Demon of Desire
Chapter Nine-Family, Loss, Grief

The sun peeked out of the clouds as morning came, but Sloan was awake long before that. She watched Jake as he slept for a while, before going to her parents’ grave. She sat there as usual, waiting for answers that never came.

She thought back to the last dream she had of her mother. Chemtai had asked her to choose between her and Levy and she couldn’t understand why. The dream must have meant something, but she couldn’t figure out what.

“Mum, next time, try and communicate in plain English.”

She heard her phone screech, and got up quickly and tried to get to it before it woke Jake up, but she was too late. Jake held the phone to his ear, a confused look on his face. Then he held out the phone to her. “Sloan, it’s your aunt Diana.”

“What?” Sloan had given her aunt her number in the event she needed help getting away from her authoritarian of a husband, but she never thought that she would actually do it.

“Hi, Diana? What’s wrong?” A look of terror must have mirrored in Sloan’s eyes because Jake jumped to his feet. “Call Archer,” she mumbled.

Sloan stopped her bike at the front of the house. She saw three other bikes there and she immediately knew Archer, Axel, and BB were already there.

She stood at the door for a second, not knowing whether or not to enter. Jake’s hand slipped into hers and he pulled her along with him.

The once meticulously clean house was littered with uniformed police. Nothing seemed out of place there, so they followed the crowd up the stairs. From afar she heard her aunt’s whimper. Taking a deep breath, she took a step in that direction.

They were all in Chantal’s room—her old room—huddled on one bed. Al and Cam looked confused, staring at their weeping mother and sister.

“Hey.” It was the only thing that came to Sloan’s mind. She stood in front of the bed, confused at what she was expected to do next.

“When did it happen?” Jake cut in.

“Last night,” Chantal whimpered.

“Did you see what happened?” Jake seemed to know what to ask so Sloan stood quietly beside him.

“No, we were locked in the bathroom. We only came out early this morning. Mother found him first, then I went in to look and—” She broke down, unable to complete her words.

“Did the kids see him?” Sloan asked as she sympathized with the two children.

“No, I brought them in here,” Chantal gasped out.

A detective walked into the room and Jake urged Sloan out of the room. He was going to start questioning them and they couldn’t show any indication of understanding what had happened or they would be in trouble.

“I want to see,” she managed to say.

“Are you sure? It’s not something you could easily get over. It will stay with you for life,” Jake cautioned her.

“I’m sure.”

The room was clear of any policemen. Archer had managed to convince them to leave, saying that his family members needed to say goodbye to him. The police quickly took pity on him and left without a word.

“Close the door behind you,” Archer asked Jake.

“He wants to let us know he is here,” Axel muttered.

Archer took a closer look at the body, then opened Edwin’s closed eyes.

“Why are you doing that?” Sloan asked, appalled.

Edwin lay slumped in his bed, his eyes wide in what seemed to be shock and his mouth open. Something had sucked out every last drop of his life from his body. He looked almost like a skeleton, as if his body was in hyper-speed decomposition. This was her fault. She should never have come here. Sloan couldn’t help but blame herself. It was her that the demon wanted, and one by one it was taking out her family.

“He is checking if they took his soul,” Axel said.

“Why?”

“The police said they found his mouth open. That is the only path to get a soul out of a body,” Axel continued.

Sloan had many theories of the different ways in which a demon could relieve you of your soul, but she never thought that all it took was a kiss of death.

“His soul isn’t here obviously, but she didn’t take it.” Archer sighed, relieved.

“She? Who is she?” Sloan asked.

“Kellan’s mate. Whenever he kills she claims their souls. But for some reason they couldn’t take Uncle Edwin’s.” Archer looked around the bed some more. “They said that they hadn’t disturbed the body yet. So it must be here.”

“What’s that in his hand?” Sloan pointed out.

“His heart.” Axel’s voice was emotionless. She was somehow distancing herself from the grief.

“Take a deep breath, Sloan.” BB gently put her hand on her back. “Look at it this way, that’s not your uncle.”

“His hand.” Axel’s voice cut through the air.

Archer immediately reached for Edwin’s hand that lay at his side, still in a fist. Gently he pulled his fingers and they fell open and a rosary poured to the bed.

“A rosary. The old son of a gun knew they were coming for him.” Archer chuckled.

“Edwin was always prepared and he never let the chance of outsmarting his enemies pass him by.” Sloan smiled.

