by Julie Kenner
That, however, I’d worry about when we got there.
“We still have a chance,” I said, climbing back into the car. “We still have a chance to rescue Allie and destroy Lilith, too. Hurry,” I said, but it wasn’t necessary.
Stuart had already pulled away from the curb, and we were speeding back the way we came, heading toward the forest.
Heading for my daughter and the battle still to come.
As we hit the main entrance to the national forest, I realized that we didn’t need the GPS tracker anymore. I knew where we were going. “The Stone Table,” I said. Discovered by botanists who had been investigating plant life, the table was in a near-inaccessible part of the forest, well off the beaten path, and experts assumed it had been used in ancient times by native tribes performing various rituals.
“You can’t be sure—” Stuart said.
I gave him a wry look. “I can. Nadia’s used it before. She’s the one who broke it,” I added, referring to the way the table had broken clean down the center in the midst of a demonic ritual not too long ago. The result—though not the cause—had made the local papers, with historical experts speculating all sorts of reasons for the table’s destruction, most arguing that a small earthquake had rendered the table unstable.
“Right,” he said, making a hard left onto a walking trail as I gasped. He pushed the Infiniti as hard as he could for as long as he could, but soon it became clear that the car would go no farther. “Out,” he said. “We run the rest of the way.”
“Eddie?” I glanced quickly down at the tracking device. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Looks like,” he confirmed, already half out of the car.
We grabbed gear from the trunk and started hauling ass toward the table, using our blades to cut through the growth where necessary. In fact, though, the path was clear. Lilith had come before us, and as she’d blown a path through the mansion, she’d cut a path through the forest.
Apparently, she wasn’t terribly worried about being followed. Considering what I’d seen her do, I couldn’t say I blamed her.
I held up a finger to my lips, signaling the others to be quiet as we approached. A group of trees stood off the path at the edge of the clearing where the Stone Table stood. We eased that way, using the cover of the trees to remain hidden as we assessed the situation. And the situation really wasn’t good.
Lilith moved in front of the remains of the Stone Table, her palm split open, and she marked the table with her blood, readying it for the ritual.
Odayne leaned against one broken half, his expression as he looked at her one of utter adoration. My baby lay on the other slab, bound there, her shirt ripped to form a V over her chest. The necklace had been ripped away, probably tossed to the ground somewhere, and I said a silent thank-you that they’d kept it on her neck long enough for us to find her.
Tears streamed down her face, but she was quiet, her jaw set in a firm line, and her eyes hard. She was terrified, yet she was holding. Dear God, my baby was holding.
I only hoped I could do the same.
Beside me, Stuart silently squeezed my hand, and when he looked at me, a thousand words passed between us. Words of comfort and hope and love. But it wasn’t until he whispered, “We will get her, and that bitch will die,” that the sob broke free. I pressed my hand over my mouth, determined to be silent. Determined to be strong. Because I couldn’t save Allie if I broke down.
Right then, she needed a Hunter, not her mother, and that’s just what I intended to be.
Eddie pressed a hand to my forehead, his voice barely audible. “You steady?”
I nodded, then straightened my shoulders. Yeah. I was steady.
“I figure your boy and I will go in full blast with the holy water,” he said, his voice little more than a whisper. “You go in straight and fast with the dagger. She knows we know how strong she is. She won’t be expecting a straight-on attack. And because she is one hell of a strong she-bitch, we gotta take her down first. We don’t manage that, and I think it’s safe to say we’re all dead.”
He was right, and I knew it. And although the plan had risks—huge, horrible risks—I didn’t have a better one. More than that, we were running out of time. Lilith had finished marking the table. Now she was positioning herself in front of it, Odayne and Allie behind her, an athame held high in her hand. I swallowed, imagining that ceremonial knife being thrust down into my daughter, and I knew with a desperate certainty that this was not a ceremony Allie would survive.
