Prophecy (Book 9)

Chapter 2

"There is nothing to seek and nothing to find. We leap into the dark only to discover how firmly we are rooted in the ground."― Marty Rubin

xxxxxx

Second day in and Lauren was getting more comfortable with Doctor Anderson and the patients she was dealing with. She met Amy at reception late in the evening to travel home together. 'Good day?' Lauren asked her.

'A patient died.' Amy said sadly. 'She was old, she went in her sleep.'

'That's something I guess.' Lauren said as they left the building and headed for the car park. 'Mr O'Mally threw chair at us today.'

'He what?' Amy looked at her, shocked.

'We were behind the viewing glass.' Lauren reassured her.

'Okay, open with that next time.' Amy said. 'You're going to make me regret telling you about the internship if a mentally disturbed patient ends up killing you.'

'I'm a witch. It's going to take more than a chair to kill me.' Lauren said.

'Oh, that's what I meant to ask you. How's it going with Jonathan?' Amy changed the subject. 'You've been on what, four dates?'

'Yeah.' Lauren smiled. 'He's nice, don't get me wrong.'

'But....' Amy prompted.

'I just have a lot going on right now, with this new job and witch stuff. I don't know if now is the right time.'

'Whatever you decide just think about it please, don't go all Christina on us and find reasons to not date him rather than reasons too date him.' Amy pleaded.

'I'll try.' Lauren knocked her shoulder but Amy stopped walking. 'What?' Lauren asked.

'Did you leave your lights on?' Amy pointed to the car. It was one of the few cars left in the dark employee carpark and the headlights were shining brightly.

'No.' Lauren confirmed. They took a few tentative steps towards it just as it exploded in front of them.

'Shit.' Amy said, reeling back and grabbing Lauren's arm. The heat of the blast knocked them backwards. And then a demon walked out of the fire. His eyes were blood red and he had flames coming from his hands.

'That's not exactly subtle.' Lauren said. The demon sent a blast of fire towards them which Lauren counteracted with a beam of her own. They hit in the middle and made the night air swirl with orange. Lauren stumbled backwards and Amy caught her. 'Okay, he's really strong.' Lauren admitted.

'Let's get out of here.' Amy hauled her off back towards the hospital.

xxxxxx

Twenty minutes later Lauren and Amy ran from the main reception and into Christina's car. They called her when they were hiding and she and Lisa had come right away. 'You guys okay?' Lisa asked as they got in the back.

'Yeah.' Amy confirmed.

'What type of demon was it?' Christina asked.

'No idea, one who likes fire.' Lauren confirmed. 'Completely destroyed my car. That's the second one of my cars demons have destroyed by the way.'

'Do you know if he's gone?' Lisa wondered.

'He didn't find us, but that doesn't mean he's not wandering around still looking.' Amy confirmed.

'Okay, where did you park Laur?

'Employee parking lot at the back of the hospital.' Lauren told her. Christina started driving in that direction. 'Shouldn't we be going the other way? You know, to safety?'

'We need to see if the demon left any clues.' Christina said. They turned into the car park a few moments later and all they could see were the burnt out remains of Lauren's car.

'We need to explain that to the hospital tomorrow.' Amy said. Christina put her car in park and got out, the others following. Christina looked into the car.

'It's been melted from the inside.' Christina noted.

'So the demon was definitely waiting for us.' Amy said.

'Can you sense anything Aimes?' Lisa asked.

'No, I only get you guys.' She admitted. Just then Lauren noticed something bright out of the corner of her eye.

'Erm, found him.' She said, tugging on Christina's jacket. They all turned to face the demon.

'Is he permanently on fire?' Amy said, noticing the flames coming from his hands and shoulders. His eyes were still red and every so often a puff of fire came out of them. He was stalking towards them.

'Hey Laur, fancy trying to make that green beam again?' Christina asked.

'Sure, my beam was no match on it's own.' Lauren said stepping up beside her sister.

'We should take cover.' Lisa said. Christina shot her a look. 'Not that I don't have full confidence in what you're about to do.' She smiled and tugged Amy round to the other side of the car.

'Ready?' Christina looked to Lauren who nodded. They both focused and started generating balls of energy. They were released into the night and hit the demon in the chest. So far the colours remained separate. The demon looked down at the blue and yellow hitting his chest and he smiled.

'How did we combine them last time?' Lauren asked.

'I don't know, just will it, I guess.' Christina said. She mentally pushed her beam further into Lauren's, Lauren doing the same, until they started to bleed together.

'It's working.' Lauren smiled. Then, all of a sudden, the demon vanished. Lauren and Christina fell forwards at the release in pressure, letting their power drop.

'What the hell?' Lisa said as she and Amy rejoined them.

'He ran away.' Amy said. 'He knew he was going to be vanquished.'

'At least we made the beam work.' Lauren said. 'But you don't seem as pleased as I am.' She noted the look on Christina's face. 'What's wrong?'

'I don't like it when you get that expression Chris.' Lisa said.

'He smiled.' Christina turned to them. 'He smiled when the beams hit him.'

'You think he was waiting for them?' Amy asked.

'I don't know.' Christina said. 'Call Kath on the way home, she and Dani can start looking for fire demons.'

Xxxxxx

They arrived home to Dani and Katherine in the living room with a fresh pot of coffee. 'Who wakes someone up to look for a demon.' Dani groaned as they came over and sat down.

'Sorry.' Lauren sat next to her and poured some drinks.

'Any luck Kath?' Amy asked.

'Unfortunately there are a surprising amount of fire based demons. I've marked the pages so if you see him, let us know.' Katherine spun the book to face Amy and Christina. After a few pages Amy stopped.

'There, this guy.' She showed them the page before reading aloud. 'The Demons of Fire are an ancient race of demons who use heat as their primary weapon.'

'So there's more than one, great.' Dani moaned.

'They come to the surface around the time of the full moon....' Amy's eyebrows furrowed.

'What?' Lisa asked.

'For more information, see Wendy.' Amy finished.

'That's all that's in there?' Lauren asked.

'Looks like it. Mum must have written this sometime in the last year.' Amy studied the pictures of the fire demon. One of a solo demon but the second page was covered with them. 'I have a bad feeling about this.'