Claim the Night

by Rachel Lee

  “I won’t let it,” he said harshly. “I won’t. You have a proper life to live, and I’ll be damned if I take it from you.”

  For some reason she didn’t want to consider just then, that hurt. But it was obvious to her that she had nothing at all to offer. All her education and apparently even her experience were useless now. So at last she rose to leave the room, but even as she was turning to the door, Jude was suddenly there in front of her.

  He cupped her neck and chin gently with one hand and bent to kiss her. “Please,” he said, “don’t think I’m angry with you. I’m not. I’m angry with myself.”

  “No need.” She looked up into his dark-as-night eyes, and despite everything felt the trickle of longing he never failed to awake in her. “This is not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. I’ll leave you to think.”

  Just a few minutes after she returned to the outer office, joining Chloe and Garner in glum preoccupation, Jude called out. “Chloe? Get me the grimoire, please.”

  “Jude!” Chloe sounded appalled.

  Jude instantly appeared in the doorway of his office. “If you won’t get it for me, then I will.”

  Chloe jumped up and stood in front of the wall behind her desk where a large painting hung. “Touching that thing scares me. You had me lock it up for a reason.”

  “Yes, because of how it might be used. But I need it now.”

  Chloe shook her head. “The dark arts are never the answer.”

  “They are when you need to find a weakness.” He reappeared in front of her. “Move to the side, please. I’d rather not move you myself.”

  Chloe’s lips set, but she stepped out of the way. Jude swung the painting away from the wall, revealing a safe. He worked the combination almost too fast to see, then opened it to remove a very old, very thick book.

  He closed up the safe, moved the picture back into place, then turned to Chloe again. “Call Creed. Ask him to get over here quickly. I may have remembered something and I need him.”

  Then he was gone again. Chloe sat down at her desk, scratched impatiently at her forehead, and looked as if someone had told her the world was about to end. “Call Creed,” she said, wagging her head in disapproval, her tone snitty. “Yeah, I’ll call Creed. Maybe he has some sense left.”

  “What’s a grimoire?” Terri asked.

  “You don’t want to know. But if your curiosity is killing you, look it up online. In the meantime, I’m supposed to be calling Creed.”

  It was a strangely subdued Garner who answered her. “It’s a book of magic spells. For summoning demons and angels, supposedly. Or other things.”

  Terri felt ice water trickle down her spine. It sounded like a book she would never even want to open the cover on.

  Who the hell would want to summon a demon?

  “It also,” Garner said, “tells you how to get rid of them when you’re done with them. Of course, that’s the tricky part.”

  “Tricky?”

  “Demons and djinns and things like that often want a little quid pro quo. But I doubt Jude is going to ask a demon to do anything for him. He’s just looking for a way to send this one back.”

  Another icy chill trickled through her. “I’d be afraid to even read the book. And I don’t think I’m superstitious.”

  “Oh, it’s got nothing to do with superstition,” Chloe said, phone to her ear. “This is real. Why else do you think Jude keeps that book in a safe? Hi, Creed. Jude needs you now. I don’t know what he wants, but maybe you can talk some sense into him.”

  Jude’s voice issued from the inner office. “I heard that.”

  “Not my fault you don’t like what I say. Creed heard you, too, by the way. He’s laughing. Thanks, Creed,” she said and hung up.

  “Laughing,” Chloe said, disgust dripping from the word. “Only vampires could find this amusing.”

  “I heard that, too,” Jude called out. “Trust me, Chloe, I am not in the least amused by any of this.”

  Chloe sniffed, but fell silent.

  Terri simply didn’t know what to say or even think. This was all so far outside the familiar that she just kept drawing big blanks.

  Only Garner appeared to remain confident. “Jude will figure this out.”

  Terri sure hoped so.

  Creed arrived little more than twenty minutes later. He looked far happier than when she had last seen him. “Is your granddaughter better?”

  “Much so. Improving by leaps and bounds, physically. She’ll probably need therapy, though.” His face darkened at that.

  Terri hesitated then asked, “Does she know about you?”

  “No. Of course not. She’s never even met me.”

  Terri felt a pang. “That’s sad, Creed. But you keep an eye on her?”

  “Yes, I do. I may not be much of a guardian angel, but I do what I can. Too bad I wasn’t watching over her the other night.”

  “Nobody can watch someone else every minute of the day.”

  “Not even a vampire, unfortunately. But she’ll mend, thank God.”

  Jude called out from his office again. “Creed?”

  “Coming.” Creed looked down at Terri and smiled faintly. “You’re amazing, for a mortal. I rather like you, Dr. Black.”

  Then he disappeared swiftly into Jude’s office, closing the door behind him.

  Terri looked at Chloe. “What did that mean? Amazing for a mortal?”

  Chloe shrugged. “Maybe that you seem to be taking the undead in stride?”

  For some reason Terri felt a crazy urge to giggle. “In my job I deal with the dead all the time. Undead is only a step removed.”

  Chloe finally let go of her disapproval and relaxed into a grin. “But ever so much more trouble!”

