They ignored me, repeating the same scripted dialogue from before.

“Stop!” I said. “I don’t want to do this anymore!”

“Are you sure you want to do this, Jack?” Gabe asked.

My mouth formed around each of Jack’s words. “Are you sure it’s her, Gabe?” He paused for Gabe’s answer, and then continued, “Then you know the answer.” I shook my head from side to side as I spoke along with him, copying him like a toddler, angry and snide.

A ferocious rage overtook me, and I grabbed the book from Jack’s hands.

Time stopped. Several times before, I had attempted to physical y interrupt, and failed. Jack, Gabe, and the book were always very real, but when I tried to interfere, they were the consistency of a hologram. This time the book was in my hands.

Gabe’s head turned up in quick motion to face me, his eyes a solid black. “Ars Notoria,” he whispered in a voice not his own.

The change of events frightened me. I stumbled back, away from my father and his friend. They were frozen in time like everything else in the room. Even the moonlit dust motes were hanging motionless in the air, but I could hear the screeches of the demons as they approached.

The dimensions of the room stretched, and the wood groaned and creaked. As I worked to keep my feet beneath me, I gripped the book tighter in my hands. The possibility of taking it back with me crossed my mind. It was the only reason I would be able to take it from Gabe.

I looked to the large window and closed my eyes. “It’s just a dream,” I said softly, confident the fal would wake me up. Opening my eyes with the Naissance de Demoniac in my hands wouldn’t be the most impossible thing that had ever happened to me.

In a ful sprint, I bound for the window, bracing myself to leap through the glass and into the night, but before I could, a searing pain spread throughout my hands. I abruptly stopped and threw the book to the ground. Although the leather no longer touched my skin, the parts of my fingers and palms that had been in direct contact with the binding were charred and smoldering. My hands shook violently as the burns traveled up my arms, and I wailed at the intense heat spreading throughout my body; it was as if I were on fire. The sensation was unlike anything I had experienced before, but I couldn’t imagine anything more excruciating.

The sound emanating from my throat didn’t sound like my own as I protested the torture consuming me. Any moment the demons would come, and I would beg them for death.

A hole opened up beneath me and I fel . In that instant the pain was gone, and a soft, cool mattress was beneath me. Jerking to a sitting position, I held my arms in front of me. They were peach and unblemished.

Jared and Bex stood next to the bed with terror in their eyes.

“She was at least four feet above the bed!” Bex said, his eyes wide. “Has that happened before?”

“No,” Jared said, his expression exponential y more intense than the agonized look I had been accustomed to waking up to. He was afraid.

“Above the bed?” I asked, confused.

Bex sat on the bed and watched me for a moment, then took the sheet and wiped the sweat from my hairline. “You were seriously hovering! It was something straight out of the Exorcist!”

I hoped for one moment that Bex was being Bex, trying to make light of the situation. Gauging the storms in Jared’s eyes, it was true.

“How is that even possible? What does that mean?” I said, frightened.

Jared looked away.

Bex tugged lightly on my shirt. “Same dream?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I was angry…so angry that I took the book from them. It was in my hands.”

“You’ve tried that before and your hands went right through it.” Jared said, his eyes on the floor.

“Not this time. I was so damn mad that I screamed at them, and then grabbed the book. And then Gabe…he looked at me.”

Jared knelt beside me, then. I touched his face. He was desperate for guidance from his father. “It wasn’t him,” I warned. “His eyes were solid black. Like Shax’s.”

Bex shook his head. “How can that be? If it were d— them I would have known. The whole time you were stretched out…suspended…there were none.

“Bex,” Jared warned.

“Not a single one,” Bex continued, lost in thought. “They crowd Mom’s house more than that.”

“None?” Jared asked. Bex nodded and Jared stood up again, and then began to pace. Final y, he spoke, “Something’s wrong.”

“But you can feel them, too,” I said to Jared. His question to Bex puzzled me.

