Cursed [Book 1] ✔

Chapter 24: What to do When Your Husband's Possessed

Where Rafe's scent was strongest was in the southern most part of Miami. If the trail did not end there, I wasn't sure if I would be strong enough or even able to continue searching for him. After cleaning Miami of the thousands of Djinn and Lillin, I might be pregnant enough to pop. I was faced with the same dilemma as before, having to end my life to prevent a demon (two demons) from being unleashed. With the shoreline so near, I had the idea that if I threw myself into the ocean, no mystical or earthly force could stop me. If Rafe couldn't be found, that was what I would do. Before then, I would drag down as many demons as I could with me.

In the city, Rafe's scent was everywhere: under every garish neon light display in every open street market, and every sidewalk filled with bikini-clad tourists. I could smell the burnt bacon mark that belonged to Rafe. There were other demons, but they were easier to recover because their scent wasn't nearly as overpowering.

Everywhere I went, I felt as if I had just missed him. No matter, because while Rafe managed to outsmart me, the other demons in the city weren't as smart. My anger drove me, aided me, and I ran my sword through twenty Lillin in three days. I had hundreds more to kill, but at the rate I was going, Miami would be demon-free in two weeks. The short time table scared me, not for myself, but for Rafe's well-being. What if I couldn't find him before I destroyed all of the Lillin in the city? I would have to kill myself without resolving anything, and he would be forever trapped within himself as a demon.

Regardless, I continued to track his scent in every place it was the strongest. I was taken to places like nightclubs, bars, and house parties. The more people, the better the hunting was for the demons. Rafe's scent was found at the usual demon scenes, but what was most odd was that his scent also led to places less frequented by demons. I began to question myself after walking into a coffee shop, a laundry mat, and a hotel lobby. Every time, I found nothing.

A week went by, and I felt like I was wasting time following Rafe's scent. My situation was hopeless.

One night, I was going through the motions. I was on a hunt, but the thread of Rafe's scent took me away from the demon I had been following. In my head, I grabbed on and let the thread take me where it would. At the end of the tunnel, the air cleared, and I stood in front of a quaint bookshop. I sighed upon seeing the few customers beyond the plate glass windows. One of them was a blue-haired little old lady with a dog in her purse, and another was a horn-rimmed teen flipping through a comic book. Demons didn't thrive off of quiet energy. Loud, sexual feelings are what demons wanted to find. I couldn't understand why Rafe would've come to this store.

I'm already here, so I might as well, I thought. This was the last time I would look for Rafe. Miami was too large for me to stop in at every possible place Rafe could have been. I had a job to do, and limited time in which to do it.

Before I went inside the shop, I scanned the minds of the people inside. Bills, sex, and self-help books were on most of their combined thoughts. Then, I saw Rafe's smiling face through their eyes. It wasn't an old memory of him (as I had picked up from plenty of others in Miami); he was there, in the store.

The person sending me the freshest images of him was an adolescent girl that found his silver eyes fascinating. She had no idea of the danger implied in his mis-colored irises. I extricated myself from the girl's mind as quietly as I could. The Uzita demon had senses comparable to Lillith herself. Poking around with my powers could have alerted him to my close proximity.

If he planned on feeding on the girl, I had a few minutes at least. I rushed into the store, ignoring both the mental and verbal questions being shot at me by the store clerk and customers. In between the stacks, I found only an elderly woman, her mouth a large O of surprise.

A sword? she thought.

"It's for both our protection, ma'am."

"Huh?" she asked.

I smiled to myself, thinking I was quite witty.

My search for the Uzita continued out the back exit of the bookstore. In the darkened alley behind the store, I didn't find him anywhere. The fast-fading burnt-bacon smell was leading me onward. I followed his trail.

Down the alley was yet another alley, and another, but there were no longer any overhead lights. I had come to an industrial part of the city, full of old warehouses and other forgotten buildings. With the reduced visibility, I cast out my mental net to see the status of the Uzita's intended victim.

She was still alive. Her back was against a brick wall. She was feeling woozy, but didn't know why, like the time she and a friend had done shrooms last summer. Just a few each. No, you eat the last one! They taste weird, and I...feel weird. Her neck was wet, and when she touched it, her fingers came away with blood on them.

"When did I get cut?"

"Don't worry," a familiar multi-toned voce assured the girl, "I'll take care of you."

If the girl had been fully conscious, the blood on the Uzita's mouth would have told her a different story.

He wasn't done drinking. He was draining her slowly, savoring the sweet taste of her. I had time to catch up with them before he killed her.

On the thread of his trail, I held on tightly and let my speed lead me directly to them. Either he didn't hear me or care that I was near, but he didn't look up as I approached. His face was buried in the teen's neck.

I crept ever closer to them, but then the sucking stopped. The girl's thoughts were still broadcasting, though faintly. He had stopped drinking, but not because his supply had dried up.

"I was wondering when you would find me, sweetheart."

When he looked up from the girl's breasts to speak to me, his fangs were nowhere to be seen. There was no blood on his face either. He was trying to appeal to my weakness straight off by looking as much like Rafe as he could. It wasn't working, but seeing Rafe's face was still unsettling.

"You know how many times I've stumbled upon this situation? Demon lures girl. Demon tries to drain girl dry. Demon never gets the chance because I kill him, or her."

"You wouldn't kill me, would you?"

"If you're talking about the demon-you housed in your own flesh, I would delight in killing you. Seeing as how you're walking and talking in my husband's body, I wouldn't kill you, no. However, I have no qualms about hurting you."

"When you say 'hurt,' do you mean like this?"

I hadn't blinked before he had me wrapped in a steel embrace. I couldn't move or cry out.

There was sufficient breath in my lungs for me to stupidly say, "This is uncomfortable, but it doesn't hurt."

"This will." Two needles as thick as my pinky finger came down to reside in the soft part of my neck.

And he was right.

It hurt.

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A/N: Dedicated to a hilarious new WP pal, tamoja

Read up on her WP featured novel, Glitz Gurlz on Deck. She'll have you laughing in no time :D