Chapter 17

Stephen and I continue driving down back roads and up alleyways. After another hour, I hear sirens behind us.

"Turn around!" I holler, as if he isn't right next to me. "Sirens! Back there!" Stephen screams to a halt and tears the car around in the small road we're on. He speeds towards the wailing and we find ourselves facing an animal pound. The alarms are blaring and Stephen jumps out of the car, when he sees a shadow pass right in front of us.

"Halt!" I hear Stephen yell in Latin when I jump out of the car too. The prey turns around in the dark and stares at the approaching hunter. Its eyes glow red and dart from Stephen to me. I can smell its stench from five yards away.

Then without warning, the demon darts away into the darkness. With a curse, Stephen shoots off after him, and I follow. Blind in the dark, I pound my way through brush and follow the sounds of Stephen yelling things in Latin. I don't catch much of it, but the few snippets I understand, sounds like it is from some sort of sermon. Confused, I barrel through and stop when I see Stephen pounding the demon's face.

"Stop!" I yell, for a second being tricked by the skin the demon is crawling around in. Stephen refuses to stop, but continues beating Susannah's face in. It pains me to see her being beaten into the ground, but then I look closer and her face isn't even being hit; Stephen has somehow brought the demon's true being out of Susannah's body and is punching it over and over again, while it hovers a little over mi querida's body. I watch from a distance, while Stephen continues to bash the demon's being. The demon is hissing in Latin, but quivering under the fist of Stephen. Continuing to say his 'sermon' in Latin, Stephen suddenly stops punching the demon's shaking form and digs into his pocket for something. There's splashing sound, and the demon is screeching and trying to cover it's face with it's arms, which are pinned down by Stephen.

The demon stops squirming underneath Stephen, and then looks from Stephen to me, and says calmly in English, "From Hell He shall rise and then, then each and everyone of you who oppose him will be treated with the same respect you have shown me." Then the demon's form shatters into what seems like a million pieces.

Sighing loudly, Stephen gets up off of Susannah's still body and looks at me. I go over and pick her up, cherishing the feeling of safety over her body now. I glance down at her dirty face, and wish that her eyes would open and I could see her green, exotic pools of passion. Stephen and I walk back to the car, and when we hear the faint sounds of other sirens speeding towards us over the screaming of the animal pounds' own sirens, I jump into the car, with Susannah still in my arms.

We bolt from the scene and speed our way back to Stephen's apartment.

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"You guys actually pulled it off," Paul says while Stephen and I walk into his apartment and I clutch Susannah to me.

"Of course they pulled it off, Slater!" CeeCee squeals and then bounds over to Stephen and plants a huge kiss on his mouth. Paul looks away disgusted, while I just stare at them in shock.

"Well, thank you…" Stephen says shyly to CeeCee, whose grin is intoxicating. Kate rolls her eyes and I stay silent, still in the doorway with Susannah in my arms.

"We had better get Suze back in her body now. It's going to take a while, and we will need to go back to De Silva's house to do it. You do remember exactly where you exorcised her, right?" Paul eyes me from his leaning position against the wall opposite of me.

"Yes, I do, Paul," I reply and then begin to walk out of the door. CeeCee and Stephen go in his car, while Paul, Kate, and I drive over in Paul's car. Kate sits up in front, while I hold Susannah in the back with me. She's so cold and bruised up pretty badly. The demon must have had a hell of a time in her body. I feel torn—torn between wanting to go down to Hell myself and punish the demon and stay here to protect Susannah. My protection wins out in the end, and I pull her limp body against my chest, as if my own body heat will warm my freezing querida.

Kate and Paul are chatting it up in the front seat, but I don't listen. Instead I stare down at my Susannah, re-learning her face. Her hair is messy and there are streaks of dirt all down her arms and face. The bottom of her shirt is ripped, and for the first time I notice a red stain on the stomach of her shirt. Shifting it up to reveal her stomach to me, I see a gash on Susannah's stomach that is slowly bleeding out.

