“Alright there?” Hadden tapped me on the shoulder since I was blocking the entrance to the kitchen.
I blinked and continued to the sink with the dirty plates in my hands. “Yeah, sorry. Think I had too much to eat.”
He put the mostly full dishes of mashed potatoes and green bean casserole on the counter and turned toward me.
“I’ve never said so, but I hope you know I’m here for you, just like your mother is. You’re a grown woman and God knows you don’t need a father figure—and I’d never presume I could replace the one you lost. But I love Lizzie with all my heart and by extension I care for her family. I care for you.”
My eyes teared up at the sentiment, and I gave him a quick, hard hug around the neck.
“I love that you love my mom. Maybe I am too old for all that step-parent stuff, but I know you’re a friend to me.”
“So, if you ever need an old guy’s perspective, I’m all ears.”
I laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. Right now, I’m just working through some things. I really will be okay.”
“I know you will. If there’s anyone who’ll land on her feet, it’s you—you get that from your mom.”
“What’s the hold-up, you two? Not doing those dishes, are you?” my mom asked as she burst into the kitchen.
“Speak of the devil and she shall appear,” Hadden said, lips turning up in a wry smile.
“I heard that, mister! Now get a move on. Joss and Dylan are waiting.”
When we got to the living room, Hadden crossed to the fireplace and added another log. It wasn’t needed for warmth, what with central heat and air being added when the vintage house was remodeled, but it added to the coziness of the room.
At each of our feet, there was a small group of presents to unwrap. Since we were well into adulthood, it was more about quality over quantity, but no less fun than when we were kids.
We took turns tearing into wrapping paper and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over each well-chosen gift. I got a designer sweater from my mom that I was almost certain Jocelyn picked out because it was a pretty shade of cream, and both of them always complained that I wore too much black. But Mom and Hadden had also gotten me a gift card to my favorite archery shop, so I didn’t complain in the least.
I picked up a flat, rectangular box from Joss and Dylan, but didn’t get far with the paper before my brother stopped me.
“Wait! Mom needs to open hers from us at the same time.”
I stopped what I was doing and waiting for our mother to pick up a box that was identical to mine. She and I exchanged curious looks, then smiled.
“Okay, I’m ready. Go!” she said.
We both ripped off the paper, which revealed plain white boxes. The tape easily gave way, and I found a shirt nestled inside tissue paper. I held it up to read the screen-printed words.
My mom gasped at the same time I did.
MY FAVORITE PERSON CALLS ME AUNTY
I clasped the shirt to my chest and shrieked with joy. “I don’t believe it!”
“It’s early days yet,” Joss cautioned. “But we thought now was the best time to let our families know.”
All five of us got to our feet and hugged as many tears of joy were wiped away. I would finally be an aunt in every sense of the word—I’d get to be involved. The excitement was overwhelming.
“I’m so happy for you,” I told Jocelyn. “Have you told Meredith and Hugo?”
“Not yet. We’re going to visit at the hospital tomorrow and we’ll tell them then.”
“We’ll get you out of the rotation immediately. Actually, Dylan will need a new partner again, so he and Casey can pair up.”
“I was thinking I’d stay in until I get bigger. You know, when I’m too big to move quickly.”
I shook my head. “No way, not worth it. We won’t put you at risk.”
“But we’re so short on people now. No Hugo, after losing Creed. Now if I have to step away, it only makes things tighter,” she argued.
“So they’ll be tighter. We’ll deal. We’ll go back to going on watch individually if we have to.”
“I still feel bad.”
“Don’t. That little life is more important than anything,” I told her.
She smiled and nodded, her blonde curls catching the light and illuminating her already incandescent radiance. I had always heard pregnant women glowed, but in her case it seemed to be less about the biology of her situation and more about pure joy. Or maybe those things went hand-in-hand.
Her second chance at love, happiness, her own little family had come along in true, ideal fashion. I found myself hoping for my own second chance.
“We’re moving up the wedding, by the way. I want to get it done before I’m showing. Not that I care what anyone thinks, but I want to look good in my dress for pictures.”
That was the Jocelyn we all knew and loved.
I grinned. “You’ll be gorgeous no matter what. When do we go dress shopping?”
“Soon… I was thinking we could go to Dallas right after…” she trailed off and eyed me with suspicion. “Wait. Did you just volunteer to go shopping?”
I waved off her who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-with-Remi? “This is different—it’s a big deal.”
Just then, my brother appeared and pulled me into a crushing side hug. “What do you think, Rem? I’m gonna be a dad!”
Chapter 21
The back roads were empty as I took the long way home from Westview. Dirty snow piled up in the ditches on either side, but the asphalt was mostly clear from all the comings and goings of holiday merry-makers. And for the first time in days, the sky was clear, stars twinkling bright enough to rival the strings of lights that decorated the houses.
All the excitement about my brother and Jocelyn becoming parents re-routed my train of thought to our dad. He, Maria Vega, and David Lansing had begun the Amasai only the year before he and my mother found out they were expecting me. It felt a little like history repeating itself since it had been mere months since Dylan joined us, but I knew he’d let nothing come between him and his new little family.
