“You can tell her yourself when you get back, dammit.”
“Right.” I took another breath as I put the phone in the breast pocket of my jacket and buttoned it up tight. “We’re going in.”
I turned to Adam. “The door opens to the left,” I told him. “When I go in, you move past and take the front and right. Do you know how to use that thing?”
Adam clicked the safety off the M16 and loaded the chamber. His eyes never left mine.
“I guess that’s a yes,” I muttered. Our homeless friend was full of surprises today.
“Omnes una manet nox,” I whispered. My college Latin teacher would be proud.
“Et calcanda semel via leti,” Adam finished for me. “One night awaits all, and death’s path must be trodden once and for all,” he quoted.
I glanced back at him and he smiled slightly. “OK,” I told him. “On three. One…two…”
I summoned all my strength and kicked right under the doorknob. The wood splintered and the whole frame shook as the door flew open. Without a pause I rushed through and covered the left, and Adam flew past me to cover the right.
I stopped.
Four men dressed in black fatigues all raised their rifles and pointed them directly at us.
“Risky indeed,” Adam repeated.
CHAPTER TWENTY
All of the guards held their guns steady and with the ease of a well-trained paramilitary group. I guess I found the Codex men.
The living room had been stripped bare, and the single light that hung from the ceiling painted the egg-colored walls in stark contrast to the polished wooden planks that lined the floor. There was no sign of Beth or her daughter.
In an instant I gathered all these details, along with the robed figure that stood in front of the mercenaries. Dressed head to toe in black, the slender figure stood perfectly still. The light above made shadows dance in the folds of the cloth and kept the face in darkness. A hint of a smile under the hood was the only response when I quickly raised my gun and pointed it at the leader.
“They said you were brave,” the figure spoke, “but they never said you were stupid.”
I frowned. The speaker was female, with a light accent. She stepped forward and pulled the hood back from her face.
The senator’s wife.
“Surprised?” she said with a smile. With her dark hair and dusky skin she was as beautiful as the day she had stormed out of Helms’s office. But the frailty was gone, and she didn’t drop her gaze from mine this time.
The final pieces clicked in place. Yup, color me dumb for not seeing it. I wouldn't let her know that, however. “Not really,” I said, the gun never wavering from her. “The only thing I could never figure out was why send a demon to tear apart a mother and her daughter. It seemed excessive, but now I get it. A woman scorned and all that. You know, I think summoning demons tends to install a bit of cliché in you people.”
Anger flashed across her face, but only for an instant.
I continued, “You had the demon track down the senator’s current plaything to the penthouse.” I remembered the other skeleton in the burned-out room. “Wow. After all you’ve done for him, he still sticks it in elsewhere. That’s rough.”
This time the anger stayed. “What do you know of my sacrifices for him?”
I shrugged. “I know you’ve used the demon’s influence to shoot him to the top. What’s next, president? Days full of interns and dirty blue dresses?”
Anger seethed from her at my words, but she remained still. Then, oddly, she smiled, although her eyes remained blue marble. “I am well aware of my husband’s indiscretions, Mr. St. James. Yes, I’ve given him everything, but instead he satisfies his cravings elsewhere. So I decided to end it, once and for all. We all make sacrifices for our loved ones, as you well know. Or have you forgotten Boston already?”
I grew still and some of the blood drained from my face. “How do you know about Boston?”
She gave a cold, razor-tipped laugh. “There, finally a crack in the façade. Demons, sacrifices, all of these things slide off your snide comments, but Boston…that is the chink in that armor of yours. Let me widen it, shall I? We’ve never met before, but surely you see the resemblance? They said my brother Peter and I had our mother’s eyes.”
The world slowed to a crawl. Peter and Boston. As I looked at the senator’s wife I realized why she had seemed familiar before. The same swarthy Italian skin and the same dark eyes.
“Elnora Carpathian,” I said softly.
