Psyched Read online

  “This is all I know,” Aisi said carefully as she pulled her hands inside the sleeves of her hoodie and folded her arms tightly across her chest, shivering. “My dad and his brothers were supposed to protect the people, but they didn’t. They went about as bad as they could go, but then, after probably thousands of years of being jackwagons, my dad and one of his brothers fell in love.

  “When this happened, they didn’t want to…I don’t know, plunder and pillage or whatever, and they had a fight. My dad killed the other two, and…oh!” Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered someone else from the vision. “Father J was there. He ran an African orphanage, and my mom was a volunteer. That’s how she met my dad. So after my dad killed the two, Father J showed up and told them they had to protect the portals where the others could get out so…yeah.”

  She shrugged. Having all the pieces of the puzzle didn’t mean she could make them fit together yet. “I don’t know.” A look of desperate frustration crossed her face. She looked down and shuddered slightly.

  Vance looked confused. “But…they’re immortal. They can’t kill each other.” He kept shaking his head

  Aisi shrugged. “That’s what I saw,” she answered, trying not to be confused herself. The headache she had at the moment wouldn’t allow for any more jumbled thoughts without something in her mind spontaneously combusting.

  Vance’s nose crinkled and he seemed to be thinking hard. “Not possible. At least, it shouldn’t be. The Watchers were guardian angels. You’re sure they had real bodies?”

  “Wouldn’t they have to…you know? To party with the ladies?” Aisi looked at him as if this made total sense, but clearly she had just blown his mind. She’d never seen someone look so perplexed.

  “Maybe they became fully human when they fell…but then…how could…?” Vance’s voice trailed off, and he spoke more to himself than to her.

  She grinned at him as she turned around and looked down the street, where she saw a small figure looking lost, walking in circles in front of the diner. She squinted in the dark. “Is that a little kid down there?”

  At her words, the small figure turned to her and screamed, “Aaaiiissseeeee!!! Help me! The night terrors are back!”

  “Leo!” Aisi yelled. She bolted down the street toward her frantic brother, but Vance grabbed her around the waist before she could go more than a few steps. She pounded at his arm. “Let me go!” He set her down but held her tightly to him. She jerked around in his grasp to pound furiously at his chest, but he kept his arms around her. “Leo needs me!”

  “No, he doesn’t,” Vance whispered calmly in her ear. “Remember what Father J said about not trusting our eyes?”

  Aisi spun furiously back around, still clawing at his arms, trying to break free. She could hear her brother’s voice wailing for her help, screaming fearfully about the night terrors. Angry tears broke free as she finally stopped fighting and listened. She strained her ears, and his cries began to sound hollow. Cries which should have echoed through the empty street faded and died away as the boy she saw fell to the ground. She pulled away from Vance, who still kept a firm grip on her. She stared intently at the skinny form huddled on the street in the chill mist of night.

  “Leo?” she croaked. The small form looked pathetically up at her with red eyes before it dissolved into a black shadow and sank into the nearby shadows with a growl.

  She dropped to the ground as well, too weak to stand. Malus could now use her visions against her. She gasped and looked up at Vance. “How did you know?”

  He knelt down next to her and pulled her up, clasping her cold hands in his. He searched her face, and then he pulled her into a hug. They rocked back and forth together in the dark as he stroked her hair reassuringly.

  “How did you know?” she repeated, not wanting ever to lift her head from his chest.

  “I didn’t see anything and I didn’t hear anything,” Vance replied. “I just saw you running and screaming about Leo.”

  The muffled sound of gloved hands clapping behind them made them jump and turn around.

  “Brilliant, boy, simply brilliant.” Malus stood close to them, applauding, with his silver-tipped cane tucked under one arm. His malevolent eyes glowed a vicious red just under the brim of his fedora. His form looked much weaker than the last time she saw him. He appeared fuzzy around the edges and a little transparent, but he still sent a chill down Aisi’s spine. Vance shuddered next to her and she knew he felt it, too—that wretched sensation of raw evil washing over prickling flesh.

