Chapter 2
You can’t break your lease, Ms. Carol. It’s impossible.”
Anna gripped her phone tighter. Over the last two weeks, she hadn’t slept, or had a moment of peace. The hauntings that had begun with Luke—who turned out to be a suicide from three years ago, and Marisol who’d died in a murder last year—had only gotten worse and worse.
“Of course, I can. Just tell me how much.”
The realtor let out a low, sinister laugh that didn’t sound like her usual high-pitched voice. “You don’t understand. You entered the agreement of your own free volition. No one forced you into it. The moment you did so, you became one of ours.”
“Pardon?”
“You heard me. You came to me seeking a new life. I delivered it. You have a new job and place to live. I fulfilled our bargain. In return, you signed away your soul.”
This had to be a joke. Was she high?
“Um... what?”
“You heard me,” she repeated. “Read the fine print on the contract. You came here looking to start over. I told you when I handed you the keys, and you crossed the apartment’s threshold that you would be entering a whole new life. Did you think I was kidding?”
“I assumed you were speaking metaphorically.”
“Well you know what they say about assume. It makes an ass out of u and me.” Then, the witch had the nerve to actually hang up.
Hang up!
Demonic laughter rang through her apartment.
Unamused, Anna stood there, grinding her teeth.
Okay. I have sold my soul to the devil.
She had no response to that. Face it, it wasn’t exactly something someone dealt with every day. At least not normal people.
“Well, it’s a good thing I come from a basketload of crazy.”
And that was being generous. Crazy had kind of looped around her family a couple of times. Rebounded back, decided it really liked them and then moved in, and planted some serious roots. Then, because she was really Southern, it had remarried a few cousins, committed incest, and decided to never branch off her family tree. So the lunacy had just quadrupled with each subsequent generation, until it was no longer eccentric, it was downright felonious.
Yeah, that was her family.
And that was her insanity.
In Randolph County, Alabama where her family hailed from, she could get someone killed for a simple keg of beer. No questions asked.
Which was why she’d moved to Huntsville when she married. Although her ex had often claimed that three hours away just wasn’t far enough.
Sometimes, she agreed.
But right now, she needed that kind of crazy. Because they were the only ones who could make this seem normal. And who wouldn’t have her committed when she called them.
Anna started to dial her father, then stopped herself.
After all, she was in Satan’s apartment.
Um, yeah. She’d seen enough horror movies to know how this would play out. It always ended to same for the idiot on the phone.
Grizzly death.
She slid her phone into her back pocket. “I’m just going to the grocery store to get some milk. I’ll be back in a minute.”
As calmly as she could, she grabbed her keys and pocketbook, then headed for the door. “Hey, Satan? Could you turn out the lights for me? Thanks!”
She headed out, and tried not to freak as she got to her Jeep, and saw the lights in her apartment turn off.
Never let it be said that the devil didn’t have a wicked sense of humor.
Trying to stay calm, she got into the Jeep, and drove to the store as if all was right in the world. Just in case she had an unseen visitor keeping her company.
She’d seen that movie, too.
Once she was inside the store, and had found a place where nothing too hard or sharp could fall on her, and where she had a good line-of-sight on anyone who might get possessed and come charging after her, including devil or zombie dogs, rats or insects, she dialed her dad.
Luckily, he wasn’t out bowling with his buds or watching a game. He never picked up the phone on game nights.
“Hey, sweetie. How’s my girl?”
“Hey, Daddy. I have a little problem.” She glanced around the store, and lowered her voice so that no one could overhear her and think her nuts. ‘Cause honestly, she thought she was pretty crazy herself. “Turns out, you’ve been wrong in your sermons lately. The devil isn’t coming up in those hell-pits down in Georgia that’s been causing their interstates to rise up and buckle. He’s actually here in Richmond. Living in my apartment building.”
“Say what?”
“Uh, yeah. Apparently, I accidentally sold my soul to him when I signed my lease.”
Now most fathers would have probably committed their daughters over such a statement. At the very least, would have laughed it off, and thought it a prank.
