by Julie Kenner
“Why?” I asked, needing to hear reason and not merely hope.
“Because if it were over, Lilith wouldn’t stay away. She’d come to gloat. And,” he added, his eyes flat and hard, “she’d come to kill.”
Despite that cheery prospect, Stuart’s analysis made me feel better, and I finished the party preparations in a reasonably good mood, my Eric/Lilith problems tucked as far away in my mind as possible.
We finished fifteen minutes before Laura arrived with Mindy and Cutter. I let them into the concession area through the ornate front door, and was about to lock up again when Eddie arrived with Rita on his arm. I drew in a worried breath and shot him a fierce look over Allie’s head, but he just shrugged without looking the slightest bit remorseful or worried about bringing another person into the fold.
“This looks so totally awesome, Aunt Kate,” Mindy said, looking around at the lobby decorated with streamers, Happy Birthday banners, and well over fifty helium balloons. We’d inflated another ten with old-fashioned lung-power, and Timmy was busy racing around, bopping the balloons with his fists and head as he tried to keep them airborne.
“What? No praise for your mother?” countered Laura, and I had to laugh. She’d finished the posters documenting Allie’s fifteen years on the planet, and they filled each of the ten display cases, four inside the theater, and six outside surrounding the ticket office.
“Mom,” Mindy said, with an eye roll I was sure she’d learned from my daughter.
As she and Allie wandered the room, looking at all the posters, Rita shuffled up to them, then thrust a present into Allie’s hand. “Nice girl like you,” I heard her say, “gotta have one of these. Ain’t no two ways about it.” And though I couldn’t see what was in the box, I did hear Allie’s delighted laugh after she opened it. She hugged Rita, then tucked something black and squarish into her back pocket before following up with a second hug.
I cast a glance toward Eddie, but he only shrugged.
Across the room, Mindy had grabbed Allie’s hand. “The posters are a blast, but did you see the marquee? I mean, how awesome is that? You got a picture of it, right?”
“Marquee?” Allie turned to look at me, and I realized that she hadn’t yet seen it. We’d come in through the fire door off the alley in the back.
“Come on,” I said, leading everyone out through the glass front doors. We gathered near the old-fashioned ticket booth and looked up at the marquee that protruded out over the sidewalk. The sun had set, the only illumination now from the streetlights and the white glow of the backlighting on the marquee, highlighting the words we’d ordered for the occasion: Happy Birthday, Allie! Congrats on Fifteen Fabulous Years!
“Oh, wow!” she squealed. “That’s so cool. That’s so totally awesome.” She flung her arms around me, then around Stuart, who hugged her back enthusiastically. “Can we get a picture? Can you fit me and the sign in?” she asked, jogging over to stand beneath it.
“Sure,” I said, lifting my camera to my eye. But when I looked through the viewfinder, Allie wasn’t smiling in my direction. Instead, she was looking across the street, her expression somehow both wistful and scared. “Allie?”
Her eyes darted toward me, then back across the street. I turned and saw nothing at first. Then a truck that had been blocking my line of sight moved, and I saw Eric standing there.
“Daddy?” The pain in Allie’s voice coupled with the raw longing seemed to grab me by the heart and squeeze.
He kept his eyes on her, moving slowly into the street, ignoring the horns and curses from drivers who had to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting him.
“Eric!” I called. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t look at me, but he did lift his hands, as if in surrender. But rather than reassure me, the gesture made my blood run cold.
I think he must have realized the move was a misstep, too, because a split second later he burst into a run, practically launching himself from street to sidewalk. And Allie, so desperate to have her father back, stayed put one second too long, so that when she finally did turn away and start to run back toward me, his fingers were close enough to reach, and his hand closed around the back of her shirt and pulled her, kicking and screaming, close to him.
Around me, pandemonium broke out, but it seemed like white noise to me. Everything was happening in slow motion. I’d lunged forward when Eric was still in the street, and so I was close to them now, the blade I’d kept in my back pocket already in my hand.