  “My gracious, this one is just yummy, Aisi,” Malus continued, momentarily baring sharp teeth as he licked his lips and checked Vance out. “Brains as well as a beautiful backside. His booty is almost as delicious as yours, in fact. You should keep him. I know if I get the chance at him again, I certainly will.”

  “Was that you pretending to be my brother just now?” Aisi asked. Anger flared inside her and she tried to stop it, knowing he fed off it like a blood sucking leech. His shadowy form darkened and solidified, losing enough of his transparency that she struggled to regain control of her emotions. Don’t feed the troll, she told herself. Don’t feed the troll. “Nice try, but so cliché. Using Leo against me? That’s lame sauce. Is that really all you got?”

  Malus’s eyes narrowed to a slit of crimson. “Perhaps I underestimated you, Sunshine.”

  “Yeah, you did. And don’t call me that,” she snapped.

  “I understand you had quite a lovely visit with Father J,” Malus said, circling them slowly. “I dropped by to say hello to my old friend, but I was so rudely shown the door even though I was invited in.” He laughed in a soft hiss, turning his attention to Vance again. “Yes, your yummy little boyfriend seemed quite excited when he saw me. Started taking all kinds of pictures. He made me feel like a rock star. He worshipped me as I should be worshipped.”

  “Worship?” she snorted. “You’re worthless and you know it.”

  “Worthless?” Now Malus was the angry one. “I’m a god, and this earth is my kingdom.”

  “Pretty sure you’re the only one who feels that way,” she said, folding her arms, her neck cocked to the side. She returned his fearsome gaze with a look of unbridled disgust. Vance’s jaw dropped.

  Malus clucked his tongue in mock sympathy. “You’re scaring your boy toy, Sunshine. Even this ridiculous specimen of male teen has sense enough in his thick skull to recognize me, Malus Indolus, as the greatest being ever to walk this planet.”

  “Yeah, about your name, Mr. Scary Evil Genius,” Aisi said, arms still folded. She held all emotions but disdain in check. “You must have had plenty of time last time my dad vanquished your hairy demon butt to think up that stupid name. Why don’t you just use your real name?”

  “Don’t say it.”

  “Don’t say the name the real god made for you? Why not?”

  “Do not say it,” Malus warned, eyes glowing a deeper, livid red.

  “Armaros.”

  A deep, throaty growl erupted as the man in the fedora and long leather jacket writhed and howled. The fedora vanished as horns sprouted on the side of his head. His red-slitted eyes locked on Aisi, who stood her ground as Vance ran to cower behind a nearby bush. She folded her arms and cocked her knee to one side, hoping she looked totally unimpressed. She shifted her weight to one leg and looked up as the beast grew and a ram’s head erupted from where the fedora once rested. It towered over her.

  “Ego sum Deus illae terra,” rumbled a voice so deep she more felt it more than she heard it. “I am the god of this domain. I am all that is holy in this wicked world that I rule. Bow before me or suffer your fate.”

  Aisi rolled her eyes. If she were being honest with herself, she would admit she’d never been as frightened of a demon as she was at that moment, but his change in form suddenly cleared her muddled mind. She had vanquished demons before. This was nothing new—he was just a pesky fly buzzing around her. A big one, sure, but she could handle this. “Absum,
malum unus! Be gone, evil one! Go back to your pit of despair in the name of the real holy one.” His grotesque form, half man and half goat standing on hind legs, started to fade as she swallowed her fright and stood fearless before him. The more he faded, the deeper and angrier his growl became.

  “Sum non fecit…” Malus snarled. His shoulders hunched forward as he glided effortlessly back, slinking into the nearby shadows.

  “We’re not done?” Aisi repeated his words, calling after him as she watched him skulk away and vanish in the dark. “We are for now, loser. Peace out!” When she couldn’t see him anymore, she took a deep breath to steady herself, suddenly aware that every inch of her trembled. She stumbled back and turned to look for Vance, still huddled behind a bush. She tried to smile at him as she walked behind it and offered a hand to help him up. “There’s my knight in shining armor.”

