by Julie Kenner
My eyes went wide. “The dagger! Eric, you do know where the dagger is? Tell me. Where is it?”
His face contorted in pain, and I saw the scar on his back begin to bulge.
“No,” I cried. “Don’t even think about it. Forget the dagger. We don’t need the dagger. We have another plan.” I swallowed, and held his hands close. “We can get rid of Lilith—do her in forever. And she’s vile, Eric. You know how bad. So that’s a huge thing. Because if we don’t get rid of her, she’s never going to leave us alone. Never going to leave Allie alone.”
I waited, expecting him to speak, but he stayed silent.
I hesitated only a moment longer, and then continued. “And although we can’t kill Odayne, we can make him start all over.” I drew in a shaky breath. “It’s going to be hard, but not any harder than this. Not any harder than what you planned to do.” I licked my lips, looked him dead in the eye, and told him the plan to use the ring with Solomon’s Stone.
“So I end up dead,” he said after I had explained. “Dead and still tied to that beast. I thought you said you had a solution.”
“Dammit, Eric, it’s the best solution we can find. The ceremony to unbind you from Odayne has been lost,” I said, resisting the urge to blame him. “But you’ll come back. Odayne’s going to grow inside another body, you know he is. And while he’s growing, you can be searching for a way out. And maybe the next time you can find your way free.”
“Maybe,” he said, his voice harsh, angry. Not that I could blame him. The solution was hardly the best.
“There’s another way,” he said.
“How? If there is, then tell me.”
“Do you love me, Katie?”
My heart hitched. “You know that I do.”
“Then come with me. Take me. Your life and mine.”
I opened my mouth, certain I’d misunderstood him, and just as sure that I hadn’t. “Eric . . . You can’t ask me that. Allie. Timmy.”
“We’re bound, Kate,” he said. “Did you know that they are, too? Odayne and Lilith. She created him for herself. Couldn’t abide the thought of any other male except one she’d rendered on her own. So she created him, breathed life into him. Loved him. Loves me.”
His voice had gone a little singsong, and I shivered. “Eric. Stop.”
“It’s almost poetic.”
“Stop,” I shouted, and saw with satisfaction that the dreamy look in his eyes cleared. “Don’t talk like this.”
“About their love? Or about ours? I thought you loved me, Katie. I thought we were soul mates.”
“This isn’t something you can ask.”
“Why not? You love me?”
“Of course I do,” I said, tears falling freely.
“Then this is the solution. You know it as well as I do. We’re bound, and we always have been.”
I shook my head, horrified that he’d ask me to take my own life, to toss away what God had given me and sacrifice my children in the process . . .
Although I knew that it had to be the demon talking, I still couldn’t bear it, and I stood up, moved to the far side of the room and watched him with my back against the wall. I tried to speak, tried to tell him how, and tried to tell him why, but I couldn’t find the words. And in the end, I simply stood there, watching him, and slowly shaking my head.
He watched me a moment. “Are you going to die for me, Katie?” he asked, as I watched the scar on his back begin to pulse with life.
I shook my head. “No. And the Eric I know would never ask me to.”
“Funny,” he said. “The Katie I know would never say no.”
Seventeen
“In the safe room,” I said to Eric. “You have to go in.”
“No,” he said. “I can’t. The pain.”
“You have to,” I said, feeling close to hysterics. “You know it’s the only way. You’re still weak, the demon will retreat inside, and if you’re in the safe room, it’ll keep him at bay.”
We were back at the mansion, the tension between us thick, and we hardly had the time for a heart-to-heart or to exchange warm fuzzies.
In the end, Eric had agreed to wear the ring. He’d agreed to the plan. And although it broke my heart to know that this was the last night I’d see him on this earth, I comforted myself with the knowledge that he really was Eric. Because only Eric would have made the decision to sacrifice himself for Allie and me. More, I knew Eric was a fighter. He’d find a way out of the ether again, and he wouldn’t give up until his soul was free.
