The Messenger: A Novel

by Burke, Jan

  “What do you mean, this isn’t the one?”

  “The one we want has dark hair, remember?”

  The woman moaned. Her eyelids fluttered.

  Evan swore bitterly. “Well, I still don’t want her screaming when she wakes up. Damn it, Adrian’s going to have my hide!”

  They quickly bound and gagged her.

  “Who the hell is she?” Evan asked.

  Daniel spotted a purse and rifled through its contents. “Rebecca Clarke. Damn. This is Brad’s sister.”

  “Maybe we can use her to get the other one down here.”

  “Maybe…”

  Hoping the details of a plan B might come to them, they stared in silence at the blonde, who continued to moan softly. Her eyes opened briefly—she seemed to be trying to rouse herself.

  Daniel heard the sound of a cell phone somewhere outside and moved to the window. He carefully parted a curtain. “Someone’s coming!”

  Tyler muted the ringing cell phone in frustration, and nearly didn’t answer the phone, but then he saw that the caller was Alex.

  “Tyler—I thought I’d better let you know—Rebecca was all bent out of shape because supposedly Shade was nosing around Amanda’s house, and she asked my guard to take your dog back home—and he agreed and put it in his car and brought it here. Problem is, it wasn’t Shade. And now there are two dogs here—two Shades.”

  “The second dog is up there?” He breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s fine. Its name is Wraith, I think. Can you tell them apart?”

  “Well, yes, very easily. The new one—Wraith?—is a female.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes,” Alex said. “She’s big for a bitch, nearly Shade’s size. They look almost identical otherwise. Rebecca apparently didn’t notice the dog’s sex.”

  “Alex, listen to me carefully. This is extremely important.”

  “All right…”

  “Do not let that dog—or anyone from the house—come down here. Lock the gates, shut the dogs in—and don’t let anyone out, no matter what you hear down here.”

  “Tyler, what’s going on?”

  “I’ll explain it later. Don’t let any stranger who claims his dog is missing take Wraith. In fact, absolutely no one else enters or leaves until one of us calls you and uses the code word ‘ring’ in a sentence to let you know we’re not calling under duress, all right?”

  There was silence, then Alex said, “Are you sure this is wise?”

  “Alex, as of this moment, I can’t give you a more important job than making sure that those dogs do not fall into the wrong hands.”

  “Someone wants to steal Shade?”

  “Yes. And Wraith. So keep them there. They’ll also protect you and Ron and Brad.”

  She laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence…”

  “I didn’t mean it that way. Of course I’m depending on you to protect everyone there. I think the people who attacked Brad may be at Amanda’s house, so keep an eye on things for me where you are, all right?”

  “Sure. Call me if you need me down there.”

  He hung up and gave the phone to Amanda. “I want to rescue Rebecca, and you know I can do it—I’m able to defend myself, and they can’t really harm me. But I can’t be worrying about you, Amanda, which I would, and you’d just be—”

  “In the way.”

  She looked away from him, and he knew he’d hurt her. “I know you want to help, to be useful, but if anything happened to you—”

  “I’ll stay here and call Alex if you aren’t out in a few minutes,” she said with a kind of determined calm. “I remember the code word.”

  “This is important—if you really think I’ve been…taken out of action, ask Alex to release Shade. Run back to the house and stay there. And no police, right?”

  “I understand,” she said. She hesitated, then hugged him hard and whispered, “Tyler, please be safe. I have such a bad feeling about this.”

  “‘Be safe,’ huh? Not a wish I usually think of needing, but I’ll do my best.”

  “Hurry—I don’t want them to hurt her. Yell if—well, if you think I can be of help.”

  “I will. And if you see them taking her out by the front door as I go in the back, scream bloody murder, then run to a new hiding place.” He gave her a quick kiss and ran toward the house.

  Daniel said, “It’s Hawthorne and the girl!”

