“That’s why she moved in such a hurry.” Phoenix turned down the volume on the TV. “No wonder she cried.”
“You’re not gonna believe this, but her aunt and one of the cousins are lost souls.” He leaned his head back and studied the Greek key design carved into the crown molding. “After I left Sasha, I went all over Telluride, looking for more. I found two at the coffeehouse, both kids.” He closed his eyes. “I hit pay dirt in the bookshop.”
“You found the Skia?”
“He’s a teacher at the high school.”
“Damn.” Phoenix leaned back again, quiet and thoughtful for a while before he said, “Right in our own backyard. How’d we miss it?”
“I asked Key to check dates, and he found out the Skia has been here since the start of the school year, but he got his first pledge, which was Melanie Shriver, about two weeks ago. His second was Sasha’s cousin, Brett. The kid’s not a good student, so his chances of getting into any college were zilch. After he pledged, he was accepted at Colorado in Boulder.” He glanced at Phoenix. “He also won a sweepstakes and used the money to buy a Hummer.”
“He pledged his soul for college and a freakin’ car?”
“M says he resisted, but Eryx wanted him to be first because he’s the most popular kid at Telluride. The Skia went for his mother, and after she pledged, she talked the kid into it.”
“So much for maternal love.” Phoenix sighed. “What about the others?”
“Right now, there are two, a guy who’s friends with the Shriver kid, and his girlfriend. From what I could see at the coffeehouse, these aren’t outsider nerdy kids like the cell we found in San Francisco.”
“Eryx learned a lesson from that. To entice others, he needs the most popular kids to pledge first.”
“I guess this is his newest strategy, suckering young people into following him.”
“I’m only surprised he didn’t do it sooner.”
Jax wished he could focus on something else, but the sound of Sasha’s crying was stuck in his head, all mixed up with the horrible things her aunt had said to her. Not that he was surprised. Melanie Shriver couldn’t help being a bitch. Lost souls took a long time to learn how to manage their resentment toward people who still had control of their lives—their souls. They acted out, were mean and hateful, and frequently became violent. If they managed to avoid capture by the Mephisto and stayed out of Hell on Earth long enough, they eventually figured out they could win a lot more souls for Eryx if they weren’t total assholes. But in the first year or so of a lost soul’s new reality of belonging to Eryx, they were generally horrible people.
“Don’t sweat it too much, Jax. We’ll start first thing in the morning on reconnaissance, and I’ll have a plan to take them down within a couple of days. Once her aunt and cousin are out of the picture, Sasha won’t be so unhappy.”
“That’ll help, but I can’t lie, Phoenix. I have no idea how to do this or what to say to her.”
“Well, there’s the direct approach, but you run the risk of her telling you to leave her alone. Hard to get a girl to like you if you can’t come near her. I think you should hang out where she does and try to act like a normal guy. Get to know her on her own terms, and maybe tell her bits and pieces as you go, sort of ease into it.”
“She’s curious, at least. She was Googling ‘Anabo’ before she started crying.”
“Did she find Bennington’s book?”
“No, but I did and left it on her computer. She’ll see it when she wakes up.” He rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t slept at all last night. “I guess what’s freaking me out most is that I have one shot. If it doesn’t work, if she decides she can’t stand me, that’s it. Game over.”
“Just go slow, and try to be patient.”
“Hard to be patient when she’s living with two lost souls. I’m scared shitless they’ll find out she’s Anabo and tell the Skia, who’ll take her to Eryx immediately.”
“We’ll work as fast as we can to get rid of them. In the meantime, no matter how hard it is to resist, don’t sleep with her. Don’t mark her before she’s all in and f’ it up like I did.”
It had been over one hundred years since Phoenix found Jane, only to lose her when Eryx kidnapped her, then waited until they arrived to rescue her so he could kill her while they watched. Phoenix went crazy, eaten up with grief and guilt. They didn’t know exactly how things worked with the Anabo, because they’d never found one before, so it was a huge surprise when they all suddenly sensed Jane, just as they sensed one another. Even if the six of them were thousands of miles apart, they knew exactly where the other Mephisto were located. Phoenix told them he’d slept with Jane, which was how they figured out the correlation between sex with an Anabo and the sensing mark.
