Rose of Jericho (Lilith Adams Series Book 2)

by Jenny Allen

  “Have you got the first step, Peisinoe?” There was a slight tremor in Luminita’s voice when she spoke. Lilith couldn’t tell if it was fear or anger. She could try pushing Luminita to anger but all it would get her is a quick death at best. It wouldn’t help anyone else.

  “Yes. Gregor began by carving the names of the family members Orrick killed into his body.” Peisinoe strolled closer to Cohen, her hand slipping over the instrument tray with a malicious glint in her eye. Luminita gently grasped her hand and pulled it away.

  “No. It is my responsibility. You just give me directions.” Lilith didn’t miss the disappointed pout on Peisinoe’s lips as she stepped aside.

  “This is ridiculous! Torturing Cohen isn’t going to make a damn difference. If you give him my blood, it’ll either kill him, do nothing, or he’ll survive like Ashcroft. Carving my family’s names into him isn’t going to give him some magical chance to become a monster.”

  Luminita swung around with the scalpel in her hand, pointing it threateningly. “Rituals have power! There is more in this world than your narrow mind can comprehend, vampire!”

  “What…What is going on?” Cohen’s groggy eyes fluttered open as his head rolled toward the sound of voices. His hazel eyes slowly focused on Luminita standing over him and at first his lips curled into a sleepy smile. Then, as his brain caught up, the smile vanished and he started straining against the straps holding him down with a look of confusion.

  “Luminita! What the hell is going on?” His voice was strained with bewilderment at first, but it quickly melted away into true panic and disbelief. It was going to be so much worse for him. The only person he ever trusted was going to torture him to death in an attempt to make him into a monster. In the alley when he’d talked about his past with Farren, a small part of her didn’t really believe it, didn’t trust it. Now, for the first time, Lilith truly felt sorry for Cohen with no reservations.

  “Shhh. Sweet Andrew. This is for both us.” Luminita tried to smooth her hand over his hair once again, but he jerked his head away as far as he could and glared at the scalpel in her hand.

  “What the fuck, Luminita?” Cohen’s hands clenched uselessly into fists as he glared up at her.

  Luminita chose to completely ignore him and look up at Peisinoe expectantly. “First name and location?”

  “Mary, in capital letters across his chest.” Peisinoe’s lips curled into a sadistic little smile as she relayed the instructions from her perch on top of the counter. She sat there cross-legged and cozy as she thumbed through the book like it was the latest Home & Gardens.

  Luminita nodded and began to lower the scalpel toward Cohen’s chest. He tried to squirm away, screaming for her to stop, but the restraints held him tight. Luminita took aim at the naked expanse of skin just above the chest strap. Isadora appeared over him and shoved a rag into his mouth to stop the screams. All it did was muffle them.

  “How did you find Ashcroft?” Lilith really didn’t care about the answer, but she felt the need to distract Luminita long enough for Cohen to get his bearings before they started carving him up. It was the least she could do.

  Most villains crave a long, winded speech. They might be annoying in the movies, but they really do happen. Some of them, like Luminita, need to prove that they were right, they weren’t evil, they were doing something horrible for the greater good. Then again, maybe they just had to gloat about how smart they were. Whatever the reason, they always felt the need to spill their guts. Even Ashcroft had his little rant before he died. In the end, they all just want to be heard.

  The small woman hesitated for a moment, her frail hand with the scalpel hovering in the air. She let it fall to her side but wouldn’t turn. If it had just been Lilith in the room, she may have never even answered the question. She didn’t care what Lilith thought, not really, but Cohen was listening and she did care what he thought.

  Luminita kept her back to Lilith, and looked over at the siren. “It is my business to find things. I found Peisinoe, trained her and gave her to Farren. She’s been a very useful spy.”

  She hadn’t turned Peisinoe, she’d been on the payroll the entire time. That explained how Luminita knew about Farren’s little robbery at the library. Isadora would easily be able to ambush them. Hell, she probably had the time, place, descriptions, names, everything. Obviously not Haverty’s information though. Farren must have kept that secret. That’s what Luminita needed Lilith for, that, her blood and the cipher. She knew the cipher had been moved and she knew Lilith and Chance were the only ones that could get it for her.