Even if they only needed a drop of her blood, Lilith would kill my daughter. Not because she was mine, but because she was Eric’s. She would do it because it would prove, once and for all, that Odayne and Eric had fully merged. Eric wouldn’t stop her. Instead, his grief and guilt would force him inside, even as her demonic lover took control of the body.
I held the double-bladed dagger at the hilt in the middle, ready to thrust it hard into Lilith’s eye, relishing the moment when I could do that. “On three,” I said, then counted down, the men beside me with super-squirter water guns at the ready.
On three, we burst out, rushing forward even as Allie’s screams of “Mom!” and “Stuart!” and “Gramps!” filled my ears. I kept my focus on Lilith who, I was rather distressed to see, didn’t look the least bit surprised. The blasts of holy water from Stuart and Eddie were sizzling on her skin, rising as steam, but not leaving the familiar welts. Not a good sign—definitely not a good sign—and I could only hope that her false sense of security came from the fact that she didn’t know we had the dagger.
“Now, Kate!” Stuart screamed, even as Odayne leaped from the table to knock the squirt gun from Stuart’s hands. I couldn’t worry about that—had to trust that Stuart could take care of himself—and I launched myself forward, landing on Lilith with enough force that she was knocked backward. I didn’t hesitate, simply shoved the blade down, hard, into her eye, then pulled it free again, my breath hitching as I waited for the familiar moment when the demon would leave. I waited for her to drop down, destroyed, as foretold in the dagger’s legend.
That didn’t happen.
She was fine. The bitch was fine. And I was straddling the strongest demon I’d ever encountered walking the earth. A demon that could toss me across the park with only the force of her mind.
“Little fool,” she hissed. “Do you think I’m so easy to kill?”
I said nothing—my thoughts racing—and I realized she was right. I was a fool. I’d believed that the connection between her and Odayne would have allowed the weapon against him to kill her, too, and I’d risked all our lives by following that hunch. A foolish hunch.
A wrong hunch, that was now going to get us all killed.
I met her eyes, saw the pure hatred there, and knew then that I wasn’t going down. Not without a fight.
“Let. My. Daughter. Go.”
Her lips curved into a sneer. “No.”
“Bitch!” I screamed, undone by both fury and fear, and without thinking, I brought the blade down, hacking at Nadia’s face with the razor-sharp blade.
“Beloved!” Beside us, Odayne kicked Stuart to the ground. His face and arms were covered with burns from Stuart’s holy water, but he appeared not to notice. He rushed toward Lilith, plucked me off of her, and thrust his fist hard into my gut.
All the air left my body and I gasped, the dagger still tight in my hand. My eyes locked on his face as I tried to process the fact that Eric was attacking me. I knew I had to lash out—to get him with the dagger—but this was Eric. I couldn’t help believing that Eric would fight his way back to the surface. That he would break free.
It was Eric, or so I thought.
And I hesitated.
I hesitated, and it cost me, because as his fingers tightened around my neck—as his thumbs pressed down against my windpipe, I kicked uselessly, the world turning gray and the dagger slipping from my fingers. Slipping away now that I’d finally realized that the dagger really was my only cha
nce.
I’d lost that chance, I knew. And as the world began to fade around me, I saw both Eric and the demon in those silver-gray eyes. And knew for certain that I’d lost him at last.
Around me, I could hear Allie’s cries, but there was nothing—nothing—I could do.
And then a sharp scream rent the sky, and pure, sweet air flowed into my lungs. I was on the ground, he’d dropped me, and as I looked up, I realized that it was Eric who had screamed. Eric, with one blade of the dagger still thrust into his eye.
And Stuart standing there, the one who had wielded it. For the first time in his hunting career, he’d wielded a knife and thrust it straight into a demon’s eye.
Into Eric’s eye.
“You did it,” Eddie whispered, as Stuart clutched my hand. “Killed the demon, in its true form.”
I didn’t say the other—that Eric was dead, too. I couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t think about the fact that Eric had died for me already, dead and gone when Odayne had tried to kill me.