The two-lane road took me around the lake and on to the edge of town where the Amasai headquarters had stood for nearly thirty years. I had told myself I was taking the long way to Gabriel’s so I could savor the beautiful night, but as I slowed to a halt in front of the skeleton of our farmhouse, I wondered if it was an excuse put up by my subconscience.
Since I had told Gabe I was coming straight back, I didn’t park and get out. Oddly, a pervasive sense of hope took me as I gripped the steering wheel. Even with everything that had been thrown at us from the destruction at our Dove Creek shop, the dead being unleashed, and now our very home being destroyed, we were still a family. A chosen family. The Amasai were still fighting together, side-by-side no matter the threat.
We would rebuild. I shifted into gear and continued on my way, eager to see more of Gabe’s plans for our new HQ. Christmas seemed like a fitting time to tell the others and I hoped they would take the same comfort in having a plan of action as I did.
I passed the old school building just inside the town limits, the brick shell a perpetual reminder of the fiery conflict with the Triple Six that had ended in my father’s death.
I always tried not to look at it, but in that moment, I was drawn to it, some nagging thought in the back of my mind fighting for purchase but not quite breaking through. An odd sense of deja vu.
It was befuddling enough that it caused me to slow my speed, but I didn’t stop. I made up my mind to go chew on it some more and maybe talk it through with Gabriel. Giving air to what I was thinking and trying to get a grip on seemed like it would help. There was something about that place I had tried to ignore for months.
If I hadn’t slowed down to get a grip on my musings, I would’ve missed it. There, in one of the fingers of the creek, a shadowy figure against the backdrop of pristine snow.
Hellhound.
I whipped into the parking lo
t and threw the truck into park. In hurried shorthand, I texted Gabe to get there pronto—the same place we had set up for the face-off with the Triple Six.
Shucking the heavy coat I wore, I braved the cold in favor of being able to move freely. In the reflex of routine, I had my quiver on my back with my bow snapped to it and a pair of forties loaded with silver bullets in my hands in a matter of seconds. Gabe had hit me back, letting me know he was on his way, so I took off across the empty lot.
I intended only to track the hellbeast, but as I covered ground and closed in, I saw the body it was dragging. My partner would be miffed if I took it on alone, but if there was the faintest chance the person was still alive, I had to take it.
Through the grove of bare oaks that stood between the creek and the school, I didn’t have a clear shot. At that distance, I couldn’t trust that the Holy Light would be effectual. I stayed in the lee of the gulley created by the creek bed, keeping myself in shadow and out of any wind. The water was at a slow trickle, just this side of freezing and low enough that I had plenty of room to stay in the dry.
My chance came when I reached a clearing in the trees at the same time the hellhound came to it above me. I scaled the side of the embankment to come up behind the beast and aimed. To be safe, I fired twice, both silver rounds finding their mark in the tough skull. It dropped into the snow with a great rumble.
I kept my guns trained on the hound as I approached, heaven forbid I had only wounded the thing. But there was no sign of life whatsoever, confirming the silver had done its job.
With the hellhound out of commission, I turned my attention to the body and hoped I was finding someone still living and breathing. They were still in the grip of the powerful jaws, facedown in the snow. I took a deep breath and reached in to pry apart both sides of that disgusting maw. Wrenching hard, I was able to free the person’s neck and shoulder. Carefully, so I didn’t cause any more damage, I turned the body over onto its back and gasped.
Bobby Sue.
Taking her wrist in my fingers, I checked for a pulse and found one. It was there, faint and unsteady, but she was still alive. I sent Stacey a text telling her to send an ambulance.
In my distraction, I forgot to keep an eye on my six.
The fanged nightmare grabbed me around the throat and hauled me up.
“Well, if it isn’t the little bitch who shot me and left me to suffer.”
Not Valan, then. Far too brutish and not nearly loquacious enough.
It sounded like the first one Gabe and I had left in the woods the night we toe-to-toed it with the hellhounds. The demon dog-walker carried a grudge.
I summoned the Holy Light to disseminate throughout my body, repelling the vampire. He let go of me and before I had the chance to hit him with a fatal dose of pure light, I heard the string of a crossbow sing.
In a split second, the shaft and fletching of the bolt protruded from his chest. The host body disintegrated to dust as the demon soul was drawn back to Perdition.
Gabe lowered his bow, chest pumping from the exertion of racing through the stand of trees.
“It’s Bobby Sue!” I said frantically.
He ran the rest of the way over. “Is she alive?”
“Barely. I asked Stacey to call for an ambulance.”
Meg and Gio came sprinting toward us and skidded to a stop next to Gabe and me. They shifted into their human forms.
“We scented the bloodsucker, then heard the gunshots,” Meg said.
I nodded. “I just happened to cross paths with this thing. I didn’t see any others.”
“We killed another of the hellhounds on the west side of the lake,” Gio told us.
“I heard you when I was leaving,” Gabe said. “You sounded close.”
I looked at my partner and he gave a quick nod to show he knew what I was wondering. Had that hound been meant for one of us? Looking at Bobby Sue’s prone form, I suspected Creed was sending a message.
