“She needs me.”
“She couldn’t find another dime-a-dozen romance novelist?”
“Not one with precognitive senses and healing powers. She wants my body. I don’t mean sexually. Lilian only uses sex for gamesmanship, to get the upper hand on someone or to mislead them. She always has an ulterior motive.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Lilian’s centuries old. Those portraits in her mansion are of women whose bodies she either possessed or copied. She took their identities until they grew old, and then she discarded them and moved on to the next one. She’s already been in her current guise for too long, but she’s built such an empire with Eternity that she decided to cultivate her next identity in-house. She didn’t make me a best-selling author because of my talent. She wanted to lay the foundation for a continuation of the Lilian Kane persona, and my innate abilities made me desirable to her.”
Jake pictured the portraits in Lilian’s mansion and the collection of museum quality antiques in her basement. “Eternal life. Old Nick wanted the same thing.”
“But he was willing to settle for a second lifetime. Lilian’s already had that many times over.”
“What does she do with her host bodies?”
“Every one of those women suffered a public death, no doubt arranged by Lilian. My former sisters are too young to know the details firsthand.”
“There was a power outage in the building for less than one minute on the day you disappeared from downstairs.”
“During a sudden storm.”
“At that same time, I was on a flight to Pavot Island.”
“Who knew that your girlfriend was a fan of mine? The moment you recognized my author photo in the back of the book she brought on the plane, the search spell identified my location. The storm struck, the power went out, and they had me before you landed.”
Jake drew in his breath. Laurel knew all his intimate moments with Maria. “I wore that damned glove for nothing. You know everything that’s happened to me since I left for New Orleans.”
She gave him an apologetic smile. “I couldn’t help myself. We held hands all the way here. Latex doesn’t stop vibrations and I can’t help feeling them. If you had left Maria in Miami, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
“And those security guards at Lilian’s mansion and those civilians downstairs wouldn’t be dead.”
“I sent you a message not to try to find me. What else could I do? I guess we both have a lot to atone for now.”
“No. Lilian did this. Even if you stole her fortune, she had no right to abduct you, and her designs on your body defy any weighing of right and wrong. Those guards were grunts, and those civilians had nothing to do with this.”
“I’ve never seen her lose her temper, but I have seen her angry—fury bubbling below the surface. She won’t hesitate to crush anyone to make a point, especially men.”
“She’s the one who needs to atone for her actions.”
Now Laurel sat forward. “Have you been listening to me? She can’t be stopped, not by you, not by me, not by anyone. She’s the most powerful witch alive, because she’s been alive for so long, growing her powers. I screwed up her plans before and now you have. She’ll stop at nothing to get me back, but she doesn’t need you alive.”
“Then I’ll have to take her out before she drops a house on me.”
“You can’t beat her.”
“I brought Avademe down. He—they—scared me more than she does.”
“You had help then.”
Cain and Abel, Jake thought.
“As far as I can tell, the only backup you have now is that hoodlum, the dwarf, your girlfriend, and Edgar. I know you don’t want Maria involved, and Edgar’s in no frame of mind for action. You have no big guns to call on.”
She was right. When Jake had called on his supernatural allies to help on Pavot, they had ignored him. So had Sheryl’s spirit. “You said you’ve had a shield over this building since you moved in, but that didn’t prevent Sheryl from appearing to me in this very office.”
“The only witchcraft I know, I learned from Lilian. That doesn’t extend to higher powers.”
“Then we can assume she’s human and has no power over them, either.”
“Assume nothing.”
“How does one kill a witch? By drowning them or burning them at a stake?”
“Old wives’ tales propagated by religious paranoia.”
“She must have an Achilles’ heel.”
“If she does, no one has found it in all this time.”
“Maybe no one has tried.”
“How do you intend to look for anything from here?”
Jake glanced at his safe.
“Afterlife,” Laurel said.
Jake nodded.
“Katrina withheld information about Kalfu and vodou. What makes you think the other researchers didn’t do the same? And even if the other teams recorded everything they uncovered, that doesn’t mean anything in there pertains to Lilian.”
“That’s the beauty of research: you never know what you’ll find.” He paused. “Katrina and the dark Mambos on Pavot got their powers from Kalfu. It wasn’t enough for them to get their hands on written spells. They needed to bargain with a demon. Yet you’ve cast spells without doing so.”
“I made my bargain with Lilian. All of us in the sisterhood did. I don’t know where Lilian got her powers, but she limited what she taught us so we could never become a threat to her. I’m sure she’s kicking herself for teaching me what she did.”
Jake drummed his fingers on his desk.
“Are you thinking we should summon Kalfu ourselves?”
Jake considered the idea.
“I don’t think he’d be very receptive to that.”
“Why not?”
She didn’t answer, but he knew she knew he had made Kalfu angry.
“You should have reminded me to bring the ATAC 3000 since I forgot it.”
“I was worried about other things.”
“You held Ripper’s hand, too.”
“What would you like to know?”
“Can I rely on him?”