Unfortunately, they also shared that same sense with Eryx, so by the time they realized that if they could feel it, so could Eryx, it was too late. He came to London to see why he sensed someone other than his younger brothers, and found Jane. He couldn’t allow her to stay with Phoenix and eventually become Mephisto, or give birth to children who would grow up to be Mephisto, so he killed her. Phoenix still grieved and lived with constant guilt.
They watched football for a while, until Phoenix said in a dead voice, “You have to protect her from something she doesn’t know exists, and at the same time convince her to love you. You’re going to get to a point when you believe having sex with her will seal the deal, but it won’t, Jax. She won’t look at it like you do, and all you’ll be left with is a marked woman who has no choice but to come here, the only place she can be safe from Eryx. Never forget, even if she’s forced to live here on the mountain so Eryx can’t find her, she doesn’t have to become Mephisto. She doesn’t have to accept you, even if she carries your mark. She could become a Lumina and marry one of them. Think about that more than you think about getting her naked.”
“Thanks for the advice, bro, but you’re way ahead of me. First, I have to figure out how to meet her.”
THREE
HER CELL PHONE WOKE HER UP. TIM WAS CALLING FROM downstairs, she guessed because it was hard for him to climb the stairs.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so.” What time was it? She sat up and looked across the room. Hadn’t she closed her laptop?
“Come on down for supper. Mel’s cooking steaks.”
Her stomach growled, and her mouth watered. She decided she might as well get it over with now. It wasn’t like she could completely avoid Melanie, living in the same house. “I’ll be right there.”
Ending the call, she got up and went to the computer, rubbing sleep from her eyes while squinting at the screen. She hadn’t pulled up this Web site. It was a pdf file, pages from a book. The one compiled by Bennington.
Staring at the screen, wigging out because she had no idea how the pdf file had gotten there, a few of the lines popped out at her. Aurora left Eden, God sent her a mate of pure spirit, and a line of descendants began, the Anabo, people of light, and theirs was perfect and harmonious, a nation as God intended. She paged down and read more. Lucifer sent his minion, Mephistopheles, to insinuate evil into the hearts of the Anabo, as he had done in Eden. The mightiest escaped his influence and scattered across the Earth to bear the fruit of their light. And so it followed, they would be known by the mark of Aurora, a sunburst of the Alpha, the beginning as God planned when he created the world and man in his own image.
Stepping back, she rubbed the rest of the sleep from her eyes and wondered all over again how that file had come to be on her screen. Maybe it was somehow attached to the Princeton guy’s thesis paper and had opened automatically.
All the way down the stairs, she thought about her birthmark, an elaborate, swirly A, very tiny, with a sunburst around it … the mark of Aurora, a sunburst of the Alpha.
For the first time, she wondered if the Anabo was real.
She took her place at the table, an oak oval in the kitchen, and noticed everything
was clean. No dirty dishes, no M&M’s on the floor. Melanie didn’t speak, never looked at her as she scurried around, setting a bowl of English peas and a basket of rolls next to Tim’s plate. He reached for one, buttered it sloppily, then shoved half of it into his mouth.
Melanie finally landed, eyes averted, looking into the family room toward the stairs. “I hope they come soon. Brett doesn’t like his food to be cold.”
Amazing. She was worried Brett would be unhappy with cold food, even though it was his own fault if he didn’t come when it was ready. Sasha stared at her aunt, trying to make some connection between her father and this psycho woman. How could siblings be so 180 from each other?
The doorbell rang, and Melanie popped up to get it. Moments later, she reappeared, a dark-haired man just behind her. Hands clasped in front of her, cheeks pink, eyes bright and lively, she was like a different woman.
Sasha stared, wondering what was up.
