*}*Ariana and Christian*{*
“This house looks…familiar…” Christian suppressed a smirk at the expression on his mistress’s face.
“You don’t say milady.”
The two of them stepped over to the door and Ariana gave it a gentle shove. It remained still. She tried the doorknob. It opened. “Must be unlocked.”
From the moment she stepped into the house, she felt the demon’s presence and automatically recited a protection charm. “There is only one demon as Kuan-Yin said, but the fact that this house is empty worries me.”
They went upstairs and stopped in their tracks.
In the hallway there was Emiko, Ryuu, Aisling, Rina, and Puck. Special equipment was set up at focal points and the small group seemed to be arguing about something. They saw them just as Rina was saying, “…harassing me anyway.”
Ariana blurted out before she could stop herself. “You guys again.”
Everyone jumped and turned to look at the young priestess.
“You!” Puck shouted. “Keep behind me Rina! She’s dangerous!” He jumped up and stepped in front of the girl, who looked confused.
Ariana looked down at his words, her hair hiding her eyes.
“That’s enough Puck,” Christian said coldly. “You don’t even know why we’re here.”
“There’s a demon in this house,” Ariana said, giving Puck the full blast of her dark honey gold eyes, “and we’re here to get rid of it.”
“We’re taking care of it!” the sprite defended. “And besides, how can you say you can get rid of demons when one took possession of—”
“That’s different,” Ariana said quietly, “the reason why that happened is so, so different. You don’t understand at all. I might’ve explained, might’ve told you the reason, but you all rejected me before I could even speak a word.”
Emiko and Ryuu looked at Aisling, who looked guilty, and Puck, who tried his hardest not to feel sympathy.
“And besides, how can you say that you’re getting rid of demons when the equipment you have is completely useless.”
“Excuse me?” Emiko protested irritably, “the equipment we have is—”
“Good for ghosts and seeing demons, but worthless in trying to exorcise them,” Ariana grabbed a camera and turned it over in her hands, not looking at either Aisling or Puck. “You need more than fancy cameras to get rid of a demon.”
“Remember when you told me about my exorcising the ghosts at that school?” even though the question was directed at Aisling, she still wouldn’t look at her.
Aisling looked surprised and nodded.
“Same thing goes for demons.”
“You’re going to help get rid of the demon in my house?” Rina elbowed her way past Puck and went straight up to Ariana.
“Yes, that is why I came in the first place…but I didn’t know that they would be here.” She glanced in Aisling and Puck’s direction.
“Can I help?” Rina clenched her fist.
Ariana’s eyes narrowed in thought. “It’s dangerous, involving an innocent bystander, but…”
“You’re considering it!?” Puck shouted.
Ariana continued as if she hadn’t heard a word. “…I have an idea. If you’re fine with it, you can be bait. I’ll draw a sacred circle around you and place protective symbols around it personally. When the demon comes out, the rest of you guys can try to get rid of it. If something goes wrong—” she twirled her staff expertly “—I’ll step in. Christian will help if I tell him.” She looked at everyone except Aisling and Puck, “How about it?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you think about it, it is a pretty good idea. Continue?
