“Boyfriends. Plural,” Willemena said with surprising pride.
I grinned at the old broad.Girl power.
“Even the older dude in the wheelchair?” Johnny sounded completely mystified.
My grin fell. “Eww, no! That’s my dad.”
Before Johnny could retort, Brock threw the truck in park and jumped out, hurrying across the front of the truck to open my door.
Haru rushed over to us, looking more worried than I’d ever seen the stoic warrior. “Molly. Baby.” He spoke with absolute adoration.
Molly’s head tipped down so that she looked extra horror movie creepy. “I’m going to skin you all alive.” Her voice sounded like wicked sandpaper.
“Oh God.” Haru recoiled, stepping back a few paces and knocking into Reo. The brothers wore matching expressions of despair.
“Yeah, she’s not exactly herself…”
Brock and Johnny hauled Molly out of the truck. Tianna pulled up behind us in her cherry red ’67 Mustang Fastback, and she, Cass, and Cho got out and joined us.
“We killed that thing! How is this even a possibility?” I asked the surrounding group.
Cho rubbed her chin. “We did kill it, but a small part of its essence must have jumped into Molly. The fog demon is only alive now because of its host.”
Host. What the fuck?
“Molly. Her name is Molly,” I said.
Cho nodded, looking sad. “Right. Because Molly is human, it’s able to control her, and she’s too weak to evict it.”
Oh Jesus. I felt sick.
“We can try to trap what remains of the fog demon and pull it out with a pendulum, similar to a house clearing spell,” Johnny offered. “It’s more gentle.” We’d told the rest of the Blacks to head home. Johnny had agreed to stay on and help us figure this out. Maybe the Blacks weren’t all bad after all.
“Hmm,” Tianna mused. “Not sure it will be strong enough to pull out this level of demon, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Don’t you fucking touch me!” Molly roared.
Oh God. Seeing her like this … it killed me.
“Do it,” I told them. I knew Molly would want to try anything possible to get this thing out of her.
Tianna and Johnny circled her while Brock stepped forward with Ray to grab one of her arms each. Brock had used his telepathic link with Ray, who’d appeared out of nowhere, to warn him of the situation. Willemena and Cho watched on, eyes astute, following every one of their moves, while Haru and Reo hovered around them, acting a bit like worried hens, something I’d never seen the warriors do.
“Shouldn’t take long,” Tianna told me. “We’ll know right away if it’s working.”
“Shall I lead?” Johnny asked our fae-witch hybrid with only a quick glance at Cho and Willemena, who seemed content to take a back seat to the action.
Wow, Johnny asking permission for anything meant Tianna had gained his respect. I was certain that didn’t happen often, but Tianna was no ordinary witch. Neither were Willemena and Cho for that matter.
Tianna simply gave him a curt nod, while I silently thanked the universe that Aunt Bertie had decided to go home with the rest of the Blacks. If she were here, she wouldn’t like Johnny being so deferential to another witch, and we all would have heard about it.
“Evie, take off her shoes,” Johnny told me. I didn’t question his command. I stepped forward, bending a little awkwardly over my baby bump, and wrestled with her bucking legs as she screamed and thrashed, mindful not to get kicked anywhere that could harm the baby. Finally I managed to press her bare foot on Brock’s front lawn and step back.
My cousin clapped his hands together and sparks of white magic leapt from his palms. “I call on the cleansing energies of Mother Earth to assist in this clearing, to surround Molly with your protection…” A magical charge settled in the air, like an electrical storm brewing around us. I could feel a stirring in the earth, which was crazy, but at the same time made sense because I was now tied to the earth. My eyes flicked up to meet Brock’s, and I knew he could feel it too, through our pack connection.
“Fuck off and die, witch boy!” Molly hissed.
A whimper caught in my throat. This so wasn’t our Molly.
