Vin touched her arm and pulled back suddenly, startled. “She’s freezing!”
He didn’t need to hear more. No ghost was going to mess with Cara when he was around to—
Lex rushed over to him and grabbed him by the arm before he could enter the circle. “Don’t do anything dumb!”
Do not cross the border, you fool! Mal heard the warning in his head from Behemoth. I will handle this.
Behemoth leapt across the chalked lines—all cats possess the ability to cross boundaries, magical or not—and moved to Cara. The humans held still, waiting for the cat to act. Lex kept a very firm hold on Mal, talking fast in a low voice. Mal didn’t catch most of it, and the words didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but Cara’s safety.
The cat sniffed around her, and then sat down directly in front of her and locked eyes with Cara.
Why do you not manifest as you did before?
“It’s easier this way,” Cara-but-not-Cara whispered. “I won’t hurt her. She’s just like me.”
Behemoth’s tail twitched, then he climbed directly into Cara’s lap. Be aware then. If you hurt any living being here, I will hurt you.
“Can I pet you?” Cara asked, seemingly unconcerned by the threat.
Yes, he replied after a moment.
Cara’s hand dropped to pet the black cat curled in her lap. “I do miss cats. I had one, once.”
Mal hated the childish voice, the non-Caraness of it. “What do you want?” he asked.
Cara turned her gaze to him, and the eyes in her face were all wrong, nearly black and seemingly vacant. “You called me here.”
“Marigold,” Dom said with a warning gesture at Mal to shut up and let him deal with the ghost. “We need to ask you about this house. About the hell—the portal. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
She nodded. “How could I not? I can’t get a moment’s peace, not with the otherworlds so close, all the beings banging on the door, begging to be let in. They always want to find ways into our world. The souls here are so sweet to them…they are desperate for more. Always more.”
“How do you know this?”
“Oh, I can hear them, just on the other side of the veil. Slobbering from hunger, smelling me and telling me to step through and let them eat me up. They promise anything, everything. Light, peace. Freedom.”
“You never accepted?”
Her expression grew hesitant, almost ashamed. “I sometimes wanted to. More than sometimes. But I can’t. I’m bound here.”
“What happened? Why are you bound?”
“It’s the gate,” Marigold said. “He said he would create a gate of gold. A gate pharaohs would envy, a gate to make Lord Netjerunakht proud.”
Dom’s eyes widened. “Who said that?”
“My father. And I was to be the key.”
“What?” Vinny broke in, horror in her voice.
Cara looked at Vinny, the sadness and pain evident on her face. “All I wanted was to make him proud of me. But I wasn’t a boy, and he didn’t think much of me at all. Until he said I could do something very important for him. A great honor. And he gave me a pretty dress and pretty jewelry—grown-up jewelry. Like a Halloween costume but much fancier.”
“You wore those clothes? When? What happened?”
“My parents set up the parlor with candles and a fire in the fireplace. My mother was singing. Not any song I knew. It was a strange tune. And then Papa led me into the center and drew a knife. And then I got scared and I didn’t want to be there anymore. But no matter how much I cried and screamed, he wouldn’t let me go. And Mama was screaming too, and then it was brighter. Something caught fire that shouldn’t. I think the thing that caught fire was Mama.
“Papa was distracted. Helping Mama. I ran away, upstairs and into my room.” She pointed to the mirrored door. “That way. But the flames followed, and Mama followed, and Papa followed, yelling that we couldn’t stop, that the door must stay open, but there was so much smoke all of a sudden. So much fire…”
“Ok, stop,” Dom ordered. “A fire interrupted the ritual. You ran upstairs to the old wing, and that’s how the fire spread.”
She nodded once more. “It was a mistake. My father was screaming. Mother too, but then she stopped. I heard it all and felt it, but as if through the other side of a looking glass. Somehow distant. And then I saw myself—my own body on the floor, not breathing, not moving. I tried to get to myself…I wanted to be together again. But everything was horribly wrong and then I didn’t know which direction to go or which way was up and I was just floating in darkness for…I don’t know how long. And then I came back from the darkness, and I was still here. But the house was all broken and burned, and everyone was dead and gone. Except me. I’m still here, always here. Always listening to the other side of the gate, always wishing this would end.”
