pandora and Ace were both gone, I still had them. I would always have them.

~

We went for a run around the block until Macabre's car rolled into the backlot. We had just finished our agonizingly slow paced fifth lap because Winker insisted Blondie and I try to get our stamina out like the asshole he was but we, of course, were dumb enough to listen, when we noticed his car.

Jogging back with more energy now that Macabre was finally here, I got through the backdoor before Winker and all the way down the steps to the morgue. The light was on in Crow's office and the door was open. Inside, Macabre was shuffling through papers which I could only assume were bills that needed to be paid when I leaned against the doorway and smiled at the man.

"I have news," I said to him. "News you aren't going to like."

"What aren't I going to like, Blaire?" he sighed, looking up from the papers with a look that told me he wasn't surprised or ready for whatever was about to come out of my mouth.

I crossed my arms. "Jonathan Blood was here last night."

This got the attention of Eva who was at the table, preparing her arrangement of small pistols to show Winker how to use one. Every bullet was laced with holy water, which only made the boy actually inclined to use them. He'd told us, earlier that day when Eva had messaged us, that he would never touch a gun as long as he lived. Turns out, bullets that could harm John in a way that mattered seemed to be his turning point.

"What?" hissed the demon, stepping towards the office. "He was here?"

"Cornered me in the pews," I explained. "And explicitly told me he was only there to warn me and not, like, kill me or anything."

Macabre frowned. "What warning could he possibly have?"

"I'll be getting a 'package' on Friday and if I don't follow the package's clear instructions, he'll start..." I glanced back at Blondie who was wiping sweat from her brows and trying desperately to catch her breath long enough to drink water. I leaned forward and whispered to the office, "He said he'll start killing my friends."

"Can we even trust him?" asked Eva with a beautiful scowl, baring her teeth. "He's a liar, he'd do anything to get you riled up and scared."

"He didn't even try to hurt me, not really, at least," I said with a shrug. "He had a knife and he had me right there and–" I snapped my fingers. "He could've killed me and he didn't, so, yeah, I trust him for now."

"Did he allude to what the package could be?" asked Macabre, setting down the papers he was now crumpling in his hands by accident. "Anything that we can use to prepare ourselves?"

I shook my head. "No, but I did find something interesting out last night, but not from Blood. Turns out, the devil's been making house calls."

Macabre rubbed his forehead as Eva crossed her arms, both of them trying to hide their obvious concern.

"He's been making house calls and using my knife."

"Fuck," breathed Eva.

"He showed up at Detective Ronaldo's front door with Ace and Conner," I told them. "He used his dogs to kill him." I rubbed my mouth before continuing with, "He used Ronaldo to also tell me about the package I'll be getting," I glanced at Eva, "so, this makes it even more plausible that I'll actually be getting something awful."

"At least we know a few more things than before," murmured Macabre. "We know John isn't afraid to send others to do his dirty work and that he's using your knife to taunt you."

"It's all a game for him," said Winker suddenly, coming up from behind me and Eva and we stepped into the small office to let him in with us. "He used to do it to other players on the field during football season. He'd bait them until they made a mistake."

"Just means we need to bait him back–" I started but Macabre shook his head.

"What we need to do is train and get your knife back."

"How do you suppose we do that?" asked Eva with a sigh. "The great demon blade is one of a kind."

I held up a finger with a smirk. "Not exactly." I left the room to go to my bag which I'd dropped near the table when we first arrived and noticed no one was here. I pulled out the journals and brought them back into the office, sparking Blondie's interest. "I'm pretty sure my mom has a spell for a demon blade in here. Not as powerful as the one that was used to make my knife but good enough that it'll kill something."

Blondie took one of the journals from me and I watched as she flipped through the pages, her fingers gracing each page without a mark or burn and I filed that in my head for something to discuss later.

"But can it expel a demon?" asked Blondie as her eyes read over one of the pages in the grimoire with interest. "Because a knife is just a knife, it can kill something if you really want it to but what we need is a spell to expel the demon from the host like yours does." She glanced up. "Yours does do that, right?"

