“Flattery now?” She trailed a finger along the glass as she tilted her head toward him. “Really think that will work with me?”
“Nah, but you have people who love you,” he said, his gestures lavish, his voice loud and braying—so not Leland. “You have powers you’ve never fully explored. I can give you…more. Together, we could have anything our hearts desire and the money to make it happen.”
Cait pretended to consider his offer, tilting her head to the side while she watched his every move. “It’s funny. All that time you spent wrapped up inside a stinking corpse, but you haven’t come up with anything new?”
“It’s a new world. One that doesn’t believe in us anymore. Lend me your power, a simple little spell, and you can have everything you ever wanted. Want to see your mama again?” He kissed his gathered fingers. “Poof! I’ll give her to you. I have friends in all the right places.”
“She’s not in hell.”
His eyelids drifted down to slits. “Seen her, have you? Did she say hello? No? Maybe because she can’t, Caitydid.”
A cold trickle spilled down her spine. “Don’t call me that.”
“Because it was her name for you?” He leaned his head to the side as though listening to something just out of her reach, then cupped a hand to his ear. “What’s that, Lorene?” His mouth curved into a sinister smile. “You could have her voice in your head. Along with all the others. But wouldn’t you like to hear what they’re actually sayin’? There’s power in just knowin’. Secrets they can tell.”
“Why would I want to know? I’ve spent a lifetime trying to quiet them.”
“And how’s that workin’ for ya, hon?”
Cait felt something soft brush against her back, something cold. She glanced behind her, saw the snakelike wisp of a wraith take a turn around the boxes. A chill ran through her body.
“Don’t have all day. Someone’s bound to notice your cars parked out there and wonder what you’ve found…”
The wraith blasted past her, cold wind tugging at her hair. Then it slipped through the glass.
Her gaze shot to the mirror, to Sam and Jason staring back. They didn’t see the wraith, mouth opened, whipping around the room.
But they felt it brush past, because Sam’s head whipped to the side a moment before the apparition wrapped its arms around Jason and whipped him back against the boxes.
“Stop it!” she shouted.
Leland stepped closer and bent forward, pushing his face in front of hers. “Give me what I want.”
She nearly gagged on his fetid breath. “All this for a spell so you can stay inside Leland’s body? He’s out of shape, smokes too much. What’s that gonna buy you?”
“With a spell, you can fix all his problems, let him live forever…”
“That didn’t work for you in Worthen’s body.”
His brows lowered. “Noticed that, huh? Morin tricked me. Didn’t do it right.”
Keeping Leland in the corner of her eye, she watched as Sam pulled at Jason’s feet, trying to free him from the wraith who’d lifted him to the ceiling, jouncing him in midair.
She didn’t have time to chat. Had to move, but she knew the beast inside Leland was strong. Even without the infusion of power he needed from the girls, his superior weight could subdue her.
But he was still hampered, limited by his human body. Cait looked away from the mayhem happening in the room outside the glass and straight at Leland.
He must have read her intention as soon as she made up her mind. Because he lunged for her.
With all her strength, she slammed her palms against his burly shoulders and jerked up her knee—a straight hit to the gonads.
Leland’s body bent at the waist, his face reddening as he glared upward. She fisted a hand and punched his trachea.
He fell to the floor, clutching his neck, his eyes glowing with wrath.
A moment later, the wraith shot back through the mirror and blasted against her. Her hair flew back as it wrapped its arms around her and tightened.
Then the wraith disintegrated.
Cait smiled at Leland, whose glowing eyes widened. “Surpriiiise!” she sang.
Grabbing a roll of duct tape from the top of one of the cardboard boxes, she quickly shoved Leland on his belly and taped his hands behind his back. His legs jerked, kicking back, but she sprang away and ran to the first cocoon.
She bent and hefted it over her shoulder, glad the girl was light because she was moving slowly enough as it was—even with the kick of Morin’s added mojo searing her blood. At the mirror, she stepped through. “Sam, grab her.”
