. . .
“Lacy!”
I have hardly any vision, but through the sliver I can see out of, I watch a middle-aged man kneel down beside me. He touches my face and continues to say my name. I don’t know this man, but looking in his eyes, I realize that I do. I have never seen these eyes before, but I have also spent the last three days staring into them. Kit. He came back for me. He came back to watch me die, because I don’t have an EpiPen and there is no way we can make it to a hospital in time. I don’t even think we can make it to my car in time.
I keep gasping for breath, trying so hard to let the air in.
“Okay,” I hear Kit say. “Okay. I can do this.”
He slides his arms underneath me and lifts me into his grasp.
The sky is so bright. What a beautiful day.
Suddenly, I am not staring at the sky anymore but rather a painfully bright light. Is this it? Wait. That’s a fluorescent light.
“Help!” I hear Kit shout in his new deep voice. “Help! She’s allergic to bees. She got stung.”
I hear someone else say something, but I don’t register the words as darkness overcomes me.
When I open my eyes,I can one, breathe, which is thrilling, and two, see. I’m in a hospital bed, propped up by a few pillows under my head. A man sits on my left side, chair pulled as close to the bed as it can go. His head is buried in a physical newspaper he holds with one hand. The other hand is gripping mine tightly. With tired eyes, I stare at him, wondering who he is before I remember.
“Kit,” I say, my voice raw and scratchy.
He regards me instantly, eyes wide. “Oh, thank god,” he says, tossing the newspaper aside and bringing my knuckles to his lips as he presses a light kiss to them.
I’m exhausted, but that still makes me laugh, which is painful. Kit is perplexed by my reaction.
“A demon just said, ‘thank god,’” I explain, my head heavy against the pillows.
“Right. Excuse me. Thank Satan.”
He’s still holding my hand. I try to ignore that.
“What happened?” I question, desperate for water.
Without my having to ask, he grabs a ready-made glass of water from the table beside me and carefully tips it into my mouth, relief traveling down my throat. “You got stung by a bee,” he explains. “I’m so sorry. You told me you were allergic. I should have been more careful—I didn’t think. You started swelling up so fast, I couldn’t control you anymore.Your face was completely puffed up. I…I left to see if I could find help. The house wasn’t as empty as I thought it would be.” He gestures to himself. “This guy was in there. A friend of the owners. He was watering their plants.” Kit closes his eyes. “We were so far from the hospital. I…I had to jump to get you here. I’d never done it before, but I had to get you here. And then I handed you over to the doctors, they administered some medicine and the swelling went down. They saved you.”
I can’t stop staring at him. “Yousaved me.” I swallow. “Thank you. You could have left me there.”
He shakes his head like the thought didn’t even occur to him. “Never.”
I squeeze his hand. “You teleported us here. Is he…?” I trail off, remembering what Kit said about a host potentially dying if it isn’t done correctly.
“He’s fine,” Kit says quickly. “I was careful.”
“Is he awake?”
“No. It’s just you and me right now.”
I smile painfully. “Just like I’m used to.”
Kit stands and says, “I’ll get a nurse. See if we can get you something to eat.” He presses a kiss to my forehead and leaves the curtained room I’m in.
I’m alone. I mean, I’m free. No longer possessed.
My hands clench against the sheet covering me as I stare at the closed curtains. That poor man. Even if he’s not awake, I know what he’s going through. It’s because of that that I know I still need to find a way to exorcise Kit—despite the idea of saying goodbye to him sitting heavily in my stomach. I can’t justtake the win of not being possessed and move on. Someone else is trapped now.
Does exorcising a demon kill them? I think it only sends them back to Hell, trapping them there, but I’m no expert. I can’t fathomkillingKit but…ugh. This is a real moral dilemma. But, no. It shouldn’t be. It’s not. Kit is a demon. The man he’s possessing is innocent. Moral dilemma solved.
