by Jessi Gage
Her grandmother was so wise.
Half an hour later, Betty deposited her in front of her grandmother’s house. Everything looked in order. Her Jetta sat in the driveway, the sun reflecting off the rear window. Lacy shadow cast by the big purple maple danced across her front lawn, which was neatly trimmed, but yellow from heat and neglect.
She got out of Betty’s Buick and eyed the house.
“Have a wonderful afternoon,” Betty said.
“You too. Thanks for the ride.”
“Any time.” Betty shuttled her Buick into her driveway, and Jade lost sight of it behind the hedges.
She was alone with her grandmother’s house. She did not want to go inside, did not want to face a kitchen covered in shards of glass and filled with memories of shadows taking form and attacking Emmett.
“No guts, no glory.” She hustled up the walk to get it over with as quickly as possible.
Her carryon bag rumbled on the bricks behind her. She dragged it up the two stairs to the sun porch. Forcing herself not to pause, she slipped the key in the lock and worked the thumb latch on the front door.
There really had been a demon in her house. She’d seen it for herself. Was it so hard to believe she’d been possessed and had married her sexy church boy to save herself?
Yes, it was. Emmett claimed he proposed and she said yes, but she couldn’t see herself agreeing to it for the reason Emmett gave her this morning, not even if her life was at stake. Marry for love, her mother used to tell her and Jilly, only for love. Her mother had a lot of faults, but Jade had always looked up to her for staying single. She’d dated a lot of losers, but she’d never committed to any of them. She’d taken care of herself and her girls. It hadn’t been a glamorous life by any stretch of the imagination, but they’d had food, shelter, and money for school supplies. They’d gone to the dentist and doctor whenever necessary. Her mother had seen to all the important things, and she’d done it without handouts. In fact, she’d often extend their food and shelter to whatever non-marriagable idiot she happened to be seeing at any given time.
Her mother hadn’t needed marriage, and Jade had learned young it was better to keep a legal distance from men. You never knew which ones you might need to get a restraining order against. Easier to keep separate names and checking accounts. Easier to run when things went south.
No, she wouldn’t have married for anything but love. She would have let a demon take her soul before offering it up to a man she hardly knew.
When she shouldered into the front hall, the healing scabs on her chest and cheek prickled with the memory of hot glass shards. Her throat tightened as she remembered Mr. Shadow slinking along her walls.
Why did she have a strange certainty she would never see him again? Why did that bother her?
Get a grip. Whatever was going on here is over. At least according to Nick. But could he be trusted? He was on the crazy boat with Emmett. Apparently, so was Chiboza.
She’d moved to Nutsville, USA. A trip to Boston had never sounded so good.
After a bracing breath, she jogged up the stairs, leaving the carryon in the front hall. She couldn’t face unpacking it right now. She just wanted to grab a change of clothes and get out of the house. Besides, Maxi was expecting her, and she would have everything Jade might need.
No ghosts slid across the walls and no cold spots chilled her to the bone as she grabbed her phone charger and some clean underwear from the turret bedroom. Settling into a sense of normalcy, she detoured into the bathroom to take care of necessities. No shower, though. No way did she feel comfortable enough to draw a curtain between her and the rest of the house. She’d clean up at Maxi’s when she got there.
As she washed her hands, she glanced at her face in the mirror and noted the dark circles her grandmother had pointed out. She looked like hell. While she debated digging through her carryon downstairs for the makeup she’d packed, she couldn’t help remembering the startled face of a young man peering back at her as she got ready for her date with Emmett last Friday. She had the strangest feeling there was something important she had forgotten, and it had to do with that young man.
Whatever. It had been a strange day. She ignored any feelings she couldn’t explain and headed downstairs, bypassing her carryon. She just wanted out of the house, out of Dover.
While locking up, her phone buzzed in her sweatshirt pocket, making her jump. The display said it was Emmett. She wanted to dodge him again, but eager as she was to get back to her familiar stomping grounds, she couldn’t bear to give him anything to worry about while his sister was hurt. She picked up.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” he said, and there was a smile in his voice.
She smiled, too, against her better judgment. “How’s your sister?”
“Sleeping. Rob says all the tests they did show she’s healing well and doesn’t have a concussion or anything.”
“That’s great.” It was also great to hear his voice, maybe a little too great. Isn’t this how brainwashing worked? One minute you’re determined to leave the cult. Then, the leader smiles at you and suddenly you’re holding out your cup for seconds on the Kool-Aid.
No Kool-Aid for me, thanks.
Restacking the bricks in her emotional barrier, she said, “So, she’ll be all right?”
“Yeah. Looks like it. We’re all hoping she’ll be back to her old self when she wakes up. How are you? Resting up?”
“Sure, yeah. I feel fine.”
“Good.” He sighed, and the sound tripped her heart with longing.
More bricks. More mortar. Wall it up. Keep those feelings out.
“I’ve got so much to talk to you about,” he said. “But I think I’m going to have to crash when I get home.”
Guilt pricked at her. He’d stayed up all night, and by skipping town she would probably make it hard for him to catch up on his rest today.
