Of Blood and Monsters

by D. G. Swank

  “Pour your salt. Then hand me the shaker. The less evidence left behind to implicate me, the better.”

  She was right, of course, so I started at one end of the bars and poured a thin line of salt all the way to the other wall.

  Olivia studied it for a few moments, then nodded briskly. “It’s not noticeable, and I doubt anyone will be coming in or out of your cell tonight, so it should remain undisturbed.”

  That was simultaneously reassuring and depressing.

  “But if the salt gets disturbed and you’re at risk…” She stopped, a war waging in her eyes. Then she pushed out a sigh and lifted her gaze to mine. “Jack said to remind you that you can escape like Tommy.”

  I’d already considered that option and decided to only use it as a last resort. I’d never be able to explain disappearing, and it would put me in heaps of legal trouble. Not to mention I’d be trapped. If the demons knew I had disappeared in this cell, they’d be waiting for me to reappear. If I was going to go with that option, I might as well let Abel bust me out of this place, which I was seriously starting to consider.

  “Do I want to know what that means?” she asked. “Isn’t that the little boy ghost you went to go rescue when Jack was in the ER?”

  She definitely had a good memory. “Yeah.”

  “How did Tommy escape?” she asked.

  I gave her a grim smile. “Let’s hope you never have to figure it out.”

  She twisted her mouth, then stared off into the distance for several long seconds, lost in thought. “I’m going to see if I can pull some strings and get you sprung tonight. Sit tight.”

  She gave me a grim smile before she started down the hall.

  “Olivia,” I called after her, and when she turned around to face me, I said, “I don’t know if Jack told you what’s coming, but you should really take cover. Maybe leave town.”

  She stopped and studied me for several seconds. “I’m not running from this, Piper, and I’m not leaving you here as demon fodder. I’ll be back.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ellie

  The sun was close to setting by the time we got back to Piper’s house. Abel was disturbingly quiet during the short drive from downtown. Rhys was annoyingly talkative, but I knew she was nervous. So was I. Deidre was certain the pocket watch would gain me admittance to the attic, but I wasn’t convinced. It hadn’t helped Collin.

  David was in the kitchen when I walked in, and I was sure he’d been watching for us from the living room window. “Any luck?”

  “Let’s hope so,” I said as I set the wards on the kitchen table. Fingering the watch in my pocket, I headed into the living room. David followed me. “Where’s Collin?”

  “He said he was going to look for Tsawasi and talk some sense into him.”

  I stopped at the base of the stairs and looked back at him. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s Collin,” David said with a shrug. “I was lucky he told me anything at all.”

  He had a point, but I didn’t like it. “The car’s still outside. He couldn’t have gone far.”

  David’s face softened. “The sun’s setting. Given what we know is coming, he won’t have gone far.”

  “Which means it’s now or never if I want to try the attic again. The demons will likely come here first, looking for Piper,” I said.

  “Agreed,” David said. “I’m all packed up and ready to leave for the safe house as soon as we’re done.”

  Abel and Rhys stood in the dining room, locked in a private conversation. No doubt Abel was quizzing Rhys about what the seer had told us while he waited outside. Call me a traitor, but I decided to take advantage of their distraction.

  “Come on,” I whispered, then slipped up the staircase, making my footfalls soft to hide the sound.

  When we reached the top, David pulled me to a halt. “You don’t want Abel and Rhys to go into the attic with you?”

  “I’m not so concerned about Rhys, but Abel… no.” I gave him a grim smile. “I have no doubt that he will put Piper above all others, at the expense of everyone else’s safety.”

  His grim look must have matched my own. “Like Collin.”

  “Exactly.” I knew his stance and was powerless to rein him in…or did I just tell myself that? I pushed out a long sigh. “I want to go up alone.”

  Hurt filled his eyes. “You don’t want me to go?”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust you, David,” I insisted. “It’s that I don’t know how this is going to go down. I don’t know the rules. What if I take you up there and can’t get you back out?”

  “Ellie,” he said softly, reaching for my cheek as he lowered his face to mine, pressing our foreheads together. “You can’t spend your life worrying about my safety. You have to protect yourself and the world.”

  “How can you say that, David?” I asked, tears filling my eyes. A heavy wave of foreboding washed over me. “I love you. You’re my life.”

  “No, my love,” he said with a tender smile, pulling back slightly. “I am one part of it”—his grin turned ornery—“a significant part, but only a part.”

  “I can’t lose you,” I whispered, a tear streaking down my cheek.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. Then his smile faded and he turned serious. “But if something out of my control should happen…” He paused and made sure he had my full attention. “I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay here with you like Hudson did for Piper. I won’t leave you, Ellie.”

  “Don’t talk like that,” I said, starting to panic.

  He gave me a gentle kiss, but I grabbed the back of his head and held him close, kissing him with a determination that overwhelmed me.

  Pulling back, he stared at me with eyes full of pride and love. “I’m not going anywhere. I have too much work to do, and so do you. Now go up to the attic before Abel realizes what you’re up to.”

  I wiped my tears and nodded. He was right. “I have no idea how to do this.”

