Page 71 of Death Wish

Not knowing where else to go, I headed toward the oldest part of Fairport, to the cemetery. It had started as a small space of land, occupied by the graves of some of the first settlers. Some were as old as the eighteenth century. As the colonist town grew over the decades to the city it was now, the cemetery gained more and more land, expanding to over a mile in every direction. Most of the first graves were decimated by time and nature, but some stone markers still stood, a stark contrast to the new, shinier marble tombstones on the opposite side that sat on top of fresher bodies.

With days until the solstice and me as a spirit now, I knew I couldn’t collect the Holiest earth tonight, but the least I could do was find the grave with the oldest marker and hope that was the one that was going to save Kay and help Cole. That way, on the solstice, we could return and scoop it up without a problem.

As I approached the cemetery’s iron-gated entrance, I was halted by what was before me. The ground on the other side seemed to shimmer with a range of different colors. Reds, blues, greens, and golds hovered just above the grass, like wisps of rainbow smoke.

Not spirits. I would be able to see them if they were souls. But waves of pure energy that were collecting on this Holy ground. I had seen this before but only on the solstice, when the living and non-living planes were at their closest. The fact that the solstice was still days out and the veil was thin enough for this to happen was very concerning.

Not good. Not good at all.

“It’s true.”

A male’s voice had me spinning around, fists out, ready for a fight.

There stood a stranger with a long face, pointed nose, and dark hair in a ponytail. He was unknown to me, but he smiled as if he knew me, making apprehension slither up my spine.

He wore a finely tailored plum-colored suit and polished shoes, looking very important and equally expensive, giving him the appearance of a socialite or important businessman. Both felt out of place here in front of a cemetery, even though it was creeping closer to midday.

He held his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry for startling you,” he said, his voice as smooth as silk. “When I heard we may have had an actual A-lister on the main floor, I had to come see myself.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but if he could see me, that meant one of three things. He was either dead, part or whole demon, like Cole, or a Medium, like Kay.

Not one of those options were good for me.

“Who are you?” I asked, unclenching my one hand just in case I had to unleash my light. “More importantly, what do you want?”

His eyes flashed a brilliant, unnatural red.

A demon. A full-blood.

“Xaver?” I stepped back, every muscle rigid.

The demon in the human’s body rolled his eyes. “You insult me. Of all my brothers, you pick the most uncivilized one to assume I am.”

“I don’t know many of you, and the ones I have met don’t exactly have the best manners.”

His smile was slow and deliberate. “Well, I’m not quite like the others,” he said. “Let me introduce myself. I prefer to be called Monnie, but the proper name for me is Mammon. Have you heard of me?”

“Can’t say I have.”

Was he trying to be my friend? What a bizarre introduction. Definitely not like the one I had with Xaver. But despite his heavily spread charm, the tension in my body didn’t ease.

“How about the Seven Deadly Sins? Greed?” He held his hands out to the sides, as if welcoming me to marvel at him. “Here I am.”

A prickle of warning zoomed up my neck. I didn’t know much about demons, but everyone knew the stories of the Seven Deadly Sins. What I didn’t know was that the sins were actually demons.

And now I was standing face-to-face with one of them. An original sin demon.

Greed, who wanted to be called Monnie. Pronounced like “money.”

You got to be kidding me. Did he think he was funny? I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

He was waiting for me to do something. Whether it was marvel at his presence, comment on his cleverness with his name, or run for the hills, who knows. Unimpressed, I just stood there, hands raised and ready to blast this cocky S.O.B. back to where he came from if I needed to.

“Are you proud of that? Really?”

He sighed and dropped his hands, disappointed. “Don’t have much of a funny bone, do you?”

“What do you want?” I shot back, growing more annoyed.

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