"He didn't want to go on. We gave him a clean end, Dinah. That's more than you or I are going to get if Romano or Bazixal get their hands on us." I moved away from Daniel's body and headed toward the stairs. The air was still cool, the ghosts were still active, but they seemed quieter now with Daniel gone.
At the top of the stairs, I looked back at Daniel's body. The two Magelore ghosts stood next to him, staring down at his body with what I thought maybe was a form of sadness . . . or hunger? The male Magelore turned his eyes to me and grinned a split second before he dove into Daniel's body. My brother's limbs jumped and jerked as the Magelore did whatever the fuck it was doing to him.
"Shit." I bolted along the upper hallway once more to the bedroom that I was certain held the real ruby ring.
"What's happening?" Dinah's worry came through loud and clear.
"Nothing good." I leapt through the door to the bedroom and over the dresser. The clawed gremlin creature was gone, its ties to Daniel severed so it was free to go where it pleased.
Thank God it didn't feel like sticking around. I wasn't sure I could handle the monster, and my brother's Magelore-possessed body at the same time. Downstairs. The other ring is downstairs. Martin’s voice floated to me, his presence damn near warm after the Magelore ghosts. Damn it, that information would have been good about a minute earlier.
I whipped around as laughter floated through the air. My brother's voice, but not his voice, as if he were trying to affect a voice that was not his own. I knew in my head that the Magelore was trying to scare me, to make me slip up and make a mistake that would allow him to take advantage of me. I’d done it to enough marks to know the tactics of a hunter.
“Nobody scares the Phoenix.” I growled the words and anger as hot and clean as the fire I carried inside me cut through the garbage that the Magelore was putting on me. It was then that I saw what we’d walked into.
A trap, for sure, but more than that. A spell that brought out the worst fears.
And spells were something I was getting pretty fucking good at dealing with.
20
Rather than wait for the body of my brother, inhabited by a demonic Magelore, to come to me, I grabbed the edge of the dresser I'd just pushed against the door and yanked it out of the way.
Dinah gasped. "What are you doing?"
"Facing him. Dinah, something’s going on here. It’s made you afraid and unable to kill. It set Killian on his ass and it sent me running like a child afraid of the dark. That isn't any of us. That is the myst that Vivian imbued this house with."
I grabbed the door handle and swung it open just as the Magelore reached it. His eyes widened and for a split second, he looked shocked.
I let a slow smile whisper over my lips even though the fear in me grew once more. I wasn't going to let him use his wiles on me.
"Do you know who I am, Magelore? I hunted your kind. I killed Vivian."
Daniel's mouth moved at a strange angle as the Magelore spoke through him. A weird facsimile of my brother's voice, and I had to fight the urge to shiver. I would not give this Magelore the satisfaction of seeing me afraid of anything, most certainly not him.
"We will eat your soul."
"Not much of that shit left." I lifted one hand as I called up my fire, let it burn hot along my fingertips. "Plus, you’d need my permission. That's the deal with souls. You can't just take it. I’d have to give it to you and that isn’t going to happen. Not ever."
"I can." He growled and reached for me. I caught his hand and my fire crept up over his arm. Of course, he couldn't feel it. He wasn't really alive.
I smiled at him. "I've danced with the devil in the flesh, Magelore. And for you to take a soul, there must be an agreement. You've given me nothing."
His eyes flickered and Dinah gasped. "What are you doing?"
"Anything I have to do to save my son." The knowledge flowed through me and with it came a sense of peace I'd not expected. "You can have my soul, Magelore, if you give me what I want in return."
His eyes flickered once more. "You want the ruby ring that protects from the guardians of Hell."
"You got it, big boy." I nodded once. "You give me that ring and you can have what's left of my soul."
Dinah screamed, "Phoenix, don't do this!"
"Dinah, of all the people I know, you should know best that we are capable of giving up everything to protect those we love. This isn't about you and me anymore, but our children. Bear. Emerald. Our lives for theirs."
She went quiet and the beats of time between us were as heavy as I'd ever felt. The Magelore stood there, using Daniel's eyes, blood still streaming from the gunshot wound to the head. The sound of the blood dripping to the floor was the only noise.
"Okay," she said softly. "I'll do what I can to remind you of your humanity once your soul is gone."
"Thanks."
The Magelore—I didn't want to think of him as Daniel—turned away from me, away from the bedroom.
Martin brushed close to me. They can’t see me. They don’t even know I’m here. If I find the ring for you when we are close, the deal won’t count. He won’t have shown you everything.
I gritted my teeth to keep from grinning. “I might have to marry you, Martin.”
He chuckled. Much as I like you, there is someone else waiting for me.
Another time I would have laughed at the thought of a ghost waiting for a lover.
"This way." The Magelore waved a hand that flopped in a terrible, loose-limbed way that looked so very wrong.
He led me down the stairs, across the landing and up the other side. I glanced at the doorway, and couldn't see Killian or the female Magelore. I grimaced against the desire to go and check on him. I didn't know how long this Magelore would lead me along. For the moment, Killian was on his own.
"Dinah," I touched her grip, "if something goes wrong, you make sure Killian finishes this. Bear can do what I was meant to do. He can take my place."
