Miss Nobody

Chapter 53

THAT THING WE DID THAT ONE TIME

Early Early Morning Day 27

"Remember the thing we did that one time?" My blood slowly seeped over my arm.

She looked confused at first, not taking her eyes from the Demon. "We got rid of ghosts, not...whatever the fuck that is."

I nodded. "Opening the Circle will be the same. I just need you to open one around me, I can do the rest."

"On it." She disappeared from my view.

My blood dripped onto my shoes like thick syrup. "Keiran." I relayed my predicament through our heads.

"I'm here, don't move." He shotgunned a bottle of clear alcohol. "We're doing what we can." Preparing himself for something, he was blocking me somehow. But the more he drank, the drunker I became.

I was grateful I didn't have to experience this sober. Maybe I could get another vial of pleasure from the gravedigger? I'd have to ask him next time I saw him, which would most likely be soon.

Destiny, Hunie, Crystal, and Amethyst, all friends from The Kitty Kat Ranch, were almost done setting the salt circle around me and the Demon that was still licking my blood. The Lesser Demons weren't very smart and easily distractible.

The atmosphere inside the circle became thick as Destiny connected the salt ends.

I carefully took out three damp matches with my free hand and dipped the ends in my blood pooling over my arm. I fumbled with striking them against the box at first but on the second strike they lit and I held them up in front of the Demon.

The Demon was fascinated by the small flame and the burnt copper smell of my blood. It slowly stalked closer to me.

I waved them back and forth slowly, putting the Demon in a sort of trance.

It was close enough.

I shoved the lit matches against its forehead and the Demon screamed, shaking the building, and exiting the body of the goth girl.

The clubgoers screamed and covered their ears.

"Redire ad lucem. Lumen est. Tu lux es. Vade in domum tuam." I said the magic words to banish the Demon.

The Demon dissipated into a cloud of silvery glitter, like dust in a sunbeam and the pig-tailed goth girl collapsed to the ground by my feet. Her forehead smoked but if I survived this, I could help her heal it.

The lights went dark and the music stopped. A hush came over the crowd and I heard it, a woman crying. A spotlight turned on outside my circle. Shining brightly on Hunie, her small frame shook with her tears.

Her chest was impaled by a gnarly-looking sword. The waves down the shaft, pointed back at her body, if the sword was pulled from her it would tear her to ribbons.

"Fuck."

The Demon holding the sword laughed and came forward under the light, he appeared as a thick shadow, cracks oozing liquid fire and molten lava, as tall as the ceiling, he ducked under the lights and his grating laughter had the ground vibrating.

"We both know you're not that big." I laughed at the Demon, not always smart but anything was better than showing fear.

It shrank and fit under the lights. It laughed like a door creaking open and pulled the sword back slowly.

"Stop," I yelled at it. "Wait. Just fucking wait a second." I tried to take a step forward, hoping my guts didn't spill out from under my arm. It was trying to get me out of the circle and I bought myself some time inching closer to the salt edge.

Destiny and the other woman were huddled together and I caught her eye. "I could really use a drink right now." I dusted my shoulder off, hoping she remembered the code we invented to keep each other safe. She nodded and rushed to the bar.

"Have a drink with me?" I stared where the Demon's knees should've been.

It made a noise of confusion.

A bottle of vodka rolled across the salt circle, over the blood dripping from my body, I stopped it with my foot. Unsure how I was going to bend and pick it up.

"Everybody freeze." The lights turned on and everyone moaned from the bright assault. The club was smaller than it seemed and there were fewer people than when I started.

Officer Cathy pointed her gun around the room and her colleague next to her did the same. They circled back to back looking for the attacker.

The Demon laughed like dry air and the Officers looked up at the ceiling.

The goth girl at my feet was moving and waking up.

I looked down at her. "Do me a favor?"

She nodded and groggily sat up.

"Hand me that bottle and get out of here." I gritted my teeth, a new sensation, a pinching at the edges of my cut. I found the VIP table with Bishop and Keiran.

Keiran was on the table, his stomach being sewn up by the Doc. He was drinking from a bottle, trying to keep me from feeling the pain of having my stomach sewn up as I stood there.

Bishop held him down and looked back and forth between me and his nephew.