“I can. Bex is more tuned-in to their presence—more so than any hybrid. His sensitivity to them rivals Samuel’s.”

“Sometimes I can tel when they’re even thinking about coming around,” Bex added.

Bex’s frown instantly alarmed me. My mind raced over every second of the dream, trying to think of something that might help. I wasn’t sure why they were so disturbed, but for Bex in particular, uncertainty was not something they handled wel .

“Ars Notes something,” I said.

Jared’s face transformed from worry to anger. “What?”

I searched my memories again. “Gabe said ‘Ars Notary’ or ‘Ars Notes’…something like that.”

Bex looked to his older brother. “Ars Notoria.”

“That’s it!” I said. “What does it mean?”

Jared sat on the edge of the bed and tenderly touched the sides of my jaw, looking into my eyes. “It means we’re going to have to get a Naissance de Demoniac. And not just any bible. Shax’s. My father is trying to tel us something.”

My brows pushed together. “What are you saying?”

“It’s not demons doing this to you,” Bex said, seeming vexed.

“That leaves one thing,” Jared said.

“You think it’s Gabe,” I said, horrified.

Jared pul ed me closer, and then leaned his cheek against my hair. “We need that book.”

Chapter Four

Exhaustion

Coffee shop meetings stopped. Attending bal games ceased. My chair at study group had been fil ed due to my persistent absences. The only friend from school that I kept in contact with was Beth, and that was only because she was my assistant at Titan.

Fielding her constant questions about my behavior was exasperating, but her help had become indispensable. The dreams were a nightly event, and the sleep deprivation wore on me so much that half of the time I needed Beth to remind me what day it was.

The nightmares were also wearing on Jared, who left me with Bex every day to search for Shax’s bible. It didn’t take him long to figure out that the second he closed his eyes my nightmares would begin, and minutes later screams would echo throughout the loft.

A new semester had begun, and stil the dreams came. By Spring Break, Jared grew desperate. Everyday he sought Eli, asked Samuel for help, he’d even taunted Gabriel for an answer, and every time he came home frustrated and empty-handed.

“Coffee?” Jared asked, his voice tired.

“Yes, please.”

Once again, our day began at three-eleven A.M. I worked on a few papers, and studied while the coffee stil kept my brain functional. Once the heaviness set in, Jared brewed another pot.

“At some point, this has got to be bad for you,” Jared frowned. “I can’t get anyone to tel me anything. I don’t know how our fathers found where Shax kept the book in the first place. Word gets around. They must know what we’re up to. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to travel to Hel to get it.”

Weary of the same dialogue, I rubbed my eyes and nodded.

Jared sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m frustrated, and with al the caffeine in your system, it makes me feel a little anxious.”

“Ugh…I forget about that,” I said, setting my mug on the table.

The morning sun cast an amber tone against the wal s. Summer was just around the corner. My friends at school were discussing tropical vacations and family reunions, and I was too tired to think about the next hour.

My cel phone rang, and I fished in my purse to answer. “Hey Beth,” I sighed. “What’s up?”

“Kim and I are meeting for coffee. Again. Like we do every morning. And you’re invited. Again. Like every morning. Are you going to flake out? Again? Like you do every morning?”

“Sorry. I’ve already had a pot of coffee this morning. I’ll see you in class.”

Beth paused. I could hear a muffled, irritated voice in the back ground. Beth was obviously covering the phone with her hand. “Er…Kim says… Kim wants you to come.”

“I have a feeling that’s not what she said,” I frowned.

After the sound of a scuffle, Kim spoke into the phone. “We are going to be at the coffee shop in thirty minutes. And you are going to be there, too, or me and the Sentra wil come get you, and you wil ride al the way there strapped to the roof like a freakin’ Christmas tree, you got me?”

I held the phone away from my ear as she yel ed, and then cautiously held it within talking distance. “I got you.”

“Okay, then,” Kim said, satisfied.