“She’ll come for you, right? She’ll come here? She can find you?”
“She’ll come,” he said. “I told you, they’re bound.”
“Then the safe room makes even more sense. If the demon’s in pain . . .”
I trailed off because there was no need to finish.
“I know,” he said. “I know I have to.” He drew in a breath. “I can do it,” he said, twisting the ring he’d already placed on his finger. “I have to do it.”
“I’m right here,” I said, and I think he knew that I meant more than the merely physical.
Since he was still unsteady, he had his arm around my shoulder, his other hand holding his cane. He stumped forward, then stopped when the safe room came into view. The door was open, and Allie was on the floor, peering out as if she’d been keeping vigil, her face streaked with tears.
“Daddy?”
I watched him close his eyes, then hold out his hands for her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.”
She took a step forward, as if ready to run from the room to him, but I stopped her with a curt warning.
“But, Mom!”
“You don’t leave the room,” I said, my eyes going from her to the others. “None of you.” I turned to Eric. “Go on, then.”
He hurried to Allie, his arms held wide, his face revealing a hint of the pain he felt entering the room. He buried it, though, and when she hesitated only a moment before rushing into his arms, the pain on his face evaporated completely, replaced by a wistful sadness that both broke my heart and filled me with relief.
Mindy, I noticed, remained in the far corner, her back to the wall and her eyes never leaving Eric.
Allie stepped back, her eyes on his wrists, bound as they were in strips of denim. “What did you do?” she asked.
“I never meant to hurt you,” he whispered. “I’d rather die than hurt you,” he said, as more tears spilled down her cheeks.
“This room . . .” His hands clenched into fists, and through the thin, white T-shirt I’d given him, I thought I saw the scar on his back writhe beneath his shirt.
“Eric?” I whispered.
He turned to me, his face tight, his skin pale. He clenched his hands into fists, and there was no denying the struggle going on inside this man. “She’s coming. Dear God, she’s practically here.”
And, yes, she sure as hell was.
It started slowly. So slowly that I thought at first Eric was wrong. That a heavy truck was rumbling up the street. Or that we were feeling the first rumbles of an earthquake.
But trucks couldn’t shake down a mansion, and earthquakes didn’t go on for eternity.
And as we stood there, huddled in the safe room, the world around us began to rumble, the walls of the mansion shaking, and dust filling the air.
Around us, the walls seemed to scream as the foundation and framing were wrenched apart, the power of Lilith cutting a path in front of her, and we watched as the flooring in the kitchen and the hallway leading up to the safe room seemed to split, tiles bursting and flying, the walls cracking and shaking.
I slammed the door to the safe room shut and gestured for everyone to get in the middle of the room. The walls and floor and ceiling had been imbibed with the bones of saints, but that didn’t stop the room itself from shaking as she tore through the rest of the house. And even as the world shook around us, my stomach clenched from the fear I saw on the face of everyone in that room with me.
>
Everyone, except Eric. There was no fear there. Only despair. And pain.
And then, with one horrible, dusty explosion, the door to the safe room exploded, splinters flying as I shouted for everyone to get back.
Allie jumped immediately, scooping up Timmy with one hand, and grabbing Mindy with the other even as Cutter jerked Laura and Rita to the far wall. Stuart moved to stand beside me, but Eddie hauled him back by the elbows, and I shouted out, crying for him to go, because I couldn’t split my focus by worrying about my husband even while I worried about our plan.
I stood side by side with Eric, my hand clasped tightly in his even as the walls of the safe room began to crack and split.
And still, we hadn’t seen her.
“She is among the first of the demons,” Eric said, his voice holding a soft, almost sensual reverence that had me looking at him sharply. “She is strong.”
Quite the understatement, I thought, in light of what she was doing to the house. And the truth was, I’d never run across anything like this. Never met a corporeal demon with the power to destroy. In true form, yes. But as a human, never.
