Page 72 of One Bad Knight

I fought my way to consciousness to see Kat dragged back into the study by her uncle and her cousin Dave.

Canine growls mixed with Gabe’s cries from the hallway. Apparently Bear disagreed with their treatment of Kat.

“Here,” John yelled at the demon, shaking Kat’s arm. “Take her. Take her now.”

The demon released my throat only to shoot up into the air before diving straight into Kat’s face, entering through her eyes, nose and mouth.

I lurched forward onto my hands and knees, hand stretched out in a futile attempt to stop it. I’d barely taken my first real breath before the demon was fully inside her.

John and Dave stepped away from her. She didn’t run.

Black swallowed her brown eyes, and Kat smiled. Her lips crept up either side of her face until her unnatural grin touched either earlobe.

“No,” I rasped, slamming my fists on the floor. The demon possessed her, and I had no way of getting it out of her body. Not without killing her.

31

Gatsby

Flashes of running that mother through with my sword to save her children went through my mind. There was no way for me to get the demon out of her. I couldn’t exorcise shit, and it was the only way to save Kat.

Despair drowned me, as I struggled to know where to begin. How could I save her? Could I get her to Calan or Leonidas in time? I didn’t know where he was. And the demon wouldn’t be long before it chewed up her soul and then jettisoned out of her used body to return to the Stygian until the next deal was made.

A click penetrated through my panic and fear. Looking up from where I was on all fours, I came face to face with the barrel of John Hart’s gun. “It’s unfortunate you sacrificed my niece for your own dark purposes. Summoning a demon to kill her. The media will know where I couldn’t save her, I could bring justice to her true murderer.”

Before I could move a muscle, a shot went off, ringing through the air. I flinched.

John’s eyes widened before slowly turning around. In the doorway stood Wanda Hart.

Dave lay on the floor, unconscious at her feet. She confidently gripped the handgun that was still pointed at John. He looked down at the red blossoming out from the center of his chest. He touched the blood before bringing his red, slick fingers to his face for inspection.

“Wanda?” He said her name as if he still couldn’t believe she was there.

“Fuck you and fuck the men in this family,” Wanda said before spitting in his direction. “I should have ended this a long time ago. Goodbye, big brother.”

Then she cocked her gun and shot him again. This time he crumpled to the floor.

I moved out of the way just in time, so he didn’t fall on me. On my feet, I faced the woman I’d saved all those years ago. Wanda was older and her curves fuller than when I’d seen her last.

I'd sat in that tree for weeks, waiting, watching Kurt Hart’s campaign continue in a downward slump, knowing any day he would likely cave and call forth a demonic force to aid him like all his ancestors had. And I was right. The night I was supposed to meet Kat in her room to celebrate her birthday, he began the dark calling ritual. I knew then it would be the last night I’d ever see Kat.

Wanda had been terrified and furious at Kurt for tying her to a chair, about to sacrifice her soul. After I slit Kurt’s throat, I cut Wanda free and helped her leave out the back French doors.

Standing over her dead brother’s body, Wanda’s face flickered with recognition. “You’re the boy who saved me.” Then she said in a firm tone, “Save my niece.”

“I can’t.” I shook my head, knowing my worst nightmare had come true. “I can’t exorcise the spirit. The only way to get it out is to kill her.” The demon might as well take me too. Because there would be nothing left of me without Kat.

Bear raced into the room, barking at Kat. He knew that it wasn’t his master. The demon in Kat took one look at him before raising her hand, and sent the dog flying back out in the hall. Bear cried out in fear and pain.

Anger tore through me as Wanda ran after the dog to make sure he was okay.

I had banished the demon back to the Stygian once, denying it of its prize. The fear that struck me when eleven-year-old Kat stumbled into her father’s study all those years ago stabbed into my heart and bones.

The Luxis didn’t care about the woman, they only cared that Kurt Hart didn’t win his election. I remembered Kat’s wide, watery eyes taking in what I’d done to her father, and it ignited a spark inside me.

I think you are a protector, a healer.

Kat’s words returned to me. That night, I would have done anything to heal Kat’s pain as she looked upon her dead father. Light sparked inside me like never before, and I was, for the first and only time, able to banish a dark spirit back to the Stygian. For her.