“I will refrain from commenting,” Drake said, but his tone sounded stilted.
I didn’t respond because I was only too convinced the subject was going to come up while Christopher and Lovie were here doing the exorcism. But it was way too late to worry about that. If the subject came up, it came up. And it was probably going to, which meant that one way or another, Ryan was going to find out about Drake by the end of the evening. Or so I imagined.
“If I learned your secret from someone else, I would certainly be angry with you,” Drake announced.
“Well, now what choice do I have?” I barked back at him. “It’s not like I can control whatever comes out of Christopher’s or Lovie’s mouths!”
“Oui, but for your sake, just hope nothing does!”
“Lovie, let’s start in this room?” Christopher asked as he spun around to face her. He was wearing the same long black cape he had the first time I’d met him, which still gave him the look of some nefarious cartoon character.
“That’s fine,” Lovie answered.
“Peyton,” Christopher started as he turned to face me, and I prayed he wouldn’t bring up the possession ritual. “Have you noticed any spiritual activity in the last few days that might hint to the entity still being here?”
I immediately shook my head. “It’s actually been very quiet. Nothing has happened at all.” And even though I was grateful that there hadn’t been any activity, I was also suspicious.
Christopher nodded. “Very good. We may very well have cleansed the majority of the presence during our last visit—”
“So anyway,” I interrupted him and grabbed Ryan’s hand as I started to walk from the room but then thought better of it. “Do you need us for this exorcism? Or should we just find something else to do?”
Christopher eyed me pointedly but didn’t say anything. Ryan, on the other hand, offered me a dubious expression and then freed his arm from my grasp, shaking his head. “I’d like to see what an exorcism entails,” he said to me before bringing his attention to Christopher. “If that’s okay with y’all?”
Christopher shrugged and looked nonplussed. I had to wonder if anything was ever “okay” with him. “You can watch as long as you do not get in the way.”
Then without saying anything more, he bent over and opened one of the black cases he’d brought with him, producing a red candle that bore the image of some religious saint. Next were two small white porcelain bowls, a brass incense censer that hung from a fairly long chain, a small steel sword, and the same bell Lovie had used last time in the possession ritual. Christopher set both bowls on the floor and then filled one with what looked like kosher salt and the other with a bottle of water. Then he closed his eyes and started doing that REM sleep thing before opening them again. He spilled a palmful of the salt into his hand and then dropped it into the bowl of water.
“So what does that do, Christopher?” Ryan asked as I inwardly winced, knowing Christopher wouldn’t react well to questions.
Christopher offered him a disgruntled expression and then sighed. “I’m blessing the water and the salt,” he answered succinctly before he started drawing in the air above the bowl of salt and water. “Now I’m drawing the pentagram. It’s important to start the drawing at the top point and then move to the left, ending at the top again.” Then he raised his fingers up in front of him and brought them down again in a straight line. “Next I make the sign of the cross.” Then he cleared his throat.
“I bless this salt by the power of Michael the Archangel and my own power that this salt rid this space of all malevolence and evil!” he said out loud and in a very strong voice. Then he drew a pentagram and the sign of the cross and said the same mantra over the bowl of water, the red candle, and the incense censer. I wasn’t sure but I thought I recognized the pattern from our last ritual. This wasn’t my first rodeo…or ritual, as the case may be.
“Are you ready, Lovie?” Christopher asked as he shifted his cloak dramatically over his shoulder and placed the steel sword in a little scabbard attached to his thigh. Then he started forward.
Lovie wasn’t really given the option to respond and instead brought up the rear, but not before taking the candle and the incense censer from him. She was already holding the bell.
“Do you want us to hold anything?” I offered, but Lovie immediately shook her head although it was Christopher who answered.
“Don’t touch anything!”
It wouldn’t have surprised me to learn that Christopher didn’t have many friends.
Holding the two small bowls of water and salt, he approached the far side of the foyer and sprinkled salt in the corner. Then he turned to his right, sprinkled a handful of salt in that corner and then proceeded forward, toward the hallway, repeating, “By the element of Earth, this salt and the power of my will and Michael the Archangel’s, I banish all evil and malodorous spirits from this room!”
“I am quite fortunate to be taking refuge in you, ma minette,” Drake piped up with a laugh. “Otherwise I would wonder where I would be banished to!”
That was an interesting thought. If Drake had never taken possession of my body and did still exist within the walls of the house would this exorcism drive him from it? “It’s only evil and malodorous spirits, and I wouldn’t say you’re either…”
“I believe the word he was looking for was malevolent or possibly malicious,” he responded with a laugh. “Malodorous implies that the spirits do not smell good!”
I hid my own laugh beneath an impromptu clearing of my throat and was relieved when no one noticed.
I watched Lovie hold up the incense censer and swing it into each of the corners of the room and repeat the same phrase, only substituting the element of air for the element of earth. Next she lit the red candle, which by now I assumed featured a picture of Michael the Archangel, seeing as how he seemed to feature pretty prominently in this ritual. She held the candle up to all four corners of the room and repeated the same mantra again, this time substituting in the element of fire.
Christopher followed suit with the bowl of water and repeated the same quote, this time referencing the element of water. Lovie rang the bell three times as Christopher announced, “Let all things evil and impure hear this ringing bell and depart from this space at once! At my command, I banish all evil from this place!” Lovie then walked over to him and released the sword from the scabbard on his thigh, offering it to him as she took the bowl of water and played a precarious game of balance. Given everything else in her possession, it was a wonder she didn’t drop anything.
I would have offered to help again but after Christopher’s last discouraging comment, I zipped my lips.
Christopher accepted the sword and, similar to the possession ritual, he approached the windows and the door leading from the foyer outside and drew the sign of the cross in the air before each one. As soon as he was finished making the sign of the cross, it felt as if the temperature in the room plummeted at least ten degrees—like someone had opened a window during a snow storm and let in the freezing cold air. I glanced around myself, at Christopher and then Lovie, looking for an indication that either of them had felt the change in the atmosphere, but neither looked especially concerned.
I watched Lovie offer one of the bowls to Christopher, who reached inside it and produced a palmful of salt that he then sprinkled along the threshold in front of the windows and the doorway. He said, “By this salt and the power of my will, I consecrate this threshold that it shield against malevolence and evil and all creatures that would do us harm from now until forever!”