Demon Witch (The Ternion Order Book 2) Read online

  Demon Witch

  The Ternion Order

  Book Two

  Daniel R. Marvello

  Published by Magic Fur Press

  An imprint of Logical Expressions, Inc.

  P.O. Box 383, Ponderay, Idaho 83852, USA

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business organizations, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Daniel R. Marvello

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher.

  ISBN:

  978-1-61038-054-6 (paperback)

  978-1-61038-055-3 (EPUB)

  Digital Edition 1.0 – August 8, 2017

  Cover art by Susan C. Daffron

  Print layout by Susan C. Daffron

  Ebook formatting by Logical Expressions, Inc.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Copyright Page

  Table of Contents

  Synopsis

  Chapter 1 - Leap of Fate

  Chapter 2 - Amber Eyes

  Chapter 3 - Dominance

  Chapter 4 - Gathering

  Chapter 5 - Desecration

  Chapter 6 - Connections

  Chapter 7 - Contingency

  Chapter 8 - Protective Custody

  Chapter 9 - Loyalty

  Chapter 10 - Pyrotechnics

  Chapter 11 - Teamwork

  Chapter 12 - Private Eye

  Chapter 13 - Evidence

  Chapter 14 - Gone Girl

  Chapter 15 - Catch of the Day

  Chapter 16 - Purged

  Chapter 17 - Fair Warning

  Chapter 18 - Under Observation

  Chapter 19 - Overwhelmed

  Chapter 20 - Aftermath

  Chapter 21 - Wrath

  Chapter 22 - Strike Force

  Chapter 23 - Helpless

  Chapter 24 - Wards

  Chapter 25 - Human Shield

  Chapter 26 - Collateral Damage

  Chapter 27 - Despair

  Chapter 28 - Hostile Takeover

  Chapter 29 - Volunteers

  Chapter 30 - Window of Opportunity

  Chapter 31 - Foreboding

  Chapter 32 - Skyler’s Plea

  Chapter 33 - Access

  Chapter 34 - Exorcism Interruptus

  Chapter 35 - Careful Wishing

  Thank You for Reading

  Dedication & Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Books by Daniel R. Marvello

  Demon Witch

  The Ternion Order – Book Two

  by Daniel R. Marvello

  Amanda Clark didn't set out to be a troublemaker. She developed a werewolf exorcism with only one goal in mind: to save her brother from the lupusdaemon that possesses him. But her new ritual threatens the fragile peace between the werewolves and the Ternion Order, an organization of paranormal hunters of which she's a member.

  Kyle Nelson owes Amanda his life. Afflicted by a lupusdaemon, he had only one month to find a cure before the demon took over his body completely. Amanda's experimental ritual surprised everyone when it saved him and drove the demon back into the abyss. Now Kyle will do whatever it takes to help Amanda with her mission to save her brother.

  But figuring out a way to trap Reggie and exorcise him is the least of their challenges. Siding with the werewolves for reasons that aren't clear, a dark coven defiles Amanda's moon shrine and threatens the lives of everyone she knows and loves. With only Kyle for support, Amanda must choose between saving her brother and protecting the lives of her friends.

  Demon Witch is a contemporary paranormal fantasy adventure of approximately 79,400 words.

  Chapter 1

  Leap of Fate

  Amanda stood near the edge of a deep chasm. Hundreds of feet below, water crashed through the canyon raising mist that obscured everything at the bottom except the topmost branches of a few tall trees. On the canyon’s opposite rim, a male figure paced back and forth.

  Even from a distance, she recognized his shape and the way he moved. She would know her brother Reggie anywhere.

  The canyon cut through the landscape for as far as she could see in both directions. There was no bridge or narrow place where she might cross. She missed Reggie so much. Her heart ached to hug him tight and hear his comforting voice rumble in his chest. After their parents’ death, his warmth and love had sustained her. He’d given up everything to take care of her, and now she was failing him.

  Tears streaming down her face, she stretched a hand toward him and called his name softly, knowing there was no way he would hear her over the noise of the river below.

  Reggie cupped his hands and shouted her name. His so-familiar voice came to her over the roar of the river in a broken collection of syllables. He stepped back several paces from the ledge, and her mind froze when his intention to jump the impossible distance became clear.

  “No!” she screamed.

  Reggie sprinted forward and leaped into the gap between them. His trajectory carried him high, but with only a fraction of the velocity he needed to reach her safely. She watched in open-mouthed horror as he stalled and then plummeted, arms circling wildly in a futile attempt to slow his descent.

  Amanda jolted awake and pressed her pillow to her face, letting it absorb the scream she couldn’t contain. She curled into a tight fetal ball and cried into the pillow, pulling it away only to catch her breath.

  As her sobs subsided, the aroma of fresh coffee intruded upon her consciousness. The familiar and welcome smell shredded the final heartbreaking images from the awful dream. She released the pillow and turned onto her back, panting and wiping tear-damp hair from her face. Taking several deep breaths, she collected herself.

