Fear the Wicked (Illusions Series Book 2)

by Lily White

  Joshua shook his head, still struggling to hold on to his sister. “That won’t work. The sheriff is working with Elijah now. They’ve been killing people at the compound because Elijah has them convinced that those people were possessed by demons.”

  “What the fuck? Are you shitting me?”

  Shaking his head again, Joshua looked grim when he answered, “I wish I was, but they’ve been crucifying people on the large crosses Elijah has at the back of the sanctuary. Two people were up there dying this morning when I left for the parish.”

  My eyes closed, but I forced them open again. I didn’t have time to fall victim to my feelings while driving at high speeds over winding roads. “So where can we take her? We’re too far out into the county for me to know where the hell I am.”

  “I know of a hunting cabin that’s been abandoned for years now. I don’t think Elijah knows about it or that I know about it. I’ve been sneaking off over the past few months looking for somewhere I could take my sister to escape. I figured out Elijah was a fraud a few weeks after he chased you off.”

  “Well, thank God for that,” I muttered.

  Joshua made me laugh when he answered, “I’ve been thanking Him for a while. Turn around and when you hit county road five, take a right. It’s a distance away, but I’m sure nobody will find us. We can hide the truck in the woods and walk the rest of the way.”

  Unsure whether I could trust the guy, I turned to look him in the eye. All I found there was determination to get his sister to safety. Nodding my head in agreement, I turned my attention back to the road and followed the directions he barked out at me. Within an hour, we were pulling Sedra out of the truck even though she was still kicking and screaming.

  It took both of us to drag her through the woods while trying to avoid roots that were tripping our feet and low lying branches that hadn’t been cleared away by hunters or forest animals in their search for food. The sun was beginning to climb into the center of the sky letting me know it was midday. The heat had sweat sliding down my skin, but I wouldn’t allow it to slow me down, and eventually, despite the way Sedra had struggled, the cabin came into view. Joshua and I both breathed out a sigh of relief.

  The door banged open as we plodded through, the interior nothing but some broken furniture and dust covering every surface. Joshua wrestled his sister down to the floor with minimal effort. Thankfully, the small girl was running out of steam. While he knelt down softly speaking to her, I checked out the broken windows ensuring that I hadn’t just been led to a place where Elijah wouldn’t come riding up on his imaginary white horse to take back his bride. Nothing moved around the boundary of the cabin, and I relaxed a little to discover we were alone.

  “We’re going to need supplies,” I said. “Food, water, toiletries. I didn’t bring anything with me because I was pretty sure it would become a gun battle as soon as my brother saw me.”

  Joshua laughed softly. “If you’d gone to the compound instead of the parish, it would have. He told the sheriff about you and the order was to kill on sight. He claimed that you were just another evil entity hell bent on destroying the town.”

  Curiosity filled me. “Why are you helping me out? Aren’t you part of the family?”

  Peering up at me with eyes the same color as his sister’s, he smiled sadly. “I was part of the family. But then Elijah started letting me in on some of his secrets. At the same time, I’d stolen a copy of a Bible from the Farmer’s Market and was secretly reading it without him knowing. I realized quickly that all the stuff he says in his sermons isn’t what’s written in that book.”

  While we spoke, Sedra sat quietly on the floor, her eyes glistening with tears and her face red and ruddy from having been crying for so long. Her energy was tapped out, however, which was a damn good thing because I couldn’t think clearly with all the screaming.

  “So, when you took her outside the parish today?”

  Joshua darted a glance between his sister and me. Finally turning back, he admitted, “I was planning on walking her all the way here, if need be. I couldn’t let Elijah poison her anymore. He would have killed her eventually.”

  “He wasn’t poisoning me,” Sedra argued, tears still spilling from her eyes. Joshua turned to look at her with pure remorse written into the expression on his face.

  “Yes, sister, he was. Those teas he was giving you weren’t to make you better. They were meant to mess up your head. He didn’t want you to remember what happened at the parish when you were with Jacob. You were beginning to understand that there were two different men that looked the same and Elijah couldn’t have that. I knew about it. I was there when Elijah gave you the herbs to make you appear dead. He did that on purpose so that Jacob would run off and think you weren’t alive. I was the one that carried you back to the compound. You have to try and remember.”

  Shaking her head, she bit her bottom lip, anger spilling across her features as she tilted her head up at me. “Elijah. Please tell me what he’s talking about. Why are you letting him lie like this right in front of you?”

  I dropped down on one knee so I could look directly in her face. “Joshua’s not lying to you, Sedra. My name isn’t Elijah. It’s Jacob. Hell, even Elijah’s name isn’t Elijah. When we were young, he went by the name Jericho.”

  She spit in my direction. “I haven’t done anything to deserve this! Why are you lying to me again! I’ve done everything you asked. You freed me of the last demon. Why are you doing this to me?”

  Shaking my head, I knew there was nothing either one of us could say or do to convince her. She had to see it for herself. Had to see that there were two of us. The only way to accomplish that would be to have her present while I confronted by brother, but I didn’t like the thought of taking her along. Perhaps the benefits would outweigh the danger, because until she saw it, Sedra would always believe the lies he’d fed her while creating the perfect submissive.

