by Holly Ryan
I pointed at the bench—which was empty. Tim wasn’t here. No rain fell. The mausoleum was still a pile of rubble around the open trapdoor. The sudden change gave me whiplash so hard my knees gave out from underneath me.
Jacek and Eddie flashed out of nowhere to my sides in an instant.
“It’s not the full moon yet, Sunshine,” Eddie said, his voice gentle and soft.
“No, not Paul. I mean I didn’t kill Tim, the grounds man, the murder I was arrested for. I swear I didn’t kill him, but...”
“But what?” Sawyer asked, his face pinched with worry.
A horror so complete took hold, ripped me apart, chewed holes into my conscience, and strangled my voice. Because what if I had killed Tim?
Chapter Seven
The day of my twenty-first birthday, I awoke in the woodshed to darkness, alone. Believe me, it was better than the alternative because I didn’t trust myself, not even a little bit. I hated it though. My body craved my vamps so much that I ached with need, but I needed time with my thoughts during my few moments of clarity, time to reevaluate myself as a vampire/slayer, time to mentally prepare myself for tonight.
Reluctantly, they’d agreed, but the three of them looked they were just about ready to cave in on themselves from worry. To be honest, I was, too. The static in my head had grown louder, and the right side of my body had gone numb like it had given up. But after tonight, it would all be over, one way or another. No, that wasn’t me accepting that the end could mean my death. I would fight like mad until the very end, no matter what, like I’d been doing this whole time.
A soft knock sounded on the outside door of the woodshed, and then my four favorite creatures walked in, all of them smiling, but except for Cleo, their eyes and mouths were tense in the corners. Even Jacek’s, who always wore his smile so naturally. He carried a cluster of colorful helium balloons, Eddie had a bundle of my clothes, and Sawyer held a giant mug with Slayer Queen in large swirly letters printed across it.
“Happy birthday!” they said in unison as Eddie opened the glass door for me.
I had a hard time hearing them over the static in my head, but I didn’t need to be a rocket surgeon to get the gist of it. Besides, I was getting better at lip reading. I laughed, my chest warming so much it hurt. “Thank you, guys.”
Eddie pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Would you like presents now or later?”
“Later,” I said, my voice cracking a little.
“Except this one.” Sawyer held the mug out to me, filled to the brim with blood and curling cinnamon steam. “Two pinches of cinnamon, just the way you like it.”
“Thank you.” I tipped my head up for a kiss, and he met it with a slight growl. Yeah, two days had been much too long for all of us.
“There’s more where that came from,” he promised with a tight smile.
After settling the helium balloons in the corner of the woodshed, Jacek folded me into his arms, careful of my mug, and kissed the top of my head. “We had a cake, too, with your name on it and everything, but you’ll never guess who ate it.”
Cleo growled and bared her teeth like he’d just spilled one of her darkest, most shameful secrets.
“It’s okay, girl,” I said. “You deserve that cake and a whole lot more.”
She sat on Jacek’s foot, puffed up her chest, and grinned her goofy doggy grin that made me fall in love with her all over again.
I laughed into my mug of blood and then drank deep. Ah, that hit the spot every time. My fangs came out at the taste, and I briefly wondered how my vamps prevented theirs from doing the same when they drank from mugs. Practice, probably. I licked my fangs to snap them back up. “I suppose I should get dressed so I can look like I know what I’m doing, huh?”
“We have everything you need by the front door,” Eddie said.
Jacek nodded. “Eddie even filled up your Holy Bra for you with injections of holy water, but he refused to put it on.”
Eddie grabbed one of his pecs. “It’s not my size.”
“Thanks,” I said, snorting, “but I’d probably just end up squirting myself in the face. Besides, I’m hoping I just have to battle Paul tonight and no vampires, and then I’ll come home.”
“That’s all we want, Belle, is for you to come home,” Sawyer said.
“Agreed,” Eddie said.
“Thirded.” Jacek pulled out a file folder from behind his back. “We...we also have something to show you.”