“Tim, look who’s come to join us for dinner!”
Tim glanced up, barely nodded, then reached for another roll.
Melanie waved the man toward the chair next to Sasha, but he hesitated. His dark eyes narrowed slightly, like he was checking her out. She shivered and looked away.
“Sasha,” Melanie said breathlessly, smiling like she would if Santa Claus had come for supper, “this is Emil Bruno, Brett’s history teacher.”
Mr. Bruno moved closer, skirting the table to walk behind her, coming to stand just to her right. He was scary. Not violent scary—something darker, more sinister.
Like Alex.
Her whole body was covered in goose bumps.
He took the chair and sat down, entirely too close for comfort. Out of nowhere, completely unbidden, the Lord’s Prayer began in her head. Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. It freaked her out almost as much as this dark man sitting next to her. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven.
She startled when he said in a smooth, silky voice, laced with the underpinning of an accent, “It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Sasha. What a delightful name. I once knew a Sasha. She was almost as beautiful as you, but dark-haired, and older.”
A flatterer, just like Alex. He was always telling her she was beautiful, bright, and talented. He’d look at her sketches, because Mom showed them to him, and go on about how brilliant she was. She knew it was all fake. She never understood why her mom couldn’t see through his BS. Evidently, it wasn’t until he started pressuring her to hand over the stuff in the lockbox that she told him to get lost.
Melanie said in a hushed voice, “Sasha’s mother was deported back to Russia, and Sasha wasn’t allowed to go with her, so we’re stuck with her until—”
“That’s enough,” Tim said. “It’s no one’s business why Sasha is with us, and we’re not stuck with her. She’s our guest. Family. Back off.”
Melanie smiled at Mr. Bruno. “As I was saying, that’s why Sasha is staying with us. She has no other family.”
“Family is all around,” Mr. Bruno said. “The world is our family. Friends are our family. Don’t you feel friends are one of life’s most important elements, Sasha?”
“Yes,” she murmured, trying desperately not to look at him, not to meet his eyes.
Tim said, “We’re out of rolls,” and Melanie hopped up to fetch more. Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Brett and Chris were on their way.
Incredibly, Sasha was glad. Anything to take Mr. Bruno’s focus off of her. Every muscle in her body was tensed, ready to catapult her out of her chair, away from this scary man.
“Hey, Mr. Bruno!” Brett was clearly glad to see his teacher.
Chris was less vocal. “Hey,” he said, jerking his chin up before he focused on the table. Sitting down, he reached for a baked potato.
Tim ate another roll.
Sasha watched Melanie deliver a fat, juicy steak to Brett’s plate. He cut into it and scowled. “It’s too done, Mom. You know I hate my meat too done.” He speared it with his fork and tossed it to the floor.
Staring, Sasha was shocked.
Melanie went to the stove and clucked while she set about preparing another steak, occasionally mumbling apologies. Un-freaking-believable! After Brett’s second steak went under the broiler, she came to the table and laid one on Mr. Bruno’s plate. She followed suit with Tim, then Chris. As she turned away the last time, she said, “Sorry, Sasha, I guess you’ll be a vegetarian tonight.”
Give us this day our daily bread.
All she had to eat were peas. There weren’t enough potatoes, and no one offered to share with her. The rolls were all gone. Melanie ate some kind of weird hot cereal that looked like brown mush. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Her stomach growled, the scent of the steak making her mouth water. And lead us not into temptation …
“So, Chris,” Mr. Bruno said, “are you coming to the meeting tonight?”
Chris never looked up from his steak while he shook his head and mumbled something about homework.
“Come on, now, it’s Friday night. Why don’t you join us?”
Sasha ate her peas, despite feeling light-headed and sick. Just like when she was around Alex.
“How about you, Sasha? Would you care to join us tonight?”
“Uh, no, I don’t think so. I’m pretty tired.”
“It’d be a good opportunity to meet some of the other students. Might make your first day less stressful. We have a small group right now, but that’ll change, right, Melanie?”
