by Karina Halle
“Sage!” I shrieked as fire-hot hands grabbed the back of my shirt and started pulling me backward, keeping me from reaching the door handle. I tried to turn and kick but only fell to the floor, which was now filling up with blood. The taps in the sink and in the bathtub kicked on by themselves, blood gushing out of them, the air filling with a copper tang.
My mother pulled me up by my arms, her red, wet hands searing into me, and started dragging me toward the bathtub. I screamed again, trying to get free. I could feel her face changing shape, taking on another form, and I did what I could not to look at her.
“Dawn!” I heard Sage bellow from the other side of the door, the handle jangling back and forth. “Dawn!” The door shook on its frames as Sage threw himself against it.
“Help!” I screamed until a hand went across my mouth, silencing me. Then the hand pulsed and expanded and grew until it was a thick tentacle forcing its way into my mouth, trying to move past my tongue and down into my throat. I was choking, the air being sucked out of me, my mouth feeling like it was being ripped apart.
Just as the world was growing black, Sage kicked the door in, breaking it off its hinges. The tentacle quickly removed itself from my mouth, the hands let go of my back, and I fell forward, limp and lifeless, my head about to crash into the side of the bathtub. Sage caught me just in time and pulled me out, letting me rest on his strong, muscular thighs.
“Shit,” he swore, cradling my head in his hands. I looked up at him, trying to tell him that I was okay. Those beautiful green eyes were tinged with a fear I’d never seen before as he looked from me to the bathtub and back.
I lost consciousness.
People were arguing. The sound of Jacob’s gruff voice and Sage’s panicked one. I remembered what had happened. The bathroom. My mother. I could tell I was in bed, under the covers, and still I was afraid to open my eyes.
“I think she’s waking up,” I heard Max say.
A warm hand went to my cheek, and I had the courage to face the day, to keep going on. I opened my eyes and smiled when I saw Sage’s handsome face over mine, his brow wrought with concern. “Dawn. You’re going to be all right.”
I snorted caustically, even though it hurt. “Right. Sure. Uh-huh.”
I tried to sit up, and he helped me until I was leaning back against the pillow. We were in my room, the lights all blazing. Max was sitting on a chair in the corner, watching me intently; Jacob was standing by the broken bathroom door, his arms folded and his eyes in my direction, but his mind elsewhere. In his hand he held something that looked like a photograph.
“What time is it?” I asked, eyeing the window. It was black outside, a nearly full moon hanging low in the distance.
“Four a.m.,” said Jacob. “You’ve been out for an hour.”
“Dawn,” Sage whispered, his massive body settling on the edge of the bed beside me. “What happened? What was that thing?”
“You saw her?”
Sage exchanged a look with Jacob. “Who?”
“My mother. My mother was in the bathtub. I went to get some water, and I saw her there, behind the curtain. Then she started coming for me…”
“I don’t know what you saw, Dawn, but that was not your mother…that was…” Sage trailed off, his mouth curling in utter disgust. He shook his head. “I don’t know what the fuck that was. But it wasn’t your mother. It wasn’t human.”
“It was a demon,” Max said absently.
Sage and I both looked to him.
“Tell me again, Jacob, why it’s a good thing that he’s here,” Sage sniped.
“Shut up,” Jacob said calmly, though his tone was tightly wound. “I told you last night that there was more to this. And Max is right. That was a demon.” He gave me a sympathetic look. “Sorry, love, it was once your mother. For maybe a second even, it was her, before the demon took over. You did see her. You did hear her. Just enough to fulfill the final part of the bargain. Now you’ve been granted everything. The housekeeper told Sage that once you saw her, it would all end. This is the beginning of the end.”
Fucking hell, if my whole body didn’t just freeze in fright. I clutched the blanket to my chest, trying to find warmth.
“You’re failing at your beside manners,” Sage mumbled.
“And I was never very good at it,” Jacob said, walking forward until he was at the foot of the bed. I felt like I’d seen him too often in those ugly pajamas of his. “Luckily I have Max. Well, you have Max. He’s a lot better at this than I am.”