“Or maybe not,” Stuart said, and as we watched Eric’s body writhe on the ground. I saw the familiar shimmer emerge from the wound in his eye, but instead of disappearing, it took form. And as I lay on the ground, still gasping for breath, the shimmer became a beast, and the beast became solid, and the beast became Odayne.
He was alive. His flesh gray and scaled. His fingers clawed. His eyes bulbous and red.
He was alive, and he was free of Eric.
And he was right there. Right there to kill or be killed.
I lunged for Eric’s body and the knife still lodged in his eye, and was shocked to see him stuttering for breath. I had no time to do anything about that, not with a demon about to swallow me whole. Gently, I disconnected the knives, leaving one blade in Eric. I closed my hand over the other half, but didn’t move. I didn’t want them to realize. I couldn’t let them know. And so I stayed near Eric, listening to his slow, gasping breaths, and turned my head to see what horrors lay behind me.
Lilith had moved beside the monster Odayne, her eyes full of mirth. There was no concern at all on her face, and once again, I feared that I was wrong. That I didn’t understand how this worked.
But I had to be right. I had to. Because if I wasn’t, then we all were truly dead.
Beside her, Odayne roared, and Lilith screamed, “Kill her! Kill the one who stole your humanity. Kill her, my beloved. Kill her in my name!”
And with that, I whipped around. And as the snarling beast lunged for me, I thrust the dagger home, sliding it deep into the true demon’s chest and spilling a black mass of demon blood.
There was a flash of light and then the world seemed to turn red all around us. I heard Allie scream, and I felt the hair on my body stand up, as if lightning had struck only inches away.
Then the red passed and the world shifted back to normal, and when I looked around, Odayne was gone, and Lilith with him.
Eric had been right. They were bound.
And the death of Odayne in his true form had destroyed Lilith as well.
She hadn’t known, hadn’t even suspected that her love for Odayne would ultimately provide the means to kill her.
It was over.
We were alone, and Allie was safe, and Eric was alive.
I crouched again at his side, not certain if I’d find Eric in the body or a new demon or even the original David, back to claim what was his.
But as I leaned over him, all questions faded.
It was Eric.
He was back. And, miraculously, he was alive.
Eighteen
“Not too long now,” the nurse said, her eyes kind despite her stern expression. “You two relatives?”
“I—” I began, but Allie cut me off.
“No,” she said, turning flat eyes on me. “Not relatives.”
My heart twisted in my chest, and I took a deep breath as the nurse nodded briskly. “Nonfamily visiting hours ends in ten minutes. But you go on in and visit. Maybe you can cheer him up. I would’ve thought a man who survived what he went through would have a smile on his face, but not our Mr. Long,” she said. A quick smile flitted across her face, and she fluttered her hands as if maybe, just maybe, she thought she’d spoken out of turn.
“These things take time,” I said, taking Allie’s hand and giving it a quick squeeze as I led her toward the door to Eric’s room. He’d been moved down from ICU that morning, and this was the first time we’d been allowed to see him, the ICU visits having been restricted only to relatives.
As Allie had pointed out, we were only a friend and a student.
“Are you okay?” I asked, pausing outside the heavy wooden door. “That wasn’t your father who did that to you. It was the demon. Odayne had taken over.”
I kept my voice firm and hard, as if by force alone I could will myself to believe what I was telling Allie. But the truth, I knew, was so very different. Odayne may have come out fighting, but Eric had still been in there, too. He’d been inside when it was happening, and he hadn’t saved Allie, and he hadn’t saved me.
I wanted to be the bigger person, to see Eric as the victim. But I was having one hell of a hard time with that.
Harder still was my certain knowledge that we might never have gotten here if he’d shared his secrets with me all those years ago. We’d been good together, or so I’d thought. And yet that essential trust had never been there.
I’d thought it had, but I’d been wrong.
No way, though, was I going to let what happened destroy Allie’s love for her father, no matter how intense my own doubts might be.
