Dark Deception (Jack Dahlish Book 3), page 16
I wasn’t sure how it happened, but suddenly I was standing only inches away as Barbara ran her hands over my chest. I opened my mouth, trying to force out words that would make her stop. Her hands slid under my t-shirt, and it felt like electricity crackled where her fingertips met my skin. I looked at my arms as they raised up to allow her to pull the shirt off, feeling betrayed by them.
“That’s it, just relax and enjoy. I’m going to give you an experience like you’ve never felt before.”
A croak came from my throat, the only thing I could get out as I tried to yell at her to stop touching me. To let me go and get out of my house. My head felt so fuzzy and wrong, the way it did when I’d had to take Valium as a teenager before having my wisdom teeth removed.
“Yes, just relax.” Barbara turned us around, and then pushed me back to fall onto the bed. I tried to make my body roll away, unable to do so as she crawled up to kneel over me. Her fingers ran through my hair, and I closed my eyes trying to pretend it was Karen. “No!” she said, slapping my cheek. “You are with me, Jack. I am the one giving you pleasure, not my sister.”
How could she have known what I was thinking? I tried to figure it out, but my thoughts grew fuzzy once more as her slender fingers began to rub over my scalp again. I couldn’t focus on anything but her. Our eyes locked together, our skin touching.
“I wasn’t going to do this,” Barbara said quietly, almost as if speaking to herself. “I was going to leave you alone, but then you turned my sister against me.”
Her fingers grabbed my hair, twisting and pulling painfully. I felt ashamed that it only aroused me more, grateful for any attention this beautiful creature would deign to give me.
“Karen told me I had to leave, that I couldn’t stay with her another night. Because of you, and because of this.” Her long black nails scratched down my chest, drawing lines of blood as she outlined the talisman still around my neck. She sneered at it, raising her hand to tap it aside disdainfully.
The moment she touched the coin, the clouds in my head cleared instantly. At the same time, my vision snapped over into the supernatural world and I drew in a sharp breath as I looked at the creature straddling my stomach.
Her skin was dark red, almost black. It looked dry and cracked, as rough as her human mask had been soft. The ears on either side of her narrow head were long with tips that looked sharp enough to cut skin. Her eyes were slitted, yellow cat’s eyes that seemed to stare deep into my soul. There was no hair on her head, just skin stretched tight over her skull.
Barbara felt the change in my attitude, the stiffening of my body as I looked on her true form. She hissed at me, and a long red tongue slithered out between sharp teeth. It was covered in short spikes, like those found in the first two victims. I knew that if I could have called Mariah at that moment, she would confirm having found one in the waiter, as well.
“Get off me, you bitch!” I shouted as I reached up to push her away. Her skin felt wrong under my hands, like it was only loosely attached to the muscle below it. I couldn’t seem to get the purchase I needed to lever her body off mine. She only hissed out laughter, leaning closer.
“Give me a kiss, Jack. I promise you won’t feel a thing.” The spiked tongue slithered out as I put my hands on her shoulders, pushing against her as she tried to get close enough to touch me with it. My eyes focused on one of the barbs, and I could see a small drop of moisture on the end that looked like venom.
“You seduced them,” I said in realization. “Then, when you got close enough, you used one of those things to… what? Put them to sleep?”
The tongue drew back into her mouth. “What would be the fun in that? It only makes you more compliant, willing to do anything I ask of you. Willing to endure whatever it takes to be near me.
“Those men were so easy, Jack. Lonely. Horny. I showed them a little interest, and that was all it took to be invited into their homes. We had our ‘dates’, and they told me all about their troubles over a meal. The widower, searching for someone to fill the void in his life. The bachelor, convinced that he could never love again after his heart was broken.
“But the last one, Jack, he was the hardest. The waiter, who stayed loyal to you and my sister until the last. He gave me bits and pieces, when I wanted everything. I demanded everything. And I took it.”
She was pushing harder now, and it required all of my quickly draining strength to keep her back. If I hadn’t been through the caves, maybe I could have fought her off easily. But then, if she hadn’t touched the coin I would have been under her spell while she drained my life away like the other poor men she’d killed.
“Why do you hate her so much?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Who? My sister? The perfect little princess? She was the one my parents loved, the one who followed all their stupid rules. Do you know what it’s like to be constantly hungry, Jack? To be on the brink of starvation every moment of every agonizing day, and then be told that you can’t give in and take what you need?” She lunged suddenly, and almost got close enough for her darting tongue to touch my face as I rolled my head away desperately.
Barbara hissed in frustrated disappointment. “Karen was the one the boys always wanted to be with. She would date them, and the moment it started to get serious she’d go running to mother to cry about how she didn’t know if she could trust herself to remain in control around them. Sniveling little bitch.”
I swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump that had formed in my throat. So much for my hope that Karen or Barbara might have been adopted, that I didn’t need to worry about my girlfriend being a Nox.
It made sense. The way I’d always been so compelled to open up with her, and the way she’d so easily accepted my story about the Filii Nox and the talisman that let me see them for what they truly were.