  An hour later, Jude and Creed emerged from the inner sanctum. Something in Jude’s step immediately told Terri he was feeling confident again. At least more confident than earlier.

  “Okay,” he announced as he went to the safe and put the grimoire safely back inside. “Here’s what’s going to happen.”

  “I can hardly wait,” Chloe muttered.

  “Chloe, you’re going to that shop you know over on West Alma.”

  “The place that sells all that stuff for potions?”

  “Exactly. I need you to do some specialized shopping. They close at midnight, right?”

  “Or later, but yeah.”

  “Creed is going with you for protection. He has a list of the things I need. I want exactly those things.”

  “I can do that,” Chloe agreed. “What are you going to do?”

  “Some things you don’t need to know about.” He ignored Chloe’s huff of displeasure. “Creed?”

  “Let’s go,” Creed said to Chloe. “Limited time.”

  “All right, all right.” Chloe grabbed her purse and held out her hand to Jude. He put a credit card in it.

  “Everything,” he repeated. “Exactly.”

  “I can follow orders.”

  “When you choose.”

  Jude watched them leave then turned to Garner. “Go out and test the night, Garner. Especially down by the warehouse district. It’s out there. If you catch a whiff, report back immediately.”

  Garner leapt up, clearly glad there was something to do besides sit around.

  And then Terri was alone with Jude. He sat beside her on the couch, and took her hand, his touch cool. “I hope you’re brave,” he said.

  “Do I have any choice?”

  “It doesn’t look like it.”

  “Then I’m brave. What are we doing?”

  “I’m going to set a trap to send that thing back to hell. You have to promise to do exactly what I say, no matter what. We’re m
essing with dangerous stuff tonight.”

  “Black arts?” She only had a foggy idea of what such things could be.

  “Something like. It’s going to be risky. It might fail.”

  She nodded, pressing her lips together, feeling her heart begin to hammer. “I’m going to face that thing?”

  “You’re the lure. But I’m the real bait. It doesn’t want you except as a way to get to me. So we’re going to set a trap, and you’re going to do exactly what I say, and you’re going to pray as hard as you’ve ever prayed. I’m going to give you some incantations to read. You must read them exactly the way they’re written, and you must do it exactly when I tell you.”

  “I can do that.”

  “I know you can.” He reached out, running a cool fingertip over her cheek, and along her jawline. “It’s too late, Terri.”

  Her heart slammed. “Too late? What’s too late?”

  “We’ll talk later. If I don’t succeed tonight, it won’t even matter.”

  “What? Jude, please!”

  He leaned forward to silence her with a kiss. “Just know this, sweet one,” he whispered. “No matter what happens, you hold a place in my heart that no one ever has.”

  She gave in then, bringing up her arms to wrap them around his neck, drawing him close, letting him press his face into the hollow of her throat, hoping he might take her blood there and then because she felt such a need, such a deep and overwhelming need, to give him what he most craved.

  Instead, she felt featherlight kisses on her throat, felt him inhale her scent deep into his lungs. Then he sighed and straightened, looking deep into her eyes.

  “When I am close to you now, my heart keeps time with yours.”

  A ripple of pleasure poured through her. “Really?”

  He kissed her cheek then drew back. “Really. And if I keep this up we’ll be otherwise engaged when the rest return. First we deal with this thing. Then we’ll deal with us.”

  She liked that word, us. A different kind of shiver ran through her as she wondered if they’d both still be around come dawn. Leaning forward, she rested her head against his shoulder and sent a prayer winging heavenward that they would both survive the night.

  Somehow, from what she knew of Jude, she didn’t think heaven would object to such a prayer at all.

  When Creed and Chloe returned with a large shopping bag, Jude emptied it, examining its contents. There seemed to be herbs, incense sticks, candles and even a large lighter, and a box of chalk.

  “Perfect, Chloe.”

  “I told you I can follow orders. Now what are you going to do with that?”

  “Trick a demon.”

  “Sounds like a great plan.”

  “There is no other plan.” Jude put everything in the bag. “Time’s wasting. Terri, come with me. I want to explain to you what’s going to happen, then we’ll go.”

  She followed him into his office again, her feet leaden. Why did she think she wasn’t going to like any of this?

  Jude closed the door firmly and waved her to a chair. He sat behind his desk as if he was determined to keep a distance between them. “Ready?” he asked.

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  “This isn’t going to make you happy.”

  “I didn’t think it would.”

  He gave her a half smile. “You’re the lure.”

  “You said that already.”

  “Ah, but you’re also the lure for that demon. You attract it as surely as you attract me.”

  “I didn’t even think of that!”

  “For different reasons, but you lure it the same as you lure me. So we’re going to use that.”

  “Okay. That’s what I was saying earlier, basically.”

  “Basically. But this time we’re going to be ready, prepared. And you’re not going to like it.”

  “We already covered that. What do I need to do?”

  “I found a way we may be able to send it back to hell. But first we have to localize it.”

