Page 13 of Filthy Little Witch
Marta
I’d always believed in an afterlife. Despite my issues with God and whatever collective divinity watched over us, I’d never wavered in the idea that places like Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory existed. The power I had came from my long line of ancestors, and evidence of their reassuring presence made itself known in my everyday life. The sound of birds chirping in the morning, the peaceful energy radiating from the earth, the calming hum of trance and meditation. This was where I felt them most.
But those bodies…there was nothing in them anymore. When I placed my hands on them, the magic pulsing back made me ill. Their souls had not been passed onto the fade. It was almost like they had been devoured. Gone. Poof. Right into nonexistence.
Monsters like incubi or succubi could feed from souls for years and never fully extinguish them. Demons thrived on the chaos they created, reveling in the violent energy of humans under their thrall. But this? I had no idea what we were dealing with. It could be a demon, but maybe one I’d never heard of before.
On the drive back to the motel, Atlas and Wes talked in the front seat while I breathed through the rotten agony boiling in my veins. My skin prickled like I’d touched a live wire or stuck my tongue in an electrical socket.
The more we drove, the worse it got.
The sun had started to set over the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant violets and hushed roses. It should have been a beautiful sight, but my paranoia had only escalated. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and the churning in my stomach had me checking the back window every five seconds, one hand on my pistol, the other on my cross necklace. There was nothing behind us, but that didn’t mean we weren’t being followed.
Atlas slowed the car to a stop at a crossroads as that prickling awareness scratched over my scalp and down my spine.
“I don’t know, Wes,” Atlas said. “I’ve snorted and swallowed almost every drug out there. Nothing’s ever made me feel like I needed to fuck my way to an early grave.”
“Well, you’re hardly a reliable source,” Wes countered with a smirk. “You’d fuck anyone with a pulse and a warm hole.”
“Hey!” Atlas smacked Wes’s shoulder with the back of his hand. “Don’t slut shame me.”
Wes laughed, but movement in the woods off to my left got my attention.
“I don’t think you have the emotional capacity for shame,” Wes replied.
“Shhh,” I cut in, narrowing my focus to the thrashing grass and swaying leaves.
“What? You side with him?” Atlas said. “Typical.”
“Shut up,” I said again, harsher this time. “Do you see that?”
Thick, heavy energy coated my insides, the air seizing in my lungs. We were being followed, and the thing was massive, whatever it was.
“What?” Wes said, following my line of sight to the tree line.
“What the fuck?” Atlas leaned closer, squinting to try to see better.
The ground thumped like a giant had taken a step toward us, and the windows of the car rattled, vibrating with each heavy footstep. Anticipation had me yanking my gun out of the holster and reaching for the bottle of holy water in my satchel. If it was a demon, it was big and likely all hopped up on soul energy.
Which meant we were fucked.
“Go,” I said, pounding on the back of the driver’s seat. “Go. Go. Go!”
Atlas stepped on the gas pedal, but before we could move, something massive slammed into the car from the left side. My head smashed against the window, and the world darkened around me, stars blinding my vision. The white noise of tinnitus rang through my ears, and I clenched my eyes closed as the car flipped on its side. Metal crushed against asphalt as sparks flew into the back seat.
I struggled to focus, to come back to reality, my heart pounding and my hands shaking, my entire reality now upside down.
Just when the car would have toppled, I murmured a spell and blasted energy to the right, forcing us back onto four wheels. A black cloud spiraled outside, coalescing into the shape of an enormous human with glowing red eyes.
Demon.
Not just any demon. This was more colossal than anything I’d ever encountered.
It rammed into us again, growling and spewing venomous words in a language I didn’t understand. Like Aramaic, but a much older version than the one I’d been taught. I caught bits and pieces through the high-pitched whine in my eardrums, but it was enough for me to realize it meant to kill us.
Consume, it snarled. Consume. Take.
Atlas raised his gun and fired off rounds right into the beast’s midsection, but that only pissed it off more. The beast stumbled back, growled, and hit the car again.