  “Perhaps just concentrate on her created world as you walk up the stairs.”

  I grinned. “It can’t be as simple as that.”

  “Sometimes the simplest strategies are the most effective.”

  A sense of déjà vu filled me. Then I realized I’d had the same thought at the seer’s. David had taught me this.

  I could hear Abel calling my name downstairs, so I quickly opened the attic door, pulling out the pocket watch with my free hand. I half-expected David to comment—he’d spent weeks of research trying to determine the watches’ purpose—but he simply waited behind me.

  Rubbing the back of the engraved watch, I concentrated on my witness to creation power and my mental image of Tommy’s playroom, then started to climb. The watch issued a mechanical click about halfway up, and when I looked at it, I saw the face had opened up, revealing a new dark blue layer beneath the original gold. Embedded in the blue was a smaller timepiece, showing the identical time. Something had happened, but I didn’t dare look up until I reached the top of the steps.

  When I finally did look, I gasped. The office was gone, and the room was filled with toys and a daybed on the wall opposite the front-facing dormer windows. Only I couldn’t see the front yard now. The view from the windows showed countless demons pounding on the glass, trying to break in, a glowing background behind them. The walls surrounding the dormers were covered with black charcoal. Collin’s marks, seeking protection for anyone within the space.

  I gasped and took a step back, instinctively flexing my hand. I didn’t have a weapon on me—carrying a sword around was hardly inconspicuous—but one sword against so many demons would have been like a drop in the ocean. However, if the demons managed to break in, I could use the mark on my hand to temporarily send them back to hell—a last resort given the way it drained my energy.

  “They can’t huwt us,” said a tiny voice on the other side of the room.

  I let my gaze jerk from the windows to the bookcase and a cowering little boy crouched
beside it. I dropped my hand and took a cautious step toward him. “You must be Tommy.”

  He nodded but still clung to the side of the bookcase.

  I moved closer. “I’m Ellie. Piper’s cousin. She’s told me about you.”

  Tears fell down his face, and he swiped at his cheek and runny nose with the back of his hand. “You’re in my pictures.”

  Collin and Piper had argued over a drawing. Could this be the answer we were looking for? If so, wouldn’t Collin have told us what was in it?

  “So I heard,” I said, moving closer still and squatting next to a table strewn with Lincoln Logs. “Can I see it?”

  The little boy gave me a hesitant look. “I’m not supposed to let Piper see it.”

  “Why not?” I asked, trying to hide my fear, even more certain that the drawing held a clue.

  “The voice told me not to.”

  “But I’m not Piper,” I said with a warm smile. “Surely you can show me.” When he still looked uncertain, I added, “You let Collin see it.”

  “He stole it.”

  I blinked in surprise. “What?”

  “He put the picture in his pocket.”

  Why hadn’t he shown it to me? He’d pretended to have no idea what answers could be hidden in the attic, when all along they’d been stuffed in his pocket.

  “That’s okay,” I said, forcing a smile even though I was seething inside.

  “But I drew more. Lots more,” he said, still gripping the edge of the bookcase. “I can show you those.”

  My eyes flew wide. “Would you?”

  He nodded, his eyes huge with fear.

  “Do the demons scare you?” I asked gently. “Do you want me to shut the curtains?”

  He shook his head and took a step away from the bookcase. “I told you. They can’t get us.”

  “Then why are you scared?” I asked.

  Rather than answer, he pulled a drawing pad from a shelf and carefully set it on the table.

  I leaned over to watch as he flipped through it. Page after page was filled with countless primitively drawn bodies in a sea of red.

  “Tommy,” I said, trying to keep my voice light. “What are those drawings of?”

  He glanced back at me with innocent eyes. “The world.”

  “The world,” I echoed as fear turned my blood to ice. “Why does the world look like that?”

  “The monsters,” he said as he turned back to his task and continued to flip pages. Then he flipped past a page that looked different from the previous ones.

  I reached out and stopped him. This one showed a primitively drawn girl with light brown hair holding what looked like two knives, facing a blue creature that looked like an ogre. A small figure cowered behind her. “What’s this?”

  “That’s Piper and the monster that tried to eat me.”

  “A monster tried to eat you?” I asked in horror. Piper had told us she’d saved him from a demon, but this picture put it into perspective.

  He slowly nodded. “Piper saved me from the mean lady too.”

  “What mean lady?”

  “The lady who stole my house.”

  The homeowner? We’d all been in such a hurry I’d never gotten the full story as to how Tommy had been transferred from his house to Piper’s.

  He turned the page to a drawing that was clearly me with Collin and David, my auburn hair and David’s black hair giving us away. Next to us were two little men covered in hair—the Nunnehi Little People—and two Native Americans stood behind us. The Nunnehi warriors.

  “What’s this?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

  “That’s you and your friends.”

  He turned the page and the next picture showed the carnage in the warehouse. A pile of body parts and lots of blood, along with creatures that resembled the lion demons that had killed the Guardians. A man with dark hair and eyes stood on a stage, surrounded by rays of light. A girl with dark hair and knives stood beside him with a man with dark hair and hints of a scruffy beard. Abel? “What’s this?”