“I decided that if she won’t take what they’re offering, then why shouldn’t I do it for her?” Barbara grinned, a gruesome sight with her sharp teeth spaced widely enough for me to see the red tongue writing behind them like a caged beast. “At first, I thought they might not want to be with me. But do you know how many of them resisted when I offered myself to them, Jack?”
“At least one,” I grunted, feeling my shoulders starting to refuse the effort I need to hold her back.
“None of them ever resisted. They willingly came to me, begging me to touch them and give them the pleasure my sister never would. They called out my name in ecstasy, not hers.” She closed her eyes, leaning her head back as if enjoying each of them again in her memory. “They gave their lives to me, not Karen.”
“Heartless bitch,” I said through gritted teeth. I looked around, hoping to find something I could use as a weapon against her. The talisman was still cold and lifeless against my chest, and I tried to mentally will it to produce the heat and light as it had when I was attacked the same day it went around my neck.
“I think you might be the one that finally breaks Kare Bear. She really does love you, for some reason. Just a human,” she spat out in disgust. “When she finds out that I took you from her before I left town, she’ll never recover. We’ll see who’s the perfect little princess then.”
Barbara lunged forward again, and my hands slipped against her rough, leathery skin. My palms were slick with sweat, and I had to quickly throw my elbows up to keep my forearms pushing against the Nox as she hissed in triumph. The long tongue darted out, only an inch away from my skin as I pushed my head back into the cushioned mattress and promised to send a thank you card to the salesman who talked me out of a firmer model.
She began to jerk against me, trying to push down further. I could feel her sliding against my arms, the sweat-slick skin not giving me the grasp I needed to keep her at bay for much longer. I knew I was about to die, and I couldn’t count on Ollie to come through the door and save me this time.
I closed my eyes, seeing Karen’s face behind my eyelids. Her smile, the way her nose scrunched up when she found something especially funny. I felt my fingers running through her hair, the coolness of her cheek when I cupped it in my hand as I leaned in to kiss her. I heard her laugh, tasted her breath when our lips met. I felt the joy that always surged within me when I saw her face across a room, or when I caught a whiff of perfume that made me think of her. And in that moment, I knew that no matter what she was, I would always love Karen Kilgraff.
Barbara screamed in pain, throwing herself back from the bed. As I looked up in shock, I saw her standing in the doorway of the bathroom. Two long streaks of scarred flesh ran down her chest, where my arms had been holding her back only seconds earlier. “No, that’s not possible. It can’t be.”
Love. That’s what her weakness was, the reason she targeted men who were alone. I sat up on the bed, supporting myself on shaking arms as she stared at me in horrified anger. “I told you, Barbara. I love Karen, and I always will.”
“But you know what she is now. You know that she’s like me.” She waved her hands along her body as she said it.
“That doesn’t matter. Her beauty attracted me in the beginning, but it’s not even a tenth of what draws me to your sister. Her kindness, her goodness… those are the things that thrill me and make me ache to be with her every waking moment.”
Barbara hissed, drawing her lips back in a snarl that seemed to take up half her long face. “I will still have you, Jack. Men are fickle beasts, always drawn to something new, thinking it will be better than what they already have. The moment your thoughts stray, I’ll be there to take everything from you.”
“No, you won’t.” I sighed, reaching up to touch the talisman against my chest and feeling a thrum of energy pulse through my fingers. “How many have you killed, Barbara? How many men have you drained to satisfy the hunger you won’t control?”
She laughed, a gloating sound. “Why only men? Women taste just as sweet. But you’re right, I do so enjoy taking the life from men. Vile creatures, who pretend to love only until they get what they want. Until they dip their filthy penises.”
I wondered who had hurt this woman so much that she turned against all men. I’d seen it before, men and women who got sick of being treated poorly, who were cheated on one too many times and could no longer trust another. It pained me to see such hatred in her, this woman who could have one day been as close as my own sister.
“Especially this time of year,” she said, staring to slowly circle around me as I stood my ground against the bed. “Valentine’s Day. As if naming a single day makes it okay to express love and then forget about it. Do you know how many people suffer heartbreak in the week after this foolish holiday? More than I’ve ever killed, I can tell you that.”
That reminded me that it was now Sunday. The day I’d been looking forward to all week, with the plans I’d made for the special date with Karen. I realized I had been selfishly hoping that taking her to dinner and presenting her with flowers would have ended with us both sharing the bed I had only barely escaped alive minutes earlier. It made me feel dirty to think about that now.
“Too many,” I said. “I can’t let you kill again, Barbara. It has to end now.”
“What will you do, Jack? Are you going to kill me?” She smirked at the words. “That would hurt my sister almost as much as me killing you. The foolish girl still thinks I can be saved.”
I grinned, feeling a lightening of my spirit. Killing her had been the only thing I could think of, and I’d known how much pain it would bring to Karen as well as myself. It wasn’t something I’d wanted to do, but I couldn’t see any other way to stop her from killing more people. Then her words sparked an idea that felt right somehow.
My fingers traced the profile on the coin, a gold face set onto the silver disk with intricate workmanship. The pulse of energy flowed through my fingers again, and in that instant I knew how to do it. How to end the killings without having to kill the creature standing in front of me.