  Vance shuddered and shook more than she did. “Aisi, how did you…?” He couldn’t say anything else for a moment as he tried to steady himself. “I thought when I came here for my project I might be lucky to get a few EVPs. Take a few pictures with floating blobs and I could spend the rest of the term debating with my professor why it was proof of the paranormal. I never imagined…” His voice trailed off as he ran shaky fingers through his sandy hair, making it stand on end.

  “You never imagined what?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips and staring at him. “That it’s real? That creatures this powerful and evil exist for reals? Welcome to my life.”

  His radiating fear steadied her even more. He’d been the strong one when she was confused and upset. Seeing him so afraid of this world she lived with every day jolted her back to the lead role in her alternate reality. She had to reclaim control of her universe. She was the one who had to figure it all out, not him. She stood there, lost in thought for a while as sense began to emerge from the jumbled mess of her thoughts.

  Vance said hesitantly, “Uh…Aisi?” His eyes searched hers as he bent close, looking for something she couldn’t define, as they stood alone under the misty light from the street lamp on a deserted road in the middle of the night.

  She shook her head to clear it, her bright and determined eyes, so light green they were almost white, shining up at him. “Something is feeding him. We have to find out who and why.”

  “Feeding?” Vance queried. He still looked pale and shaky.

  Aisi nodded firmly. “A demon has to feed off someone. He has a source of strength. Since I’m pretty sure my dad isn’t doing it, I have to work with the other things Father J showed me tonight.”

  “So what does that mean?” Vance asked, putting his arm around her shoulder as they headed back down the street to his truck.

  “It means you and I are going to pay Monica a little midnight visit.”

  Chapter 17 Inside Kalen’s Head

  Aisi buckled herself into the front seat of Vance’s truck, wondering where to start. Would Monica run away after seeing her stepdad with the burrito lady? Where should she begin? She had no idea. A quick glance at the analog clock in the old truck’s dashboard told her most people would not be happy to answer their doors for a stranger at such an indecent hour. Just as Vance jumped in beside her, the answer to all her questions pealed down the street going way too fast.

  Kalen’s white, dinged-up, tiny car almost spun out on the gravel collected on the side of the road as he barreled past them and turned the corner. His brakes squealed and the tail end of his dirty little car swerved out of control, nearly rolling into the ditch between the road and the house on the corner before he righted it and kept plowing down the street. Where was Officer Padelski for the smack down when you really needed him?

  Aisi pointed at the rapidly disappearing tail lights. “If anyone knows where to find her, it will be Kalen,” she insisted as Vance jerked the key and the truck sputtered to life. “Follow him!”

  Vance gunned his engine and spun out quickly to follow the white car. He grinned as he held tightly to his shaking steering wheel. Clearly the truck was too old to take such abuse, but Vance still looked pleased with himself. “I always wanted to do that, you know, like in the movies.”

  She smiled back at him faintly, but she still wore a grim expression as she kept her eyes locked on the white car. Her mind spun faster than Kalen’s little tires on gravel as she fixated on three things.

  The grandpa.

  The mom.

  The girl who hated her.

  It didn’t take long for them to reach the apartment parking lot they had left in vision so recently. A wide open dumpster which reeked of rotting junk food and dirty diapers welcomed them back. Kalen parked crookedly in a spot near Monica’s building, under a street light which flickered and buzzed above them. The door to Kalen’s car flew open and he jumped out, looking pale and more scared than she’d ever seen anyone look. Aisi almost smiled. For all his swagger in the halls at school, he sure didn’t seem to handle fear very well.

  “Kalen!” she called before he could bolt out of sight in the darkness. “Kalen, stop!”

  He jerked to a halt and turned around, surprised to hear his name. “Who is it?” he yelled out, his body rigid, looking uncertain if he should stop or keep going. His fists balled tight, ready to fight.