  Luminita’s head tilted toward Isadora who had returned to Timothy, fanning her black bird wing over him and chanting almost silently. “I found Isadora as a 13 year-old orphan in Haiti. The men were trying to remove the demon inside her by cutting off her face with ragged knives.”

  “So you’re the demonic island of misfit toys. I get it. You found Ashcroft and what? Offered him prime real estate in crazy town?”

  Luminita’s eyes went cold as they finally turned on Lilith. “Isadora, gag her.” Dammit. She kept letting her own anger tip her hand. As much as she wanted to spare Cohen pain for a few more moments, she couldn’t take the noble benefactor of the freaks speech any more. She couldn’t listen to Luminita brag about gathering together genetic anomalies to torture and maim everyone Lilith knew.

  “You’re worse than Farren, Ashcroft, any of them!” Lilith spat the words and fought against the straps as Isadora hovered closer and closer. A rag moved toward her mouth that stank of patchouli and sweat, but Isadora’s face looked vaguely uncertain. It was enough to catch Lilith off guard. She couldn’t even begin to fathom why the demon was suddenly uncomfortable. Maybe she was just afraid Lilith would bite her. Unfortunately, Isadora regained her resolve while Lilith was still staring at her in confusion. She shoved the rag unceremoniously into Lilith’s mouth, leaving her to cough and gag.

  “You cannot compare me to him!” Luminita jabbed a thin finger at the corner where Farren lay unconscious. Lilith had definitely hit the villain rant button. “Do you know he had Andrew’s parents killed because they were coddling the boy too much? His own son, murdered because he didn’t like his parenting! He executed anyone Andrew got close to just to teach him independence. Personally, I think Farren simply enjoyed torturing him. A lifetime of guilt, pain and loss. That is all he’s ever given Andrew. That is his legacy and as soon as I am successful, his legacy will end. I may be causing Andrew physical pain now, but I’m giving him something so much greater! I’m giving him a true future!”

  She turned toward Lilith and it almost looked like she was seeking some acknowledgement, some approval, some recognition for her noble plan. Apparently, she didn’t find what she wanted in Lilith’s face. What a surprise. Luminita set her tiny mouth into a scowl and took a step to loom over Lilith.

  “You and Mr. Deveraux have complicated too many things. You’re almost more trouble than you’re worth.” Luminita lightly traced the scalpel down Lilith’s left forearm, just enough to break the skin, leaving a bloody furrow in its wake. Lilith groaned behind the disgusting rag in her mouth but refused to give Luminita the satisfaction of a scream.

  “For now, I want you alive. You are the only vampire left with Gregor’s blood and you are the purest one on this side of the country.” That explained why Luminita had been so interested in Chance’s heritage and why Timothy was still alive. She wanted a decent backup just in case.

  Her ocean-deep eyes traveled from the cut she’d made up to Lilith’s face and her voice went dead cold, like a frozen ocean. “How I take that blood is up to you. Keep it up and I’ll take body parts instead of simply using an IV.” Her lips curled into a half snarl that was miles away from the friendly face she’d shown them the first time they met. Master manipulators, every damn one of them. Lilith could barely even hear the faint Romanian accent in her voice now.

  “Now. No more distractions.” Luminita tapped the flat of the blade agains
t Lilith’s forehead with a friendly, completely delusional smile. It was like watching someone with multiple personalities change back and forth with a flick of a switch.

  Chapter 32

  Luminita stood resolutely over Cohen, her petite chest expanding with a deep breath as the scalpel hovered above his chest. His hazel eyes were wide with panic as he tried to buck and squirm away from the blade. The first prick of pressure brought tears to his eyes as he rolled his head uselessly to the side. She pressed the blade in deep and dragged it down in a smooth motion as Cohen screamed against the rag in his mouth.

  Lilith squeezed her eyes shut. It was too much. According to what her father said in Tennessee, he had visited every horror he could think of on Ashcroft until his pulse was too weak. That’s when he tried to turn him so he could keep going. Luminita was recreating everything exactly, or as exact as Duncan recorded it. Unfortunately for Cohen, her uncle was obsessively detail orientated. If only it was Farren on that table instead. No. She wouldn’t even want to hear Farren’s screams for that long.

