The Devil's obsession with the Heiress

Aliana looked up to look at his face and whispered in a quivering voice, "Gav... w-what do we do?"

"What deal is she talking about?" Gavriel asked suddenly.

"What?" Aliana questioned, bewildered.

"Did you make a deal with any spirits?" Gavriel demanded. His expression was so severe, so dark, that Aliana wondered if he was angry with her.

She quickly shook her head.

"I don’t know what she’s talking about. I can’t even recognise who it is. Do you know how many spirits haunted me before I met you? Please help me... Jade... I-I can’t lose her...."

Her voice broke on the last words. Her grip tightened around his robe as her eyes began to brim with unshed tears.

And Gavriel saw the raw terror pouring out of her. In truth, he didn’t even need to look into her eyes to know it was there. He had been able to taste her fear from the exact moment the entity revealed it had possessed her friend’s body.

If Gavriel wanted to, he could have simply killed the host body to get rid of the evil spirit. Or he could have used his powers to suck the soul out of it.

However, he knew that in the process, there was a high chance he would end up tearing out Jade’s soul as well, as the entity was currently latched onto it like a parasite.

That could very well lead to Jade’s death.

Looking at how shaken Aliana already was, he knew that was a price he could not afford to pay. Nor could he simply use his powers in front of the two humans.

Nigel’s memories could be manipulated afterwards, but by now, Gavriel knew Aliana was a special kind of human.

Something about her made him suspect that such manipulation would not work on her.

Which left him in an unusually difficult position.

For perhaps the first time in a very long while, Gavriel found himself forced to think carefully about his next move.

He had never been one to play nice. Mercy was not a virtue he possessed, yet with her somehow, he found himself wanting to keep his monstrous nature hidden.

At least for a little while longer.

Nigel and Cillian, who were leaning against the back of the support pillar not too far from the couple, caught the sound of Aliana’s frantic voice and turned their heads toward them.

Cillian spoke over the deafening chaos of flying objects, "You two! Got any bright ideas on how to deal with this shitstorm? Things are getting completely out of hand!"

Next to him, Nigel finally began to spiral out of control.

Rocking back and forth where he sat, he clamped his hands over his ears and began murmuring to himself, "Oh God, oh God, this is not happening! Prayer! Think of a prayer! Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil...."

He continued reciting the prayer, prompting Cillian to shoot him a sidelong glance before commenting dryly, "Great. This one seems to be completely out of commission."

Then, after a brief pause, he added, "Hey, do you happen to know any prayers for performing an exorcism?"

Nigel stopped rocking and gave Cillian a look before actually beginning to wonder whether he knew any. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Just then, a sharp kitchen knife came hurtling towards them.

Thunk!

The blade embedded itself deep into the pillar, mere inches from Cillian’s head, making both men flinch.

They immediately turned their attention back towards the couple, only to find Gavriel and Aliana staring at them with identical frowns.

"What?" Cillian replied, catching their expressions.

He scoffed, ducking as another object flew past. "I value my charming existence, thank you very much. And I must say, Aliana, when I met the redhead yesterday, I didn’t realise she’d eventually upgrade to throwing real daggers at me."

Aliana’s frown deepened at his remark, but before she could retort, she felt Gavriel’s hand cup her face, drawing her attention back to him.

"Can you think of the entity’s name?" he asked calmly.

She shot him a questioning look, and he explained, "If we know its name, maybe we can establish a dialogue. Entities like that don’t usually lie about such things. Think, Aliana. Who did you speak to?"

Aliana mulled over his words, drawing a sharp, ragged breath as she racked her brain, searching through her memories of past hauntings.

She repeated the entity’s bitter words in her mind over and over again until a sudden memory struck her.

A phrase she herself had spoken a long time ago to someone in this very apartment...

’Fine, I agree to your terms. Consider it done. Now, will you help me first?’

Gavriel, who was watching every micro-expression on her face, instantly noticed the shift in her demeanour. "Who is it?" he demanded.

"No way..." she whispered, her eyes stretching wide in sheer disbelief. She looked up at him, her voice trembling. "I think... I think it’s Rose."

His brows drew together in an instant, a flash of irritation crossing his face. He clearly despised the idea of an evil spirit possessing the very name he used as a term of endearment for his woman.

"Who is she?" Gavriel asked, his voice dropping an octave.

Beside them, Nigel’s head whipped around in absolute shock, his eyes locked on Aliana. He knew exactly who Rose was, as Aliana had told both him and Jade all about the eccentric ghost lady from the third floor before.

"She was the ghost of a woman who used to live on the third floor of this building," Aliana quickly replied to Gavriel. "I briefly spoke to her when... when things were getting bad for me... being haunted by ghosts. She happened to wander into my apartment. That’s when I met her."

The more Aliana spoke about Rose, the heavier her heart felt.

Rose was not someone she had known for very long, but she had been one of the first spirits Aliana had been able to have a real conversation with when nothing made sense.

Although Rose had told her back then about spirits losing their sanity and turning malevolent the longer they wandered the land of the living, Aliana never imagined she would fall to the dark side so quickly.

After all, she had just seen Rose a week or so... right before leaving for Spain.

It wasn’t that Aliana had forgotten the promise she made to help Rose deal with her husband’s mistress, but ever since her return, a whirlwind of events had consumed her, leaving her with barely a moment to think.

Still, a suffocating wave of guilt gnawed at her heart. She couldn’t shake the possibility that Rose had been driven to this state simply because Aliana hadn’t acted fast enough.