Lilith was a rare creature. Rare and terrifying and as she walked into view, the floor popping and churning and bursting apart as if blazing her path, I squared my shoulders and forced myself not to show my fear.
“Eric?” I whispered, desperate to know that it was still the man I knew beside me, and not the demon I despised. Because if Odayne had returned—if our plan was over before it had even begun—then I really would be afraid.
“It’s me,” he said, and I exhaled in relief. “He’s trying, but I’m winning. For the moment. But, Kate,” he added, “if—if this is the end—I want you to know—”
But he never got to say it. Because suddenly she was there. Right there, larger than life and filling the doorway.
And with a single hand extended in invitation, she called to him.
“No,” I said, stepping in front.
Her eyes barely even cut in my direction, and she surely never touched me, but it didn’t matter. I was thrown backward, landing so hard against the back wall of the safe room that the impact cracked the plaster.
“Mom!”
“Kate!” Stuart was at my side in an instant, but I was already struggling to my feet.
“Now!” I cried to Eric. “Now, before it’s too late!”
And as I held my breath, he stepped out of the room and then, as her lips curled up in a victorious smile, he thrust his finger up and fast, going straight for her eye.
I held my breath, as I knew everyone around me was doing. It was going to work. It had to work.
And as we watched, the ring shattered, shards from the stone suddenly flying everywhere, the dust of the destroyed gemstone seeming to sparkle in the light.
I heard screaming, someone calling out, “No!” at the top of their lungs. And it was only when my throat hurt that I realized it was me.
Our chance to stop her had failed, the ring destroyed and useless. And as she smiled at me—as the bitch moved to the very edge of the safe room and actually smiled at me—I couldn’t suppress the wave of revulsion that swept through me.
Odayne stood beside her now, the light inside that I knew was Eric slowly dying. He turned his head to look at her with such adoration it made my heart break, and when he turned to me, I could barely see through the tears. “It’s there,” he said, the words coming out in a croak as if he was having to fight to force them past his lips. “With the hidden. Like a secret. Find it. Use it.”
And then the light faded, and he turned dead eyes on Allie. “Come with me.”
She took a step back, fear and revulsion and utter sadness on her face.
I moved to stand in front of her. All of us moved to stand in front of her. “We’re okay. They can’t come in the room.” I looked at Eric. “Even he can’t come in the room anymore.”
“Well said, Kate darling,” Lilith said, her voice seemingly amplified in the small room. “And so true. Fortunately, entering won’t be necessary.” She held out her hand. “Come, child.”
“Never,” Allie said, the strength in her voice making me proud.
“Come, child,” she repeated, and this time, Allie took a step toward her.
“Mom? Mom, what’s happening?” The panic was unmistakable, as was the fact that she was moving forward, with slow, deliberate steps.
“No,” I said. “No, no, no.” I held on to her arms even as Stuart and Cutter and Laura grabbed on to her legs and Eddie held her around her waist.
“Pitiful,” Lilith said, and with one violent jerk, Allie was ripped from us.
Her screams seemed to sear my brain as she flew through the air to Lilith’s waiting arms. I raced forward, but was thrown back again, as was everyone else. And by the time I’d climbed once again to my feet and raced out of the safe room, they were gone.
Just like that, they’d gone.
My knees went weak, my legs collapsing beneath me, and suddenly I was on the floor, Stuart’s arms around me, his voice telling me we’d find her, we’d find her, that we were going to find her.
“How?” I forced the word out past the despair I felt. Allie and Eric. I couldn’t bear it.
“The tracking dot,” Eddie said, crouching down beside me. “That’s what you bought it for, right? Don’t tell me you forgot to use it.”
“Got it,” Eddie said, doing something to a tiny computer screen that he swore was tuned in to the microdot I’d placed on Allie’s necklace. “They’re heading for the national forest.”