“When people came back, you tried to scare everyone away,” Mal said. “You tried to scare Cara, and then me. And you creeped out the workers by making them feel cold or sad when you could.”
“It’s too dangerous for anyone to be here! And to rebuild the gate? That’s worse! I wanted you all gone, but it takes…concentration to manifest. I couldn’t do it more than a few times. And it wasn’t enough, especially after you attacked me! No one else has ever been able to reach me, not even when I wanted to reach them. But you did, and it hurt.”
“Sorry. I thought you were trying to hurt us.”
“No. Just to scare you away. I used my memories, sent them to her and to you so you would see the smoke and fire I see all the time. But it wasn’t enough.”
Cara’s expression looked totally defeated, wrung out by nearly a century of imprisonment. For just a moment, Mal caught a hint of the scope of the ghost’s suffering. Poor Marigold, who wanted so badly to be free, and would have succumbed to the demons that were eager for her little ghostly soul, except that her soul wasn’t hers to give.
Suddenly, Cara’s head turned sharply, and she raised her hand in a warning gesture. “Someone is here. Outside the house.”
Mal shifted uneasily, torn between wanting to check it out and wondering if it was a ploy.
But Behemoth also sat up and sniffed. There is a presence. Not human.
Dominic nodded. “Ok. We’ll end this.” He spoke a few more formal Latin phrases, words of severing and sealing. Then he said in the kindest tone he used all night, “Marigold, you need to leave Cara now. You can’t keep using her body.”
Cara seemed frozen once more, and then let out a thin sigh. “I’m sorry.”
Cara, who’d been sitting ramrod straight ever since Marigold possessed her, now hunched over, cradling Behemoth and hiding her face in the cat’s fur. Her red hair cascaded down like a final curtain. The sound of her crying ripped up Mal’s soul.
Dom quickly finished the ritual, making a slashing motion with his hand that signaled the dissolution of the magical border.
As soon as he saw that, Mal crossed the chalked outline and reached Cara in two steps. He knelt beside her. “It’s ok. It’s over, and you’re fine.”
“She hurts so much,” Cara moaned, her eyes still closed. “She’s all alone and she can’t ever get away.”
“It’ll be ok,” he repeated, the age-old nonsense people say when it is most definitely not ok. “Come on. Get up and we’ll get you home. Just across the street, ok?”
Behemoth zipped away, allowing Cara to stand. Mal put one arm tight around her shoulders. “Come on. We’re just going downstairs.”
Lex and Vinny were moving swiftly, snuffing out candles and rubbing out the chalk symbols.
Dom stood in the doorway. “Behemoth took scout. He’s says there’s still something lurking.”
“Get a stake handy,” Mal warned.
Dom never needed that advice. He pulled a wooden stake from the vicinity of his boot. “Can’t wait.”
Lex tapped Mal and handed him a stake too. “Just in case this turns into a party.”
“I hate vampire par
ties,” Vinny said. She was also gripping a stake, though considering she was carting around half the seance equipment, she could also just swing her bag at a vamp and knock it off its feet.
As a group, they moved out of the newly de-magicked room and went downstairs.
First floor clear, Behemoth advised them from somewhere below.
They all hurried past the parlor and to the back door. Cara mumbled that she should reset the alarms, but Mal hustled her past the electronics.
Dom, nearest to the door, gripped his stake tightly in his hand, then opened the door. Behemoth darted outside into the night, and they all heard his furious howl.
“That’s it. Mal, you and me. Everyone else, stay inside and don’t invite anything in!”
Mal handed Cara off to Lex and Vinny, then followed his brother into the darkness. He ran toward the sound of cosmically pissed off cat, and found Dom and Behemoth already engaged with something that felt very vampy.
