“I think that’s good,” Aaron said, putting out a hand for me to take. I did, groaning as he yanked me off the floor. Every piece of clothing stuck to me, even with the air conditioner running full blast.
Oliver’s phone chimed, and he picked it up off the table. “It’s Dad. He needs me to pick Kelly up from her friend’s. He said to wait here, because he wants to talk about what we figured out. He thinks he has a name.”
“The name of the monster?” I asked. It would be nice to stop calling it a monster. Monsters were things like Frankenstein’s monster. Or The Blob. This thing was murderous and manipulative, and “monster” didn’t seem to touch its true nature.
“Yes.” Oliver took a step toward the pile of books from his room, but then turned around. “Aaron. I have to go for Kelly, can you look up Erdirg?”
“Sure,” Aaron replied. “I’m not familiar with the name.”
“It’s old,” Oliver said as he grabbed his keys off a side table. “As in the origin of Christianity’s devil.”
Until that moment, I’d been hopeful. I’d been learning fighting skills and had these guys ready to help me. But the devil? Satan? I’d been going to church my entire life, but I’d never once believed the devil was real.
How stupid was I? Here a monster stalked me, and I still thought Gran and Reverend Quimby were full of shit.
A strong hand settled on my back. Colton. I’d gotten used to which one of them was holding me. I could tell from their touch, the size of their hands, the way they curled their fingers or didn’t.
“Guys, one of you please explain to her—and me—that you don’t actually think Satan wants Lacey? I mean, come on.”
Aaron ran a hand through his hair. “I have to look up the name. I can’t tell her anything yet.”
Oliver called over his shoulder as he walked toward one of the cars in the driveway. “A creature’s a creature to me.”
That didn’t help me. Colton spoke again. “Look, I’m not hugely religious or anything. Spiritual maybe. If that. The thing is that… the thing is that in church…”
“I get it.” Aaron nodded. “Let’s go see who this dude is.”
I leaned against Colton’s arm while we walked over. The day caught up with me, and maybe it was the word “Satan” that had done it, but my high from the training dropped, and I was left just feeling exhausted. Aaron hummed to himself while he hopped on the computer.
Thorn grabbed a chair and scooted it next to Aaron, looking over his shoulder. “I found this site when we were trying to figure things out. I couldn’t make it work. Needed a password.”
Aaron ran a hand through his hair. “Good thing I have one.”
Colton walked to the kitchen and grabbed glasses. I watched him fill one with water before I turned back to what Aaron was doing.
“It wasn’t clear how to get one.” Thorn looked at Aaron. “No way to apply.”
“This is really more my father’s thing. The research. The rest of us find it pretty boring. That being said, I’m using his password right now because we need to read up on this Erdirg or whatever. You couldn’t have gotten a password. You have to be one of us.”
Thorn leaned back in his chair. “I’d love to be one of you. What you do is important.”
Aaron shook his head. “Got it. It’s pulling up. To tell you the truth, Oliver and I would love to be you guys. Choices. Maybe not to have to do this. My dad was you. He wanted to be in this life. Now we all have it. Whether we want it or not. Anyway, if you want to do the research, you can feel free to use the site from us.”
Thorn lit up like Aaron had plugged him in a wall socket. “Really?”
“Sure. My mother is great at research, but her interests tend to flow more like ‘how can we meditate this away’ and ‘types of herbs to burn to improve the essence of the house.’ My dad really wants one of us to get into the research, so he doesn’t have to do it.” He shook his head. “Oliver would rather read about animals and take care of horses. And me? I’m still in school. I have my own homework. For a few more months. Like Lacey.”
Oliver’s pile of books was still on the kitchen table, but leaning over Aaron’s shoulder held a lot of appeal. As if he could read my mind, he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me into his lap. I put my head on his shoulder as he started to navigate through the pages and finally brought up something that, for all intents and purposes, looked like a Wikipedia article.
“Yep,” I said when the picture appeared on the screen. “That definitely looks like a devil.”