“Sorry,” Beth whispered before ending the call .

“Sounds like your friends miss you,” Jared grinned.

“They probably just want to yel at me and ask me questions,” I said, stuffing books into my bag.

“You should tel them the truth. They’l just think you’re crazy and let it go.”

I laughed. “You have a point. It’s the one time I can be honest with them and not worry about them believing me.”

They wouldn’t believe you, anyway,” Jared said, kissing the top of my head. “I can take you today.”

“I know better than to think you’ve given up.”

“No, I’m stil working,” he said, keys in hand.

Beth and Kim sat with me at our usual table. They both watched me, until I began to feel like a zoo animal. An interrogation was immanent. Beth’s expression was unsure, nervous—Kim seemed just the opposite. She was ready to pounce.

Beth looked to Kim before she spoke. “How’s Ryan?”

Her question took me off guard. I had expected more questions about the circles under my eyes, or the gal ons of caffeinated drinks I’d consumed during the day.

“He doesn’t write much anymore.”

“You don’t talk about him anymore,” Beth said without pause.

“How’s Jared?” Kim asked.

“He’s…fine. Why?”

Kim crossed her arms. “What does he think about the fact that you’re a zombie these days?”

I shrugged. “He wants to fix it.”

“How’s that?” Kim asked.

Too tired for tough questions, my words were more acerbic than I’d intended. “He’s a guy, Kim. Guys want to fix everything.”

Beth nodded. “If a hammer and nails could solve it al ….”

“What’s he doing to fix it?” Kim prodded.

“Research,” I said blinking away the urge to let my eyes close.

Beth frowned in reaction. “Nina, you fel asleep on your desk yesterday. Grant is gril ing me about what’s going on with you. I don’t even know what the truth is so I can keep from tel ing him.”

“You won’t accidental y tel him, I promise,” I grumbled as I sipped from the plastic lid of my coffee cup.

“The truth is that far-fetched?” Kim asked.

My stomach began to complain from both the amount of hot liquid swirling inside it, and the irritating predicament I was in. Being impatient and upset so often due to the lack of sleep took a tol on my appetite, and the over abundance of coffee in my system made me feel il on a regular basis.

I stood. “We’re going to be late.”

“Are you sick, Nina?” Beth asked.

“No,” I said. My nausea was not what she was referring to.

“Do you have some disease you’re not tel ing us about?”

“No, Beth.”

“Could Jared be poisoning you?” she blurted out.

I laughed once, shocked. “Is that why you two brought me here?”

“Are you two into something we don’t know about? Voodoo-Witchcraft- Satanist crap?” Kim asked.

“What would even make you say that?”I said, my patience thin.

“Just answer the question,” Kim said flatly.

“No. I’m not being haunted by demons if that’s what you’re getting at, Kim.” A part of me wondered if that’s what she was asking. She always seemed to be right on the edge of the truth, and had the habit of asking al the right questions. Beth being there was just a cover. She knew something.

“I didn’t ask if you were,” Kim said. For the first time since I’d met her, she was uncomfortable. I watched her for a moment before she pul ed on her coat and grabbed her keys from the table. “Class starts in ten.”

Beth and Kim watched me with concern as I waved them away and walked to class. It was on the top floor, and the decision to take the stairs was regretful by the second flight. My body felt ten years older. Two or three hours of sleep a night had begun to wear on my muscles, my train of thought, and my patience.

My reflection in a trophy case in the hal way caught my eye, and I stood there, amazed. The purplish circles had deepened under my eyes, and my skin was too tired to stay in place. The corners of my mouth hung lazily, and the light in my eyes was gone.

Class was just a few steps away, but my body felt too drained to make the trip. I leaned against the wal . The professor had already begun class, and I listened as intently as I could from the hal way. His words blurred together as he went over the last week’s test, and then lectured for what seemed like an eternity. The reading assignment was discussed in brief before class let out early.

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