Lucky thing for Anna, her daddy was a Southern Baptist preacher who specialized in spiritual warfare. In fact, her family came from a long, long line of such men and women who were famed for scaring the devil out of generations of parishioners and farms.
And one old rusted-out moonshine still from back in the days of Prohibition when it’d supposedly gotten possessed by an angry demon who was running amok in an Appalachian hill town . . . but that was another story.
The good news was that when it came to things like this, her father didn’t blink an eye. But he did rush to action, and he always took it seriously.
“All right, baby girl. You know what to do. The cavalry’s coming. You hold tight and we’ll be there by morning.”
“Thank you, Daddy!” Normally, it would take about nine-and-a-half hours to make the drive from where her daddy lived in Wedowee to her apartment in Richmond. But given her dire circumstances, and her father’s propensity for ignoring the posted limitations on speed, she’d expect him in about seven.
Her daddy was awesome that way.
And she knew he wouldn’t bother to pack. He always kept a bug-out sack of clothes and his exorcism bag in his old Army HMMWV for just such emergencies (or a zombie apocalypse, ‘cause one could never be too careful).
Yeah, Old Scratch had no idea what he was in for.
Then again, given that he’d gone a few rounds with her father in the past, he probably did. And for once, the demons had picked the wrong person to muck with.
Smiling, Anna started back for her Jeep in the parking lot, then remembered that she actually did need milk. Given that the devil had recently moved into her apartment, it kept spoiling on her.
By the time she returned home, Anna saw a dark figure in the driveway.
Hmm...
Demon or thief?
Human or ghoul?
She grabbed her Bio Freeze spray from under her seat—which was legal and more effective than pepper spray—as well as her holy water, just to cover all bases, and got out of her Jeep.
Making sure that she had her keys ready to open the front door, she headed for the stoop.
The shadow moved.
Anna lifted her arm to hose it down with both bottles. If one didn’t work, the other would.
“Whoa there, Texarkana! Not the eyes!” The tall, gorgeous woman, clad in black leather, held her arm up to shield her elaborate black makeup that was reminiscent of Brandon Lee in The Crow, except the lines were much more deliberate and defined, and appeared to be ancient alchemy symbols. “I’m not wearing waterproof mascara. Which in retrospect was a poor life decision, given my line of work.”
Anna hesitated at the sight of this newcomer. Her straight, waist-length black hair was liberally streaked with gray, and pulled back into a high ponytail. A solid black pentagram choker rested on her throat above a hematite pendulum that dangled between her ample breasts, which were barely covered by a loose fishnet top. The only thing that kept her transparent shirt from being obscene was a tight leather corset. And she’d finished her outfit off with black crocheted shorts over skin-tight leather leggings and thigh high, stacked boots. Along with a stylish leather coat that fell all the way to her ankles.
But the creepiest thing about her were her eyes that were stark, crystal white in the darkness.
If those weren’t theater contacts, that only left one conclusion ...
“Are you one of my ghosts screwing with me?”
“No.”
“Then why are you dressed like an eighties social reject?”
“Ow! That’s a bit harsh, considering your father sent me here to watch over you, and help.”
Sucking her breath in sharply, Anna cringed with regret. Apparently, she’d been hanging out with Luke too much lately. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. But you do look like you just stepped out of the movie, The Craft.”
“First, that movie is from the nineties, and no, I don’t. For your information, I was dressing like this long before the actors who starred in it were either born or house-broken. And for what I do, this outfit works well as it tends to scare little kids, old men, and hides bloodstains. Plus, it’s easy to clean, and it’s biodegradable.”
Not what she was expecting the woman to say by a long shot. And it definitely quelled any smart aleck retort she had.
“Okay, then. I’m hoping you don’t mean my blood.”
“Me, too.” Well that wasn’t even a little comforting from where Anna was standing. “And for the record, who are you?”
“The Witch of Endor.”
Anna arched a brow at another thing she wasn’t expecting this stranger to say. “As in the biblical necromancer?”
She inclined her head.
Anna was impressed, except for one thing she needed to straighten out. “I’m assuming by that, it’s a title thing. You’re not really the same woman who summoned up King Samuel. ‘Cause that would make you what... a billion years old?”