“There are a lot fewer differences between belief systems than you might imagine,” Aaron said. “All you have to do is look at mythology to see the connection between deities. Think about Zeus. He took on different forms—a bull, a swan, someone’s husband—in order to seduce women. Then there’s the Christian devil, who began as one form and ended as another, switching up in between. According to the Bible, he was the most beautiful angel in heaven, and then he fell. Don’t forget that he also became a serpent to tempt man in the Garden of Eden.”
“But when does myth become reality?” I asked. “If all this is true, why isn’t it all over the news? And if this place is a hub of power, why isn’t it written on walls or etched into pottery? Shouldn’t there be some record?”
Aaron glanced at me. “There is,” he said. “But how much time do people really spend in the desert?”
I opened my mouth to argue, and he smiled at me. His silky black hair had begun to slip free of the band, and wisps fell over his ears. His arms boxed me in as he typed on the computer, and he let one arm rest across my legs. It was comfortable.
And comforting.
Colton and Thorn looked on. We all worked together to solve the problem of monsters. Crazy. But also kind of cool. I wasn’t alone in this, thank God, because how did someone destroy a monster who was as old as human consciousness?
Could we even do that? He seemed intangible, almost like a spirit. Not only could he take form, but he could become a cloud of poison, sticking to me. “How do you kill a ghost?” I asked.
Aaron swiveled in the chair, and I had to lift my knees at the last minute so they didn’t bang into the desk. He frowned and sighed. “You can’t,” he said. “My dad will tell you the how and why of it, but ghosts have to be convinced to move on. And before you ask, no, I don’t know what they’re moving on to. I just know that the ones I’ve come into contact with are somehow still attached to a person, place, or object. Like your mother. She was obviously attached to you—”
“So do we convince Erdirg to not be attached to me?”
I didn’t want to think about my mother. That had been too much. I might never think about that moment again for as long as I lived, if I could manage it. My mother. I’d hardly known her. She hadn’t been with me long enough to make an impression, and she’d left me with no choice but to live with her hateful mother.
I swallowed, putting that aside.
“He was sleeping, right?” Colton cleared his throat. “Before he got awakened by Lacey. Maybe the key is not to kill him—since that might not be possible—but maybe to put him back to sleep.”
Aaron froze. “That’s fucking brilliant. Let’s think on that and talk to my dad.”
I grinned at Colton. That was a great idea. Put him back to sleep. “Do you think he could do that indefinitely?”
Aaron squeezed my waist. “How about if we could get him to sleep long enough that you’ll be long dead of old age when he comes back?”
Well, that would solve my problem. “But how about the next person who accidentally wakes him back up in two hundred years or so?”
“Lacey.” Thorn shook his head, staring at the screen. “You have a huge heart. But you won’t even be here to worry about that person two hundred years from now.”
That didn’t mean I wouldn’t worry. I rubbed my eyes. “Okay. One step at a time. Maybe there’ll be a way to knock him out permanently.”
Colton walked over and kissed me o
n the cheek. “You have the sweetest heart.”
I really didn’t. Oliver had gotten a taste of just how nasty I could be when I wasn’t feeling particularly kind. But I loved that Colton thought that I was.
Thorn looked up. “There is literature on how to do that. It’s old. I’m going to have to work on looking at it.”
An alarm sounded, and I jumped. We had nothing to protect in my shitty little house, but what we did have was guarded by the lamest alarm Radio Shack ever made before it went out of business. Gran had put the alarms on the windows so when they were opened, they went off. I wasn’t sure if it was to keep people out or keep me in. They didn’t alert the police or anything, they just made a loud noise when it went off. Maybe to annoy the burglar to death.
I jumped to my feet and ran over to the door.
“Lacey,” Aaron called after me. “Hold on a second.”
