Jen’s body lay crumpled in the tall grass and weeds beside the track. Her leg was bent unnaturally and there was a growing pool of blood beneath her. I stared down at her, noting the cuts and grazes on her pale skin.

The pull of Hell was strong and I could feel it, dragging at my soul, drawing me back to its torments. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could resist the pull, but the only body that I could sense in any direction lay at my feet and that so broken and damaged that it would take every ounce of my strength just to hold it together.

To do so would ensure that I wouldn’t have the energy to jump to another body for a good long time and I would be incredibly vulnerable. But, the alternative was to choose a direction and start running in the hopes that I could find someone to possess.

As choices went, it kinda sucked.

The train had disappeared into a tunnel further along the track, travelling through the hills beneath the moors instead of over. Even if it stopped, there was little chance of the demon getting off and running back to where I lay without causing a fuss.

Even so, if I was going to do this, I needed to be quick.

I crouched beside the body, my spectral hand passing through the flesh where I touched it. Closing my eyes, I felt the essence of my being, the person that I was, flow down and into the body. It felt something like putting on an old coat as I slipped inside and pulled it tight around me.

My eyes opened and pain filled my mind, searing pain pulsing through my limbs. My breathing was ragged and I lay, gulping down breaths of air as I struggled to breathe. One of my lungs had collapsed, which was never a good sign.

A scream was torn from my throat as the bones in my leg twisted and shifted, joining back together, then I sucked in a deep, gasping breath as my lung reinflated. The minor cuts and bruises, I ignored, I didn’t have the power for them. Instead, I focused only on those that were life-threatening or incapacitating.

When I was done, I had to fight against the need to sleep as I rolled over and crawled across the rocky ground to where the book lay in the grass. I clutched it to my breast and whispered a silent prayer of thanks to the Divines before I reached out to a bush for support and slowly levered myself upright.

Every step I took sent a fresh pulse of agony up my leg, but I had no energy left to try to heal the swollen and twisted ankle. Instead, I limped, moving slowly as I crossed the track and pushed through the bushes into the trees beyond.

The terrain was rough, though thankfully the recent dry spell had left the ground firm with few patches of mud. Still, there was no real trail and I was forced to walk blindly through the trees until I came to a road.

I stopped and arched my back, pressing a hand against my spine. It didn’t help much, and the crack that came from my spine sounded alarming enough for me to not do it again. I waved at the passing cars until one slowed to a stop a short distance from me.

Cursing, I hobbled quickly to where it had pulled up and ducked down to look through the window as it was lowered from within.

“You alright, love?”

“I’ve been better,” I admitted, dryly. “Could use a lift.”

“Where to?”

“Headed to Hull so if you’re headed anywhere near there I’d be grateful.”

The portly man shook his head and gestured towards the road. “Wrong direction for that, love. Jump in though and I can get you to Todmorden. You can catch a train there to Leeds and then from there to Hull.”

I pulled open the door and slid, gingerly, into the passenger seat. I only winced a little, which I was proud of. Once the door was closed and I pulled the seatbelt on, I turned to the man.

He was in his late forties, with a growing bald patch that he tried to hide with judicious use of a comb. He wore a wedding ring and smiled amiably as I thanked him for the lift.

“No worries, love. What’s your name?”

“Jen.” I hesitated, unsure of myself. I didn’t want to give too much away because I was weak as a day-old kitten and had all the magic ability of a rock. In short, I was very vulnerable. “You are?”

“Michael.” He nodded a greeting instead of offering his hand. “What happened to you?”

“Fell in the woods,” I lied. “Lost my friends. You wouldn’t let me borrow your phone so I could call my mum would you?”

His eyes flicked towards me for a moment and then back to the road. He pursed his lips as if deciding whether or not to trust me with his phone, but he did reach into his pocket and pull out an older model iPhone that he unlocked and handed me.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Thank you.” I quickly typed in Becca’s number and pressed the call button. It rang several times before she answered. “Hey, Mum,” I said, hoping Becca wouldn’t hang up. “Before you go, I need to let you know what happened.”

“John?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” It was a good sign that she’d answered me. “You remember Delilah?”

“Of course I do, what the hell are you playing at?”

“Yeah, I know.” I laughed as if she had just said something funny. “She’s a bit of a troublemaker for sure. Well, anyway, she’s a bit upset about last night and is headed your way.”

“What!”

“I know, it’s awkward. She has some friends with her, so you might want to get ready for a few guests.”

“How many?”

“Not sure.”

“Fuck it, John!” I could hear the frustration and the fear in her voice. “What the hell did you do?”