“It really is okay, Mom.” She squeezed my hand. “Honest. My head totally gets it. I’ve just gotta get my heart with the program.”
“He loves you, Al. Nothing will ever change that.”
She looked at me, her eyes older than her fifteen years. “I’m not the only one who got hurt. Do you want me to say the same thing right back at you?”
A whisper of a smile touched my lips, and I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “I love you,” I said, then grabbed hold of the handle and pushed the door open.
I saw his face first. His one eye closed, the area around it the deep purple of a stormy twilight. I could see nothing of the other, now-useless, eye, completely covered as it was with white gauze and surgical tape. The blade had sliced through the optic nerve before burying itself ten centimeters into his brain and missing his carotid artery by less than a millimeter. He’d lost the sight in his right eye, but that seemed a small price to pay for life. For his soul.
For himself.
A miracle, the doctors had said, and I had to admit I agreed. I believed in miracles, after all. But I knew better than to rely on them.
His bland, gray face shifted as his mouth curved up into a small smile. “Company,” he rasped, and when he opened his one eye, his smile grew bigger before fading as his eye clouded with worry. He held out his hand to Allie, and I could see the pain flicker across his face. Not from the surgery, but from the memories of what had happened. What he’d done.
“I’m sorry, baby,” he said. “I’m so, so sorry.”
The dam broke then, my daughter’s stony face collapsing into a waterfall of tears. She rushed to him, taking his hand and perching on the hospital bed so close to him I winced for fear she’d accidentally rip out a tube or something.
“It’s okay,” Eric said, apparently reading my mind, and with that simple comment, my heart swelled a little.
“Pretty crowded in this tiny room,” I said. “But at least you’re not sharing.”
“It’s the lap of luxury,” he said, and Allie giggled.
“You two haven’t had much time alone recently,” I said. “How about I go get a coffee for me and a soda for Allie. I’d smuggle contraband in for you, but I don’t want to get my hand slapped by the nurses.”
“That would be great,” Eric said, the light blooming in his eyes telling me all I needed to know.
“Allie? So
da?” I asked, although I was really asking if it was okay for me to leave. She knew it, too, and answered with a quick nod. “Great. Anything. Thanks.”
I shot Eric one last look, our eyes lingering together for only a moment before I slid back through the door and parked myself on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the hallway. And then, silently, I began to cry. Not huge gasping sobs, but silent tears that streamed down my cheeks as if cleansing me of fear and stress. This chapter was finally over. Eric’s body was clean, his soul free.
The past still loomed between us, though. A wall of secrets and harsh memories that I knew we’d have to work through, brick by brick. It had, I realized now, always been there. Those secrets stacked up between us. Only recently had I been able to see it.
He’d shared his secrets too late, and it had almost cost him his soul. Almost cost him his daughter. My daughter.
That wasn’t something I knew how to forgive.
“You okay, honey?” A squat nurse in Scooby-Doo scrubs handed me a tissue, and I realized that my cheeks were still wet. “He’s doing real good. Don’t you worry.”
“Thanks. I’m fine.”
“Only five minutes left. You hold on and let’s make sure you get your turn.” She pushed open the door and I heard her relay the five-minute warning to Allie and Eric. A moment later, she came out, with Allie trailing behind.
“He said he wanted to talk to you alone.”
“I never did get that soda for you,” I said.
“I’ll go. Meet you back here in five.” She hurried off down the hall without waiting for my answer.
I took a deep breath and went back into the room, was greeted by Eric’s wide smile.
“She’s remarkable,” he said.
“Yeah. She is. Resilient, too.”
“So were we,” he reminded me.
I sat in the chair Allie had abandoned, but I said nothing.
“Katie.” He reached for my hand, but I pulled it back, held my hands together in my lap.
“I see,” he said, then drew in a long breath. “Well, at least that makes this easier. I’m leaving San Diablo. I need to work this out.”
