Band of Demons (The Sanheim Chronicles Book 2)

by Rob Blackwell

  Chapter 6

  Kate hurried up the cemetery path. She usually stopped by her mother’s grave when she was nearby, but there was no time now.

  I’m sorry, Mom, she thought. We’re being hunted. Again.

  The thought tasted like ashes in her mouth. When they became the Prince of Sanheim, she had thought her days of being afraid were over. After all, they were what lurked in the dark now. What could possibly harm them?

  But now that confidence had vanished and she felt like she had last year. Then, at least, she knew her enemy: Lord Halloween, the man who had killed her mother. But now she had no idea what was after them or why.

  She hurried faster along the path. She loved this cemetery. It was old, with trees that made a thick canopy of leaves overhead. Here and there, slivers of sunlight broke through onto the gravestones. It was the place she had her first real talk with Quinn, back when their biggest worries had been bad dreams. That at least was a difference between then and now. Last fall, she had felt alone, isolated. Now, Quinn was with her. Whatever her fate, he would share it.

  They were… what? Soul mate is the term most people might use, but that didn’t feel like it covered it. She was him and he was her.

  She came to the end of the old part of Middleburg Baptist Cemetery and saw Quinn sitting on the same bench where she had found him more than six months ago. It was in the new part of the graveyard, with no tree cover but a view of a picturesque pond. The bench was in memoriam of someone and for just a moment, Kate had an awful premonition. Quinn sat totally still on the bench, looking more like a statue than a person. Like a gravestone, she thought. He looks like a gravestone.

  Quinn stood up abruptly and turned around, breaking the effect.

  Jesus, honey, he said in her mind. She saw him glance down at himself as if to make sure he was still there. Thanks for that lovely image.

  They walked toward each other, both trying to banish the thought from their minds. As they reached each other, she pulled him in tightly for a kiss and the world, with all its fears and prophecies, was gone.

  If asked to describe it in words, neither could have done so. Just a week ago, this kiss would have been sweet and emotional, but by the standards of the rest of human experience, entirely normal. But with their powers now suddenly back, this was unique. Their contact was electric, like a pulse running back and forth between them. What she felt, he could feel. What he thought, she could hear.

  When they kissed like this, it was as if it wasn’t just the last one they might share, but the final kiss at the end of the world.

  God, I missed this, she thought.

  She sent him an image of the two of them lying intertwined, naked in bed. Much like kissing, the sex between them was always good, but nothing out of the ordinary. Now, however, it would be so powerful—the physical joining of two who already share a consciousness.

  With great effort, Quinn pulled away. If he didn’t, he worried they would soon find themselves making love in the middle of the cemetery.

  What a wonderful idea, Kate thought.

  “Just not right now,” he said out loud and laughed. He put his hand to her cheek and caressed it. “We have time to do this later. Like when it’s dark and we don’t have someone trying to kill us.”

  He thought about what he knew was really bothering her—the image of him still as a statue, a cold gravestone.

  “I’m not going to die, you know,” he said.

  She responded by pulling him close again.

  “Make love to me,” she said, looking into his electric blue eyes.

  “Here? Right now?” he asked, but he knew what the answer was.

  She kissed him again and that pulse between them was even stronger than before. She pulled away briefly and whispered in his ear, “I’ve been waiting months for this. Let’s just enjoy it.”

  He thought about every reason they shouldn’t. Zora’s murder, her letter, the book. Something out there was after them and they didn’t know the first thing about it. They needed to start looking for answers. Not to mention that it was broad daylight and a cemetery.

  But all of those reasons suddenly felt paper-thin. She was right. They had waited months for this. Why shouldn’t they enjoy it? She started kissing his neck and the urge to stop her was gone. Instead, he lifted her face to his and started kissing her again while his hands began loosening the buttons on her blouse.

  Sex was the key to becoming the Prince of Sanheim. When they had first made love, it was the trigger that caused them to start hearing each other’s thoughts, sharing dreams and, eventually, facing Quinn’s greatest fear—the Headless Horseman. After they lost their powers, they had spent weeks having sex at almost every opportunity in a futile attempt to gain their powers back. It was fun, but it hadn’t worked.

  Like her, he had waited months for this. He thought he remembered what it felt like, but now he knew it was just a pale memory. As he kissed her, every other care in his life just melted away.

  When they had agreed to meet in person, he just thought it would be easier to talk out options, discuss strategies. But he knew now that he just needed to see her, be with her. When they were the Prince of Sanheim, they could hardly stand being apart. And now that they were together, they wanted nothing else but to touch each other.

  Quinn’s hands fumbled with the last of her buttons. Rather than stop to loosen it herself, Kate responded by tearing the button loose and tossing her blouse to the ground. She unclasped her bra and immediately began unbuttoning her jeans. His hands reached to caress her body.

  All Quinn could think about was Kate. How she felt, how she tasted, how she smelled. He kissed her neck and worked his way down to her bellybutton. He wanted nothing in this world as much as her.

