“Is there anything we need to get for you?” Finn bounded back down the stairs with a shirt on and wrapped an arm around his mom’s shoulders nonchalantly. The outward display of the love and devotion he had for his mother tugged at my heart.
“I believe Elina is bringing everything we should need.” She grinned up at him appreciatively.
“I thought I was bringing everything we needed?” Ricker had appeared, holding a tray of steaming coffee cups. An annoyed Willow and Tina shuffled around him to set the rest of the coffees down on the counter. “I would’ve been back quicker if it weren’t for these two betties slowing me down,” he complained in a hushed voice and yanked his thumb at Willow and Tina with a snicker.
“Somehow I doubt that,” Finn sneered.
“Well it’s about time Sleeping Beauty woke up!” Ricker gave Finn the one-arm-fist-to-the-back guy hug, followed by a real one from Willow. “I’m just glad Stasia showed up so I didn’t have to wake you up with a kiss!”
“Where’s Dorien?” Tina asked, glancing around.
“He wore out his welcome,” Finn retorted darkly. I could tell by his inaction that he didn’t see Tina as a threat to Carmen’s life, which was a relief. I was really becoming fond of her.
I recognized a fangirl moment building in Tina’s eyes as she caught sight of an awake and alert Finn Morrison, Prime of the Sons, for the first time. Thankfully she collected herself, but I suspected she had only suppressed it momentarily. “What did he do?”
“I believe your friend was under the impression that Carmen is possessed by a demon. He was misguided in his thinking,” Charon answered sternly, sending Finn a look to let it drop at that. “I was just briefing everyone on our plan to help her.”
“How do you know it’s not a demon?” Tina asked, clearly upset that Dorien had been expelled from the house.
“Demons are innately evil. Those of us connected to the Underworld can sense evil from a great distance. I can assure you that what has taken residence in Carmen’s mind is not evil.” Charon began to pace again.
“You kicked him out because he was wrong?” she pressed.
“No, we kicked him out because he wanted to kill Carmen,” Finn answered plainly.
“He…wanted to kill her?” Tina gasped, her eyes wide with shock. Charon shot Finn another look to silence him.
“He believed the demon would harm the island,” Charon expounded patiently. “He wanted to rid this world of the demon by killing Carmen. Unbeknownst to Dorien, if it were a demon, getting rid of it would pose a greater challenge than simply disposing of Carmen.” The way he said ‘disposing of Carmen’ made my skin crawl.
“I’m so sorry,” She shrank back in disgust, obviously ashamed of Dorien. Her distaste of his intentions made me like her even more. “I had no idea.” Charon gave her a sympathetic nod to let her know she wasn’t on the chopping block, and then confronted the rest of the room.
“When Elina arrives, she and Natasha will need to prepare Carmen’s room. Only a select few will be allowed in during the ritual. Any more than that would surely enrage them further. I expect everyone else to remain in here, but be available if needed. Understood?”
We all nodded in agreement and then Natasha handed out cups of coffee. The cups were about half the size of normal coffee cups in America, and I peeked in mine with curiosity. It had a layer of foam on top and appeared to be a lot thicker than American coffee.
“Greek coffee looks like sewer sludge, but it does the trick,” Ricker explained with a shrug; leaving the kitchen to check on Carmen.
“Does it taste like sewer sludge?” Phoebe scrunched her nose at Finn as she tried to swirl the thick liquid around in her cup. Ricker walked back into the kitchen with a petrified expression that froze his blue eyes.
“Carmen,” he managed. “She’s gone.”
Chapter 13
“Gone? She’s not in the bed?” Natasha looked up in alarm. Ricker’s eyes shifted back into the room before answering; his eyes stalling on something.
“…and the window’s open.” As understanding dawned on all of us, we abandoned our coffee and ran outside like a herd of wild horses. After searching the exterior of the house and up and down the street, there were still no signs of Carmen to be found.
“Where would she go? She doesn’t even know her way around!” Ricker gestured frantically.
Natasha’s motherly instincts kicked in as she rubbed his arm in an attempt to calm him down.
“Willow, Phoebe, Ricker; take the car and start driving around campus,” she instructed.
“Stasia, Tina-“
“Hold on.” Finn stopped mid-step and tilted his head as if listening to something. His head swiveled sideways and then up toward Charon, who was standing on the front step of our villa.
Charon nodded at him in agreement with whatever he was thinking. “The beach.”
“You can hear her?” Tina gawked in disbelief.
“I can sense what’s inside her. They’re in control. Not Carmen,” Finn informed us darkly.
“And they’re growing stronger. We need to hurry.” The beach was a mere block away, so we decided that Tina and Charon would stay back in case she returned. Everyone else took off toward the beach as fast as our legs would allow. Not surprisingly, Finn and I were the first to cross the main road. We hurdled over several scraggly-looking shrubs that lined the beach and made it onto the thicker, white sand at the same time. Undisturbed sand stretched out on either side of us, void of any people.
“I can tell she’s near,” Finn murmured, perplexed. Ricker ran up beside me and scanned the beach as well, followed closely by Natasha, Willow, and Phoebe. We all rounded on Finn questioningly, until an eerie voice spoke up behind us. We whirled around in surprise to see Carmen standing a couple of feet away.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Carmen glared at Ricker with rage burning in her eyes.
Ricker stepped forward like he was going to approach her, but stopped mid-step when she actually hissed at him. “We’ve been looking for you.” The threatening edge to her voice (along with the crooked smile that didn’t reach her eyes) sent chills down my spine. A vision of the possessed girl from that movie The Exorcist popped into my head. If she started speaking in tongues, I was taking her straight to the nearest priest. Not that I didn’t think Natasha couldn’t handle it - I didn’t know ifI could handle it.
“Carmen,” Ricker cautiously inched towards her. “Let’s go back to the house and talk.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at him in a silent challenge.
“Carmen-“ Ricker pleaded again.
“I said NO!” she shouted and walked away in defiance, but Ricker wasn’t one to give up easily. He followed her several yards until she spun around and charged at him; shoving him down onto the sand.
“What is your part in this?” she fumed at him. Ricker pushed himself up into a sitting position, exhaustion settling over him.
“Carmen, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he sighed.
“Liar!” she scowled down at him accusingly. “The litany of emotions you evoke tells me different. Liars can be punished just as easily.”
“If you’ll tell me what you need,” he surrendered willingly, “I’ll do anything…” Without another word Carmen growled and lunged for him, but thankfully Finn was faster. He subdued her by holding her arms behind her back and pulling her away from Ricker. As she glared at Ricker with an icy hatred, an idea formed in my head. I grounded my feet without thinking about it and drew a line in the sand with my eyes. A wall of sand shot skyward, blocking her view of him.