“Ah, so you do remember,” she said, the anger never leaving her eyes. She began to pace, and my gun followed her. “For five years my family’s butcher was right here under my nose. Then a few days ago that vampire friend of yours destroyed your wards and suddenly I knew where you were. I’d thank her myself, but…I can’t, can I?”
I almost fell for the bait. My anger rose up, but I shoved it back into that dark little pit where I usually kept the Pain. Nice little bed-buddies, they were.
Unfortunately I couldn’t do the same with Adam.
“Where are Beth and Amanda?” he demanded. His rifle was up and pointed at Elnora as well. Tremors shook his limbs, like the early rumblings before a volcano erupted.
Elnora ignored him. “You’re probably wondering why I didn’t have my men shoot you as soon as you entered the room.”
“You’ve had a sudden change of heart, and now you want to run away and become a ballerina,” I told her. “No? Damn, I’m going to lose the office pool.”
Anger flashed again in her dark eyes. “I want you to be a witness as I finish what my brother started all those years ago. Want you to feel the pain of losing‒”
“The pain of losing a loved one, blah blah blah,” I interrupted. “I get it, you want to gloat. Can we get this over with, though? The Princess Bride is playing on cable and I don’t want to miss it.”
She walked slowly up to me, and I wondered if I was pushing it too far. But I needed her off balance. I needed her anger to make sure Beth was OK. If Elnora was anything like her brother, she couldn’t resist breaking my spirit. She would keep us alive until she saw me on my knees.
Strangely enough, that was to our advantage.
“My brother spoke of your arrogance,” she whispered as she walked up to me. I kept the pistol trained on her, even when she stood right in front of me. The barrel of my gun pressed into her chest, and she closed her eyes and shuddered. The scent of roses, sex, and sulfur drifted up and into my nostrils. It was a heady mixture, and I bit down hard on my tongue to stop my hand from twitching.
“Arrogant and strong,” she whispered as she opened her eyes. “But we’ll see how long that lasts.” The anger was gone, replaced with a wild abandon. Oh yeah, this woman had checked out of her hotel room without paying the tab.
She quickly moved past me and headed toward a doorway to the left of the main entrance. Her heels clicked on the hardwood floor, sounding like the scrabbling of claws. She trailed a hand along the bare walls and disappeared into the room beyond.
The four guards stepped aside, their guns still trained on both of us. I lowered my gun. It was pretty much useless now, and without any apparent fear of death on her part, I had shown my hand.
I lightly touched Adam’s arm. He was pale, and his face showed his fear in stark colors. He slowly lowered his rifle and shook his head.
“I don’t want to see,” he whispered.
“It’s OK,” I told him. I might have shown my hand, but I hadn’t pulled the ace yet. “Let’s not keep our hostess waiting.”
Two of the guards entered the room ahead of us, their weapons still promising our quick death if we breathed wrong. I followed ahead of Adam‒and immediately stopped. All of the lights were off, leaving the flickering of a dozen candles behind. It took a fraction of a second for my eyes to adjust to the gloom, and when my brain took in the surroundings I almost wished my eyes had stayed blind.
The smaller bedroom wasn’t stripped like the
living room. A small wooden altar, little more than a nightstand with a black silk cover, stood in front of a fireplace. Most of the candles sat on the table, next to a dark liquid I knew was blood, even in the gloom.
Three objects lined the walls like trophies on display. An ancient Native American badger mask glared at me with bright blue eyes. Next to the mask sat the same cat/man/frog statue I had seen in the senator’s office.
An elaborate brass mirror hung at the end of this macabre display. Swirling forms shifted in the obsidian glass, and I had to bite my tongue in order to tear my gaze away from the images that began to form there. Boston wasn’t the only horrors I’ve seen.
But none of these made a moan escape my throat. An ancient twin-sized bed sat in the center of the room. Beth sat upright in the bed, her back to the wrought iron headboard. Her wrists were chained to the bedposts, stretching her in a crucifixion pose, and her legs were spread eagled and chained to the footboard. Her nakedness made me look away, especially after seeing the cuts and bruises all over her body.