The pink-haired girl handed me the slippery bottle and rushed away.

I didn't have much time to pull this off. I uncorked the bottle with my teeth and spit the plastic out, catching the attention of the Demon. "Just give me a fucking second and we can have a chat." I chugged almost all of the half bottle, knowing whatever coming next was going to hurt. I took the last swig and held it in my mouth. I threw the bottle and it shattered on the floor somewhere.

I took out three matches from my pocket, scrapped them against the box, they lit and I released my arm holding my guts inside my body. My intestines fell to the floor and the Demon rushed me. Unable to stay away from the gore and loving the fact that I was still alive.

Time slowed and the matches lit up the Demon's grotesque face. I almost swallowed the vodka out of fear, instead, I spit the vodka over the flames, creating a flame thrower and catching the Demon on fire.

My fire.

He laughed as he burned. His size and hard rock skin melted from him. A human man stood in the flames. "You stupid little witch," he whispered. He looked closely in my eyes. "You really don't remember me, do you?" He laughed and it boomed around the room. The flame around his body disappeared in a woosh.

Dark hair, devilish grin, like they could pick their looks straight from my head. "Call me when you remember, dollface." He said with an accent and walked out of my circle, vanishing in a poof of smoke.

This was usually the time I blacked out but I just swayed on my feet and watched as my intestines slithered their way back into my body. I looked at the VIP table again.

The Doc was putting Keiran's intestines back inside his stomach on the table, rinsing them with alcohol before sliding them in and continuing sewing him up. The effects were visible on my own body.

Officer Cathy and her partner were kneeling next to Hunie, dead, with a giant hunk of metal sticking out of her.

I didn't think Alejandro's business was going to go well after word about this got around. I spotted him, reaching behind the bar, pouring himself a drink and taking a nice big gulp.

His head swiveled to the doors and men in black tactical wear filed into the club efficiently, from all entrances, spreading out along the walls. Their guns were aimed at Security and Alejandro.

Alejandro held up his hands and nodded. His security slid their guns onto the dance floor.

Jonny appeared in front of me, lowering his black mask. He stared in horror as my guts went back into my stomach and the last of the wound stitched up hastily.

"You can't be in the circle. I need to close it." I turned to do just that.

Jonny caught me before I fell and laid me on the floor. "I'm going to forbid you from seeing Bishop." He said softly.

I laughed and shivered. "But we're having so much fun." I said between clattering teeth.

He shook his head but chuckled. "You have an odd idea of fun."

Diego lowered the black bandanna covering his face and stood next to Jonny. Ben did the same behind Diego.

"I need to close the circle," I told Diego. I knew he would understand how important closing a circle was. Things could get back through if the spell wasn't properly finished. And two Demons on the loose was bad enough. Now I had to find the fuckers and figure out how to get rid of them for good.

"Shit, yeah. We should do that." Diego stepped back outside of the salt line and pulled Ben back with him.

Destiny stepped up next to Ben. "I can do it, where's your matches?"

I dug into my pocket, pulled out the pre-moistened matches, and handed them to Jonny to take to her.

Ben and Destiny looked at each other as she turned. She paused and looked him up and down. He blushed, she winked and headed back to Crystal and Amethyst, they wiped their tears and nodded as she instructed them. Ben almost followed her but Diego grabbed the front of his bullet-proof vest and pulled him back.

I tried to stand.

Jonny stopped me. "We'll get a gurney."

I shook my head and Jonny helped me stand. "I can walk, it's not that bad." I was still drunk and in shock.

"You have friends?" Jonny whispered in my ear as we waited for Destiny to close the circle.

I smiled at him proudly. "Yeah."

The invisible barrier of the Magic circle lowered and the muggy air was released from the energetic bubble. "It is done," I said to no one and brushed my foot over the salt circle making sure there was an opening and the circle was really closed.

I kissed Jonny softly on the lips. "Wanna have sex in your plant house?"

"Anywhere, Darlin'." He steadied me and we slowly walked to the doors of the club.

"All this excitement and we haven't even done the Portal ritual yet." I was stopped at the bar by Nen.

"This is yours." He held out a black credit card.

I took it from him. "It's Jess's."

Jonny looked confused. "Jess was here?"

I looked at the name on the card. Ruby Vale. My birth name.