He stayed up all night taking care of me. Because I had a demon in me…or a minion. Every time she thought about it the horror sank in a little deeper and made her feel a little sicker. Why don’t I remember?
“I’ll leave here soon as Lisa wakes up and I get to say ‘Hey’ to her. I’ll bring you some lunch and we can eat it in bed and then sleep the rest of the day. Sound good?”
It did. Too good.
“Listen, take your time there. Family comes first. Don’t worry about me.”
“Okay. I miss you, though. The guys aren’t bothering you, are they? I called Theo to tell him to make sure they keep it down in the shop.”
“They’re fine.” Guilt, guilt, and more guilt. She shouldn’t let him believe she was at his house, but she didn’t want him trying to stop her from putting some distance between them. She needed time and space.
She got off the phone with a minimum of deception and climbed in her car. She was still ravenously hungry, so on the way out of town, she stopped at Dunkin Donuts for an egg sandwich and an enormous coffee. Once she hit the freeway, she rolled down her windows and let the wind whip her hair.
Maybe she was running like a coward, but she felt free. It sure beat feeling trapped in a house that may or may not be haunted and a marriage that may or may not be real.
Chapter 31
Steaming coffee hissed from one of those push-button machines into the Styrofoam cup in Emmett’s hand. He’d selected the strongest setting, hoping it would keep him awake another few hours. He’d been sitting with Rob in Lisa’s hospital room when he found himself conking out in the visitor’s chair. Rob had tactfully suggested he go to the cafeteria for coffee, but Emmett doubted there was enough coffee in the state to keep him awake much longer.
He’d been up since five the morning before, when he’d gotten up for his sweeping shift. It was now creeping up on ten o’clock the next day. That was…twenty-four plus five…twenty-nine hours awake. At least his brain was still functioning, albeit a little slower than usual.
He filled a second cup for his brother-in-law and
headed back to the room, praying as he navigated the halls of Brattleboro Memorial that Jade was resting well and healing up from whatever damage she’d sustained during her ordeal. His skin still crawled whenever he thought about how skeletal she’d been just a few hours ago. And when he remembered how close he’d been to having sex with the abomination that had mind-raped his girl—damn it. He’d crushed the flimsy cups and spilled hot coffee all over himself. Whispering a curse, he tossed the crushed cups into a trash bin and returned to the cafeteria.
Ten minutes later, he pushed into Lisa’s room to find her awake and sitting up in bed.
“Did I miss a food fight in the caf?” she asked with a smirk at the coffee stains on his jeans. She looked tired and a little pale, but otherwise good.
“Hey, sis.” He handed a coffee to Rob, set his down, and pulled Lisa into a hug, being careful of her IV and the bandages on her arms. There were bandages under her hospital gown, too, Rob had told him. She’d been stabbed three times by a biker chick, according to the police report. Emmett could only imagine the biker chick thought Lisa was someone else. His sister could be a tough cop but she was a great person. No one could possibly get mad enough at her to want to hurt her.
Lisa cleared her throat. “Rob, hon, would you mind giving me and Emmett a few minutes alone? Maybe you could pick me up a sandwich or something?”
Rob left, and Emmett parked his hip on the edge of her bed. “What’s up?” Her expression fell and she teared up. “Hey, hey,” he said and tried to put his arms around her.
She waved a hand. “I’m okay, I’m okay. I need to talk to someone about what happened, though, and I can’t talk to Rob. Not about this.”
She looked so miserable it broke his heart. “You can tell me anything. You know that.”
“I…I went to that bar last night—” She sniffed, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Oh, Emmett, I was going to try and cheat on Rob.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed while the weight of those words hung like a bowling ball between them.
“Are you guys having problems?” It sounded weird just saying it. Lisa and Rob seemed ridiculously happy. They were both cops, both athletic and fun loving. They were perfect together. But then, that’s what people had said about his parents too, and that hadn’t turned out so well. “Shit, are you thinking about leaving him? Because—”
“No!” she wailed, dropping her hands. “I don’t know what came over me. After I left your house, I just got this urge to—” She swallowed and closed her eyes. “It was like all I could think about was having sex. I couldn’t resist the temptation. It was like all my problems would be solved if I just met a stranger and had sex with him. God, this is so embarrassing.” She hid her face in her hands again.
His brain lurched with a sickening thought. What if the demon had followed Lisa from his house? What if her getting hurt was his fault? Oh, God, did she actually manage to cheat on Rob? Please, no. “Did you…you know, do it?” He winced. Could there be anything more uncomfortable than talking with his little sister about sex?
“No, thank God. I sidled up to this one guy and got him to buy me a drink. We were talking and I was flirting like a shameless ’ho, and then this biker chick stormed in and yanked me off the barstool by my hair and tried to gut me.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m so sorry you went through that, Lisa.”
“It’s not like it was your fault or anything,” she said.
