21 Shades of Night, page 184
“I have it,” Adrian said from close behind me. “Just give me a clear shot when you get light.”
A white fire flared up behind me with a small roar. Adrian held a flare in his hand. The darkness receded to the corners, and the tendrils around me disintegrated. I started at how close they were to me without knowing it. I dashed to Marge and grabbed her around her waist. We rolled to the side, my momentum tearing her from the alastor. Adrian’s gun roared, and a red light flared in the alastor’s chest where the bullet entered. Lloyd fell limp to the ground.
I stood, panting, and helped Marge to her feet. She rushed to the girl and knelt down beside her. Her hand pressed to the side of her neck before she scooped the child up.
“I’m taking her to the hospital,” she said. “You two do what you need to do.”
She sprinted into the darkness with the girl in her arms. Adrian walked up the stairs of the fortune-teller’s wagon and swung the door open. He sighed, pulling out another charge and placing it on the frame of the door.
“Empty,” he said.
“He has to be at the asylum. Esais must have missed him.”
“No one knows anything of him. Ose must have snuck him in,” Esais said.
“Figures you would be listening,” I said.
“You said my name, it caught my attention. I will be waiting for you here.”
“Let’s burn this place first,” I said. “One less place for them to go to ground. This ends tonight.”
I emptied what gas I had left on the wagon, and we hurried back to the fence. Adrian was already halfway up the fence when I started my climb. He stopped at the top to help me up. I hopped down the rest of the way, the shock jarring my bruised backside. I rubbed it as Adrian landed. He sprinted for the car with me hot on his heels. He had already started it up as I slid into the passenger seat.
“Ready?” I asked.
He pressed the button. The gunfire from tonight couldn’t compare to the boom of the explosion. The car rocked from the shock of it, and the sky bloomed a brilliant orange.
“Which way do we need to go?” he asked.
“The police will be coming from the west. There shouldn’t be more than two or three yet. It’s a small town with a usually low crime rate.”
He peeled out, heading east. The sound of the fire mixed with the sirens. Their response time seemed to be quicker. We’d really caused a disturbance in this litttle town. After several turns and twists, the blare of the sirens faded, and we both let out the breaths we’d been holding.
“Take this street to the bar. We can act like we’re heading home from there,” I said.
He nodded and turned left. We didn’t see the police car until we were at the next stop sign, mostly because it had lain in wait, dark and silent when we passed it. Its lights flared behind us. Adrian cursed and pulled over.
“We got lost coming from the bar,” I said.
“Right, let’s hope he doesn’t want to search me.”
The cop knocked on Adrian’s window, and he rolled it down. Nancy poked her head in and smiled at us. She giggled, holding her hand to her mouth. Cold sweat broke over me at that action; it was so familiar. An image of a girl in a sundress and metal claws flashed in my head.
“It looks like I will be able to claim the prize instead,” Malantha said with Nancy’s voice.
Chapter 40
THE CAR BUCKED as it ran over a pot hole. The force lifted me off my seat and caused me to plunge into Adrian. He glared at me but kept control of the wheel. I gave him an apologetic look and sat upright. Behind us, the siren of the police car wailed and the lights flashed.
“Do you really think we’re going to get out of this?” I asked, buckling my seat belt.
“I’m not going to be taken in, by hellspawn or human.”
He glanced at the rearview, then accelerated until we were practically flying down the two-lane road with only the trees watching us pass. The demon had had two seconds to laugh before Adrian had taken off. It had been almost funny watching her scramble into her car. I guess she hadn’t seen that one coming. Adrian had taken a quick route to one of the farm roads and headed out of town. The dark lay ahead of us and the blazing red and blue behind.
“What if she calls backup?” I asked.
“They’re too busy dealing with the explosion. I doubt all of them have been roused.”
“I meant Ose.”
The corner of Adrian’s mouth lifted in a smirk. “Even better.”