Sam darted forward, lifted the girl as soon as she cleared the glass, and set her aside as Cait went back through.
Leland was on his knees, arms wriggling as he wrestled the tape, growling as he fought for breath.
Repeating her movements, she took the second girl through the mirror and dumped her at Sam’s feet. “One more,” she rasped.
On the third trip in, she glanced over to Leland, who was sitting up now, weaving, pupils widening to consume his eyes. His face blurred, a greenish haze playing at the edges. His shoulders bunched and she heard the scratch of tape as it broke. His arms opened wide.
Loping to the last girl, she bent and took her in a fireman’s carry. At the glass, she touched it, and pushed through far enough to shrug the girl off her shoulder. Half in, half out, she shouted, “Hand me my package, Sam.”
Sam held out his hand. “Come through. We’ll break the glass.”
Cait shook her head. “I won’t leave Leland. He doesn’t deserve this.”
“Baby, Leland’s already gone. Come out.”
Her brows lowered. “Hand me the damn package. Trust me.”
Jason stepped forward, his face tinged gray. He handed her the bundle.
She gave them both a tight smile. “Do what you have to. Just don’t let it come through.”
“Dammit, Cait!”
She ducked back. A hand wrapped around her ankle and jerked her off her feet. She fell, the package sliding across the dusty floor.
Leland’s weight fell against her back. “Had such plans for you. But you’re not the only freakin’ witch. Long as I can stay moving, I can keep changin’ hosts till I find another to do my bidding.” His head nuzzled into the back of her neck, sour breath gusting. “I’ll take what I need for now. Eat you down like I would have my little girls. It’ll be enough. You’re ripe. Morin’s stink’s on you. Should last me quite awhile.”
He bit into her skin, and she screamed, rearing back, bucking, trying to lift him from her, but he wouldn’t budge. Vaguely noting he’d taken a bite of her muscle, not a vein, she reached out a hand for anything she could use as a weapon and found a board. Her fingers clutched it tightly. She slammed it behind her, hitting herself and Leland’s head. He screamed and let go, scrambling off her.
Cait came to her knees, felt warmth seep into her shirt, not daring to look down. Holding the board like a bat, she ran for Leland, chasing him, forcing him to circle toward the mirror.
When he glanced behind him, he grinned like he’d won, and then jumped through the frame to the other side. He raised his hand, and her heart stopped because she knew he’d shatter the glass. But his body jerked and fell away.
Sam stepped into her vision and kicked Leland’s feet apart, then reached down to pat his chest for a gun.
Cait waved for his attention. “No! Don’t touch him,” she mouthed. She dropped the board, bent for the package, and stepped out of the glass.
The smell of gunpowder stank up the room. Blood seeped from Leland’s right shoulder. His head rocked back and forth and he cursed.
“I winged him,” Sam ground out.
She gave him a quick smile snd then tore off the twine and wrapping from around her package.
“What the hell?” Sam stared at the object in her hands.
Cait shrugged, then held it up. “A smithy’s bellows. Morin charged it.” Knowing he didn’t
understand, she brushed past him. Holding the bellows by the handles, she squeezed them, expelling air. Then she stepped over Leland, straddling his chest, and bent to shove the point toward his face.
Leland’s eyes snapped open, his brows drawing together as he stared at what she held.
“Open wide.”
She shoved the point into his mouth, heard the crunch of breaking teeth, and opened the bellows, pulling the demon through Leland’s mouth and into the accordion folds. Beneath her, Leland’s body jerked and bounced. A low, wailing groan sounded hollowly as the beast entered its new home.
She rose. Not sure if she had it all, she held still and kicked at Leland’s sides.
His eyes opened. Steel gray and scowling.
“Welcome back,” she said softly, then lifted the bellows. “Sorry about your teeth.”
In a flash, she ran to the mirror, touched the glass with one hand, and then flung the bellows inside.
“Sam!”
Sam lifted a booted foot and kicked the glass, shattering it into a thousand pieces, the shards pinging on the floor.