“I think so. He lives on the fringe to be sure, but he’s got a code and he’s loyal. He loves Carrie, too.”
Jake did not articulate his thoughts.
“I can’t tell you anything about her. I read your vibrations when you moved in because I picked up on Sheryl’s energy inside you.”
“How did Lilian know who I was?”
“I didn’t tell her anything, but she used a spell to reverse the direction of my power. She knows everything about me and everything I knew about you before I was captured.”
“Then she doesn’t know about Maria?”
“I don’t think so. The search spell tripped an alarm, but there’s no way she could have read your mind or seen through your eyes from so far away. I doubt she cared, either: she had what she wanted.”
Jake glanced at the sheathed sword on the sofa. “Then she also doesn’t know I faced Kalfu or that he’s royally pissed off at me for rattling his cage.”
“Unless Kalfu or another demon tells her.”
“You could summon Kalfu.”
“I don’t know how, and even if I did, would you really expect me to crawl into a summoning circle with that monster?”
“No.”
“Good, because I’d rather deal with Lilian.”
Jake thought about the ATAC 3000 in his car.
“Bullets won’t stop a tornado,” Laurel said.
Jake narrowed his eye. “Are you sure you aren’t reading my mind right now?”
“I can’t do that. I just know you well. Remember when you pulled a gun on me?”
“Good times.”
“And because I know you and I read you out on the street, I know you’re not up to taking on Lilian.”
Jake raised his stump. “You mean because of this? Tell that to the guy who did this to me. Oh, wait, you can’t. I k
illed him with my glass eye.”
“Bill Russel was nothing but a thug with a CIA pedigree.”
“I also overthrew a government since we last saw each other.”
“You had an army to help you. I’m not talking about your hand, anyway; I’m talking about your spirit.”
“My fighting spirit? Excuse me, but didn’t I just break you out of that house of horrors?”
“You wouldn’t have escaped alive if Ripper hadn’t pulled up when he did. Your soul is tainted. You’re not the same man you were when you left New York.”
“You mean the Black Magic.”
“If you’d used much more you’d have become a zonbie.”
“A good witch removed it from my system.”
“She absorbed it and expelled it. The drug may be out of your bloodstream, but the psychological damage was done. You need time to recuperate, just like Edgar.”
“It doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice.”
“Lilian loves nothing more than to toy with weakened men.”
Ripper cried out in the reception area.
Jake leapt out of his chair and ran to the door with Laurel behind him. Opening the door, he saw Carrie draw a strand of thread attached to a needle through the gash in Ripper’s temple.
Carrie turned in their direction. With her free hand she dabbed at his temple with a tissue, which turned crimson. “Sorry. He freaks out at the sight of blood.”
“Gimme some booze to dull the pain,” Ripper snarled.
“This house is dry,” Jake said, though he would have had a hard time turning down a drink.
“There’s your backup,” Laurel said.
Carrie snapped her head in Laurel’s direction. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Oh no, Jake thought.
“Nothing, dear.”
Carrie slammed the needle down on the desk, which pulled on the thread stretching to Ripper’s eyebrow, causing him to groan. Ignoring him, she stomped around the desk. “Don’t speak to me like I’m a child, damn it.”
Laurel looked down at Carrie. “Now why would I do that?”
Jake tried to get between them. “Can we just focus on—?”
“Don’t disrespect Ripper and don’t disrespect me, you white-skinned freak.” Carrie wagged one finger in front of Laurel.
“Ladies . . .”
Laurel smiled. “You’re calling me a freak?”
Ripper jumped to his feet. “Don’t talk to her like that. I saved your ass today. The least you could do is—”
Jake raised his hand and stump. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Carrie let loose a piercing scream.
Jake followed her sight line to the window, which he moved toward with disbelief. Through the rain, a shape levitated outside the window. Moving closer and bending forward, he blinked at Lilian Kane’s twisted features.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Ripper said.
Jake froze, gazing at Lilian. Her hair was not wet, and the wind did not wrap her dress around her body.
Laurel shut the blinds.
Jake faced his friends. “It’s okay. Don’t panic. She isn’t really out there.”
Then he glanced at the TV. A pink title card with white cursive lettering had replaced the news story.
Surrender Erika
Jake picked up the remote on Carrie’s desk. He aimed it at the TV and changed the channel. The same message appeared. He changed the channel again, with the same result. He pressed the button again and again, but the message persisted.
Carrie glared at Jake. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
19
They cleared off Carrie’s desk, arranged the waiting chairs around it, and sat down to a meal of frozen dinners, canned vegetables, and power drinks while the storm outside rattled the windows.
“Ripper already knows that Lilian Kane is a witch,” Jake said.
“The romance queen?” Carrie said. “I thought she looked familiar.”
“I wish I hadn’t involved him, but I did, and now you’re involved, too.”
“I thought witches were old hags who flew around on brooms. She was just floating out there.”
Jake looked at Laurel, who said nothing. He got the point: anything he told Ripper and Carrie was his responsibility. “That was just an astral projection. Lilian was sitting warm and dry up the street in the Flatiron Building while we were looking at her.”
