Evening Storm (Midnight Chronicles Book 2)

by Andrea Pearson

  “Okay. Tell me what I need.”

  “Lightning rods. Lots of them. Or something else guaranteed to attract and hold electricity.”

  “How’s that going to help against the demon?”

  “Too much of a good thing is dangerous. And apparently, too much electricity is the only way to actually destroy these beasts.”

  “Are we going up against him alone?”

  “Yes. I’d only trust a Silver to fight against demons like him, and there aren’t enough powerful Silvers nearby. We need to destroy him now, before he gathers so much energy that we can’t stop him.” I heard her sigh on the other line, and she said, “Can you feel it coming? The storm?”

  I got up and walked to the window, shifting the curtain aside so I could see out. “I sense something.”

  I’d sensed a whole lot of somethings since taking the protection job—from my Restart to this demon to the Shadow Prophet and my own powers that constantly surrounded me.

  “The Galvo is building up a vast amount of energy, and I’ve been helping him. Hopefully we aren’t too late in stopping him.”

  Hopefully. “See you in thirty or forty minutes.”

  She hung up, and I pocketed my phone before wandering Lizzie’s house, double-checking that the windows I could easily access were locked and the house was still empty. I didn’t invade her privacy, but figured she’d have locked the window in her room as well.

  I fished her keys out of her purse and quietly opened the door and pulled it softly shut behind me. Using her house key, I locked up and headed to my car.

  I had lightning rods to procure.

  44

  The time on my dash said it was three thirty in the morning. There wasn’t a chance any stores that sold lightning rods would be open.

  I’d have to steal them. And because I didn’t know where the nearest store was that would have them, I headed to the orange brick church.

  Stealing from a church. How low could I possibly go?

  I took my biggest pair of bolt cutters from the trunk, then headed toward the church. It didn’t take me very long to scale the outside of the building. I’d grown quite comfortable doing things like that.

  Once on top, I pulled out the bolt cutters. They were the heavy-duty kind that could snap through something an inch thick, which was exactly the diameter of these lightning rods.

  I gathered several of them, promising I would bring them back and hoping I wasn’t insulting a greater being by vandalizing a church. I couldn’t afford to have bad luck—or more bad luck—on my side. And then I clambered down and walked back to my car.

  The lightning rods were only a foot or two long, and without insulated handles, we wouldn’t be able to use them how they were. I’d get electrocuted by holding them. And so I headed to the nearest supermarket that was open twenty-four hours and bought several wooden brooms. Back in my car, I used a small saw I kept in my trunk to chop off the broom portion and duct taped the lightning rods to the wooden handles before sharpening the points of the rods.

  There. Satisfied with my work, I returned to Lizzie’s house, pulled the rods from the back seat of my car, and grabbed an arrow quiver from the trunk. I dumped out all of the arrows, replaced them with the lightning rods, and sat on the wicker furniture on Lizzie’s front porch, waiting for Eleanora to come.

  45

  Five minutes later, a car pulled up and Eleanora hopped out. I heard her muffled “thanks” before she turned and headed up the sidewalk and the car drove away.

  As she inspected—and approved of—my handiwork, we decided she would stay hidden as much as possible while I fought the demon. She’d need to focus her powers, and I’d need to ignore mine and use my physical strength.

  Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the neighborhood, and I glanced over at Eleanora. “The storm’s started already?”

  “Yes. He’s on his way, but it’ll still take him a long time to get here. I’ve been building the energy for at least two hours.”

  I blinked. Two hours. Why hadn’t my tattoo alerted me the moment he’d gone through the wall in the basement? And why hadn’t the owners of the house said something?

  It was the middle of the night, and I knew for myself that the Galvo was pretty quiet. There was a chance the owners hadn’t heard him.

  But why hadn’t my tattoo alerted me?

  I reached out and sensed something that made my heart freeze.

  None of my protections were in place anymore.

  The drain on my magic was sometimes so faint under normal circumstances that it was easy for me to forget I was using my tracker and protection tattoos at all. But it meant I had no idea where the demon was.

  It also meant I had no protections on Lizzie.

  I glanced at Eleanora before rushing into Lizzie’s house, not bothering to shut the door behind me. I strode down the hall, pressing my ear to her door. I heard deep breathing. She was still alive.

  Thank goodness.

  I rested my forehead on the cool wood, so relieved, I almost felt like crying.

  I wasn’t about to make any mistakes, so I let myself in and put the spells on her again. I stepped over her to a window and put a protection spell on it as well. I didn’t care how much it drained me. We were bringing the danger to her. I wasn’t going to risk anything breaking into her room.

  Satisfied that her window was impenetrable now, I walked to her door and shut it softly behind me, then put spells on it too, sensing the extra drag on my protection tattoo. I’d need to replenish my energy as much as possible and as soon as possible.

  With that in mind, I headed to the kitchen and grabbed a ton of food. I drank a can of soda and chugged some orange juice, then ate a sleeve of crackers. Then I commanded my nightshade tattoo to keep me alert for the next eight hours.

