by Harley James
Jade was the last to leave. “Kat—”
“Everything will be okay.” It would. She just needed to focus and keep Leviathan’s attention on her while the staff got to safety and Father Angus completed the exorcism.
As Jade made her way down the hall to the sanctorum, the possessed man screeched and headbutted Father Angus, knocking his body so hard the priest slid across the floor and slammed into the DJ stage, where he crumpled to the floor. Katherine ran to him, using her senses to detect his heartbeat. It was stable, but he was bleeding badly. She gathered energy and pressed her fingertips to the priest’s skull to cauterize the wound.
The Possessed rattled his chains, prostate on the floor. His deep, echoing growl raised the hairs on the back of Katherine’s neck. Now that the exorcism had been interrupted, it wouldn’t be long before he was able to throw off the chains if they didn’t get him back into the Devil’s Trap in time.
Katherine stood in front of Father Angus, keeping both the possessed man and Leviathan in her line of sight. The archdemon still hadn’t spoken, her eyes filled with humor as she watched the Possessed thrash on the floor. Katherine took a deep breath. “If you really have good intentions, now is the time to prove it.”
Leviathan raised her gaze to Katherine, the emotion in her eyes shifting from amusement to warmth. It was the sort of look Jade had given her hundreds of times. Intimate and honest. What was she supposed to do with that? Believe it? Why wasn’t this black and white?
Katherine’s muscles bunched, instinctively preparing her water element as Leviathan raised her right hand. The body of the possessed man on the floor began to levitate. He ceased his struggles as his body rose, the chains shifting across his frame, sliding down to crack as they hit the floor. Leviathan slowly opened her fist and the man’s mouth gaped in sync with the motion. Black mist seeped from his mouth, nose, and ears until it coalesced above his body, seeming to tremble before the daughter of Satan. With a whisper Katherine couldn’t comprehend, Leviathan closed her fist, and the black mist was gone. No sound, no sulfur smell, no discomfort.
Katherine brought her gaze back to the exorcised man, whom Leviathan was gently lowering to the floor beside the chains. His eyes were closed, but Katherine could detect a stable heart rate.
When the man turned to his side and tucked his hand under his cheek with a slumbering sigh, Katherine looked at Leviathan, wanting to trust her, but not knowing how. “Thank you?”
Leviathan nodded, but remained silent.
Katherine swallowed, wondering if she should even ask. “Why have you returned?”
When the archdemon opened her mouth to speak, a cold, dry wind swept across the dance floor, raising gooseflesh up and down Katherine’s arms.
“I have found your sister.”
Chapter 19
I have found your sister.
Leviathan’s words resurrected old aches and desperate desires. Wrong. She’s wrong. “My sister’s dead,” Katherine whispered.
Father Angus groaned and scooted up to a sitting position, his pupils dilated. “Don’t listen to the demon’s lies, lass. You know better.”
Leviathan’s cheeks reddened, her eyes glowing silver. Liquor bottles burst on the bar shelves. “You know nothing, priest!” Then she blinked, looked at Katherine, and the rage was gone. “Mary’s here on the island. I can take you to her, but you must come now.”
Katherine looked at the archdemon’s outstretched hand, feeling Jade’s presence move behind her next to Father Angus. The priest’s lips moved, but his prayers sounded like a buzzing that grew louder and louder until Katherine wanted to scream. What’s going on?
“North, I’m coming!”
Ari’s voice, his entire connection, communicated conflict. He was obviously in the middle of a battle of his own. “We’re okay here. Come back when you’re finished at Inferno,” she projected back.
“You said Leviathan was there.”
“She is, but we’re just talking. It’s only her, no one else.” She wanted to tell him about Leviathan’s claim to have found her sister. But she knew what he’d say. Don’t trust or make deals with devils. So she wouldn’t. “If you don’t trust me, this will never work.”
There was a pause on his end. She could almost feel the blows he was taking and delivering. Leviathan was walking around the dance floor, as though waiting for Katherine to make up her mind.
