The demon’s eyes were positively blazing now.
“Yes. I have heard of them. Yes. It makes sense,” it growled happily.
Chloe turned to the bear shifter.
“You’re all right with this? You’re in service to a demon that feeds off blood, and you have no problem with that?” she demanded. He didn’t bother to answer her.
“Humans will do anything for money,” Sophronia sneered. The shifter didn’t look the least bit offended.
“So we kill them now?” the shifter asked. Chloe tensed. Was this it? She glanced at her mother, and a look of understanding passed between them. They were panthers; they’d go down fighting.
Pride swelled inside her, and also sorrow, at the loss of the lifetime she should have been able to share with Kenneth.
“Not now.” The woman who looked like her grandmother tossed them a look of contempt. “They will be a worthy sacrifice to the Master. Lock them up.”
Chapter Thirteen
“I like this place,” Reggie said. “There is a nice breeze here, and an excellent view. I would like my room at home to look like this.” He dug his hand into a bowl of dates and stuffed four of them in his mouth at the same time.
“See?” Pixie said to Bobbi.
Bobbi just shook her head.
Heath, Jax, and Reggie had moved in to Bobbi’s hotel room, because it was further away from the fighting, at least for the moment. They were eating breakfast at the café, and trying to ignore the sound of gunfire in the distance.
Bobbi was about as frustrated as she could be. Whenever she was near Jax, she wanted to rip his clothes off and ravage him, but they were all crammed into one tiny room, with the girls and Reggie sleeping on the narrow bed (he slept curled up at their feet), and Jax and Heath sleeping on the floor.
Her only comfort was knowing that Jax was as frustrated as she was, and that when they got back to their apartment in Playa Linda, they’d have a marathon sex session so epic they’d have to buy new furniture.
“Gmmp mmph hmmp mmph mmph?” Reggie asked, around his mouthful of dates.
“What? Chew your food! You’re going to choke,” Bobbi said. And then his parents will have our heads, she thought.
“He said, are you sure my parents still don’t know I’m here?” Pixie said. At Bobbi’s surprised look, she added “I speak brat. Because I am one.”
“I’m absolutely sure they don’t know,” Bobbi said. She was lying. She had no idea what was happening back in California. They hadn’t even been able to get their satellite phones to work for the last day. Cell phone and regular phone service was nonexistent. All they could do is show up at the place where the plane was supposed to land in a couple of days, and pray that it actually was able to make a landing.
“This goat stew’s actually pretty good,” Heath said, scooping up a huge spoonful. “I’ll have to get the recipe before we go.”
“Right. Because the local grocery stores in Playa Linda sell a lot of goat steak,” Bobbi said, rolling her eyes at him. He tried to kick her under the table, but she pulled her leg out of the way and he kicked Jax instead.
“Ha,” she said. “Serves you both right.”
“For what? Wanting to cook goat stew?” Heath demanded indignantly.
“No, jerk, for trying to ditch me back in Playa Linda. Yes, I’m still on that.”
“She holds a mean grudge,” Heath told Jax. “You sure you can handle her?”
“Hey, our friend’s back,” Pixie said before Jax could answer. She nodded at Karesh, who’d just pulled up in front of the café in a battered car which was punctured by several bullet holes. These days, it was rare to see a car in Turak which didn’t have at least one bullet hole.
“That’s the guy I told you about, Karesh,” Bobbi told Jax. “The one from the El-Debar family.”
Karesh gestured at them from outside of the café, waving at them to come outside. Heath sighed, quickly crammed a huge spoonful of goat stew in his mouth, and tossed several bills on the table. Mamoud bowed politely.
When they trooped outside, Karesh glanced at Jax and Heath with surprise. “Who are they?” he asked Bobbi.
“They work for my company,” she said.
“All right. I want you to come back to my compound with me, and try one final time to appeal to my family to leave the country. If this doesn’t work, I will have to take matters into my own hands. I can’t let my father destroy us all with his stubbornness.” Bobbi could see circles under his eyes, and a shadow of stubble on his face.
