by Avril Sabine
Blake beckoned Riley to him and pointed to the floor. “Let me know the minute they’re in.”
Riley nodded and lay at the door so he could watch under it.
Alex was at the window removing the insect screen. He handed it to Scarlett who put it in the built-in wardrobe. She took the car keys Blake handed her and tucked them in her pocket.
“You first.” Blake squeezed Scarlett’s shoulder.
Scarlett nodded and moved to the window. She stepped into the harness and climbed onto the window ledge. Alex lowered her down until her feet touched on the industrial bin below the window. She quickly undid the harness and Alex hauled it up. Alex helped Alyssa into the harness next while Blake dropped the backpacks down to Scarlett. Riley joined them at the window as Alyssa reached the bin.
“What’s happening up there?” Alyssa demanded of Scarlett.
“I know as much as you do.” Scarlett watched as Riley was lowered.
“What’s happening?” Alyssa asked the moment Riley was close enough.
“They’re in. Headed straight for the table where we put the guns.” Riley undid the harness so it could be drawn up.
Alyssa looked up at the window where Blake and Alex spoke quietly. They clasped, left hands against forearms so their wrists touched. Then Blake lowered Alex to the bin. He let the rope fall after him.
“Alex! No! We can’t leave him up there.” Alyssa grabbed his arm. She looked up at the window and Blake smiled at her. She glared up at him.
“Move off the bin. Scarlett, spread the swag out on it.” Alex jumped off the bin. “Quickly.”
“It’s too far,” Alyssa protested.
“Stop arguing, Allie.” Riley handed her backpack to her. He pulled his own on.
Alex grabbed Alyssa’s hand and tugged her towards the side of the building. “Hurry up. We need to get Blake’s vehicle.” He held out his hand to Scarlett who dropped the keys into his open hand.
“But what about Blake?” Alyssa asked.
“He can’t jump until we’re safe. Too much noise. Come on, Alyssa.” Alex tugged on her hand to hurry her up.
“You should’ve said.” She broke into a run.
They stopped at a four-wheel-drive similar to the one Alyssa had first seen them driving. Alex pressed the central locking button and they piled in. He started the vehicle and drove to the back of the building where he reversed up to the industrial bin.
“Open the door and move over here, Allie,” Riley said.
Alyssa swung the door open as she watched Blake land on the bin. He moved to the side, rolled the swag in one fluid movement, hefted it and leapt to the ground. He shoved it into the back of the vehicle and climbed in. He’d barely shut the door when Alex drove forward. Alyssa looked out the rear window and saw first Nathan and then Eric framed in the window.
“They’re going to catch us.” Alyssa couldn’t take her eyes from the rear window.
Chapter Seventeen
Blake pulled his phone from a pocket in his jeans. “Alex, take the second street on the left. Then the first on the right.” He pressed the button for his address book as he spoke. He hit dial when he found the correct entry. “Dale… Open the garage door… Thanks mate.” He ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket. “Okay, slow down. It’s the house up here with the rusted car out the front. Go down beside it. There’s a garage out the back. Should be open.”
It was being opened as they drove around behind the house. A skinny man with long hair, torn jeans and a cigarette hanging out his mouth pulled the roller door shut behind them.
Alex turned off the engine. “Interesting company you keep.”
Blake grinned. “I work with him.”
“No one’s mentioned where you work,” Alyssa said.
“Night club.” Blake opened the door and hopped out of the vehicle.
The side door of the garage opened and Dale stepped inside. “So what are you hiding from?” His eyes lit on Alyssa as she joined Blake. “Ahh, nice.” He grinned at her and stepped forward, offering his hand. “Dale. And who are you, gorgeous?”
Blake dropped an arm around Alyssa’s shoulders. “This is Allie. My cousins, Scarlett and Alex. And my brother, Riley.” Blake glanced at each of them as they joined him.
“No problem,” Dale grinned as he took a step back. “So, why you hiding out?”