The gloves were off.
Blue and red flashing lights filtered through the trees as the ambulance parked in the lot where I had left my truck.
“I’ll go lead them in,” Gabe said.
“We’ll shift back and make ourselves scarce, but we’ll be nearby until you’re clear,” Meg told me.
“Thank you both.”
Gabe returned moments later with Brooke and her partner, Grady. Their rig had been wracking up frequent flier miles with the Amasai that week. As much as I liked the pair of paramedics, I didn’t like seeing them that often. We exchanged a quick greeting and they got right to work.
“Was it this… thing that bit her?” she asked.
“Yes. It was dragging her, I don’t know for how long before I found her.”
“She’s lucky you did.”
They had her strapped to a stretcher and lifted her between the two of them.
“Can we be of any help?” Gabe asked.
“Just watch our backs til we get her out of here, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” I answered.
My partner and I flanked them as they carried Bobby Sue to the ambulance, Meg and Gio not within sight but no doubt watching out for us. We made it without incident, but we lingered there until Brooke and Grady were loaded up and speeding away.
When the flashing blue and reds were out of sight, Gabriel turned toward me. “You’re okay? What the hell happened?”
“I’m fine. I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you, but when I saw that thing dragging someone—”
“Don’t apologize. You did the right thing. It’s such a lucky break for Bobby Sue, I hate to think about the alternative.”
I shivered from the cold and coming down from the adrenaline. “Let’s get out of the open. I’ll tell you all about it when we get to your place.”
Gabe opened my door for me and stepped back. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
We both had a gun in our hand when we got out of our vehicles at his townhouse. He had pulled into the garage and came out to help get my things and walk me inside.
Not a word passed between us about it, but with the werewolves having killed a hellhound nearby, we were on our guard.
“Coffee?” Gabe asked once we were inside the safety of his house, doors locked.
I stowed my bow and quiver in the coat closet he used for weapons. “No, thanks. I’m gonna try to get some sleep after we’re done talking.”
“Herbal tea, then? I left everything out earlier.”
“Perfect.”
Following him to the kitchen, I perched on one of the tall chairs at the raised countertop. I glanced at the Christmas gift bag that held my presents from my mom’s—Gabe had set it to one side, and I thought about the shirt inside from Jocelyn and my brother. They weren’t telling everyone yet, but Gabe would need to know if we were keeping her out of the rotation.
I made up my mind to talk to her about it the next day and allow them to share their news as they saw fit. One day wouldn’t affect our ability to plan so much that I had to tell him.
“I was coming the long way back,” I said, turning my attention to Gabe in the kitchen. “I do that a lot when I’m coming home from my mom’s. This weird feeling came over me when I was going past the school—it made me slow down. About the time I had made up my mind to come talk it over with you, I spotted the hellhound.”
“What was the weird feeling?” Gabe asked, pouring hot water over the tea infusers. “Do you think it was you sensing the hellhound?”
“No, that was just dumb luck. It was something about the school itself… I felt this sort of deja vu or like I was supposed to remember something. But I was also thinking about my dad, so maybe it was just that.”
I studied a dark vein in the granite, tracing it across the countertop.
“Don’t be too quick to dismiss it. If there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that this town works in mysterious ways. Honey?”
I looked up. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Do you
want honey in your tea?”
“Oh, yes, please.”
I watched him remove the tea balls from each clear mug, the water now a mellow shade of amber. As he stirred in the honey, I considered what he’d said about not dismissing what I had felt. He was right—when Dove Creek gave you a gut feeling about something, you had better pay attention.
“Want to take these to the living room?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah, definitely,” I said, getting off the pub chair. “I wanna look out the windows and savor the sight of a white Christmas.”
“We might get more snow later tonight.”
“Really? The sky was so clear earlier.”
He set a mug in front of me on the coffee table. “I was watching the ten o’clock news when you texted me. The weather guy said there’s a strong chance after midnight.”
I took the cup of tea Gabe had brought me and held it in both hands, warming them. It smelled of lavender and chamomile, a relaxing scent even in the most fraught times.
“Did you notice the vamp that attacked you was an older one?” he asked. “Went right to dust when I shot him. That has been getting more and more rare lately.”
“Y’know, I don’t think I fully thought about it,” I sipped the tea. “He was the one who I shot in the gut that time when we first fought the hellhounds, but him being older would explain his healthy fear of Valan…”
My words trailed off while my thoughts raced ahead. An old vampire… The hellhound delivering a body… The sense of a nagging memory… My dad dying only a few yards from that place, demon possessed.
You do not realize it, but the place is familiar to you.
“The school,” I whispered. “It’s inside the school.”
The altar where the Triple Six performed their summoning… Now all the dead bodies and rituals made sense. Their attempts to summon Apollyon failed because his demon form couldn’t stay in the Mortal Plane for that long without a host. With my dad, at the abandoned elementary school, they had finally succeeded because they were at ground zero.
I burst from my seat and went to the windows. “I know where the Crossroads is.”
“You… what? None of the algorithms showed us anything.”
Three Times Burned: A Paranormal Fantasy (Remington Hart Book 3) Page 17