“We need to get his family away from here. They can’t stay in this house anymore.” Axel looked through the drawers for anything else they may need to get out of sight.

“Why, this is their home?” She always felt like home was sacred, safe. But she too hadn’t gone back to her home for about eight years. It wasn’t the same place for her. It didn’t have the same meaning or feeling.

“Death has a way of following you, Sloan. They didn’t kill Diana and the kids because they wanted her to replace us. If they stay here he will trap us, but if they don’t we have time to plan our next move,” Archer said.

“I’ll go tell them to get packed,” BB offered.

“Jake, could you ask them to get the body out of here? I think Diana has been traumatized enough. Actually, I’ll come with you.” Archer and Jake left Axel and Sloan in the room with their dead uncle.

“Why Edwin? He never wanted part of a hunter’s life.” Sloan’s eyes were glued to the corpse.

“To prove a point, but right now that doesn’t matter. We just need to replace the bastard and his bitch of a wife and kill them.” Axel pulled the sheet over Edwin’s body and dragged Sloan out of the room with her.

The hallway seemed to be swimming around her, and Axel too didn’t seem right. She watched as the coroners went into the room to get the body. Her eyes caught a glimpse of Archer shaking the detective’s hand as Jake’s hand rested on Archer’s shoulder in support.

She felt herself being pulled forward but she couldn’t feel her feet. Soon everything that was going on around her moved further and the voices in her ear faded away. She stepped into an empty room and leaned against the wall.

“Sloan.” She could hear her name being called out from a distance. Then she felt a building pressure on her torso, an itch on her back, and her strangely heavy body begin to shake. The slight trembling turned into a violent quake as the pressure turned into pain and the itch turned into an intense burning. Sloan’s body jerked, pushing her abdomen forward with severe pain. She couldn’t scream, nor could she move her heavy limbs, so she just stood there, shaking in intense pain as the darkness engulfed her.

After what felt like an eternity, Sloan couldn’t feel the pain or the burning any more. She closed her eyes and opened them again, ushering the darkness away and welcoming back the light and color. She breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was back to normal.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked worriedly once she opened her eyes.

“What am I doing on the floor?” She let Jake lift her to her feet.

“That’s what I would like to know.” Jake put his arm around her for support. “Are you sick? Did you skip a meal or something?”

“You bombarding me with all these questions doesn’t help, babe.” She pressed her palm against her aching head. “Did I hit my head or something?”

“You probably fell like a ton of bricks. We heard the thud all the way from downstairs. Sorry no one was close enough to catch you,” BB said.

“I didn’t notice you going down.” A look of concern creased on Axel’s forehead.

“It’s fine. I think I just need to lie down.” She held on to Jake’s arm as he led her down the stairs to the sitting room.

“Just relax here. Axel and Archer are moving your aunt and cousins to a hotel for the meantime,” Jake informed her.

“What are they going to do about the body?”

A pair of coroners came down the stairs with an occupied body bag strapped on a stretcher. Sloan watched as they carried Edwin out the house, shocked at how silent everything seemed to be around her.

“They have to bury him on holy ground. Archer asked Snoop to go talk to the priest at the church. He is going to ask him for permission to bury him on church grounds.” He combed his fingers through her floppy bob. “Are you sure you are feeling okay?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” She pulled his hand from her hair and kissed the back of it. “I just need to get out of here. This house doesn’t seem to have any good memories for me.”

“I think you should wait a while before getting back on your bike. Collapsing on the floor is very different from falling off a bike.” He chuckled.

“I’m glad you replace all of this funny. I could have—” Her smile faded and her attention turned to the now family of four. Diana’s cheeks were bright pink and her eyes were puffy and red.

Rubbing her soggy palms over her jeans, Sloan took a deep breath before approaching her grieving family. She stood inches away from Diana and never attempted to touch her in any way.

“I’m really sorry about this. Archer, Axel and I are going to take care of everything. You need not worry about a thing.” Her eyes moved from Diana to Chantal, then to the two disillusioned boys.

She knew exactly how they felt, and yet she couldn’t think of a single thing to say to them. None of them could. Archer and Axel came up behind them with more of their suitcases.

“Sloan, we better go,” Archer said. “I’m going to drive them in Diana’s car and the four of you will follow us behind. Stay close.”

His last statement made Sloan feel like the threat was still around, like it was waiting for them around the corner or at the next curb. It wasn’t over and it wouldn’t be until the day they finally killed Kellan.