“Allie’s ex has a problem with letting go. And he likes to settle things with guns,” Blake said.
“Nasty. You want to come up to the house? Beat sitting around in here waiting for him to disappear.” Dale gestured towards the open door.
Blake shook his head. “Better not risk it. We’ll be out of here around dark.” He squeezed Alyssa’s shoulder when she was about to protest. “Thanks for this, mate.”
“No problem.” Dale shrugged. “Hey, I owe you one. This might go a little way to evening things.”
“A long way,” Blake said.
“All right then. Well, I’m up at the house if you need me. Nice meeting you all.” Dale flicked on the light switch before he pulled the door closed behind him.
As soon as Dale had left, Alyssa turned on Blake. “I thought you lot didn’t believe in lying.”
Blake shrugged. “I kept fairly close to the truth. Sometimes a lie can save a life.”
“And what do you mean by waiting till dark to leave? We’ve got to be out of here before dark. What about the demon?” Alyssa demanded.
“It’ll take him a bit to hunt you down. I can have you at a sanctuary within twenty minutes,” Blake said.
“There’s no church that close,” Scarlett said.
“Graveyard.”
“It’s hallowed?” Alex asked.
Blake nodded. “Yeah.” He rubbed his left arm. “So what do you want to do while we wait? I’ve got a deck of cards.” He turned to Alyssa. “You up for a game of strip poker?”
“Blake!”
Blake laughed at Scarlett’s warning tone. “She won’t say yes. No one has goaded her into it yet.”
Alyssa turned away from Blake. She grabbed her backpack out of the vehicle and strode to the other side. Alex fell in beside her.
“He doesn’t mean anything by it, Allie. He jokes around to cope, like Riley does. I guess in the eighteen months he’s been away from the family his jokes have become a little off colour.”
“Forget it, Alex. I’m not letting it bother me.”
“I’m sorry about before.”
“When?” Alyssa spied a dusty bench seat and after a half-hearted swipe at it with her hand, sat down.
Alex sat beside her. “When I came into the bedroom this morning. Blake explained you were having trouble sleeping. You were thinking of the demon. He said he fell asleep waiting for you to go to sleep.”
Alyssa glanced at Alex, then towards Blake. She couldn’t see him. The vehicle was in the way. “Yeah.”
“You could’ve come and got me. I would’ve sat up with you.”
“You needed sleep. Did you sleep at the church?”
“Yeah. Riley and Scarlett took turns watching Nathan with me.”
“I should have too.”
“What?”
“You should have woken me so I could’ve taken a turn watching Nathan. I’m not useless, Alex.”
“I never-”
“No. But you act like I am.”
“Sorry.”
“Will a graveyard work?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought demons hung out in them.”
Alex smiled fleetingly. “That’d be spirits. Demons can’t step onto holy ground.”
Alyssa tried to return his smile.
Alex linked his fingers through hers. “It’ll all turn out well. I’ll see to it.”
Alyssa looked at their hands, his larger than hers. “Can you promise me that?” When Alex remained silent, she looked up. Her eyes collided with his. He looked away. “I didn’t think so.” She tugged her hand free and stood up. She dusted off the back of her
jeans and looked around. She had nowhere to go. Not until night fell.
Alex stood up. “Alyssa-”
She turned to face him. “No. I just can’t talk any more. What I really want is to be looking forward to the weekend. To be thinking about going out Friday night to a nightclub with friends. And when I’m there I want to have a few drinks, dance until my feet feel like they might explode and then go home and crawl into bed and wake up when the day’s half done. I’m meant to be starting uni next year. I’m young. I should be out having fun, not wondering when I’ll die. I want to be able to wake in the morning and think the world’s a good place. Not know it’s filled with all kinds of horror.”
“The world is a good place.”
“How can you say that? It’s complete and utter crap.”
“Alyssa-”
“Demons, for god’s sake! How much worse can it get?”