I wasn’t even sure how I did it, but I pulled some of the Chaos energy from the talisman, drawing it into my hand. Amazingly, I felt a thread of it also coming from the coin that rested in a pocket of my coat hanging from the hook by the door. Barbara saw my expression change, and confusion flashed across her face. Her eyes darted around the room, and then she turned to run as my hand was lifting. Her steps were fast, and she escaped through the bedroom door.
Somehow, I felt myself split in twain. I was still standing by the bed, but I was also standing by the front door. Barbara saw me there, her eyes going wide with shock as she tried to stop her forward momentum. She was too late, as my hand raised to grasp the top of her head. The energy I’d pulled from the coins poured out of my fingers, flowing through her body as she screamed shrilly until there was no more breath to scream with.
We stood like that for several minutes, and I felt the changes as they happened. It was like washing an oil stain from the driveway, spraying the water until the dark slick flowed away to reveal the clean concrete underneath. Except that I was washing away her hunger, her hatred, her ability to kill.
Barbara slumped to the floor the moment my hand pulled back from her head. Her eyes were closed, but I could see her eyelids twitching as if she were deep in REM sleep. I blinked, seeing two rooms at the same time. Blinked again and was only looking at the bare walls of my bedroom. I had a moment to wonder what had just happened.
Then the world went dark.
23
A hand was touching my cheek when I woke up, warm skin against the prickly beard growth. I smiled, remembering a dream about Karen and thinking she must have come by to surprise me. There could be no better way to wake up than to open my eyes and see her radiant smile above me.
When I opened my eyes, I saw instead a different face, pale under long dark hair that fell to drape my head. “What did you do to me?” she asked hoarsely.
I blinked a few times, groaning as my pounding headache and the memories of what had happened flooded back. It was still dark in the room, lit only by the faint light from the lamp. There was a hammer tapping insistently inside my skull, sending waves of pain through my head. I reached up to wrap my hands around my face, trying to push the agony into the background.
“What did you do to me?” she asked again, quietly insistent.
“I don’t know,” I said through my hands. “I just wanted to make you better.”
Barbara’s hand pulled away, and I heard movement as she slumped against the wall. I’d somehow fallen onto the floor, lying between the bed and the doorway into the bathroom. I wondered if I’d hit my head, but I had a feeling the headache was from the way I’d somehow channeled the chaos energy from the talismans into my girlfriend’s sister.
The sound of muffled sobs made me turn my head, sending shooting bursts of pain throbbing behind my eyes. Barbara was sitting against the wall, huddled with her knees pulled up and her arms wrapped around them. Even though she still wore only bra and panties, she no longer looked like a seductress. Instead, she was a waif, lost and alone in the world.
A surge of pity filled me, and I wondered if whatever I’d done was worse than killing her would have been. I tried to look at her with the power of the talisman, tried to see her true appearance, but nothing would happen. Maybe it was the headache, or maybe I’d drained the coin’s power and it had to build back up.
Then I realized I could see a faint pink haze in the air, and my nose was filled with the smell of peach blossoms. I was still looking at the supernatural world, it was just that Barbara was no longer anything more than the human she appeared to be. Somehow, I had turned a Nox into a human. I wanted to be amazed, I wanted to think back and figure out how such a thing could even be possible, but the headache was getting worse and I couldn’t bear to think at all.
The next thing I felt was a cool washcloth spread across my forehead. I’d blacked out again. I forced one eye open in a squint, looking up at Barbara. She held two white pills in one hand, a glass of water in the other. “Take these. They’ll help with the headache.”
I probably shouldn’t have taken anything she gave me, but the pain was so bad I would have been happy to die at that moment. I popped the pills in my mouth, bit down to spread the bitter taste across my tongue, and then sipped water to wash it all down. There was a pillow under my head now, and I almost laughed when I realized it was probably the one I’d been hiding behind earlier.
The washcloth was taken away, and I heard water as it was dipped into a bowl and then splashes as she wrung it out before placing it over my forehead and eyes again. Her hands were gentle, her touch almost hesitant as she began to massage my temples and then the back of my neck at the base of my skull. Gradually, the pain started to recede until I could focus on something else again.
I sat up against the side of the bed. “Thanks,” I said, giving her a wan smile of appreciation.
“No, Jack. Thank you.” Barbara looked at me with wet eyes, and I could still see trails on her cheeks where the tears had fallen. “I… I can’t believe all the things I’ve done. The hatred I’ve felt for so long. It’s gone now, but I still have the guilt. That will never go away, will it?”
“I’m afraid it won’t, but now you have the opportunity to do something to make up for it. Improve lives, instead of ending them.”
She shook her head, her eyes on the ground between us. “I should be punished. You should have killed me.”
I reached out, placing a finger under her chin to raise her eyes to my own. “Don’t say that. No one deserves to die, no matter what they’ve done. I would turn you over to the police, let them lock you away, but we could never prove that it was you who killed those men. Whatever forensic clues you left behind won’t tie to who you are now.”
She grimaced, her eyes darting away. “How, then? How can I ever make up for what I’ve done?”
