Enemy Mine

Chapter 63

Ego in pace.

I recited the mantra as I sat cross-legged in the spare room, hoping it would give me some peace. Vincent had collapsed on his bed after a long shower. I figured he would be out for a while, the lucky bastard. While here I sat, attempting to settle my own mind with benign mantras, putting Colin and his heartbreaking admission of love out of my head, but it wasn't working. I could still see his face as he brought his lips down to kiss me, and feel his hard-on where it pressed against my pelvis. I needed a stronger mantra, like the one my mother left me.

Voco proferebat flammam. Ego sum unus cum flamma.

The words rolled off my tongue like a centuries' old name passed from one generation to the next, and the effects were upon me in seconds, the tingling and the burning. I powered through the feelings of dread, and focused on the rhythm of the mantra, resting my palms on my knees to suppress some of the unpleasantness. Drat. It didn't help. Now, my knees burned.

"Reese!" Vincent's cry rang at my ear, startling me, and I opened my eyes to find him crawling onto the bed to get to me. "Your hands."

I lifted my hands to look at them and found a small, orange flame dancing in the center of each palm. "Shit!" I cried, fighting my first impulse to flick the flame away. That could be disastrous. "There's no terminus mantra. I don't know how to stop it."

"Were you reciting the mantra you practiced with Wren?" Vincent asked as he watched my hands burn.

"Yes."

"Does it hurt?"

"A little, and it's freaking me out."

"Look. The left one just died." As we watched the flame blink away, the fire in my right hand diminished into a wisp and popped out of existence. Vincent took my hands in his and inspected them for damage, shaking his head as he looked at me. "No sign of burns. That was damn impressive, Reese."

"Don't be impressed. I don't even know what I did." We both stared at my hands a bit longer, then I came up with something completely off topic to say. "I want to visit a demon named Titan."

Vincent's eyes widened, and his face adopted a look of pain. "Who told you about Titan?"

"Petula... when we talked on the phone earlier. She told me Willem was with him."

"You told me Willem was in relatively safe hands."

"You were too incoherent to offer more details than that, but now that you're here and somewhat recovered from your brawl with Colin, Petula said Willem and Titan are old friends. She said Titan was involved with the mission the night my mom died, and she thinks I should talk to him about it."

"Over my dead body."

"What? Why?"

Vincent's expression darkened, and I watched a storm roll in behind those telling eyes. "Titan is the demon responsible for my father's death... and your mother's."

Woah.

"But, Petula made it sound like he was innocent."

"Bullshit."

"Do you have proof he's the one who killed them?"

Vincent grimaced, wincing as he touched the cut on his swollen upper lip. "No. The only gollum to witness the battle was Marco. He told us Titan engaged with Roberto after taking out Gabrielle, and while Marco searched for Gabrielle's body, Titan killed Roberto and set fire to the building he was in. Titan is a rogue, Reese. The most dangerous kind of demon."

"But, Petula says he doesn't hate gollums."

Vincent answered with an eye roll.

"You're going to take the word of Marco, someone who has lied to everyone all these years, over a nun?" I crossed my arms and puffed out my chest, daring him to come up with a good argument.