“A lot worse,” Blake said quietly.
Alyssa spun to face him. She hadn’t heard him join them.
“Blake-”
Blake cut Alex’s words off. “Join Riley and Scarlett.” When Alex was about to argue, Blake snapped, “Now, Alex. You’re making the situation worse.”
Alex shot one last anguished look at Alyssa before he turned away. Feeling guilty for what she’d heaped on him, Alyssa reached out to Alex and opened her mouth to call him back. Blake grabbed her forearm before she made contact and spun her to face him.
Blake moved close so his mouth was near her ear. “Do you enjoy chewing him up and spitting him out?”
“I-”
“He’s tearing himself up trying to make this easier on you. Don’t you care?”
“Of course I do.” Alyssa kept her voice equally quiet. She turned her head slightly so she could look him in the eye. Their lips were a breath apart. “But he isn’t the one the demon’s after.”
“He’s the one the demon’ll have to get through before it can get to you.”
“I told them not-”
“Are you always this dense? What do you think the chances are any one of them’ll stand aside and let the demon get you?”
Alyssa gasped, her eyes widening. “They won’t.” She tried to pull away, but Blake’s grip tightened on her forearm. “Let me go. I’ve got to get out of here.”
“What are you going to do? Sacrifice yourself?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. I can’t let them kill themselves because of me.”
“Then let them do their job. They know what they’re doing. All you have to do is shut up, listen and follow orders. How hard can that be?”
Alyssa laughed abruptly. “How hard? How about so difficult it’s the reason I ended up in this situation in the first place. Don’t you laugh at me.”
Blake continued to grin at her. “Figures.”
Alyssa reached up and ran her fingers across his cheek, the stubble rough against her fingers. “You should smile more often.”
Blake’s smile vanished. He pulled her hand from his face. “You can’t help it, can you? Keep your hands to yourself.”
Alyssa glanced down to where his hand held her. “Like you do?” She met his eyes again and refused to look away even with how uncomfortable his intense stare made her feel.
Blake released her and stepped back a fraction. “Think you can manage for one night to do exactly as you’re told without question?”
“I’ll try.”
Blake shook his head. “Not the answer I was looking for.”
“I can only try. Don’t they say a leopard can’t change his spots?”
“Sometimes, Allie Cat, a leopard needs to change her spots before she becomes a rug on someone’s floor.” Blake turned his head.
Alyssa turned to see what had caught his attention. Scarlett walked towards them. Alyssa was surprised by the look Scarlett sent her. It didn’t go hand in hand with her belief in forgiving others.
“What’re we going to do about dinner?” Scarlett faced Blake and ignored Alyssa after that single look.
Blake rubbed his forehead. He sighed heavily. “I’ve got it under control. There’s a camp table and four camp chairs in the back of the four-wheel-drive. Picnic set too. Have Alex set it up. I’m sure he could do with the distraction.”
“That’s a lot of gear to be carting around. Some habits are hard to break, huh?” Scarlett grinned at him.
“Apparently.”
“What can I do?” Alyssa asked.
“I think you’ve done enough for today.” Scarlett didn’t even look at her.
“Scarlett.” There was a warning in Blake’s tone.
“Sorry, Blake. You’re right. I guess we’re all on edge.” Scarlett ran her fingers through her short hair.
“That’s understandable.” Blake reached out to rest his hand on Scarlett’s shoulder for a moment.
“It’s not just that. I don’t think we’re the right ones for this job.”
“Who said you were?”
“Gran. But then a lot of the family aren’t at home. More than half of them are out of the country. It’s not like she had a lot of candidates to choose from.”
“Gran would’ve left her be if she didn’t think you could cope. Family’s always come first for Gran,” Blake said.
Alyssa stood quietly and soaked up every piece of information. Even her initial rush of anger at Scarlett’s words had evaporated at the thought of learning more of what was going on.
