Page 91 of Death Wish

Oh. Messy. It made sense now.

There was a knock at the door. I turned to see Laurence standing there. He gave a little wave.

Angel barked, ears perking up, until she was shushed by her owner. Then she curled by his feet.

Wyatt gestured for him to come in. He did, proving he was also demon free.

Just like I had when I first entered the human’s home, I marveled at the mountains of books and papers and strange symbols covering the walls, floors, and windows.

“I have some wild cats in the area,” Wyatt said. “Sean has a few bowls out back where he leaves food for them. Maybe if I snag two or three…”

Whoa. I was not going to sacrifice Sean’s cats. No way. Just like I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Angel.

“What about using a person’s blood? Would that work better?”

“Yes, actually. And a supernatural’s is even better. Has the energy and magic needed for the incantation.”

I knew what I had to do. But before I could say anything, Laurence stepped forward.

“We’ll use my blood. I volunteer it,” he said.

“Absolutely not,” I shot back. “You don’t need to do that. I’ll do it.”

“Do you even have blood?” Laurence asked.

I showed him the dry blood on my wrists from where Xaver’s talons had sunk in. “It seems like it.”

“Can you even…die?” he asked.

That was a good question. I definitely could feel pain in this “alive” state. I could bleed.

But I was technically already dead.

There had to be a risk. The question was, did I really want to find out what it was? If I died while on this plane, my soul could be lost forever. Stuck between worlds. Or maybe I would just go to a Hell dimension for trying to cheat death. Anything was possible, and that was scary.

“I’m not going to die,” I said to convince myself as well as Laurence. “Did it once, don’t feel like doing it again.”

“We’ll need a good amount of blood,” Wyatt interjected. “You may feel sick after or even pass out.”

“I’ll be fine.” Maybe if I said it enough, it’d come true. But I was shaking a bit on the inside from my nerves. I clapped my hands to fake enthusiasm. “All right. When are we doing this?”

“Midnight,” Wyatt said. “Sean should be getting home soon. Then we’ll prepare.”

Just before twelve, we gathered the things we needed for the summoning on a small folding table behind the trailer. A bowl, a candle, a dish towel, a knife, a jar of dirt, and a belt. That last item threw me, until Sean explained it was for a tourniquet.

And of course, there was a first aid kit to sew me up afterwards.

Even though we had everything we needed to pull Xaver out of his Hell hole, we didn’t have much of a plan for what came after. Well, besides a bunch of guns.

I suggested we dip the bullets in Holy Water for two reasons: to give them a little more kick and because we didn’t have Cole and his bullets here. We were on our own, but the good thing was that it was four against one.

One mediocre sorcerer, two humans, and a reaper-thing against a full-blooded demon. Our odds didn’t sound as good when I said it that way.

Wyatt set out the bowl and lit the candle beside it. Besides the flickering motion sensor on the back of the trailer, the candle was a weak light in the dense darkness. Sean beckoned me over to the table.

“Are you sure about this, Jade?” Laurence asked, nervously swaying side to side.

More certain than I’d ever been in my afterlife. Kay was my closest friend. I had the ability to save her. And that was just what I was going to do.

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