"You don't have to do this," she said softly. "There's another way."
"There is no other way."
"There is," she said. "My soul is in this gun."
I swallowed hard and then shook my head. "Dinah, you've given up everything already. And I need you to be the weapon who shoots Romano. You know that."
"Eleanor is still—"
"No, we don't know that she is going to be found. We don't know what will happen to her when Tommy fails to kill Romano." I bit the words out as we followed the Magelore. He led us up the stairs and then to the left at the top. Right to a dead end in the wall.
Don’t worry, Martin said, it’s a hidden door that leads down to where the ring is.
The Magelore lifted a hand and pushed on the wall. There was the hiss of air releasing and then four darts shot out and slammed into his body. I took a step back and he glanced over his shoulder, his head lolling as he grinned. "This way."
There was only one way to do this, to keep going forward and to hope that Martin was right. I followed the Magelore into the empty space. The darkness was absolute and I didn't hesitate on using some of my abnormal ability to light our way. Steps led down into the belly of the house, winding ’round and ’round so many times that I wasn't sure we weren't going to end up in the pits of Hell.
After fifty feet, the walls fell away from us on either side and there was nothing but empty space beckoning.
"Watch your step," the Magelore chuckled.
"He's happy now; he's getting a soul," Dinah whispered.
"How far?" I asked him.
"Moments and you'll have your prize, and I'll have mine." He didn't look back but lifted his hands in the air and danced them around like he was starting to rave.
His movements and the lightness in his voice helped to dispel the last of the fear that had risen in me. A tricky trick, to make someone so afraid that they couldn't think straight. I'd used it myself, but had never had it used on me. Mostly because I'd never had anything to fear. Death didn't bother me.
I'd seen it enough times to know that it would come for me one day. Probably sooner rather than later. I frowned as I let my mind go in that direction. What was it that had frightened me then?
I stared at the back of Daniel's mangled head, the bits of gray matter visible in the flickering of the flames I held in my own hand.
He turned and his eyes were dead, nothing in them. No soul, no heartbeat, and yet he moved, he existed to a degree because of the creature that had taken over his body. I blinked a few times and the truth of my fear came home to roost.
There had been only one other time that I'd been truly afraid on a level that I'd never been able to fully escape. The deal Romano made with the devil, I'd been there. I'd felt those flames of Hell lick along my skin and the evil that had crept around my father and tried to creep around me. I was a very bad person by then. I'd killed a lot of people. But . . . there was no need inside of me to kill. No true desire to it.
Death was my job. I was good at it. But I didn't lust after it. The evil that had touched me that day lusted for death, for pain, for never-ending torture. It wanted to bathe in the blood of the innocents of the world, to take the souls of those who'd done no wrong. The devil had tried to get me to hold his gaze and I’d done it, for a short time before looking away. As if that would have saved me.
That same feeling had overcome me in the house, that sense that if I didn't make eye contact, then perhaps I would be able to bluff my way through. Stupid, but perhaps that was the core of a survival instinct when it came to souls. The fear had triggered that years-old sensation that one day I wouldn't be able to look away. That I would have to stare into that abyss and try to find a way to keep from falling.
Sweat popped out along the edge of my face as my memories got the better of me.
Under the stone, the ring is under the stone. Say it out loud!
“The ring is under the stone,” I said.
The stairs ended abruptly and the Magelore bent to one knee, his fingers clumsy on the stone below him. I moved to the side so I could see what he was doing. The stone flooring was done in slabs and the one that the Magelore dug at was about three feet wide, oblong and looked like it hadn't been moved in years. He drove his fingers under the edge and several fingernails snapped. Or maybe the fingers themselves, I wasn't sure.
He got a grip and lifted the slab.
"Get it," he said.
I had to come around to the side of him and crouch. The slab would break my spine, or whatever other parts of my body happened to be under it, if he let go.
I reached in quickly, swept the area with my fingers and grabbed hold of a small velvet bag. I pulled out, the bag gripped tightly, and the Magelore dropped the stone.
"Give me your soul."
"Let me make sure this is the ruby ring," I snapped.
He snarled and stood up, blood flicking all over my face.
I did my best to ignore him and opened the bag. I tipped it over my open and waiting palm and a fat ruby ring tumbled out. I rolled it over once. There was a flicker in the depths and I swallowed hard with what I was going to do next. I hoped to all that was holy Martin was right.
"This is it," I said. “This is Romano’s ring.”
"Give me your soul," the Magelore snarled. "You swore you would."
"Did I? But you didn’t tell me where the ring was. I told you. I said it was under the stone and you helped me get it out. That’s not the same thing as you telling me where it is." I tipped my head to one side and carefully slid the ruby ring over the thumb on my left hand. “Which means you . . . get nothing.”
The Magelore roared and I spun on my heel and bolted up the stairs.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Dinah screeched. "You can't double-cross a Magelore. They'll make it open season on your head!"
I didn't answer. There was no time to explain what Martin had helped me with. Instead I focused on the stairs below my feet. I was a desperate woman. I had nothing to lose and if a lie was going to be the worst of my sins, then I was doing pretty good as far as I was concerned.
