Allison Brennan - Carnal Sin

“Turn around, put your hands on the wall.”

Rafe complied. The cop pulled out his wallet. “You can turn around, but keep your hands where I can see them.”

“Name’s Raphael Cooper. I live in Santa Louisa.”

The cop’s head shot up, his eyes narrowed. “Santa Louisa?”

Moira moaned and tried to get up. Rafe stepped toward her, and the cop put a hand on his chest. “Hold it, Cooper.”

The detective looked again at Moira. “Moira O’Donnell,” he said as he recognized her. “From the morgue.” He shook his head. “Well, fuck me. I told Sheriff McPherson to stay the hell out of my case.”

It would have to be Detective Grant Nelson, the lead cop in the deaths they were investigating.

“Skye didn’t know we were here,” Rafe said.

“I don’t buy that for one minute.”

Moira got up on all fours. “Please,” she said, “no ambulance.” She spit out saliva tinged with blood.

“Moira,” Rafe said, “don’t move.”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled.

Nelson helped Moira sit up and lean against the wall. It was obvious to Rafe he’d spotted her gun as his stance changed from helpful to suspicious.

“Tell me what happened,” he demanded of Moira, watching both her and Rafe closely.

She took a deep breath, glanced at Rafe, then proceeded to lie smoothly. “I was walking down the alley and someone pushed me against the wall. I must have banged my head harder than I thought, because I went out.”

“Who pushed you?”

“I don’t know.”

“They? How many?”

“Three boys. Older boys, in their teens.”

“They just ran through the alley and pushed you down.”

“They were huddled together. I think I surprised them.”

“Know what they look like?”

She shook her head.

“White? Black? Purple?”

She glared at him. “White. Skinny and dressed like kids-jeans and T-shirts. It happened fast. My head hurts.”

“An ambulance is on its way.”

“I’m fine.”

“You should be checked out.”

“I said I am fine.”

“Why were you here in the first place?”

“Is it a private alley?”

Rafe saw that Nelson was getting irritated with Moira’s answers, so he said, “Detective, we just wanted to see the club where the kid died.”

“You’re not a cop. Your friend the sheriff doesn’t have jurisdiction. You’re interfering with a police investigation and I swear, I’m this close to taking you both to jail.”

Moira paled, and Rafe wasn’t going to let anyone imprison Moira again. He said, “We’ll go, Detective. Sorry to have caused a problem; we didn’t mean to interfere.”

“Nelson,” Reggie said, “the girl doesn’t look too good.”

The detective lost some of his hard edge. “Let’s get her inside.” He glanced at Rafe. “You want to help me?”

Rafe wrapped one arm around Moira, Nelson did the same on the other side, and they helped her to her feet.

“I can walk,” she insisted, though she leaned heavily on Rafe. Her eyes were half closed and Rafe noticed she was trying to shake off the dizziness.

Reggie opened the employee door. “This is the break room. You can sit in here a minute.”

Rafe said, “Let’s get you some water.”

“Cancel the ambulance. Please.”

“No,” Nelson said.

“Please,” she said again, in her don’t-argue-with-me tone.

“It’s against my better judgment,” Nelson said, then nodded to Reggie, who was back on his cell phone, shaking his head.

As soon as Moira stepped through the doorway into the break room, she felt magic. It wasn’t strong, but there was enough here to have her skin tingling. She wasn’t consciously searching for it; the wave hit her unexpectedly, and she shivered.

“What is it?” Rafe whispered.

“Detective,” Moira said, “could I get some water?”

Reggie said, “I’ll get it. I’ll tell Wendy you’re back here.”

Damn, she didn’t want to talk around the cop.

Reggie popped his head back in. “Nelson, there are two cops up front.”

Detective Nelson said, “Stay here. I’m serious.” He tapped Rafe’s wallet. “I’m keeping this, because we’re not done talking.”

As soon as he left, Moira stood. When Rafe protested, she said, “I’m fine. Shaken. I had a vision. I think.”

“What the hell happened out there? A ghost?”

“A demon.”

He reached for his dagger, but Moira motioned for him to keep it hidden. “Not now, in the past.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t, either. I thought at first it was a death imprint-everything darkened, the lights came on, and I saw Craig Monroe walk in front of me, followed by a woman. It was the same woman I had the vision about last night. The brunette.”

“You’re certain? The woman you thought was possessed?”

Moira nodded. She felt so cold just remembering the image of Craig Monroe dying so violently, his soul drawn out before he was gone. She sat down again to collect her thoughts.

“At first I thought she was a victim and he’d been infected. By the way he was treating her-she seemed to be willing, but he was rough and mean. She gave him oral sex, but right when … you know … something else happened. He was dying. He saw something in her face and he was scared shitless-I couldn’t see her face, but I saw his.” She shivered. “He begged her to stop, then she sucked his soul out of his body, swallowing it with her mouth. She’s a demon-very powerful-but she was definitely in a human body.” She frowned. “I didn’t know she was a demon-I couldn’t feel anything, no magic, no otherworldly power; it was like watching a movie. But when she spoke she said his soul was hers.”

She hesitated, and Rafe prompted. “How did you get thrown against the wall if it was a death imprint?”

“It was the demon. She saw me.”

“That’s impossible.”

She scowled. Rafe sounded as though he didn’t believe her. “I don’t know how it happened! She turned and saw me. It was unreal. Like-like maybe I went back in time. I know that’s not possible-dammit, I don’t know what’s possible anymore! But the demon saw me, looked right at me, called me by name!”

Rafe looked as though she’d slapped him. “The demon talked to you?”

Moira couldn’t stop shaking. Rafe sat next to her. He put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed. “Moira, I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You’re safe now.”

“Safe.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then whispered, “I don’t think we’ll ever be safe.”

“Have you heard of anything like this before?”

She shook her head. “I started an exorcism-I knew subconsciously that it wasn’t going to work, because Monroe was already long dead and the demon wasn’t there, but I thought maybe the demon was just coming back to the scene of the crime, or I was in Hell or something. I don’t know! But she looked at me, laughed, said I didn’t understand. Called me a fool and tossed me against the wall. Didn’t touch me. Couldn’t.” She opened her eyes. “She knew me.”

“Anthony understands how demons operate. I’ll call him.”

“He’s still on a plane to Italy.”

“We’ll figure it out. It could be a mind trick, a spell-something that had you seeing Monroe’s death.”

“She said something else, that she had to find another vessel. I think she was angry that I’d seen her victim. But I don’t know the woman. I don’t know where to start looking.”

Moira stood, and Rafe said, “You need to take it easy. You have a nasty bump.”

“I’ve had worse. I need to shake it off. I don’t like it here.” She began to walk around the room, stopping in front of the employee lockers. She closed her eyes, her hand inches from the front of each locker as she walked by. “There’s magic here.” She hesitated in front of the next locker. “And here.” She kept going. At the end she stopped. “There’s a witch for virtually every locker! But this one belongs to the leader.”