by D. G. Swank
“Why?” David asked. “Did the picture show a monster getting Piper?”
Collin turned to him with pleading eyes. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” I demanded, pissed and hurt, and so, so disappointed.
“You have to trust me, Ellie,” he said with tears in his eyes. “I’m doing this for you. I’m trying to make things right.”
“Trust you?” I demanded. “How can I trust you when you’re keeping secrets? Again.” I thought we’d finally gotten beyond the past, and here he was proving once again that he was sneaky Collin, the bastard who’d tricked me into opening the gate to hell and keeping it open.
“Ellie,” David said. “What did you see?”
I handed him the notebook, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. Then it struck me that our group was one short. “Where’s Jack?”
“He left,” Rhys said, worry in her eyes. “He waited for nearly an hour, and when you didn’t come back, he said he couldn’t wait. There was something he wanted to take care of at Helen’s Bridge.”
“I was gone an hour?” I asked in dismay.
“Time moves more slowly there,” Collin said. “Remember? Piper and I were gone longer this morning.”
How the hell had I forgotten? I popped open the watch and saw ten minutes had passed according to the tinier watch face, but the larger one showed an hour had passed. “Is Jack coming back?”
Rhys grimaced. “I don’t know, but if I were to guess, I’d say no. He told me to have you put me in the attic with Tommy, instead of taking me to Abel’s house. I guess with him gone, he’s afraid I’ll be left alone there without protection when all of you leave for the…”
She swallowed, looking sick.
After what I’d just experienced, I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea.
“What the hell is Jack doing that’s more important than facing the demons?” I demanded, my temper getting the best of me again. “Deidre swore he’d stand up against them.”
“I don’t know for certain,” Rhys said in a shaky voice, “but I think it has something to do with Helen and a promise he made her.”
“Who the fuck is Helen?” Collin asked, standing more upright now.
“Helen from Helen’s Bridge,” David said solemnly. “He was talking about it earlier, how he could maybe see her now without Piper there to help.”
“What did he promise her?” Collin asked.
Rhys shook her head. “I don’t know, but the gate to hell is up there and the demons will be hungry when they emerge. They’ve fed off her before. Maybe he’s trying to protect her.”
I stared at her in disbelief. An army of demons was about to emerge from the gates of hell, and Piper was locked up at the Asheville Police Department. Abel was about to break a multitude of laws to get her out. Jack was AWOL to presumably help a ghost, and Collin had proven himself untrustworthy…once again. They said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over expecting different results despite the evidence of every previous experience.
I was cured.
I turned to face Collin. “When this is over—one way or the other—you and I are done.”
His face lost color. Then anger filled his eyes. “What the fuck are you talking about? You can’t be done with me.”
“Try me.”
“We’re the fucking curse keepers, Ellie. You’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not,” he said bitterly.
“No,” I said with an icy coldness that made my hair stand on end. “You abandoned me after you turned the ceremony to close the gate on its head and left it open. I can do the same to you.”
The seriousness of the situation began to sink in. “Ellie…you have to trust me.”
I slowly shook my head. “No. Not anymore I don’t.”
“You bicker like children as the earth rumbles with the approach of the advancing demon army,” Tsagasi said in disgust, appearing at the base of the stairs. “When will you get your priorities straight?”
“He’s right,” Collin said, his voice stiff. “We have to prepare to fight.”
“Fight?” I snorted. “So you’re fighting now? What happened to running off to hide?”
“My brother has changed his mind,” Tsagasi said. “The son of the land made a bargain to secure your army.”
“What? I felt like I’d been drenched by a bucket of icy water.
Collin gave me a bitter smile. “Maybe you’ll trust me now.” Then he stomped off downstairs.
Tsagasi stared up at me, shaking his head, his disappointment evident.
We were doomed.
Chapter Twenty
Piper
I wasn’t prone to claustrophobia, but an overwhelming sense of impending doom had settled in my cell and it was suffocating. I knew the sun had gone down by now and that Detective Lawton had no plans to let me out anytime soon. Sunset meant the demons were due to come out and play. I knew I needed to be alert, but my lack of sleep was catching up with me. I was about to lie down to get some rest when Detective Lawton walked in front of my cell.
“Good evening, Piper. Feeling lonely yet? Ready to talk?”
I kept my mouth shut, suspecting it would piss him off. It might not be the smartest move, but I wasn’t about to cooperate with this asshole.
Detective Lawton approached the bars of my cell with a vindictive gleam in his eyes. “I hear you didn’t eat your dinner. I hope you didn’t think you were getting out anytime soon. Forty-eight hours is a long time.” He paused, then asked, “Have you decided to confess yet?”
“Depends on what you’re wanting me to confess to,” I said in a glib tone. “I’ll confess that I ran up my credit card at a shoe sale last month—I never could resist a strappy pair of sandals, you know what I mean?”
He shot daggers of hate at me.
“I’ll even confess that you’re not my favorite person, but I suspect that’s not what you’re looking for either.”
