“They know you can stop him. You’ve been trying.”
“They told you all of that?”
“So what is it, Tina? What makes you so special? Why do they think you can help them?”
“I can’t help them.” Avoidance was usually the best course of action, at least until a reasonable excuse presented itself. I wasn’t sure that was going to happen this time. There was no reason I could give that would sound plausible in this messed up situation, and clearly he wasn’t willing to take my avoidance for much longer.
He tilted his head and I knew the second his eyes started to glaze over that one of them was speaking to him right now. Panic filled me. What if it didn’t matter who told him what I was? What if I lose my abilities the instant a single living breathing human finds out what I am?
I was too afraid to move, my throat felt like it was closing up. I wanted to scream no, to beg him not to say it, but I didn’t have the words, I couldn’t get to them in time. All I could do was stare in horror as he re-focused on me and opened his mouth.
“They’re calling you a dream walker.” He squinted a little and I saw the realisation dawning on him that there might be more to my bouts of passing out than a shrugged off problem with alcohol.
He said it. I was so screwed. I shook my head. “That’s crazy talk.”
“You’re afraid to tell me because you think it means you’ll lose your abilities.” Okay, now he was actually just reading my mind.
“Mason, you’re scaring me.”
“You’re not crazy, Tina, and you won’t lose anything by trusting someone who loves you. I wish I’d known that before. I do now.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what a dream walker is, exactly, but I know these spirits believe in you. I do too.”
“Shut up,” I said, shaking my head. “I need to think.”
I couldn’t deal with any of this right now. My emotions were all over the place as his words sank in to my brain. I blinked back tears before they could fall. I had to focus, I had to...
I had to go astral. There was no other choice. Wait. “Where’s the killer?”
He blinked. “I don’t... The spirits can’t reach him. Wherever he went, they can’t follow. They’re saying you should know what that means.”
I turned over his words. All I knew was it meant I was going to have to go astral to find him, and rush back to my body without alerting the demon. This could get dicey. I blew out a breath.
“I need you to trust me.”
Mason smiled wryly. “I think that can be arranged, but you’re going to have to return the favour someday.”
I rolled my eyes. “Deal.”
He raised his eyebrows as I lay down on the floor. I hoped to hell this was going to work.
“Um, what are you doing?”
I smiled up at him. “I’m going for a wander. All you have to do is make sure no-one disturbs my body while I’m gone. Think you can manage that?”
His stunned expression was my reward before I moved my attention to stare at the ceiling. Everything was good. This was going to work. “Oh, and don’t close my eyes, or let anyone else close them.”
That’s the key to getting back in. I shivered as he agreed and I concentrated. It took minutes that I was keenly aware we didn’t really have. I was stunned to find three spirits surrounding me once I escaped my body. I owed it to these women to destroy the Wrath. I made a silent promise that this was it. I’d get him. There wouldn’t be more. Their help through Mason wouldn’t be in vain.
I turned and Mason’s expression as his gaze drifted over my spirit form was enough to lighten the horribly dark mood. I smiled.
“You can actually see me like this?”
He gasped in a breath. “What the hell did you just do?”
“This is called going astral. I need to go, but I’ll be back.” I walked through the door behind him and followed the demon’s trail, careful to be aware of where it was headed. The stairwell made sense, but I was confused when I got there. The light seemed to have tapered off. I glanced around and saw the spirits of the murdered women were staying back a little from where I was. There had to be something. I looked back and noticed the closed off lower level. I spotted the trail weaving through that darkness. I realised exactly where he was and what he was doing.
I moved back to my body quickly, the spirits following. I expected Mason’s presence to be a distraction, but it didn’t seem to have hampered my abilities, at least so far. Maybe having someone know what I was didn’t mean losing my abilities after all. It wasn’t as if there was anyone I could ask, so I was going to have to just see what happened. Gran would never have knowingly lied to me, but maybe she was misinformed. I had to hope.