Eric was ready for me, though, and he grabbed Allie around the waist, then used her as a human shield, twisting her so that the force of her legs thrust out in front of her caught me across the waist, knocking me to the ground, and sending my blade flying.
“No!” Allie screamed.
Behind me, everyone rushed forward, then stopped when Eric yanked Allie’s new dagger from the sheath at her waist and thrust the tip against her jugular. “I wish to spend time with my daughter on her birthday,” he said, in a voice far removed from Eric’s. “I very much suggest you don’t make a move for your fallen knife.”
On the street, cars honked and people stared, and I was certain it was only a matter of time before someone called 911 and the police came. Fine with me, actually. Right then, I was happy for any distraction I could get.
“Eric, no!” I called, but he only smiled at me.
“Names are important, Katie. If you wish to speak to me, call me by my proper name.”
“I am,” I said, calculating whether I could take another step forward.
He grabbed her tighter. Allie yelped, and I froze in place. “My name is Odayne,” he said. “Say it. Say it.”
“Odayne,” I whispered, then felt the slow trickle of a tear sliding down my face.
“Excellent.” He leaned down to speak closer to Allie’s ear, still loud enough that I could hear him. “Now you be a good girl and come spend time with Daddy,” he said. He took a step backward, and I could see that the pressure of the knife against her neck had loosened. He had her walking backward, and Allie kept her eyes frozen on me, just as I kept mine on her. Behind me, my friends and family might as well have evaporated. Right then, my whole world centered on my daughter. On saving her.
Too bad I didn’t have a clue how to do that.
They took another step backward, and I could see the fear on Allie’s face. She stumbled, reaching out for her father for balance, then jerking her arm away quickly as if realizing who she’d reached for. I heard him chuckle, as if he realized, too.
And then I saw something else. I saw Allie, quick as lightning, thrust her hand into her back pocket, as if she’d planned the move all along, as if she’d stumbled on purpose. Even as she did, I heard Rita’s sharp intake of breath behind me, and before I even had time to process that oddity, Allie’s hand was back out, and the black box Rita had given her was tight in her hand, and it was pressed against Eric’s body, and he was shaking, screaming, his eyes wide with pain.
“Taser,” Rita breathed even as Stuart called out for me to catch.
I turned just in time to grab the knife he’d sent flying. I snatched it out of the air, positioned it in my hand, and as my daughter dived sideways and down to the ground, I sent the blade hurtling through the air toward Eric, then raced forward toward my daughter.
He dodged the knife, but it still struck him, slicing deep into his upper arm.
His yowl of pain echoed around us, and for a moment, I feared he would go after Allie again. We’d reached each other, though, and now I thrust her behind me, then stood facing Eric.
A split second of indecision crossed his face, and then he raced once again into the street. I hesitated, and then broke into a run after him, snatching my fallen knife as I went.
I didn’t catch him.
A delivery truck in the road slowed me down, and by the time I reached the opposite sidewalk, he’d slipped between two buildings. I followed to the alley, but he was gone. I could search for him, I knew, bu
t I abandoned that plan quick enough, certain that the more prudent option was to go back to my family. To stay with them and keep them safe and whole.
By the time I got back, a uniformed officer was on the scene, summoned apparently by a passerby who’d seen Eric with the knife to Allie’s throat.
We told him what had happened, leaving out the demon parts, of course. And also leaving out Eric’s identity. The story, as relayed by us, centered on an attack by an unknown man on a fifteen-year-old girl who, thankfully, had a Taser handy. My knife-throwing skills didn’t come up, and the officer had no evidence of any blade other than the one the Good Samaritan had reported at Allie’s throat.
Although the officer urged us to make a formal report, we begged off, assuring him that Allie was fine, that the encounter was nothing more nefarious than your average mugging, and that the best thing for Allie was to get her mind off the mugging by returning to her birthday celebration.
Back in the theater, I locked the door behind us, sagged against the glass, and let the tears I’d been holding back flow.
