Cradle Her In Darkness, Love Her In Light

Chapter 12

Tara awoke slowly, the gelatinous film clinging to her mind ebbing away in chunks.

Patchy, cloudy memories swirled through her, partly obscured as she strained for more detail. She could tell the lack of clarity was not due to the age of the scenes. They were recent recollections, but fuzzy for another reason. Alcohol? Possibly. Drugs? Unless it was paracetamol, Tara didn't take it. A knock to her noggin? There was no pain registering throughout any part of her body so far. She groaned groggily, grateful for the feeling of her pillow beneath her head and blankets upon her body. Her eyes only made it halfway open before she allowed them to collapse shut again.

A face painted itself behind her eyes with slow, splattering stroked. Large circles filled with sticky caramel, brown lines coiling from them. Plump curves running round the features that were sketching themselves into her view. Recognition tickled at her, prickling at the wafer-thin skin of her eyelids.

Bee. Sweet, cloying, sticky Bee.

Tara's breath caught in her throat.

With sugary words and an intoxicating presence, Bee had coaxed Tara into a stupor. It wasn't just her sweet looks and kind comments, though. Tara was certain. She was not the type to follow a stranger like a puppy dog. Even with Ava she had been wary of until Shawn had encouraged her. There was something sickly, a fog that surrounded Bee and that had penetrated Tara's mind. The aftertaste of it reminded Tara of the strange lingering feeling she got when Ava used her demon abilities around her. Like an image that appears in the corner of your eye, but you can't focus on it no matter how hard you try.

Finally, she had to admit what she had clocked from the moment she gained semi-consciousness back in her bedroom, that Bee was one of the demons that Ava and Shawn had warned her about. What were they called? Enforcers? She had been led astray, or maybe more tugged away, by a demon. She groaned again, louder and more gutturally as she allowed her frustration out noisily.

She knew she had to let Ava know. As much as her ex-girlfriend had shunned her and broken her tender little human heart, she would never wish any harm to her. And allowing herself to be swept up in Bee's charm had definitely put Ava in more danger. She pulled her phone from where it lay on her bedside table but was shocked into stillness when she saw the date and time glowing from the screen.

She had met Bee while walking home from her shift yesterday just after four in the afternoon. It was now ten... in the morning. Her shift had begun two hours ago, and she had a very concerned cluster of texts from the team member that opened Jessi's Java that morning, who was awaiting her arrival for backup. She sent a rushed, typo-filled, message to them to say she was sick and had overslept with a fever. Then she moved onto Ava.

Tara: I met a woman who I think is like you. Her name is Bee and I think she messed with my head. My memory has turned to goop for the last twelve hours or so. I remember she wanted to talk about you though. I thought I should warn you.

The reply was close to instant. Tara was surprised Ava's phone could keep up with her super speedy fingers.

Ava: Thank you. What did you tell her?

Tara: I don't remember. That's why I'm scared. My brain is foggy.

Ava: What is the last thing you remember?

Tara: She pulled me into a cafe, we had coffee and she was asking about our relationship. I kept telling her we had broken up and I wasn't in contact with you.

Ava: Bad that you let her touch you. Good that you told her we aren't connected. Anything after that?

Tara: Why is it bad that she touched me? And after that she offered to walk me home and I said I was fine, but I don't remember anything between that and getting to my bed.