  I hoped it wouldn’t take that long to fight the demon. But I also didn’t know how long it would take him to reach Lizzie’s house. Eleanora had said she’d been building the energy for two hours. That meant she’d started around one in the morning, possibly earlier.

  It was now four. I knew from experience that the demon could probably go five miles an hour, possibly ten, if it kept a steady pace. What I didn’t know was if it had shifted into the cat. And I didn’t know how much energy it was gaining from the storm as it traveled.

  It could be three hours away, and it could be twenty minutes. Either way, without the alert spells on the blocks around Lizzie’s house, I’d never know when it arrived.

  Realizing I couldn’t go blind like this, I joined Eleanora on the porch and told her I was going to redo the alert spells. She nodded, but didn’t say anything, and I set out.

  I headed north first, since that was the direction the demon would most likely come from. And then I walked the three-block radius around Lizzie’s place, setting up my spells as I went. Luckily, this hardly drained me at all.

  Twenty minutes later, I returned to Lizzie’s front porch and took a seat in the other wicker rocking chair.

  46

  Neither of us said anything the whole time. If it wasn’t for the impending doom, it would have been quite pleasant—I’d always enjoyed a good summer storm, and Eleanora’s company wasn’t bad to be in.

  I sensed it when the demon crossed into my alert spell. I tensed, and Eleanora glanced at me.

  “Is he here?” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Eleanora and I stepped off the porch. Before we went to find the demon, I hurried to the Russells’ house and knocked on the door. I felt bad waking them, but they needed to know what was going on in case something happened, and I definitely needed quick access to some of the dirt left behind by the Galvo.

  Mr. Russell answered, his face gaunt and eyes red from sleepiness.

  “I need to go into your basement,” I said.

  Without saying a word, he opened the door farther and gestured for me to go ahead. I hurried to the stairs and down to where the demon had lef
t mud behind, grateful to find some still there. I grabbed it and asked my tracker tattoo to track it again as I went back upstairs.

  I’d had my tattoos reset in the past, but for some reason, the tracker tattoo only forgot something I was actively tracking. Maybe passive remembrances didn’t require any magic from the tattoo. Thank goodness for that.

  Satisfied, I returned to Eleanora, and we strode down the street.

  I glanced over at her and grinned. “It’s all a charade, isn’t it?”

  “What?” She didn’t look at me.

  “The old lady persona. You’re not stooped anymore.” I realized then that when I’d seen her in the SLC warehouse, she hadn’t been stooped then either.

  She sighed, glancing at me finally. “I needed to be done. I’d been doing the job for sixty years, for crying out loud. I wouldn’t say I burned out, per se, but I was tired of being on call and on duty constantly. Having Lizzie take over has been one of the best things ever to happen for me.”

  “How able-bodied are you?”

  “Pretty decently, even for a woman in her nineties, but definitely not well enough to actually fight.”

  “I wasn’t expecting you to. Don’t worry about that.” I just wanted to make sure she wouldn’t regret helping me. Of course, being able-bodied didn’t mean she wouldn’t. Hopefully, she’d stay safe.

  Lightning crashed overhead, so close I felt the hairs on my arm raise. Eleanora had a wicked grin on her face.

  “What?” she said when she noticed me looking. “I enjoy thunderstorms. Sue me.”

  I shrugged, simply grateful there was no rain. I expected she had something to do with that too. And judging by the massive amounts of magic swirling around her, she was having to work quite a bit to keep the weather in a perfect state for the Galvo. Electrical pressure building, but not releasing. It couldn’t be easy.

  Dusty blue smoke appeared in front of me, marking the demon’s location before my physical eyes could see him. I reached over, stopping the woman beside me.

  “He’s here.”

  47

  “How do you want to do this?” Eleanora asked. “He can’t hear or see us, right?”

  “Correct. He has no senses.”

  “But when people attack, lives end?”

  I nodded.

  “But what exactly happens?”

  Her question was a good one. I had no idea, so I decided to give Alexander a quick call. We had time before the demon reached Lizzie’s house, and I wanted to have as much knowledge on our side as possible.

  He answered immediately, thank goodness.

  When I presented him with our question, he said, “The only thing I’ve figured out is that I die pretty much instantaneously. There’s no blood, no gore, no evidence of a struggle when I come back. He kills instantly. Luckily for me, it’s not permanent.”

  “You’ve never attacked him with a partner or someone there to act as a witness?”

  “No. I generally work alone. Mainly because I never know when one of the other hounds is going to turn evil on me.”

  Fair point.

  I ended the conversation and relayed the information to Eleanora.

  “I wonder if it’s a physical thing,” Eleanora said. “If you have to come in contact with the Galvo for him to kill you.”

  I considered that for a moment. “If I shot him, do you think that might stop him instead of going at him with my fist or a knife?”

  Eleanora shook her head. “I wouldn’t risk it. I plan to attack with electricity. You should plan on using the lightning rods. See where that goes.”

  I nodded, staring at the demon as he approached. Unlike Alexander, I was not immortal, and the thought of fighting this Galvo freaked me out. I’d always lived my life according to a set of strict rules, though—fulfill my contract, or die trying.

