by Mary Lindsey
Alden and I reached the same horrifying conclusion simultaneously .
“Izzy!”
TWENTY-SIX
Stop, Lenzi, Alden said before I’d made it to his bedroom door. We can’t act without a plan.
I didn’t want to wait long enough to make a plan.
“We have to stop Smith, Alden. He’ll hurt Izzy.”
You can’t take him on alone, Lenzi. We need help.
“I have you to help. Go back into your body.”
Spook was still barking from the hallway.
No. That would leave the vessel open for him, and you aren’t ready to take on a demon this powerful yet. That’s what he wants. We can’t leave you unprotected. Use my phone to call Horace.
“No, Alden. I think—”
Stop thinking, Lenzi, and please do as I say! Call Horace!
Knowing he could feel my soul, I swallowed my hurt. I found Race’s number, called him, and told him what had happened. Race said that he and Maddi would pick us up as soon as possible.
Alden was convinced Smith wouldn’t hurt Izzy unless I was there to see him do it, so I didn’t push to go to her room again. I needed to trust his experience and judgment. I was clueless about these things.
I retrieved Alden’s medical kit from his car when he asked me to. Following his instructions, I cleaned the cut on his face and applied butterfly closures.
Go get three belts from my closet, Alden instructed. I didn’t ask why.
Spook stopped barking.
The doorbell rang.
Alden’s cell phone rang.
My heart stopped.
Phone first, then door, Alden instructed.
It was Maddi on the phone. She and Race were right outside. I ran down the stairs and let them in.
“Where’s Alden’s body?” Race asked as Maddi took the belts from me.
“Upstairs, in his bedroom.”
“That figures,” Race said as he took the stairs two at a time. “Sleeping on the job. Stay here, Lenzi. I’ll be right back.”
He returned carrying Alden’s empty body. Maddi and I followed him out the front door to Maddi’s truck. She opened the driver’s door and Race dumped Alden’s body behind the steering wheel.
“Stay with Alden’s body, Lenzi,” Race instructed as he ran around to the passenger side. He sat in the seat and put on the seat belt. “Now, lean across him and take my hand. Keep contact with both of us.”
I stepped up onto the running board of Maddi’s truck and grabbed Race’s hand. It was a tight squeeze because of the steering wheel. I pressed my side against Alden’s chest.
“Tag, you’re it, Alden,” Race said. “Time to give up the home base. On three: one, two, three!”
I held my breath as Alden exited and Race entered, but it didn’t help, I screamed in pain anyway.
“Let’s go, Alden,” Maddi said, pulling me away from him. “We’ve got a date with the devil.”
Alden stepped out of the truck. “Please wait here, Lenzi, while we go get Izzy.”
“But I could help.”
“No. You wouldn’t be helpful. Quite the opposite.” He ran up the sidewalk to the house.
I sat on the curb, determined not to cry. There was a lot more at stake here than my ego.
Hey. Whoa there. What’s wrong, sugar? Race asked.
I’d forgotten he was there.
What happened? Was Alden mean to you? I can straighten him out, you know.
“No, Race. I’m just a screwup, and he knows it. Rose would’ve been helpful. I’m ‘quite the opposite.’”
He didn’t want you to go in because Smith would go nuts and hurt his baby sister. It’s you Smith wants. Alden was right to keep you out here. He wasn’t being mean.
“He told me not to think and ordered me to do as he said.”
What was it he told you to do?
“Call you. I wanted to have him go in with me so that we could help Izzy.”
There was a considerable pause. Lenzi. You had no choice but to call me. Exorcisms take at least two Protectors.
“Exorcism!” I leaned against the truck. “No, it can’t be. Alden told me they were very rare and that the IC assigned them.”
That’s correct unless the person possessed is your little sister. Then you don’t wait around to untangle the bureaucratic red tape.
My heart hammered, and my skin was clammy. I fought the urge to vomit. “I don’t know how to do an exorcism. Surely he’s calling in someone from the IC to help us, right?”
Calm down. It takes a Speaker. You are the Speaker, Rose.