My gaze trailed to the foot of the bed. I took a deep breath to center myself, but it was hard coming.
Amanda was on the floor, still dressed in her pink pajamas. She lay in a ball, and for a moment she wasn’t moving. Then her sides hitched in a weak sob. She seemed to be wrapped around something. I think it was her stuffed dog. Both mother and child lay inside a gold circle built into the floor, next to a wicked-looking statue of a short hobgoblin with two heads.
Then Adam stepped around me.
He was faster than I anticipated. Before I could grab him he was next to the circle. He stared at Beth’s naked and battered body. Then without a word, he lifted the rifle toward Elnora.
“No!” I cried out, but it was too late.
My reflexes burned as the two guards opened fire on him. I sped to one of them, grabbing the rifle out of his hands and cracking him across the head with the butt. He went down, but the other one began firing in short bursts. Adam danced backward, his body jerking with every slug. I couldn’t help him.
Instead I dropped the rifle and leaped over the metal circle. Elnora had raised her hands to her mouth, a faint smile playing over her lips. She looked like a child happily watching a puppet show. She didn’t even notice me.
Adam’s body jerked inside the circle as the guard fired two more rounds. They sliced into his back, each emitting a plume of crimson into the air. Adam went down on the bed, his head slamming into the mattress between Beth’s feet.
Beth’s screams sliced through the air. I used the chaos to grab Elnora from behind and put my pistol to her temple. “Checkmate,” I whispered.
It took a moment for the ringing in my ears to quiet down. Elnora went still in my arms. Beth’s screams became sobbing gasps. I heard Amanda crying hysterically. Under it all came the trickling of Adam’s blood. And another sound, one that scraped a rotting fingernail down my spine.
Elnora was laughing.
“Tell them to drop their weapons,” I whispered to her. The other two guards had rushed in, and all three had their rifles trained on us. “Tell them, or you’ll be dead before you hit the floor.”
The eerie laughter faded, but she continued chuckling. “You heard the man,” she told the guards.
Two of them dropped the barrels of their guns toward the floor. The third one, the one who had shot Adam, walked forward and moved his aim. He pointed the weapon down at the foot of the bed.
At Amanda.
“These men are fiercely loyal,” Elnora told me. “If you kill me, they kill Beth and the child. I think this is what you would call ‘checkmate,’ Mr. St. James.”
I ground my teeth and pushed her away from me. Elnora spun gracefully, and satisfaction lit up her face, even with me still pointing the gun at her. OK, so it was all or nothing. Time to get reckless, as Adam would say. Thinking of him made me glance over. He had slipped off the bed and lay on his right side. He wasn’t moving.
“So where were we?” Elnora continued as I slowly circled around her until my back was to the door. My gun never trailed away from her. It was unnerving having the hired guns at my back, but I needed a clear view of the room.
She smiled without a trace of fear on her face. “Now you’re going to watch me summon a couple of imp demons. Sure, they’re not as strong as my Shabriri,” a bit of anger flitted over her face, “but they’ll do. Of course, little Beth and her child won’t like it as much, I’m afraid. Imp demons love children.”
I let her ramble and gloat while I backed up. Two of the guards stepped back, their guns still down. The third stood at attention, his rifle still trained on Amanda. I came as close to the man as I could without him tensing, and I realized that now was as good a time as any.
“You know,” I interrupted her rant, “you’re as bad as your brother was. Always so focused on your grand speeches. You always forget to check the sleeve when playing poker.”
I had one chance. Jake had told me that anchors were symbols of a demon, usually an item that worshippers poured their belief into. Thus the anchor always represented something of the demon’s nature. My gun swiveled from Elnora.
Toward the mirror.
Elnora’s smile fled as she looked at my target.
“Time to let the dragon loose, Jake,” I said loud enough for my cell phone to pick up.
I fired the gun, and Elnora screamed as the bullet shattered the mirror into a storm of glass. And in another city, Jake released the power in the circle holding the Blind Deceiver.
