by Greg Howard
As much as the revelation rattled Cooper internally, he wasn’t about to let it show. He stood close enough to Randy that their shoulders touched in a show of solidarity.
Randy stared Alexander down and rested his hands on his hips. “I don’t know what’s been going on here, but from where I’m standing, things aren’t looking too good for you right now, friend. And we’ll talk about whether or not Lillie Mae came here of her own accord down at the station. Now. You want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?”
The grin on Alexander’s face implied he was both amused and charmed by Randy.
Stephen moved to Alexander’s side and snarled at Randy through gritted teeth. “Let me rip this idiot hick’s throat out.”
Randy squared his shoulders and edged forward. Cooper held his arm out, blocking his advance. “Don’t get any closer to them.” He knew Randy had no clue who, or what, he was dealing with here. His badge and his brawn meant nothing to those creatures.
Randy pushed Cooper’s arm away and walked right up to the Anakim, his six feet four inches of muscled mass nearly matching Alexander’s. “Here’s what’s going to happen, Princess. First we’re going to get Lillie Mae out of this hellhole. Then I am going to call this in, and my officers will be here in a matter of minutes to personally escort you and Pretty Boy there down to the station.”
Cooper didn’t know what was about to happen, but he was relatively sure it wasn’t going to go down the way Randy had just mapped it out. His chest tightened, and he flexed his fingers at his side. He had to do something before Randy got them all killed. Their options dwindled fast.
Alexander chuckled and backed away with his arms raised in mock surrender. “Of course, you are free to go, Officer. You can even take Lillie Mae with you, if you like. She has outlived her usefulness, much like Charlotte here.” He narrowed his eyes on Cooper. “But he stays. You will stay, won’t you, Cooper?”
The threat was obvious and real. Stay, and Randy and Lillie Mae might get out of there alive. Leave, and all bets were off. Cooper only had one alternative left, and he prayed it worked this time.
Randy huffed. “The hell he’s staying. Let’s go, Cooper.” Randy turned his back on Alexander. A mistake.
Alexander twisted his face and extended his fangs as he left the ground.
Cooper shoved Randy out the way. With a quick, deep breath, he corralled all the anxiety, fear, and anger in his core. He opened his mind to the darkness lurking deep inside him and released himself to it. The dark power answered his call, burning like steel rods under his skin. As Alexander lunged forward, a jolt of electrical current seized Cooper’s body and expelled itself through the tips of his burning fingers. Alexander received the full impact, sailing backward and taking Stephen down with him. They both slammed hard against the dirt wall and fell face-forward onto the ground.
Cooper’s heart pounded in his chest. His ears burned, and his skin tingled all over. He looked down at his still throbbing hands. He’d done it. Unleashed the beast—in front of Randy, no less. Shit. Cooper peered over his shoulder, a sliver of panic catching in his throat. Randy stared at him, eyes wide with a mixture of shock and fear. Cooper looked back at the two downed Anakim bodies. He didn’t know how long they would stay that way.
Ignoring Randy’s frozen state, Cooper hurried back over to Lillie Mae. “Help me get her up those stairs.”
Randy stood motionless, gaping at Cooper.
Cooper draped Lillie Mae’s arm over his shoulder and lifted her, emboldened by the successful exertion of his power but with no time to relish in the small victory. “Randy. Now!”
As if on autopilot, Randy walked over with glazed eyes and took Lillie Mae’s other arm. They moved her gently toward the stairs. A cool breeze tickled the rim of Cooper’s ears, and the hairs on the back of his neck sprang to attention. Never a good sign when you’re trapped in a dungeon with supernatural creatures. He stopped and craned his neck around. Alexander stood with Stephen at his side, his face twisted into a menacing scowl.
“Bravo, Cooper. You finally embraced the demon inside you. Makes you an eminently more interesting companion. Too bad your friend will suffer for your insolence.”
The blatant threat to Randy made Cooper’s blood boil in his veins. He shifted all of Lillie Mae’s weight over to Randy and took a step toward the two men. He would show those toothy motherfuckers what the demon inside him was capable of, and he wouldn’t hold anything back this time. He would send those bastards up in flames if he had to. In truth, he wanted to feel that intoxicating combination of surrender and dominance again.