“By ‘this,’ you mean, our bonding?” Ari eventually asked.
“I’m disconnecting so you can keep your inflated head attached. Go fight. Bye.”
Katherine cut their connection before he got himself killed, her gaze following the archdemon’s leisurely pace toward the pool terrace. Like she hadn’t just dropped an emotional bomb in Katherine’s life.
The low-level buzzing renewed in her head. She rubbed her temples, trying to clear her mind. Leviathan had to be lying. Even if Mary had survived the drowning, she’d be more than one hundred and sixty years old.
What game was the demon playing, and how could she counter these cat and mouse moves? In her wildest imaginings, she’d never thought an encounter with an archdemon would be like this. She’d visualized carnage and devastation, blood and pain.
Instead, this felt like a slightly off-tune lullaby.
Lulled to death by polite warfare. Her lips curled self-mockingly as she followed the archdemon outside where the sunshine glinted off Leviathan’s honey-brown hair. Father Angus’s renewed prayers were close behind.
Leviathan hissed and threw a venomous look over her shoulder at the priest and sped with supernatural haste to the opposite side of the largest pool. Katherine halted with Father Angus at her side, a cold tingle spreading through her torso as the pool bubbled and steamed.
Don’t leave me heeeeeerrrrree.
A muted voice was calling, as though traveling through water. Katherine’s body temperature dropped as the buzzing ratcheted higher. Teeth chattering, she crouched down to scan the water, sending her element through the hydrogen and oxygen molecules of the pool.
Nothing there.
What had she expected? She rose to her feet, her hands pressed against her temples to dull the drone and resist the darkness that seemed to be expanding inside her head. She locked eyes with the archdemon who trembled as though as cold as she. “Why are you doing this? Stop these games and get on with it!”
Find meeeee.
Father Angus put a comforting hand on Katherine’s back and pulled out his rosary, holding it in front of him toward the roiling water as his lips recited the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, then... “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell…”
Leviathan screamed, her hair standing on end as she sent an electric shock across the water, headed for Father Angus. Katherine shot energy from her hands, a counterforce in the water to shield the priest. When her energy met Leviathan’s darkness, searing pain poured through her, sending her to her knees.
Pleeeease, Kitty. I’m so c-c-cold!
A quiet sob wrenched from Katherine. Nausea rose up in her belly until she wanted to vomit. She rocked back and forth on bloody knees. “Mary,” she whispered. No one else had ever called her Kitty.
Father Angus crouched beside her, laying his hand on her back once again. “Stand and say the prayers with me. Say them, Guardian, and call your soul mate!”
Yes. “Ar…Ari…I need—”
“Katherine!” Maddox’s voice penetrated. She turned to look as he and the others poured onto the terrace, demon weaponry of all sorts clutched in their hands. She stood, her mind still fuzzy, afraid to take her gaze off the archdemon for long. Leviathan would kill them all, and there was nothing she could do about it. If only she could think. Why couldn’t she think?
She pressed her fingers into her temples harder, yelling to hear herself over the awful ringing in her head. “Make it stop!”
Maddox, Jade, Stark, Konani, and Makoa launched Molotov cocktails across the pool at the archdemon. Leviathan froze all five
bottles midair, a small stream of chrism oil from Makoa’s bottle burning the flesh on her cheek before its airborne arrest. The smell of sulfur carried across the pool on the breeze, and the demon’s eyes blazed silver above her putrefied, smoking cheek. She circled her hands, launching the bottles far out into the ocean. Makoa and Nani joined Father Angus in his prayers.
“Time after time, I have come to you in peace, yet you continue to scorn and assault me!” Leviathan cried. “What do I need to do to get you to believe that I am only here for connection?”
Katherine held up her hand to halt her team from making any other attacks that might further provoke the archdemon. “I want to trust you, Leviathan, but I don’t know how.”
The archdemon laid her hand on her smoking cheek, closing her eyes as her palm absorbed the fire. “Will finding Mary be enough?”
