by Julie Kenner
I indicated the way she was sitting on the floor, still wearing her towel. “I thought something had hurt you.”
“I’m not hurt,” she said. “I’m just ... I’m just ...” She trailed off and started crying again.
“Baby, what is it?” I was right in front of her, trying to read her expression. “What’s happened?”
“Daddy’s ring,” she said between sniffs. “Someone stole Daddy’s ring.”
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.” It wasn’t, of course. That ring loose in the world wasn’t okay at all. But I was hardly going to announce that little tidbit to my daughter. Not at the moment, anyway.
Instead, I just held her and told her it would be fine. We had other memories of her dad. Better memories. And certainly better souvenirs.
“Start at the beginning,” I said, once she had calmed down. She was dressed now—a feat she undertook after I promised her that she hadn’t incurred my wrath until the end of time. Secretly, I was more than a little concerned. But as I hadn’t yet explained to Allie why I’d rushed all the way here to protect her, I was trying to keep my expression calm and collected.
Right now, I needed facts. When and where and how.
The part of the program where I freaked out about the fact that we’d lost a tiny ring that just happened to be the key to all of the current demon activity in San Diablo? Well, that could come later.
“I wore the ring to school today,” she said. “Because I thought about what you said. About how we’d survived the demon in the park, and so Daddy’s ring really was lucky.”
I grimaced, remembering the conversation. She’d said the ring brought bad luck. I’d told her that was silly since I’d come to save her.
Considering the ring had brought the demon, she was right all along. So much for a mother’s good instincts.
“Did you actually wear the ring?” I asked.
“No. It’s too big, you know? And it’s really kind of ugly. I kept it on the chain around my neck.”
I mentally exhaled a sigh of relief. The demons already knew that the ring had been in my house, and considering the way they’d been hounding me, they must have believed I understood its significance. But if she hadn’t put it on her finger, then maybe the demons hadn’t come to the school. “Then what?”
“We can’t wear jewelry in P.E., so I left it in my locker. But when I came back, it was gone.”
“And you don’t have any idea who took it? Did you see anyone suspicious going into the locker room?”
She shook her head. “No one.”
I clenched my fists, frustrated at the brick wall we’d run up against.
If the thief was a demon, we were in trouble. But if our bandit was a student? Well, that kid would soon become a demon magnet. Worse, the kid would soon be dead.
Fourteen
Laura found US in the dressing room, having sent Mindy back to class. I wanted to talk to David, but the vice-principal (who’d heard about my race through the halls toward the gym) had magically appeared and seemed none too happy about our little visit to the school.
She informed me that Mr. Long had AP classes for the rest of the afternoon, and that she’d be happy to give him a message to call me at the end of the school day. I smiled sweetly and asked her to please do that.
Then I told her that I was taking Allie home for the rest of the day. A family emergency.
I signed a yellow form that would presumably be shoved into Allie’s permanent record, and then agreed ever so politely when they made me promise—in the event of future emergencies—to go to the office first rather than racing through the halls and “working the students up into a tizzy.”
I’d witnessed nothing close to a tizzy, but I agreed anyway. I’d learned a long time ago that it was best to simply smile politely. Do what you need to do, of course. But always smile politely when you apologize.
“I thought you said you weren’t mad,” Allie said as soon as we were in the van.
Since Laura was in the front passenger seat, I looked at my daughter’s reflection in the rearview mirror. “I’m not,” I confirmed. “I’m relieved.”
“Then how come you’re dragging me out of school?”
I looked in the mirror again and caught my daughter’s expression as she put it all together. “Oh, right,” she said. “Demons.”
“Smart kid,” I said.
“So what happened? Are you going to let me fight? I know you said I’m not ready, and I’m totally on board with that, really, but I want to help. And if you’re going, then you really ought to take me, too, because—”
“Allie!” I interrupted with a laugh. “It’s not about a battle. It’s about the ring.”
“The ring? Daddy’s ring?”
“Not just Daddy’s, apparently. That ring used to belong to King Solomon.”
“No way! But it’s so ugly.”
“Once again proving that royalty and good fashion sense don’t necessarily go together,” I said. “Now do you want to hear the story or not?”
She did, of course, and so while we were driving, I dove into the full story. We paused once to drop Laura off so that she could start primping for the big date, then finished up around the kitchen table.
By the time I got to the end, my daughter looked a little rough around the edges. “So it wasn’t Daddy’s ring at all?” she said. “Then how come he was wearing it when, you know, when he was in San Francisco?”
“I think Daddy did own the ring. I’m pretty sure it was a gift from Wilson.”
“Your old alimentatore,” she said.
“Right.”
“And so, what? Wilson decided to mail Daddy a demon magnet? Why?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “We’re obviously missing something.”
“Hmmm,” she said seriously, her chin resting on her fist. “At least we know that it’s all related. I mean, yesterday we thought Daddy’s murder was totally separate from the Andramelech demons. But they have to be connected, right? Because the demons want to free that Andre dude, and he’s trapped in Daddy’s ring. I mean, that makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Completely,” I said. “So long as Andramelech is really in Daddy’s ring.”
