Only the Devout

by Amanda M. Lee

  “I don’t know. I just felt like doing it. Why? Is it a problem?”

  “No. It’s just you used to do that when you were a child. In fact, there were times Brett and I would hold you between us and you would go back and forth kissing us on the cheek. It was rather charming.”

  That was news to me. I couldn’t remember my time with them. Everything before my parents died was a blur. “Then I guess I come by it naturally.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Hold down the fort while I’m gone.”

  “Don’t I always?”

  “Pretty much.” I started toward the door.

  “Be careful of the Grimlock grandparents,” he called to my back. “I very much doubt they’re as harmless as you think.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  A FAIR-HAIRED TEENAGER SAT ON THE PATIO wall when I exited the aquarium. It was after hours, so I took special care to make sure the door was locked. I didn’t want anyone accidentally wandering inside. I was so focused on my task that I didn’t notice the girl until I was almost directly on top of her.

  “Hello.” Her grin was shy.

  I was taken aback and took a moment to collect myself. “Hello.” I flashed a smile that I didn’t really feel. “Um ... can I help you?”

  “My feet hurt.” She gestured toward her Converse-clad extremities. “I was just taking a few minutes to rest. If it’s a problem that I’m sitting here, I can go someplace else.”

  “It’s not a problem,” I reassured her, my gaze automatically going to the lot. The crowd looked to have grown, which I wouldn’t have thought possible, and yet there were more people walking in circles. “Why do they do that?”

  “What?” The girl’s eyes were curious as she looked toward the throng. “Oh, you mean the circle thing? Titus says that it’s a way to build power. Supposedly, if we walk in a group long enough, we’ll be able to open the death door and allow those who were forced to the other side to cross back over.”

  The notion was absurd. “And why would you want that?” I was genuinely curious. “The world is crowded enough without additional souls taking up space.”

  The girl shrugged. “I’m only here because my parents have fallen for Titus’s crap and they forced me to come.”

  That was enough to elicit my sympathy. “I’m sorry. What’s your name?”

  “Andrea Porter. What’s yours?”

  “Izzy Sage.”

  “Do you work here?”

  “I manage the aquarium.” On paper, that’s what I did, so it wasn’t a lie. As far as I could tell, though, the aquarium ran itself. I rarely had to make decisions about the day-to-day operations of the facility. “How long have your parents been involved with Titus?”

  “A few months.” Andrea’s eyes were back on the pacing crowd. “I’m not even sure how it happened. One day my mother came home and said she’d met a guy who had an interesting theory. My father argued that it was nonsense, but she managed to convince him to go to a few meetings.

  “The next thing I know, they’re both attending regular meetings and they can’t talk about anything else,” she continued. “My father, who I swear never believed in anything, is obsessed with this death door thing. He says he wants to talk to my grandfather, who died a few years ago.

  “At first I didn’t think it was anything to worry about. I thought they would get over it ... right up until they took me out of school for the week and said we had to come here. I still don’t know why they insisted I come with them, but they insisted it was necessary.”

  I wanted to tell her to run, to get away from the group, but I had no reason to believe they were dangerous. So far, all they’d done was walk in a circle and express interest in talking to their dead loved ones. That was hardly the stuff of evil regimes.

  “Well ... I’m sorry for all this,” I offered her lamely. “It can’t be fun for a girl your age.”

  She shrugged. “The whole thing is messed up.” Her expression was rueful as she turned back to me. “It must be annoying for you too. It’s not as if you want us clogging up the parking lot of your aquarium.”

  “It’s not ideal,” I admitted. “Right now you guys aren’t hurting anything. If they start infringing on guests, we might have a problem. Until then, it is what it is.”

  “Still, I’m sorry. It’s so ... embarrassing.” She made a face. “I wish they would go back to being normal parents.”

  “My grandfather once told me there is no such thing as a ‘normal’ guardian.” I made the appropriate air quotes. “He raised me after my parents died and was talking about himself, of course. I was complaining because I wanted him to be more ‘normal.’ My childhood was ... colorful. I guess that’s the word you would use.