“Of course. I’ll just call Snoop and he can come pick your bike up,” Sloan put in.

“I already did. Let’s go.” Archer led the family to the car.

They drove slowly to the center of the city with Sloan, Axel, BB, and Jake following at their wings. They kept their eyes peeled, assessing and reassessing each and every person and car that came close to the car carrying their precious cargo.

When they got to the hotel, Archer insisted on taking a look around before letting Diana and the kids go up. Once they were safely settled, he pulled Diana aside and handed her two guns. From the other side of the room, Sloan watched as Archer explained to Diana how to use the guns. Diana shook her head, a clear indication that she either didn’t understand what he was saying or she didn’t want the guns, but after a while she took them.

“We better get going. We don’t want to attract any unnecessary attention to this place,” BB put in.

“I think we should stay with them.” Sloan could see how frightened Chantal looked, and it didn’t seem like the time to leave the grieving family alone.

“You have a point,” Axel said.

“Fine, we all stay. I’ll call Snoop and let him know.” Archer retreated once again to the other room.

Sloan’s eyes didn’t leave Chantal’s. Chantal was looking straight at her, but yet it seemed like she didn’t see her at all. It was like she was staring at something between them, something in the thin air.

Unsure of what she was doing Sloan went and sat next to her. She didn’t say a word for a couple of seconds, and then finally, when she thought it was time, she put her hand over Chantal’s.

“You don’t have to worry. We will keep you safe until you leave tomorrow evening,” She reassured her.

“I still don’t understand what happened,” Chantal rasped.

“There are a lot of things that happen in life that we don’t understand. It is normal that you would want to, but this isn’t one you’ll ever comprehend.” She felt strange sharing the moment with her once sworn enemy.

“How did you deal with it?” Chantal cleared her voice. “How did you deal with not having your parents around?”

“I didn’t at first, then I went to my grandmother’s and she helped me. But I’m still dealing with it, one day at a time.”

“When does it stop hurting?” The emotion was bubbling out of Chantal’s chest.

“It never does. I can’t remember clearly how my parents died, but the one thing I can’t get out of my mind is my mother’s voice and the image of my father’s body.” Sloan battled the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.

“What I can’t get out of my mind is how his mouth was open and his bloody heart in his hand.” She rubbed her face with her hand, wiping off the tears on her cheeks. “Mom just stood there, staring at him as if she was waiting for him to say something.”

“What did you do?”

“I left. I had to make sure the boys didn’t see anything.” Her eyes darted to her brothers who were snuggled up against Diana. They looked confused and unaware of what had just happened.

“Babe.” Jake came up to them. “BB and I are just going to pick up some clothes and some utensils.”

The last part just sounded dumb and even he knew it, but Sloan knew what he meant. She just gave him a slight nod and turned her attention back to Chantal.

“You guys are still together?” Chantal watched as Jake walked away.

“For some reason he thinks I’m special.” Sloan’s bewilderment of that fact went deeper than anyone knew.

“That’s why they say love is blind, or did you pick up some juju from the village?” she teased.

“You know, this is the first time I have seen you when you are not hysterical. Call it a miracle, but for the past couple of minutes I didn’t cringe at the sound of your voice.” Sloan laughed.

“I’m a bit of a diva, I know. But that is just part of my good qualities.” Her head whipped toward the whiny voices. Al and Cam were nagging Diana about something, and Diana seemed to be in some sort of a trance. “I better go see what that’s about.”

“Sure, I’ll just ask Archer what the plan is for tomorrow.”

Archer stood at the window looking outside, his arms folded across his chest. From his rigid stance Sloan knew the wheels in his head were spinning ferociously.

“I know you are not looking at the view.” She stood at his side.

“You know what that was, don’t you?” He didn’t turn to look at her as he spoke.

“I have a crazy idea. What do we do now?” Sloan looked over at Diana, who was now seated alone.

“We replace it and we send it back to hell.” Archer’s voice was hoarse and fierce.

“I like that plan. That is a good plan.” Sloan looked around the room, and the first thing she noticed is that it was filled with the Sloans that were left behind. This was what was left of them, and if they didn’t fight there wouldn’t be any of them left at all.

* * * *

That night, Sloan, BB, Jake and Chantal sat at a corner of the little room, trying not to disturb the others’ rest as they chatted away. This was the longest Sloan had ever spent talking to her cousin and she liked it.

“I can’t believe you three are still friends,” Chantal said.