Stretching his arms out in front of him, he pointed his fingers at the Anakim. “Go back to whatever hell you crawled out of, you son of a bitch.”
But the expected rush of burning magic coursing through his veins never came. The room around him vanished. Cooper looked down. At his feet lay Trevor’s body, fully uniformed and twisted at an impossible angle. Cooper stared down into those vacant eyes, and the horror of what he’d done paralyzed him once again.
Randy’s voice echoed from somewhere behind, dragging him back into the moment. “Cooper! Look out!”
Cooper looked up. Alexander had closed the distance between them, his mouth twisting into a sneer. “Your parlor tricks are amusing but quite unreliable, it seems, Divinum.” Alexander’s fangs glistened in the candlelight, completely transfixing Cooper. Randy had to have seen them that time. “So. What will it be? You?” He nodded over Cooper’s shoulder. “Or them?”
At a loss for words, Cooper stood there, gaping. He couldn’t put Randy and Lillie Mae’s lives at risk. But Betsy’s dire warning about what would happen if Alexander got hold of his blood plagued his conflicted thoughts. A small tornado of black smoke surged down through the cellar door with an ear-shattering howl and swirled around the room. Randy shrank back and pulled Lillie Mae close to him. The dark mass knocked Cooper to the ground and settled right in front of Alexander, solidifying into the shape of a woman. Betsy. With squared shoulders and a dagger raised in each hand, she glared at Alexander. Stephen crouched defensively and hissed at her through bared fangs.
“Holy mother of God,” Randy’s voice echoed from behind. “What the hell are these people?”
Cooper scrambled over to Lillie Mae and Randy, leaving the supernatural creatures to their standoff. He got to his feet and draped Lillie Mae’s arm over his shoulder. “Randy! Let’s go!” Randy finally moved and helped him carry Lillie Mae over to the stairs. Cooper kept a watchful eye on the three Anakim the whole time.
Stephen made his move. He leaped and was instantly behind Betsy, knocking the dagger out of her right hand and drawing her focus. Alexander rounded on her and sunk his teeth into her neck. Betsy cried out—a shrill wail that dropped Cooper’s heart in his chest. She drew her left hand up, driving the second dagger into Alexander’s stomach and ramming her elbow into Stephen’s face.
“Cooper!” Randy said, demanding his full attention. He shifted Lillie Mae’s weight over to Cooper. Standing facing the broken stairs, Randy jumped up, catching hold of the lowest and sturdiest looking step. The whole staircase wobbled and creaked in protest, but Randy managed to pull himself up. They would be lucky if the whole structure didn’t crumble.
Cooper tried his best to ignore the grunts, hisses, and wails behind him, lifting Lillie Mae’s frail body high enough for Randy to get his arms under her shoulders. Her head bobbed from side to side. She was completely out of it. Only after Randy had safely navigated her up the broken maze of stairs, did Cooper dare to look behind him again.
Betsy crouched in front of Alexander and Stephen, successfully holding them at bay for the moment. Alexander held his stomach and hissed at Betsy. Thick black liquid seeped through his fingers. He looked over and leveled a threatening glare at Cooper. His head fell back and lips peeled up over his fangs. A primal screech emanated from his throat and grew louder by the second, the pitch rising higher and higher. A chorus of reciprocal screeches ec
hoed from somewhere deep inside the earthen walls around them. Cooper’s blood turned to ice in his veins.
Betsy looked back at him, her eyes wild. “Cooper, run!”
Before he could comply, a rumble sounded from the depths of the tunnel, like a charging herd of cattle. The floor shook. Dirt trickled down the walls all around the room. Cooper couldn’t tear his eyes away from the tunnel. He wished he had. One ghastly changeling after another spilled out of the tunnel. Rotted skin hung off exposed bones. Empty eye sockets oozed black blood. Jaws full of razor-sharp fangs snapped at the air. Daggerlike fingers clawed their way over each other. Cooper turned back to the staircase. Randy stood on the top step, holding onto Lillie Mae, staring back at the horde of monsters wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
“Cooper, go!” Betsy barked behind him.