  “As I got older, I realized he was right,” I continued. “There’s nothing more boring than ‘normal’ parents. You should embrace the odd, even if it takes you places you never thought you would visit.”

  Andrea didn’t look convinced. “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.” She sighed and slowly climbed to her feet. “I have to get back to the circle. We’re only allowed a fifteen-minute break every hour.”

  It wasn’t my place to question the ritual. “Good luck.”

  “You too. If we get to be too much, don’t hesitate to say something. Honestly, if you could kick us out that would be great.”

  Her reaction made me laugh. “I’ll give it some thought.”

  GRIMLOCK MANOR BUZZED WITH activity when I let myself in through the front door. In addition to the usual butler, a bevy of maids flitted throughout the house, carrying out various tasks. Most of the family was in the main parlor plotting.

  “I think we should just wait until they’re inside, throw bags over their heads, and then drag them to the basement,” Aisling announced from her spot on one of the sofas. She had a drink in her hand and was using her foot to rock the bouncy chair her infant daughter Lily was nestled in. For her part, the baby appeared to be in a good mood. She smiled at anybody who made eye contact and made happy noises as the chair rocked. The reaction confused me, because, as far as I could tell, the baby was an empath and usually reacted negatively when those around her were stressed. This was new.

  “And what are we going to do with them once we have them in the basement?” Redmond, the oldest Grimlock sibling, asked. He also had a drink in his hand and looked to be sucking it down as fast as possible.

  “We let the snakes eat them,” Aisling replied, unruffled by his dubious tone.

  “There aren’t any snakes,” Braden shot back, rolling his eyes until they landed on me. The scowl that had taken over his face immediately evaporated and he smiled in greeting. “Hello, beautiful.”

  “Uh, gag me.” Aisling mimed vomiting, which caused Lily’s smile to widen.

  Braden ignored his sister and patted the open spot on the sofa that he’d obviously been saving for me. “Get a drink and join me.”

  I nodded, my attention drifting back to Lily. “Just a second.” I moved closer to the baby and hunkered down so I was at eye level with her. She was a knockout. She boasted the same dark hair and purple eyes as the rest of the Grimlocks. Her father, a police detective who wasn’t yet in attendance, had dark hair and rugged features, but Lily had inherited nothing from him as far as I could tell. She was all Grimlock.

  “What’s wrong?” Cormack asked from his usual chair. He was generally unflappable, but his face was red enough to indicate he was a few drinks deep already. “Is something wrong with her?”

  He was nothing if not a doting grandfather, and his concern made me smile.

  “She’s fine,” I replied, focusing fully on the baby. “It’s just ... she should be agitated.”

  “Oh, don’t go begging for trouble,” Braden whined. “She’s been quiet for two hours, happy even. If she starts crying now, my grandparents will make her scream, and nobody wants that.”

  “I think Lily screaming would be preferable to Emmet and Mary,” Redmond counter
ed, a dark look passing across his face. “They’re the thing in the closet you hide from at midnight. The nonstop screaming Lily blesses us with is merely an annoyance.”

  “Stop saying things like that.” Cormack jabbed a warning finger in his son’s direction. “You’re going to slip up and say that in front of your grandparents if you’re not careful. That won’t go over well.”

  “You act as if we should care,” Braden argued, his eyes curious as they roamed my face. “Emmet and Mary aren’t exactly warm and welcoming. I don’t see why we have to act as if they’re not the world’s worst grandparents.”

  “Because I asked you to.” Cormack was firm. “I won’t pretend things will be easy with them, but they’re extending an olive branch.”

  “And they’re your parents,” I supplied, flashing him a heartfelt smile. “You want to improve your relationship with them while you still can — if that’s possible.”

  He momentarily looked helpless. Then he nodded. “Pretty much. This may very well be the last opportunity we have to form a bond that I can carry with me. I didn’t raise my children in a manner that they approved of. I don’t regret breaking from them when I did. But they’re still my parents.”

