I was bleeding all over the place.
After I closed the butterfly knife and slipped it into my pocket, I walked to the bag Goose had deposited next to the cage with a zombie cat—how I’d force the entity to leave the residence for good—and removed a towel. We’d already buried the damned thing and performed all the necessary rituals to return it to life. I would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so fucked up. I hadn’t liked sacrificing a parakeet to summon the feline from the grave. Goose insisted it was necessary. After all, the spirit had to be caged in something dead to be trapped and unable to move from host to host. I couldn’t care less now.
I opened the cage—smearing blood along the stainless steel bars—and retrieved the hissing feline. It struggled in my arms and clawed at my face until I held my mangled hand to its mouth.
“You now do my bidding, bound to obey me by blood.”
The cat went at my wound like it would have to cream in its former life. I let it enjoy several licks, waiting until it stopped hissing and calmed before I took my palm away. It was difficult, but I managed to keep the cat under my arm and wrap a towel around my hand, stanching the blood flow. I walked back to Goose and hellish thing possessing him. He had his eyes screwed shut, which told me the fucking thing inside him wasn’t stupid. It knew what I planned to do.
I placed the cat in front of me, grabbed Goose by the hair, and ordered, “Open your eyes.”
The moment the entity complied, it met the stare of the reanimated feline. I released Goose, grasped the furball by the scruff of the neck, and removed the blade at my side. The hilt vibrated in my palm, eager and hungry. Sucker wanted blood but would have to wait. I needed the power it contained for something else at the moment. The instant Goose collapsed, the cat went crazy. In situations like these, you had to trap an entity inside something that was already dead to truly finish it off. The moment it entered the cat, it became trapped in death, not the life it loved to travel to and from.
“See you in Hell,” I whispered and forced the struggling cat to its side. The blood inside the decaying body didn’t appease the blade, so it was cake to remove the cat’s head. The moment it was done, the dark presence I’d felt the moment I entered the house vanished.
It was over.
Thank you God.
I swayed as lightheadedness overcame me and black speckles marred my vision. How long had it been since I was this weak? I knew the answer, even if I wanted to deny it. This afternoon was the first time I’d done anything dangerous without the amulet. At the present moment I was just a necromancer with her normal abilities. Blackness rose to claim me, but I fought it. I shook my head, trying to ward off the danger of slumber.
I toppled forward and landed beside my partner in crime—Ethan McDaniel, AKA Goose: paranormal investigator and the one person I needed to learn to tell no. Blinking rapidly, I tried to stop the world from spinning. This was the thanks I got for agreeing to work part-time with a friend. He’d said it would be a great learning experience, but so far it had been nothing more than a pain in my ass.
I heard the front door open and tried to make it to my feet. Before I could accomplish that, a large set of hands grasped my shoulders and flipped me over. Paine gazed down at me with concern. I would have said something cocky to remove the worry in his expression, but my tongue was too heavy. After he checked Goose’s neck for a pulse, he looked me over, stopped at my haphazardly bandaged hand, and frowned.
“Damn it. I knew you and Ethan should have waited for me. Why don’t you ever listen?”