“On our way,” Stuart said, steering the car into a sharp U-turn. It was the three of us alone in the car, chasing an electronic beep, desperate to find my daughter. At first I’d told Stuart not to come, but he’d refused, then casually reminded me that we’d be wasting precious time by arguing. “She’s my daughter, too,” he said, and there was no way—no way in hell—I was arguing with a statement like that.
We’d left the rest behind, Cutter and Laura and Mindy and Rita in the safe room with Timmy. It was an illusion at best. If Lilith wanted my son, we’d just learned well enough that we couldn’t stop her. But I couldn’t think about that now. All I could think about right now was getting Allie back.
I’d get her back, or I’d die trying.
And if I could take Lilith down with me, so much the better.
Not that I could see any way of that happening. The bitch was powerful. Too powerful. The most I could hope for was to get my daughter back and to escape. And to hope that once Lilith had her lover, that she would go off on some sort of demonic honeymoon and leave the rest of my family alone.
I’d lose Eric—dear God, I could hardly bear to think of it—but if my kids were safe . . .
I knew, of course, why they wanted Allie. I’d realized the moment Lilith had taken her. Eric had told me, though I don’t think he’d ever realized that his daughter was in danger. They needed his blood for the ceremony to bind him and Odayne. But Eric’s blood was no more, because Eric’s body was dead and buried. David’s blood would never suffice, not for that kind of magic.
And the only remaining blood of Eric Crowe flowed in the veins of his daughter.
I prayed that they needed only a drop. If they needed a sacrifice . . . Well, I couldn’t even bear to think of it.
“Have we got any chance at all?” Stuart asked. “Any chance of stopping her?”
“Car’s stocked,” Eddie said. “Made sure it was before we left for the party. Trunk’s full of holy water super shooters and a few more Tasers. Got a selection of knives and crossbows. And I got a few handguns, too. Won’t stop the bitch, but she’ll look a damn sight less pretty with a chunk of her face missing. And we got one other thing, too. If you kill Odayne, you’re gonna hurt her. Gonna hurt her bad.”
“Except to do that,” Stuart said, as he sped along the Coast Highway toward the cutoff to the canyon, “we need that dagger. And we’ve never found it.”
“Don’t e
ven really know it existed,” Eddie said, his eyes on the tracking device. “If it did, you’d think Odayne woulda found it. Found it and hidden it away just in case Eric was tempted to pass it on in one of his lucid moments.”
“Eric looked,” I said, twisting around to speak to Eddie, who was in the backseat. “He would have told me if he—”
“What?” Eddie said, his eyes narrowed as he peered at my face.
“Here!” I shouted, grabbing Stuart’s arm. “Turn here.”
“You can’t get to the national forest through here,” Stuart said.
“Do it!” I shouted, with such force that he complied, apparently without thinking. “I know where the dagger is.”
“You sure?” Eddie asked. “’Cause our girl’s in trouble, and if we take too long . . .”
“I’m sure,” I said, hoping, praying that I was right. Hoping that Eric’s cryptic words about the hidden and the secret had been a message and not mere ramblings.
I pointed the turns out to Stuart, and when he slammed on the brakes in front of the house I’d once shared with Eric, I had the door open before the car had completely halted. I raced toward the house, burst through the broken doorway, and threw myself down in front of the window seat. I pried it open and found nothing, then broke my fingernails as I clawed open the loose board.
And there it was. The dagger. Odayne must have forced Eric not to tell me. But Eric had fought. And though he couldn’t speak it directly, he’d managed to hide it for me. And he’d managed to give me a clue.
It was a magnificent weapon. An ornate hilt in the middle from which a curved blade extended on either side. As a whole, it formed a deadly crescent, but I also realized that the blades could slide apart at the hilt and it could be used as two daggers.
They’re bound, I thought as I raced with my prize back to the car. Eric had explained how Lilith and Odayne were essentially one and the same.
So that should mean that if this dagger was capable of killing Odayne, then it should also be capable of killing Lilith as well.
The trick, of course, would be getting close enough to her to do it.