  Terri didn’t need a translation. “You mean it has to occupy me.”

  “Or me. If it occupies you, I’ll attempt to exorcise it. If that doesn’t work, I may have to grant it permission to possess me.”

  “Jude, no!”

  “Terri, yes. Just listen. That thing wants me not only because I’m immortal, but because I have the innate ability to become a terror beyond your imagining. If that thing takes me over, it can wreak horror I don’t even want to describe. That’s why it wants a vampire.”

  She nodded, going almost numb with fear. “But if it takes you…”

  “Then we have to stop it at any cost. Any cost, Terri. Even if it means killing me.”

  She jumped up. “No!”

  “Terri, listen to me.”

  “No, I’m not going to kill you. I’m not going to stand by while someone else kills you!”

  “Terri…” An instant later he was there, his arms wrapped tightly around her, steel bands she could not escape.

  “Listen to me. Listen to me!”

  Finally she nodded, even though she could feel the sting of tears in her eyes.

  “You cannot conceive what I am capable of. Unleashed and misdirected I could instill such terror in this city that people would be afraid to emerge from their locked houses. I could do that. I could go on a killing rampage that would approach genocide. I could leave such a bloody trail behind me that you humans would never feel safe again. And little could stop me. Do you think I want to become that monster? I would rather die.”

  She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. She saw his eyes darken, knew he smelled it and wanted it, and much as she wished she could drive his words from her mind, make herself forget them, she knew he wasn’t exaggerating. The little she had seen of his capabilities was enough to verify the truth. He could become a monster beyond reckoning.

  “But I can be killed,” he said flatly. “I can be. The sunlight. Fire. Decapitation. Those things can kill me. The demon knows this and will try to avoid it. It wants me as I am, not dead.”

  Still biting her lip, feeling a hot tear roll down her cheek, she nodded. Speech seemed impossible.

  “So here is the thing. If it takes you and I fail to exorcise you, I’ll invite it to take me. If that happens, you’re going to wake up in the midst of things, because while you’re possessed, you won’t remember anything from when the demon is in control. If you become suddenly aware that things have changed, then you must presume I am possessed. Don’t trust me. I’m going to make a protective circle. If the demon holds me, it cannot cross the unbroken circle.”

  Again she nodded, trying to take every word to heart.

  “It may try to break the circle, scuff it if it’s pretending to be me, so that once it enters it can still escape. If that happens, you must immediately close the circle.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll show you when I make it. If I refuse to enter the circle, use fire. Every bit of fire you can. Burn me if necessary. Drive me into it, and seal it.”

  “Burn you?” She quailed at the thought.

  “I can heal from any burn except immolation. The demon won’t want to risk that. So burn me if you must to get me into the circle. Then you must do and say exactly what I’ve written down for you. Exactly. Can you do that, Terri? Can you?”

  She closed her eyes a moment, drawing a shaky breath, facing all the he had told her and the consequences of not obeying. In the end it was the thought of many lives that might be lost if she failed that persuaded her. The thought of Jude being turned into something he loathed. She opened her eyes. “I can.”

  He studied her for several seconds, then nodded. “Okay. We’ll go as soon as Garner gets something.”
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  Chapter 13

  “It’s near.”

  An hour later Terri and Jude were in the warehouse district, entering an abandoned brick building filled with dust, rats and discarded trash. Jude hadn’t worn his usual leather coat, but instead a linen jacket. She suspected, with a sick and heavy heart, that he had chosen the jacket for its flammability.

  “How do you know?” she asked. The darkness frightened her, pierced only by their flashlights, the huge echoing space seemed full of threat.

  “I smelled it. I know the scent now. It’s not here yet, but we passed it.”

  Faster than she could see, he cleared a space on the cement floor. His movements were so quick that they stirred the dust up into choking clouds. Her heart hammered, feeling as if it had risen into her throat.

  Then Jude approached, took the flashlight from her and set it on the floor. “I’m going to tie you to that pillar.”

  “But how can I help if I can’t move?” Her mouth seemed to have turned into the Sahara.

  “Only until I make the circle. In case it arrives early, I don’t want it to be able to stop me. Believe me, I’ll untie you as soon as I deem it wise.”

  She licked her lips and walked over to the concrete post nearby. Leaning her back against it, she closed her eyes and said the St. Michael prayer silently as she felt ropes wind around her, snug but not too tight.

  “Don’t pray too hard,” Jude said humorously. “We don’t want to keep it away, remember?”

  “This is not funny!”

  “No,” he agreed. “It’s not. Just trying to cheer you up. If it makes you feel better, keep praying until I’m done making the circle.”

  She did exactly that, but watched intently because she realized she might be called upon to close that circle if things went awry.

  He spoke as he worked. “I’m not going to close it just yet. If it possesses me, you’re going to have to be able to force me into this circle. No demon can cross this circle once it’s closed, whatever the provocation. However, as long as you’re not possessed, and I’m not possessed, we can cross that circle simply by stepping over it. But don’t step on the lines or smudge them.”