The Stars Never Rise

“Help!” I shouted, and the demon whirled on me, ripping her shirt from my grasp. “Someone call—” My mother’s bony hand clamped over my mouth.

“They won’t get here in time,” she whispered, but her voice seemed to originate from inside my head, where the words echoed over one another in an endless, cacophonous loop. “By the time they arrive, this body will be dead and your body will be mine, and you—the part that makes you Nina Kane, anyway—will have been extinguished like the fragile, flickering candle flame you are.”

My left hand burned, pinpricks of fire beneath my skin, a horrible itch I couldn’t reach to scratch. My jaw ached—her hand was crushing my face.

“They’ll think I’m you. Melanie will think so too. She’ll think she’s safe until the day I sell her to the highest bidder. Which will have to be before she starts to show, since ‘Nina’ wouldn’t make her end the pregnancy.”

Melanie would never fall for that, even if the demon did have access to my memories. But my sister’s knowledge wouldn’t save her.

Terror skittered through every inch of me. I grabbed the demon’s arm but couldn’t make her let go. I tried to scream, but only a muffled moan escaped through her fingers. I tried to shove her, but she couldn’t be moved.

“Shhh,” she breathed into my ear, walking me backward. My pulse raced in terror and I stumbled, fighting to remain upright. “This shouldn’t hurt a bit.”

But it already hurt. My heart beat so hard it was surely about to burst. My silent screams bounced around in my head, bruising me in places that shouldn’t have been able to feel pain.

She pushed harder, faster, and my feet couldn’t keep up. I tripped, and she lifted me with her free hand, without uncovering my mouth. My feet no longer touched the floor.

An instant later, my back slammed into the wall. Pain shot along my spine and air burst from my lungs, through my nose. White dust drifted around us; she’d dented the drywall with my body.

Her hand left my mouth, but before I could scream—before I could even suck in a desperate breath—her lips closed over mine. Her mouth was cold, and her chill threatened to invade my warmth. My skin already tingled with the cold everywhere she touched me. But then she exhaled, and her chill crawled inside me, her life force invading mine. Soon whatever it was that made her a demon would overwhelm whatever it was that made me human. Then I would be gone. Extinguished like the candle flame she’d called me.

And I couldn’t fight her. I couldn’t make it stop.

I pushed, but she stood firm. I pulled, but she resisted. I kicked, but my feet found no target.

I could feel that warmth—my soul—being absorbed. She was swallowing me whole.

I screamed, and she swallowed that too.

Then, in the distance, I heard the sirens. Melanie had gotten to a phone, even though I’d told her not to stop. She’d called someone. Help was coming. But it would be too late.

Tears poured down my face, leaking beneath my closed eyelids, and still the mother-monster sucked at my soul. I opened my eyes, but she was all I could see. The sirens still wailed in the distance, but time seemed to have slowed. The world sounded…stretched. Warped.

And finally I understood. I was losing consciousness.

No. I was dying.

The only thing I could feel, other than my mother’s freezing lips and the dwindling warmth of my own soul being devoured, was the hot tingling in my left hand and the frantic ticking of my internal clock, counting down toward the end of my life. I had seconds left. I could feel it.

One more try. I owed it to Melanie. If the demon possessed me before the authorities arrived, she’d be alone with a monster. Or in Church custody.

I tried to push the monster off again, this time with my tingling left hand. The moment my fingers touched her chest, something exploded between us. Something brighter than light and hotter than fire. Something I’d only seen in person once—that morning, when the rogue exorcist had saved my life.

The demon screeched and dropped me, and my feet finally hit the floor. Normal human warmth returned, like a flood washing over me. The monster tried to back away but couldn’t disconnect from the fierce light still shining between us, so bright I wanted to close my eyes. But I couldn’t look away from her or from the light glowing beneath my hand, still pressed to her chest.

She tried to scream and choked on the sound. She tried to run but was frozen in place.

Sight and sound zoomed back into focus around me. The wailing sirens abruptly stopped altogether, and distantly, I realized the police had never even gotten close.

Were they out on a different call? Had Mellie not stopped to call them? I was both relieved and terrified by that thought.