My thighs burned as I leapt up the stairs one after another. There was nothing but the raging screams of the Magelore below and I knew why. He couldn't make Daniel's body work easily, which meant he either had to give up the body and go back to his ghost form, or try and force the dead body to obey him.
And if he gave up the body, his ability to take my soul diminished even more.
“Martin, I hope you are right!”
I am, but hurry, just in case.
Oh fuck.
I hit the top of the stairs out of breath and stumbling forward. I didn't stop, though. I didn't look back. Just bolted along the top hall and down the next set of stairs, using the railing to pull myself along faster.
Across the landing, down the final set and then I was sprinting across the open foyer of the mansion.
I leapt across the threshold from house to outside and ended up on my knees, sprawling forward onto my belly. But I was out. I was out and that was all that mattered. Abe was not there waiting as he should have been. There was no welcoming woof.
Breathing hard, I pushed up and looked around. Night had fallen in the time I'd been in there. I'd known that was possible but had hoped it wouldn't be the case.
I looked around. "Killian?"
There was nothing but the sound of the night birds, and the occasional croak of a frog. The cold brush of Martin and the jabbering of Dinah to keep moving if I wanted to keep my soul intact.
But where the fuck were Killian and Abe? At the foot of the stairs was the box with the herbs and the journal in it. He wouldn't have left it behind, it was too important. Certainly, he wouldn't have left it out in the open.
I yelled for him again as I pushed to my feet, gathering the box to my chest. "Dinah, I have a bad feeling." I let out a long whistle for Abe, but there was no answer.
"You think he's dead?" she asked.
I shook my head and forced myself into a jog that would take me out to the edge of the driveway.
My heart pounded out of control, not because of what I'd just survived, and not because Killian was missing.
But because of what it could mean. I rolled the ruby ring on my thumb. “He wouldn’t have left, Dinah. Which means someone took him.”
“But who could take him? He’s strong, far too strong to go without a fight. And Abe would have fought to protect him too.” She sucked in a sharp breath. “You mean . . . Strike, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” I looked around at the house, and the gravel road. No sign of struggle, no spots of blood. “I mean, Strike has Killian and Abe.”
21
Bear
The walk to the Grotto was quiet except for the occasional squeak of a strap holding a gun, or the crunch of a boot on the hard sand. I said as much to Tommy.
“You didn’t think we’d go in there shooting and yelling, did you?” He grinned down at me, his mouth a veritable jack-o’-lantern smile in the bright moonlight. I looked away, uncertain of a lot of things. Like maybe it was a bad idea to come with my uncle. There was no need to look to my right, Rooster was there blocking my view. Only . . . he wasn’t Rooster.
I had to bite my lower lip to keep it from trembling. Because my dad had been my hero, and now . . . I wasn’t sure what to think about him.
“Why didn’t you come back?” I whispered the question, more to myself, but he heard me.
“No choice.” His voice rumbled through me and I wrapped my arms around myself. I wanted him to hug me. To tell me that it would be okay. But he’d done none of those things. He’d not even said he loved me.
A tear slipped down my cheek and I moved away from him, to the other side of my uncle. Tommy put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. A sigh shuddered out of me, but his hand tightened further and he tugged me down to the sand.
I dropped with him, my eyes finally taking in what was in front of us. No longer was there a spread of desert with nothing seemingly out there in the dark ex
cept us. From out of the ground there had sprung a huge wall that went on for a long distance to either side. It was the same color as the sand under our feet, and there were no lights around it, which explained the fact that I hadn’t noticed it before.
“There’s the door. Stick close to me, kid,” Tommy said. “I’ll tell you if we need some of your fire.”
“He can wait here with me.” Rooster reached for me. I flinched away from him.
“I’m going with my uncle.” I threw the words at him. His jaw ticked but I didn’t look down from the locked gaze. “I can help him.”
Eleanor wiggled a little. “Be careful.”
Tommy put his hand on the gun he thought was Eleanor but was Linx. “Time to go, bitch.”
Of course, Linx said nothing. He couldn’t and keep the charade up. Tommy snorted. “Now she shuts up. Figures.”
He crept forward and I stuck to his side. I didn’t care if Rooster came with me or not.
No, that wasn’t true. I wanted him to come. I wanted him to prove that he cared. But I wasn’t sure he would.
Tommy and I swept across the open space between us and the wall. He pressed himself against it, keeping his gun up. There was a creak of wood and the click of a lock and then a portion of the wall opened and a hand beckoned.
Tommy scooted forward and I followed. I was going with him, as the desert witch had said.
I looked over my shoulder. No Rooster. My heart clenched.
He’d been dead for months, maybe I had to just let him go completely. No more hope.
“Your mom will come,” Tommy said as we crept through the door. “Forget about him. He’s not the man you think he is.”
I nodded, but I wanted to cry. I wanted to sit and bury my head in my hands and sob because for one flash of a second, I thought . . . I thought I’d have my family back again.
I reached out and put a hand on the back of Tommy’s belt so I didn’t lose him in the semi-darkness. There was the sound of water running, and the flicker of lights here and there, but not enough that I could count on it to guide me.
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