Katherine’s chest constricted. She’d never heard of a demon being able to resurrect a deceased body. They could only use a live human as a host. “You don’t have the power to do that.”
“I am more powerful than you know.”
The ground shook, the once-sunny sky now birthing murky, restless clouds that pulsed with lightning. Ari. Leviathan yelled something in the Enochian language as a shrill sound preceded a massive rush of wind. It sucked all the water out of the pool, and spat it out in a twisting cyclone aimed at the archdemon.
Ari landed as a shield in front of Katherine, crimson blood streaming from a jagged gash bisecting his entire back. Katherine moved around him in time to see Leviathan shoot up into the sky. Sensing Ari gearing up to meet her in mid-air conflict, Katherine grasped his arm. “Wait!”
He turned to her, his eyes full of war and vengeance. “No more waiting! She’s slowly killing you, lie by lie. I won’t have it!”
“She found Mary. I heard my sister’s voice, Ari.”
“She’s waiting for you on the beach at your house.”
Katherine gasped, eyes probing the clouds, as Leviathan’s voice filtered through her mind. How? How could she do that—be in her head like that?
Ari grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Don’t be a fool, Kat! She’s manipulating your deepest vulnerability. Why can’t you see that?” He glanced up, then cursed wildly when he found the target of his fury gone. “This has to stop. She’s spoon-feeding you nothing but deception, yet you lick your lips and wait for more. Why, North?” A cold rain fell, drenching them both, creating bloody puddles on the concrete from Ari’s wounds. Her team scurried inside. “Why would you trust her more than me?”
Maybe it was the pain in his voice and the fact that they were finally alone that made the tears come. “I don’t know.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, placing her hands over his torn flesh, sending healing through their connection to make his tissues knit together faster.
He squeezed her tightly, his chest rumbling beneath her ear. “You do trust her more, then?”
She shook her head, wiping her eyes against his chest. “I don’t know anything right now. I don’t…I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” But she wanted her sister back. Right?
Or did she just not want to feel guilty anymore?
That was sick. And she was awful.
She eased out of Ari’s arms. What if she infected him with what was still inside her?
She had to get home to check if Mary was really there.
No! It’s all lies. She was losing her mind. Everything seemed so twisted up, her confusion snowballing with each encounter. When Leviathan was standing in front of her, she so much wanted to believe the archdemon. When Ari spoke, of course she believed him.
Why would she believe the archdemon over Ari? It made no sense. He loved her. Had always loved her.
He took her hand, pulling her rapidly toward the club doorway. “It’s the Nephilim blood. It’s creating an artificial bond between you and her,” he said, as though he’d been reading her thoughts. “Come inside now, let’s get you some dry clothes, some food, and some me.”
“What?”
He scooped her closer to his side, walking her inside the club, past the bar where everyone stopped talking to stare at them somberly.
“I come back to see you ready to sell your soul to a devil, so in the aftermath, yes, you’re damn well going to succor me, woman.”
“No, not that, you really think the Nephilim blood is playing with my head? That she’s manipulating me through the toxin?”
He nodded. “It’s Raj’s theory. Alexios and I agree.”
She stopped midway down the hallway. Ari paused beside her. It made sense—the weakness, the inability to recharge, the confusion.
Still…what if Mary was really back? If she was, would Katherine ever be able to forgive herself for not checking? If Leviathan was lying, at least she would know once and for all.
She looked at the only man she’d ever truly loved. She’d always thought that love made her weak, but perhaps not. Maybe it gave her strength she never knew she had.
She tried to smile to put him at ease. “I need to retrieve something at home. Will you stay here with the team? I’d feel much better knowing you were here.” When it looked like he was going to argue, she rushed to reassure him. “I won’t be long. And I’m sorry. I never should’ve doubted you.”
“We can both go and be back in moments.”
She shook her head. “I need some time alone, okay? Trust me. Please.”