When he looked back, a dozen monsters had circled her, sizing up their prey. One charged her from behind. Cooper snapped to his senses. Without thinking, he threw out his right hand toward the monster. Nothing happened. No jolt of power seized his body. No rush of heat flooded his veins. Only Trevor’s vacant eyes clouded his mind.
Betsy spun around, nailing the attacker square in the chest with a dagger. It wailed and fell back, twisting on the ground in a puddle of the black tar that poured from its wound. She fought off three other changelings at once, as even more emerged from the tunnel. The room filled with monsters so fast that Cooper lost track of Alexander and Stephen.
Randy’s voice came from above. “Goddammit, Cooper, get the hell out of there!”
Cooper looked up. Randy stared down at him through the cellar door on his hands and knees, reaching down for him.
Cooper jumped up and grabbed onto the closest step. It held. He pulled himself up on the staircase, the entire structure moving under his weight. Another step and his left foot sank through a rotted board. He steadied himself and wriggled free. Only three more steps to go. The moment he made contact with Randy’s outstretched hand, the structure gave way under him. With a grip around Cooper’s wrist, Randy pulled him up and through the cellar door. They both scrambled away from the opening and over to where Lillie Mae sat on the floor by the front window. Though her eyes were wide and clear, Cooper doubted she truly understood their situation.
Randy panted beside him. “What in holy hell are those things?”
Out of breath himself, Cooper couldn’t speak. He shook his head.
Betsy flew up out of the cellar door, landing hard in the center of the room. Her hair was wild around her face. Deep gashes littered her clothing, exposing ripped flesh and oozing, black blood. “Get to your car and go straight to Phipps House,” she said in a steady and sure tone. “Once you are back there with Lillie Mae, you’ll be safe. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
Randy scrambled to his feet and pointed at Lillie Mae. “She needs a hospital!”
Betsy leveled a steely glare on him. “I said straight to Phipps House.” The not-so-subtle growl in her throat shut Randy down cold.
Cooper gathered up Lillie Mae with one arm behind her head and one under her legs and stood. Randy grabbed Cooper’s coat from the floor, like it mattered, and led them outside to the SUV, primal howls and piercing screeches chasing them the whole way. Without giving his pristine red pickup a second look, Randy opened the back door of the SUV. Cooper eased Lillie Mae onto the seat, gently laying her on her side and closing the door. He jumped into the driver’s seat and fumbled around in his pants pocket for the keys. Randy slid into the passenger’s seat without looking at Cooper, adding a chilly layer to the already heightened anxiety inside the car.
After three failed attempts getting the key inserted into the ignition, Cooper finally rammed it in and turned. The engine instantly roared to life. Shoving the gear stick into reverse, he pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floor and spun the tires in the sand before finally gaining some traction and rocketing backward.
Randy shot a look out the back window. “Tree!”
Cooper glanced up. The imposing trunk of live oak filled the rearview mirror. He slammed on the brakes and yanked the steering wheel hard to the right. The SUV lurched and slung them both across the cab, stopping with a jerk just inches away from the massive live oak. As the car settled, they both stared out the front windshield. Betsy charged out of the kitchen house door, frantically waving them away. Cooper wasted no time getting the gear stick into drive and flooring it. They sped down Oak Alley, the backend of the SUV weaving a path from side to side in the sand. They headed for the dim outline of the stone gates in the distance, and a tiny flame of hope ignited inside Cooper. He had Lillie Mae back, and they just might live through the godforsaken night.
Randy twisted in his seat, looking out the back window. “Christ almighty.”
Cooper glanced up at the rearview mirror, which framed the shrinking moonlit image of a woman. A warrior. Alone. She did not run. She stood facing the kitchen house, a dagger raised in each hand as a swarm of changelings poured out of the door, heading straight for her.
Chapter Seventeen
“Cooper? Is that you, honey?” Lillie Mae’s voice crackled. She opened her drooping eyelids for the first time since they made it safely back to Phipps House.