  “It’s all right,” I reassured him. “Nobody is judging you.”

  “I am,” Aisling countered bitterly, leaning forward to watch me study her daughter. “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to figure out why Lily isn’t upset by all the negative emotions flying around,” I admitted. “In the past, when people have been tense, she’s picked up on it and acted accordingly. It’s almost as if she’s enjoying this.”

  “She probably is,” Braden said dryly. “She’s Aisling’s daughter. This isn’t a life-or-death situation. This is us figuring out how we’re going to torture our grandparents while they torture us right back. Lily is her mother’s daughter, so she’s probably looking forward to the chaos.”

  That didn’t seem likely, and yet, sure enough, Lily reacted to Braden’s statement by doing something she’d never done before. She opened her mouth and let loose the loudest belly laugh I’d ever heard escape an infant’s mouth.

  Cormack jerked forward, surprised. “Did she just ... ?”

  “Laugh?” I nodded. “I think she’s definitely feeding off the energy of the room. I’m not sure what that means for you guys going forward, but she clearly likes the idea of torturing her great-grandparents.”

  Instead of looking worried, Aisling grinned. “That’s my girl.”

  Lily laughed again, her small body shaking with delight.

  “Aw, that’s kind of cute,” Braden admitted. “She’s a tiny terror in the making. She’ll be a monster by the time she’s five.”

  That should’ve been a sobering thought, but nobody seemed to care.

  “She’s a beautiful little genius,” Cormack said, swooping in to pluck her out of her chair. “I can’t wait for her to meet her great-grandparents. She’ll have them wrapped around her little finger.”

  Lily didn’t laugh in delight this time. Instead, she threw up all over her grandfather’s expensive shirt.

  “She’s definitely one of us,” Redmond intoned. “Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”

  Only a Grimlock could think that.

  Four

  “No!”

  Griffin Taylor, one of the calmest men I’d ever met, practically melted down when he heard his daughter had laughed for the first time and he hadn’t been present to witness it.

  “If it’s any consolation, she was laughing because the rest of us were upset,” Braden offered amiably. “That must count for something.”

  Griffin pinned him with a dark look. “No, Braden, it doesn’t count for anything.” He whined as he leaned over to stare at his daughter, who was happily perched on her grandfather’s lap. Cormack had changed shirts but otherwise seemed unbothered by Lily’s vomit theatrics. “Why can’t you laugh for me?”

  Lily studied her father’s face as if searching for the answers to some big mystery and rewarded him with a laugh.

  “Oh, yay!” Griffin clapped his hands and reached for the baby, but Cormack held tight.

  “I’ve only had her for a few minutes,” Cormack argued.

  “It would’ve been longer, but he had to run upstairs and change after Lily puked all over him,” Redmond offered.

  “She’s my baby,” Griffin reminded his father-in-law. “She’s been here all day. I haven’t seen her since this morning.”

  “That’s not my fault.” Cormack refused to relinquish Lily. “Besides, I haven’t seen her. I had a meeting this morning and then got called out to Belle Isle because a bunch of lunatics are walking the property in an attempt to cross the gate.”

  Griffin straightened, horror spreading across his faces. “Why didn’t you call the station?”

  “That’s not exactly what’s happening,” I answered before Cormack could. I accepted the drink Braden handed me and made room for him on the couch, resting my head on his shoulder as I debated whether the pressure I was feeling behind my eyes was a potential migraine or simply the trials of the day finally catching up with me. “There’s some weird religious cult walking in circles in the parking lot. They keep talking about a death door. They haven’t tried to get inside the building.”

  “But how do they know about the death gate?” Griffin’s expression was dark. “How do they know there’s something to cross?”

  It didn’t take a mind reader to know what he was thinking. Weeks earlier, the gate had malfunctioned and sucked Aisling to the other side. There was a question about whether she would return, but I had crossed the threshold, determined to bring her back. In the end, it proved easier than expected, even if it did open up a whole new world of trouble for us. That, however, was something to dwell on another time.