  “That’s Piper’s fight,” he said.

  “Who’s the man in the middle?” I asked, pointing to the man surrounded by light.

  He pointed to the man next to Piper. “That man’s daddy.”

  “Do you know who he is?” I asked.

  A dark look covered his face. “He wants to take Piper away from me.”

  My breath caught in my chest. “How do you know that?”

  “He told me,” Tommy said as though I were a simpleton. He turned the page. I could see the remnants of the page that had been ripped out, but it was the page behind it that held my attention. It was like the first pages—bodies strewn on the ground in a sea of blood, but in the middle of this one was a figure with long brown hair holding two knives, its face a horrific mask.

  “What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the figure.

  He turned to look up at me with tears in his eyes. “That’s the bad monster that eats Piper.”

  It took me a full two seconds to comprehend what he’d said.

  “It has her knives,” I murmured.

  He studied me as though trying to figure out if he could trust me. Then his lip trembled. “I wasn’t supposed to let you see it.”

  He closed the notepad with a loud slam, then held it to his chest, his chin quivering.

  “I want to help Piper,” I said, my heart pounding so hard I wondered if he could hear it. “But I need your help.”

  “I’m scared for Piper,” he said, through his tears.

  “I want to save her, Tommy. She’s my cousin. Help me save her. What is this monster?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, starting to cry softly.

  “Can I have your picture?” I asked, pointing to his notebook.

  “I’m not supposed to give it to you.” But I could see the hesitation in his eyes. He wanted to give it to me, but he also wanted to follow the rules.

  I gave him a warm smile. “How about you put the notebook on the table, and I’ll take the picture when you aren’t looking?”

  “Like Collin did?” he asked, his eyes full of innocence.

  I hid my renewed anger. “Just like Collin did, if you like. Then it won’t be your fault.”

  He thought about it for a few moments, then nodded. After he gently placed the notebook on the table, he walked over to the middle window. I watched in horror as he put his palm on the glass. The demons went wild, frenzied in their attempt to get to him.

  “You really aren’t scared of them,” I said, slightly in awe and slightly in horror.

  “They won’t hurt me now.”

  “Because you’re in this room?” I asked.

  He turned back to look at me with innocent eyes. “Because he won’t let them.”

  My blood turned to ice again. “The voice?”

  He nodded and turned back to the window.

  “Why is he protecting you now?”

  He didn’t answer, instead tapping on the window as if it were a fish tank, sending the demons into a renewed frenzy.

  Thoroughly creeped out, I opened the notebook and started to rip out the page, which was when it occurred to me that there were dozens of other drawings in there I wanted to study. Instead of taking the one page, I picked up the notebook and stuffed it under my T-shirt.

  I only made it down one step before Tommy called back to me.

  “I know you took all my pictures,” he said, his back still to me.

  “I…”

  “It’s okay,” he said, tapping a rhythm on the glass. “He says you can have them.”

  That caught my attention. “He’s talking to you right now?”

  “He says you can have them because it’s too late to stop it.”

  Fear bubbled in my chest. “Stop what?”

  He turned to look at me with a face of pure innocence. “The monster. It’s coming for her now.”

  “I thought you were afraid for her,” I said in dismay.

  A small s
mile lifted the corners of his lips. “He will protect her.”

  Who was the he? Abel or the voice?

  I ran down the stairs, shouting Collin’s name as I burst into the hallway and ran directly into Abel. I placed a hand on his chest to steady myself.

  “What did you find?” Abel’s entire body vibrated with the words.

  I took a step back and pulled out the notebook with a shaking hand, noticing Collin pacing behind Abel and David standing behind him. “A monster is coming for her. Now.”

  Abel’s eyes widened and he spun around, passing Rhys, who stood in an open bedroom doorway, on his way to the stairs.

  “Abel!” I called after him. “Wait. There’s something you need to see!”

  But he ignored me, stomping down the stairs and out the front door.

  “What?” David asked. “What did he need to see?”

  I shifted my focus to Collin. “What’s in the picture you stole from Tommy?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he countered, but he couldn’t look me in the eye.

  “What’s in the picture, Collin?” I said in a deadly tone.

  His gaze met mine. “Tsawasi took it when I saw him just a bit ago.”

  “That’s not what I asked, is it? What was in the picture?”

  “I’m not allowed to tell you.”

  My temper took over and I grabbed a handful of his T-shirt and slammed him against the wall, pressing my chest to his as I glared up at him. “What’s in the goddamned picture, Collin?”

  A wicked smile lifted his lips, but his eyes looked dead. “This wasn’t how I pictured you coming on to me in my fantasies, but I can work with it.”

  I kneed him in the balls then stepped back, taking only small satisfaction in the sight of him hunched over and grunting in pain. “I’m sick of not being able to trust you, Collin Dailey. Either tell me or get the hell away from me.”

  He twisted his head to look up at me, disbelief in his eyes. “You don’t mean that.”

  “Try me.”

  He took several seconds to recover, sucking in deep breaths as he leaned over his bent legs. When he stood semi-upright, his serious gaze found and held mine. “Tsawasi made me swear not to tell you.”