“Turn it off, girlie,” Eddie said, even as Stuart held me close. “You gotta turn it off if you’re gonna fight him.”
I lifted my head and met Eddie’s eyes. He was right, of course, but what he advocated was easier said than done.
As I pulled away from Stuart, nodding reassurance when his brows rose in question, the ringing of Allie’s phone shattered our uncomfortable silence.
She answered, and I could tell from her expression who was on the other end of the line.
She listened, her mouth open a little, and by the time I reached her side, she had ended the call, having not spoken one single word.
With eyes brimming with tears, she looked up at me. “Daddy,” she said. “Not Odayne. That was really Daddy.”
My heart fluttered in my chest. “What did he say?”
“That he was sorry. That . . . That I should try to have a happy birthday. And,” she added, her breath hitching as she fought sobs, “that I should remember that he loves me, and he always has.” Her eyes met mine. “When he hung up, he said good-bye. And I think it was more than just hanging up the phone, you know? But he was back. Really back. He’d gotten free. Somehow he’d gotten loose long enough to call me. Only now . . . now, I’m scared.”
I understood the sentiment; I was scared, too.
“Can you go?” she asked. “Can you go get him now? Now, before Odayne comes back?”
Beside me, Stuart took Allie’s hand. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“They won’t kill you,” she said. “You’re the only one who can get him.”
“If she’s right,” Eddie said, “and he’s gotten free of Odayne, now’s the time. Maybe the last chance, too. If Odayne keeps taking over, we’re gonna lose the chance to get that ring on Eric’s finger. And if we lose that chance, then there ain’t no way of stopping Lilith.”
“We don’t have a way to unbind him,” I said. “If Odayne goes into the ether, Eric goes with him.”
“Please,” Allie said. “I know Daddy. And he’d rather be incorporeal with a demon than alive on Earth with us dead.”
The truth of her words cut through me, and I nodded, knowing that she was right.
“We’ll go stay in the safe room so you don’t have to worry about us. But please, please. You have to try.”
Stuart squeezed my hand, but whether it was in fear or reassurance, I didn’t know. And, I suppose, it didn’t matter. Because Allie and Eddie were right. If Eric was Eric, then I had a small window of opportunity to bring him into our plan.
I had no choice.
It was time to ask him to use the ring with Solomon’s Stone.
It was time to ask him to sacrifice himself in order to save the rest of us.
Odayne.
I wanted to kill him.
I wanted to kill him for putting Allie’s life in danger. For breaking her heart.
And I wanted to kill him for sneaking into the man that I loved and hiding him away, piece by piece.
I wanted him gone, and the ring that could accomplish that was snug inside my pocket. The ring that could bring an end to this if only I could make all the pieces fit together. Send Odayne back to the ether. Trap Lilith. Destroy everything she’d worked for. Destroy everything she loved, if a creature such as her really could love.
And in doing so, I’d be condemning Eric’s soul to be bound to a demon. But there was no other way. The ritual to unbind him from Odayne was lost, ripped from the book by Eric’s own hand. Or, to be more accurate, by Odayne.
We were, I realized, all out of options.
I moved through the night fueled by hate and, yes, by fear, too. Lives were on the line now. The lives of people I loved. My children. My family.
And somehow, someway, we were going to end this. And soon.
First, I had to find Eric.
He wasn’t at his apartment. Fortunately, neither was Nadia, and I counted that as a blessing even as I feared that Odayne had surfaced again and had gone to her.
I told myself not to believe that.
Eric had to be alone because I needed him to be alone, and I refused to accept any other possibility.
So I stalked through his apartment, trying to think where he would go. If Eric had any semblance of control, he’d go someplace where I could find him. Someplace he had a connection to. The high school. A hotel we’d stayed at. Someplace we’d shared. Someplace where he’d been only Eric and the demon hadn’t yet intruded.
Someplace like the house.