  Realizing that attacking now was better than letting the demon get closer to Lizzie’s, I pulled out one of the lightning rods before glancing at Eleanora. “Ready?”

  “Yes. I’ll gather as much electricity as possible, and then you throw the rod at him.”

  “Sounds good.” And it did. Hopefully, it would work.

  The skin on my arms, neck, and back tingled as Eleanora gathered electricity. Once she nodded, I held the lightning rod up by the wooden handle, squeezing my eyes shut against the brightness as Eleanora brought lightning down to the rod. Even though I was cushioned from the electricity, it was still very difficult to maintain my grip.

  “Go!” Eleanora said, her voice low but urgent.

  I threw the lightning rod with all my strength at the demon. It plunged deep into the creature’s chest. The Galvo stopped, grabbed, and pulled it out, and then turned to face me.

  That was the last thing I remembered.

  48

  I came to with Eleanora hovering over me, a worried expression on her face. I coughed, trying to sit up, but she pushed me back down.

  “I figured out what happens when the Galvo kills someone,” she said.

  “Oh? What’s that?” My throat hurt like crazy, and my chest burned.

  “He stopped your heart. Sent a bolt of electricity straight at it. Oddly enough, it didn’t touch your skin—it bypassed the protective tissues completely.”

  She continued. “I started your heart up again the same way he stopped it, but I don’t think you’ll survive if he does that again.”

  I sat up, and this time she didn’t stop me. “Where is he?”

  She nodded in the direction of Lizzie’s house. I panicked, stumbling to my feet, and was disoriented to see the Galvo only fifty feet away. I’d expected him to be in Lizzie’s house by then.

  “I got you back as soon as I could,” Eleanora said. “There’s no way I could leave you dead for long.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “Attack him again. The same way.”

  I glanced at her. “You’re serious?”

  “Can’t you feel his magical print?”

  I reached out with my powers, and smiled when I recognized what she was getting at. The Galvo had used a great deal of energy when he killed me. Just like when he used power to track Lizzie, he would need to replenish it.

  Eleanora said, “We have to go fast. The energy storm is feeding him, and he’ll have the ability again to kill you.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Eleanora started gathering her electricity again. This time, I pulled two of the lightning rods from the quiver.

  The moment Eleanora indicated she was ready, I held the lightning rods to the sky, my arms shaking with the effort it took to keep that much power in one place. I could feel my hair singeing and my flesh burning.

  When Eleanora indicated she’d gathered enough electricity, I lunged for the demon, stabbing him with both rods. He shook as the electricity roared through him, but pulled out both lightning rods and threw me from him. I landed ten feet away.

  “More power?” I asked. He hadn’t killed me! Eleanora’s theory was correct—he must have needed more energy to do it.

  “Yes. It worked, though. He’s injured.”

  I rolled to a sitting position, ignoring the aches and pains manifesting all over my body, and looked at the Galvo. The two places where I’d stabbed him in the side were smoking, and he walked slower.

  Hope that we might possibly defeat him swelled in my chest, and I pulled myself to my feet. I was just about to grab another lightning rod when I heard a familiar voice.

  “This looks like fun,” Melissa said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Are you serious? You have the worst timing ever, Melissa.”

  She sauntered to me, placing a hand on my bicep and giving me an expression of complete adoration. “You’re so hot when you’re fighting, Abel, and it’s been a long time since I visited you during a battle. Besides, there’s no way I would miss out on watching this one.”

  “What’s so special about this battle?”

  “I haven’t seen a Galvo in action before.”

&nbs
p; I glared at her. “You know what he is?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Are you going to help me fight him?”

  She appeared offended by the question. “Of course not. You know better than to assume I would do that.”

  Melissa turned me to face her, putting her arms around my neck, and planting her lips on mine.

  I pushed her off, spitting. “Disgusting.”

  “Just a good luck kiss. For old times’ sake.”

  “There are no old times between us, Melissa.”

  I shook off the gross feeling she always gave me before turning back to Eleanora and the demon.

  Eleanora and I repeated the same thing. This time, I could only hold one lightning rod. My body was tired, and wielding two had been very difficult.

  Judging by how fast the demon was still moving, we would need to do this a few more times. I could activate my golden tattoo—the one that gave me a burst of adrenaline—but I didn’t want to use it until the last minute, when I had nothing else to give.

  I’d learned quickly that using it too soon would nearly ruin me for the rest of the fight. Especially if I was up against something as powerful as this demon.

  When we’d built up enough electricity, I lunged for the demon, again stabbing him. Yet again, he grabbed me and threw me.

  “This isn’t working,” I said, trying and failing to pick myself up.

  “Sure it is,” Melissa said. She pointed. “Look, he’s got less energy now.”

  She came to help me up, instead falling on top of me. With an apology, she rolled to her feet, then pulled me up, her hands brushing my pecs when we were both standing.

  I could see in her eyes that she was exerting a great deal of self-control. I groaned inwardly.

  The thing about Melissa was anytime she saw me fighting, it seemed to fuel her passion for me. And judging by the expression on her face, it wouldn’t be long before she lost herself and tried to join the fray, but with a completely different objective in mind.