Fire Cursed Trilogy Box Set

by J. E. Taylor

  Frustration burned under my skin, and I opened those drawers again, going straight to CJ’s. Looking for how he’d beaten the devil.

  “I didn’t beat him.” He took a seat next to me. “My father did, but as you saw, there was a price. There’s always a price.” He glanced over the lake. “I don’t know whether to just hop a plane to Disney World and let the kids have as much fun as humanly possible until the gauntlet falls, or just sit tight to weather the storm.”

  “The knife. You think it will wipe us all out.”

  CJ sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe. I just can’t see what’s coming.” He waved towards Paradise Cove. “I asked my father, but he has no clue, which I think is a load of crap because he knew enough to write Steve into his will long before he met the guy. But then again, he was alive at the time.” He shrugged. “I even asked my older brother, but he’s so damn cryptic about things it’s enough to drive anyone mad.” He chewed on his lip, shook his head, and quietly stared out over the lake. “I’m okay with never existing.”

  “I’m okay with that, too.” I was. If annihilating Lucifer wiped us all off the map, it was far different than killing my boyfriend.

  He gave me a soft smile. “I know you are.” He pointed to the lake. “Bring back the phone.”

  I sighed. “I haven’t had any sleep…”

  “I don’t care. We need to get you prepared, Faith. Tired or not. Sore or not. Unsure or not. You need to start training your mind. You did well last night shuffling through the memories in a controlled manner that didn’t overload your brain. You need to learn to count on your power regardless of whether you’re at your best or worst. If he gets the knife, you have to have the power to get it back without cutting yourself so you can end him.”

  His stern reprimand heated my face. “This is your son you’re talking about.”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m talking about Lucifer. He is capable of putting you in a world of hurt if you underestimate him. I underestimated him more than once and paid for it. He stole two years of my life and left me a stuttering idiot for a while. I still battle that from time to t-time.” He stuttered on the last word and closed his eyes. “See. I may be a trinity with all sorts of ungodly powers, but I’m not infallible. Neither are you.” He pointed at the lake again. “Retrieve the phone with your mind.” He barked the command.

  “Fine.” I stared at the water, ignoring the irritation creeping just under my skin. I never liked being ordered to do anything, but I understood what CJ was trying to do. It was much the same as what Kylee did for me in the subway tunnel.

  I felt out the lake in the general vicinity where I thought the phone had gone, mentally searching the sandy bottom for metal that didn’t belong. It didn’t take me long before a strange scratch itched in my temple. I put my hand out, concentrating on pulling the phone to me from the depths.

  A small ripple started on the surface, and my heart jumped into my throat. I’m doing it. As soon as the thought popped in, my connection failed. I closed my hand and shook the disappointment out of my head.

  I opened my hand towards the water again and used sheer force of will until sweat dripped into my eyes.

  I glared at CJ. “I can’t do this.” I went to get up.

  “Sit,” he commanded, and my body behaved, doing exactly as he’d said, regardless of whether I wanted to or not. “You were close the first time. Reconstruct that effort and don’t get cocky in the middle of it.”

  Reconstruct. Who talks like that?

  He huffed, giving me his evil eye.

  I closed my eyes and inspected my memory as if it were a puzzle trying to figure out why it worked the first time versus failing the second time. I had the mental connection to the object right up to the point I realized I was actually doing what he’d demanded.

  That was the difference. And it was a huge difference.

  So, I sent that mental radar out again. This time, I found the object a lot faster because I had a spot of reference. I concentrated on pulling the phone to my hand, leaving my eyes closed.

  Wet metal drifted into my palm, and I opened my eyes. My phone dripped on the dock in front of me as I wrapped my fingers around it. I handed it to CJ since he was the one who’d said he could get Alex’s texts for me even with the water infiltrating the electronics.

  He handed it back. “Dry it.”

  I reached for the hem of my shirt.

  “Not like that.”

  His exasperation confused me. “Huh?”