  “Wherever he is, that dog’s not far behind,” Evan said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They moved downstairs as quietly as possible, abandoning the blonde, and watched for a chance to leave.

  “They’re moving closer!” Evan said.

  “I don’t see the dog with them.”

  “So what? Remember the last time? That thing disappears in the dark.”

  “Hawthorne’s the one Adrian really wants,” Daniel said, “or his ring anyway. Why bother with the girl?”

  As if to provide for Daniel’s plan, Hawthorne started moving closer to the house—without the girl, and with no sign of the dog.

  “Fine,” said Evan, pulling out the gun again, “but I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Don’t be stupid! The two of us can take him without all that noise.”

  Evan ignored him.

  They hid behind a large couch and watched as Hawthorne carefully peered around the back door. No sooner had Hawthorne stepped silently across the threshold than Evan fired three times in quick succession.

  44

  The report was deafening in the confined space of the house, but Daniel saw that Evan’s aim was true—Hawthorne crumpled to the floor. They hurried forward.

  Although he was a fair shot himself, Daniel preferred not to use firearms. Gunshots were loud and messy. But looking at Tyler Hawthorne, whose eyes stared up, unseeing, Daniel couldn’t argue with their effectiveness. Hawthorne’s bloodstained fingers clutched weakly at his side. He strained to draw fading, burbling breaths. Evan had wisely aimed for his body—in the dark, a head would be a hard target to hit.

  Hawthorne coughed softly once, blood pouring out over his chin and neck as he did, then closed his eyes. He didn’t draw another breath.

  “Get the truck,” Evan ordered. “Hurry. We have to get our asses out of here before that damned dog comes after him.”

  “Or the police,” Daniel said, stepping over Hawthorne’s body. “The girl is probably calling the cops right now.”

  The truck was nearby, but Daniel ran as if the devil himself were after him, which, he thought, might not be far from the truth.

  Amanda stifled a scream as she heard the gunfire, and fought an urge to run toward danger.

  He can’t be killed. He can’t be killed.

  But what if Adrian, with all his dabbling in the occult and centuries’ greater experience, knew some secret weakness of Tyler’s? Perhaps the bullets were coated with some poison or were made of silver or something. Wouldn’t it be just like Adrian to have had, from the very beginning, some way of killing Tyler? He wouldn’t leave the ability to reclaim his immortality to chance. He would make sure he could get his powers back from Tyler.

  She saw a man run from the house, but he didn’t have Rebecca or Tyler with him. She forced herself to wait.

  Then she saw a familiar truck roaring down the driveway, the one she had seen in the desert, the one that had struck Tyler. She fumbled the cell phone open and called Alex.

  “Tyler?” Alex answered. “What the hell is going on? We just heard gunfire.”

  “It’s Amanda. Um…thought I’d ring. Tyler said to tell you to let Shade loose.”

  “Good, because just now, with the help of two of my biggest men, I barely managed to stop him from smashing through a window.” She yelled to a guard to let the dog loose.

  “Also,” Amanda said, “no police. That’s really important.”

  There was a brief silence, then Alex said, “Okay, but I can’t guarantee that someone else in the canyon didn’t already call them.”

  “I k
now. Thanks. I have to go.”

  She hung up, then watched in alarm as a tall man emerged from the house, carrying Tyler over his shoulder. The man hastily took Tyler’s lifeless body to the truck, then ran back toward the house.

  No…dear God, please let him be all right! Let him live…

  She heard a rustling sound behind her—Shade was running flat out, moving with amazing speed. He passed her as a black blur. She followed him as quickly as she could.

  Evan dropped Hawthorne to the ground at the back of the big pickup truck and lifted the camper-shell door. He then lowered the tailgate and tossed Hawthorne in the back. He thought he heard Hawthorne groan—but that was impossible. He had felt for a pulse before taking him out of the house—the guy was dead.

  Daniel hadn’t left the cab of the truck. Lot of help he had been with all of this. Evan shut the tailgate and hurried back into the house. Hell if he was going to leave any witnesses behind.