  “I’m sorry, Sedra. I really am. Not only for what my brother has done to you but for what I did to you myself. I took advantage and I lost control by being with you when you believed I was someone else. But I’m not taking advantage of you now. I’m ending this entire thing, once and for all. You’ll understand some day. Or, at least I hope you will.”

  “She will,” Joshua responded. “If I have to spend the rest of my life convincing her that she’s been lied to, than that’s what I’ll do. I won’t let her continue loving a man who only hurt her and used her.”

  In truth, he could have been talking about both Elijah and me. It had been wrong of me to have sex with her. It was wrong of me now to still want her despite everything that happened. But I couldn’t help it. There was just something about her that called out to the darkness inside me that begged to devour her.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again before forcing myself to my feet.

  Pacing the floor of the cabin, I thought about the stash of guns and ammo I had stored in the truck. It would have been enough for the bastards at the compound, but now that I knew the Sherriff was under Elijah’s thumb, how the fuck was I going to compete against that? After they discovered that Sedra was missing, he’d have every deputy out looking for me with the specific instruction to gun me down on sight. I had to take some time to think of a plan that would not only bring an end to my brother’s cult, but also keep Sedra and her brother out of harm’s way. I couldn’t blame the guy for having been fooled by Elijah for such a long time and I was thankful to God and everything holy that he’d seen the truth before I’d arrived.

  “We need to figure out what to do,” I finally said. “We can’t just take off and leave the town to Elijah. After seeing what he did to those children today, I know he’ll end up killing them all.”

  Joshua nodded his head in understanding. “But how? He has everybody believing that they’re fighting some holy war against demons. The entire town, Jacob. There’s no way the two of us can take that on and hope to win. The compound alone has a small arsenal and every one of t
he men know how to use those guns. I say we just take off and hope for the best.”

  My teeth ground together as I thought up a plan of attack. Elijah may have the county sheriff on his side, but that didn’t mean he had influence over the state police or the federal authorities. I could call in the fucking Army if that’s what it would take to bring the son of bitch down.

  On my way into town, I’d bought a cheap cell phone just in case I needed to get in touch with anybody outside of the state. Thankful for having thought to do so, I realized there was one person I could call for help, somebody with enough influence to make people in power realize they had one hell of a problem on their hands.

  Stepping toward the door, I turned back to Joshua before running outside. “Do me a favor and keep Sedra inside. I think I know who I can call to help.”

  Stepping outside, I closed the door behind me and marched to my truck to retrieve the phone. I also grabbed a business card that was given to me before leaving the city.

  Nobody would believe me if I went to the cops and told them about a town that had turned into a cult, but I knew that if the right person called with enough influence and money, the state authorities would be sent out to raid the compound.

  Dialing the number, I brought the phone to my ear and prayed someone would answer. When it stopped ringing and a familiar voice spoke, I felt some of the tension drain from my body.

  “Father Timothy. This is Jacob Hayle. We need to talk.”

  ELIJAH

  I arrived at the compound about to explode from the rage that was a seething, rolling inferno inside me. Who the fuck thought they had the right to take Eve away from the parish without me? What son of a bitch was going to die for daring to touch something that was mine? I hoped it was one of the women, hoped like hell it hadn’t been some stupid brother that thought Eve could be touched by another male hand, but when I walked inside and questioned the family, they all looked at me with confusion behind their expressions, not one of them knowing where my wife had gone.

  Richard had already walked the young girl to the cabin to assist her in the exorcism of the demon, so I was left alone to wander the compound and come to one conclusion. It wasn’t just Eve that was missing, I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her brother, Joshua, either.

  Winding my way through the empty halls, I was in route to the men’s section with thoughts of murder echoing in my head. That stupid little fuck couldn’t possibly have made it far with Eve. I knew my wife well enough to know she would fight him the entire way as soon as she realized he wasn’t bringing her back. Joshua didn’t have a car, didn’t even know how to drive one if he did, so the only way he could escape would be on foot. He would have no clue where he was going either. I’d ensured that by keeping the family at the compound rather than allow them to travel freely around the county. I would find that son of a bitch and I would drag him back here by his damn eyelids so that he could answer for daring to act against me.

  Reaching his small bedroom, I opened the door and looked around at the bare minimum furnishings. A simple bed, a cross on the wall, a stack of clothes all the same style and color that the entire family wore. There was nothing out of place, nothing surprising, but that didn’t stop me from tearing the room apart. After going through everything that was out in the open, I flipped his mattress of the bed and found the Bible that lay beneath.

  My eyes locked on the book as every curse word I knew flew from my lips. Snatching it from the hidden place he’d kept it tucked, I flipped through the pages to find small notes written into the margins, notes that revealed that by reading these words, Joshua had figured out that everything I’d taught had been bullshit intended to elicit fear and judgment.

  More fury arced through me, the sudden influx painful and barely contained. I wanted to break every fucking thing in this room just to release some of the anger I was feeling. Doing so would only draw the attention of the family, and I couldn’t afford for them to see me lose control. Pacing with the Bible in my hands, I took steadying breaths in an attempt to figure out how I would get my wife back and bring Joshua to his knees.

