Mysterious Ways

by Christine Pope

  “What are you doing?” Simon demanded. “You can’t — leave her alone!”

  The Lord of Chaos cast a negligent glance over his enormous shoulder. “I fear you are in no position to tell me what I can or cannot do. You had one attempt at controlling me, and it failed. I am my own master now.” He extended an arm toward me, and I went to him and let him pick me up and hold me against him, even though all my instincts were screaming that I needed to run far away from this enormous, frightening creature.

  However, I knew he meant me no harm. The long sleeveless robe he wore smelled of smoke, but it was almost a pleasant scent, like the perfume of a campfire that’s settled into your clothes after an evening in the wilderness. His impossibly muscled arm held me fast against him, and in the next instant we were gone.

  The last thing I heard was Simon screaming at us in denial.

  15

  Awakenings

  Rafe

  “Louisa!” Cat exclaimed, getting up with such haste that her cell phone fell to the floor. Luckily, the bedroom was carpeted, so the phone didn’t suffer any harm.

  Their sister pushed herself up against the pillows and looked around in some confusion. “I’m home. When did I get home? I don’t remember Oscar driving me back from the service.”

  Rafe and Cat looked at each other. Her shoulders went up in an almost imperceptible shrug, and he said carefully, “Do you remember the attack at the church?”

  “Attack? I don’t — ” Then she stopped, one hand going to her forehead as her eyes widened. It looked as though some of her memory was beginning to come back. “Oh, my God. The demons. Is Malena all right?”

  “She’s…she’s still unconscious,” Cat replied. “But Yesenia says she’s doing okay, all things considered.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “Not too long,” Rafe said, still using that careful tone. “It happened yesterday morning.”

  “Yesterday?” Louisa glanced around, probably trying to determine the level of light outside to give her a clue as to how long she’d been out. “What time is it?”

  “Just around three in the afternoon.”

  “My God.” She sagged against the pillows, brows knitted together, as though she was trying to piece some meaning together out of the fragments of darkness that remained after the demon attack. “I — I don’t remember anything. That is, I remember these creatures swooping down at us, but it’s all a blur after that. A dark blur.”

  “We’re not exactly sure what happened to you and Malena,” Rafe said. “You just sort of…collapsed, as though the demons were attacking you both mentally and physically, and we think they had something to do with Malena’s coma, too, even if we don’t know exactly why yet. Do you remember anything of the attack?”

  Louisa shook her head. “Not really. I remember a horrible kind of pressure, like someone was tightening a band of metal around my head. And then everything went blank.”

  At those words, Cat glanced over at Rafe, her mouth tight, although she didn’t say anything. Louisa’s description sounded too much like the same sort of reaction Cat had experienced whenever Simon was mucking around with his demons, but Rafe couldn’t begin to guess why she hadn’t succumbed the same way his other sisters had when subjected to a physical attack. Maybe it was only that Cat’s very talent was communicating with ghosts, spirits, and what-have-you, and so her mind had already grown accustomed to working with strange energies. It wasn’t the sort of thing either Malena or Louisa had ever encountered before, although one would have thought that Louisa’s prima abilities might have made her a bit more resilient.

  “Well, you’re back now,” Rafe said. “That’s the important thing. And if you’re waking up, then maybe Malena will be soon as well.”

  “I can try calling Dad,” Cat said, and bent down to retrieve her phone. “He’s watching her right now,” she added for Louisa’s benefit.

  That comment only made Louisa frown. “Where’s Oscar?”

  “He’s on his way down to Rio Rancho to see the kids — they’re staying with Rosalie and Lewis,” Cat told her, trying to make her tone as soothing as possible. “He’s been at your side ever since you collapsed, but he really needed to get down there and spend some time with Crystal and William.”

  The explanation seemed to reassure her, because she smiled and relaxed a bit against the pillows. “That sounds like Oscar. He’s so conscientious.”

  Cat unlocked her phone, saying, “Then I’ll text him now, and get in touch with Dad later. Oscar’s going to be so relieved to hear you’re okay.”

  Rather than comforting Louisa, Cat’s offer only made her frown. Not looking at either one of them, she said, “I’ve failed you both.”

  Cat paused with her finger hovering over her phone’s screen, even as Rafe felt himself frown as well. Trying not to sound too upset with her self-defeating tone, he asked, “What are you talking about?”

  Louisa was still staring at the fireplace set into the opposite wall. “If I were a prima like Mother, or like Grandmother Isabel, I would have fought back against those demons. I would have made them pay for entering a house of God. Instead, I fainted like some idiot heroine in a historical drama.”

  Oh, shit. Rafe tried to tell himself that Louisa had just come out of a coma, wasn’t quite herself yet, but at the same time, he couldn’t quite suppress a stir of annoyance. They didn’t have time to waste on self-recrimination right now. They needed Louisa to get up out of that bed and be the leader of the clan she was meant to be.

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Cat protested. “I mean, I collapsed, too. For some reason, the effects of the demon attack didn’t hit me as hard as they did you. No one knows why — we’re all in uncharted territory here. But you can’t beat yourself up over it.”

