I nodded and relayed the message. Cal looked like he might actually start crying.
“Thank you for helping Ryan and Vox get to us, Gav. I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to protect you from Damian.” He was looking in Gavin’s general direction, though you could tell he couldn’t see him at all.
‘It’s not your fault, Cal. There was nothing you could have done. I’m just so glad you and Vox are free now.’
Cal glanced around the concrete room, frowning.
“Is my mother here?”
I nodded.
During the tussle with Damian, she had been relentless. She passed through me twice. Once, when I’d been trying to shootDamian, and a second time, when I’d been trying to untie Cal. However, the woman that Damian had shot in the face when Cal was a child had come to help.
She was able to convince the other ghouls that if they let go of their anger at Cal, they would all have a chance to move on.
The only spirit that hadn’t listened was his mother. She was currently being restrained by two ghosts who seemed desperate to finally be freed from haunting Cal. They’d also made quick work of Damian, though he wasn’t much of a problem.
Because I’d literally blown his face off, his spirit couldn’t seeortalk. All it could do was make nasty gurgling noises, which gave me a sick sense of satisfaction.
Gavin had disappeared for a while, informing me he was going to see if he could figure out how to summon the chaos demon he’d told me about earlier.
The room was crowded with ghosts, waiting to see if this demon Gavin had a connection with would be able to tell them how to escape this plane and move onto the next stage of death. I was hoping like crazy this would work. I didn’t need this many spirits pissed off with us without a talisman in sight.
Suddenly, the air around us dropped in temperature, and I instinctively moved closer to Cal as the shadows in the room seemed to come to life.
“What thefuck!”Cal exclaimed, grabbing me by the wrist and jerking me into him. We both stared in a cross between horror and fascination as the shadows shifted into the shape of smokey cats. Their eyes glowed red, and they yowled and hissed as they corralled the spirits into a corner.
In the middle of the room, what appeared to be an attractive man with dark hair and tawny skin manifested. He was wearing black pants and a crisp black button-up shirt rolled to his elbows.
He ran a hand through his mop of ebony hair, flashing a block of script tattooed on the inside of his forearm.
“Ugh. Where are we..? Ohio? You failed to mention you would be summoning me to the literalarmpitof the United States,” the demon grumbled, his green eyes flashing with annoyance in the dim light.
How did I know it was a demon, you ask? Outside of the fact that he literally melted into existence out of the ground, I could just tell. This being wasancientand immortal as fuck. He was not something I wanted to piss off or fuck around with.
Gavin just chuckled and shrugged.‘Come on, everyone knows that the real armpit of the US is Florida.’
Just then, another demon manifested. This one was equally striking, though he had auburn hair and ivory skin.
“I don’t know; have either of you been to Louisiana? I feel like I’m torturing a new soul from Monroe at least once a week.” This new demon mused, and his dark-haired counterpart smirked.
“Come now, little bird. You’re going to miss all the torture once we get to Salem.”
The demon with the rust-colored hair sighed wistfully, giving his companion a suggestive look.
“I’m sure we’ll find things to keep us busy.”
Cal’s hand was gripping my wrist so hard it hurt.
“You’re seeing this too, right? These two dudes just…appeared!”He was speaking out of the corner of his mouth, clearly trying to go unnoticed by the two demonic entities.
I nodded. “Yeah, Gavin called them. I think he said they could take away the spirits that are haunting you,” I whispered back.
The dark-haired demon’s eyes snapped to mine, and his grin widened.
“No need to whisper, Ryan Fairview. We can hear you just fine,” he purred. “Your boyfriend here has a dirty mind. You should see the things he wants to do to you. It’s making me hard just thinking about it.”
Cal snarled and stepped in front of me. “Watch it,” he rumbled, but the demon just chuckled and rolled his eyes.