The front door to my nightmare of a childhood home was open. Someone who didn’t know how to disable the alarm was inside. That meant it wasn’t my cousin, and it wasn’t his girlfriend. It certainly wasn’t Gran, who was still in the hospital. Unless my one living uncle escaped jail—and even he would know to flick the alarm to off—then it wasn’t anyone related to us inside of there.
Aaron grabbed my arm. “Just wait.”
“Why?”
The house filled with the scent of sage. Aaron’s grip on me tightened as he drew me back over the threshold. “Something’s in there.”
There was a crash, like every porcelain doll fell off its shelf to the floor at the exact same moment. The windows shattered, glass exploding outward. Even though we were across the street, the force of the blast pushed me back another step. Aaron shut the door quickly and went to a side table, withdrawing bundles of herbs. His lips moved as he held a lighter to them and then placed them on small plates around the house.
There was another crash. Colton and Thorn stood at the window, postures stiff as they watched. I had a feeling I didn’t want to see what was out there, but I couldn’t stop myself. Something drew me toward the window, and I gasped.
My house deteriorated before my eyes. Tile fell off the roof and clumps of stucco peeled away from the house. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” Colton said quietly.
“Do you feel that?” Thorn asked.
Aaron’s voice grew louder as the ground began to tremble. It reminded me of standing next to a highway when an eighteen-wheeler rolled by.
“Earthquake,” I stated, but Thorn shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Look.”
Glass tinkled in the cupboards, but it was like the wind moving a chime compared to what was going on at my house. If this was an earthquake, then it was centralized beneath my shitty ranch. A crack opened in the road, racing toward my house. The sound was overwhelming; steam and water burst out of underground pipes as my house collapsed. There was no other way to describe it. It was like an invisible hand reached from the earth through the center of my house and pulled it down.
We stood there, staring in shock as the trembling dissipated. Behind me, Aaron’s voice quieted until the only sound was water rushing down the street.
“You keep saying the monster doesn’t want to kill me,” I said. “But everything is pointing to you being wrong.”
Colton turned away from the window, his eyes narrowed and angry. “That wasn’t him trying to kill you.”
“That was a temper tantrum.” Thorn wrapped an arm around my waist, looking over my head toward Aaron. “Good job, man.”
I turned in his arms to see Aaron bracing himself over the table. Sweat dripped down his temples and dropped onto the wood. Colton rushed to give him a glass of water.
Aaron sucked in deep breaths, and I hurried to him. I pulled out a chair and pushed against his shoulder. “Sit down. Breathe.” I glanced up at Thorn, who’d followed me, and then back to Aaron. “What’s going on?”
Colton set the glass in front of Aaron before going to the fridge and finding a bottle of juice.
Aaron’s skin was pulled tight, and his color was off, not the normal healthy brown he usually was. He picked up the glass of water and guzzled it.
“You need some sugar,” Colton said, taking the glass and filling it. “You doing okay?”
Aaron shook his head fast. “Not sugar. There’s tea. It’s cleansing. My mother makes it. Gray dish in the third cupboard. I’m going to drink it, and then I’m going to pass out.” He wiped his forehead with shaking hands. “I don’t want to pass out till I drink it.” He cleared his throat like it was hard for him to speak. “Call Oliver. He needs to hurry home.”
Thorn ran for his phone while Colton went to the kitchen. They moved fast, leaving me with no task except to squeeze Aaron’s hand. “What did you do?”
“I blocked him, but he hit back just enough that I felt it. He’s a mean fucker. It hurts to be touched by the supernatural.” He laughed. “Fuck. I’m going to be fine, but yeah, I wish tea brewed faster. There’s a numbing factor to the tea. I won’t feel it.”
I brought his hand to my lips and kissed his knuckles. “Thank you, Aaron.”
“Kiss me anytime you want to, Lacey. Seriously. Anytime.”
I grinned at him. “Maybe we can talk about that when you’re feeling better.”
Thorn ran over. “Oliver’s already on his way back. He said drink the tea. I told him you were going to.”