“Why would he change his mind now?” Bobbi demanded skeptically.
“A mortar landed in the yard yesterday and came very close to killing my mother and two younger brothers while they were tending the vegetable garden and milking the goats. If every last one of us dies, there will be no guardians left. Even a stubborn old fool like my father must understand that.”
Bobbi glanced inside the café. Mayameen was in there, helping her uncle cook. Her taxi was parked down the block.
“We’ll follow you there in our own taxi,” she said. Karesh looked as if he might protest, but then shrugged and nodded, and climbed into his car to wait for them.
“It’s not that I don’t trust him,” Bobbi said to Jax, “It’s that I don’t trust anybody, him included.”
“But you trust me, right, baby?” Jax slung his arm around her shoulders.
“Hmmph,” she muttered. “I’m addicted to you like an addict is addicted to crack cocaine. But trust you? Ehh….”
“I’ll settle,” Jax said.
The fighting was exceptionally heavy that day, and Mayameen had to weave through neighborhoods all over town to make it back to the compound.
“What was it like to drive here before the war?” Pixie asked her.
“Oh, much more boring,” Mayameen said. “But much safer, of course. I think my passengers preferred it.”
A servant was waiting for them at the gate, along with Karesh. When they walked through the gates, Bobbi noticed that the fountain that had been there earlier had been destroyed by mortar fire; now it was splattered across the ground in giant, glittering shards. It made Bobbi feel oddly sad, not for the loss of the fountain, but for the loss that people all over this city were suffering. The loss of safety, a sense of security, of property, of lives, all over a stupid power grab between two warring brothers.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Jax said. He could always sense her moods.
Bobbi sighed. “When we leave, we’ll be leaving Mayameen and Mamoud and his whole family behind in this hell.”
“That sucks,” Pixie agreed, as they stepped over the shards of the fountain. Reggie made a game of it, hopping from one foot to another. “I’ll miss that blackmailing bastard. And his goat yogurt. And Mayameen’s driving. Could we take them with us on the plane?”
“We could offer, I guess. I don’t know if they’d even agree to come. Leaving behind your home and your friends and your country is hard. And it still doesn’t solve anything for all of the other people who are trapped here with no way out. This bites.”
The door to the house swung open, and they were ushered in to the living room. The El-Debar family had all gathered there, waiting for them…along with half a dozen large, armed men clutching AK-47s.
Bobbi glanced at Jax. They hadn’t been able to reach Kenneth to let him know they were coming to the compound. “I don’t like the looks of this,” she whispered, sliding in front of Reggie.
* * *
Chloe and her mother spent a sleepless night in their room, trying to figure out an escape plan, and coming up with nothing. They’d been able to discern by listening at the door that there were half a dozen shifter bodyguards in the house, working for the demon.
“I seriously can’t believe that there are that many shifters who are willing to sell out to a being of pure evil,” Chloe groused. “Apparently I had a very sheltered upbringing. I expect people to be decent.”
“Apparently your upbringing w
asn’t sheltered enough. I spent all my life trying to keep you safe, being the most careful mother I possibly could, and now this happens. I’ve failed as a mother.” Hilary sighed heavily, running her fingers through her tangled hair.
“Okay, you got lured into a car by what you thought was your mother, and it turned out to be a demon. I hardly think you could have seen that one coming,” Chloe protested.
“You know, I probably have a hundred Facebook messages right now, and I haven’t been able to reply to any of them. Everyone must think I’m terribly rude,” Hillary said. “And think what an amazing status update this would be. My mother turned out to be a demon!”
Well, at least her mother was focusing on what was important. Rather than, say, the fact that in a few hours they might be demon chow.
“Kenneth will save us,” Chloe said. “He said that he’s my fated mate, and I believe him. Wouldn’t a panther go to the ends of the earth for his fated mate? I would. I’d go to the ends of the earth for him. ”
“You really think he’ll find us in time?”