I got back into my body without finding it difficult to re-connect. It took seconds and I hauled my arse up from the ground quickly, with a little help as Mason held his hand out to me. “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” I told him, with a wry smile. “And you’re not going to.”
“Um, what?”
“Come with me, and do exactly as I say.”
He did so, no questions asked. I really hoped that would keep up. I really hoped I’d get the bad guy this time. I really hoped my friends didn’t get hurt.
Chapter Seventeen
We climbed the barrier that fenced off the basement level. I took off my shoes before we started, discarding them in the stairwell. The damn things would have told the killer we were coming a mile away. My bare feet didn’t like the rough feel of the concrete steps but there was nothing I could do about that now. I bit back a curse as I stood on a tiny pebble on the way down. We needed to stay quiet. Mason was doing a fairly good job of slinking around quietly, but I felt like every move I made was too loud in some way or another.
I stopped at the ajar door, saw the hint of light inside and knew it was him before I caught sight of the killer kneeling in front of a fire that was only just starting to burn. It’s contained for now, and I told myself there wasn’t a body at its centre. I searched the room for Lucy but I couldn’t see enough from where I was to tell if she was in there. I needed to come up with a plan of attack. Panic was starting to swell in me. What am I doing? It was bad enough that I was risking my own life right now. I shouldn’t have brought Mason down here. If he got hurt that would be on my shoulders. Shit. I seriously needed a killer plan right now and I was drawing nothing but blanks.
Mason’s hand touched my elbow and I just about jumped out of my skin. My glare didn’t seem to bother him as he leaned in to whisper softly into my ear.
“Go in making a little noise. Try to hide to attack, but get caught. I’ll sneak up on him then.”
It was a plan, I supposed. I was starting to like the take charge attitude Mason exuded. I ignored the fear that was making me shaky. We needed to do this. There was no going back now. I nodded and moved into the room. My heart was hammering. It didn’t matter that I had back-up. Or, actually, it was worse that I did. Yeah, I thought it was the second one of those. I was a walking bundle of nerves right now. Mason got hurt before when this guy woke up. I didn’t want that to happen again. I swallowed as I moved into the room, the closer I got to the demon’s host, the shakier I became.
“I can hear you,” the killer said, without turning around. “I’m not deaf.”
He stood up and turned, slowly. If I was truly alone with him, I’d be terrified half to death. I’d fight anyway, but he was stronger and I knew it. The knife in his hand looked nasty. It was stained, but I couldn’t tell if that was fresh blood on the blade or not. I told myself it wasn’t. I couldn’t afford to fall apart right now.
“Where’s Lucy?” My voice was as hard as steel. I knew I might not be able to stop myself from going too far if he’d hurt her. The thought heated my blood and turned my worry into rage. I backed away with effort, remembering the plan and trying to stick with it. Mason couldn’t get to him if I didn’t make him move fa
r enough away to stop him from being able to see my back-up entering the room.
He looked me over as he stalked me across the room. “You’re off-type, dream walker. But I suppose I’ll have to make an exception just this once.”
I kept my gaze focused on his face, even though the movement of Mason entering the room wanted to draw my eye. I ignored it, and I narrowed my eyes at the killer.
“You’re a fucking coward.”
He laughed and spun around as Mason lunged from behind. I gasped in a breath and screamed, “No!” as the knife went into his stomach. The killer pulled it out and turned to me, pointing the bloodied tip at my face. “That’s what you get for bringing your boyfriend into this. It’s none of his business.”
I was frozen in place as Mason fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. The paperweight in his hand rolled to the ground. That was it. I was trapped with a knife pointed at me, my friend was hurt, and I had no way to knock this guy out to destroy his demon. I had no way to cause the killer harm at all. My eyes watered. I’d never felt so hopeless in my whole life.
“Do you know why I had to come back here?” He clutched me by the throat and pushed me against the wall. His gaze showed nothing but disgust as he ran the knife’s point lightly down my cheek. “You don’t even know. This was where it happened the first time. This building. Thirty years ago. My first sacrifice to the goddess of hell.”
