by Sara Snow
The thought of Olympia lying right beside us crossed my mind. But when I glanced over at her bed, she was motionless under the bedspread, her face turned away from us.
I closed my eyes again and let Carter’s weight bear down on me.
Cold. He wasn’t just cool—he was as cold as ice as he tried to enter me. My eyes flew open. I shrieked. He clamped his hand over my mouth, his clawed fingers digging into my cheeks so hard that they pierced my flesh.
Carter didn’t have claws.
Small horns protruded from the bulbous, misshapen head of the creature on top of me. A scream tore from my throat. He growled at me to shut up, and his hand clamped down even harder on my mouth. I thrashed, twisted, trying to drive my knee up into his crotch. I got a good dig at his groin, and when he shrank back in pain, I focused all my strength on heaving him off of me.
Incubus.
He landed on the floor with a thud and sprawled between the two beds, his spindly legs thrashing.
In the light that filtered through the curtain, I saw the old man from the diner, now in his true, demonic form. He hissed and spat at me as he clawed at the two beds, trying to drag himself up. I kicked him again in the crotch as hard as I could. Then, I spun around, grabbed the hideous clown lamp, and tore it out of the wall.
“Get back or I’ll brain you, motherfucker!” I shouted as loud as I could.
Olympia still hadn’t moved. I held up the lamp like a club with one hand while I reached over to shake her with the other. She felt lifeless under my hand.
“Carter! Jacob! Get in here!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
The incubus had struggled to his feet. He crouched in a half-squat, ready to lunge at me. I waited for him to spring forward, then I lifted the lamp and brought it down on his head as hard as I could.
He screeched in pain and indignation, clasping his skull. Dark gore oozed from his head. I planted my foot in his chest and shoved him back against the dresser, out of range of the beds.
Then, I focused my mind and lit the fucker on fire.
As he writhed in the flames, his blackening flesh emitted an acrid stench. I tried to calm the fire, but I was too wild with fear and rage to control the burn. The flames spread across the carpet and caught the edge of the polyester bedspread. In seconds, fire raged across the mattress.
“Georgia! Open the fucking door!”
The doorknob rattled. Fists pounded on the wood, quickly followed by the sound of heavy bodies slamming through the flimsy barrier.
I threw the covers off Olympia’s paralyzed body and dragged her off the bed. By now, the thick smoke was blinding, and I struggled to breathe. Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t have time to cover my face or shield Olympia from the flames.
“Georgia!” Carter’s frame filled the doorway, and smoke billowed out toward the open door.
“Call the fire back!” Jacob shouted. “You can do it. Call it back!”
“I can’t!” I screamed. I pulled Olympia to the door. Carter grabbed her legs, and we hauled her outside. Both of the beds were on fire, and the whole room was rapidly being consumed.
In the parking lot, I fell to my knees, coughing and gagging on the smoke. My eyes and throat burned like crazy. I gulped the fresh air, dragging as much oxygen as I could into my lungs.
As soon as I caught my breath, I looked around for Olympia. By now, the parking lot was crowded with the motel’s bleary-eyed occupants, who were walking around like zombies in different stages of shock. A woman dressed in a bathrobe and slippers was running around with a fire extinguisher, spraying at the flames that now poured from the room.
Where the hell is Olympia? Where are the fire trucks?
Finally, I spotted Carter, who had found a blanket for Olympia and was sitting with her on the ground. The witch moved her head slightly from side to side in response to something that Carter had said.
Thank god, she’s alive. That incubus didn’t get her, too.
He must have paralyzed her with a bite before attacking me, pretending he was Carter. The thought of what might have happened if I hadn’t recognized him for what he was chilled me to the bone.
“Hey! Georgia!” Jacob called to me. “You okay?”
“I think so.” I struggled to my feet and wrapped my arms around my body. The incubus hadn’t succeeded in tearing off my pajama shirt, but it didn’t provide much warmth on this cold March night.
As Carter took care of Olympia, Jacob herded the crowd away from the building. Finally, a small fire truck appeared, probably manned by local volunteers.
I didn’t have much hope for the motel, and by now, I knew that I couldn’t control the blaze. Built of cheap materials that hadn’t been maintained, the place was going up like a matchbox.
20
Jacob
The parking lot of that old motel had turned into a scene from The Walking Dead. The motel’s customers, most of them older folks in pajamas, staggered around the parking lot, watching the building go up in flames. It wasn’t hard to gather them into a group and herd them away from the inferno—they were desperate for any kind of direction, and the local fire department wasn’t there to give it to them.
The poor lady who apparently owned the dump was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to squelch the flames with a fire extinguisher.
I hoped she had a good insurance policy.
Georgia looked shell-shocked as she got to her feet. Her eyes were enormous, her mouth slack as she stared at the burning building. Even at this distance, I could see her whole body shaking.
She thinks it’s her fault.
I wished I could abandon the crowd and run to her. I longed to put my arms around her and hold her until she stopped trembling. I didn’t know who or what had attacked her tonight, but she’d fought hard and won.