Since Dom had a special hatred for vampires, Mal always wanted to keep a close eye on his brother in case he let his emotions get the better of him during a fight.
But it was Mal the vampire smiled at, showing viciously sharp fangs. “Oh, it’s the boyfriend.” It leapt toward Mal, dodging out of the way of the others.
He reacted in time purely due to training, stepping to the side and using the vampire’s mass to hurl it further past him. He reached for the crucifix around his neck…and remembered he gave it to Cara.
Well, there was still the stake.
Mal yelled for his brother to back off, then took a short dive into the edge of the otherworlds, just long enough to confuse the vampire. It would look like Mal disappeared. He reemerged in a spot he hoped would be behind the vampire, and went for a kill shot, basically jumping at the vampire’s back and hooking his arm around to plunge the stake in.
But this vampire was much tougher than the previous one. It shrugged Mal off, tossing him in the dirt.
Ow.
Mal’s vision briefly exploded into stars. Then the vampire was right there, over him. He wanted to spring up, to kick this thing’s undead ass, but he was unable to move, pinned by both the strength of the vampire, and its mental assault.
“You won’t taste as good as she will,” the thing hissed. “But you’ll do.”
It opened its mouth, fangs bared, and then gave a shriek of pure agony.
Behemoth’s head appeared past the vamp’s shoulder. The cat had leapt onto the thing’s back and sunk all his claws in.
Mal used his precious second of clarity to slip out from under the creature. Dom was there, hauling him up.
“You ok?”
“Not really,” Mal snapped, rage replacing his fear. “I’m going to knock this asshat on its back and then you stake it.”
Dom nodded.
The vampire was staggering around, trying to throw off Behemoth, who was clinging to it in a way that was wholly improbable. The cat hissed and spit, adding annoyance to pain.
“Behemoth, let go now,” Mal said in a low voice.
The cat did, leaping off the vampire’s back as if it were a springboard. Mal caught just a glimpse of Behemoth’s retracting claws, which were way longer than any cat’s should be.
But he didn’t care about that. Mal put on a burst of speed and hit the vampire right in the stomach, a move an offensive lineman would be proud of.
He pushed it back, and then used his momentum to topple them both over. The vampire grunted, but wasn’t hurt. It shoved Mal away.
The hurt happened when Dom jammed a stake directly into its chest, impaling the heart. The vampire’s eyes went wide, and it opened its mouth like a fish gulping for breath.
It struggled against fate and the inexorable result of living wood in its non-living body. Then it sort of crumpled and collapsed, a balloon running out of air. The skin turned grey, the hair withered. Then the vampire simply dissolved into a pile of ash.
Behemoth trod across the ash on his way back to the house. No disrespect like feline disrespect.
Dom dusted his hands on his jeans. “Neighborhood’s going to hell.”
“We should just burn this place to the ground,” Mal said.
Vinny saw them through the window and opened the door. “All clear?”
“Yeah,” Dom told her with a tired smile.
“Vamp?” Lex asked, peering into the darkness behind them.
“Dusted. Behemoth nearly filleted it first.” Mal took hold of Cara again. She was shivering. “Let’s get back home.”
Cara was silent as they walked down the hill, Behemoth leading the way. When they crossed the property line that also marked the beginnings of all the Salems’ magical wards, she nearly fell over.
“It’s ok,” Mal whispered, tightening his arm around her. “I got you.”
Chapter 23
Mal put Cara to bed in his own room, promising that he’d join her as soon as he could. She curled up on her side, pulling the blanket around her.
“Why did that have to happen?” she asked in a broken voice.
“Sorry. Dom didn’t know the ghost would try to possess anyone. The idea was just to summon her.”
“Not that. I mean Marigold’s death. Why would anyone use their own child like that?”
“I don’t know. People are assholes sometimes. That’s all I got.”
Cara huddled into the blanket even more. “Mal, don’t leave me alone.”