  Judging by the way Louisa’s lips clamped together, Rafe got the impression she wasn’t buying it. And the horrible thing was, he didn’t know whether he bought it, either. On some level, Louisa was right. She should have been strong enough to stand up to those demons, to face them down, to fight back.

  Sort of the way Miranda had.

  As best he could, he pushed those thoughts out of his head. He had to focus on what they could do now to get themselves out of this predicament, not what had happened the day before. “Cat’s right,” he said. Whether he sounded convinced of that fact, he wasn’t as sure.

  “Exactly,” Cat chimed in. “Let me text Oscar. He can’t have gotten too far down the road yet.”

  At least this time, Louisa didn’t protest. She sat there in bed, expression troubled, as Cat sent off a quick message to Oscar.

  Just as she was pressing the icon to send the text, something like a sonic boom sounded in the room. The glass in the mirror that hung above the dresser shattered, falling with a tinkle to the wooden surface immediately below it. Cat let out a little gasp of a scream, even as the most nightmarish figure Rafe had ever seen — or could have ever imagined — materialized a few feet away from them.

  It stood well over eight feet tall, its hideous black-maned head far closer to the beamed ceiling above them than it was to the floor below. Black leathery wings flapped at the air. From them came a scent of things burning, although there was no fire anywhere.

  And in its arms was Miranda. Even while Rafe and Louisa and Cat stared at her in shock, she actually smiled up at the hideous creature as she extricated herself from its grasp. She seemed to pause for a moment, taking a quick measure of her surroundings, and then she ran to Rafe. He retained enough presence of mind to gather her in his arms, although his mind was reeling. “Miranda! What the — ?”

  “It’s all right,” she said quickly. She turned back toward the demonic apparition who’d been holding her only a moment before. “This is the Lord of Chaos. Simon summoned him to do his bidding, but that didn’t work out so well.”

  Somehow Rafe was able to remark, “I guess not.”

  “He saved me from him, brought me here.” She paused, and even smiled
at the demon. “Thank you again. This is Rafe, and those are his sisters Cat and Louisa.”

  To Rafe’s shock, the creature bowed slightly, his gaze for some reason lingering on Cat. “I am honored,” he said gravely. His voice was deep and resonant but didn’t sound much different from a human’s, except for the odd way it seemed to echo around the room.

  Louisa’s face was nearly as pale as the sheets she lay upon, but Cat took a step forward, surprise and curiosity clear in her expression. “It — it was you, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes,” the demon lord replied. “Your street numbers and addresses mean nothing to me, but I had hoped I could provide enough information to help you find Miranda.”

  Astonished, Rafe looked from Cat back to the demon. Its features were so monstrous that he couldn’t begin to read the creature’s expression, but it almost seemed that this Lord of Chaos appeared pleased with himself for throwing a monkey wrench into Simon Escobar’s plans. As to why he’d reached out to Cat, Rafe could only guess that her ability to speak to ghosts had probably made her more receptive to contact from this otherworldly creature than other witches and warlocks in the clan might be. Why she wasn’t suffering from his presence now, when ordinary demons seemed to have such an effect on her, Rafe wasn’t sure. Maybe a demon lord’s vibrations were different from those of the rank and file.

  “We were working on it,” Cat said. “But it looks as though we can stop now.”

  “I am not so sure about that,” the demon replied. His blood-colored gaze, which seemed to glow with its own inner fire, moved from Cat to Rafe. “Miranda is safe, but you still have an enemy who seeks your destruction.”

  “He’s right,” Miranda said. “I think I saw enough of the property where Simon is hiding that I could probably recognize it from a satellite map or something, though.”

  “In which case, I will leave you to your hunt,” the Lord of Chaos said. “I have my own search to attend to. Good luck.”

  Then he disappeared, leaving all of them to stare at one another for a moment.

  Cat was the first to speak. “What did he mean by ‘his own search’?” she asked, expression puzzled.

  “Simon summoned him here,” Miranda told her. “I guess the demon lord needs him to send him back. However, since Simon is sulking over the way the demon who was supposed to be his servant rebelled against him, he’s not going to be much use in that. So the Lord of Chaos is going to go elsewhere to look for help.”

  “That’s kind of sad, actually,” Cat said. She hesitated there for a moment, looking at the spot where the demon had materialized just a few moments earlier. “To be trapped here through no fault of his own.”

  Rafe thought that was just like his sister — feeling pity for some demonic creature who’d probably never pitied anything or anyone in his life. “Well, he looks like he can take care of himself,” he remarked. “I think the more immediate concern is dealing with Escobar.”

  A rustle came from the bed as Louisa began to cautiously slide out from beneath the covers. Rafe looked at her in some alarm.

  “Are you sure you should be getting up?”

  “I’m fine,” she replied, although he noticed the way she put one hand on the edge of the bed to steady herself before she straightened all the way. “Maybe a little shaky, but that’s not enough to keep me from doing what I need to do. My laptop’s in the study — let me go get it, and then Miranda can look at some satellite maps of La Cienega and see if she can narrow down where Simon’s house is.”

  “Okay,” he said reluctantly. It didn’t seem right to let Louisa go wandering around the house after she’d been in a coma for more than a day, but he could tell she needed to do this, needed to feel as though she was contributing in some way.