“He’s got to be,” Allie insisted. “It totally fits.” She got up from her chair and started pacing the kitchen. “Daddy was going to meet a Hunter in San Francisco, right? And that’s about the time that Andramelech disappeared. Isn’t that what you told me?”
I nodded, but my mind was already two steps ahead.
“Your dad didn’t go to San Francisco to meet just any Hunter,” I said. “He must have gone to meet Nadia Aiken. The Hunter who’d been on the trail of Andramelech.”
“Right, right, right,” Allie said, bouncing up and down. “Because somehow she knew he had the ring.”
“She worked with Wilson,” I said. “So that makes sense.”
“But something went wrong. The demon must have found them first, right? Cause we know Nadia disappeared. And we know Daddy’s dead.” She took a deep breath, then lifted her chin, her jaw set. “But Daddy still won, you know? Somehow Daddy got him. Andra-hoochiemado probably took Daddy on,” she said, whacking her arms around in a total parody of a martial arts sequence. “Cause Andre dude wanted the ring, right? So he could free his buddy Ornie.”
“Okay,” I said, smiling at her excitement despite the underlying subject.
“Well, Daddy got in a good one at least. I mean, something happened to him—we know that—but he still managed to nail Andre. He must have. Because the ring is back here, and all these demons are looking for Andramelech. It totally makes sense.”
She’d worked herself up, and now she punched the sky, thrilled with her own detective skills. One look at my face though, brought her back down to earth. “Mom? What’s the matter? Am I wrong?”
I shook my head slowly, feeling more than a little nauseous as the truth settled in my gut. “No,” I said, forcing a smile. “No, I think you’re absolutely right.�
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And I did, too. But there was one thing Allie hadn’t figured out. One thing she’d missed, but I’d zeroed in on right away: the question of why the demons had first attacked David.
After all, he’d never been in possession of the ring. So why begin with him?
Being a prize pupil, though, I knew the answer: because until Allie slipped the ring on her finger that day in the attic, the demons had no idea where it had disappeared to. They had only one lead: The body had been long buried. But the soul who’d captured their leader? Find him, and they might find the ring, too.
I was pacing outside David’s door when he got home, my body ready to spring and my mind just as tense.
“Kate,” David said, his eyes lighting up when he saw me. “I tried to call your cell and all I got was your voice mail.”
“I turned it off.”
He looked at me, the smile fading as he stepped from the stairs to the second-floor landing. “Let’s go inside.”
“Yes,” I said. “We can have a nice little chat.”
He gave me a curious look but opened the door for me. I entered, still seething, and found myself in a typical bachelor apartment. For a moment, I was taken aback by that simple fact. There were no photos of me or Allie on the walls. No mementoes. Not even the Danish-style furniture that Eric had taken a liking to.
I’m not sure what I’d expected, but I faltered for a minute, wondering if I could be wrong.
“Kate?” He took a step closer, his eyes taking me in. “Katie, are you okay?”
He was right there, right in front of me, and the air between us crackled. The scent of this man was all David, but that electricity, that charge. Dear God in Heaven, that was Eric.
I’d been right all along. And now that I was certain, I couldn’t believe that I’d ever been unsure. More, I couldn’t believe that he’d lied to me. Worse, that I’d believed the lie.
I stood there trembling, my emotions like a live wire sparking with rage, joy, lust. I couldn’t move—didn’t even want to.
“Katie, what happened?” Concern colored his voice, and I almost answered. Almost fell into a calm and reasonable discussion.
But then he touched my shoulder, and it was like he’d closed a circuit in my soul. All the rage and the betrayal spewed out of me, and I jerked back, slapping his hand off of me.
“You son of a bitch,” I cried, tears streaming down my face. “You lied to me. Dammit, Eric, you lied to me.”
He took a step backward, and I saw the moment when he registered my use of his name. Surprise and shock, but no denial or confusion.
It was true, then, and I wailed with frustration, then hauled back and smacked him hard across the face. His cheek stung my palm, but he didn’t make a sound, and I pulled back to do it again.
This time, he caught my wrist. “No,” he said. And then he pulled me close, grabbed my other wrist as well, and held me steady. Then pressed his lips to mine and kissed me, his touch so familiar, and at the same time demanding and desperate. This time, however, I didn’t kiss him back. Even though I missed him, and even though I wanted, with every breath in my body, to lose myself in him.
Instead I pushed him gently away, then looked deep into his questioning eyes. Eyes still lit with a fire born of need and, this time, with no apology.
“You lied to me,” I said.
“I told you I wasn’t the man you married. I’m not, Katie.”
A bubble of anger rose and my temper flared. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. You knew what I meant. You knew what I was asking. And you stood there and deliberately lied to me.”
He turned away from me and walked to his patio door, then stood and looked out over the night. I could see his reflection in the glass door and knew that he could see me, too. I didn’t move, only stood there, waiting for him to explain himself.
“What was I supposed to do, Kate?” he asked, his voice thick with regret. “I love you. You’re married. You have a life. I can’t be the guy who messes that up for you.”
He turned to face me, and I saw the anger in his eyes. Not at me, but at the world. At the horrible circumstances that had ripped us apart, and then brought us back together with no hope for a future.