“Definitely. Kids these days have so many distractions, it’s great for them to join a group where they can find some common ground and have a little fun. I wish you’d come, Chris. You’d like it, I know you would.”
“Leave him alone,” Tim said around a bite of steak. “He’s not interested in your silly secret club.”
Mr. Bruno didn’t look the least bit insulted. He said smoothly, “I can understand your prejudice, Tim, but don’t you agree that joining something, feeling a part of a group, is good for young people?”
Tim ignored him. The tension in the air was thick and painfully awkward.
Melanie filled the uncomfortable silence with a little speech about how hard it was to be a teenager these days. She looked at Sasha and said with a fake smile, “You should go and try to make friends. Telluride High is tiny, and there are already cliques in place. You’ll have no friends at all.”
“Thanks for your concern. I know just how much my happiness means to you.”
Melanie dropped the act and scowled at her. “Fine, you little ingrate, stay here and hang out with Tim. He’s a laugh riot. Or Chris. He’s tons of fun, his nose always stuck in that stupid video game.”
“Melanie,” Tim said in a low, menacing voice, “I know that phone number by heart.”
Who was Tim threatening to call? Sasha couldn’t imagine anyone other than some kind of doctor or mental institution. Whoever it was, the threat worked. Melanie glared at Tim, but didn’t say anything else.
Mr. Bruno appeared unaffected by the tension and ugly words, continuing to eat as if nothing was wrong. Brett devoured his dinner, also oblivious. Chris didn’t eat all of his food before he shoved back from the table, got up, and left.
Sasha hurriedly finished the rest of her peas, then scooted her chair back and excused herself.
“Melanie,” Mr. Bruno said, “surely you can find something more for her to eat? We can’t have our new student fainting from hunger, can we?”
“Would you like some flaxseed cereal?” Melanie offered, halfheartedly.
Yeah, and maybe a side of dirt to go with it. “No, thank you.”
“It was a great pleasure to meet you, Sasha, and I look forward to getting to know you better. I take special pride in my friendships with my students. It’s the whole reason I organized the Ravens.”
… but deliver us from evil.
She ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time to th
e landing, then down the hall to her room. She barely made it to the bathroom before she lost the peas, his voice repeating in her head. Ravens. Ravens. Ravens.
She had strange dreams that night, one about food—tables and tables of delicious food that disappeared before she could touch it—and one about her mother, knee-deep in snow, wandering around, looking for a place to hide from giant Russian soldiers. Then she dreamed about the Ravens, the cold, smelly warehouse, and the stoning. She relived every second, up until the last thing she remembered—when she prayed to God for help, to save her. After that, the dream became strangely hazy and discordant, like so many dreams that make no sense. The Ravens suddenly froze in place and only Alex remained, threatening her, about to kill her, until he disappeared and there was someone else, a dark, evil figure whose words were indistinguishable, but strangely calming. She wanted to wake up, but dreamed on, and her fear morphed into anticipation, as if something amazing was about to happen.
Just about the time she was enjoying the dream, weird as it was, she woke with a start and squeaked in alarm because someone was standing next to her bed, a looming shadow in the darkness.
“Calm down, willya?” Brett said, clearly annoyed. “Dad’s making me take you skiing, so get up and get ready.”
She didn’t want to go anywhere with Brett. Not only was he a tool, he was a Raven. It hit her all over again, the freakish coincidence of another secret club in a town hundreds of miles from San Francisco, also called the Ravens, also led by a grown man who scared the crap out of her. Which totally made her think it wasn’t coincidence. “I don’t ski.”
“I know you don’t, and it’s not like I want to teach you, but Dad won’t give me lift-ticket money unless I take you with me. He says if you’re going to live here, you have to ski. It’s what people do in Telluride.”
She considered giving Brett the money so she wouldn’t have to go. “How much are lift tickets?”
“A day pass is a hundred bucks.”
THE MEPHISTO COVENANT Page 6
