Spiritus Animalis (Empath #2) ✔️

Chapter twenty-eight

Althea started to have a queasy feeling at the pit of her stomach. Things weren't going at all how she planned and because of Mammon and the Servants' plot she couldn't go back to school. She was already behind on all her homework and her classes, so it didn't look like she was going to be walking that stage. The queasiness would not go away as Abigail and Peter entered the cabin.

"I don't like bad news," Althea said. "What's going on?"

"Unfortunately," Peter said. "We weren't able to retrieve Ezra's grace,"

"What?!" Althea exclaimed. "What happened?!"

"I cornered Adam and we fought," Peter explained. "However, Jennifer arrived and sent me flying halfway through the forest,"

Althea paced around the living room; Ezra had gone up to his room while Emily helped him. How could she tell them what happened. It would be a terrible idea. And yet, she wanted Ezra back even if they had such a huge fight.

Althea hated demons and the servants for what they had done but now she hated them even more. If they didn't get the vial back on time and Lucifer escaped from hell. That would be one other demon that would escape. It made her heart race, and she wanted it all to be over with.

"We'll find another way," Abigail said. "It just won't be that way, where is Emily and Ezra?"

"They're upstairs," Althea stated.

Abigail nodded and left Peter and Althea alone in the same room. Althea took her seat on the couch; she'd been hyperventilating, and her heart was racing.

Peter sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He comforted her, everything that was going on felt like he had done something wrong. Even though it was mainly the servants' faults. If he had stopped them from summoning Mammon none of this would have happened.

Alex arrived at the ritual site in time to find that Mammon, and his friends were getting the ritual ready. He'd gone to a wiccan store to buy the tears of misery. It wasn't exactly easy as they needed a specific reason to buying the tears. But at least he came up with such a good excuse. That he'd been trying to do a summoning spell however, he didn't exactly say what he was trying to summon. Alex approached them, his feet crunching the leaves and twigs underneath.

"It took you long enough," Mammon stated. "Now come, we must start our ritual,"

"But who's going to be the vessel?" Alex asked.

"I volunteered myself," Adam said his gray eyes suddenly became darker as if he were reading everyone else's minds.

Now it all made sense. Alex wondered why they weren't going out to find another conduit, it was because Mammon needed one of them to become the vessel. Which meant... his eyes widened. Jennifer or he would be next on the list. Mammon didn't care, he wanted all his siblings on earth, and he didn't care how or when it would occur. Alex backed up. Everything that Abigail said was true. He couldn't let any of that happen.

Jennifer noticed his uneasiness and approached him.

"Alex?" Jennifer said. "You, okay? You seem troubled,"

"I'm fine," Alex responded and snapped out of his thoughts.

He wanted to yell and scream at her and tell her that this wasn't the way, but that wouldn't work as she'd been dead set on being something to someone and if it involved selling her soul and allowing a demon to take possession of her. Then that was what she'd want to do. Alex wanted to run, wanted to find Peter and Abigail, and tell them that they were right. But as far as he could tell, there was no way he could do it. As this would have been trouble from the moment that he laid eyes on his friends.

Alex pushed himself to step toward the cauldron that Mammon had brought. He saw the look on Mammon's face. It was just as he expected. Pulling out a small bottle it contained what looked like water, but what made it "tears of misery" were the blue tints presiding inside the small bottle. Brief sparkles shone under the moonlight. He handed it to Mammon who snatched it from his hand and began adding the ingredients.

"Jennifer, hand me the ritual knife," Mammon ordered.

Mammon knew this was coming especially from Alex. While he wanted Alex to be the one who was the vessel for Lucifer, he'd changed his mind as Lucifer wanted a specific vessel one that he could always trust would keep him inside instead of ejecting him. Most fallen angels needed to be let in, but it was different for Lucifer as he would want to take whatever body he pleased. So long as nothing came between him and his plan to destroy most of his father's creations. Mammon would agree with his brother as this was something he'd always found annoying. How else would he hunt down four lost souls and bring them to his brother.

Jennifer lifted her pant leg to reveal a ritual knife. Something that he'd always liked about her. She handed the knife over where Mammon took it and held his hand over the cauldron. He'd cut his hand and allow for the blood to drip into the water. Next, he took the vial of angel grace and poured it into the cauldron, the grace fell slowly shining as it went down. Lastly, the bottle of misery was added. Adam lit candles as Mammon began to incant the spell.

Te voco, magne rector Orci.

Lucifer surgite, surgite, accipiter vasculum,

Quia vobis corpus et mentem aperuit!

The ground began shaking causing rocks to fall and branches to break. Alex stumbled. Mammon repeated the words until black smoke came from the cauldron and flew into the air. Mammon laughed evilly as Adam stepped forward.

Alex didn't want to think about losing his friend even if Adam didn't care. He ran forward and grabbed Adam attempting to force him away from the pilar and the smoke that was now hovering in the sky.

"Adam don't!" Alex exclaimed.

Adam ignored him and shoved him onto the ground. Alex groaned. Adam had shoved him hard enough to cause the whole forest to spin.

Once his vision cleared, Alex watched in horror as the black smoke forced its way down Adam's throat. No matter what he said, his cries fell to deaf ears. The last of the smoke disappeared into Adam as he turned. Immediately his eyes had gone from the once gray to a very darker shade almost like the color of led. There was nothing Alex could do.

Emily gasped as she stood from her chair. She'd been sitting in Ezra's room keeping an eye on him while he slept. She ran over to the window and saw the darkened cloud cover which just so happened to be on the location of the ritual site. He heart pounded as she couldn't believe that one of her other brother's was just released. She didn't want to think about it as it took all the archangels and Michael to send Lucifer into hell now here, she was stuck in the middle and unsure of what to do. She wanted her brother, Ezra to notice but she figured it would have been best to get help from the higher up. She walked over to his desk which had been littered with papers covered with an ancient language that she recognized as Enochian. While she was shuffling through the papers, she had noted that most of them came from the bible, some of which were coming straight from revelations.

"Brother? What on earth were you trying to accomplish?" Emily said to herself.

She grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote a letter for Ezra when he woke up. Folding it, she walked over to the side table and placed it where she knew her brother would be able to see it before she vanished. She needed answers and the only place Emily could get it from would be through heaven.