“You’re not alone. In this house, you are totally safe. We’re all here, there are wards up like you wouldn’t believe, and we got two guard cats.”
“Where’s Pumpkin?”
“Pumpkin is not a guard cat.”
“He’s mine and he’s fluffy. I want him here. Tell Mr. B to bring him up, ok?”
“I’ll ask him,” Mal promised. “Now get some rest.”
He reached out to touch the chain around her neck. “You’re safe, Cara.”
He kissed her and left the room, meeting Behemoth and Pumpkin in the hallway.
“I was just going to find you,” he said.
We are found, Behemoth responded. The cats slipped through the cracked-open bedroom door.
Downstairs, everyone was sitting around the long dining table, except Piewicket, who was sitting on the table.
They were mid-conversation. Vinny was talking when Mal pulled out a chair and sat down.
“I think she’s telling the truth,” she was saying, “or at least as she understands it. I felt it when Marigold kinda slipped in my head, right before she possessed Cara. There was a lot of…um, resonance there. I had a pretty cold upbringing too. Not that my parents tried to kill me, but…”
“Why did it pick Cara?” Mal was still unreasonably mad about that.
Vinny said, “Maybe the fact that she’s interacted with Cara multiple times? She’s the one who’s been in the house, working on the floor that will be the summoning circle to open the hellhole. Marigold has clearly been paying attention to her. And the pull of the familiar can be very strong.”
Dom nodded in agreement. “That’s logical.”
“I don’t want it to happen again,” Mal said.
“We probably don’t need to conduct another seance with Marigold. She told us what she knows.”
Lex looked up from his phone. He’d been texting intensely for the past few minutes. “Lily’s already started a lookup on that demon Marigold mentioned. Hopefully we’ll get something useful soon. Then we can finally figure out how to shut this stupid hellhole down for good.”
“Can we…” Vinny hesitated, then went on, “Can we help Marigold too? I know most exorcisms are performed on ghosts that don’t want to go, but…”
“We can try,” Dom told her. “I don’t like the idea of her hanging around any more than you do. But the hellhole is the most important thing.”
“Working on it,” Lex said, once again texting. “I’m going to look up more on the specific rituals Egan might have used. But I might have to go back to the library
to do it.” Which would take days.
There is another avenue, Piewicket said. We do not have much time, so while it is costly, it may be worth it.
“What do you want to do?”
The Salem family has many assets. One of your predecessors encountered a powerful demon by the true name of Ihithiltalas. That being owes this family a debt. Now may be the time to call it in.
“Pie, how old is this debt?”
Older than you, but not so old Ihithiltalas can even pretend it has forgotten it.
“We’re going to summon a demon?” Mal asked, looking at his brothers.
“I mean, sure why not?” Lex said. “It should know about this Lord Netjerkface. And right now, we know nothing. And who knows how long it would take to learn enough on our own?”
Dominic turned to Vinny. “I know you’re getting an education, but this isn’t going to be part of it, ok?”
“Hey, no problem,” she said. “The last time someone summoned a demon near me, it sucked. I’m going to go read a non-magical book.”
Dom insisted that he was in perfectly decent mental shape to summon a demon, despite having gone through the earlier seance. As for his own mental shape, Mal wished he hadn’t been almost killed by a vampire, but he shook it off.
The brothers gathered outside on the shabby concrete patio for the summoning—it was generally not a great idea to let demons in the house, even within a protected circle.
“If we ever get neighbors, this is going to be hard to explain,” Lex said as he measured his second circle of the night.
Mal set up the candles in their windproof jars, while Dom chalked symbols onto the concrete. These were quite different from the ones he used for Marigold’s circle. Piewicket directed the choices, and there were a lot of symbols for protection, truth, and binding.
Mal was skeptical about the wisdom of this whole thing, but it got worse when Dom handed him a knife—Dom’s own wickedly sharp blade that had magic laced all through the metal. “If things go badly, don’t hold back on killing any demon you see.”
He took the knife. “Kill mode activated.”
Reach For Me Page 19
