by Jill Cooper
She wouldn’t stop her digging. She kept pushing. Franticly digging and grunting with effort, as if she couldn’t hear him trapped in her own personal hell.
“Mandy!” Duncan shook her by the shoulder to snap her out of it.
“Not without my sister!” Amanda fought against him and lashed out. Duncan didn’t blame her. The Blood girls had been through so much together, the thick of it—and then thicker still. Did Amanda know where she ended and Jessica began? After everything, how could Amanda let her sister go?
It was Duncan’s job to make sure she did.
The sound of a thousand wings beating swept over him, something that should have taken a flock of birds to create, but, as he looked up it was just one. It was an eagle, except it had the face of a woman and wore a long flowing dress. In this business, nothing surprised Duncan anymore, except losing Jessica like that. Yeah, that would always surprise him.
She was really gone.
What awaited her, torture? No, Duncan wouldn’t abide that. He’d find a way to get her out even if it meant calling in every nasty favor he had. He’d get her back; he’d bet his soul on that.
The angel landed with the sound of thunder, her wings folded and her face tilted with sincerity toward Amanda. “Now is the time to make your escape, Amanda. Above all else, you must be safe. The way will be clear. Hurry and get her far from this place, human.”
So much distaste for him? Funny, Duncan didn’t think he’d ever met an angel before. “My reputation precedes me, I’m sure.”
“My sister!” Amanda’s chest shoved out. “You need to save my sister!”
The angel took Amanda’s hands and closed her eyes. The angel cringed and blew a big breath from her nose. “Where your sister has gone, I can’t enter. Not without the backup of heaven on my side and that…that will take the time to earn back.”
Great, they knew an angel who was on the outs with heaven. Didn’t that just take the cake?
Amanda opened her mouth to speak, but the angel raised her hand. She turned to Duncan, she was done with Amanda, and had nothing more to say on the subject. “Get her clear. Your car is outside. Now it’s safe, but there’s only so much protection I can give. You won’t have long.”
The angel shot up in the sky and her dress fluttered like a leaf on the wind. “Stay on this path, Duncan Jasper. Don’t prove all of heaven wrong.”
Did that mean heaven believed in him? Were they taking bets in heaven on whether he’d be good or bad? Still, to hear those words puffed up his chest.
The angel shot out like a missile rocket toward the sunset, but the doors of the club opened by themselves and demons ran in to surround them. There was no cover and Duncan only had one gun.
They were sitting ducks. So much for protection.
“We have to get to cover. Amanda!” Duncan tugged on her, but like a weighted stone, Amanda didn’t move.
Sitting there with her arms around her waist, she swayed back and forth. Her mind was deep inside of herself; Duncan doubted she even heard him. He didn’t pretend to know what the Bloods felt for each other, but it was his job to protect her. Hell or high water, that’s what he was going to do.
“Amanda!”
Her head rolled to the side and Amanda screamed just as the first demon put his hand on Duncan’s shoulder. Guns were fired and Duncan threw his elbow back to toss the demon off, then Amanda’s scream stopped everything. The scream echoed like a living thing, the room reverberated as it, grew in intensity, like a tidal wave; the demons were all thrown back and fell to the ground as dust.
Even bullets in midair stopped, and crashed to the ground.
Duncan gazed down at Amanda and she looked up at him with despair. He thought it best to not mention whatever had just happened—at least not yet—and offered her his hand.
Her green eyes were wet with fright as she took it. “I don’t know if I can walk.”
“Then I’ll carry you,” Duncan said. Just as Jessica Blood carried her all her life, now Duncan would take up that torch.
He gathered Amanda in his arms and walked into the courtyard, which looked like the aftermath of a war. Demon bodies littered the ground near the fountain, and the outer walls had crumbled as if they had seen decades of battle. The car wasn’t far, and the only damage appeared to be cosmetic. Bullet holes in the doors, but Duncan just prayed it would still run. The demons were preoccupied as they took potshots at the angel circling in the sky.
Her battle cry was like a joyous song, a choir of cherubs. To Duncan, it was beautiful, but the demons, shuddered and covered their ears. Now was the perfect time to make their escape, before the demons regained composure.
“We have to get to the car,” Duncan whispered.