He stared at her. She tried not to blink or show any of the uncertainty that was pummeling her from the inside out.
Finally, he spoke in a firm voice. “Twenty minutes. You take longer than that, and I’m coming for you. Don’t make me regret this, North.”
She was gone before he could change his mind. Or her own.
Chapter 20
Katherine streamed directly to the beach at her house. The salty sea spray coated her face before she made it even halfway to the water. Finally there, she stopped, her breath coming fast and hard. The ocean called to her, but even for her sister’s memory, she could go no further. The wind plucked at her bun, gouging one of the pins into the base of her skull. She didn’t remove it, so the pain could orient her to what was real. Her eyes scanned the horizon and surrounding area for a young girl, which would prove Leviathan wasn’t lying.
It was late afternoon, the sky darkening with each roll of the waves. They curled forward, one after the other, their frothy tips burbling as they propelled onto the wet sand. Then, a fuzzy blur of white approached on top of the surf.
Katherine’s pulse pounded in her throat, making it difficult to swallow.
A blur of white light. A lantern—held by a shadowy figure that seemed to float on top of the water. A girl in a long-skirted dress with two layers of lace near the hem. The figure continued toward Katherine, her face still in shadows, but that dress…
She’d worn it until her younger sister decided she must have it. Father had forced her to pass it down. A cry slipped from Katherine’s lips. The shadowy form stepped onto the sand and lifted the lantern to illuminate her face.
Oh my God.
Old emotions shuddered to the surface. Katherine’s vision blurred with tears as her hands crept to her neck where her skin burned. “Mary?”
Her sister. The light brown hair, bright blue eyes, the dimpled chin and smooth skin. Another sob broke from Katherine’s throat, but she couldn’t move.
The water.
The waves lapped over Mary’s feet. Climbed up her ankles and washed over her slim calves. Katherine broke into a cold sweat. Mary’s lips quavered as she held out a hand. “Help me, Kitty.”
“C-come onto dry land, Mary.”
“I’m scared. I need you to make me whole again.”
There was no way she could go into the water. She was already closer than she could hardly stand. “How is it possible you’re here?”
“This is your chance to overcome your fear and save me.”
God, her sweet voice. Katherine’s legs shook. Her toes left grooves
in the sand as she took one step and then another. Can’t…can’t breathe. Katherine’s knees buckled, dropping her hands-down into the sand. She sucked air into her mouth, trying to focus on her sister through bleary vision. She held out her hand. “Mary, run to me!”
Mary’s eyes widened as the waves crested higher. “Please, Kitty, I can’t move! Don’t let me drown!”
How the sun sparkled on the ocean! It was the most beautiful thing Katherine’s eleven-year-old eyes had ever seen. The water felt like heaven, cool and alive against her skin as it push-pulled at her body and made strands of kelp dance in the surf.
Katherine giggled and yelled at her little sister, who watched worriedly from the blanket on the busy beach. She was always so timid when Mother and Father weren’t around. “Come in, Mary, it feels amazing!”
Mary shook her head, the golden tips of her light brown hair shining in the sunlight. “They told us to stay on the beach until they come back. It’s not safe. They’ll be angry, especially Father,” Mary yelled back.
“Balderdash! Look at these other kids. If it wasn’t safe, their parents wouldn’t let them do it. Besides, Father could never be angry at you.”
A slash of something ugly swept through Katherine.
Lately, Father’s words had been especially harsh. She could do no right, while Mary and their six-year-old brother Paul could do no wrong. “Don’t be such a chicken, Mary! Mother and Father will be back soon. I’m sure Paul is fine.”
He’d fallen off the merry-go-round at the park, out of sight behind the lined-up bathing machines that weren’t used much anymore. Paul’s wails had brought their parents running. Katherine glanced toward the park, but with the bathing machines in the way, she couldn’t see her parents or Paul.
Katherine wondered if they would have made such haste had it been her cries.
When Mary finally gave in to Katherine’s taunting, it happened so fast.