Chapter Twenty-Eight
Amerella knew she had just died. Her heart stopped pumping, her lungs stopped expanding. But the oxygen in her brain would hang around for a couple of minutes. Then she’d go. Her dead heart ached to see her baby, Francis, one more time. To see Frank. Tell them how much she loved them both. She wanted them to know.
Thankfully she’d gotten a chance to tell Frank about the letter. She would be able to rest in peace knowing her son would be with others like him, who would love and teach him. She felt horrible about the town being destroyed because of her.
Dorothy’s restaurant could’ve been really cute with the décor ideas they’d shared. And Sherri’s beauty shop may have been small, but it was really nice. Did shifters insure their property like humans do? Probably not. They most likely dealt as little as they could with the human world. Then again, couldn’t there be shifter insurance salespeople?
Was she brain-babbling? This had to be what happened when waiting for the brain to die with the rest of the body. It wasn’t like there was much to do but lie there.
Her life flashing before her eyes didn’t happen. Did she regret anything? Yeah, not taking down Uncle Giuseppe. The world would be a better place without him. She wondered if she could become a ghost and haunt the man until he shit his pants, and put that on Facebook. Public humiliation would be the worst for him. Making the family look bad.
Hopefully Detective Freeman would have his goal of seeing the end of the Mafia boss before he retired.
Getting justice for Joey would’ve been good. But Tony did seem dead when the demon left his body. He never said anything or stood after that. She also regretted not telling Frank about their baby sooner.
She felt a cold pressure on her neck, then the worst pain she’d ever experienced. Her brain screamed as fire consumed her body from her neck down. It surged through her veins like stinging spears. This was what final death throes felt like? Dear god, she hoped she died quickly.
A shock jolted her body, like touching an electric fence. Her heart started beating. Holy shit! What was happening?
“No!” the witch screamed. “What’s happening?”
“You sacrificed her but there will be no possession. She stays alive,” she heard the raspy demon’s voice say near her ear.
Amerella’s eyes popped open.
The bindings over her wrists loosened to the point where she could free her hands.
“Stop it!” the witch yelled. “You’re ruining everything!”
“There shall be no sacrifice,” the demon repeated, his gaze meeting hers. Then, he turned to the witch. “Unless you want to offer yourself?”
Trying not to move too much, she looked around the room. Tony was a lump on the floor while Uncle Giuseppe and Julia stood back several feet from the table she lay on. The demon walked to the bonfire.
“N-no,” Julia stammered, the anger vanishing from her voice.
“Don’t open another portal,” the demon said to the witch. “Or I will come back for you. And I won’t be alone.” He stepped backward into the fire to disappear. Immediately, the fire died to cold embers.
“Where did he go?” Uncle Giuseppe asked. “Does that mean I’m not going to be all-powerful?”
Julia gulped. “I don’t know what just happened. How can a demon not want to do a possession?”
Giuseppe hit the witch. “Are you listening to me, bitch? I want the demon you promised me.” God, if her uncle didn’t sound as whiny as Tony had a few minutes ago.
Julia turned to him, rubbing her arm. “Are you deaf, old man? Or just dumb? The demon said they are no longer into possessions. They have a better deal elsewhere.” She walked toward the door.
“Stop,” her uncle ordered. “Get back here and get my demon.” Didn’t affect Julia.
You go, girl. Stand up to her bastard uncle. A gunshot rang out and the witch dropped. On second thought, bad advice. Could be hazardous to your health. Her uncle turned the gun on Amerella, who was still lying on the table. Oh, fuck.
“How is it that you were the only one supposed to die, but you end up the only one alive?” Her uncle’s eyes didn’t look right. They creeped her out. Guessing that had been a rhetorical question, she kept quiet. Didn’t want to make the man any more irritated than he already was. He stepped toward her. Well, shit. Did she come back to life just to die again?
“Mr. Ragusa, Detective Freeman is here to see you,” a guard poking his head through the doorway said. Her uncle froze, not answering the unasked question. Was he losing his mind? “Sir?”
He spun around. “Yes. I’m coming. Get all the guards in here to watch the ballroom doors. I don’t want anyone going inside, unless they want to die. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.” The guard straightened and opened the door wider. “Do you want the security monitors up here also?”
“Yes,” her uncle replied. “I need their guns right now, not their eyes watching TVs.” Did her uncle intend to kill Freeman? Oh my god. She had to stop that from happening. “Also,” he continued, “make sure Freeman leaves his gun in the lobby or he doesn’t come in.”
“Yes, sir.”
The doors closed and silence encompassed the room. Laying there quietly in the dim candlelight, she felt the life pumping through her body again. Now that she knew what it felt like to be dead, being alive was freakin’ great. Now to get to Freeman.
She pulled her arms from the semi-wrapped ties, swung her body to sit up, and hopped to the floor. Immediately, vertigo swept her away. Her vision spun, eyes darting side to side relentlessly. Her body stumbled sideways and she did her best to stay on her feet until she slammed into a wall.
Grabbing at whatever her hands could find to keep her from falling, her fingers dug into soft, velvety material. The blackout curtains? She let the curtain hold her weight. Then she heard a tearing sound from directly overhead.
She remembered the strange wind that blew through the room earlier had nearly ripped the material from the wall. It seemed that her body would be the means to finish what the wind started. Her ass smacked onto the floor. She ducked her head and rolled against the wall as fifteen feet of heavy curtain folded up on top of her.