As soon as the thought entered my mind, I knew I was right. Not only was the house standing empty, but I knew it was on his mind. I raced out of his apartment and stumbled blindly to the car, making record time to our old neighborhood. I slammed on the brakes in front of the house, skidding half off the driveway and onto the tidy lawn.
My stomach tightened as I saw that there were no other cars and the house was dark. If he wasn’t there, I was seriously screwed, as I was all out of ideas. But once I got to the front door, I knew that I was right. The realtor’s lockbox had been ripped off the door, and the frame had been busted. The door swung open easily, and I stepped inside, wary.
“Eric?” I called, but heard only silence in response.
I moved through the house, checking the rooms, feeling more and more despondent as I found each room empty.
I didn’t really know despair, though. Not until I got to the bathroom.
Not until I opened the door and found Eric in the bathtub, his slit wrists flowing blood into the inky red water.
“No!” I cried, and bounded across the room in one gigantic leap. I pulled the drain on the old clawfoot tub and slapped his face, relieved when he blinked at me, then more relieved when I saw his eyes focus. “Shit, Eric. Shit, shit, shit.”
I wore a denim jacket, and now I used my knife to slice it to ribbons, binding his wrists tight to staunch the flow of blood.
“What were you thinking?” I shouted, as tears streamed down my face. “What the hell could you possibly be thinking?”
“Without blood,” he whispered, “the demon will be weak. At least for a while. Time enough for you . . . Time enough for you to fight. And she can’t bind me without blood. The ceremony,” he said. “The ceremony to bind me to Odayne. To speed the process. It requires my blood. Gotta get rid of it. Flush it away. Make it go.”
“No,” I said again. “Without blood, you die, you stupid, stupid man.”
He was fading on me, and I smacked him hard in the face again, then took him by the shoulders and shook him. “Don’t you dare die on me, Eric. Don’t you dare.”
I checked his wrists again, saw that the bleeding had essentially stopped. The water was out of the tub, and he was shivering now in wet clothes.
“Wait here, and if you even think about taking those ties off your wrists I will kill you with my bare hands the second I get back. Do you understand me?”
He didn’t
answer, but his lip curved up, just slightly, as I stood and raced from the room back to the car. I grabbed a couple of Timmy’s blankets along with a package of juice boxes and my workout bag, then practically flew back inside, fearing the worst. But Eric was just how I’d left him, and I started to breathe again once I saw him.
“How long? How long have you been sitting here bleeding?”
“Not long,” he said, his voice weak. “Had to. Allie. I hurt—”
“That wasn’t you,” I said sharply. “That was Odayne.”
“That was me,” he said firmly. “Or it will be soon enough.”
“It damn well will be if you kill yourself,” I said. “Dear God, Eric, you’ll be twined with him forever.”
“But I won’t know, Kate. I won’t know. It’s not consciousness like we have now. I’ve been there, remember? And trust me Kate: I won’t know.”
I closed my eyes. “But I will.”
“I can’t do this,” he said as I started to wrangle him out of his wet clothes. I had a T-shirt and the pants from a gi in my bag, and I was determined to get him in dry clothes and out of the bathroom. “I can’t stay like this and risk hurting Allie. Risk hurting you.”
“You won’t,” I said, although I didn’t believe it. I’d been at the theater, after all. And, of course, he knew that.
“Dear God, I almost destroyed her.”
“You didn’t,” I said. “She’s safe and you fought your way back out.”
“This time,” he said. And neither one of us spoke the horrible truth: that it had been close. And if Allie hadn’t had Rita’s Taser, she could well be dead.
“There won’t be a next time,” I said, my voice firm. “We have a plan. We know how to end this.”
He looked at me blankly, then shook his head. “Some things. Some things I’ve been able to keep from him. To hide. I’ve had to fight, because when the demon comes out, he knows. He gets into my head. But there are a few things that I know. Things he won’t let me tell, but still secrets that I keep.”
I shook my head, not understanding. “What secrets? What does the demon know?”
“He doesn’t want me to use it. It would be the end of him.”
