Six Guardians of the Underworld

Chapter 13

One of the witches spoke up. "She has herself wrapped in her elements. We cannot help her if we cannot get inside her head."

Sam looked at me. "Is this true?"

I nodded, not exactly excited about the getting-in-her-head part of this plan. "You can't expect me to come in here without any defenses at all."

Sam sighed like she was tired enough to take a twenty-four hour nap. I knew exactly how she felt. "I'm going to try to explain to you what's going on, even though I think it might be difficult to understand," she said.

When she said that, I wondered if she was one of the fae who thought I was slow. I looked at Tim for confirmation, but he didn't give me any indication either way. "Fine, go ahead," I said. "I'll do my best to understand."

Sam dropped her head and started pacing back and forth as she recited what she knew about my situation. "As we understand it, at some point in your journey, you made contact with a dark spirit who somehow managed to inhabit a part of you. Temporarily. This is what caused you to act out of character in the dining room earlier." She stopped pacing and looked at me. "I had hoped this wasn't the case, because you were acting fine up until that point…but now there's no doubt in my mind."

My throat went dry at that. I knew exactly who she was talking about. "Torrie," I said.

Sam started pacing again but kept her eyes on me. "Excuse me?"

"It had to be Torrie. I don't know about the dark spirit thing, but he's a demon, and he definitely got up close and personal. When I got time slipped, I was sent back to my house, and he grabbed me and held onto me and made his presence inside my stepfather known. His eyes glowed red, and he told me there were no witches to help me there." I had tried to block the memory from my brain, but it was right there in technicolor for me to not enjoy all over again. My entire body broke out in goose bumps.

"And then what happened?" asked one of the witches—Sylvia. She seemed like she actually cared, her voice very sweet and calming.

I searched my memory for the answer to her question. "Well, I got drugged up by an EMT, and then I was sent to a mental hospital where I was drugged up about three or four more times, and then I escaped. And I eventually got back here. That's kind of the whole story." I shrugged, because I knew no one would be satisfied with my lame attempt at clearing things up.

Sam looked at the witches, and although they said nothing that I could hear, I got the impression they were doing a lot of communicating. They were probably like the green elves, able to somehow chat without actually speaking out loud.

"Has anyone ever said anything to you about a demon prophecy?" one of the other witches asked.

I looked at Sam as I answered. "Yes. You weren't there, Sam, but when I went back to my house the first time, when I was with our friends and Céline,—I paused to look at Finn who nodded—, "we were fighting a demon named Torrie, and he told us that there was a demon prophecy, and the prophecy said that I would have to have s*x with a demon and then I would have a demon baby that would somehow be the beginning of the end."

"And did you have s*x with this demon?" asked one of the female witches.

"Ew, of course not." Just the idea of doing that made my lady parts feel like they were shriveling up and trying to hide in my bladder. Daemon junk? Huh-uh. No. Just no. Dis-gus-ting.

"Is it possible you were impregnated while you were under the influence of these drugs?" Sharif asked.

It suddenly felt like somebody had forced me to swallow a giant lump of lead…like I'd just ingested an entire cannonball. My stomach and then my entire body instantly felt fifty pounds heavier at hearing his words. My ears started to burn and ring. Everybody was staring at me as I tried and failed to digest the idea that I'd actually been r***d by an evil creature as hideous as the beast that had possessed my step-father Rick the d**k. I hadn't even been given the chance to fight back.

Tim flew to the edge of the circle, his arms held out wide. "Don't panic, Jayne. I know that look on your face, and I don't think we need to panic right now. We can panic later if necessary but let's just figure it out first. Chill, baby, just chill."

I blinked a few times. Tim's words and voice were breaking through the emotions that were starting to build. My hand went to my belly. The first time Tim had told me I was pregnant, he had acted like I was about six weeks along or so, and we had both assumed it was with one baby. Then he'd felt the vibe in my body again later and told me there were two. Had I somehow managed to get pregnant a second time without knowing it? Or had the part of me that went back to my old life been impregnated by a demon while the part of me that stayed with Spike also got knocked up by him? Was it possible, then, that when the two pieces of me came together, I became one, but the two babies became roommates?

The odds of that happening were boggling my mind. I was pretty terrible at math, but even I knew the chances had to be slim. But then again, the math I learned in school functioned in a world where magic didn't exist, where everything was ordered and predictable and never changing. Unfortunately, that was not my reality anymore. I lived in a realm where a person's being or soul could be split into pieces and survive in two different realms at the same time and then come back together again and be as one. I lived in a world where people turned into wyverns and ogres and elementals after putting on a piece of jewelry and reciting a magical poem. And I also lived in a world where just a half hour ago, I got angry enough to nail my roommate to a wall, and I knew for sure there was something else inside of me causing that to happen. I would never do that to Tim unless I were being influenced by a dark spirit.

When I was finally able to speak again, my throat felt raw and my voice was hoarse. "I think it's possible it could have happened. I was unconscious for hours at a time. And the person who was running the mental facility was a nasty a*s silver elf named Malena who has always hated me and who has been with Torrie for most of her life…or at least he was in love with her for most of her life and she was happy to use his emotions to accomplish her goals."

Sam came over and put her hands on my shoulders, staring at my face. She looked like she was searching my expression and my eyes, trying to find some deeper truth in there.

"It's all I know. I'm sorry it's not more specific."

She nodded her head and spoke softly. "It doesn't need to be any more specific than that. The magic will tell us the truth. Are you ready?"

I nodded. Nobody wanted to know the truth of what was going on inside my body and in my world more than I did. "I'm ready." I let my elements go because I didn't want anything interfering in the witches' spell.

Tim was trying to get to me past the circle of branches, but he was running into resistance; something was blocking him. It reminded me of when he had tried to enter the B&B on the Isle of Skye, where Judith the Fate had used a spell to keep him out…some kind of pixie-be-gone spray.

Finn and Becky wore confused expressions as they walked up and tried to do the same thing. Finn dropped his weapons and slammed both palms up against an invisible wall standing between us. He and Becky were yelling, but I couldn't hear anything but the sounds of the witches chanting.

Scrum just stood and stared at the witches, his hands clenched in fists at his sides. My guess was that he was silently berating himself for letting me enter the circle without him. I was forever making his job ten times more difficult than it should have been. Poor kid. I hoped that some day I'd be able to make it up to him.