Allison Brennan - Carnal Sin

“I hate you!” Nadine screamed.

Moira didn’t know whether Nadine was talking to Grant or the crowd. She watched Grant closely. He had a familiarity with Nadine.

“You know her?” she stated.

“I go to the club a lot. I know most of the staff.” Grant stepped forward. “Nadine, I’m here to help you. I want to help. Step back from the curb.”

“Get back! Get back!” Nadine screamed. “I can’t see!”

If she couldn’t see, how did she know Grant was there? Moira wondered. Was she missing something?

Nadine felt around wildly.

Grant said, “Honey, it’s okay. You’ll be okay, I promise. Come here, I’ll take care of you.”

“No! No! I killed them. I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know it was going to be so awful, no, no, no! Don’t do this to me! Don’t!”

Grant mumbled, “Shit.” He said to Moira out of the side of his mouth, “Circle around the other side; I’ll go this way.”

“She’s going to get herself killed,” a bystander said.

“Grab her,” Moira said. “Get her away from the traffic.”

Grant moved away from Nadine’s line of vision and Moira distracted her by moving in the opposite direction. “Nadine, my name’s Moira. I can help you. You need to let me help you.”

“I know you! I know you! No, no-” Her face twisted and she put her hands on both sides of her head, her fingernails clawing her skin, drawing blood.

Grant ran toward Nadine, but she whirled around and screamed at him. “It’s your fault! Go away! Leave me! God, help me, I’m dying!”

Grant got ahold of her wrist, but she scratched his face with sharp nails and he stumbled backward, unable to keep his grip.

Moira grabbed Nadine from the other side and held her tightly around the waist. Nadine threw her head back once, twice, into Moira’s face and she tripped, trying to pull Nadine back with her, away from traffic, but Nadine dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand, which was still healing from the deep cut two weeks ago.

Moira saw black. Blood poured from her nose as Nadine wrenched herself from Moira’s hold and ran off the curb. Grant reached for Nadine, but the crazed woman turned and lurched headlong into the traffic, slamming against a car. Brakes squealed, but not before Nadine fell onto the pavement and was run over by a bus trying in vain to stop.

Moira screamed, her hands on her face, shaky from Nadine’s quick and surprisingly violent assault. Grant wore a bewildered expression, his face bleeding from where Nadine scratched him. Bystanders shouted, some woman cried hysterically, but Moira stood stock-still. She was stunned, shaken to her core.

Strong hands from behind pulled her back. She turned and found herself in Rafe’s tight embrace. She held on as if he were her lifeline, and then the tears fell.

When the irritated and extremely exhausted Grant Nelson left Moira and Rafe in their hotel room after confirming that they would be at the police station at eight the next morning, Moira turned to Rafe. “If he thinks I’m going to hole up in some stupid hotel while those witches who killed Nadine set up another victim, he’s delusional.”

“I expected you’d come to that conclusion,” Rafe said.

She frowned. “You agree, right?”

“One hundred percent. But we need a plan.”

“We read Jackson’s notes; we know most of the players. I understand generally how these rituals operate.” She wished she knew more about them. Her mother had never called on a succubus, though Moira had heard of the rituals. Would her limited knowledge be enough? She wished she had more time.

She crossed to the window and looked out at the lights in the parking lot below. She didn’t like being this high up-she’d requested a ground-floor room, but there were none available. They were on the fourth floor. She supposed if she had to jump she might survive, but she didn’t want to test the theory.

They were in a hotel, not a motel, and it was damn expensive. Moira would never have stayed here in a million years, but when Nelson gave them the ultimatum of hotel or jail, Rafe said they were planning on staying at the Palomar. It was sleek and contemporary, and Moira felt that she didn’t belong. She was used to sleeping in rooms that rented by the hour, places where she could dump salt across every opening and no one would say anything. She didn’t fit in this high-class environment, but surprisingly, Rafe seemed comfortable and at ease.

Moira couldn’t explain Nadine’s bizarre behavior, but she wasn’t wholly surprised. The demon had had complete control over Nadine, but Nadine was awake during the entire possession. Demons don’t eat or sleep; they feed on human souls. What could that do to a human being for a week?

Rafe had given Nadine last rites and anointed her with oil to prevent her spirit from wandering the earth lost and vengeful, but neither he nor Moira knew if it would work, or where her soul might be trapped.

Moira’s cell phone rang. “It’s Jackson. Finally,” she said and answered it, putting it on speaker so Rafe could hear.

“Hey, Jackson, Rafe and I are both here.”

“I have some information that might help,” he said. “I found the chalice that Wendy’s coven is using.”

“You have it?”

“A photograph. I’d rather discuss this in person; it’s rather complex and we need a plan.”

“We need a plan,” Moira said, “Rafe and me. You’re not joining this expedition to Wendy’s house. You have a daughter, someone who relies on you. I’m not risking your life, too. Besides, Rafe and I are trained-”

Jackson cut her off. “I sent Caroline out of the area to stay with her grandmother. You need my help. Let me show you everything I’ve found and we can figure out what to do. But I think we can get rid of this thing tonight.”

“Halleluia,” Moira said. “We’re at the Palomar. How fast can you get here?”

“Thirty minutes.”

She glanced at the clock. It was just after ten p.m. It had already been a long day, and promised to be even longer.

“Hurry,” she said and hung up.

“I’m confused on one point,” Rafe said.

“Only one?”

“Wendy’s coven uses a succubus. How would they know how to trap one of the Seven when even Fiona couldn’t do it?”

Good point. Moira considered. “Fiona thought she knew how to trap the Seven one at a time. She had Lily on the altar, was going to give her body to Envy until we stopped her. Nicole Donovan was there-she must have learned the ritual. Shared it with her psycho sister Wendy.”

“But the demon left Nadine’s body when you were chasing her, so it wasn’t trapped. Why did it allow itself to be contained at all? After facing down Envy two weeks ago, I don’t think any of those bastards are going to willingly be controlled by a mortal.”

Moira frowned and turned from the window. “I don’t know-but since a succubus is all about sex and stealing the souls of men, maybe the demon Lust is playing the game because it amuses her. Or-” She hesitated.

“Or what?”

“In my vision she said she had to find another vessel.”

“You mean, that vision that threw you against the alley wall.” He stepped over so he could touch her face. She knew she must look like death warmed over after the attack in the alley and Nadine head-butting her. Her hand still stung, though Rafe had bandaged it-and kissed it-for her.

She swallowed nervously, the proximity to Rafe clouding her thoughts, and said, “She may have been drawn out and contained in another vessel.”

“Spontaneously?”

“I don’t know! Demons are like yo-yos. They can sometimes be pulled back to the point where they entered the earth. Like they’re attached to an invisible umbilical cord that leads right back to whichever Hell’s gateway they walked through.”