“Yes,” Chloe said fervently.
No, she thought. He’ll try to find us…but how could he?
When the sun rose, the door opened. Four bear shifters in human form strode through the door. They made a big display of the shoulder holsters that they carried. Chloe could smell the silver coating on their bullets. There was no point in resisting. They’d die in agony, with the silver sizzling through their flesh.
Could this really be the end? Chloe thought despairingly. Will Kenneth think I abandoned him? Will I watch my mother die, at the hands of a demon?
At gunpoint, their hands were cuffed behind their backs with copper handcuffs, preventing them from shifting, and then they were quickly led outside and shepherded into a waiting stretch limousine by half a dozen men with guns. Sophronia sat in the front seat. The windows of the car were tinted so nobody could see inside.
Most of the men climbed into the back of the limousine with them, with one sliding into the driver’s seat.
Gunfire crackled through the air, only blocks from where they drove, and Chloe cringed at the sound of mortars that were much too close. It’s a toss-up what’s going to kill us first, she thought despairingly; the war or my demonically possessed grandmother.
“I can’t believe that just days ago, my worst problem was grammatically-impaired students who wouldn’t stop texting during my lectures,” she muttered.
They came to a large compound with high concrete walls. Gliding to a stop, they parked outside.
“This is the compound of the El-Debars, isn’t it?” Chloe guessed. Sophronia ignored her, staring straight ahead as if she didn’t exist.
“I can’t believe that thing is my mother,” Hilary said, shaking her head indignantly. “She has no manners.”
Two of the bear shifters climbed out of the vehicle and went to the front gate of the compound, which was unlocked and swung open when they pushed on it.
“It’s safe inside,” one of them said to Sophronia. “They’ve been secured.”
That doesn’t sound good, Chloe thought.
They were pulled from the limousine, and marched at gunpoint through a courtyard scarred by mortars, and into the home of the El-Debars.
They were led into a large living room. All the shutters on the windows had been closed, and the room was lit only by the flickering light of kerosene lamps, giving it an eerie feeling.
Chloe and her mother were led over to a long wooden table, next to what must have been the El-Debar family, all of whom were lashed to chairs. There were more than a dozen adults, and ten children of varying ages. Also tied to the chairs were a female coyote shifter, a female human, a male bear shifter, and a male wolf shifter. Several burly human soldiers in camouflage gear stood nearby, holding Ak-47s.
Chloe thought she could scent a cheetah shifter somewhere nearby, but there was none in the room. Maybe somebody had escaped capture and was hiding, she thought. Maybe it was somebody who could run for help?
The shifters must be tied with copper wire, Chloe thought, or they’d shift into animal form, jump up, and rip these soldiers to pieces.
Suddenly, Chloe felt an odd tug inside, almost as if Kenneth were nearby, but that was not possible. If he were here, all these people couldn’t be tied up – unless he were mortally wounded, somewhere?
Her stomach lurched at the thought.
I must be mistaken, she thought. I feel that way because I want him to be here so badly. He’s fine; he isn’t hurt. He can’t be hurt. He mustn’t be.
One man, a handsome young man in his thirties, stood next to the soldiers. He bore such a strong resemblance to the people who were tied up that it was clear that he was a family member – so why was he free? One of the men tied up at the table, an older man in his sixties, was almost certainly his father. The other men were his brothers.
When Sophronia marched into the room, he turned to her, smiled, and bowed ironically.
Sophronia stripped off her hat and veil, and spoke to him in an ancient Semitic tongue that Chloe only partially understood, but she understood enough. She blanched.
“What did he say?” her mother asked her.
“He is greeting her as a fellow servant of Lashkallu,” Chloe said. “Lashkallu must be their demon master. He said that his human name is Karesh, but when he was moving the statues, he cut himself and accidentally bled on the statue of the servant, and now he is Devora, who lives only to free their master from his stone prisons.”