  “Kalen…down, boy. It’s okay. It’s Aisi,” she said, stepping into the light nearest the dumpster so he could see her.

  He stopped with a sigh, and his fists unclenched as he relaxed a bit. “Look, Aisi, I don’t have time to worry about you and Zinnia right now, okay? Monica is…” He stopped to choose his words carefully. “She’s kind of in trouble and I need to find her dad.”

  She approached him, with Vance following closely behind her. “Trust me, Kalen. I could care less about whatever people told you at school today. This isn’t about me or Zinnia. I know what’s going on with Monica, and I think I can help.”

  Kalen shook his head vigorously, dancing impatiently on the spot. “No, you seriously don’t. I need her dad.”

  “You look really nervous,” Aisi said soothingly. “What happened?” She reached for his hand, hoping it would work.

  It did.

  The moment she touched his hand she saw Kalen on the porch of a dilapidated house. The broken windows stood black against the peeling white paint on the clapboard walls. Of course…her old house. Again.

  Dim and dancing light rose from the porch floor, and she looked closer to see candles covering it. Monica sat in the center of the candles, her legs crossed and her eyes closed, surrounded by a circle of tea light candles flickering defiantly against the chilly night air. Their heat and light glimmered, oblivious to the mist. Beyond the circle in which she sat, a clover leaf pattern emerged, and each clover leaf had a circle in its center. In the center of each of the smaller circles, a five pointed star blazed in tiny flame.

  It was the same symbol now carved into Zinnia’s leg: the pentacle.

  As Aisi looked closer, she could see Monica humming and rocking back and forth in the ring of flames. The dim orange light of the candles somehow illuminated her face a shadowy red. Even though her eyes were closed, she drew the five pointed star over and over with a red marker on the ground in front of her, and her lips moved almost imperceptibly as she mumbled something only she could hear. Each move she made escalated as she rocked, her swaying becoming more violent. Her quiet muttering grew into louder, incoherent screams. From the corner of her eye Aisi could see Kalen backing away nervously, telling the girl, “Look, Monica, this is getting weird. I think we—”

  A sharp crack, louder than a clap of thunder, ripped through the air. Kalen jumped. He ran back to the circle, trying desperately to get Monica’s attention. He kicked the candles aside and pulled her arm, but she refused to move. Behind the house, another explosion sent bits of rock and rubble shooting toward them. Red light flashed like lightning from the ground. The portal was open.

  “MONICA!” he shrieked, his arms instinctively shooting up to cover his head as rock and broken concre
te fell and littered the porch around them. “Monica, we have to go! We have to…”

  His voice trailed off as a shadowy figure emerged from the angry red chasm in the hillside, exposed after the explosion. One large, shadowy figure stepped slowly toward them. The red light vanished behind black shadows, which zoomed away and exposed the light again, flitting around Monica, who finally smiled and opened her eyes.

  The large figure, towering above the petite girl sitting on the porch, growled down at her in approval. Malus, now solid, stood before her with the well-muscled body of a man. Crimson eyes gleamed vindictively in his ram’s head, coiled black horns shining in the smoky red haze around him. “Well done, girl.”

  She stood, not daring to look up at him. “I did what you told me. I want my mother now.”

  The black shadows danced gleefully around the remains of the candle formation, blacker than the black of the night sky. They suddenly encircled her, blocking her from leaving or moving. Her expression changed to one of fear and then anger as she finally looked up at the fearsome creature over her. He snarled, a wicked grin gracing his face, eyes alight with pleasure.

  “You are such an ungrateful child.” He clucked his tongue with disapproval. “I gave you the power to call forth all the creatures of the underworld and all you want,” he hissed, “is your mommy?”

  Monica stood her ground. “Yes. I want my mother. You made me a bargain. I call you back and I get my mother. Now where is she?”

  Aisi raised her eyebrows with grudging respect. It took her years to understand, not to fear what she saw when the demons surrounded her. Monica was more than a little scary at school, but Aisi had to admire this kind of fearlessness. The girl had guts.