Chapter Seven
Doppler
Dorian trained his teens for failure. A fitting lesson for what I had planned. Still, the most grueling part came down to how I handled the fallen devil, the disease of demonic energy latched to Finn’s soul, the filthy chimera whose name I’d yet to learn.
Not that I cared what it called itself, but it was further proof that nothing I did to break its spirit had an effect. Demons guarded their names like a point of pride, secret and rarely divulged. No amount of hacking, slashing, blunt, or brutal force coaxed anything other than a chuckle from that beast. Torturing the demon only offered me momentary satisfaction. It didn’t loosen the tether of his being to Finn, it didn’t yield answers, it didn’t even make the chimera more compliant.
I stood outside the chamber of Jasper’s curiosities, a barren waste of space I’d converted into a prison for the chimera. Conjuring a cigarette, I took calming puffs, replaying how I’d broach this topic with the demon.
Cleansing Finn once and for all would require skills beyond what I possessed. The only way to obtain that power was by skirting around Milo’s predictions and unleashing something even he didn’t see coming. Someone. And that meant I needed a host with better connections than Jasper, the associate assistant manager of the seventh-best insurance claims office for magical disruptions in Illinois.
I shuddered, having memorized the positive affirmations that hummed through the corridors of Jasper’s inner core like bad mall music.
“Care to have a word?” I finally stepped inside, taking in the chimera’s frail form.
Starved of magic and freedom had made his human image withered and decayed. If I cared to house him in demon form, I imagined that would be easier now that he’d dwindled so much over the months. Not enough to die. Cease to be. It was never enough to rid me of this pestilence that clung to Finn.
The chimera tugged at the chains around his wrists, futile but an effort he exerted every chance he could, testing the limits of my magic, hopeful it’d wane. It hadn’t. It wouldn’t. “If it isn’t my favorite puppet.”
I glowered. If I responded, reacted, he won. He’d goaded me into arguments more times than I cared to admit during our conversations.
“But you’re not like other puppets,” he continued, seeing as I hadn’t interjected this time, smiling as blood and tar dripped down his chin, staining his trimmed beard. Another test of pushing the confines of his limitations, biting his own tongue, lips, anything to bleed his demonic bile and release fragmented energy. “No, siree. You’re special. No strings on you, Pinocchio.”
He took every opportunity to remind me he believed me less than. He didn’t see a manifestation as anything other than an echo to Dorian, an extension of magic, a spell gone awry. I wasn’t real to him. I wasn’t real to Dorian either. Something these two had in common, I supposed. But I was real. A fraction split from the whole, formed into my own being. He couldn’t take that truth from me. I wouldn’t let him.
“You finished monologuing?” I banished the tar droplets as they glimmered white and wisplike.
“What else am I to do? You leave me alone for days at a time, then when you do visit, you just root around my insides, jabbing me in all the wrong places.” He sighed, feigning exhaustion—something I hoped keeping him bound and awake nonstop would cause…but it didn’t. Simply added to his nauseating personality.
I stared, unwilling to engage.
“See. No civil conversation. I’m bored in here with no one’s thoughts but my own to keep me company.” He grinned. “Well, Jasper’s too, but he’s rather dull, wouldn’t you say, puppet?”
Even bound in this room, he’d found ways to whisper horrors into Jasper’s subconscious, startling the bumbling fool and giving me a bigger fucking headache. Despite all I’d done to confine the chimera, he hadn’t lost every ounce of strength. Even the few times I shattered his being entirely, a single wisp would surface again from Finn, proving nothing could truly eradicate him so long as they were linked. The one saving grace I had was that Jasper proved an easy quarry, which left the chimera unamused after causing a few nightmares and reawakening old phobias in the host we borrowed.
“Since you find Jasper to be such a bore, perhaps my news will intrigue you.”
“Oh?” The chimera tilted his head, curious brown eyes studying my unchanging face. “ Unchanging? Dearest puppet, your expression is worth a thousand words. ”
Goddammit. I extended my arm, slamming enough psychic energy to crush every bone in his body.
