Continued from here part 3
England 1349
A cobbler named Stephen Mills stood over his father's book of spells. Stephen was born to a long line of powerful witches and warlocks but had chosen to leave that life behind. Now he looked on his son, John as he was slowly dying from the Black Death and desperately tried to remember his father's lessons.
He finally came across a page with a spell that promised to cure all ailments but was marked as forbidden. Stephen was a man with more power than intellect so he used it without hesitation. There was a bright flash of light and all life within five miles was instantly snuffed out as John rose from his bed in perfect health.
He looked down on his father's body confused as he picked up the book beside him.
***
Days later John wandered through the woods, cold and hungry. As he stumbled in the dark he came upon a man sitting by a fire. The man turned, "You have a cloud of death hanging over you."
John gave a fearful look, "I have nothing, I'm just walking through."
The man appeared behind him and snatched the book from his pack, "A bit young for a tome such as this. Do you know what it is?"
John shook his head, "Its my father's, he said he could cure the Black Death that was killing me."
The man looked him over, "Seems it worked."
He opened the book and found the dog eared page. A grin came across his face, "The Mills family spell book, I've been looking for this for quite some time."
John looked up, "You know my father?"
"More your grandfather, pleased to meet you. My name is Henry Corvin, and you are?"
***
The Ranch Present day
John sat cross legged next to the demon he had summoned, "Have you ever done this with a wolf before?"
"Once, it wasn't pleasant at all. Imagine being thrown out of an airplane without a parachute in a hurricane, that's what's about to happen to our minds."
John sighed, "Well, that sounds fun. Anything I need to do?"
"Nope, just try not to piss yourself while you're sitting next to me."
John gave a worried look as the demon grabbed his shoulder. John's senses were assaulted as the demon telepathically forced their way in. They appeared to be standing on the ground while the world swirled around them. The demon looked over to John, "Try not to puke."
"Will that hurt Chris?"
"No, but you're standing really close in the real world and I don't want to be puked on."
John looked around, "Where are the roars coming from?"
"Everywhere, the wolf doesn't have a subconscious. Its all right there on the surface, we'll have to dig a bit to get to the human part of his mind."
***
Edgar and Robert stood outside the circle. Robert turned to Edgar, "You ever deal with a demon before?"
"A couple times, not this particular kind though. I'd have preferred not to, smell of brimstone will be stuck for a month."
"You trust it?"
" About as much as I trust a plumber to build a space ship, but we don't have a lot of options here."
***
After a bit of time dealing with the mental torrent from the wolf John and the demon finally came across Chris. He sat curled in a ball in front of a mass of images flashing before him. The demon looked them over, "Anger and guilt, its like candy."
John felt a little disgusted by the near delight this creature had at the sight, "Let's get this over with."
"I've done my part, the rest is on you and him."
John's eyes went a bit wide, "What the hell am I supposed to do?"
The demon sighed, "Find the thought that's causing the most pain and figure out a way to deal with it. And remember, those roots won't hold him down forever."
John sat down and put a hand on Chris' shoulder. The memory Chris had of him hitting his mother appeared as he glared up at John. The demon rolled his eyes, "Show him your memory of what happened, if that's the one you bring up for him we need to get past it quick."
John searched his mind. The image changed to his point of view. Chris watched as a demon crept over his mother then entered her body. He watched as memories of the days that followed passed before him. His mother continually degraded until John finally was forced to personally remove it. It was a violent clash and John was forced to fight her back into the bed.
Chris saw his younger self watching in horror from behind a door.
The demon shook his head, "Possession, messy business. Did he claim be the devil, that kind love to pretend they're so important. They're actually more like fleas that get shook out of hell and cling to the first thing they can feed off."
***
John sat for what felt like hours but he couldn't be sure how time moved here. Finally they came to the memory of Chris attacking his mother. John was unprepared for this. He'd seen the aftermath of wolf attacks before but he'd never seen it as it happened. Chris grabbed his head and screamed at the sight and for a moment John couldn't help but feel a tinge of anger. He looked to see his son's agony and softened a bit, "You know she forgave you."
The demon gave a sarcastic nod, "Yes, because the word of the man who ditched him as a child carries so much weight."
John glared, "You could be helpful."
"I'm a demon, easing the minds of people is out of my wheel house."
John sighed, "Maybe I could block out the memory."
"Two things, one he's a wolf and magic won't work and even if it did it'd be like patching the hoover dam with duct tape."
John turned back to Chris, "Okay, I know I can't fix this today. I don't know if I can at all but you need to calm down. You couldn't do anything to stop this but you can stop yourself now. If you get lost in here you won't die, you'll just be trapped while the wolf destroys everything."
There was a low growl behind him as the demon looked back, "He's mounting a defense."
The wolf leaped toward John who rolled out of the way and looked to the demon, "What now?"
"Don't know, I've never actually been here to help before."
John hopped to his feet, "So, we're in trouble."
"He's not glaring at me."
The wolf lunged but stopped mid way as Chris grabbed him by the tail. Suddenly John and the demon found themselves standing in the summoning circle as Chris laid under the roots that John had tied him down with. Edgar yelled to the house, "The kid needs some pants."
***
John stepped out of the circle and spoke to the demon, "Thanks, hope I never see you again."
The demon turned to Robert and Edgar, "Tell your boss, I'll be collecting that favor soon."
John then released the spell sending the creature back to hell.
Chris was sitting at the kitchen table as Betsy explained what happened. John dropped down across from him, "We aren't out of the woods yet kid. We don't know what's going on with you and we have no idea if its gonna happen again."
Chris gave a nod, "So what happens now?"
John shrugged as he opened a beer, "I called some people, as soon as they figure something out they'll let me know. In the mean time I got a stack of books in my trunk, one of them is bound to have something about a werewolf/warlock hybrid."
"You ever hear of Google?"
John gave him a blank stare, "Go get the books."
(To be continued)
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