“You think we can deal with both of them at once.”
He spun the wheel, and the car jerked to the right onto a dirt road. I gripped the armrest on the door and slammed my left hand onto the dashboard to keep from sliding. The trees started about ten feet from the road and created a massive wall that traveled on for miles. In daylight, it was almost impossible to see the roads until you were right on them. How Adrian had seen it in the dead of night baffled me.
Malantha sped past the turnoff, and her tires screeched down the road. She didn’t have Adrian’s reflexes. Still, she could move the car pretty fast. A few minutes passed before she was on our tail again. A cloud of dirt and dust flew back in both wakes of the cars. Tonight, I was glad Texas had so little rain recently.
“So, what’s the plan here?” I asked.
“You have your sword, and I have the gun. Seems simple to me.”
“Wait, that’s Nancy she’s in.”
Adrian shrugged. “An acceptable loss. Exorcism didn’t work last time. We take this demon out permanently.”
“What about the oath?”
“This is not the time to get into morality and ethics. I killed the fat man at the carnival and some of the bikers, yet I’m still fine.”
He spoke the truth. The oath his family swore dictated they must protect humans from supernatural evil. Actually, it was a long list stating what they were protecting them from. This meant they couldn’t sacrifice a human just to kill a demon. Bad things were said to happen if they consciously broke the oath. Consciously broke it, so they could try and fail to save someone and only feel guilt in the end. Or in Adrian’s case, the need to work on his next weapon. Nothing bad had happened to him, so the others had been beyond saving. I would have to ponder later.
“There,” he said and swerved the wheel to the left.
I had enough warning this time and leaned so I wouldn’t slam against the door. My heart raced, and my right hand twitched. I could feel it through my body, the adrenaline. There was a fight coming. Everything grew a little brighter in my eyes. I could hear the gravel grinding against the tires under the wail of the siren. The tree around us shook in the wind. The branches swayed in the headlights.
The road ended in the cemetery on the lake. Adrian slammed the car into the iron gates without bothering to slow down. The rusted metal screeched as it buckled, and we were in with a new hood ornament. Thank god this cemetery was old or the fence would have given us more trouble.
“Grave to your left,” I said as he skidded on the loose gravel. Like I said, old graveyard.
He sped along the main road and fish-tailed the car into a stop by a mausoleum. We both sat there, panting. Our gazes met, and I grinned.
“Nice to know you’re a crack driver,” I said.
He chuckled and stepped out of the car while I grabbed my sword from the back seat. Its touch sent a tingle through my arm. I shivered in anticipation and joined Adrian in a crouch on his side of the car. He had his gun ready. The police car came to a screeching halt thirty feet away from us. When Malantha opened the door and stepped out, he fired. She ducked behind the door of the car with a muttered curse.
“Drop your weapons, and come peacefully,” she yelled at us.
“Do you really expect us to fall for that?” Adrian asked.
“No, but it was fun to say. Why don’t you just give up? You’re not going to win.”
“We have the gun,” Adrian called.
“It’s not going to do much good. Besides, I have one, too.”
She shifted against the door. I strained my neck to see her peering through the crack between the door and the car. I ducked back down and nodded to Adrian. He motioned his head around the car. He wanted me to go around behind and catch her unaware. I crab-walked around our car and paused to peek around the edge.
“I doubt you even know how to shoot,” Adrian said. “I am clearly at an advantage.”
“If so, why don’t you stick your head up?”
She popped up at the same time he did and fired off a shot. It went wide, not even hitting the car. His shot would have hit her, but she ducked, and it shattered the car window. I crept to the opposite side of the car and made my way around.
“As I thought, you can’t aim,” Adrian said.
“Which brother are you?” Malantha asked. “The bookworm, the baby brother who Daddy maimed, or the one who didn’t care enough to return home? I’m betting on the last. You have that arrogance.”