“So you tell me, Katie. Did I do wrong by not telling you the truth? Was it such a sin to try and make it easier on you?”
“You kissed me,” I said. “You kissed me as David. How the hell was that making it easier on me?”
“I thought I’d lost you again,” he said, and I could see the pain etched in his face. Real pain, so thick it seemed to cut me as well.
I shook my head, determined not to cave. I needed to understand, and I needed my head, not my heart. Because no matter how much I didn’t want to believe them, Eddie’s accusations of black magic lingered.
“You lied, Eric. You said you didn’t know anything about the damn stone. How am I supposed to trust you when you lied about that? Allie got attacked. I almost got killed. And you stand there and tell me that you still love me?”
“Dammit, Kate, are you suggesting I would ever do anything to harm you? To harm Allie? I would never—”
“Then why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you tell us what was going on from the very beginning?”
“Because I didn’t know what was going on. I still don’t. Kate,” he said earnestly, “you have to believe me. I would never hurt you. I’d die before I’d let anything happen to you or to Allie.”
I blinked back tears, the force of his words pulling me in, and yet his past actions keeping me far away. “The ring,” I said, as one tear snaked down my cheek. “You should have told us about the ring.”
“Wait ... what?” His brow furrowed, and he took a step closer. “What ring? What the hell are you talking about?”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “Don’t play games with me, Eric. I know you better than anyone.” Or, I thought, I used to. “Wilson’s ring. Solomon’s ring.”
He shook his head slowly. “The ruby ring? With the diamonds?”
I watched his face, trying to see the truth. I saw confusion there, and I saw hurt. Hurt that I would doubt him.
Damn it all, he really didn’t know.
I ran my fingers through my hair and dropped onto his couch, then put my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. After a moment, I felt the cushions shift, and then Eric’s arm around me. I leaned against him, my eyes still closed.
“Tell me what happened in San Francisco,” I said.
“I went there because another Hunter had contacted me. She said she had a lead. A clue as to why Wilson was murdered.”
“Nadia,” I said, starting to seethe a bit all over again, since he’d denied knowing her as well.
“No,” he said. “I’ve never heard of Nadia Aiken. I swear, Kate.”
“Go on.”
“We talked a few times, and she wanted to see the things that Wilson had sent me.”
“Things you’d never told me about.”
“You were pregnant. He didn’t want to disturb you.”
“And after I wasn’t pregnant anymore?”
He sighed. “Then I didn’t want to disturb you. Wilson was dead, and I’d set the things aside. I forgot about them, honestly, even after I’d started alimentatore training. It wasn’t until I heard from Diana that I remembered the packet from Wilson and thought there might be something relevant in there.”
“From Diana? She was the Hunter?”
“Right.”
“So what happened?”
He got up, started pacing his living room. “I went to see her. But I didn’t trust her. I’m not sure why. So I told her I’d given everything of value to a charity, that Wilson would have wanted the stuff sold to support the Church.”
He paused, turning back to look at my face, examining my eyes the way he always had, as if he could tell just by looking what I was thinking. I stayed silent, waiting for him to continue, and when he did, he seemed far away, as if talking about it had pull
ed him back to that dreary night so many years ago.
“She was irritated, I remember that. She said that she’d been counting on me having the things. That she really believed that the key to Wilson’s death was in the things he’d sent me.”
“So why didn’t you give them to her?”
He shook his head slowly. “Honestly? There wasn’t anything specific I could point to. But something made me hesitate. So I left. I told her I’d see if I could track them down, but I never really planned to.”
“But you did take the stuff with you to San Francisco,” I said. “You were wearing the ring when ...” I swallowed. “When they found your body.”
“I took it on the chance I changed my mind. I don’t know. I wanted to know what happened to Wilson, so part of me hoped I’d be convinced. But ...”
“And when you put the ring on, it attracted the demons,” I said. “It attracted Andramelech, who’d been looking for that very ring.”
“I’m thinking it must have, but I don’t remember a thing. I remember leaving Diana and walking back to my hotel. I remember pain,” he said, and I winced, hating the thought that he had to go through that. “And then I remember nothing.”
“Until?”
He looked at me, his eyes serious. “Until I became David.”
“That was years later,” I said.
He nodded. “Time meant nothing to me, and once I was ... well, David, I found you. I saw Stuart, I saw Timmy.” He closed his eyes, and I watched the rise and fall of his chest as he drew in a long breath. “I saw the life you now have.”
I hugged myself, as if by keeping my arms tight against my body, I could keep the emotions from bursting forth. I wanted to run away, wanted to simply pretend I didn’t know any of this, and that Eric was still David and I’d never known the truth. But I did know it. I knew it and, so help me, I couldn’t handle it.
“Kate?”
I held up a hand, as if I could ward off all the hurt. “I can’t see you,” I said, my voice shaking. “It’s too hard. You were right not to tell me.” Tears spilled down my cheeks, but I didn’t bother to wipe them away. “I do have a family, and I can’t mess that up. I can’t hurt Stuart. He’s innocent in all of this. And more, I love him.”
