Riley's Excellent and Not-at-all Fake Exorcism Service

Chapter 16

You Know How In-laws Can Be

We materialized in Dolion's mansion entrance, but it was unlike every other time I had seen it – full of light and demon people dancing and laughing. Now the place was dark . . . and honestly, ridiculously creepy. I looked at Thomas with wide eyes – I hadn't expected him to bring us right into the action.

I didn't even know what the plan was, really, and I was starting to feel like an idiot for not asking before we left. Still holding my hand, he brought me up the stairwell. The whole place was dead silent, except for the sound of our footsteps. At the top of the stairs, Thomas stopped and closed his eyes.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"Trying to determine where Andrea and Lanh are," he explained in a hushed tone.

"How?"

"Tracking their essence." He opened his eyes. "They should be down this way." He guided me down the hall to the right . . . away from the meditation room. I glanced around, trying to listen for even the most subtle noise. But there was nothing. I focused on Thomas. His face was serious, his steps cautious.

"Can you, like, sense the other demons too?" I asked.

He nodded slowly, his golden eyes watching my reactions.

"So they can sense us as well," I gulped down hard, not really wanting to hear the answer.

"Yes." He nodded again.

"And what is the plan . . . how are we destroying the meditation room?"

"Not we," he replied. "After we get your friends . . . you will take them and leave. I will handle the meditation room."

"Um . . . okay." Fuck! That was so not what I wanted to hear. I thought about protesting, but his face told me that he had made up his mind, "But how are you going to do that? Like what did the sexy witch tell you?"

"Riley." He looked at me. "I'll handle it . . . trust me."

"I still want to know what the plan is," I insisted.

"What did Aadya whisper to you?" he countered.

"Nothing really," I lied. "She just told me to try not to die because you would be sad if I did."

He studied my face for a moment and my heart rate spiked. I knew he could see people's sins, but I really hoped he could see that I just kind of fibbed. Were such small lies sin worthy? After a moment, he shook his head. "Let's just focus on getting Andrea and Lanh back . . . now's not the best time to be arguing."

As true as that was . . . I still didn't know how he was planning to destroy the room, which would be a problem for the plan I was concocting in my head. But I decided to not push my luck, and as he said, focus on the immediate task at hand. We made our way down the hall until we reached the second to last room. Thomas gestured to the door, gave me a small nod, then busted it open.

The room was incredibly bare bones. The walls were jade green, the floor a deep oak, and at the room's center was a luxurious love seat that faced the door with a single light above it, illuminating the figure upon it. Andrea. She was seated there, her eyes glazed over like they had been back at the beach villa. I had to stop myself from running in and tackling her. I mean, this was so unbelievably, obviously, a trap. Like they weren't even trying to hide it, which made me think . . .

"Hello," a voice whispered into my ear. I let out a yelp and tripped over the door frame, landing square on my arse. A shock wave ran up my tail bone. Other Daniel looked down at me and chuckled coldly before turning his attention to Thomas. "I'm surprised you came so soon. You didn't even give us time to ready the celebration." Other Daniel walked around me and stood behind Andrea, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other on the back of the love seat.