  “Manipulate the air to dry it off.” He twirled his finger and then pointed at the phone.

  “How?” Air wasn’t a thing I could connect to. Not in the way he was asking me. I thought back to the witch conjuring the storm in Texas and then met his gaze. “That’s not possible.”

  At least not without using pure magic.

  “You made it rain. I think you can do a small breeze around your phone.”

  My heart clattered in my chest. I didn’t know how I’d made it rain. All that had come to mind was putting out the fire before it moved onto the house from the woods. It was not a conscious decision.

  He nodded towards the phone, unfazed by my unspoken narrative or my mounting panic.

  I curled my hand that wasn’t holding the phone to make sure my fire didn’t get loose. I closed my eyes, thinking about the rotation of the clouds that the witch was manipulating, as well as how the wind worked in the whiteout on Mount Cook, which was more of a natural event than the witch’s spell. In my mind, I attempted to harness that power and shrink it to the size of my hand. I opened my eyes and stared at the phone. It was still wet. However, a little dirt devil swirled at the end of the dock before it dissipated.

  CJ smiled. “Close.” He glanced over his shoulder and his smile faded like something had opened the door to his emotions for just a moment.

  “Why now?” I asked and stared at the phone. “There weren’t any texts from him between the day he was taken and today.”

  CJ pressed his lips together and sighed. “I think Lucifer had someone watching Ireland. I got calls from time to time, and I think he was just testing the waters to see whether you were alive or not. He knows you’re the only one who can close the breaches. And once the last major one closed…” He shrugged and put his hand out for the phone. “I’ll see what I can do with it. In the meantime, you should get some rest before we have another session.”

  He climbed to his feet, and I gave him the phone.

  “Session?”

  “Yes. You need to be one hundred percent reliable before I will let you go after Lucifer. I don’t want to lose anyone else if I don’t have to.” He turned and headed inside.

  I yawned, suddenly feeling every bit of lack of sleep. I stood and made my way inside. He pointed out the bedroom for me to use, and I collapsed on the bed. I think I was asleep before I even hit the pillow.

  Chapter 3

  CJ leaned back in the recliner while the kids were all playing with their toys and Kylee was feeding Alexis in the kitchen. His jaw was tense, as was his grip on the chair arms. It was not CJ’s normal lounging form. He had been more relaxed on the dock with me this morning. His mind raged with static and nothing else, so I had no frame of reference for his seemingly dark mood.

  I took a seat on the couch, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. The sun was still up, and the sink was filled with dishes and the sweet tang of spaghetti sauce hung on the air.

  “There’s a plate on the counter if you’re hungry,” CJ said, but he didn’t look away from the television droning on in the background. A stock ticker moved across the bottom of the screen as talking heads discussed the latest economic news.

  I wasn’t ready to eat yet. I needed to wake up first. “Thanks.” I didn’t move from my spot. I would eventually grab the saved dinner, but for now, I was content to watch the stock market stories.

  CJ switched channels, restlessly looking for something else. The speed at which he channel-surfed was annoying. It reminded me of a
flashing strobe light. How could someone actually digest the channel with one second or less of a view?

  As if to prove me wrong, CJ’s eyes widened, and he backtracked slowly until Alex’s face filled the screen. CJ leaned forward.

  My lungs tightened at the sight. Everything about him was familiar except his eyes. His eyes were not those of the sweet boy who was so concerned with my welfare. His eyes were cold and hard and gleefully dark.

  The banner below the screen scrolled with Alex’s name and some sensationalized wording to get viewers’ attention. But that wasn’t what clenched my stomach and made me glad I hadn’t chosen to eat the offered dinner yet. My boyfriend’s face riveted me to the television just before a chained Gabriel Andreas filled the picture. His body was black and blue and some other distinctly sickening colors that indicated the type of beating most people wouldn’t live through. The camera panned enough to show Alex, grinning like a maniac.

  CJ paused the television. “Get the children out of here.”

  But Valerie’s attention didn’t waver from the picture of her son.