“Maybe it was a hologram.”
“Science has nothing to do with this.”
Carrie turned to Laurel. “Oh, my God, you’re Erika Long! I have every one of your books.”
“You, too?” Jake said.
Carrie composed herself. “I read them when I was in high school, all right? Cut me some slack.” She aimed a thumb at her chest. “Tough bitch here, okay? I don’t read romance novels anymore.” Her voice softened. “But I really did love the High Seas trilogy.”
“Thank you,” Laurel said. “Erika Long is dead, just like her parents. She’ll never write another book.”
“Are you a witch, too?”
“Not like Lilian.”
Ripper leaned close to Carrie. “She made us invisible.”
“Holy shit, she’s after you, isn’t she?” Carrie looked from Jake to Ripper. “That’s where you guys went, to rescue her.” She snapped her fingers. “There was a tornado in Eastchester while you were gone and another one on the highway. Is that where you were?”
Jake formed a half smile. “You’ve learned a lot from me.”
“Too much,” Laurel said.
“I’m wasted on office work,” Carrie said. “I tell Jake I want to go on stakeouts, but he always says no.”
“I try to keep my few friends in a safety zone,” Jake said.
“You didn’t think twice about dragging me into this mess,” Ripper said.
“I never liked you much.”
“The feeling’s mutual.”
“I was wrong about you, and I was wrong to involve you. But if I hadn’t, Laurel and I wouldn’t be here. You’re all right.”
“Thank you, Ripper,” Laurel said.
Carrie lowered her voice. “You’re the psychic who works downstairs, aren’t you?”
“Congratulations on hiring such a crackerjack assistant,” Laurel said to Jake.
“I don’t want you reading my mind. Please stay the fuck out of my brain. Some things are private.”
Laurel gave a slight nod. “I have more important things on my mind anyway.”
“So why is Lilian Kane after you?”
“I’d rather not say. Some things are private.”
“Uh-uh. Me and Ripper are stuck in this mess with you. We’re entitled to know why our lives are in danger.”
Jake didn’t think Ripper or Carrie would feel much sympathy toward Laurel if they knew she was a murderer who had embezzled one hundred million dollars from her publisher.
“We need to stay here until this blows over,” he said. “Lilian is a witch, and she’s behind those tornadoes and the storm raging outside. Laurel’s made it impossible for her to work her magic on this building, but Lilian could destroy us easily enough if she wanted to. She won’t do that because she wants Laurel alive. As long as we all stay here, we’re safe.
“But we can’t stay here forever. Sooner or later I’ll have to take action. If we don’t find a way to stop Lilian, Laurel and I could wind up dead. If that happens, you two will need to fend for yourselves. That means creating new identities and going underground. I don’t intend for that to happen, but if it does, the less you know the better.”
Carrie took a moment to consider what Jake said. “Can she know who Ripper is?”
“Maybe not,” Laurel said. “He wasn’t with Jake when he busted me out, and I cast a spell over the car that made it impossible for her to see inside it. It’s possible she didn’t see him.”
“Then we could just walk out of here right now if we wanted to.”
“Yo
u can do that anyway but I advise against it. I can’t hide you from her when you leave, and she’ll be suspicious of anyone exiting the building now. She won’t hesitate to destroy you, just to let us know she can.”
Carrie looked around the room. “So we’re prisoners.”
“For the time being,” Jake said.
“Couldn’t you have just dropped her off at the bus station? I mean, she can make herself invisible to this wicked witch’s magic wherever she goes, right?”
“Lilian wouldn’t have known that. She still would have unleashed this storm to make a point if nothing else.”
“Damn. This is so fucked up.”
“I’m sorry,” Jake said.
“She’s not even a client.”
“I’d have done the same thing for you.”
Carrie’s expression softened.
Ripper took Carrie’s hand. “So what’s the plan?”
“For now we sit tight. We’ve got food, weapons, and running water.” Jake gestured to the security monitors on the wall, where two men boarded up the broken panes in the downstairs doors with plywood. “And we’ll see if Lilian sends one of her people inside.”
“She has people?” Carrie said. “More witches?”
“An entire coven,” Laurel said.
“We are so screwed.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, too,” Laurel said.
“Can’t we call the cops? Two of them were just here.”
“I don’t want Maria or Edgar involved.”
“Isn’t that nice of you? What about that Geoghegan lieutenant who keeps popping up? Doesn’t he have juice?”
“And tell him what?” Jake said. “That a famous author is a witch who created three tornadoes that killed several people?”
“Lilian kidnapped her. There are laws against such things.”
“We’d have a hard time proving that.”
“Laurel could go public, at least with the stuff people would believe.”
Jake glanced at Laurel. “That wouldn’t make a difference. It might embarrass Lilian but it wouldn’t stop her.”
“You’re both hiding something. There’s a reason why she can’t go to the police.”
“I think you’re the psychic,” Laurel said. “But Jake’s right. We have no recourse through any system recognized by the rational world. Right now, Lilian holds all the cards.”
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