Cait and Sam stood side by side, chests heaving, staring downward.
Electronic beeps sounded behind them. Cait glanced back, watching as Jason called dispatch, asking for ambulances.
Sam bent toward the wounded Leland and offered his hand.
Leland, a hand over his bleeding mouth and the other cupping his crotch, got slowly to his feet, moving like a haggard old man.
Sam slipped an arm beneath his shoulder to hold him up, then glanced at Cait. “We’ll say the house was booby-trapped by Donnelly. Might want to light a fire as soon as we have the girls down the stairs.”
“Not before I pick up the glass.”
She found a broom in a corner and began to sweep up the shards, glancing in individual pieces to find shattered bits of a greenish demon moving. “Don’t imagine you’ll go to a recycling center,” she murmured.
She hadn’t a clue what do with the glass once she had it all inside a trash can, but for the short term the office safe seemed like a good plan.
Outside, she sat on the porch. Sam dropped a wet washcloth he’d scavenged from somewhere in the house on her shoulder. As warm water sank into the wounds on her neck, she winced.
“Tetanus up to date?” She glanced at a gray-faced Leland, who shook his head. “Don’t need a rabies shot, do I?”
He grunted and hung his head.
A twinge of sympathy ran through her, and she reached across and patted his knee. “How you holdin’ on?”
“How the hell do you think?” he lisped, a shadow of his usual nasty attitude in his tired voice. “I’m shot. Hav’ my teef are gone. I don’t remember a damn ting since a uniform grabbed me in the men’s room and kissed me. And your bud, Jason, tellsh me a demon was shtuck inside me.” His glance fell to her bloodied shoulder. “I bite you?”
She nodded. “I won’t hold it against you if you don’t blame Sam for shooting you. Or me for knocking out your teeth.” She glanced at the blood smeared on his mouth and chin and pointed. “Uh, you’ve got a little blood…” At his glare, she raised the finger and scratched her head.
Leland pulled a handkerchief from his pants pocket and dabbed at his mouth, then glanced up at Sam. “Better loosh the gun. It’sh gonna be hard enough to explain thish shit away.”
She lifted her chin to point to the three girls lined up on the lawn. Jason was cutting away the wrappings that enclosed them. He’d already found blankets to cover them once they were freed. “Jason…?”
A relieved smile lit up his still-grayish face. “They all have heartbeats. Slow and sluggish, but if it’s anything like what happened to Celeste, they should make it.”
In the distance, sirens sounded. She glanced around the houses. Doors were opening. People hovered behind windows with the blinds lifted to see what had happened in their midst.
“We need a story. One we can all remember.”
Shifting his weight, Sam blew out a gust of air. “Leland got a lead on a house where Donnelly squatted. We followed up. He met us here. The house was booby-trapped.”
Cait glanced to Leland, who nodded. “Wipe down the gun; toss it in the attic,” Cait said. “We’ll say it was rigged. Went off when Leland led the way inside.”
“Shounds right,” Leland said, his voice dull and free of his usual bluster.
“We don’t have rope for booby traps,” Sam said. “No way will they buy the story. Looks like we had a fight up there. They’ll want to know who with.”
She patted her pocket for the caretaker’s lighter she’d kept. “Torch it. They won’t be able to find any damn rope.”
“My suggestion exactly.” Sam took the lighter and ran back into the house.
She heard heavy steps pounding up the wooden stairs.
When he returned, the first police cars were entering the subdivisions, blue lights flashing, ambulances following the line as they circled up like a wagon train. In minutes, the yard was covered in dark uniforms.
“Ma’am, looks like a nasty bite you’ve got there,” a baby-faced medic said as he came up beside her.
“I fell on a nail,” she deadpanned.
“Right. How many times?”
At the disbelief in his tone, she aimed a glare his way. “Story’s not gonna change.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He bent to swab the blood from her neck and quickly applied a large bandage. “Should hold until we get you to the emergency room.”