  Amanda had just reached level ground when she saw Shade gather himself and leap over the tailgate of the truck. Slowly, the truck began to move.

  “Stop!” she shouted, but the truck picked up speed.

  Evan would be safe, Daniel thought, now that the dog was in the truck. Even with the camper door up, the dog wouldn’t leave Hawthorne, and although Evan probably wouldn’t figure out that Daniel had just saved his life, he’d find a way home. If Evan had done what he was supposed to do and climbed back into the truck, they could have driven off without the dog as a passenger.

  Adrian would know what to do with the animal.

  Adrian would protect Daniel from the dog.

  Something within him argued that he was a fool to believe this was true.

  He looked in the mirror and saw the girl running after the truck.

  He sped up.

  45

  Amanda broke her stride and stumbled as her parents’ ghosts appeared in front of her. She just managed not to fall. Her father motioned her toward the house, but her attention was on the fading taillights ahead of her. She lost sight of them as the truck turned onto the road.

  “Do you mean to harm him? To have him become a ghost?” she asked, trying to catch her breath.

  They shook their heads no, then pointed at the house again.

  “If you love me,” she said, “if you have ever loved me, follow him. Find out where he’s being taken.”

  Her parents glanced at each other, then turned to her. They pointed toward the house.

  “All right, all right! But please…please…help me!” She drew a hard breath, fighting back panic and frustration. “I need you.”

  With a speed that astonished her, they moved in the direction of the truck, then disappeared.

  Could she trust them? She wasn’t sure, but Shade was with him.

  She ran toward the house, wondering how, without Shade’s help here, she would stop a man with a gun from whatever harm he intended.

  Evan heard the truck drive off and ran to a window. He was just in time to see a young woman running down the drive after it. He swore that if he saw Daniel again, he’d kill him. Then he’d find out if Daniel’s mother was alive, and if she was, he’d kill her, too, just for raising such a damned fool.

  Although his own estimate of his intelligence was high, he could not decide what he should do now. Go after the girl outside, before anyone saw her out on the road and asked her what was wrong? Before she called the police? Or should he go upstairs as he had planned, finish that one off, and then kill the other one? It wasn’t as if either girl knew who he was, though, so maybe he should get out of here and save his bullets for the dog.

  He scratched absently at the parts of his skin dampened by Hawthorne’s blood.

  Maybe he should go outside and catch the girl and take her back to Adrian. After all, that was what they were supposed to do. Adrian always got mad if they did anything other than what he ordered them to do.

  Completely ignoring the fact that he carried a firearm in defiance of his master, he pictured himself showing Daniel up by delivering the real prize. But, even without the girl, how was he going to get back home? He checked the garage. A Jag was parked there. Sweet. It was about to become his new ride.

  Daniel had a lot to answer for. Evan decided he would catch the other girl and take her with him. Bring the blonde along as a bonus. That plan, he decided, would be best.

  By the time he had worked through his plan, he saw the brunette turn toward the house. Now what was she up to?

  Amanda remembered that the back door was open. When she neared the house, she began to move more cautiously. One of the men was gone, and so was the truck, but Tyler’s other attacker was probably still in the house. The idea of encountering him frightened her, but she didn’t want to leave Rebecca in his power for another minute—he might be hurting her even now.

  Although her eyes had adjusted to the darkness outside, as she stepped into the kitchen, it was harder to see.

  She knew her way around the house, though, and walking as quietly as she could, she made her way to the living room.

  She listened hard but could hear no sound other than the hum of the refrigerator and the ticking of the grandfather clock. She reached the foot of the stairs and carefully began her ascent.

  A night-light in the upstairs hallway allowed her to see that the door of the guest room Rebecca used was closed. Amanda had just taken a creeping step toward it when the ghosts of her aunt and uncle appeared. She drew in an audible gasp but managed not to trip or knock anything over. She was just feeling relieved about this when Aunt Cynthia motioned toward something over Amanda’s left shoulder.