She smirked. “Not quite. But yeah, I’m a bit long in the tooth.”
“Uzarah!”
Anna froze at the deep demonic groan that echoed from her building. “What was that?”
“The demon calling my name.” She wrinkled her nose. “He and I are old friends. We basically cruised the Stone Age on dinosaurs together. Hung out. Brought down a few dynasties. Fun times.” Clearing her throat, she glanced toward Anna’s apartment window without Anna having told her which one it was. “Achish, old buddy! How’s it hanging? I heard you’ve been a bad boy lately.”
Lights exploded through the apartment building like a sped-up freaky Christmas exhibition on YouTube. A screeching howl started inside the old building, then crescendoed louder and louder as it threatened to break windows and splinter Anna’s eardrums.
Anna covered her ears, and cringed in fear.
Uzarah tsked at her. “Don’t react to him. He’s an attention hog. Like a pesky little brother. Ignore the brat and he’ll stop.”
To prove her point, Uzarah yawned.
The moment she did, the demon screamed and manifested in front of her in all his ugly, dark green glory. Towering over the witch, he growled with flaming scarlet eyes.
Uzarah let out another exaggerated yawn, and waved her hand over her mouth. Twice.
He gestured one clawed hand toward Anna. “I own her!”
Uzarah shrugged nonchalantly. “You cheated. She didn’t know she was giving up her soul. Do we really have to get lawyers involved?”
“She signed in blood!”
Arching a brow that basically said ‘Are you stupid or what’, Uzarah glared at Anna.
“No, I didn’t!” She glanced between them, and stood on her tiptoes to drive home her point. “I know for a fact I didn’t! I’d never do something that . . .” She froze as she remembered the pen she’d used in the realtor’s office. It’d been unusually sharp at the point. So sharp that she’d accidentally pricked her finger when she went to sign the lease. “Wait a second. That was extreme cheating!”
Horrified, Anna gaped at Uzarah. “Can they really count that? It was a trick.”
“Demons are crafty beasts. It’s why they call it ‘progressive entrapment.’ They pretend to be your friends. Pretend to be helpful… then the minute you drop your guard, they bite you on your ass.”
He laughed. “As I said, she’s mine!”
Anna went cold as she saw the look of resignation on Uzarah’s face.
“You’re right, Achish. There’s nothing I can do about it. But...”
The demon tensed. “But what?”
“I am a necromancer. I can release all the other souls here that you’ve claimed in the past.”
The demon’s eyes flared. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh yes, I would. So, you have a choice. Her soul, or all the others? Which is it?”
The contract appeared in his hand, then burst into flames. “She’s free. Take her and go.”
“You are to leave her alone while she moves out, and make sure all of your little buddies do the same, Achish. I mean it!”
“Fine!” He vanished.
Anna was aghast. “I can’t believe it was the easy! How did you do that?”
She shrugged. “A lot of centuries of negotiating with demonic dirtbags. Kind of like being a lawyer. You just have to know who to call.”
“So, are there a lot of you?”
Sadness darkened her eyes as Uzarah shook her head. “Not anymore, thanks to Saul and a few others who didn’t understand what we are, and why we were necessary to this world. And because of their rampant stupidity, I have to get back to my post before dawn. Give my best to your father. Tell him to finish our bargain so that your little realtor can’t run her racket here anymore.”
“What do you mean? What racket?”
“She’s the one who was really damned. And this was how she got out of it. Her bargain to save her own soul was to replace it with innocents. Your father has to close the portal here so that she can’t feed anymore lives to her demon. You need to make sure you’re not here when that happens. And that you’re really long gone when I come back to free the others.”
Her jaw dropped. “You lied?”
She shrugged. “If you think he’s going to keep his promise ... Let’s just say, I wouldn’t be sleeping in that apartment alone tonight. If you’re smart, you’ll wait on your dad to move out.”
“You got it. Believe me, I’ve learned my lesson.”
“And that is?”
“Be careful what you ask for. You just might get it. And whenever you sign a contract, always read the fine print first. You never know when the lawyers are going to suck out your soul. The devil really is in the details.”