Amanda shook her head as it rested on his shoulder and her chin quivered. “How can you just leave her, Duncan? I thought you loved her. I felt it. I know I did, so how—how?”
The accusation was slight in her voice, but it pierced Duncan like a thousand swords. “I made a promise to protect you. After everything she went through to save you, do you think I’d risk you by staying here to fight a fight that can’t be won?”
Her eyes grew sharp, and her mouth opened, but Duncan didn’t give her a chance to say anything. He pursed his lips together, and continued
“We’re not leaving her, she’s not here anymore. Where she went, we can’t go—not even the angel can. Look, we have one of Lourdes’s demons under lock and key. She can help us. Just trust me, will you? I know you always have.”
Maybe she didn’t want to, but Amanda backed down. She nodded and her eyes downcast not meeting his face. She was still weak, so Duncan hurried with her to the car, ducking and throwing himself to cover as a few stray shots came close.
Demons were firing at the flying angel in the sky while debris was falling from the walls as she decimated what was left of Vaughn’s fortress. If it was Vaughn she was after, Duncan saw no sign of him.
Getting to the car, Duncan tore the door open and pushed Amanda into the passenger seat with little regard for how rough he was. Safety had to come first and although it was the angel the demons wanted, he and Amanda were in a dangerous thunderstorm of bullets.
They needed to get out now, while the demons were distracted.
He fished the hidden key out from under the rug and started the car up. Slamming the door shut, Duncan heard a moan coming from the backseat.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Father Mike said.
“You hurt?” Duncan asked, glancing in the rearview to see Mike’s head was gashed and he had a few bruises, but all appeared to be flesh wounds.
“Nothing time won’t heal. I blessed the water in the fountain and turned it into holy water. Let’s just say I used it to my advantage.”
Sounded like good ol’ Mike. “Brace yourself.” Duncan punched the accelerator and the car burst through the remains of the gate. Out of the compound, he saw the charred ruins of the trucks they’d brought with them. The drugs and vials were destroyed, along with half a battalion of demons.
He kept his head down and just kept driving, but they were coming. Duncan heard the sounds of trucks starting, the demons were pursuing them. Duncan had Amanda, stole her right from under Vaughn’s and their noses, and that wasn’t something they’d let go.
“Where’s Vaughn?” Duncan asked, a tightening in his chest.
Glancing back, he saw Mike sit up. “I don’t know.” He was clutching his arm. “As soon as that angel showed up, I climbed in the car. The last I saw Vaughn; he was fleeing in a van of girls, chasing after our men didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire with the angel.”
The girls. In all the commotion, Duncan had forgotten about them. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and grunted for his utter failure on that part. Lost in the shuffle between good and evil, those poor girls were in their own personal hell, and there they’d stay until someone killed Vaughn or until they died.
Souls torn from their bodies bit
by bit, the idea of it churned his stomach. Made him think back…
Mike shook his head. “Vaughn doesn’t like to lose. Today he lost big. Even lost his angel. I’m guessing that had to do with you.” He smiled at Amanda, but she didn’t see.
Didn’t see or just didn’t care. “We have to go after him,” Amanda said, her head collapsed on the headrest. “What he’ll do to those girls, we have to—”
“You’re of no use to us until you heal,” Mike said. He rested his bloody hand on her forehead. “Oh, dear Child, you need to heal, and it isn’t just these wounds, is it?”
Mike glanced at Duncan and Duncan read his face with ease. Amanda wasn’t herself. She was on something, and coming down? It’d be bad enough for someone normal, might even lead to death.
But to an empath like her? They were going to need something more than time. They were going to need an answer to a prayer. What she just did at the compound wasn’t right or maybe it just wasn’t natural. Amanda’s power had always been passive; she had never used it to attack, not even to defend herself. Duncan didn’t want to think about what that meant.
Get her to safety first and then worry about the future.
Amanda licked her lips. “Those women—”
“Deserve our help,” Duncan said, “but so do you. So does Jessica. Until those drugs leave your system…”
“I know,” Amanda’s voice cracked. “I need to save her, Duncan. All my life she’s been saving me. Now it’s my turn. Can’t you understand?”
Duncan understood more than Amanda knew. He looked in the rearview mirror. The vehicles he spotted earlier were gaining ground. On bikes and in modified dune racers, they looked like a scene from Mad Max, with demons hanging from the vehicles screaming and raving.