  A thought chased through my mind, just the merest whisper, that perhaps Joshua hadn’t been alone. And when that little tidbit began speaking louder, I realized quickly that I had to find my wife and end this bullshit before everything I’d worked for was ruined.

  Dropping the Bible to the floor, I kicked it so hard that it bounced off the walls, some of the pages fluttering as they tore away from the bindings. Setting off down the hall, I ignored the family members that I shoved out of my way and slammed the door to my office when I was alone inside. I picked up the handset of the phone so quickly that the cradle fell from the desk and crashed to the floor.

  The phone on the other side rang only a few times before a gruff voice answered, surprised that I’d called before our nightly meeting.

  “Father Hayle,” Sheriff Holmes answered, “why are you calling?”

  “We have a problem, James. How big of one, I’m not sure, but it needs your immediate attention.”

  Grunting into the phone, he must have been moving around to get to a quieter place. Behind him I could hear the voices of police officers and secretaries, the typical clitter clatter of an office space as people bustled about their duties on their computers and others machines. A door clicked closed and his end went silent except his deep baritone voice speaking through the receiver.

  “What kind of problem?”

  “My wife is missing. Eve, the woman I cleansed so that I could marry her. You know who I’m talking about.”

  He didn’t answer immediately, but eventually the deep drawl of his voice refilled the line. “Do you know where she might have gone?”

  Shaking my head, I realized he couldn’t see me. I started pacing the floor of the office, not giving a damn that the cradle of the phone was dragging along on the ground behind me. “I have no clue. I know that her brother, Joshua is also missing. I also suspect they had help. Neither of them could have made it far on foot without being noticed.”

  More silence fell between us before he asked another question. “What kind of help do you think they had? Are we talking normal shit or something spiritual?”

  A bark of laughter burst from my lips but there wasn’t anything funny about that sound. “Remember when I told you about my twin brother, Jericho, the evil son of a bitch that tried to pretend like he was me when we were kids? He may have found me, James, and if so, if he has been watching, then he knows that Eve is my wife. I fear for her safety and her purity if that evil asshole got his hands on her. I need every man you have out looking for my wife. And if you find Joshua or even my brother, you need to tell your men to bring them to me alive. I’ll stay at the compound so there’s no confusion. It’s like I told you before, he’s not just my brother, he’s my identical twin. If he’s with them, I’m sure they could walk down the street without anybody blinking an eye or knowing the difference.”

  James breathed out heavily. “I’ll put the men on it that I can afford to lose right now. I can’t make it too apparent that I’m working with you at the compound. You know that. I can turn a blind eye, Father Hayle, and I helped convince the town that what you’re doing is necessary when faced with the kind of evil we’re battling, but I’m not immune to the County’s regulations either. The men I bring you aren’t recorded as having been arrested and I don’t need some curious son of a bitch lifting rocks and figuring out that I’ve been doing things under their nose. You get me? I have a few men I can trust and they know this county inside and out. If anybody is going to find your wife, it’ll be them. Hopefully, they haven’t gotten far.”

  My hand clenched around the phone and I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming. “Thank you, James,” I spat out, “I appreciate the kindness. I don’t want any harm coming to my wife, and you and I both know this is the evil striking back at us. We have those fucking demons on the run and now they’re out to get both of us. If I were you, I’
d worry about the women in your household as well. You may want to tell them to go over to your brother’s until you can get home to protect them. Don’t forget about what happened to the nuns only a few months ago. We wouldn’t want the same fate to fall on your wife or daughters.”

  James bit out a curse. “Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. I’ll send the men out now, and I’ll tell my family to get over to Gentry’s. Thanks for the warning, Father. I’ll let you know when my men have located Eve and her brother.”

  The line went dead and I dropped the handset of the phone to the ground, kicking it against the wall much like I had the Bible in Joshua’s room. Those slimy sons of bitches better find my wife before I completely lose it and fly off the fucking handle.

  JACOB

  “No, you can’t get the sheriff involved in this, Agent Ross. He’s part of the fucking problem!”

  Twenty-four hours. That’s how long it took for Father Timothy to contact the Diocese, convince them there was a madman who could expose the hidden crimes of the Catholic Church, and have them get in touch with people even higher up the food chain to send a federal agent to the small cabin where I was hiding with Joshua and Sedra. The agent had brought a team ready to storm the gates of Jericho’s compound, he was sent to investigate first, but after speaking with Sedra and discovering how brainwashed the poor woman was, he spoke with Joshua and found out exactly what was going on inside the walls of a building that Jericho had managed for over twelve years.

  The agent, with his tawny brown hair and shrewd amber eyes, squinted against the sunlight pouring through the thick branches of trees above us. Dressed in simple khakis and a black button up shirt, he didn’t draw attention to himself like most agents would. He was familiar with the rural areas in the mountains and had located the roads leading to the hunting cabin rather quickly. He drove a truck that was more beat down than mine, and I was thankful to him for hiding his identity when I knew the sheriff was most likely watching. By now, Jericho knew that Sedra was missing and I was sure he’d set out an entire army to claim her and bring her back to the compound.