  “I don’t know how they know,” I said. “They’re calling it a door, though. That indicates that they might’ve heard whispers but are light on the facts. Cormack thinks if we ignore them they’ll go away.”

  “Yes, he told us to do that when Aisling irritated us as kids,” Braden said. “Do you know how that turned out? Well, I’ll tell you.” He barely took a breath before barreling forward. “All that did was drive her crazy, so she tripled her efforts. She would stand in the middle of our fort and sing boy band songs until we let her play, even though girls weren’t allowed in our club.”

  “So she essentially got her own way,” I surmised.

  “Pretty much.”

  Lily laughed again, this time moving her hands, almost as if she was trying to applaud.

  “That does it.” Griffin plucked Lily from her grandfather’s lap before Cormack could muster an argument, smoothly stepping away before his father-in-law could grab him. “How is Daddy’s favorite girl?”

  Lily batted her eyelashes in response.

  “What happened to me being your favorite girl?” Aisling complained, appearing in the doorway. She wore a pretty purple dress that put her shoulders on full display. The color matched her eyes.

  Griffin let loose a low whistle. Since Lily’s birth there wasn’t much dressing up these days. That would change eventually, but for now they both appeared content with the way their world had shifted. “You look smoking hot.”

  “Hey!” Cormack jabbed a finger at his son-in-law. “Don’t go getting handsy. My parents will be here any minute. If they think you’re a pervert, they’ll be ... unpleasant.”

  “Who are you kidding?” Aidan asked, strolling into the room with his fiancé Jerry on his heels. His hair was a mess — probably because he was running late — but he didn’t appear bothered by the glare his father shot him. “They’ll be unpleasant regardless.”

  Lily laughed in agreement, causing Aidan to pull up short.

  “When did that start?” He looked awestruck.

  “Today,” Griffin replied, swaying back and forth as Lily smiled for her adoring audience. “Apparently she likes it when everybody gets worked up over yo
ur grandparents.”

  “She likes the chaos,” I volunteered, smirking as the baby’s eyes tracked to me. “She recognizes that you’re all annoyed, but not for the same reasons you usually get worked up. Nobody is in imminent danger. There are no emotional breakdowns on the horizon. This is just going to be a loud dinner and she looks forward to it.”

  “Just like your mother,” Griffin cooed, pressing a kiss to his daughter’s forehead before turning back to his wife. “Baby, really, you’re beautiful. Let’s not waste that dress on your grandparents. Let’s dump the kid on your father and go upstairs for the rest of the night.”

  Cormack cuffed the back of Griffin’s head, his smile never diminishing as he grinned at his granddaughter. “Everybody will be here for dinner. Everybody will welcome your grandparents. Everybody will be on their best behavior.”

  “I didn’t agree to that,” Aisling argued, shuffling closer to Lily and Griffin. Her smile was soft as she watched father and daughter dance. “The laughing is cute, right?”

  Griffin nodded. “She has her mother’s sense of humor.”

  “Let’s just hope she doesn’t get her mother’s penchant for being right all the time,” Braden interjected. “She’ll be insufferable.”

  Another laugh from Lily had him softening his stance.

  “Or maybe she’ll be adorable no matter what,” he conceded, wrinkling his nose as he made a face for the baby’s benefit. “Seriously, could she be any cuter?”

  “Dad didn’t think she was so cute when she puked all over his shirt,” Redmond pointed out.

  “Can we teach her to do that on cue?” Braden asked. He looked legitimately curious. “I mean ... not that I would wish that on anybody or anything, but it could be a good weapon to have in our arsenal.”

  “Mary and Emmet,” Aidan coughed into his hand, earning a glare from Cormack.

  “Hey, if she’s going to puke on anybody on demand, it’s going to be Angelina,” Aisling countered, referring to her arch nemesis, a woman who’d made it her life’s mission to torture Aisling and Jerry in high school. “I’m not saying she can’t be an equal-opportunity puker, but Angelina comes first.”