“More than you know, but Amanda, there’s something we need to tell you. About the demon we have. We have to talk about your aunt Gwen.”
Amanda jerked her head toward him. “Is she alive? Did she find you?”
Some of their pursuers gained on them and he heard gunshots and the plink of bullets hitting the car. Looking at the speedometer he saw that it was buried at 120 miles per hour. The old girl could hit 200 and he jammed gas pedal into the floor praying the tires would hold up on the rough desert terrain.
Ahead the desert fell away, forming a crater. Duncan jerked the wheel to avoid it and nearly drove into another. More of the desert floor opened up, forming a long gash. Smoke and flame roared out into the afternoon air.
Playing with darkness and danger.
Just his style.
He eased off the gas and cranked on the wheel, fishtailing wildly. The back tires must have skirted the edge for a moment, before he gained control and raced parallel to the gash in the earth. He glanced behind and saw a demon on a Harley soft tail lose control and fly over the edge.
There had to be an ending. There had to be a way around.
Amanda’s breath was frantic and she gripped the armrest of the car. “She doesn’t want to let us go. We’re never going to get out of here, Duncan!”
The panic in her voice set Duncan on edge, and the who she was talking about—had to be Lourdes. The queen of the underworld came so close to getting her claws into Amanda, she wouldn’t want to let her go so easily.
Amanda turned her head and placed her hand on the window. Flames were burning so high that Duncan felt his own cheeks burning, as if he stood too close to a campfire. He gritted his teeth as he circled back towards the charging demons.
“What are we going to do? Duncan!” Amanda’s voice shrieked and she shielded her eyes as they raced toward the horde of demons intent on killing them.
“Brace yourselves, kids!” Father Mike buried his head down, gripped the headrest as the car rocketed forward; under his breath, he muttered an inspired prayer.
Demons to the front. Flames of the underworld behind them.
Who said only the good die young?
Epilogue
Ron checked his watch for what felt like the thousandth time since the crew left to free Amanda. They should have been back by now, but with no word, and no sign, Ron was going crazy. Drawing the short straw and being forced to stay behind was one thing, but to know he was holed up in the bar with a possessed woman, filled with a demon of the underworld? thing,
That was bat shirt crazy.
Still, even a possessed person needed to eat, so Ron took to the kitchen and got busy. He wasn’t a culinary genius, but he knew how to cook a steak. Since he didn’t want to give Gwen a steak knife, he made a simple burger patty with a generous slice of cheese. Everyone loved cheese.
He prepped a few more burgers and cut steak fries. Soon, everyone would return, Amanda and the rest would be hungry and with any luck, they could put this whole business behind them.
Focus on what they did, hunt demons, help out ordinary folk and maybe bring in a good looking chick or two.
Was that really too much to ask?
A simple tray containing a burger and a glass of water was all he took down into the basement. A demon could play with your mind, so Ron stuffed his ears with cotton. Words and manipulation wouldn’t be used against him. So he set off down the stairs, not able to hear how they creaked, and pushed open the basement door unable to hear how it squealed.
“Gwen?”
Ron stepped inside the room, but the chair—
The chair was empty.
Ron rushed toward the single chair inside the ring of salt, but the salt was disturbed. A line was drawn through it like someone had snuck in here and sabotaged it. Someone.
Or something.
Damn it, this wasn’t good. Not good at all. Ron placed the tray down on the small table by the wall and grabbed his phone from his pocket. Putting it to his ear, he prayed. Answer Duncan, answer!
He was hit from behind, all the air knocked out of his lungs. His chin slammed into the table as his knees crunched into the concrete floor. Grinding his fingernails against the table, Ron tried to hold on as something grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slammed him into the wall.
The room spun and Ron moaned as he tried to move, but someone held him by the throat. He clawed at her hand to try to get away, since when had she been so strong?
Since when did she attack them?
He stared into her face and she was all smiles. A curl of hair cascaded down her face. She growled at him as Ron slumped toward the ground.
“Jessica?” Ron coughed and gagged, but she didn’t respond. She tightened both hands around his neck and squeezed. He’d seen her mad before, but never like this. What the hell had gotten into her?
Why were her eyes red?
“Listen,” Jessica hissed in a voice that wasn’t her own. Not one Ron had heard before. “And remember.”
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