“Right. So,
Demons 101,” I said, popping the top on my can of root beer. “First thing, you
know all those movies, especially The Exorcist?”
“Is that
the one with the soup?” Jessie asked.
“Yeah,
that’s the one. Forget ‘em. They’re pretty much universally crap. Doesn’t work
that way.”
Nikki
tilted her head, looking at me with skepticism. “And how did you become an
expert on demonic possession?”
“Says
detective on my door, don’t it?” I jerked my thumb toward the hallway. “It
does, right? Sometimes people scrape that off.” I looked over, verifying that
it was still there.
“Titles do
not bestow knowledge, take if from a duchess, a marquess, and a goddess.”
“Wow,”
Jessie said. “you’re all of those?”
“Other
lifetimes, dear Jessica. Other lifetimes. And I can assure both of you that the
declaration of a title did not come with details on what that entailed.”
“Sure,
sure,” I waved that away. “But I’ve got experience with this. It’s piecemeal,
but it does all come together. You remember Renee Carrigan?”
Nikki was
stone-faced, either not remembering or caring.
“No,”
Jessie said.
“Before
your time.” To Nikki, I said, “The succubus? Remember her, now?”
“My memory is clear,”
Nikki said icily.
“I read
about her!” Jessie broke the glacier in the room. “Jen said it was required reading. I think she just ran out of things
for me to do, though.”
“Right. So,
anyway, I bring up her because she’s recent, and you experienced this. I’ve
learned that when it comes to demonic possession, it’s not surrendering the
driver’s seat. More like a shared partnership.”
Nikki
frowned, her eyes scrunching in thought.
“It’s not
50-50. It never is. But the host is always in there somewhere. Sometimes it’s
90% host, 10% demon. Other times it’s reversed. Usually it’s more equitable.”
“Then why
is it that possessed people are so difficult to exorcise?”
“This is
why I bring up Renee. See, the thing is, most possessions are welcomed. The
person invites the demon in. You know something about invitations. But instead
of the home, it’s the body. And once someone comes in, it’s a lot harder to
kick ‘em out. Even if the host changes his or her mind, it’s tough. It’s much
tougher if the host wants to hold
onto the demon.”
“And is
this why the attempt to exorcise the succubus from Renee failed?”
I looked at
a spot on the desk between us, remembering what happened to Father Nate, and a
flood of regret sucked at me like an undertow.
“No,” I
said slowly, “That was . . . that was my fault. I should’ve realized Nate
wasn’t in a good place to do that. He tried to. . . . Yeah.”
Nate left the priesthood after that.
Haven’t heard from him, since. Hope he’s
okay. Need to try sending another email to him.
The silence
hit me, and I glanced up. Jessie frowned, an expression halfway between
sympathy and confusion. She didn’t know enough of the details of the case to
understand, but she saw I was unhappy.
Nikki
looked considering, but it was softer than her usual weighing looks. I couldn’t
tell exactly what that look meant on her. On someone else I might say she was
empathetic, that she knew something of what I was going through.
“Anyway,” I
began, leaning forward again, “exorcisms aren’t easy, no matter what. And there
are different kinds of demons. Some more animal-like than others. I don’t know
the full low-down on the different kinds—I’ve never needed to know—but there’s
a lot of ‘em.
“Where was
I going with this?”
“Their
agenda,” Nikki prompted.
“Oh, right.
So, like I was saying, there’s this blending, and it’s not like there are
telepathic conversations between the two, more like urges. You know how
sometimes you’ll get up and go into another room, but you don’t know why you’re
there until you grab the thing you wanted?” They stared at me blankly. “Okay,
that’s just me, then. But, yeah, so imagine there’s this urge to do something
and get something, but you can’t completely identify it. You just go get it. I
have no doubt that the demons want something related to this Nativity, but
probably not the Nativity itself. That would be where the teens’ desire to pull
pranks kicks in.”
“I see,”
Nikki nodded.
“Good,
because I don’t think I can come up with another way to explain it again. Does
anybody want this slice?” I pointed to the last piece of pizza in the box.