This was it. This was how I would die, having a psychopath’s ramblings screeched at me before he slits my throat and uses me as kindling. I started to choke, trying to get him off of me even though I knew it was useless. I had to try. It wasn’t over yet. That was when the spark of heat scorched over my palms. For a second I was confused. I had to be hallucinating. It was the oxygen deprivation. It had to be.
I grabbed the hand that was closed around my throat and the killer shrieked as he dropped me, tumbling backwards. I gasped in a breath. My hands were now alight with flame. My dream weapon crossed over into reality? I was still confused when I shifted my gaze and saw Mason smack the paperweight off the killer’s head before he collapsed back to the ground, groaning.
Mason! I rushed to him, but I couldn’t touch. The flames weren’t going out. They were only getting brighter, hotter. I felt my skin flush and perspire.
“Mason, are you okay?” What a dumb question. Of course he wasn’t okay. He’d been stabbed.
“I’ll be fine, probably,” he murmured, his voice tired. “Did you get him?”
I didn’t. The killer was brained and his hand was scorched, but he was breathing. For once, I thought about putting my burning hands on his face and stopping him for good. He’d killed a lot of people. He’d hurt Mason. I didn’t even know what he did to Lucy. A sob broke free as I felt the pull of the dreamscape. I couldn’t fight it. I passed out and entered, vowing to finish the job as soon as I got back.
***
The basement was a little different in the dreamscape, the red-light making everything seem more menacing. I could tell now that it was the same place, that this was what the Starlight used to be. I stood up and faced down the demon as he turned to me. The shock on his face was real.
“How did you...”
Fury rose within me as light blurred my vision, and heat encompassed my entire body as my weapon encircled my spirit entirely. Not only was I on fire, I was fire, as I moved towards the demon. The shock in his gaze turned to abject terror as I approached, each step sure and quick. He moved backwards, stumbling to get away. I reached out and caught him in my scorching grasp before he could get back on his feet. Pure rage filled me as I held on tight. I wanted him to hurt for all that he’d done. This was for each one of those women he’d had a hand in killing. This was for Mason. For Lucy. For all of them.
“No,” he moaned, before he began to thrash and shriek under my touch.
“Yes,” I roared, burning him to dust. His body blackened and crumbled under the force of my heat.
The flames began to flicker instantly, dying down. The heat went out of my skin. I ran to the elevator, and my weapon was gone by the time I jumped through the exit. I fell back to reality, feeling hollowed out. It was the first time I didn’t feel relieved to get back. I woke up with my body tingling, but without my weapon. I kicked the killer’s body but he was still passed out. The fire he already started was spreading quickly. Smoke was rising in the confined, windowless space.
I moved over to tug at Mason’s hands. His wound looked bad and I didn’t know what to do about it. I felt helpless. Someone I loved had gotten hurt because of me. I wanted to collapse into tears, but I had to keep it together. His life might depend on it. He was breathing and his heart was beating. I had to get him out of here. He needed to go to the hospital.
“Mason,” I pleaded. “Get up. You have to wake up. Come on. Please?”
He groaned and I pulled until he started to sit up. He moaned some more as the smoke started to make me cough. I helped him up, every muscle in my body screaming. He was bigger than me and he was mostly out of it. I managed, somehow, to summon enough strength to help support him to walk out of the basement. Every step was strained. It was bad enough getting out of there and hauling him up the stairs. We got to the barrier at the top of the staircase and discovered a new problem. He was limp by then, and I was sobbing my eyes out. I couldn’t lose him. He couldn’t die. Not like this. I screamed at the top of my lungs for help. Mason mumbled something quietly but he was a dead weight on me now and I was struggling to keep on my feet and hold onto him so he wouldn’t fall back down the stairs. The wall I was leaning him against was the only thing keeping me from collapsing right now.