  Cohen’s muffled shrieks echoed in her head, each one etching itself inside her skull. She opened her eyes when the screaming stopped. Luminita was still hovering over Cohen with the scalpel at the ready while Cohen’s chest rose and fell quickly. He was panting for breath around the putrid rag in his mouth. Lilith’s eyes caught Cohen’s as he turned toward her again. There was an apology in those sky blue eyes and Lilith felt like it was truly genuine for the first time.

  “Next name and placement.” Luminita hurried the words. She was either rattled or impatient, either way she had a long road ahead of her if she was determined to do this. For Cohen’s sake, Lilith prayed she’d just give up, but it wasn’t a bet she’d take.

  “Margareet vertically down the left ribs.” Cohen rolled his head back, jaw clenching against the rag in his mouth. Lilith struggled harder against the restraints as she tried to rub the edge of the cloth against her shoulder. If she could just pull it out enough to get her tongue behind it… The ribs were going to be so much more painful than his chest.

  Cohen’s screams were deafening, even with the gag in his mouth. They filled the air over and over as Luminita carved each letter carefully into his flesh. Lilith could hear her nick the bone of a rib occasionally, a sound she wished she could erase forever. Bile rose in her throat and she had to force it back down. With her mouth gagged she’d just drown in her own vomit.

  Luminita continued, growing more resolute and cold with every name. Finlay vertically down the right ribs, Mirren horizontally across the stomach. Cohen’s screams grew softer as the numbness of shock began to set in. By the last letter of Mirren’s name, his eyes were flooded with tears and only weak murmurs escaped the gag.

  “Stay with me, Andrew.” Luminita swatted his cheek a few times as his eyes rolled around in his head. There was no way he could take what lay ahead. Ashcroft was already quite powerful when Gregor…she couldn’t bring herself to think of her father actually doing this to another person. “Next!”

  “Smear salt into the names.”

  Luminita scooped a hand into a bowl on the tray, hesitated for a blink of an eye and then shoved her palm against the letters she’d carved. Cohen’s body arched and convulsed against the straps as scream after blood-curdling scream escaped the makeshift gag. Luminita flinched at first, but then her resolve set in and she scooped her hand into the bowl again.

  Finally, Lilith caught the corner of the rag between her chin and shoulder and moved it just enough to spit the gag out of her mouth. “He won’t make it, Luminita. You’re killing him!”

  “De loogaroo is ‘ight. Baron Samedi be wantin’ dis one, Miss.”

  “Isadora! Stop your nonsense and shove that rag back in her damn mouth. Peisinoe, next!” Luminita snarled the words through gritted teeth. The siren hesitated, her eyes on Luminita and Isadora as tension hung thick in the air.

  “Miss. Baron Samedi es non too ‘appy. No tyme far offerin’s to be taken from dose en town or en de house. He be needin’ his offerin’s far de deeds you ask far.” The hearts. That’s why they were taken from the New Haven bodies.

  “Silence, Isadora!” Luminita’s blue green eyes hardened with a deadly ferocity. “I did not ask for your opinion.”

  Lilith watched as Isadora drew herself up straight, her dark hands fidgeting with the charms around her neck. “No, miss. Dis es no right.” She shook her head, the long dreadlocks swaying rhythmically as her dark eyes looked over Cohen’s bloody body. “De torture. You condemn dat man far de same ting.” One hand swept toward Farren and then returned nervously to caress the bleached jawbone hanging from her neck.

  Before Luminita could say a single word, Peisinoe’s painfully melodic laugh filled the air. “You have got to be joking, you fucking swamp rat. You take hearts and jaws from humans as offerings to your imaginary best friend!”

  Rage contorted the lines of Isadora’s face as it pinched into a snarl. “Aye end em quick like. I take de offerin’s after dey pass to de utter side! Baron Samedi es real, sòsyè!” Her dark eyes narrowed to dagger points, fixing on Peisinoe as she stepped slowly. When she spoke again, her voice slithered from her lips in low, hypnotic tones. “He es real an he be comin’ far you.” One slender finger rose as if time slid into slow motion, pointing directly at the siren, and for a brief second, Peisinoe’s sharp smile faltered.