“I’m not Rose! That’s the problem, don’t you see? All of you think I’m Rose, including the creepy ghoul in Izzy’s room, but you’re wrong. I’m not anything like her. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.”
If you don’t get it together, Elizabeth and Alden are dead.
“Get in the back of the truck, Lenzi!” Alden shouted as he ran down the sidewalk carrying what I assumed was Izzy rolled up in a blanket. Maddi rushed past him and opened the back door of the four-door pickup cab. Alden shoved the bundle into the backseat and climbed in, laying his body across the full length of it. Maddi pitched Boo Bear and Alden’s medical kit to me and jumped into the driver’s seat.
Go ahead, Lenzi. Get in the back bed of the truck. You can’t be inside with them. Smith will go crazy, Race instructed me. I put my foot on the tire and hoisted myself into the bed of the truck. I was thrown backward as Maddi took off down the street like a maniac. I stared down at Boo Bear. He certainly hadn’t kept the ghosts away this time.
The wind ripping through the back of the truck bed caused my teeth to chatter—or maybe it was fear. I hugged my legs and put my head down on my knees.
My phone buzzed. Alden had texted me.
I had to keep you away from Smith.
I looked at him through the window in the back of the cab and nodded. My hair whipped into my eyes. I held it out of my face and read his next message.
Sorry I upset you. Are you okay?
I nodded.
We can’t talk in front of Smith. He is listening through Izzy. Dangerous. She could die.
I bit my lip and nodded.
I believe in you, Lenzi.
It was hard to read his next message through my tears.
Promise him your body if he will release Izzy. Maddi will protect her. I’ll beat him into the vessel.
I nodded.
Only you can hear him when he gives up possession and is noncorporeal. Tell me when to enter. Don’t talk to me before then.
I nodded again. He smiled back. I turned around and curled up, pulling my knees to my chest. Trembling. Terrified.
Maddi parked her truck sideways, so that she blocked the ramp to the roof of the parking garage. There was only one other car. I could see Transco Tower and the Galleria shopping mall as I climbed out of the truck bed. Why would they come to the top of a parking garage for this? I wondered. Race had been silent the entire trip.
Maddi helped Alden pull the squirming, screaming, blanketcovered bundle out of the truck. It sounded like Izzy was screaming through her nose. I watched in horror as Alden removed the blanket. Izzy had a piece of duct tape over her mouth. Her wrists and ankles were bound with belts and her arms were pinned to her sides with a third one around her torso.
I realized now why we were on the top of an empty parking garage: no one could hear the screams.
Don’t let Smith know you’re freaked out. Stay cool, Race urged. Alden isn’t hurting the little girl. He bound her to keep Smith from hurting her. If he can’t talk, run, or fight, he’ll give her up more easily. The trick is to wear him down and reduce his power. It’ll weaken him to share a body and not be able to use it. If we get him out of the little girl by baiting him with your body and Alden beats him in, he’ll have nowhere to go because Maddi will enter the little girl to prevent repossession. And he can’t use one of our bodies because we’re closed vessels.
“Will that
resolve this? Will that be the end?”
No, but it’ll buy us more time so you can get stronger and learn the ropes again.
“How do we get rid of him for good?”
We can’t do that. It would require you to take him on one-on-one and wear him down enough for one of us to push him out, which you aren’t ready to do. He has to be weakened to the point he doesn’t have the power or will to stay Earth-bound. Right now, the most important thing is to get him out of Elizabeth’s body before he forces her soul out.
“Okay.”
I’ll exit on your cue, so he sees you’re open and unprotected. Alden won’t be able to touch you for this one, so it’ll hurt like hell. Be prepared. You might want to sit down before it happens.
I sat on the concrete in the middle of the lot. I met Alden’s eyes and nodded. He gently removed the tape from Izzy’s mouth. She spat on him. He didn’t react.
The voice that came from her tiny body sounded nothing like a child’s. “You fools. Do you think you can outsmart me?” Izzy’s body sat up and glared at me.
My heart pounded.