The crack and crunch of bones, the grind of meat twisting on itself, the heat of blood boiling, all of it brought little satisfaction. Torture wasn’t a strong suit of mine, despite all my efforts and willingness to break this beast. He knew it and relished the pain. A sadist and masochist wrapped into one murderous, sociopathic monster.
Once I felt the tether of his telepathy snap and break away, I stopped my assault. He hadn’t lost every branch when Milo had exorcized him, possessing five I was aware of thus far. Every now and then, he’d taunt me with a branch, testing his limitations but also foolishly revealing them, which allowed me the time to properly bind them.
“Come now. I’ve had rougher massages than that.” He grinned.
The problem was, this chimera wasn’t a fool. If these were the magics he revealed, it meant there was more he kept to himself.
“I have no patience for your nonsense.” I cast telekinesis, tightening the shackles that bound him, and used my telepathy to box away his casting limits inside Jasper’s mind. Here, I reigned superior, so locked inside a witch’s head he’d have to remain until I eradicated him permanently. “I’m going to be moving from this mind soon.”
“Really, puppet? Taking me along for the ride?”
“Obviously.”
“Good.” His eyes remained locked on mine, then flitted ever so, eyeing the ceiling of his prison before returning their gaze back to me. “I don’t suspect these shabby accommodations will hold much longer.”
“Don’t get any ideas. Your next accommodations won’t be any nicer. And if you resist in any way, I’ll make your life Hell.”
“Promises, promises.” He puckered his bloody lips, gaze flitting momentarily upward again.
Ignoring him, I searched the depths of Jasper’s mind where a tiny whisper the chimera had uttered days back echoed in the farthest reaches.
I ground my teeth. Too much energy was spent keeping Finn at peace, Milo unaware, the chimera bound, and distancing myself from the gravitational pull of Dorian’s magic drawing me back to become complete again.
Fuck. I’d missed the latest attempt to derail this host body’s sanity.
Reeling telepathy outward, I studied the absent-minded Jasper. He looked sloppier than usual, sweating profusely as he rushed down the sidewalk back to the office while lost in a daze of childhood embarrassments.
For Christ’s sake.
“No one cares about what you said when you were twelve years old,” I screamed through every fiber of his being. “Pay attention, dumbass!”
His eyes widened, feet planted on the crosswalk, like a deer in headlights quite literally as a truck barreled down on him.
This chimera took any opportunity he could, filling Jasper’s mind with old regrets, leading him off into traffic while dazed, and threatening to kill the host body we all dwelled inside.
“Bastard,” I hissed.
If Jasper died in this instance, I’d have to abandon the mind or risk being bound to the corpse without release. If I left now, unprepared, could I keep Finn calm? Keep the chimera docile? Would Milo be alerted through clairvoyance of such a random and untimely death? There could be major ripple effects in Jasper’s death that I hadn’t accounted for. Would Dorian feel my presence surging through the atmosphere, clawing my way into a new host? A host that might just as likely be too high profile, already on Milo’s radar.
A hand snatched Jasper by the shirt, saving him right as I prepared to leap out of his mind.
“You all right?” A glittery smile filled Jasper’s vision, so sparkly even this dank prison glimmered.
“Yeah, I…” Jasper’s heart pounded, racing faster against the back of his ear as he took in the scene of traffic around him. His briefcase lay several feet away from the crosswalk. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” The young acolyte waved a hand, retrieving the fallen briefcase and raising it high above traffic to avoid obstructing those driving. “Just try to be more careful in the future.”
“I-I will.” Jasper gritted his teeth, desperate to apologize again but swallowing the words because he worried he’d annoy the young man who’d rescued him.
Hayden fucking Russo. Are you kidding me?
Of all the luck in a city this big, filled with thousands of professional casting witches, Jasper stumbled onto one that worked for Milo. I clenched my fists, wanting nothing more than to strangle Jasper until his apologetic face turned beat red. There were countless visions I’d studied in Milo’s infinite list of potential futures, but I’d never stumbled onto a single pathway that involved Hayden Russo.