  The hall lights came on as she turned. The man who had carried Tyler to the truck was pointing a gun at her.

  “Just step into that room,” he said.

  Shade lay beside Tyler and breathed softly on his face.

  Tyler’s eyes opened, but he squeezed them shut almost immediately, warding off pain. He felt the burn of fever spreading through his body, and fought to keep track of the words he wanted to say. After a moment, he managed a dry whisper. “Shade, I beg of you—protect Amanda.”

  The dog didn’t move. Tyler forced himself to open his eyes. Shade seemed suddenly alert, staring at something behind the truck. The dog came to his feet, seeming to need no effort to maintain his balance as the truck swayed with the curves of the road.

  “Please, Shade. Please help her.”

  He looked at Tyler, came close to him once more, and again breathed softly on him.

  The pain lessened immediately.

  Shade stared hard into Tyler’s eyes, as if he wished to convey some message of his own, then turned, and in a single leap was out of the truck.

  In his delirium, Tyler thought an elegant couple in evening dress joined him almost as soon as Shade was gone. They seemed familiar, but he couldn’t recall where he had met them. He could have sworn the woman looked at him in sorrow, and placed a pale, cool hand on his forehead, soothing the fever and bringing him sleep.

  46

  Amanda obeyed the man with the gun. He turned the light on, and she saw Rebecca, bound and gagged, lying awkwardly on the floor. Her face was scraped and she was bleeding from a cut on her chin. Seeing her cousin mistreated, knowing this man had shot Tyler, seeing Tyler’s blood on his hands and clothing—all combined to make Amanda feel suddenly more angry than afraid.

  Rebecca, pale and wide eyed, looked relieved to see Amanda until she saw the man just behind her. Amanda hurried to her cousin and tried to move her to a more comfortable position. With some effort, she managed to help her sit up. Rebecca seemed woozy. She leaned against Amanda.

  “What did you do to her?” Amanda asked.

  “Shut up!” he said.

  Rebecca made a little screeching sound behind her gag, but she wasn’t looking at either Amanda or the man with the gun. When Amanda followed the direction of Rebecca’s gaze, she saw her aunt and uncle hovering nearby.

  “Shut up, I said!” their
captor repeated.

  “Are you the one called Evan, or are you Daniel?”

  He was shocked to hear her mention their names.

  “You told your names to Brad, remember? Uncle Jordan and Aunt Cynthia, is this Daniel?”

  “You aren’t fooling me with that old ‘someone is behind you’ stunt,” he said.

  But behind him, the ghosts were shaking their heads. Rebecca cowered against her.

  “Evan it is, then,” Amanda said.

  “Look, you, I don’t know what kind of trick you’re trying to pull on me, but I told you—”

  She saw his uncertainty, his fear, and decided to keep him off balance. “Are your parents living, Evan?”

  Evan was so taken aback by this question, he answered, “No. Dead for years.”

  “Well, if their ghosts suddenly appeared in this room, wouldn’t you screech?”

  “Leave them out of this. You don’t know a thing about them!”

  “True, although I’m sure they’re both very disappointed in you, wherever they are. The point is, the ghosts of Rebecca’s parents are right here, right now. Just behind you.”

  He glanced nervously in the direction of Rebecca’s gaze and took a step sideways.

  The ghosts seemed suddenly distracted and turned their heads as if they had heard a noise. They disappeared.

  Amanda felt a little of her confidence go with them.

  A moment later, though, she heard noises downstairs.

  Evan heard them, too, and stepped into the hall and shut the light off. While he was distracted, she used her free hand to reach for Tyler’s cell phone and, without holding it up to her face, pressed redial.

  Evan heard the sound of Alex’s voice answering hello on the other end, though, and turned back toward Amanda in a fury, snatching the phone from her and ending the call. He stepped back, then threw it hard at her, and although she tried to shield her face, it clipped her near the eye, then it slid under the bed, out of reach.