“Detective Appelt got it,” Sawyer said, watching me carefully. “It’s part of the police report for Tim.”
I took the folder, held tightly to it until it started to crumple, and then handed it back. “I don’t need to see it.”
Jacek glanced at Sawyer. “Are you sure? It—”
“It’s psychological warfare,” I said. “I know myself, just as you guys know me, all of my quirks, my fears, everything I desire. I let Paul get to me, and sure, part of that is because I have mashed potato brain and holes in my memory big enough to walk through. But I’m not a murderer. Of humans, at least. Gods and vampires need to watch themselves, present company excluded of course.”
Jacek grinned, a real one this time. “Well, that’s basically what the report says. I mean not all of what you just said, but the weapon used to kill Tim was metal. You didn’t have Night’s Fall then, and there wasn’t any wood splinters from a stake found in him. You didn’t do it, and...I’m explaining something to you that you already know.”
Eddie scrunched up his face at Jacek. “I believe that’s called mansplaining.”
I laughed, making the static in my head blare louder for a second, and I tried not to wince. “Yes, it is mansplaining, but I’ll let it slide. Paul’s just trying to wear me down until I’m brittle and crispy. Little does he know that I like brittle and crispy because it reminds me of pie crust. I am a pie crust.”
Sawyer took my hand and squeezed. “The thing that holds pie, and the universe, together.”
Jacek made a motion like an explosion. “Boom.”
“Damn right,” Eddie agreed with the smile he reserved for me.
I took a long drink of blood from my mug, then licked my fangs back up. “Basically, I just need to keep my head on straight so I can kill Paul and keep being pie crust.”
“What can we do to help?” Sawyer asked. “More blood to get your strength up?”
“The moon’s up, but you still have time to do whatever you need,” Eddie said.
“Um,” I said shakily. Sometimes their generosity completely stole my voice, and it took a moment to find it again. “No, I need to get cracking a god skull.”
Jacek smoothed his hand over my back. “That’s my slayer.”
“We’ll wait outside while we give you a second to change,” Eddie said.
Jacek held up a finger. “But only a second because I want to see you naked.”
“I don’t care either way,” I said with a chuckle, peeling off my Goofy shirt.
They stood there, the three of them, and watched as I undressed, the power and hunger of their gazes sharpening the ache between my legs to a constant, painful need. I would either need to fuck or kill very soon, preferably kill, then fuck. The idea focused my brain on something other than the static and numbness, put an extra wiggle into my hips as I shimmied into my jeans using mostly my left hand, shined a light on the end of the road that led to infinity with them by my side, and in my heart, forever.
Once dressed, I stood in front of them, ready as I would ever be. “I have a lot of things Paul doesn’t have, but tonight I have one more.”
“What’s that?” Eddie asked.
“Patrick Starfish socks.”
Jacek laughed. “That’s always been the missing element. I’m surprised we didn’t think of it before.”
Sawyer leaned down to kiss my cheek. “Paul doesn’t stand a chance.”
“One more stop at the house for weapons and...” Jacek glanced at Eddie and Sawyer. “Other things.”
“
What other things?” I asked.
“You’ll see.” Jacek headed toward the door, and I could tell from his voice and the tightness across his black T-shirt I wouldn’t like these “other things.”
Together, we left the woodshed and strode out into the backyard. If I concentrated, the numbness on the right side of my body didn’t affect the way I walked. So...that was good.
The full moon hung fat and heavy along a ribbon of clouds, setting the mood perfectly for a terrifying Halloween night. And I was terrified, even more so than the last time we’d made this same trek to the graveyard where I’d failed to beat Paul. I was quaking in both my Patrick Starfish socks and my asskicker boots, and I was seriously regretting drinking every last drop of that giant mug o’ blood. It squirmed in my stomach almost as loud as the static in my head.