With no inkling of what drew this acolyte to the city or why Milo found an interest in this witch’s potential future, I needed to avoid him at all costs.
“Oh, geez.” Hayden checked his Cast-Watch. “Enchanter Evergreen is gonna kill me. I’m late again.”
“I’m so sorry,” Jasper blurted because of course he did. “It’s my fault. If I’d been paying attention, if I’d waited, or left the office on time, then…”
“Relax.” Hayden patted Jasper’s shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up over what could’ve or would’ve. I could’ve also left sooner, but if I had, I wouldn’t have been here when you needed me.”
“I’m sorry.” A fog ate away at Jasper, making it difficult to find the right words. “Lately, it feels like my mind hasn’t been my own. So easily distracted.”
“Look what you’ve done to this poor man.” The chimera rattled his chains, chuckling.
I scoffed. As if my presence caused this. I’d barely left a trail, walking on eggshells in this man’s mind. This fog came from Jasper himself, his fatigue, his pathetic life, and his age catching up to him. If anything, I’d cleared the cobwebs of insecurities to better him a bit.
“Lena is going to yell at me.” Hayden typed away on his phone. “She’s gonna say I’m lying like yesterday.”
“Are you late a lot?” Jasper asked, craving conversation, interaction. His sad sack life was going to compromise my future.
“Sometimes, just a little.” Hayden smirked. “Depends on your definition of late.”
“What happened yesterday?”
“Well, you see, I was flying to work—I left early and everything—when I heard a woman crying. She’d lost her grimoire. I couldn’t just abandon her, but I’m not the most suited for searching for books. It took forever, but we found it. Of course, Lena didn’t believe me. I tend to get distracted. There’s just so much good to do in the world. Even simple things, you know?”
Jasper believed every word of the farfetched tale. It sounded like a lie. A lazy one at that.
“Oh, I’ve got an idea.” Hayden held up his phone. “A picture’s worth a thousand words of evidence. How would you like to be on my Insta? It’s Bright Life Spotlights where I do a selfie and post case Q every ounce of self-doubt carried high to the surface of his mind, reminding him of the truth of his life.
“Disgusting,” I hissed, cementing all the anxiety.
“I…I can’t. I’m already late.” Jasper brushed by the young acolyte.
“Of course.” Hayden retrieved a card from his pocket. “We can always chat when it’s convenient.”
“Leave me alone.” Jasper swatted the card away. “No one asked for your help.”
I smirked. Hayden unlocked too many variables to fates I’d never seen, which could, in turn, lead me down a path toward Milo’s clairvoyance. Thankfully, I’d kept Jasper off Enchanter Evergreen’s path. Most likely. Long enough to move hosts, set fortune and the future in my favor.
“You’re wicked, Pinocchio.”
“Shut up.”
“Took what little shrivel of self-worth this witch had and shredded it.” The chimera tsked, shaking his head back and forth.
“Please, it’s no worse than what the actual voice inside his head reminds him of on a daily basis.” I’d merely said it a little louder.
“I like you, puppet. You’re vindictive and callow. It’s a fun combination.”
I glared. How I hated this abomination. “Are you going to behave or not?”
“Gladly. Make your moves. It’ll put me one step closer to finally uniting with Dorian. Oh, how we’ll laugh about the puppet who dreamt he was real.”
He didn’t believe this was a possibility. He knew it. It was cemented in the foundation of his thoughts, true as truth could be. That was the most frightening thing about the chimera. Almost all the crevices of his mind remained open for me to explore, and in the deep recesses sat futures he declared impending and unstoppable. Not sure if it was bravado, arrogance, or a warning.
I’d undo his very being soon enough. He’d never know what possessing a perfect host body felt like because Dorian would be dead. Gone. Shattered into a million fragmented, intangible thoughts. And I had no intention of sharing my body with this demon.