“These two are my rock and they set me straight if I need it.” She shared a glance with BB and hoped that she knew how much she appreciated her.

“In any way that we can,” BB teased.

“I don’t know where all my friends went to. They vanished as soon as they heard I couldn’t enroll this year.”

“Those aren’t friends,” Jake put in. “I’ve only known the guys I live with for about two years. But I know one thing for sure, each one of them would take a bullet for me.”

BB arched her brow at him. “I hope you didn’t include me in that suicidal pact.”

“No, BB, I didn’t.” Jake chuckled.

“I never thought in a million years that you and I would be able to stay in the same room without trying to kill each other.” Sloan took Chantal’s hand and held on to it. It was the perfect way to make a connection, or so she was told.

“I never thought you were a yellow belly,” Chantal teased. “Imagine my shock when the strong, independent Sloan fainted on her ass.”

“Yeah, what was up with that?” BB asked.

“I am not admitting to being a yellow belly, as my dear cousin puts it, but it was too much for me to handle.” Sloan raised her hands over head in defense, trying to talk above the loud chuckles at her expense.

“As time passes we evolve.” Jake quickly kissed the temple of Sloan’s head.

“You two are too cute.”

The sun came up behind Chantal’s head, but they all ignored it. Axel and Archer joined the group as they argued about topics ranging from basketball to football. But when Diana woke up and started preparing the boys they knew it was time.

“Chantal, come on.” Diana waved her over. She looked like she hadn’t slept the whole night. Her eyes were bloodshot and the dark circles around her eyes were now darker. She waved Chantal over again, her hand trembling as if she was late for her next fix.

“I better go get cleaned up and dressed.” She stood up and grabbed her mother’s hand in reassurance.

“Look pretty.” It was the only thing Sloan had thought of.

The ride to the church was silent and so was the church itself. In attendance were only the family members and guys from the house. They sat in the first two pews of the church and listened as the priest droned on and on.

Sloan sat in between Chantal and Jake, holding on to their hands. She stared ahead at the priest’s lips moving as his voice turned into a slight buzzing.

“Are you okay?”

The sound of Jake’s voice in her ear seemed to pull her back from wherever her mind was taking her. She nodded in response and squeezed his hand.

The priest sprinkled some holy water on the coffin, which marked the end of the sermon. Archer and the guys carried the coffin out to the yard as the little ones followed, their mother sandwiched in between them. The four girls trudged slowly behind. Chantal hooked her arm in Sloan’s.

“Could you guys stay with us tonight, since we are leaving early tomorrow morning?” Chantal asked as they stood inches away from the mound that formed over the freshly dug out earth.

“Sure.” Archer responded immediately. “Ike, Spike and Snoop, we will see you back home in the morning.”

“Sure thing boss.”

* * * *

Kellan and Ali stood a safe distance away. They had followed the procession all the way from the church to the cemetery. He kept his eyes on Sloan the whole time and could see how this was affecting her. A part of him ached to relieve all her pain, to be next to her, but he had to remember that Edwin was dead because of him.

“It doesn’t look like the boy and girl are leaving.” Ali pointed at BB and Jake.

“It doesn’t matter. You can get the job done with what you’ve got. The aim is to weaken them,” Kellan mumbled.

His jaws clenched when Jake took Sloan into his arms. He watched in pain and annoyance as he mastered all his strength to keep himself from tearing the two apart and incinerating the bond that they had.

“If you keep staring at them like that you may end up doing something you will definitely regret.” Ali chuckled.

“Like what?”

“Like setting them both on fire and condemning them to eternal hell.”

“They are both going to die anyway.” His fingers balled into fists at his sides.

“Yes, but Sloan can’t die at this very moment.” Ali laughed. “Even after all this is done, I doubt that you will let me kill her or let anyone harm her in any way.”

“I’m not human. I don’t harbor feelings.” He put his dark shades on.

“Tell that to jealousy and adoration—they are each sitting on one of your shoulders.” She chuckled.

“Don’t be silly, Ali. I am a demon and my true nature will always overcome any silliness I have picked up over the years,” he growled. “Besides, you are right on one thing. I won’t allow you or anyone else to harm her. Killing her will be my pleasure.”

“Uh-huh,” Ali responded. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Kellan made a grumbling noise of protest before vanishing. Ali turned back and gave the Sloan family one last look before disappearing back to her own hell.

“Are you ready?” Aguares felt the air shift and immediately knew that they were back.