I looked over at Max, who was chewing on his lip in thought, staring dead ahead. I was starting to think he hadn’t even heard Jacob when he suddenly said, “Right then. I reckon it’s about time I come clean.”
“I knew it,” Sage said under his breath.
Max leaned forward in his seat, elbows on his grey tracksuit pants, and clasped his hands together. He looked me dead in the eye.
“Dawn, I am a photographer. I do work for Creem magazine. But I’m not here because of Sage Knightly and his European solo tour. I’m here because of you. For you.” He scratched at his sideburns. “Jacob had a hunch about you—a worry. He asked me to look into it. Because he’s boring and mortal now, there wasn’t much he could do, so I was the next best thing. You know how the Jacobs work, don’t you?”
I swallowed hard. “Refresh my memory.”
He sighed. “This is the part that always sounds the stupidest,” he said to himself. “Okay, here we go. In short, Jacobs are guardians, guides, and managers of this world, the Thin Veil or the barrier world, and the other worlds—Heaven, Hell, and some nooks and crannies in between. We’re all here for one purpose, and when the purpose is fulfilled, we start over again. Anew. No memories of the past we just had. Believe me, if you’ve been around for thousands of years, the erasure of past lives is the only way you can ensure sanity. Our purposes can change, though, with each life. Sometimes we manage, like Jacob did, ensuring everything is going as planned—debts to demons are made all the time. In fact, in this increasingly…volatile world, the debts are growing. Sometimes we guard the world, ensuring the bad things stay where they do and the good ones don’t come visit. Sometimes we guide those who have the ability to see and communicate with the dead. Sometimes those people can even see the demons. Sometimes they can even fight them.”
Even though I’d heard a version of this from Jacob last year, I still had a hard time wrapping my head around it. I guess it made sense in some ways, but even so, it was a lot to take, especially after witnessing my demon mother in the bathroom.
“Am I someone who sees and fights demons?” I asked. If I was, I certainly failed in the bathroom. My throat was still unbearably raw.
“I wish you were, little lamb,” he said. “Would make my job a whole lot easier. But no. In this role, I’m a manager. I’m here to protect you and the contract you signed and do whatever I can to ensure that it is handled fairly.”
“Handled fairly!?” Sage erupted. “She was fucking attacked by a demon in the bathroom while I was sleeping. How is this being handled fairly!?”
Max raised a brow. “Unfortunately, I don’t have much control over how the demons will appear to you, Dawn. I just know that now they’re getting set to collect on you. They want what you owe them.”
“But I don’t know what I owe them,” I cried out in frustration. “I don’t remember making the deal!”
“I know,” Max said. “And they know it, too. This is why it’s a bit tricky. But they can’t do anything—shouldn’t do anything—right now, not until we talk to them. If you don’t remember the deal, then it shouldn’t be in place. We can get you out of it on a technicality.”
I sat up straighter. “You can? Then do it! Talk to them.” I looked at Sage. “You talked to the woman, the housekeeper, in Paris. Let’s go back there. Pass the message on through her.”
“No,” said Jacob. “Sage has a tour to do.”
Sage’s mouth drop
ped open. “Fuck the tour! Fuck all of this. I’m not doing anything until we deal with Dawn.” He looked at me with wide eyes. “I am not going to lose you.”
“You can’t do anything for her, Sage,” Jacob said, colder now. “You outsmarted these demons before, and they would love nothing more than to have your new career thrown away. You can’t let them win. You have to go on, and Dawn will go on with you, as will Max. He’s her manager, and he will keep her safe. You keep living your life; it really is the best way to stick it to them. Don’t involve yourself. Just be there for her and trust Max.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I felt the walls around me closing in, the voices turning to mush. This was it. I’d entered a contract without knowing it, and now they were coming to collect. All those months of feeling like there was a catch with my brother and my father—I was right. The guilt was right. I brought this on myself.