"It's better than that, actually," I said with a laugh, glad she had found something to captivate her like this. "It'll get rid of the body for me so there's no clean up after."

"Yeah," chuckled Eva, her fingers singing softly as she ran them over the cover of the first journal, "we won't find a spell like that in one of these."

There were footsteps on the stairs and Monroe's cheery voice rang out behind us. "God, what sucked all the fun out of here? Vic, you working these kids to the bone today or what?"

When I looked over my shoulder, he was carrying a box of what I hoped were donuts and a carrying case of coffees. His hair was windswept and his cheeks slightly rosy and the smile that had been on his face fell slowly from his face.

"Don't tell me I'm too early."

"They just finished with a run," said Macabre, standing up from behind the desk to leave the room. He brushed past both me and Eva and gave his husband a soft kiss on the cheek before taking one of the coffees from the carrier and then the box of donuts to the table. He looked at us as he set it down. "We were going to give these to you later but now seems as good a time as ever, considering we have a real idea on our hands for once."

"For once?" laughed Winker, rubbing his hands together in delight as Macabre opened the box to reveal donuts of all types inside. Winker grabbed a jelly filled and bit into it so hard, jelly squirted out over his hand.

"We're looking for an incantation to make more demon blades," I told Monroe as I took the carrier from him after he grabbed his own coffee. I handed Eva her coffee, which was the last inside. "If we can even make one, that'll give us enough of an upper hand in case John ever decides to play ding-dong-ditch at our houses."

"Hey, Blaire," said Blondie with her mouth full of classic glazed donut, one of which Winker was feeding her as she read the journal, "your demon blade is called Spiorad, right?" I nodded when she looked up to wait for my answer. She smiled, holding the journal out for me to see. "Your mom drew it and here, at the bottom, look."

At the bottom of the page, scribbled in writing that hadn't been there the first time I'd looked through the book, like most of the notes I'd seen the night before, was an incantation. It was under a doodle of Spiorad, scrawled as accurately as it could be by someone who had not been an artist in this life or her past ones. The incantation seemed easy enough but there had to be a catch, there always was one.

"Apparently," said Blondie, "we need a shit ton of holy water."

Macabre crossed his arms "How much?"

"Uh," she narrowed her eyes and looked at the journal after taking it away from me, "like, maybe, a bathtub?"

"A gallon? Two? Three?"

"Um...two?" Her brows furrowed, like she was almost getting the words right but something was still in the way.

Macabre came around the table, glaring at the incantation over her shoulder and let out a slow sigh. "It's in latin."

I stifled a laugh behind my hand as I beckoned the journal over. Blondie passed it along and I took a moment to read the words over, watching them transform slowly before my eyes. It was impossible for me to be fluent but I guess these things just came with the job.

"All we need to do is be able to submerge the knives in holy water when we make them," I told the group, running my finger under each line as I read. "We recite the spell and then poof! More magic knives."

"Has the incantation been there the entire time?" asked Eva. I shook my head and she muttered, "Would've been too easy."

"A lot of these spells came out last night," I told them. "My mom had sealed these pages until I knew the truth about the prophecy."

"She was smart to do that," said Macabre. "If these fell into the wrong hands, things could've gotten terribly worse for you."

I smiled softly. "It's funny you mentioned that," I said, holding the book out to Blondie who took it, "because there's a blood lock on the journals to keep them out of the hands of anyone not blood related to my mom."

Blondie's eyes got wide. "Oh my god," she breathed, "do not tell me this is when we discover we've been secret siblings."

"Unlikely," said Macabre, flipping the page in the journal and his fingers sizzled. "You're more likely to have been a descendant of someone with witch blood. Blood locks aren't always as reliable as they seem."

"But–but–" Blondie frowned.

"Where are you from?"

"Michigan."

"And your grandparents?"

"Massachusetts, but, Mr. Macabre...we really aren't anything special like this."

Monroe's face lit up and he clasped his hands together. "How long have they lived there?"