Cooper sat beside her on the lumpy down-filled mattress, wiping away the final traces of dirt from her face with a damp cloth. “I’m here.”
It had been a night straight from Hell. Though he didn’t understand the magic that protected Phipps House, Betsy was right. The second he stepped inside its walls with Lillie Mae in his arms, he knew it in his bones. They were safe. He laid the cloth on the side table and pulled the quilt up to her neck to shield her from the random pockets of cold air drifting around the drafty bedroom. Even covered by Cooper’s coat and with the heater in the SUV going full blast, she’d shivered all the way home. Randy hadn’t looked at or spoken to Cooper the whole time. After he helped Cooper get Lillie Mae in bed, he had left the room without a word. Cooper had no idea what Randy thought of him after all he’d witnessed.
Cooper stroked Lillie Mae’s hair. Once a majestic crown of copper glory, it was now wet and matted with sweat, coarse and stringy and the color of Spanish moss after a full day of rain. The skin on her face drooped over her cheek and jawbones. She looked so frail it broke Cooper’s heart to meet her eyes.
She’s dying. Betsy’s words echoed in his brain.
He forced a smile. “Everything’s okay. We’re safe now.” He wasn’t sure which one of them he was trying to convince.
Lillie Mae gave a slight shake of her head, and her eyes sagged. “Not okay. Not safe. My power is fading. I can’t protect you much longer.”
He didn’t know what to say, so he just rubbed the back of her hand and looked down. He’d spent a few peaceful moments while Lillie Mae slept, thinking they were out of danger and that the nightmare was over. Lillie Mae was back, and Alexander would just go away and leave them alone. He knew in his gut that was foolish thinking. Now that Charlotte was gone, he was Alexander’s last hope for creating his army of bloodsuckers. It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
“Charlotte?” she asked, as if he’d spoken the name aloud.
“I’m afraid she didn’t make it. Remember?”
The clarity in Lillie Mae’s eyes waned, the sedative he’d given her taking effect. He might not have much time before she faded away again.
Cooper squeezed her hand. “Alexander called her your child.”
Lillie Mae managed a weak smile accompanied by a long wispy sigh. “She was my daughter. Before Mary.”
The simple mention of his mother’s name silenced Cooper. He could count on one hand the number of times Lillie Mae or Grandpa Joe had spoken Mary’s name since her death over twenty years ago. She was their pride and joy, their only child, and a rare beauty inside and out. Her death nearly destroyed them. A devout Christian her whole life, Lillie Mae had never again set foot inside a church. In stark contrast, Grandpa Joe stopped his notorious drinking cold an
d started going to church for the first time in his life. Never missed a Sunday after that until the day he died, believing his daughter’s death was punishment for his abuse of alcohol and the many betrayals of his marriage vows.
“You never mentioned having another daughter. Not in my whole life can I remember you or Grandpa Joe or even Mama mentioning her.”
“Joe wasn’t her father, and your mama never even knew about her. And I… well, I thought she’d died when she was just a baby.”
Cooper picked at a loose thread in the seam of the quilt. “He had her? All this time?”
The soft lines on Lillie Mae’s face petrified in an instant, and her eyes grew cloudy. “Yes. He took her. That monster stole my baby and used her up all these years. Her blood was special, like yours and mine.”
Cooper leaned forward, hoping to hold her attention. “Alexander, you mean.”
She looked up at him. Something akin to fear filled her eyes. “Terrible thing I did, son. Horrible thing. That thing inside you. That darkness. It’ll make you do terrible things. And God made me pay for it. He gave me the cancer. Gave it to your mama, too. Then he took Joe from me, and your brother. Now he’s taken my only living child away before I even had a chance to know her.”
Cooper leaned back and relaxed his shoulders. It was the first time she’d ever mentioned the dark nature they shared.
“You have to leave here, Cooper.” Lillie Mae touched his face with arthritis-twisted fingers. “He’ll take you, too. To make me pay for the horrible things I’ve done.”
Cooper wasn’t sure if she meant God or Alexander, but it really didn’t matter. She was confused again. He stroked her hair. “You haven’t done anything horrible. You’re a good person. Best person I know. Everything is going to be all right now.”