Smith couldn’t win. I couldn’t let him hurt this child. I clenched my jaw and stared right into Izzy’s eyes, only it wasn’t Izzy who looked back. It was evil embodied.
“Welcome back, my love,” the foreign voice growled from her mouth. “I’m so glad you deemed me worthy of your presence. I thought I had killed you for good last time when I pushed you off the roof and drowned you. I thought perhaps you were too frightened to come back.”
So Rose hadn’t killed herself. Alden closed his eyes for a moment, and his shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath. His eyes were shining with unshed tears when he met my gaze briefly.
I got to my knees. “I’m not afraid of you, coward.”
“Coward?”
The Protectors exchanged glances. Maddi, who was holding Boo Bear, moved closer to Izzy. Alden remained crouched next to her.
“Only a coward would attack a four-year-old child,” I said.
He strained against the belts. “Only a coward would fear one. Untie me.”
“No. I’ll do better than that. I’ll give you what you want. You can come on into the vessel and talk to me.”
His laugh crackled though the air like static. “Right. But before I get there, your lover will block me. We’ve been through this before.”
“Are you okay, Izzy?” Alden called.
Izzy’s head turned to him, but Smith answered. “You want to talk to little Elizabeth? Here she is!” Izzy flung herself onto her back so quickly Alden didn’t have time to react. Her head hit the pavement with a sickening crack, followed by the shrill scream of a little girl.
“Make it stop, Alden!” the tiny voice cried.
Alden took Boo Bear from Maddi and put him in Izzy’s lap. “Focus on Boo Bear, Izzy. Stay strong in there and think about Boo. If you stay on the surface, you won’t be hurt.”
“Oh, Boo,” she wailed in her sweet voice.
Alden took her in his arms. She relaxed against him and wept. Then, without warning, she stiffened and bit him on the neck. Alden didn’t yell, but I did. The blood flowing down his neck saturated his shirt, causing my stomach to flip over. I closed my eyes and fought the waves of nausea coursing through me.
Flickers of Alden in a jail cell ran through my mind. Images of Smith in a white shirt sipping wine with me. A look so hateful, evil was too weak a word to describe it, as he was hauled away by soldiers. Rose’s memories.
“Enough!” I screamed. “That’s enough. You want me? Come on, then, Smith. Get out, Race.”
Lenzi. Wait. Give Alden time to get ready, Race said.
“No. Change of plans. It’s me he wants, not any of you. I won’t let Smith hurt anyone else because of some event from a past lifetime I don’t remember. Let’s make some new history, Smith.” I stood up. “I mean it, Race. Get out. Alden, stay where you are!”
Alden was holding his neck, shaking his head, blood seeping through his fingers.
“I’m serious, Alden. I know the rule. You’re not allowed to enter the vessel without the permission of the Speaker. This is between me and Smith.”
You don’t want to do this, Lenzi, Race warned. He’s too strong. You can’t handle it.
My rage bubbled over. I was sick of everyone protecting me and covering for my inadequacies. “Out, Race!”
The ripping sensation of Race’s exit sent my head reeling. Before I could catch my breath, another soul entered my body with a scorching worse than any I’d ever felt. I took a breath. It was a familiar soul, one I’d housed before. I waited for the pain to stop, glad Alden had ignored my order and beaten Smith in.
“Now what?” I whispered.
What indeed? Smith replied.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Get Elizabeth out of here, Race,” Alden shouted. Race picked up Maddi’s empty body and carried it to the truck, where Alden was buckling Izzy into the reclined passenger seat. He placed Boo Bear in his sister’s lap.
“Thanks, Maddi. I’ll call when it’s over,” he said to his friend inside the body of his four-year-old sister. Izzy looked so helpless. As helpless as I felt.
I was crumpled into a fetal position on the concrete roof of the parking garage. My whole body shook because of the evil bulldozing through me. Smith’s presence was powerful. The first Malevolent had been a picnic compared to this. I was in way over my head, but I had no choice. It was me he wanted. They needed to get Elizabeth away safely before I dared move.