“What about my family?” I asked quietly. “I should be with them. I can’t let anything happen to them.”
“Your family will be okay for now,” Max said, getting out of the chair. He stood beside Jacob, arms folded across, and I was suddenly—dumbly—struck by how similar they looked. An old Jacob and a new one. “But you need to be here with me, with Jacob, with Sage. If you go home, you risk bringing the problem with you. Your family is safest if they stay in their lives, none the wiser.”
I nodded, knowing that made sense.
“Dawn,” Jacob said, bringing the photograph forward. “Do you recognize this?”
I took the photo into my hands and immediately dropped it. I felt sick to the bone. “Where did you get that?”
“The hotel manager in Paris gave it to me,” Sage said, placing his hand on my arm and giving it a comforting squeeze. “He said it was from the housekeeper. That’s all that was in it. You recognize it, don’t you?”
“It was my stuffed horse. Miss Piggy. From when I was a little girl.” I gingerly picked the photo back up. I had no idea why there would be a photo of this, but I guess it didn’t matter. I flipped over the back. “She won’t doubt me next time,” I read aloud. “No, I certainly didn’t.”
“What happened to the horse?” Sage asked.
I frowned, wondering why his voice trembled. “My brother tore it apart. Had a fit. Why?”
He swallowed thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and said, “Angeline. She saw the photo. She said—”
“Little brothers can be so cruel,” Jacob filled in quietly. We all looked to him. “I think I need to have a talk with Angeline.”
“I knew she was a fucking GTFO,” I growled.
“I don’t think so,” Max said with a shake of his head. “I’ve suspected her, and I’ve been watching her…but I don’t think she’s a demon. She does, however, have something to do with this.”
He and Jacob started walking for the door. I felt a pang of fear at the idea of Max leaving me, but even though he’d told Sage he could do nothing, I still felt safe with Sage by my side. For being able to do nothing, he had still saved me from the demon in the bathroom.
“We’ll be back soon,” Jacob said. “Don’t open the door for anyone else. And I mean anyone.”
They went out, closing the door behind them. Sage watched me intently for a few moments. “Mind if I get in with you?” he asked.
I smiled despite myself and moved over so he could get in under the covers. He opened up his arms for me, and I carefully nestled in them.
“You’re going to be all right,” he said determinedly, kissing the top of my head.
We both knew he was lying. But I let him lie to me anyway.
Chapter Eleven
Sage
I felt like someone inserted a toothbrush into my brain and royally fucked me with it. Everything I knew or thought I knew was scrubbed clean, and here was this brand-new world that I had to make some fucking sense of.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t gone through this before—obviously I had. And obviously I knew there was something bogus going around concerning Dawn and the supernatural. But for all the shit I’d seen in my life, for the cryptic messages from a man in black and weird old photos and nearly drowning in Lake Shasta last year, I did not expect to see a seven-foot-tall demon in my bathroom, one bloody tentacle down Dawn’s throat. I did not expect to feel the fear in knowing that she was really, truly in debt to the Devil. And I really did not expect for Red Potato to be a motherfucking redheaded notary public of the angelic kind.
But the show must go on, Jacob said. And so I tried to bury this new truth by knocking on Tricky’s door and seeing what kind of uppers and downers and drowners he had. I’d been sitting in my room by myself going all sorts of crazy. Dawn was with Max somewhere—apparently safe, yeah I knew that, but it still bothered me. Jacob was still trying to track down Angeline, but I’m assuming that was a lost cause. Early that morning, he and Max had gone to find her and get to the bottom of all of this, her role in everything, but she was nowhere to be found. The hotel staff said she checked out of her room about the same time as all the demon shit went down with Dawn in the bathroom.
Jesus. A shiver rocked through me. The creature’s eyes were pure yellow orbs, like gumballs. I’d never be able to get the image out of my head, the look of horror in Dawn’s face, the utter stench of evil that rolled off the beast—but I was going to try.
I pounded on Tricky’s door even louder until it finally opened and a bleary-eyed Tricky was staring at me in annoyance, one hand covering up his junk.