But what I hadn’t realized until two nights ago was that I hadn’t failed last time. Not completely. I’d hurt Paul, evidenced by the weird black bend in his body. Sure, he’d hurt me, too, but look at me now. Actually just look at my left side and not my right since it had gone numb. But yeah, it was a pretty nice left side, if I did say so myself, at least physically. After I took my slayer power out with a corpse flower, watch out, world, because my sides would all be squared away. I’d be in tip-top shape in—I glanced at my Mickey Mouse watch—less than three hours.
All of the trick-or-treaters had gone home already. They wouldn’t have had any front doors to knock on, because they all still stood open, every single one of them, including my vamps’. Most had used the age-old Podunk City way of covering up their entrances—black trash bags and also a few boards.
Jacek caught me staring across the street as we headed toward the house. “The doors won’t close. And it’s about to get weirder.”
“Oh good. I was just going to say I needed more weird in my life.” I stepped up onto the front porch and stopped in front of the open door. Water beaded at the top of the doorframe, never dripping, just clinging.
“It’s obviously Paul,” Eddie said beside me, “but he’s not...walking through the town this time.”
“He’s dripping,” I said, climbing the remaining steps. “Or about to drip.”
“It’s the same all over town,” Sawyer said, his voice low and frustrated. “All the doors are open and won’t close. All the frames have water on them.”
I lifted my hand as if to touch it, but then thought better of it. “Could this be lake water?” But then I answered my own question, at least sort of. “But he wanted the devil to move his lake below the trapdoor because that’s where he wants it.”
“I don’t know, Sunshine,” Eddie said, rubbing his jaw. “I’m at a loss.”
“You and me both. Is Paul still digging up dead slayers?”
Eddie nodded. “The last one we heard about was a week ago. All the way across the globe.”
I ducked inside underneath the dangling water, because not much good would come just staring at it and trying to guess what Paul’s plan was. I had corpse flowers to plant.
Jacek buckled me into my Kevlar vest, and Eddie fitted my leather jacket over it while he explained...some things. Written instructions, I thought. I tried to pay attention, but the lights were too bright inside the house, the static too loud, the right side of my body too puddle-y. Sawyer heaved the full duffel bag up off the floor and made the mistake of hanging it off my right shoulder. It thwacked to the floor.
This was going really well so far.
“Try my left shoulder.” I moved my mouth around those words, but it sounded like I was gargling marbles.
But Sawyer seemed to get the message. So did my left shoulder.
We headed out, not wanting to waste any more time. Dead leaves rattled down the sidewalk in front of us, guiding us toward the darkness boiling inside the graveyard. It pressed against the iron gates, blacker than the night. The closer I drew to it, the louder the static spiked.
I used my right hand to awkwardly plug the key into the lock and turn it, so my vamps wouldn’t see how badly the whole left side of me was shaking, though I’m sure they saw anyway. With my hand wrapped around the gate to push it open, a thought struck me.
“Detective Appelt,” I said.
Sawyer nodded, hearing my unspoken question and all of my twisted emotions that kept me from asking it directly: where was my dad?
“He said he’d be here,” Sawyer said.
But...he wasn’t. I had so many things to say to him, especially if I never came back out of the trapdoor, but I couldn’t wait around for him either. Of all the times to show up, now would’ve been a really good one.
I pushed through the gate, my mouth firmed against an insistent wobble in the left side of my chin. No crying. Hear that, self? You’re done.
Sawyer took my hand, not fooled for one second that I wasn’t disappointed. He knew me too well. So did Cleo, who pressed her warmth against my side.
We entered the graveyard, and right away, the darkness needled through my clothes and rammed down my throat to choke me. It didn’t matter that I didn’t breathe it in. It seemed to want to hurt me just as much as Paul. It dragged at my feet, already draining my energy before I’d even begun. The right side of the graveyard began to tilt, as if tearing free from reality.
Oh man, that messed with my balance something awful.
I pulled Sawyer to a stop and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Belle?” he said.
“What’s wrong, Slayer?” Jacek asked.