“I guess.” Scarlett glanced towards Alyssa. “But all Gran would’ve focused on was the demon and if we could handle it.”
“Yeah well, I’m here now. That’ll completely change the equation,” Blake said.
“Blake,” Scarlett hesitated. “We don’t expect you to stay with us. We know you don’t want to be part of this. I’m sorry we came to you this morning. It wasn’t meant to go like this.”
Blake momentarily pressed a finger to Scarlett’s lips. “Shh. I’m glad you came. Maybe it’s time I laid old ghosts to rest.”
“Really?” Scarlett appeared to be on the edge of smiling.
Blake smiled. “Really. Now go and get Alex to set the table.”
Scarlett started to move away, then turned back. “What else have you got in there?”
“Tent, camp stove, cookware, some tined and dried goods.” Blake shrugged. “The usual stuff.”
“Good. But we’ll have to go back to the car at some stage to get our swords for tonight. Just in case.”
Blake frowned, then grinned. “How fond are you of your stereo?”
Scarlett frowned. “Is that a trick question?”
Blake laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Dinner and swords. They’ll be here within the hour.”
Scarlett stared at him for a moment. “Why is it I feel concern at that comment?”
“Because you like to worry. Go on. I have some calls to make.” Blake pulled out his phone.
Scarlett nodded and strode away.
Blake turned to Alyssa. “Anything you don’t like on pizza?”
“Most things.”
“Seriously?”
“I like meat lovers.”
Blake hit the send button and started to move away from Alyssa. All she heard was his greeting to Dale. She glared at his back and wished she could follow and find out what was going on. A few minutes later, he walked past her to the personal access door. Dale met him there. Alyssa wandered closer even though she knew she wouldn’t be in time to hear the conversation. But she did see Blake give Dale fifty dollars.
Chapter Eighteen
Dale returned within an hour with pizza and the swords in their case. Their meal was a quiet affair. None of them seemed to feel like talking. Especially once it began to grow dark outside. By the time it was completely dark, everything was back in the vehicle and Dale pushed up the roller door. They stood back as Blake talked with Dale.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be back. I rang work, so there might even be some extra shifts,” Blake said.
“Thanks. I’ll ask the b
oss. I forgot to tell you earlier. Your door was shut at your apartment. Doesn’t mean it was locked. I’ll send one of the guys over later to check on that.” Dale grinned. “One of the ones whose fingers aren’t so light.”
“I appreciate that.” Blake held out his right hand. “I’ll let you know when I’m back. But if you can keep an eye on the place until then?”
“Sure thing.”
Blake turned away and went first to Alex for the car keys and then hopped in the driver’s seat.
“I’m in the front,” Scarlett told Alex as she walked past him.
Riley threw an arm around Alex’s shoulder. “That’s okay, cuz. I don’t mind you sitting in the back with me.”
“I’m sure I should feel honoured,” Alex said dryly.
Alyssa trailed behind them. She felt like an outsider. She felt a little better when Alex held the door open and waited for her to hop in. Once she was buckled, she noticed a phone car charger that looked very familiar. “That’s-” she shook her head.
Blake glanced at her using the rear view mirror and then looked down. He chuckled and turned to face her. “Riley mentioned you needed it so you could reluctantly keep in touch with your parents. Dale brought it over when he brought the swords.”
“Gee, thanks, Riley,” Alyssa said.
Riley grinned at her. “Any time, Allie.”
They fell silent again as Blake reversed the vehicle and waved to Dale who pulled the roller door down once they were out. With her mind already on her phone, Alyssa pulled it out and turned it on.
Erin answered on the first ring. “You owe me big time, girl.”
“I know.”
“Good. By the time you get home I should’ve figured out the price.”
Alyssa laughed. She could count the days she and Erin hadn’t spoken to each other. “Miss you, Erin.”
“Yeah well, you were the one who decided to take off, not me.”
“Yeah.” She hesitated. “Have you seen Nathan again?”