"Shit," Paul says from the front seat. "What happened to Simon, there?" I glance in the review mirror and see Paul looking at me.

"I don't know, but it looks like it could be a possible threat. Infection could have already occurred," I say while looking back at the gash that looked as if it had been made with a knife. It certain looks bad, and wafting the smell, I can tell that without proper cleaning, it will soon get seriously infected. "Once we get Susannah back into her body, we will need to take her to a hospital for this wound."

"This resurrection is going to take a while, Rico," Paul shoots back to me, as if I should have known. Only a minute later, Paul pulls into my apartment complex and parks his car. Kate just stands up right through the car door, and then opens mine for me. I get out and then gently pick up Susannah's body and place her firmly against my chest once more. I lead Kate and Paul to my apartment, and when I open my door, I jump back in surprise.

"Jesse!" Peter says loudly and then looks down at Susannah's still body in my arms.

"We couldn't find the damn demon anywhere," Michael says to my while they back up to let us into the room. "We've been searching the whole city, and then Peter thought that we should go to the police station. We came to find you when we had heard about a stabbing, hospital kill, and a pound."

"Where'd you find her?" Peter asks me while CeeCee and Stephen come into my apartment.

"Stephen here exorcised, I think, the demon out of her body right by the animal pound." Stephen looks at CeeCee weird, wondering who I'm talking to. "Ghosts," CeeCee mouths back to him. I ignore him and walk into the kitchen, the broken table is still in the middle of the small room, and I carefully place Susannah right where I had placed her before. Paul enters the room and takes it in.

"Do we need anything special?" I ask him, thinking along the lines of candles or a bible.

"No, just me," Paul replies and then circles the room slowly. "I can only have Jesse in the apartment with me. CeeCee, Stephen, you guys need to leave. We'll call you once we've gotten Suze back into her body. Kate, guys, I'll need you guys to keep all ghosts out of the vicinity. If they get in the way, then their souls will be sucked into Suze's body." I knit my eyebrows and look at Paul quizzically. "And that," Paul continues, "is not what we need."

When Paul and I are alone in the room, Paul stops circling the room and then looks from Susannah's body to me, standing over her. "Jesse, you can stay in the room, but you need to keep your distance." Paul points to the corner of the room and with one last look at Susannah I go to it. "I'm shifting to Shadowland to tell Suze the good news about her body. Then I'm coming back. You need to stay there, even when I'm not here. Suze's body needs to be untouched for a while for this to work. So stay away." Then Paul lies down on the kitchen floor, his chest rising and falling, then it falls and does not rise again for quite some time.

While Paul is gone, all I can do is stare at Susannah's body, thinking about the bleeding wound, getting worse and worse by the second. Paul should be hurrying up, something serious could happen to Susannah. I glance over in his body's direction again. He looks catatonic, and almost peaceful. I stare at his face, feeling a weird feeling wash over me. I had never noticed how much pain and stress were hidden in the brow of his face. I knit my own eyebrows in recollection about the days where Paul and I would fight over Susannah so.

I'm remembering all the times I saved my dear querida, all the details, the way she felt under my protection, the way she seemed to be annoyed but grateful at the same time. I cannot believe that I have failed her this time…this time I was unable to save her, and I feel the utmost guilt for it. None of this would have happened if I hadn't gone out to Washington. I would have been here to keep an eye on Susannah; and more importantly, I would have realized something war wrong before it could have became like this…horrible.

Paul suddenly sits up and coughs a little.

"Whew," he says while standing up carefully and brushing off his pants. Paul glances over at me in my corner and smiles what looks like a genuine smile.

"Well?" I ask him, anxious for some reason.

"Simon told me to tell you that she can't wait to get back on the plane of existence to beat the crap out of you for letting this happen to her." Paul lets out a bark of laughter, when he sees my face fall. "Nah, she was ecstatic about getting out of Shadowland." I visibly sigh and then glare at Slater for making me a fool. "Let's get this party started," Paul sings and then with one final smirk in my direction, he begins to chant.