  “Val!” CJ snapped.

  Her gaze jumped to his and then what he said sank in. She ushered her girls and April outside, but before April stepped out the door, she cast a worried glance between me and the television.

  Michael stood frozen in the kitchen with a drink in his hand. His face lost all color, and he, too, stared at the frozen picture of Alex and his brother’s nearly unconscious form. The glass in his hand cracked.

  “Take Alexis outside,” he said in a low, strained voice.

  Kylee didn’t argue with his commanding tone. Personally, I wouldn’t have either. She grabbed her daughter out of the highchair and ushered her outside with the rest of the family.

  CJ glanced at me. “This might not be appropriate for you either.”

  “I need to take him down. Remember?” As much as I would have liked to disappear and not see what my father had done to Alex, I needed to understand the depths of horror he was capable of. Even though in my mind, I already knew. The fact he took the time to record it and send it to a news channel was seriously messed up.

  CJ closed his eyes, and I actually felt the mental steel erect in his mind and around his heart. He exhaled through pursed lips and pressed play just before he opened his eyes.

  Lucifer in Alex’s form smiled for the camera. “You think my grandfather was warped, welcome to the new and improved circus of true depravity. Oh, and be sure to ask my father what we are when you see him.” Then his fingernails dug into Gabriel’s chest.

  Gabriel screamed, and someone laughed in the background.

  The snapping of bone followed, and the rest of Lucifer’s hand punched through Gabriel’s chest.

  When Lucifer yanked Gabriel’s heart free, Gabriel’s eyes widened. His mind registered what he was seeing before his face turned ashen and his eyes rolled, showing only whites. His body sagged even more in the chains as all his muscles gave at once.

  A crazy cackling continued beyond the camera.

  Blood dripped down Alex’s arm, and he took a slow whiff of the beating muscle in his hand for his rapt audience. The smile that followed chilled me to the core.

  And then the bastard took a bite out of the heart.

  I could see thousands of people getting sick all over their living room floors. Hell, I knew what eating a human heart was like. My stomach twisted, and I put the back of my hand to my lips to keep it in check.

  Lucifer closed his eyes as if he were eating a rare delicacy. He savored each bite until it was gone. A glow started around him as he swallowed the last bit but faded almost immediately. When he opened his eyes, they shimmered a golden color before settling back to Alex’s normal blue. He licked the blood from his fingers slowly for the benefit of the camera.

  It was gruesome and deliberate. And the grin that followed nearly had me launching for the bathroom.

  I controlled the roll of my stomach and swallowed the bile, unable to look away from Alex. I knew it was Lucifer doing these things, but seeing Alex’s face made the hurt in the center of my soul flare.

  I had no choice but to bury the knife into the bastard’s heart.

  Michael dropped his glass into the garbage and turned, heading outside without a word. Seeing his own brother’s death numbed him. I glanced over the back of the couch and watched through the window. He sat down in the swing and just looked out at the lake with an expression that showed none of the turmoil inside him.

  CJ still stared at the television, watching the newscaster speculate. The banner stated that the Ryan family couldn’t be reached for comment and showed the abandoned home in Maine through the gates. His hands clamped tighter on the armrests, making them creak.

  It was all too much to cope with. I didn’t want to hear what the newscasters were saying about Alex Ryan. They likened him to his namesake, and I could almost see the steam rising from CJ’s head. A red hue coated his skin, and I knew there was a slow simmering fury underneath his calm exterior. It blazed in his eyes.

  I was done with the drivel for today, and the television blinked off. CJ turned his sharp glare at me, but said nothing. He could have easily overridden my off command with one of his own, but he didn’t.

  Lucifer had just compromised any future Alex might have had. He was hedging his bets all around.

  “That leaves one,” CJ said with a growl.

  I cocked my head and met his darkened gaze.

  “He televised Bridget’s death, too. Beat her to a bloody pulp for the camera.”

  His growling answer left me shaking.

  “When?”