"In Massachusetts?" He nodded and she bit her lip in thought. "I don't know, I think they've always lived there. My mom went to Michigan State so she stayed there–"

Monroe clapped giddily. "Colonial Massachusetts was home to the o-so infamous Salem witch trials. Looks like you might have some of that residual magic running through your veins."

Blondie's eyes slowly lit up, gripping the journal in tighter hands. I gave her a good smile and said, "I'll give you the rest of the journals. Read through them, learn what I couldn't."

She gave me a thankful expression even as she said, "This is just...just bizarre, you know?" She shook her head and Winker gave her a grin as he put his hand on her shoulder as she continued to speak. "I mean...I'd know if I was a witch, right? Like, I'd know if I was suddenly Sabrina or–or Willow?"

Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Buffy references were not what I expected from Blondie as she looked down at the journal and ran her fingers over the pages that would burn everyone else here.

"I knew you were special," said Winker with a grin but Blondie glared and said back in a strong retort, his hand dropping with a grin, "Okay, too cheesy, Mr. Cliché."

She adjusted her hold on the book and glanced up at me. "Do you think, like, maybe, we were all meant to come together like this?" Her eyes were shining and Winker rested his hand back on her shoulder. "The prophecy...you being the final necromancer..." She sighed. "Maybe we were all meant to be here, right now, together."

"Then what type of power am I gonna get then, Cass?" asked Winker in an exasperated tone. "I sure as hell aren't gonna start spewing fire from my hands or be able to even read Latin and spells and shit–"

"You're a football player, baby," said Blondie with a soft grin and feral eyes. "All you have to do is tackle them and you'll win each time."

He rolled his eyes and slid his hand over her shoulders, pulling her against him as he asked, "So, what's our first step here?"

"Go to the kitchen and collect bowls, I'd assume," said Monroe, making a motion with his hands for us to go and when we didn't move he said, "That means you three, now, scram. Bring back some knives if you find 'em too!"

~

Inside the church kitchen, we found what you'd expect. Old plastic bowls with Halloween decorations on them which they must've used at least a decade ago when they'd get trick-or-treaters here. There had once been a Halloween parade but that died out around the time I got to high school.

"These will have to do," muttered Winker with a sigh. He was going through the drawers and pulling out knives. He held up a butter knife and a plastic one still in its wrappings. "You'd think those assholes downstairs would have knives we could use but no–o."

"I mean...can't we just use these?" asked Blondie, holding up the butter knives. "If we, you know, stab hard enough it'll be fine."

Winker grabbed the knives from her with a scowl. "What if Monroe accidentally uses this to spread butter on his toast and when he puts it in his mouth–" Winker made a gagging slicing noise across his throat. "I'm not going to be the one responsible for killing Macabre's soulmate."

"We just need one really good knife," I muttered, still pulling open drawers and peeking inside. "We need a test run and if it works, then we'll just go out and buy out all the steak knives or something from one of the shops at the strip in Bellenau."

Winker, grumbling to himself as he bent down to look through the bottom drawers, pulled out a container of plastic spoons and knives. If we didn't find one good knife soon, I was afraid the kid was going to explode.

Blondie, looking through the old dishwasher, pulled out two serrated knives meant for cutting bread. "Will this work for now?"

She handed one to me and I turned it over in my hands. It wasn't as long as a normal bread knife was but it did have a slightly pointed tip that would work for now. I nodded and handed it over to Winker who let out a content sigh as he stood.

"You have any idea how we're going to see if this works after it's all done?" asked Winker, leaning against the counter. "It's not like we have a demon handy we won't feel bad about killing."

"Maybe Macabre has a secret dungeon full of traitors," said Blondie, "and he can just pull one out for us to use." Her face paled slightly. "Is that, like, so totally wrong of me to say? I...I just said we should bring out some helpless h–host to kill."

"It's an ninety percent chance the guy's an inborn," said Winker and I was surprised he knew the terminology. "The host has been dead for years."

"It's still so unsettling." Her eyes found mines across the kitchen. "How many..." she paused, biting her lip. "How many have you killed?"