  The fright from her dream drained away, but a lingering sense of helplessness threatened to bring the tears back. But it was just a dream. Pressing her fists to her eyes, Amanda growled in frustration. She threw back the covers and padded to the bathroom.

  Chapter 2

  Amber Eyes

  Kyle looked up from the magazine he was reading when Amanda shuffled into the kitchen wearing her well-worn blue terrycloth bath robe and a pair of moccasin-like slippers. Sensing something was amiss, he watched closely as she covered a yawn with the back of her hand and dropped into the chair opposite him at the small square breakfast table.

  Kyle immediately got up and fetched her a cup of coffee. Over the past month, Amanda’s weekend sleepovers had taught him she wasn’t much of a morning person. He knew better than to start a conversation until she had some caffeine pumping through her veins. Setting a steaming mug in front of her, he kissed the top of her head and ventured, “Good morning.”

  The glance she gave him as he sat down declared that it was nothing of the kind. Her dark hair was drawn back into a pony tail, and the morning light through the window next to the table emphasized the pallor of her skin. Wayward strands of hair clung wetly to her cheeks, suggesting she’d rinsed her face without letting the water warm up. Her puffy eyelids and the red crackle of veins around her gray irises cued him to the probability that she’d been crying.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, leaning forward. “Are you okay?”

  Amanda cradled the mug in her hands, blowing on the hot liquid and sipping it as quickly as she dared. She nodded and answered, “Bad dream.”

  “I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”


  She stared at him over the top of her mug. “Not yet,” she said and took another sip.

  Kyle wanted to say or do something to fix whatever was wrong, but he knew better than to force the issue. She would talk when she was ready. If he sat there staring at her, waiting for her to tell him what was on her mind, he’d just piss her off.

  He got up and refreshed his own coffee, more for the distraction than anything. His stomach grumbled. A glance at the clock told him it was seven-fifteen, which meant he’d been awake for more than an hour. He opened the refrigerator door and evaluated his breakfast options.

  “Want something to eat?” he asked.

  “Maybe later,” came the terse reply.

  Kyle shut the refrigerator and sat back down at the table. Not knowing what else to do, he returned to the magazine article he had been reading. His eyes wandered over the printed words, but none of them registered.

  He wondered if her mood was simply a matter of morning surliness coupled with the residual funk of a bad dream or if it was something more.

  More, his intuition insisted.

  He glanced up to find her staring at him. Their eyes locked. He couldn’t read her expression, particularly with her hands and the mug obscuring half her face. Was she angry about something?

  “You aren’t wearing your contacts,” she observed.

  A full sentence, Kyle thought. That’s a good sign.

  “I almost never do on weekend mornings unless I’m expecting someone. It’s not like I need them to see.” His brown-tinted contact lenses had only one purpose: to disguise his amber irises, hiding the strange mutation that had been a side effect of nearly becoming a werewolf. “It’s nice to get a break from them.”

  He wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know. His wolf-like eyes never seemed to bother her before. What was going on?

  “Do you want me to go put them on?” he asked.

  Amanda set down her coffee and looked into the cup. She waved her hand and shook her head dismissively. “No, it’s fine. My dream was about Reggie, that’s all.”

  And his eyes were a disturbing reminder of Reggie’s condition.

  Kyle rose from his chair to go put in his contacts. Amanda reached out and touched his hand. “You don’t have to do that. It was just a bad dream. I’ll get over it.”

  He lifted her hand and bent to kiss it. “Until you do, let me do this small thing for you.”

  She looked up at him, letting her guard down so he could see the haunted vulnerability in her eyes. “Thanks,” she whispered, squeezing his hand.

  By the time Kyle returned to the kitchen, Amanda had refilled her coffee cup and seemed a little perkier. She had taken over his magazine and was flipping through it without stopping long on any one page.

  He sat down and gulped a mouthful of his lukewarm coffee. He wanted to ask her about her dream, but forced himself to be patient. Turning to the window, he parted the sheer curtains and watched the chickadees flitting around the back yard. The day was sunny, which was rare for late October.

  Having spent time at Hayworth Farm where Amanda lived, he viewed the small fenced yard in a new light. There was plenty of room to set up a veggie garden next spring although he’d need to tear out some of the sod. He would have to ask Bob Daily, his next-door landlord, if that would be okay. Did having a garden enhance the resale value of a home? He’d have to look into that as a possible argument in favor of his proposal.

  Kyle’s garden plans were interrupted by Amanda’s soft voice. “I couldn’t reach him.”

  She had closed the magazine, and her hands were in her lap. She looked up from the magazine cover, unshed tears glistening above her lower eyelid. She blinked, and two fat drops rolled down, launching off the curve of her cheekbones into her lap.

  “He was on the other side of a huge ravine,” she continued, “and he jumped to his death just before I woke up.”

  “That’s horrible. I’m sorry you had such an awful dream.”

  She gave Kyle a weak smile. “I’m sure Lucille would have a lot to say about what it all means. It probably reflects my indecision about how to help Reggie.”