  She went out, and Miranda turned back to Rafe and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him close. It felt so good to have her this near, to look down at her beautiful face and realize that a miracle had somehow brought her back to him.

  All right, technically, it was a demon lord who’d brought her here, but a Lord of Chaos seemed pretty miraculous all on his own.

  “You’re okay?” he murmured, while Cat got her phone and appeared to be typing out another text message, probably to their father to let him know about Louisa’s recovery.

  “I’m fine,” Miranda said. She paused for a few seconds, obviously thinking something through. “Simon didn’t — he didn’t do anything to me, if that’s what you’re worried about. I think the main reason he wanted me there was to tap into my power so the summoning spell would be strong enough.”

  “I guess it was.” Rafe thought again of the demon lord, of the strange way he’d offered his help, had reached out to Cat to pass along what he knew. “If the spell was that strong, though, I’m surprised our demon lord is still a free agent.”

  “Well, I might have done a little something to sabotage the spell,” Miranda admitted, her full mouth quirking a bit at the corners. “Then again, that was mostly because of some advice the Lord of Chaos gave me.”

  “You two were plotting right in front of Simon?”

  “Yes, but here.” She touched her index finger to her temple. “I guess that’s a talent he has — communicating telepathically. Anyway, he gave me a suggestion, and it worked. I guess he was grateful enough that when Simon tried to summon him back — without my help that time — he decided to steal me away, since that was the thing that would piss Simon off the most.”

  Rafe couldn’t really argue with this explanation, because it was probably right. And Cat said the demon lord had communicated with her the same way, mind to mind. He recalled the way the Lord of Chaos had looked at his sister and thought he didn’t like it very much, although he tried to tell himself he was reading way too much into the situation. More likely, the demon had focused on Cat for a moment because this was the first time he’d talked to her in person rather than reaching out via telepathy.

  The phone in Rafe’s pocket rang, and he murmured an apology to Miranda as he pulled it out. Looking down at the screen, he saw that the call was coming from Lorena Castillo.

  Lorena. Jesus, he’d almost forgotten about her errand to go speak with the Montoya clan in San Antonio and find out whether they’d be able to provide any assistance. “Lorena?”

  “Hi, Rafe,” she said. Her voice sounded tired, but he didn’t know for sure whether that was just her natural intonation, or whether she’d really worn herself out getting to San Antonio from Clovis. Since it was now only a little past three, she’d made very good time. “I just met with Lupita Montoya, the prima.”

  “And?”

  A little sigh before Lorena replied, “They send their apologies, but they don’t think it’s a good idea to interfere right now.”

  “It’s not interfering if we’re asking for their help,” he said quickly, although, judging by the defeat he heard in Lorena’s voice, he had the impression he was already arguing a lost cause.

  “I know. I tried to say something along those lines, but Lupita told me that the risk was too great and that it was better for her people to stay in their own territory and defend it — if the situation comes to that.”

  “Well, shit,” he said, as Miranda looked up at him in concern. “I was really hoping they’d help out.”

  “I know.” A pause, and then Lorena asked, “What do you want me to do now?”

  “Come home,” he replied. “There isn’t much else you can do.”

  Sure, there was the Calhoun clan, whose territory was far southeast Texas and part of western Louisiana, but their lands didn’t even adjoin those of the Castillos. They would have even less reason to help than the Montoyas. For just the briefest moment, Rafe considered having Lorena try to call Miranda’s parents in Arizona, but he pushed that thought aside. He’d already asked enough of his cousin’s wife. The last thing he wanted was to get her phone blown up while she was five hundred miles from home in an unknown city and state.

  “Okay,” Lorena said. “I’
m going to grab something to eat, and then I’ll get back on the road.”

  “I’m sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase.”

  “It’s okay. We had to try. Take care, Rafe.”

  She hung up then, and he shoved his phone back in his pocket as Miranda gazed up at him, big green eyes filled with concern.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Not that much,” he said. “We sent a civilian wife of one of our clan members over in Clovis to talk to the Montoyas in San Antonio, see if they would be willing to help us. But it sounds as though Lupita, their prima, is set on being as isolationist as possible…and I can’t even say if that’s a bad thing. Maybe they’re right to stay out of something that isn’t their fight.”

  “We can do this,” Miranda said, giving him another of those brief hugs. “I’ve got Simon’s number now, and he’s already partly failed because he can’t count on having a big, bad demon lord to do his dirty work for him. We’ll be okay.”

  Rafe wanted to believe her. After all, she’d survived this latest round with Simon, had even managed to thwart one of his terrible plans. Problem was, that meant he would come after them with everything he had, once he’d recovered from this latest setback.

  Cat had been standing off to one side, texting on her phone. Now she came closer, phone still in her hand. “Dad says there still isn’t any change with Malena, but of course he was relieved to hear about Louisa.” She hesitated for a few seconds, then asked, “Are the Montoyas really bailing on us?”

  All Rafe could do was lift his shoulders. “I don’t know if you can really call it ‘bailing,’ since they were never exactly with us in the first place, but yeah — it looks like we’re on our own.”