"Uh..." I didn't need to think long and hard about it because I knew exactly how many I'd killed. I've seen their faces in my dreams most nights. "Four. I've killed–I've killed four."

"And were they inborns?"

I nodded. "The only one I knew who's a floater is Conner, the others...they didn't try anything remotely close to what Conner did the night–" I swallowed. "–the night Pandora died."

"Who were they?" asked Winker, a curious look crossing his face.

Blondie shifted next to him and answered for me. "They worked for the church," she looked at me and I nodded, "and they were Morticianers, all Crow's men."

"Even the asshole who shot you?"

I nodded back. "My mom considered him to be Crow's second in command in power." I balanced the knife on my finger tips. "I think...I think if he had been at full strength and his mind hadn't been..."

"Scrambled? Lost? Totally gone?" offered Blondie.

I smiled softly. "...then I don't think I would've survived. And the only reason I really did was because I had my knife so," I tossed it and the handle landed effortlessly in my palm, "let's get this down to the demons before they come up with any ideas on how to use these on us."

Down and inside the basement morgue, we prepared the bowls of holy water and I let Blondie do the incantations as practice. We could've easily gotten an already made batch thanks to the church but she wanted to learn and Macabre didn't look interested in tracking back up the stairs to get the amount we needed.

It was strange for me, having everyone working together. Passing the bowl around, pouring more and more all together like we were all one being entirely. Sure, it had felt like this during the failed summoning but with everyone there huddled around the table, it made me feel less alone. I wasn't in this by myself, no matter how many times the prophecy seemed to scream at me and how all the graves kept piling up.

Blondie clasped her hands together, reading down the instructions. "Before all the demons kindly leave the room, we need demon blood to finish this." She held up the serrated knife and waved it at our three companions. "Now, who wants to do the honors?"

Eva held her hand out before Monroe or Macabre could blind. Blondie took her hand gently, holding it over the bowl and muttering a quick, "sorry," before running the jagged blade over her palm. Eva made no movement nor uttered a single word to show us that it had hurt. Blondie was the only one to wince. Eva squeezed her hand tightly into a fist before the wound could heel, droplets of black spreading through the water like ink.

The water turned cloudy and when her hand was heeled, she wiped it off on her pants before leading the boys from the room without another word. It was so different, working with them over Crow. They meant business, there were no conversations, only quick nods and looks.

"What's next?" asked Winker, looking into the cloudy bowl.

Blondie took the knife and placed it into the bowl, the water rippling as the blade was submerged. She looked down towards the knife and muttered the incantation twice, all under her breath, before glancing up with a shrug. "Should be done."

I frowned. "That's it?"

She nodded, taking the knife out and drying it against her shirt. "Won't know until we test it out but I really thought there'd be, like, a flash of light or something." She held it out to me. "Feel anything like yours?"

It weighed the same as it did before and I let it rest in either hand with a frown. When I closed my fist around the handle, I tried to summon that hum I got with Spiorad, that rush of ungodly power but it only made my frown deepen. "Nothing. I'm getting nothing."

The door at the top of the stairs opened and Monroe's voice boomed down, "You down yet?"

"We think!" called Winker, his frown looking worse than what mine felt like. "We just aren't sure anything worked."

"we need a test subject," said Blondie. "Are you and yours willing?"

Monroe laughed, walking down the steps on heavy feet until he turned the corner to face us. "Lucky for you, we sent Victor off to make a few calls. We'll get you a test run going soon."

"You're just going to, what?" I asked, one hand resting on my hip as I leaned against the table. "Call up one of your friends and hope they don't mind being sacrificed?"

"It won't be a friend," he answered with a cool smile, sliding his hands into his coat pockets.

Blondie glanced towards us and then back at Monroe. "Anyone we might know? Like, we're not going to see our principle walk down those stairs, right?"

"It'll be someone expendable."

"How many of these demons are expendable?" asked Winker, looking down at our sad knife in my hands still. "We just got one knife and if you're calling in the calvary to go up against us–" Blondie hit his arm. "–then I'd like to know if I'm about to get ambushed."