“Aren’t you perceptive?”
“Not perceptive enough.” I should have been on the lookout for human threats, not just supernatural ones. I should have been investigating the detective who had an irrational hate for me, but it was too late for regrets. I had to deal with the here and now. I was dying to ask him about his brother, but I had to time it to my advantage. He’d dropped that little fun fact to let me stew on it, and if I jumped right to it, I’d be playing into his hands. Better to let him bring it up first.
Wearing an evil smile, he grabbed one of the bars. “Rumor has it demons are loose in the city.” He paused. “If you believe in such a thing. But then, you do believe in demons, don’t you?”
My breath stuck in my chest. I had so many questions but couldn’t ask a single one. Detective Lawton wouldn’t bother to answer. He’d only torment me more.
“It doesn’t matter what I believe,” I said. “I suppose it’s a matter of whether you’re afraid of the boogeyman. Are you willing to risk not believing?”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Who says I don’t believe?”
The blood rushed from my head as I realized I’d just been majorly played.
“Perhaps I do believe,” he said, giving me a smug look. “Perhaps the demons are coming for you now.”
I stared at him in horror as he took a step backward, shoving his left hand into his pocket. “Then again, maybe I don’t and I just made it all up. But what are you going to do?” he asked with a shrug and a chuckle. “The only thing you can do is sit there like a good little girl and wait.”
“What did you think I was doing in the Cordens’ basement?” I asked, needing more information from him, even though I doubted he’d spill anything.
He looked amused by my question. “Aren’t I the one who should be asking you what you were doing down there?”
“Humor me,” I said, holding my arms out to my sides. “I’m bored. Why do you think I was in the basement?”
He moved back to the bars, leaning his shoulder against them. “A number of
things come to mind. The public story is that you were vandalizing a family friend’s wine cellar.”
“And why would I have done that?” I asked. “What motive?”
“Perhaps you were upset at his bitter betrayal.”
The blood rushed to my feet as I stared at him in disbelief. “What betrayal?”
“I think it’s safe to say that arranging to have your best friend killed so a demon could assume his form would be considered a betrayal.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Then there’s the whole pretending to be your grandparents’ best friends to stay close to you, plus his possible involvement with your parents’ murders. Those would both be considered betrayals as well.” He chuckled. “Even so, call me crazy, but I don’t think you were down there to throw a tantrum with their wine.”
What the hell was happening?
“What? No quippy comebacks? That’s a shock.” Shoving his hands into his pants pockets, he cocked his head. “So, if you weren’t down there to destroy some perfectly innocent wine, why were you down there?” He pursed his lips and shrugged. “You could have been looking for the spear.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, sure I was hallucinating.
He pulled his hands from his pockets and held my gaze. “But that’s where we run into a problem. The spear was already gone, but you were still there.”
He knew about the spear. He knew about Robert Corden’s deceptions and what he’d done. “You’re a Guardian.”
“I’m a guardian of the law,” he joked, then turned serious. “You obviously didn’t take the spear, but you know who did. You need to tell me what you know.”
How had I never suspected his involvement before? But he’d been careful. He’d acted so contemptuous and doubtful, so eager to poke fun at my ghost whispering.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said breathlessly.
His face twisted into an exaggerated expression of confusion. “That spear was there on Friday night, Piper, and when I found you this afternoon, it was gone.”
He’d been there Friday night? Was he complicit in Hudson’s murder?
“I didn’t do anything with a spear,” I said. “So if I wasn’t there for revenge or for the spear, why was I there?”
He grinned, leaning closer. “To send Robert Corden’s ghost to hell, of course.” He gave a slight shrug. “Which is a type of revenge, wouldn’t you say? Were you mixing business with pleasure?”
So he knew everything. I needed to get over my shock and deal with him. Detective Lawton was much more dangerous than I’d originally anticipated.
“If you think I’m innocent, then why am I in here?” I asked.
“Innocent?” he laughed. “I never said you were innocent. You were there when my brother was murdered. Hell, you were likely part of it.”
“I’ve never murdered anyone,” I protested.
“I bet those demons would disagree,” he said.
He was probably right about that. “Why do you think I had a part in your brother’s death?”
“I know you were at the bridge that night.”
A cold wave of dread washed through me. The first night I’d fought—and killed—demons. The Guardians had set the battle up as a test for me at Helen’s Bridge, but it had gone very badly for them. I stared at Detective Lawton in stunned silence.
“Helen’s Bridge?”
“Have you murdered people at other bridges?” he sneered.
“I’d bet money on that being a no,” I heard Olivia say at the end of the hall.
Detective Lawton and I turned to her in surprise as she started walking toward us.
“Olivia,” he said with contempt. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough.” She’d changed out of her dress clothes into jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. If she had a gun, it was hidden—the only thing in her hands was a brown paper bag. “Enough to know you’re going to let her go.”
An evil grin spread across his face. “Not a chance. I’ve made a deal, and I plan to collect.”