He didn’t know what to say to that. He remembered how cold it had been when he’d arrived in her hospital room and wondered if the demon was trying to do to Lisa what it had done to Jade. He prayed every day that his sister would accept the Lord, but so far, she’d rejected Him at every turn. That would make her as vulnerable to demonic attack as Jade. He studied her carefully, looking for signs of supernatural intruders. His fingers itched to call Nick.
“And it’s over now,” she said, cutting into his concentration. “I woke up a little while ago and felt a million times better.” Her eyebrows drew together. “Em, this is going to sound really crazy, but I think…I think something was trying to use me. I didn’t realize it when it was happening, but while I was sleeping I dreamt this beautiful winged creature drew something evil out of me and cut it in half with a sword of fire. Then, when I woke up, I felt like myself and I could see how strange I was acting before. Does that sound crazy to you? Am I crazy?”
He blinked a few times, processing everything she said. “You’re not crazy,” he assured her. “I’m no expert on this, but it sounds like you might have been influenced by a demon.” He paused to gauge her reaction.
She furrowed her brow, curious, so he went on.
“I think there’s good and evil all around us. I also think there’s good and evil in us. We’re all capable of doing really kind things and being total selfish assholes. I think the technical term for it is ‘human nature.’”
She snorted. “You’re preaching to the choir on that one. I see the worst of human nature every day. And sometimes, I’m lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the best.”
“You know where I stand with the Lord,” he said, not wanting to push her. They’d been down that road, and it had been nothing but a dead end in the past. He wanted to reach out to her and love her today, not preach at her. “I don’t expect you to believe what I believe, but if you’re asking what might have happened to you, I’ll tell you. I think something wicked decided to prey on you and, like you said, use you. There’s a story in the Bible about a man who was possessed by demons. He hung out in a cemetery and no one could bind him, not even with chains. Everyone thought he was crazy. Then Jesus cast the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs. The pigs all ran over the edge of a cliff and into the sea. The man was fine after that. Maybe what happened to you was like that man. He wasn’t himself for a while, because something evil was influencing him, but then Jesus made him okay again.”
Lisa took a breath while he held his. God, let her believe. Let her see how powerful You are. Use this disaster to bring her to You.
“Does this kind of thing happen a lot?” she asked in a small voice. “’Cause it would explain a lot of the crap that goes on in this world.”
“I don’t know,” he said, taking her hand. Love and hope for her filled him up. “I think people are plenty capable of being evil all by themselves, but maybe some of the worst violence you have to deal with as a cop is because of demons. And maybe some of the most beautiful things you see from time to time are because of angels.”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “Do you think the glowing guy with the sword of fire was an angel?”
“Yeah.” Probably one named Joshua. “And I think you’re going to be just fine.”
“Well, if an angel saved my behind, I might just have to show up in church this Sunday to say thanks.”
“That would be nice, Lis, but you don’t have to go to church to talk to God. You could talk to him right here if you wanted.”
“How ’bout you do it for me.”
“Gladly.” Holding his sister’s hands, he prayed for her. He thanked God for protecting her and praised Him for what he had the faith to believe had been the demise of the thing that had attacked Jade and started all this.
After Rob got back to the room, Emmett excused himself. Lisa was on the mend physically, she was at least curious spiritually, and he was dog-tired and wanted nothing more than to curl up beside Jade and sleep for a week. The promise of his wife lying beside him had him racing home so fast he almost forgot to stop for some drive-through food to share with her.
Finally, a little before noon, he trotted up the stairs to his room, chicken bucket in hand. “Hope you’re hungry,” he called out. “’Cause daddy’s got some grub.” When he came up into his room, he stopped short.
His bed was made. Jade’s stuff was gone. His stomach did a roll.
“Babe?” He put down the food and ran back downstairs to look for her. “Jade?” He looked in every room, even the
man-cave, but there was no sign of her.
He went out to the shop and found the garage door open to the sunshine. Theo was in the driveway guzzling a sports drink with his shirt draped over his neck. The X2 riding mower was up on a forklift with parts scattered around the asphalt.
“You seen Jade?” he asked.
Theo shook his head no.
He searched his house one more time, phone in hand. He kept getting sent to her voicemail. He texted her. She didn’t text back.
Panic pushed back his tiredness. He grabbed the bucket of chicken and forced himself to eat some while he drove to her house. If she wasn’t there, he didn’t know what he was going to do.
When he pulled up to the curb in front of the two-story brick house, he noticed her car was gone. All the lights in the house were off. He left his truck to go knock. No answer. He tried the door, but it was locked up tight. His heart sank. She’d run from him.
Worry almost brought him to his knees there on her sun porch. She was safe from the demon, but she was weak. She should be resting, not driving who knows where. What must she be going through? Was she scared? Did she remember what had happened? Was she upset about being married? That last thought sent a pang through his gut.
This was his fault.
She hadn’t run from him. He’d run from her. Practically the second she came to this morning, he hightailed it out of there, dumping a load of crazy information on her and then leaving her on her own to deal with it. Shit. What an ass. He should have stayed with her. But he couldn’t regret seeing Lisa this morning. She’d needed him too.
Damn it. There wasn’t enough of him to go around.