Colton put a cup down in front of Aaron. “Hope it’s okay I warmed it in the microwave.”
“Perfect,” Aaron answered him, but he couldn’t hold the cup because of his shaking hands.
I picked it up and brought the liquid to his lips. He sipped, and then I lifted it again. It didn’t take long. He drank it like it wasn’t too hot, like he knew it was medicine he had to get down. When he was done, he managed to get to his feet before he stumbled slightly.
Thorn caught him. “Come on. Let’s get you to your bedroom. You earned a nap.”
“Lacey, stay inside. I blocked him from coming in,” even as Aaron spoke, he slurred his words, “but he’s mad.”
“I will.” I followed after them.
Aaron continued. “I feel terrible for all those dolls of your gran. I mean poor unsuspecting, scary things that they were, they didn’t deserve to be blown up.”
I snorted. He was making jokes. That had to be a good sign.
Thorn laid Aaron down on the bed, and a second later, he was out cold, still fully dressed. I crossed around the bed and took his shoes off. Between the three of us, we managed to get him into what looked like a comfortable position. Thorn turned off the light and put on the fan.
I had one more thing to do. As gently as I could, I pulled his hair out of the band he’d had it in and laid it flat behind him. His face relaxed slightly. With a smile, I kissed his forehead. “Sleep well, Aaron.”
I left the room, closing the door quietly behind me. “I’d love to know what he did, so I could do it if I had to.”
“Me, too,” Thorn agreed. “So I’m going to go about finding out.” He pointed to the computer. “If you need me, that’s where I’m going to be for the next however long it takes.”
Seventeen
Thorn was true to his word. He spent the next bit of time typing like a madman, Colton at his shoulder. The two of them worked together with an ease that surprised me. Then when I remembered that they’d had to figure out what had happened to them and their memories, it made sense. They’d been a team, the only two who could possibly know what had happened to them.
Well, except for me. But Erdirg had pushed them out of town, so I couldn’t help at all. As I thought his name, I shuddered. I didn’t like saying it; my body pretty much recoiled from the sound of it.
I picked up one of Oliver’s books on Judeo-Christian beliefs and started to thumb through it. It was interesting, and I was fully absorbed when the door crashed open. I’d been expecting Oliver, but it was Ray and Jacinda who marched through the door. Ray
glared at us as he strode through the room, slowing only when he opened Aaron’s door.
Jacinda worried her lip and followed. That was how parents acted when they loved their child. They dropped everything to check on them.
Oliver must have been right behind them because he and Kelly flew through the door minutes later.
“Where’s Aaron?” Oliver asked, his gaze scanning the room.
“Sleeping,” Colton replied. “He had tea and fell asleep.”
Oliver ran his hands through his hair. For the first time since meeting her, Kelly didn’t joke or smile. She went right to Aaron’s room. Low words came down the hall, but I couldn’t make them out.
Guilt filled me. Oliver’s younger brother hadn’t trained to do battle, but he’d put himself in danger to take care of me. He’d managed to block an ancient evil—for crying out loud, he’d basically put the devil in his place—and was still standing.
Or sleeping.
Either way, he was alive.
Ray, Jacinda, and Kelly came out of Aaron’s room and into the dining room where we waited.
“He’s okay?” I asked.
Ray nodded, a look like pride crossing his features. “He’s a natural. No formal training, and he just kicked some monster ass.”
Jacinda smiled, but it was tighter, like she was allowing Ray this moment but didn’t really agree with him. “He’ll be okay. It takes a lot out of a human’s spirit to battle with evil. True evil.”
“Original evil,” Oliver muttered. “I should have been here.”
“You can’t not live your lives,” Colton said, surprising me. He’d put his entire life on hold to figure out this monster and to save me.
Holy shit. He’d put his life on hold to save me.
Suddenly, I wanted to kiss him and Thorn more than I wanted to do anything. And then I wanted to kiss Aaron who’d put himself in danger for me.
Eyes in the Darkness (The Coveted) Page 16