The only problem was that she couldn’t control her powers yet. And I could see in her eyes that she felt like utter shit about that.
By the time the fire truck finally rolled up to the building, the place was already a loss. The truck was closely followed by the county sheriff and a squad car.
Ah, the joys of small-town living.
“Jacob!” Carter shouted, beckoning to me from his car. “Come on! Get Georgia. We’re leaving!”
Georgia was still standing, frozen, watching the flames. I ran to her and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the car before the town’s finest could stop us for questioning. How were we supposed to explain this whole disaster?
Please don’t lock us up in your jailhouse, officer. You see, our lovely friend here was attacked by something evil in the middle of the night, and she fended him off with fire. Yeah, that’s right. She can start fires with her mind—she just hasn’t learned how to put them out yet.
Carter helped Olympia to her feet. She was able to bear weight now, but was still moving slowly. Supporting her with his arm, he half-carried her to the car and helped her into the backseat.
I followed with Georgia. Her violet eyes stared into the distance, as if she hadn’t stopped watching the blaze. Gray soot streaked her cheeks.
What the hell had happened to her in that room? The creature we had seen writhing on the floor was definitely not human.
Georgia let me ease her into the back next to Olympia. The witch leaned her head against Georgia’s shoulder, and that gesture woke Georgia from her trance. She shifted into protector mode, cradling Olympia in her arms. I closed the back door and quickly jumped into the front seat.
Carter started the engine, and we were off. I turned my head to catch one last glimpse of the bewildered crowd, watching the building burn as the firemen got to work.
I wasn’t too keen about riding shotgun next to Carter. We hadn’t talked much last night after we dropped off the girls at their room. He had avoided looking at me, and the few words that came out of his mouth were brusque and gruff.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he was brushing me off. We were like a coupl
e of fighting bulls who had temporarily reached a stand-off, too worn down to make the effort to charge anymore.
One of these days, you’re going to need a friend to save your ass, buddy. And it’s probably going to be sooner than you think.
21
Georgia
The farther we got from the fire, the more clear-headed I felt. If Jacob hadn’t dragged me to the car, I don’t know if I would have had the will to leave. The sight of the inferno mesmerized me.
Did I really do that? Can I cause that kind of destruction?
All I had wanted to do was torch the incubus before he attacked me again. I’d been so charged with rage and horror that when I directed my fire at him, I hadn’t thought about calling it back. I just wanted to torch him with all my strength, to watch him squirm and screech and blacken in the flames.
I got what I wanted, plus a whole lot more. The motel—a business, and possibly someone’s home—had been destroyed. Innocent people sleeping in the building may have been harmed, could have been killed.
I can’t do that again. Not unless I’m one hundred percent sure that I can put the fire out.
As Carter drove, Olympia revived. I gave her Gatorade to drink and a granola bar to munch on. She finally let go of me, but she didn’t move away. Every once in a while, she shivered, then sank deeper against my body.
“You’re so warm, Georgia,” she mumbled. “And I feel so cold. That monster turned me into an icicle.”
“What happened, Olympia?” I asked her. “How did he break in?”
She shuddered. “He didn’t break in. He knocked, like a normal human being. You had fallen asleep, Georgia. I heard a knock on the door, and I thought it had to be one of the guys. I opened the door just a crack—you know, leaving the high-tech security chain locked—and I asked who was there. He said it was Carter. And I peeked out, and it was Carter, at least the sliver of the face that I could see. I swear it was Carter. I know it’s hard to believe.”
No, it’s not. Because Carter was on top of me, kissing my neck.
“So, what happened after that?” I urged.
“I opened the door, of course. And it wasn’t Carter at all. It was that creepy guy from the diner, the same one we saw at the bar. He didn’t have that cap on this time, so I could see his hideous face and his horns. I tried to slam the door, but he grabbed it with his big claws, then shoved me back. I tried to get up, but he grabbed me and bit me in the neck. That’s the last thing I remember before I woke up in the parking lot in Carter’s lap.”
“The bite of an incubus can paralyze their victims,” Carter said. “He knocked Olympia out so he could attack Georgia. The question is why would he want to attack her in bed? Why not bite her, too, and abduct her?”
“He was probably one of those rogue demons you told us about, out on his own looking for love,” Olympia offered. “He could be one of Paimon’s minions who was sent to track us down and take Georgia, but he found her irresistible and couldn’t stop himself. Horny old incubus couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.”
“Yep, that’s how it goes. Right, Carter?” Jacob asked lightly.
I had to give Carter credit for not rising to the bait. He simply set his jaw and kept driving.
“I think I know where I saw that old man,” I said. “Not him, but someone almost identical to him. He looked like the demon at the pier, the one who was selling the balloons.”
“A lot of those minions look the same,” Carter said. “The warrior minions, especially. It’s hard to tell them apart, and that can work to their advantage when they need to disguise themselves. I knew he had to be one of Paimon’s crew when we saw him at the diner.”