Blondie hit him again with a scowl which sent the pair into a moment of quiet bickering. I set the knife on the table and motioned for Monroe to walk with me back towards the stairs. I had a feeling whoever would come down those stairs would be someone who could lead us right to the devil, or someone close enough.

"Is this 'expendable demon' someone who worked for the church?"

Monroe shook his head. "Just someone we've met in passing."

"And they aren't, I don't know, linked to John?"

A slow smile crawled up to Monroe's lips. "Aw, how'd you guess?"

"How're you getting one of John's henchmen to come here?" I asked, running through possibilities. Was Macabre working with John as an informant of some type? Was one of these demons working for the devil?

"We all know each other," said Macabre, "one way or another. We've been around decades, it's hard not to cross paths when there aren't as many of us as there were in the beginning."

"The beginning?"

"Demons were much more popular before satanic cults started growing in popularity."

I nodded, crossing my arms. "So, this demon you've known for however long, you think they'll know where to find John?"

Macabre rubbed his jaw and nodded. He regarded me down his nose before murmuring, quietly, "Are you suggesting we torture said demon for information?"

"Are you against it?"

"Hardly." He frowned, just slightly. "Well, actually, it depends on who Victor rings up." He jerked his thumb back to the stairs. "I'll go see what information I can dig up before we send 'em down. You'll know pretty quickly if they're worth torturing." There was a strange glint in his eyes, like he was excited about the idea of a group of high schoolers torturing a centuries old demon for fun. "I'll be down shortly with our guest."

While we waited, Blondie went through the incantation instructions for a second time with our other knife. We only had two to work with and if one worked, then, well, we'd know if we succeeded at all. I wasn't sure if Blondie or Winker would be able to kill the demon once they arrived but I couldn't imagine asking them to.

Winker was too busy looking through his Biology textbook and Blondie through her phone for me to stop and ask them whether or not they were okay taking a life. Winker had seemed more willing than her, only because the host body was most likely dead. If we were stuck with a floater, I wouldn't let them take the kill.

How strange it is for you to talk about this so normally.

I shook off the thought and kept my hand on the blade on the table. I didn't need to think about the lives I've already taken and how I was so willing to take more if it meant John would die and Ace would be punished.

Was I even the same girl I was before all of this? Was I even the girl I was a month ago or had she been swept aside for the girl destined to die? Destined to be alone?

Death and devil, hand in hand.

My throat felt tight and I swallowed thickly, hearing a foot step down on the creaking steps and I picked the knife up quickly. Positioning myself in front of the table, keeping both Blondie and Winker behind me the best I could, we listened carefully as the demon crept down the steps.

They sounded tentative, nervous almost. Were they scared like we were?

Turns out, he was very well dressed for the moment. He wore a nice brown suit, not a wrinkle in sight and if I'd have to guess, it was probably ironed before he put it on. He was bald and had pretty brown eyes and full eyebrows. Even his lips were full and plump. When he turned the corner, he seemed more surprised than we were to find him so dashingly handsome.

"Uh," he murmured, frozen in spot by the railing, "who are you?"

"Who the hell are you?" countered Winker, his voice surprising me. I hadn't expected him to speak at all.

"Well, they call me Ken."

"Ken?" asked Blondie, her voice nearly making me do a double take. Why were they both so calm? "Like Ken and Barbie?"

Ken, with a frown that didn't match his pretty face, snapped, "Who the fuck are you three and why am I here?"

"Well," said Winker, stepping up beside me, "I'm Luke and this is Cassandra and Blaire." I watched a small smile turn up on his face and he looked frightening almost, just for a second.

"Okay, and?"

Winker smiled. "And we're here to kill you."

oops havent updated in a while!! classes started and preseason has been taking up all my time and energy but im hoping now that classes r beginning ill finally find a schedule again <333

plus now that blood honey is done and so is we never sleep, this will have more of my attention (even tho i miss colette w my entire heart and being every day)

pls vote/comment i beg and ill have another chap out soon

ive missed my blaire <333333