  He pressed his lips together. “You were asleep and everyone else was at the grocery store getting supplies when I happened to turn on the television.” His hands curled into fists. “Thankfully, April wasn’t here. I don’t think she could have dealt with that kind of brutality. It was far worse to watch than what we just witnessed.”

  I had a feeling April had already seen what Lucifer was capable of in her visions.

  CJ’s gaze lifted to the path at the edge of the woods, and I knew where his mind was going. I was up on my feet, even before he was. I beat him out the door and sprinted to Paradise Cove. I was out of breath when I reached the moss.

  “Bridget?” I gasped as CJ stepped from the woods behind me.

  He just shook his head.

  It took a few moments but then it sank in. Bridget wasn’t in heaven. I nearly folded over like I had been sucker punched.

  “Gabe?” CJ said.

  The air shimmered over the cove, and Gabriel Andreas stepped out of the mist onto the moss between me and CJ.

  “Where is he?” I asked.

  He glanced at me, and his lips thinned. “I don’t know where we were.”

  “And your mother?” CJ asked.

  He shook his head. “She was the first one he killed, because just for a moment, she got through to Grace.” He wiped his hand down his face. “That’s when he chained Grace next to his goddamned throne. Shredded her clothes and fu—” He stopped and glanced at me.

  His haunted gaze stripped me of my voice. I knew what he was going to say. The boy who’d made love to me in the panic room was gone, replaced by a warped exhibitionist.

  “When he finished, he stormed over to my mother, whispered some vile things in her ear, and then punched a hole in her chest with his bare hand. He ate her heart right in front of her before she exhaled her last breath.”

  CJ’s eyes welled up with tears, and he bit his lower lip.

  “Grace didn’t even react, and from that moment forward, anytime that bastard snapped his fingers, she would lean over the arm of his chair and spread her legs for him. She’s lost it completely.”

  I closed my eyes and hung my head, collecting the shattered pieces of my heart and doing whatever I could to keep myself together. CJ put his hand on my shoulder, and the simple contact gave me an infusion of strength. Strength to handle whatever Gabe said next.
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  “What can you tell us about where you were?” CJ asked, his voice calmer than I expected.

  “The building we were in was in rough shape. I’m talking condemned-building type of shape. The paint peeled so much it looked like fuzz on some of the walls. The space wasn’t that big, maybe the size of your family room at best, but the wall we were chained to was rough like concrete blocks or exposed brick underneath the crumbling drywall. Most of the windows were boarded up but a few were missing or splintered, so during the day it wasn’t dark.”

  Leaves crunched and we all turned. Michael stared at the ghost of his brother for a moment, and then he moved across the space and nearly tackled Gabriel in a hug.

  When the hug broke, Michael asked, “Mom?”

  Gabriel pointed toward the sky. “With Dad.”

  Michael’s numbness broke, and with it came both anger and sorrow so thick I nearly gagged on it. “And Grace?” he squeezed out of his tight throat.

  “She’s batshit crazy,” he said, not sugarcoating it at all. “Do me a favor and stay as far away as you possibly can.”

  Michael shook his head. “I don’t know if I can do that.” His hands curled into fists as he let the anger overwhelm the hurt. It was that crazy, fierce, brave side of the archangel’s blood that was bubbling to the surface.

  “Too many have died already,” I said with a shaking voice, capturing Michael’s attention.

  He pressed his lips together, and his borderline glare held a promise of charging to his death without my permission.

  “He has traps everywhere, and if you get caught, he has chains that will make you helpless.” He looked at both CJ and me. “He’s preparing for an assault from both of you.”

  “Is there anyone else there besides Grace?” I asked, pushing aside the brokenness inside me. Tom had said it best when he told me life wasn’t fair and I had to take the hit for the rest of the world. I was ready, and I knew, despite the rage in CJ, he still wouldn’t be able to kill his own son no matter who was possessing his body.

  “I saw at least a dozen different demons. I don’t know if there are more.”