“Then why didn’t you say something?” Olympia asked incredulously. “You just rushed us out of there without telling us why we were leaving. You could have stopped all of that from happening if we’d only been warned. He was at the tavern last night. Georgia and I both recognized him.”
Carter let out an exasperated huff.
“Okay, Olympia, you don’t have to rub it in. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to scare you or Georgia. I just wanted to get on the road and get out of there. The sooner we get to El Paso with our sanities intact, the sooner we can torch those three kings and get their armies off our backs.”
“No pun intended, but that was actually a damn good fire drill,” Jacob said. He turned around to look at me over the front seat. “When you meet your mother, and Paimon and his goons show up, that’s exactly what you need to do.”
“That’s exactly what I don’t need to do,” I snapped. “Do you think I meant to burn the whole place down?”
“If Olympia’s right about her description of the place where your mother lives, it won’t matter if you burn it down,” Carter pointed out. “She’s apparently staying in an old building like that one, only totally run down and abandoned.”
“We’re assuming it’s abandoned, anyway,” Olympia said. “There might be some other people staying there, living under the radar. We don’t want to harm anyone if we don’t have to.”
“I agree,” I said, trying to imagine the lost souls who would be sharing that abode with my mother.
How did Deena get to that point, anyway? How was her soul destroyed so completely that she gave up her daughter, then gave up the will to do anything but shoot heroin into her veins? Was it just the opiate that did that to her?
“Of course, we don’t want any casualties if we can help it,” Carter said. “But that may be beyond our control. We don’t know exactly how this is going to go down, or who’s going to be left standing. We just have to prepare for a battle. And that means you give it all you’ve got, Georgia. No holding back.”
“Believe me, after what happened to me last night, I won’t have any problem at all holding back,” I said. “The problem is going to be getting myself to stop.”
“Don’t worry about that right now, Georgia. We won’t have time to play nice. You’re going to go into that room with your brain primed for fire. The second Paimon, Abalam, and Bebal appear, you torch them. Jacob and I will back you up with weapons. Got it?”
Carter’s dark eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. I could see how serious he was, how intent on accomplishing this mission. He looked at me for a few seconds too long, and I could also see that I meant something to him.
I nodded. “Got it.”
That horrible incubus with his taloned hands . . . his ice-cold tongue. His cold, leaden weight on my body, bearing down into me, opening my legs, and making me respond to him.
What would Carter think of me if he knew I’d actually been aroused, if only for a few seconds, by that repulsive demon?
Olympia nudged me with her elbow. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for any of that,” she whispered. “It wasn’t your fault. You got sucked into an illusion. The incubi do that. That’s how they get their victims to open up for them.”
I looked at her, wondering how she knew.
“I saw him,” she said, keeping her voice low so the guys wouldn’t hear. “After he bit me, I saw him on top of you. Not the whole thing—I was passed out for most of it. But I saw enough to know what was happening.”
My whole body gave an involuntary shudder. Poor Olympia, forced to watch her friend being sexually attacked by a demon while she couldn’t do anything to stop it. What would have happened to me if I hadn’t been able to stop the horror of that attack?
I might have ended up like my mother, giving birth to a changeling I couldn’t possibly love or even want.
And Paimon was the one who did that to her.
My father.
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m giving it all I’ve got. I’ll turn the place into a bonfire if I have to.”
Olympia hugged me. Carter smiled at me in the rearview mirror, and Jacob reached back to give me a high-five.
“That’s my girl,” Carter said.
I would never, ever be able to tell Olympia, much less Carter, that I’d beli
eved the incubus was him.
22
Carter
As soon as I took the driver’s seat and headed out of the parking lot, I wanted to smack the steering wheel and whoop in triumph.
That fire was the best thing that could have happened to us.
But I held back. Georgia had been so shaken by the incubus attack that I wasn’t about to congratulate her on how effectively she’d applied her new ability. But to me, the incident proved how powerful she really was—how indomitable she would be once she fully claimed the gifts of her heritage.
We just didn’t know when that would happen. Kingston believed that reuniting with her mother was the first step, but the rest of her path was still murky.
But the extent of her destruction had boosted my confidence that we actually had a chance to destroy the Tenebris. That we might even save the mortal realm from Paimon’s relentless ambition.
I couldn’t wait to tell Kingston what had happened. I knew he’d be as elated as I was when he found out what Georgia could really do. As soon as we pulled over to take a break and Georgia was out of earshot, I planned to fill him in.
From the looks of the sky, we wouldn’t be breaking any time soon. On the horizon, masses of iron-black clouds were gathering, preparing to unleash another downpour. It was only a matter of time until we were lashed by another storm. I edged over the speed limit, trying to urge the car forward as fast as I could.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw Olympia and Georgia sleeping. Georgia leaned against the door, her head resting on the window, mouth slightly open. Olympia was curled up against her. They needed every second of rest they could get.
“What do you think about those clouds?” Jacob asked.
Except for that one crack about horny old demons, the kid had been civil to me for most of the trip. I could tell he was trying to keep things friendly with Georgia for my sake, if nothing else.