“Does it matter?” She didn’t answer and I pressed on. “I couldn’t get through on your number so borrowed the phone of a guy who is giving me a lift to Todmorden. I’ll grab a train from there, but message me if you need anything, yeah?”

Silence for several long seconds and then a final, “I will,” before the call cut off.

I smiled as I handed the phone back to Michael. “Thank you.”

“No worries, love.”

Jen’s phone vibrated and I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced down at the display. I was entirely unsurprised to see a message from Becca and I quickly typed a response, detailing exactly what had happened since I left the hotel room that morning, including being caught on the train and my escape.

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Leave the city, at least for now. It won’t be safe there.”

“Mum won’t leave, not without an explanation.”

“You tell her what’s going on and what could she do except get herself hurt?”

“Dammit Jen!”

I was back to being called Jen, which was a good sign, and also a weird feeling to be pleased that I was being called a girl's name again.

“If she won’t leave, go talk to May and ask her for help. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Not that I would be much help myself. I was stuck in a body that I couldn’t leave for the moment without being sucked back into a hell dimension and I had used up all of my magic getting off the train.

I was as vulnerable as a human and worse, if I died, my soul would be catapulted out of Jen’s body like it had been when I jumped from the train. Which would, of course, result in me getting a one-way trip to hell.

Bloody great.

“Heading into Todmorden now,” Michael said. He looked at me with genuine concern in his eyes, which I could understand. I likely looked a state, with torn clothing covered in mud and blood, and covered in more scratches than I could count. “Are you sure you’re okay? I can take you to the hospital… or the police?”

“Thank you, I appreciate that.”

I did too. I was in no position to fight him off if he had decided to exact a price for his aid. But all he seemed to want was to make sure I was okay. I actually felt my eyes shimmer with unshed tears. That scared me because it was an emotional response that I shouldn’t be feeling at all in Jen’s body.

“Really, I’m okay,” I said, hoping to avoid more questions. “If you can drop me near the train station that would be appreciated.”

“Alright, love.”

He pulled up beside a yellow brick building with a small car park. I climbed out wearily and thanked him again. I even looked back and waved as I headed into the station and if that wasn’t a sign of growth, then I don’t know what is.

There was only one platform and no electronic gates. I could just walk straight out onto the empty platform, which I did. I found a hard metal bench to sit on and settled in for a wait.

My stomach rumbled but there wasn’t anywhere to buy food, so I tried to ignore the hunger pangs and checked Jen’s banking app. It was a depressing sight, but there was enough cash in there to potentially buy a train ticket or two to get me back to Hull.

Heck, there might be enough left over to let me buy a sandwich too.

Happy days.

I chuckled softly at the thought. How far I had fallen that the possibility of being able to buy a sandwich cheered my spirits. If the man I’d been a year ago could see me now, he would have been appalled.

“Mum agreed to go visit my aunt,” Jen messaged. “Not happy and wants an explanation. Promised to explain later.”

“Good. Go to May’s place and wait there until I can meet you. It will be safe. Even a coven wouldn’t break a sanctuary.”

I hoped.

My thoughts went back to the demons I had seen. I could only identify one of them and the other two could be anything.

They weren’t demons, not really, more half-demons. At some point in their ancestral line, a child had been born of a demon father and a human mother. Sure, it could have been the other way around but it was rare for a demon to want to wait around long enough to bring a child to term.

Their spawn had a touch of the demon’s power, and a slightly large touch of their hunger for chaos and violence. Many of the worst criminals were half-demons, and many of their kind found employment with the covens.

Delilah had them in one of her kill squads though, which meant they would be something she considered useful.

Incendo, a fire demon, would probably be one of them. The stronger of their kind could throw actual fireballs, while the weaker could burn you with a touch. Either of those would be useful to Delilah. One for the fight and the other for the interrogation after.

The Gelum would be an obvious one, but frost and fire demons didn’t get along. They were elementally opposite and tended to be clannish by nature. Of the two, Delilah would choose fire over frost, so I could discount that.

An Umbra, then. A shadow demon, or a shade. They were dangerous and their powers made them damned hard to kill. As rare as they were, I could hope that she wouldn’t have one in her squad, but knowing her it was exactly the type of demon she would go for.

Which meant I was particularly fucked if they came for me at night.

The strongest could step through shadows, travelling long distances in a single step. While even the weaker could bend light and shadow to their will, creating shadow forms that could kill.

I shuddered. Not what I wanted to have to face with no magic and no weapons either.

A powerless witch, barely clinging to life and a necromancer who was barely trained and wasn’t really effective against the living. We weren’t in for an easy fight.

My only hope lay in May taking pity and helping, though even then, I had no idea what she could do.

Still, I had a long trip to Hull to figure out a plan, and that was exactly what I would do.