Demons of the Rich and Famous (Demon Whisperer book 1)

Demons Chapter 23

Chapter 23

For the rest of the day I read all the books I had on necromancy, browsed some internet sites as well, but most of those were just bunk.  By the time the sun set, I was fairly confident I could raise the dead.

Thankfully my dad hadn’t come home so I didn’t have to explain why he couldn’t come with me.  I left him a note apologizing for leaving him out of this.  I knew he’d be angry and disappointed, but hell, he’d been that way for the past few hours anyway, so another hour or so wasn’t going to make a difference.  Not now.  I’d gone too far this time.

After a quick pit stop for supplies, I parked on a slanted street by the cemetery.  I shoved all the gear into a big army green duffel bag, and tossed it and myself over the wrought iron fence.  Bali just squeezed through the bars.

Thankfully—if you could really say that in a situation like this—Uncle Eldon told me exactly where his future bride was buried so I didn’t have to go searching every headstone for her name.  Five minutes later I was standing in front of Trudy Campbell’s seven year old grave with a shovel in my hand and adrenaline pumping through my veins.  I hadn’t asked about the woman I was about to dig up because frankly I didn’t care.  I just wanted to get it over with and find Aspen.

Bali blinked up at me from her perch on top of the headstone.  “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Yeah, kind of.” I glanced down at the open book on the ground and took a deep breath.  I’d seen Aspen and Dina raise the dead before.  I knew there was a very specific process and you needed very specific ingredients depending on the situation.  But basically, I just wanted to get this woman out of the ground and reanimated.  Once I delivered her to Eldon, he could deal with her and the problems I would most likely cause doing this.

“Just do it slowly and carefully, and you’ll be fine.”

“Have you raised the dead before?” I asked Bali.

She shook her little furry head.  “No.  The thought makes me ill, actually.”

Just like Dan, she was freaked out by zombies.

I started to dig.  I needed to get down to the coffin before I could start the ritual.  I could’ve done it and let the corpse dig itself out, but I didn’t have that kind of time.  It would be easier and faster if I just cut to the quick and opened up a clear doorway.

My arms shook with strain by the time I was done.  I set the shovel down on the ground, and then went about the process of preparing. I took out a bunch of candles from the bag.  I had a feeling I needed white ones, but I made do with what I could find; I had some black, some red, and some white.  Beggars can’t be choosers.

I plunked the candles around the gravesite, in the four different directions.  If I had more time I would’ve chalked out a protective pentagram.  But as it was, I had an awful feeling that I was already too late.  Images of Aspen’s broken tortured body entered my mind and I had to force myself to continue.  What if this was all for nothing and she was already dead?

I set out the silver bell I knew I’d have to ring near the end to wake the dead and I opened the book to the proper incantation.  I palmed my silver dagger as I pushed to my feet.

“You need a sacrifice, Caden.  It won’t work without blood.”

“I know that.”  I held out my left palm over the open gravesite and started the incantation.  It was in Latin.  As I spoke the words, I slid the blade across my palm.  The pain was instant but I crammed it down and concentrated on what I was doing.  I squeezed my hand into a fist and watched as the blood dropped onto the top of the coffin.