  When Kate was finished with her own clothes, she began rushing to take off his. She was almost frantic now. When he went in to kiss her again, he felt her in his mind.

  There’s no time, she said. I need you now.

  They were barely words. All he sensed was her urgent need and his own desire. Neither paused to look around to see if anyone was watching.

  She lay down naked in the grass between two graves and grabbed his hand to pull him down on top of her. As they moved together, they once again felt that pulse between them becoming stronger. Her memories from the past year flooded into him. Images of them making love, talking, watching television, walking together—everything came to him from her point of view.

  She gasped beneath him as they moved together. It felt like an electric field surrounding them—every inch of their bodies tingled like a live wire. The relentless pressure inside of them built to a furious conclusion—and finally was released in a moment when the two were one.

  *****

  They lay there on the grass next to each other, panting and out of breath. Quinn was afraid to speak. It felt like some kind of strange, mad spell had descended on them. It only ended when they finally broke apart, but he had the feeling it would capture them again shortly. He didn’t dare look at her, for fear that the sight of Kate’s naked body lying in the grass would start it all over. Instead, he watched the thin wisps of white cloud drift across the bright blue sky and tried to—at least temporarily—recover himself.

  “Well, that was certainly new,” Kate said finally, when the silence between them had grown thicker than the cloud cover overhead.

  “Was it me, or was that more…” he started.

  “Intense? Yes. Definitely. And amazing.”

  Quinn merely nodded and fought not to look at her. It would be so easy to start over. If the first time they had made love had been incredible, this had been like that times 10 or maybe even 100. His hands were still shaking, his heart beating a million times a minute. And if he let his thoughts drift, even for a second, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from kissing her and letting the spell overtake them again. But even without looking at her, he felt her next to him, breathing rapidly.

  “We can’t start again,” he
said.

  “Oh, it’s not a question of ‘if,’” Kate said and her voice was quiet. “It’s just a question of when. If you even try to stand up, you won’t have time to get your pants on.”

  “You don’t seem to be fighting this very hard,” he replied.

  “Why should I?” she said. “This is the best feeling I’ve ever known, and I’m sharing it with the person I love most in the world. Why would I possibly fight it?”

  “When you put it that way…”

  “Look, I see your point of view,” she said. “We’re in danger of losing ourselves. Whatever powers we have seem to be controlling us at least as much as we control them. But so what? It’s so much better—so much easier—when we just let them take over.”

  She wasn’t looking at him, but her hand was now caressing his arm.

  “But what happens when we aren’t ourselves anymore, Kate?”

  “That won’t happen,” she said.

  “How can you be so sure? I’m wondering how many limits we’ll be willing to cross before we realize we have none left.”

  “Honey,” Kate said, and she turned over on her side and put her hand on his chest. “Left to myself, I don’t know. When I’m with you—when we’re like this—I feel like every burden I’ve ever known is gone. It’s like nothing else matters.”

  “And I should remind you there are plenty of other things we should be discussing right now,” he said.

  “That’s just my point. When I drove here, I was scared, nervous, worried. Now, I’m none of those things. All I want is to be with you. I could let myself go entirely, you know. I don’t need to tell you I carry around a lot of baggage every day. But when I’m like this, for the first time in my life, I feel free.”

  “But what…”

  She put her finger to his lips. A wind blew through the trees and he shuddered. She moved his face toward hers.

  “Let me finish,” she said. “I told you, I might let myself go. There are still a lot of things I’m trying to run away from. But you’re my anchor, my harbor. I know that no matter how far I’m willing to go, you will always be there to pull me back. To make sure we don’t do something crazy.”

  “Like have sex in broad daylight in the middle of a cemetery on a work day?” he asked.

  “Well, before the day is done, it’s going to be having sex repeatedly in broad daylight in a cemetery,” she replied, “but that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

  Quinn’s blood was racing again. The sense of current was stirring. He was trying to focus on something—anything—but her naked body.

  “You might want to talk quickly,” he said.

  “Your job is to balance us out, but my job is to push this as far as we can. The old rules don’t apply to us anymore.”

  “What if someone showed up? What if the caretaker or a family member…”

  “Who cares, Quinn? I know there are limits and I know you will make sure we don’t cross them. But this… this isn’t one of them.”

  She rolled on top of him and started kissing him again.

  They had so much to talk about, so much they needed to find out. Even now, he knew they were running out of time. But in the end, he let go and followed his heart’s desire.

  He wasn’t sure he was wrong to do so. When a storm is coming, you can’t always outrun it. You just have to enjoy the few peaceful moments left.

  Chapter 7

  Kate was uncharacteristically silent on their ride home. Quinn tried to see into her mind only to find it blocked.

  “What’s up?” he asked. “You still mad at me?”

  “I’m mad at Tim,” she replied. “I’m just angry you apologized.”

  “He was right and you know it,” Quinn replied. “We disappeared for a chunk of the day. I didn’t even file my story on Zora until 3 p.m. It wasn’t professional.”

  “It was fun, though,” Kate said.