“I’m just hallucinating, that’s all. It’s no big deal. Carry on.” I opened my eyes and put on a fake happy face, even while the right side of my body, and the right side of the earth, felt like it was slipping.
Sawyer clung to my hand, or I clung to his, and under all of my vamps’ and dog’s watchful gazes, we pressed on. By the time we reached the trapdoor, still open, I couldn’t hear a damn thing. The static noise filled up the whole world.
Even so, that wouldn’t keep me from saying, “I just want to spend our immortalities together.”
My vampires seemed to agree, but I couldn’t hear shit.
“I’ll spend all of that time showing you how much I love y—” Fuck, I’d told myself I wasn’t going to cry, but my throat strangled with emotion. “How much I love you three. And you, sweet Cleo.”
Jacek got there first to offer his shoulder for me to sob into. And then Eddie, and then Sawyer, each one there for me, like they’d been from the beginning. Then, as Sawyer let me go, I turned toward the trapdoor, and stopped.
Detective Appelt stood there with a length of rope in his hands that he’d secured to the inside of the trapdoor. He said something then, and the shape and movement of his mouth made me think he was talking about falling, or not falling since he’d brought rope. It was such a caring, dad-like thing to do that I smiled at him. He stopped whatever he was saying and smiled back, a mirror image of what I imagined mine looked like.
I strode toward him, then reached out and squeezed his hand. Then with one last look at my vampires and my dog, I took the rope from the detective and dropped it into the open trapdoor. It vanished into the black abyss, and with a deep breath I didn’t need to take, I jumped and followed it down.
Chapter Eight
My duffel bag slammed its weight into my back when I grabbed hold of the rope. Ow. It was much heavier than what I was used to. I shimmied down into nothingness. The rope made this so much easier. I’d thought the distance to below was a literal stone’s throw, but apparently this place did strange things to my perceptions, in more ways than one.
Soon—sooner than I thought they would—my feet touched ground. A black void surrounded me, impenetrable even with vampire/slayer/fae/pirate vision. The flashlight app on my cell didn’t do much better—until I took a few steps forward and then quickly looked away. The static noise dragged down the inside of my skull, making me drop my duffel bag, making me grab my head to keep it from exploding.
Just a little longer. I just needed to ke
ep it together a little longer.
There as clear as anything I’d ever written were those words, presumably with my fingernails, scratched into the wall. Paul’s words. I refused to look at them. Tried not to think about them. Why had I written them? Was this just more psychological warfare to make the static flare up and weaken me?
I...I had things to do. They were written by Eddie...not on the wall but on the note pinned to my duffel bag.
Step 1: Kill Paul with the god bone.
Right. I could do that. I’d already hurt him. I just had to stay focused, like the eye of Sawyer’s necklace staring forward from around my neck, the one he’d given me for my birthday last year.
After shouldering my duffel once again, I kept moving forward, down the long tunnel that led to the bridge. Just like last time, giant rocks fell from above to the writhing pile of maggots below that somehow never got squished while they swarmed over the only light source here. It was a relief to see this place exactly how I remembered it since I was afraid I’d scrambled it up.
With just my toes on the footbridge, I glanced up at the falling rocks, and then flashed across it, no problem. On the other side, the lake appeared like an upright mirror, and I dashed into it, already knowing what to expect.
And then realizing I should always expect the unexpected. With my eyes wide open, I slowed as I shined my phone around. Only a few slayer bodies floated around me through the lake, when before I hadn’t been able to take a step without one of them getting handsy. So where did they all go? Had they gone through the lake portal to hang out with Paul in his dimension? Oh shit. Would that give him even more power? I sure hoped not, but I was about to find out.
A couple more steps, and I strode into Paul’s dimension soaking wet. It hadn’t changed a bit. A nightmare graveyard spread out in front of me with melted, horrific statues snapping apart the skeletal bodies that crawled everywhere. The skeletons screeched when they saw me, and dragged themselves forward along the blackened ground.
Step 1: Kill Paul with the god bone.