That’s when my prayers, or more likely, my screams, were answered by a guy I went to school with and his older partner. The cops coming down the stairs rushed to help. They seemed confused, and Dawson’s face paled as he saw the blood pulsing through my fingers, as I kept my hand over Mason’s stab-wound.
“There’s a fire, the killer’s down there. Mason’s been stabbed. We need to get out of here. Now. Now!” I fought to keep my panic from making me screech the words out. I lost that fight in the end, but it seemed to stir them into action.
The rising smoke stopped them from going down to the basement. They lifted Mason and I was able to catch my breath and steady my legs enough to climb over the railing on my own once he was out of the way. I stepped into my shoes when I saw them, left where I’d haphazardly discarded them by the door. The older guy took Mason straight outside and called for help on his radio. My legs were shaky and I stumbled around enough for Dawson to decide to put an arm around me to steady me. He was helping me towards the front doors when I looked back at the elevator. Something made me stop. Instinct, or desperation. Even looking back it was hard to tell. It had been sitting on the ground floor for hours. It wasn’t before I was knocked out. I hauled Dawson over and asked him to help get the doors open.
“We need to leave,” he told me.
“We can’t.” I pulled away from him and banged the button, agitated as hell when the damned doors, as expected, didn’t open. A few seconds and they started to think about it. The dinging noise began and they creaked open slightly before closing again. I saw the metal glint of the room service cart before they closed and it fuelled me to keep going. I grabbed one door and pulled with all that was left of my strength. Dawson’s eyes widened and his gaze went inside. He saw something, I knew it, because he grabbed the other door and pulled. He was able to get it open all the way. The other door did the same automatically. That second ding made me gasp out a sigh of relief.
I sobbed as I saw Lucy inside, on the ground, not moving. The cart was behind her. I could see blood on her temple, and her eyes were closed. My heart felt like it was breaking just seeing her like that.
Dawson lifted her out, and I saw the gash on her head was nasty, but it seemed to be her only injury. He smiled at me. “She’s alive. How did you know?”
My thoughts caught on his first two words. I’d ne
ver felt so happy in my whole entire life.
We got outside and I sat on the steps of the Starlight, my two best friends in the world unconscious and hurt at either side of me. I was sure the guilt would eat me alive later, but after everything that happened, we’d all survived. I was so thankful for that, I couldn’t think about anything else.
Sirens wailed through the darkening night. My friends were alive, and I knew they were going to be okay. It might not have seemed like much, but right now I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Chapter Eighteen
One killer fried extra crispy, two friends wounded but doing well, and four weeks after the incident I was still employed by the Starlight, which was still standing thanks to the fast work of the firemen when the emergency services arrived. It had taken some turns, but I’d done my job in the end and everything actually turned out kind of well for once. Another demon destroyed, another win for humanity. Normally I wouldn’t call it a win if the host died, but this guy didn’t seem like the type to reform so I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
The host, as it turns out, was married. His wife did a lot of talking to the papers, filling in all the gaps. He’d been prone to leaving for days on end, and he’d had chronic insomnia that only seemed to have one cure; getting loaded and crashing out for the better part of a day. The police uncovered evidence that he’d been having an affair, in the form of a note written by the man’s teenage son, the contents of which I had to assume amounted to blackmail. Given what I already knew about his kid. Yeah, there was a reason the sleeping man on the couch had a blurred out face when I got into that kid’s memory and pushed the Greed demon out of his head. A dreamscape sign of another demonically possessed human; blurred features. I should have realised it sooner, not that it would have helped any if I had.
I checked my phone as I got dressed. My first pay day had come along, and Piper was asking if I wanted to check out the new and improved Demon’s Lair for its grand re-opening tonight. I thought about it and fought against my instinctive reaction to scream yes to the fun night out. I’d just regained Lucy’s trust. It would be crazy to risk it. Besides, it would feel kind of creepy to go back there after everything that had happened. It was weird enough that I was still working at the Starlight.
Sinners Never Sleep (Seven Deadly Demons Book 1) Page 11