  She knew she should let it go. Tim was fuming when they returned to the office, closing his office door behind them and demanding to know where they’d been and why they hadn’t responded to their cell phones. Quinn had been immediately apologetic, but Kate…

  Kate had been angry and unable to understand why. By any objective measure, Tim was right. But she felt like he had ruined a perfect celebratory moment for them. They should be out enjoying their new powers, not cooped up inside writing stories. Suddenly everything in comparison to being Prince of Sanheim seemed petty. They had their abilities back—she wanted to embrace them.

  That wasn’t all of it.

  While Quinn was itching to transform himself into the Headless Horseman again, Kate was lost. She wasn’t even sure how she had done what she had last year, didn’t understand how she had taken her mother’s form.

  In short, her powers were coming back and she still didn’t know what she was.

  “It was fun,” Quinn said.

  He turned from driving to smile at her. She wanted to smile back, but she was frustrated. Here he had all the answers about his own powers and she had only questions. She turned away from him and watched the trees rolling by. Soon he would be out there in the forest, racing along the roads. And she would be… what? Sitting at home? Riding with him?

  As they drove, they passed a small church with a graveyard. For just a moment, she glimpsed something standing among the stones—it looked like a person. But what was someone doing out there this late at night?

  “Turn around,” she said.

  As he started to object, she opened up her mind, let him see everything she had been thinking. She still didn’t know what she was looking for, didn’t understand why she wanted to go to the cemetery. But suddenly she wanted to very much.

  Quinn completed the u-turn and headed back to the cemetery. He took a left and parked at the far end of the parking lot. Kate was out before the car came to a complete stop. She practically ran into the cemetery.

  There was no one there and she knew there never had been. So what had she seen?

  She heard Quinn come up behind her, but he knew better than to say anything. The cemetery was small—only a couple dozen gravestones with a forest around it. It was her second time today in a graveyard, but she had no desire to make love to Quinn this time. Instead, she moved from stone to stone, searching for something.

  She had seen something, she knew she had. More than that, she could feel someone here, watching them. She was cold suddenly, despite the warm, still evening.

  “Who’s here?” she asked. “Who are you?”

  She heard a whisper then, something so faint she could barely hear it. She felt a touch on her arm and she turned to find nothing there. But something was trying to communicate with her.

  She read the names on the graves, their dates and inscriptions.

  “Beloved Father.”

  “Blessed Mother.”

  “May God Grant Her Peace.”

  She moved past each one, moving frantically now. She knew it was here, knew some key would explain it to her.

  Finally, in the back row, she found it. A grave with a small statue of a little girl looking solemnly toward the forest. The girl had angel’s wings, but Kate knew better, understood without being told.

  She lightly touched the statue and a breeze blew all around her. There was the sound of leaves rustling and underneath, a woman crying.

  Kate read the inscription at the base of the statue. It was only a girl’s name, Carrie Alyers, 1910-1915.

  “This was your daughter, wasn’t it?” Kate said.

  She could see a woman now, the same one she must have glimpsed as they drove past. The woman was young. She had black hair tied up in a low bun and was dressed in black from head to toe. Her face was awash in sorrow and despair. Kate watched her as the woman stared back.

  “You see me?” the woman asked.

  “Yes,” Kate responded.

  “Are you dead?”

  “No, but… I am the harbinger of death,” she said, and shivered as she uttered the words
that Lord Halloween had first written more than a decade ago.

  The woman nodded as if it made perfect sense.

  “Can you help me?” she asked.

  “I’ll try,” Kate said.

  “They buried me with my husband,” the woman said. “I asked to be buried with my baby, but they… They buried her here.”

  “Tell me your name.”

  “Christiana Mitchell,” the woman replied.

  “Where are you buried?”

  “Hillsboro,” she said. “I lived there… once. A long time ago.”

  Kate looked at her and could feel her pain and loss. A minute ago she had been translucent, but now she seemed solid.

  “Can you see her?” she asked Quinn.

  “Yes, but until a few seconds ago, I kinda thought you had lost it,” Quinn replied.

  “How long have you been here?” Kate asked her.

  The woman shook her head. She seemed confused by the question.

  “Will you help me?” she asked. Her voice was urgent, desperate.

  “Yes,” Kate said.

  The woman’s face flooded with relief. She watched them both silently. Kate wasn’t sure how, but somehow she knew exactly what she had to do. Quinn turned to face Kate.

  “What’s the plan here, honey?”

  “Well,” Kate said, “how do you feel about a little grave-robbing?”

  Quinn didn’t blink an eye, didn’t question what kind of difference it would make, or why they were helping a random spirit. Instead, he just nodded.

  “We always have the coolest dates,” he said.

  *****

  Grave-robbing, it turned out, was surprisingly hard and long work.

  Kate and Quinn left to buy shovels and other equipment at Home Depot and went home to change into clothes more suited for their task.

  Then they waited until the dead of night. Neither thought it was a great idea to begin their endeavor while cars were driving by.

  Using a battery-powered lantern, the two started digging at 2 a.m. It took longer than either imagined. An hour and a half later, they finally hit the coffin.