“Prisons? Plural?” Her mother looked confused.
“That’s what he said.”
She heard wheels rolling down the hallway from the front door. Sophronia’s men wheeled in what appeared to be two large statues, wrapped in blankets.
These were the two statues that had been stolen from Kenneth’s homes in Italy and France, Chloe suspected. Sophronia had been behind it all along. All she’d needed then was to find the rest of the statues – and now, she clearly had.
Karesh’s eyes lit up when the statues were wheeled in. His family struggled with their bonds and cursed in English and Arabic. “Betrayer!” his father shouted. The shifters glared at Karesh, with murder in their eyes.
He spoke again in the ancient dialect, and Sophronia replied.
“He’s saying that at last, with the statues reunited, their glorious master will rise again. Sophronia is saying she always stayed faithful, and soon they will all be bathing in rivers of blood,” Chloe translated for her mother.
“That sounds horribly unsanitary. And sticky,” her mother said. “When, exactly, is your boyfriend Kenneth going to show up and save us? Because now would be a good time.”
“Good question,” Chloe muttered. Should she just tell her mother that it was hopeless, and every last one of them was about to be sacrificed to the demon?
“Fetch the statues,” Karesh said to the soldiers.
The family at the table struggled madly, screaming and swearing and shouting threats.
“Don’t do it! Don’t do it! You don’t know what you’re unleashing!” the older man who looked like Karesh’s father screamed in protest. He turned to the soldiers who held the AK-47s. “Do you not understand? The demon kills everything, human and shifter! The demon has no loyalty or gratitude! You will die! The demon will boil your blood inside your body!”
The demon-Sophronia smiled cruelly.
“All these years enslaving my master, for nothing,” she cooed at the man. “You kept my glorious master trapped, and you will pay the price. Your screams will echo from these halls. He will be freed from his prison, and the first blood that he will drink will most assuredly be yours.” Her face lit on the children at the table. “I am sure he will start with the young ones first. We will make you watch.”
Chloe shuddered, and bile rose in her throat. There was no bargaining with these creatures, no pleading for mercy.
The soldiers reappeared, with three large crates, which they wheeled over to
stand next to the two statues that Sophronia had brought with her.
“Which one is the master?” Chloe wondered. Despite the horror of the situation, her academic curiousity still survived.
Sophronia tossed her a scornful glance. “My glorious master is too powerful to be contained in any one statue. His essence was divided up and then imprisoned in those five statues. Only when they are all together at the place of their entrapment, and anointed with the blood of the betrayers, can he be freed.”
“Oh my God,” Chloe said. “This compound – we’re right on top of the ancient city of Kar, aren’t we?”
“We are indeed, where we were once summoned from the demon realm, and then betrayed and trapped in a hideous prison,” Sophronia snarled, eyes glowing like red coals.
“The two smaller statues – those were the statues of his servants,” Chloe said. “I guess one little statue was enough to contain a puny being like you.”
The soldiers were opening the boxes.
“Puny?” Sophronia sneered. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
“Yes, we will, won’t we?” Karesh said. One of the soldiers quickly wheeled one of the crates next to her.
“Open it!” she cried eagerly. When the soldier pried the top of the crate off, however, her eagerness turned to confusion and dismay.
“What – this is-”
Before she could say a word, Karesh spun towards her and slashed her arm violently with a small knife, and then splattered her blood on the statue. She gasped in shock.
It was one of the smaller statues, Chloe realized. A statue meant to contain the demon’s servants.
Karesh began chanting in the ancient Semitic language of Sumer, and the demon-possessed Sophronia fell to the ground, screaming and thrashing.
Her security guards reached for their guns – and suddenly, the room exploded into chaos.
All of the people who’d been tied up at the table leaped to their feet. The soldiers with their AK-47s began firing at Sophronia’s bodyguards. The shifters shifted. Animals were flying through the air.
His Purrfect Mate Page 14