  “That is enough! Your Baron doesn’t give you anything. Stupid child. Hold your tongue or I’ll cut it out. Peisinoe, the next step!” Luminita was losing all her motherly kudo points. It hadn’t occurred to Lilith that Isadora might not be totally onboard with Luminita’s plan. If she could just use that somehow to remove the threat of an undead army…she would still be strapped to a god damn table.

  Isadora gathered her skirts and stormed toward Farren’s corner muttering furiously under her breath. She cradled her little fern in one hand, eyes staring daggers at Luminita this time. Peisinoe’s eyes fell back to the book, reading with a triumphant grin on her round face. The woman devoured pure chaos no matter where it came from and now she lounged on the counter like a fat cat with a belly full of cream. Hell, even her black eye was now perfectly unblemished porcelain skin.

  “Let’s see. Salt…oh, yes, here we go. Ouch.” Her deep blue eyes swung over to Lilith. “Damn.” She whistled and wiggled her perfectly plucked eyebrows. “Remind me not to get on your dad’s bad side...” Her cupid bow mouth curved into a devilish smile overflowing with venomous glee. “Oh, wait. He’s dead.”

  “Fuck you!” Lilith bucked against the straps as pure hatred seared through her body. All she could think about was wrapping her fingers around that smarmy bitch’s throat.

  “Enough toying! Give me the next step.” There was zero patience left in Luminita’s voice. Peisinoe may be enjoying the show, but the Romanian wasn’t.

  “Alright.” Peisinoe sighed dramatically as if a teacher was telling her to stop talking in class. “It says here that he made very slow, purposeful cuts to Ashcroft’s face in a crisscross pattern. It refers to a picture with directions on how to interpret it…” She casually flipped the page with a hungry grin, her eyes lighting up as she scanned the image.

  So the pictures in the book weren’t just diversions after all. “The first cut extends from the right eye to the chin. He left the eye intact. He wanted him to see what he was doing to him.” Peisinoe’s deep blue eyes caught Lilith’s with a spark of true enjoyment as she dramatically pretended to shiver.

  Lilith went ghost white as she tore her eyes away from the siren to catch the panicked look in Cohen’s eyes. She could tell that he was already praying for death to just release him. Lilith wished she could grant him that peace, or any peace. Tears stung her eyes as Luminita reached for the instrument tray, but Lilith kept her gaze locked with Cohen’s. All she could do was try to give him something else to focus on.

  “Breathe, Andrew. Remember to breathe. You can survive this.” Lilith’s words felt ridiculously f
limsy to her, but Cohen nodded softly keeping his eyes on hers. As soon as the scalpel glinted inches from his face, his terrified eyes automatically swung to the blade. Cohen turned his head violently, screaming behind the foul rag.

  “Luminita. You do not have to do this. You can stop. I know you don’t want to kill him.” Lilith pleaded in the softest voice she could manage, tears tinging the words.

  The Romanian’s delicate face stared at the words carved into Andrew’s chest, tears welling in her eyes, and for a moment Lilith thought maybe she had somehow gotten through to her. It didn’t last long. Her jaw clenched firmly in steely resolve and she violently snatched his jaw, stretching his neck and pinning him in place.

  Lilith squeezed her eyes shut, the sound of metal scratching bone in the silent room clawed at every nerve she had left. Then Cohen’s shrieks erupted so forceful that the gag fell out of his mouth. Lilith clenched her fists as tears streamed down her hot cheeks. She didn’t need his blood in her veins. Cohen’s suffering was so thick in the air that it was palpable, even for her.

  When his raw screams ended, Cohen collapsed against the table, his eyes rolling back in his head. He panted for ragged breaths as Lilith helplessly watched. God. What Duncan must have endured, watching this happen to his own daughter. No wonder he was a mindless beast when she found him.

  “Slice from the right upper eye lid diagonally to…”

  Suddenly, the whole building shook briefly as dust filled the air. The tables rattled, instruments clinked against the cold tile floors, bottles rolled to the floor and shattered, and then the fluorescent lights blinked out, plunging the entire room into darkness. It was almost like a mild earthquake, but if they were still in New York that was very unlikely. For a moment everything froze and the only sound was the murmured groans of pain from Cohen.