Elnora watched the glass of the mirror fall to the floor. She took a step toward it, and I took a step back toward the door. The air pressure spiked downward, making both ears pop. The faint light between Elnora and me shimmered like a mirage. Half of the candles blew out, leaving the room in a deep red glow.
And the demon appeared.
There was no grand entrance. No flames or high-priced special effects. One moment the floor was empty and the next he was here. Good old No-Eyes must’ve stored up a lot of power to do that spell. Flames licked along his blackened skin like current along a Tesla coil.
All traces of humanity were gone. What remained was an anorexic frame that made a mummy look obese and the distended head of a praying mantis. The tan long-coat was actually long flaps of human skin sewn into the thing’s shoulders. As the blackened, scabbed head turned toward me, the jaw swung wide in a skeletal grin, showing a triple row of tiny shark teeth.
“Shabriri,” Elnora gasped. She approached the silent demon. “You’re here.” She smiled. “This makes it all the sweeter. Kill this bastard. Kill him slow‒”
The demon never turned his head from me as he struck out with his right hand. Elnora stopped in confusion. She looked down to see the demon’s bone spur plunged into her stomach. She coughed and a gout of blood spilled down her chin.
The shark’s grin never left the demon’s face as he yanked his spur from Elnora’s stomach. She went to her knees as chaos broke loose.
The mercenaries opened fire on the thing, but it wasn’t that large of a room. One of the men went down under the bullets of another just as Shabriri blurred into motion. The spur lashed out, taking one of the men in the face. Beth screamed from the bed. A series of blurs reduced the remaining two mercenaries to scattered, gory pieces littering the floor.
I crouched down against the wall, and I could only try to stay out of the way of the flying bullets as the demon methodically cut down the mercenaries.
“Once the anchor’s gone, demons always turn on their summoner,” Jake had told me back at my apartment. “It’s part of the danger. Those hell spawn sure don’t like being someone’s pet, and they love giving it back in spades.”
Without their summoner, the demon is rogue. Jake went on to say that after getting their revenge, most demons popped back to Hell because they didn’t want to face the clean-up crew. I’d met Michael, and I wouldn’t want to face him either.
Notice how I said “most demons.”
&nb
sp; Shabriri didn’t disappear. He didn’t catch the next demon bus back to Hell.
He clearly hated me more than he feared Michael.
The demon grinned at me and raised his spur in a mocking salute before rushing forward.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
The demon stood between Amanda and me, but ironically she and her mother were safe inside the circle. Me, on the other hand? Not so much. So I grabbed the downed soldier’s rifle and fled through the doorway as the Blind Deceiver charged.
Silence greeted me as I skidded to a stop in the bare living room. Then I heard Shabriri coming before I could even catch my breath. I had just enough time to shift my reflexes into overdrive before he jumped on top of me.
I fended off two blows with the rifle, but a third connected with the side of my head. Luckily it wasn’t the blade, but the blow still caused my vision to sputter like fireworks.
I stumbled back, but the demon simply cocked his head to the side and followed slowly. My back hit the wall, but I still managed to block the spur with the rifle as it arched toward my head. Sparks flew. Letting the spur slide to my left, I tilted the rifle and slammed the butt into Shabriri’s face.
The demon shook his head and hopped backward. I raised the rifle and prepared to unload the clip, but I hesitated. I was facing the bedroom wall and I didn’t know if the bullets would go through the plaster.
This was exactly what the demon had planned. In that brief pause, he rushed in, slapped the rifle away from my hands, and gave me a wicked backhand across the neck.
The force of the blow sent me staggering into the middle of the room. At that point it became a fruitless game of dodge the demon. I ducked a swing and had to twist to the right before the demon eviscerated me. I knew it was only a matter of time. Even with the adrenaline flooding my system, I still felt the mending ribs and all the other wounds lurking in the depths.
The spur sliced along my left arm, and I hissed in pain. It wasn’t deep, and I managed to strike my fist into the demon’s sternum. It was a risky move, but I needed to get on the offensive.
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