A gurney whirred up the sidewalk to Leland, but he waved away the EMTs. “I can walk,” he said with a ghost of his old curmudgeonly dishumor. He pushed up from the stoop and stood directly in front of Cait.
She eyed him warily, but he leaned down and gave her cheek a quick kiss. When he met her gaze, he glared. “Not sure about what happened, and I really don’t want details, but I know you thaved my life.”
In response to his gravelly tone, her eyes began to fill.
He cocked his head to the side. “Not finished yet, O’Connell. Didn’t make a mishtake lettin’ you resign. You got no place on the forsh. But now I know where to go when I need shpecial help.”
She blinked her eyes and gave him a nod.
“And you’re sthill a pain in my ass.”
A crooked smile crept over her lips, and then she pointed toward the ambulance. “Your ride’s waiting.”
“Jus’ glad I didn’t end up like Donnelly, poor bastard.” His bushy eyebrows dropped. “I won’t, will I?”
Since the lieutenant hadn’t been starving for days, she felt safe assuring him. “You’re gonna be fine.”
“Liked your dad. You shee him sometime, you tell him so.”
What the hell? Shocked, her jaw fell open.
He gave her wink and a soft chuckle as he ambled away.
“Guess your secrets aren’t so secret,” Jason said, walking toward her.
“Not lookin’ too blue yourself.”
“I’m feelin’ fine. Could sure use a drink.” His hazel gaze held hers.
A scotch would cure every one of her ills right about now… She wrinkled her nose. “I’d join you, but…”
His gaze slid to Sam, who stood several feet away, hands braced on his hips and his gaze locked on her.
“Yeah, I think I’ll be busy for a while.”
“Paperwork?” Jason quipped.
Keeping her gaze on her man, she said, “I’ll bet he can get us a breather till morning. I’ve got some pull.”
“TMI, O’Connell.”
She laughed and stood, giving a grimace when her shoulder burned.
Behind her, the pounding of boot steps came flying through the house. “Fire! Get everyone out!”
She walked toward Sam, unable to read the expression on his face. Same granite features, same hard edges. But in his eyes was a gleam. One she recognized. Her body warmed, softening in all the right places. She stepped in front of him and lifted her chin. “Detective Pierce, we done here?” Beneath his unrelen
ting hard gaze, she melted, leaning a little closer. Just enough so her chest touched his. “Do you want me to come with you for questioning?”
“I want you for something, O’Connell, but I don’t think you’ll be able to muster a single word.”
“Sounds…dangerous.”
“Always is with you.”
She quirked a brow. “That a complaint?”
The tension in his frame eased a fraction. His gaze swung away toward the upper story of the house where the first flames licked at the paper covering the windows. “I couldn’t have broken that mirror with you in there. Not even if the bastard was inside you.”
“That could have been a problem,” she said softly, sensing by his tension that he was having a hard time letting go of the horror.
“Wouldn’t have mattered. I’d have found Morin, someone, to bring you back, same way you did Leland. I wasn’t gonna lose you.”
“Sure you have me?”
His blue eyes narrowed. “I should take you to the hospital. Get those wounds cleaned out.”
“And then?”
Without another word, Sam leaned down and took her mouth in a slow, hot kiss. She opened beneath the push of his firm lips. Their tongues touched and then retreated. He lifted his head.
Recovering from a deep shiver, Cait took a breath. “I like a man of few words.”
“Hold that thought.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Once they reached the hospital, a circus surrounded them—three rings, big top, even a man on a bullhorn. Reporters were everywhere, blocking the emergency room doors despite the number of squad cars parked haphazardly in the lot and the long line of dark uniforms holding the crowd away from the entrance.
The noise was deafening.
Even before Sam pulled open her car door, the questions came, men and women shouting over each other. So many questions, so fast, all Cait could do was shake her head.
“Was Donnelly acting alone?”
“Is it true the girls were wrapped up like mummies?”
“Are Satanists operating in Memphis?”
Sam pulled her gently from the car and straight against his side, then drove through the press of bodies, an arm extended to shove away anyone who came too close.
Shattered Souls Page 21