  Her mood and the dream were starting to make sense. About two years previously, Amanda’s brother Reggie had been possessed by a lupusdaemon, also known as a werewolf demon. After the one-month acclimation period between full moons, the demon had taken Reggie’s body over completely and joined the other local werewolves who were part of the Selkirk Pack.

  Amanda had spent the past two years trying to find a way to get her brother back. With help from her coven leader, Amanda had traded on her skills as a witch to gain entry into a secret paranormal law-enforcement group called the Ternion Order. Taking advantage of Order connections and resources, Amanda was still researching a solution when she learned of Kyle and his predicament.

  Kyle had been the unwitting victim of a lascivious lupusdaemon named Clarissa who seduced him and then shifted from her own failing body into his. She’d known her time was running out, and she chose his body for her next vessel. If not for Amanda and the exorcism rite she’d been working on, the true Kyle Nelson would have ceased to exist, and the lupusdaemon would have eventually taken over and returned to the local werewolf pack in his body.

  Kyle’s exorcism had been a promising first step toward saving Reggie, but there were still substantial problems to solve. Amanda had been wrestling with those problems unsuccessfully, and it was starting to take a serious toll on her peace of mind.

  “I thought you had decided that it was too late for Reggie,” Kyle ventured carefully.

  Amanda sucked in a deep breath and wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks. “I never decided anything. I just can’t figure out how to help him.”

  “We’ve talked about this.” Kyle said, using his most reasonable tone. “I told you what it was like for me on those occasions when the demon took over. I was thrown into some kind of sensory deprivation otherworld. If Reggie has been in that place for the past two years, you may not want to meet what he’s become.”

  Amanda narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes, but what you experienced happened before First Moon. The demon pushed you aside, but you could still return to your body. What Reggie is experiencing might be completely different. His mind might have been put on hold or something. If I could get rid of the demon, he might come back thinking no time had passed at all.”

  “Or he could be gone entirely.” Kyle hated to say it, but she needed to be realistic in her expectations.

  Amanda closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I know that.” Opening her eyes, she gave him a sullen glare. “It would help if you were a little more supportive, you know.”

  Kyle raised his hands in a gesture of giving. “I am being supportive. Do you feel comfortable talking about this with anyone else?”

  Amanda shook her head, but said nothing.

  “I’ll help you do whatever you want, but if we don’t get perspectives from anyone else, one of us has to play devil’s advocate, pardon the expression. Anything we do will be dangerous, so we can’t charge off filled with righteous fire and no contingency plan. You can’t plan for contingencies unless you stop to think about what might go wrong, and that’s all I’m trying to do.”

  Amanda sat back in her chair and folded her arms. “Well, pardon me for getting all emotional about my brother being taken over by a demon.”

  Kyle lowered his head and sighed. “It’s okay to be emotional. But we need to be logical about this, too. Let me be the logical one. I’m a programmer. I’m good at it.”

  Amanda rolled her eyes. “You’re such a nerd.”

  “Exactly my point.”

  One corner of Amanda’s mouth shifted up into the beginnings of a tiny smile. “All right then, Mr. Logical. Riddle me this: how do we convince the lupusdaemon that’s controlling Reggie’s body to submit to an exorcism?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, and I don’t think it’s possible,” Kyle answered. “And putting
aside all angst about the condition and location of Reggie’s consciousness, that obstacle has been the primary reason why you haven’t been able to see a way forward.”

  Amanda leaned forward, anger widening in her eyes. “It’s impossible? How is that being supportive?”

  Kyle shook his head. “When one logic path fails, you don’t give up; you move on to a different one. Sometimes a less desirable one.” Her intent expression let him know he had her full attention. He drank the last of his cold coffee to postpone what he had to say next.

  “Reggie’s demon will never go along with your plan,” Kyle explained. “If you want to help your brother, we’ll have to do it against the demon’s will. Somehow, we’re going to have to abduct him and restrain him while you perform the exorcism. I doubt the Order will approve of that idea, and if you succeed, you will become a threat to the entire Pack, if not all werewolf kind.”

  “I’m already a threat,” she said. “You’re the proof.”

  “Not the kind of threat you’d be if you exorcise a lupusdaemon already in full possession of a body. It’s never been done. Afterward, none of them will be safe.”

  Amanda stared out the window, unseeing. “You’re right. I know all this, but I didn’t want to face it. I still don’t see a way forward. I’ve failed him.”

  Kyle paused before responding. Her mission to save her brother could get all three of them killed. The deciding factor for giving his support wasn’t her misery although he hated seeing her in pain. And it wasn’t that he owed her his life. What sense did it make to throw that gift away uselessly? It was that he had nearly been in Reggie’s position. If Kyle were still locked in the abyss, he’d want Amanda to do everything in her power to free him, even if the only possible freedom was death. Of course, Reggie would never want his sister to get herself killed in the process of helping him, but taking that risk was Amanda’s decision to make.

  “You’ve only failed him if you give up,” Kyle finally said, “so don’t do that. I’m telling you all this because we have to be realistic about the scope of work. The problem is complicated, and the solution may not be obvious, but knowing what you want and committing yourself to it will get the ideas flowing.”