She was peeking through the shattered window when I approached her from behind. I switched to my aura sight as I continued to creep upon her. My heart squeezed in my chest, but I kept any noise from escaping my lips. Nancy’s soul and Malantha’s were joined. I couldn’t save Nancy with an exorcism. The best I could do would be to give her a swift death. Just a few more feet and her head would be mine.
Malantha swung the gun around and aimed at my head. “I thought you were being a little too quiet. No quips tonight, Gabriella?”
I started to move, and her hand tightened on the trigger. I froze.
“I may not be a good shot, but even I can hit you at this distance.”
“It wouldn’t last,” I said. “Like the last time.”
“But it would leave your dear Van Helsing child alone.”
I smirked. “He can handle himself.”
A metal can flew through the air and landed a few inches from us. White mist billowed out of it. Malantha winced, covering her face. She screamed as her flesh wrinkled like burning plastic and turned red. She threw herself away from the car and the holy water grenade. I grinned and moved in for the kill.
“Wait,” she yelled. “You wouldn’t kill this girl you were supposed to protect?”
I held my sword a breath away from her neck. It was still Nancy. “I don’t see another way to save her.”
Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she convulsed. She coughed again and looked around with a look of frightened confusion. She looked down at her hands, and a hissing wail escaped from her lips. She snapped the gun back up to me.
“What is all this?” Nancy asked.
I didn’t have anything to tell her but the truth. “You’re possessed by a demon. I think the effect may be permanent, and the only way I know to free you is to kill you.”
Her hand began to shake, and her eyes widened. “I…is that where these dreams are coming from? All I see is death…and rot.”
“She made you insane first so you would be sent to the asylum. You were part of an experiment.”
“I don’t want to see this anymore. I can feel her rot eating away. Please make it stop.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. I pressed my blade to her chest. “I’ll make it quick.”
Her eyes filled with gray smoke, widening further. “Wai—”
I pierced the girl’s heart before the demon could finish her word. She wouldn’t escape me this time. She dropped to the ground, silent and staring. I closed her eyes with a murmured prayer. Adrian’s cry pulled me from it. Ose stood on top of the car, holding the Van Helsing’s limp form by the neck with one hand.
“You just keep causing trouble,” he said.
Chapter 41
MY ENTIRE BODY stiffened except for my gaze, which moved between Ose and Adrian, and my heart pounded in my head so hard it echoed through my ears and vibrated my tongue. If I moved, he might snap his neck. If I stayed where I was, he still might snap his neck. Choices, choices.
He tossed Adrian to the ground. “I’ll deal with him later. For now, you and I must speak.”
“The only thing you will be speaking with is my sword.” I held it in front me as I took a defensive stance.
He moved in a blur. Before I thought to swing my weapon, he grabbed me by my throat and slammed me against the trunk of a tree. He stared down at me. My chest constricted with each gasp for air I tried to drag from my lungs. I wouldn’t, no couldn’t, think about how he had his hands on me. I was trapped with no escape. Like the human whose body he wore. Yes. I grabbed at the train of thought like it was my only life raft. Did Dr. Navotny regret the choice he had made? I wasn’t sure if he knew what Ose was doing. With other demons, I could still feel the human inside, but Ose’s presence filled the entire body.
“You not only burned my home, but you killed my daughter,” he said.
“You won’t need a home after I am finished,” I said. “You can join your daughter in oblivion.”
“A lot of bravado for your position,” he said. “I have already touched you once. I will make you completely mine.”
I jammed my knee into his groin. Demon or not, he still had a man’s anatomy. He grunted and buckled slightly, but did not let me go. I clawed at his hand, digging my nails into the flesh deep enough for blood to well around them. His grip on me tightened. I wheezed tiny breaths through that vise that almost crushed my throat. He would leave bruises if I survived this.
The edges of my vison darkened, and I started to float. I was drowning again, but this time there was no water.
“Get off of me.” My struggle for freedom began anew.