“Definitely.” Kellan stomped past him. “I don’t think we should take more than four minions with us.”

“Why? I don’t want to get my hands dirty and ruin my nails,” Ali argued.

“There will be six of us and three of them. We will be twice their number, and you don’t need to do any more than bring their souls down here.”

“That might not be possible. Unless you can make them commit one of the seven deadly sins, their souls are untouchable,” Aguares informed them.

“Whatever…them being dead is good enough for me.”

“What about the other three?” Aguares was talking about Axel, BB, and Jake. “After tonight, they will be overly cautious.”

“I bet Archer isn’t one of the three?” Kellan had an amused smirk on his face as his gaze shifted from Ali to Aguares. “Why is that?”

“He is her pet.” His head leaned toward Ali. “The same way the girl is your pet.”

“But my pet, as you put it, is going to be killed. She is nothing but a mule to you.” His smirk turned into an expression of annoyance.

“You wished it that way and besides, Ali’s pet doesn’t make her feel all warm inside. My daughter is evil, rotten to the core, and I can always depend on that. You on the other hand—” His tongue slapped the top of his mouth as his finger moved from side to side before resting it on his lips.

“It doesn’t matter. By tomorrow, when they replace the bodies, Sloan is going to come to me and I am going to convince her to stay with me.” Kellan was confident Sloan couldn’t handle loss. Four people she knew dead in a time span of two days was enough grief to push her to him.

“You are confident.” Aguares cut into his thoughts.

“That is because I know her. She can’t go a day without talking to me—” His phone screeched in his pocket. “Speaking of…hi, babe.”

* * * *

Sloan sneaked out of the hotel room as quietly as she could. She needed to hear his voice; it was the one thing she could trust to put her at ease. Immediately his melodic voice filled her ears she could feel all the tension seep out of her.

“I really needed to hear your voice, sweetheart.” A smile curved on her lips as she held the phone tightly to her ear.

“You can hear it all day long if you want to. How did your day go? I know it must have been hard.”

“It was hard. Diana and Chantal took it the worst but we handled it. I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

“So am I.”

Sloan heard the door open and she knew she was caught.

“What are you doing?” BB stood behind her, a suspicious frown on her face.

“That is fine. I’ll talk to you later.” She turned around to face her, “Hey, I was just on the phone with NYU.”

“Why?”

“Chantal wants to go to college, and since my tuition was already paid for by Levy, I thought I could give it to Chantal.” She saw BB’s face relax and she knew that she was out of the fix. “Why? What did you think I was doing?”

“Nothing, we were just wondering where you were. Let’s go back in. Archer wanted to go over tomorrow’s plan.” BB seemed embarrassed and she led them back into the room.

“What about tomorrow?” She didn’t give any of them a chance to ask her why she was alone outside. Unlike BB, Archer could spot a lie. So could Jake, but he was too much in love with her to call her on it.

“We are going to take Aunt Diana and the kids to the airport. They are going to Alaska,” he said.

“I’m guessing it’s because demons don’t like the cold,” Sloan put in.

Axel laughed. “Nice reasoning, but no. It’s far enough from us and you in particular.”

“That’s nice,” Sloan mumbled, remembering what Archer had said, that she was the only one capable of getting close enough to Kellan.

“We need to talk about what we are going to do after tomorrow. Kellan is still out there and, if getting to Sloan is his goal, we need to figure out a plan,” Jake interrupted. “Something better than waiting around.”

“Sloan will be safe. She is my family.” Archer seemed insulted at what he thought he was insinuating.

“Let’s just focus on now and think about the future later. Diana cannot board a plane with a gun or knives, so we’ll have to give her a vial of that good stuff,” Axel put in.

“If a demon comes after us, how will we kill it?” It was the first time any of them had heard Diana talk about the demons since her husband died, and the sound of her voice surprised them all.

“You don’t have to worry about that. What they want is here. But if you feel like you need the extra protection, BB can replace a way to turn your hair clip or purse into a weapon.”

“Sure, in fact you can have mine.” She pulled her two chopstick hair clips out of her hair and handed them to her. “They’re silver, but they’ve been laced with carbon. Hopefully you will be able to go through airport security without any detection.”

“And if she can’t?” Chantal asked.

“My thought process didn’t go that far. But you can always say its platinum.” Her shoulders shrugged, her point not sounding very convincing.

“Enough about the clip. We have to wake up bright and early tomorrow,” Archer barked.