“Could you have at least put on some pants?” I asked him.
His expression was dry. “What do you want, Sage? It’s eight in the morning. You know Tricky doesn’t like this hour.”
“Yeah, well, neither do I,” I said, leaning against the doorframe and trying not to look or sound desperate. “Do you have anything? Anything at all. I need my brain erased, badly.”
He looked put off. Maybe I failed at the nonchalant thing. “Yeah, I got stuff, Sage. But it’s early, even for you, and we have our show tonight.”
I closed my eyes and groaned, not wanting to beg. “I don’t need a lecture, Tricky. I just need to get floating. Help a brother out, man.”
He sighed. “Okay, okay, come in. I might as well take a ride with you.” He opened the door and let me in, and I had to avert my eyes from his package. With Dawn at my side, I’d never have to see Tricky naked again.
If you can keep her at your side, the voice in my head threatened. If you can even keep her alive. You’ll lose the one thing you love, Sage. You’ll lose her.
I grunted, wanting to smack the thoughts out of my head, and picked up Tricky’s pants, which were lying on the floor, and threw them at him.
“Naked days are over for me,” I told him, sitting down on a chair and running my hands up and down my thighs anxiously. I eyed his bed, which was empty. “I’m surprised there isn’t a naked chick or three.”
“Nah,” he said with a shrug as he did up his pants. “Angeline didn’t stay the night.”
My head snapped up, the taste of bile filling my mouth. “Angeline was here?” Of course I hadn’t thought to check Tricky’s room.
He frowned. “Yeah, man. Just for a lay and then she left.”
“What time was this?”
“I don’t know, I was at the bar till it closed and then…maybe one a.m.? Why you sketching out? Where were you last night?”
“I was with Dawn.” There really was no point trying to explain to Tricky what had happened. Anyone worth their salt wouldn’t believe me at this point.
“So are you and Dawn like that now?”
“Yes, me and Dawn are like that.”
“No sharing?”
I narrowed my eyes. “No fucking sharing.”
He fished out a baggie from his duffel bag, grinning to himself. “All right. Well, good for you, man. May you both fuck for a long and happy life.”
There was a sharp pang behind my heart. I didn’t
know long and how happy it would be.
Five minutes later, though, I didn’t really care.
I don’t know what I did for the rest of the day, not clearly, anyway. The morning was just a pleasure cruise, with me and Tricky walking around the round-pebbled beaches of Nice, spying on topless ladies sunbathing and drinking rosé wine. The afternoon was a sloppy soundcheck at the venue we were playing at, a tiny hole-in-the-wall-type bar that barely had a backstage area. I should have been nervous about that, nervous about the crowd and how close they were to me, but I didn’t care. And I liked that.
I knew Jacob disapproved. He always disapproved. That was his thing. He never said anything to me, though, just watched me like a hawk with those golden eyes of his, thinking, calculating. I know he wanted to say something so badly, to put me in my place, but he was really exercising his own discretion. He gave me the freedom to self-destruct, to treat the Nice show like it meant nothing, like it wasn’t just the fucking second show of the tour, like it wasn’t important.
I knew it was. But it was so hard to care about anything, especially that. When I could think, all I could think about was Dawn. I didn’t want to be rehearsing, I didn’t want to be figuring out the setlist, I didn’t want to get up on the damn stage and sing and play my heart out to the fucking French crowd when my heart belonged to Dawn. She’s the one who needed it.
Or did she? I didn’t get to see her much during the day and after some time, I got the impression that it was done on purpose. Maybe it’s because I was fucked up, I don’t know. But it stung. Or it would have had I been able to feel anything.
The show went okay, I guess. I was on autopilot and the crowd ate it up, so at least I had that going for me. I fucked up a few times—sang the wrong lyrics, missed a verse here and there. At one point, a drunk chick wanted to climb onstage, so I helped her up. Got Tricky to play a slow beat and made her strip down to her skivvies before Jacob came storming on stage and pulled her off.