I jabbed my fingers at his eye, but he just grabbed my wrist. He squeezed until the bones crumpled with a crunch close to my ear. The burn raced up my arm in a flash.
I choked back a scream. The harder I fought, the more he constricted. Without any leverage or a good weapon, I was no match against a demon’s strength. Hell, in this position, I wouldn’t have been much against a normal man, though the groin thing would have worked on them. That didn’t mean I would give up fighting.
He grabbed my waist and lifted me in the air long enough to slam me into another tree. He pulled me down, raking my skin against the bark. I panted, cradling my wrist close to my chest as my stomach cramped into a hard little ball.
“I can be violent, too. But I prefer you give in. You will replace the lieutenant I lost because of your people,” he said. “It’s time to show you what I have planned.”
His palm covered my face, blocking out the moonlight. The graveyard melted away, and skyscrapers rose from the ground. The streets were filled with demon hybrids like the boy in the asylum. They moved to gather around a circle. It was composed of two concentric rings with script between them. The writing writhed and changed, loops went straight and lines twisted. A violet mist filled the center and rose to join the clouds in the darkened sky. A figure rose up from its slumped position inside the circle and began to spasm . The creatures hissed, falling to their knees and raising their misshapen arms. I tore my gaze away, closing my eyes. When I opened them, the graveyard returned.
Ose’s lips twisted in a snarl, and his eyebrows drew together. His finger brushed against the cord around my neck. With a muttered oath, he pulled Adrian’s pendant out from under my shirt. He glared down at the tiny piece of stone resting his palm.
“How many of these do you have?”
I laughed, hoarsely. “Thousands. I’ll just keep coming.”
“I never said I would kill you.”
He ripped the cord from my neck, leaving a stinging lash behind, and tossed it into the grass. The stars whirled above me as he yanked me away from the tree. It was pretty for a moment before I slammed into to a tombstone. It crumpled under the force. My breath escaped in a swift whoosh, and stars exploded in my vision again, except this time they were in my head. Bits of stone dug into the scrapes on my back. I swallowed my cry so only a weak moan escaped.
I tried to scramble away from him and gain my footing, but the ground floated above me. Or was that below? I was able to get to my knees a few feet away. Dirt scraped against stone, and he was in front of me, surrounded by a cloud of dust. He grabbed the top my head and lifted me up. I pulled at his fingers and kicked my feet at him, hitting only air. I panted. I had to get away. I couldn’t do this.
My teeth gnashed the flesh of his wrist, but his grip remained firm. I wrapped my good arm around his, brought my legs up, and slammed one into his face. His head jerk back, and he staggered, but his grip on me never wavered. With a growl, he lifted me up and slammed me into a headless angel. His breath warmed my face, and I wrinkled my nose at the smell of blood and brimstone.
“Just give in,” he said.
The world shifted, and I was back in the ruins of the city. The symbols lit into a violet light, and the group spun like a dial counter-clockwise. The mist in the center swirled in the opposite direction, speeding up until it represented a small tornado. All other lights dimmed and the wind picked up, blowing old newspapers and candy wrappers against windshields of abandoned cars. The demon hybrids raised their heads to the sky. The air became so thick, filled with the stench of brimstone.
The figure in the center of the circle stopped in gyrations and stood straight. He adjusted his tie and stepped toward the edge of the circle. I gasped a rancid breath down and raked my hand in front of me, clawing Ose’s face. One of my fingernails caught his eye and plunged in deep. With a shout, he flung me off of him.
I flew through the air and crashed into one of the mausoleum’s gates. The hinges broke with a creaking sequel, and I landed on the lock. The gate and I skidded into the mausoleum several feet. I groaned, struggling to get to my feet while still clutching my broken wrist to my chest. Its throbbing was just one constant reminder of how bad I was losing this battle. The walls flickered out of focus and into the dilapidated buildings and demon hybrid horde. I shook my head. It wasn’t real.