“A deal with who?” she asked, stopping next to him.
His grin spread and my heart sunk.
“Ten bucks it wasn’t with the DA,” I said. “He made a literal deal with a demon,” I sighed with overwhelming exhaustion. “When will you people learn that it doesn’t work that way?”
“You think you can keep them all to yourself?” he asked.
I released a short laugh. “Detective Lawton, you’re deluded if you think you can control a demon.”
“It’s all about knowing what’s within your limits. You control them.”
“Then you’re even more deluded than I thought. Who do you think killed Robert and his cohorts last night? Who do you think killed your brother?”
Hate filled his eyes. “Demons. On your orders.”
I laughed again. “The demons killed the Guardians at the bridge because demons like to kill people. I couldn’t have stopped them if I’d tried.” No need to tell him that Abel had encouraged the attack. “And as for the Guardians at the warehouse last night… Robert pressed his luck. Higher-level demons don’t like humans who think they’re even close to being their equal. The Great One had the leonals attack and kill them.”
Detective Lawton’s confidence seemed to slip a notch.
“Who did you make a deal with?” I asked. Then the answer came to me. “Adonis? Oh, you are a fool.”
The detective gave me a defiant look.
“What did he promise you?” I asked. “Money? Power?”
“Adonis? As in the Greek god?” Olivia asked, her eyes wide with shock.
“When’s he coming?” I asked. Adonis had to know that Okeus was sending an army for me. There was no way he’d cut it too close.
“Soon,” Lawton said.
I turned to Olivia. “You need to go. Now. You can’t be anywhere around when he shows up.”
“Why?” she asked with fear in her eyes.
“Because he wants something from me that I have no intention of giving him, and he’s bound to throw a fit.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” she said, grabbing the bars.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Detective Lawton said to Olivia. “The DA agreed that we need to hold her while we collect enough evidence to formally charge her with six counts of murder.”
“She’ll never last that long.”
He grinned. “Exactly. So no need for you to stick around.”
“Olivia,” I said, placing my hand over hers. “You have to go.”
Her eyes went wide and she glanced down at the brown bag in her hand, which looked heavier than before, almost like it was straining to carry something beyond its capacity.
Lawton seemed to notice the bag for the first time. “Did you bring your lunch?”
“It’s for Piper,” she said, then shoved it between the bars before he could stop her.
I took it from her, surprised when I opened it and saw the hand I’d cut off the fire demon last week in the garage he’d immolated. I glanced up at her in astonishment.
“I don’t know if you can do anything with it,” she said. “I was desperate.”
So much had happened since she’d taken the hand from the crime scene, an unnecessary cover-up given that most demons were invisible to the human eye. It wasn’t like an investigating cop would have stumbled upon the amputated appendage.
I really didn’t want to touch a demon hand—although holding a detached one was far better than holding a live one—and I wasn’t sure what purpose it could possibly serve, but I pulled it out anyway.
Detective Lawton jumped back several feet, his face drawn in horror. “What the fuck is that?”
He could see it? Why? Because of my own increasing power or some other reason?
“This?” I said coyly as I held it out on my upturned palm. “This is the hand of a demon who thought he could control me.” I tilted my head slightly, narrowing my eyes. “I don’t know what kind of game
you think you’re playing with Adonis, but I promise you that you are in over your head. Now let me out of here and I’ll do my best to protect you.”
He stared at the demon hand in terror before lifting his gaze to mine. For one brief moment, I thought he was going to agree, but then a sick grin spread across his face. “I think I’d rather wait for my reward,” he said as he checked his watch. “In fact, he’ll be here soon, so I need to prepare.” He turned to walk away, then stopped next to Olivia. “I suggest you don’t try anything stupid. Demons don’t like to be crossed, and I assure you that you don’t have time to get her out.”
Having pronounced my doom, he walked down the hall, whistling a happy tune.
Darkness burst to life in my soul, making my body glow. The demon hand began to wiggle, and a tiny blue flame hovered above the palm.
“Oh my God,” Olivia gasped, stepping back from the bars.
But I paid her little attention, instead focusing on the asshole down the hall. The blue flame enlarged and jumped from my hand, shooting through the bars and flying toward the detective, hitting him in the back and making his entire body instantly burst into flames.
His screams bounced off the concrete walls.
I dropped the demon hand in horror, and Olivia watched Detective Lawton for a couple of horrified seconds before she came to her senses and started to run for him.
“Olivia! Don’t touch him!”
She stopped and turned to me with wide eyes.
“It’s demon fire. If you touch it, it will kill you.”
She took several steps toward me, approaching me as though I were a dangerous wild animal.
It would be a fair assessment.
“How do you know that?” she asked. “Did Jack tell you?”
I gave myself a slight shake, feeling like I was in a dream, not quite here. “No. The demon told me.”
“What demon?” she asked, looking a little more reassured that I wouldn’t hurt her.
“The hand,” I said, wrapping my arms across my chest as I stumbled backward and sat on the cot.