Horrible laughter rang in my head.
“No!” I screamed, writhing in pain. “Demon, begone!”
The truck finally took off, and Alden moved closer, still applying pressure to his neck. He crouched next to me, his brow furrowed and his lips tight.
“I’m sorry, Alden,” I whispered.
“Why did you do it, Lenzi?”
“I wanted to keep—”
My body jerked to a sitting position. My mouth involuntarily spread into a grin, then I laughed. It was a deep, eerie, guttural laugh that coursed through my body from deep inside. The laugh of the devil himself.
Isn’t this amusing, my love? Smith asked. We continue this dance lifetime after lifetime. Eventually, you’ll grow weary of it and will not return. Why continue fighting me? Make it easy on yourself and just give in. I’m far more powerful.
“You have no power over me.”
He laughed again. I have no power over you?
Against my will, I stood and sprinted toward the edge of the parking garage. I fought, but couldn’t gain control of my own muscles.
Alden caught up just as I reached the railing. Smith was trying to kill me—again.
“No, Lenzi! Fight!” Alden yelled as he grabbed me around the middle. I felt my body struggle against Alden and heard myself growl like an animal as Smith continued to control me. Oh, God! He was trying to make me jump.
It will only hurt for a moment as you hit the ground, love, Smith said. Tell him to let you go and I won’t kill him too.
I wouldn’t allow Smith to hurt Alden. The separation of my soul and body was pronounced, but it wasn’t complete—I knew it wasn’t over yet. I struggled to regain control over my body, but couldn’t.
“Release me,” Smith said to Alden through me. “Don’t make me hurt her more than is necessary. I can make it painful for her, you know.”
“No, Alden. Don’t listen to him,” I managed to yell despite the resistance from my own body.
Ah, naughty girl. You shouldn’t push me like that, Smith said. Now you’ve angered me.
Smith forced me to raise my arm to my mouth. As if in a surreal nightmare, I fought, but was unable to stop myself from biting my own arm just below the shoulder. The pain was excruciating.
“Now, Lenzi?” Alden yelled over my screams, still struggling to keep me from leaping over the railing of the garage.
Oh, yes. Bring him in here so the three of us can hit the pavement together. Pity only you
will feel the pain.
“No, Alden, no!” Smith was right: in the amount of time it would take Alden to force him out, Smith could throw me off the garage. Besides, there was no way I was letting Alden in until Smith was so weak he had to move on. This was going to end today.
Alden gave a hard tug and wrenched me from the railing just as I threw my leg over it. He forced me to the ground, facedown, and lay on top of me. He pinned my arms under my chest and held them in place, effectively immobilizing me. This infuriated Smith, who began cursing and shouting through me.
“Keep fighting, Lenzi. Tell me when you need me,” Alden said.
“It’s too late,” Smith growled. “She doesn’t need you anymore. She has me.”
“You’re temporary, Smith. I’m permanent,” Alden said.
I gained some control over my body for a moment before Smith overpowered me again, slipping an arm out from under my chest.
“I’m here. Just say the word,” Alden whispered in my ear, adjusting to pin my arm back under me again. “You have to be strong enough to hang on when I enter. Stronger than he is.”
The blood from the bite on Alden’s neck dripped in my hair. I was able to move my legs slightly. Maybe Smith was beginning to weaken.
Look at him bleed. He’ll die, you know. You should give up so he can get some medical attention, Speaker. I’m the stronger soul, and I’m not leaving , but you can.
I couldn’t give in. “Alden,” I said. “Alden . . .”
“Fight, Lenzi!”
Fight me? You don’t stand a chance. You are just a weak, confused little girl.
I knew Smith’s taunting was an effort to weaken my resolve. I had to be strong—strong like Rose. “I’ll never give in to you.”
Oh, come now. Is that the best you can do? I’m doing you a favor by ending your pathetic life. You are no more qualified to resist me than the child I inhabited before you. If you choose to return again, try to come back with a little of the conviction you used to have. You were a magnificent woman. What a disappointment you must be to your Protector this time around.
