by Jill Cooper
His voice was hoarse, like he hadn’t spoken in days, but the curse was broken. He could talk again. Relieved, Amanda sighed as Duncan and Mike gathered around, grabbing Ron’s shoulder.
Patting him on the back.
“What do you remember?” Duncan asked.
A surge of pain. A clutching in his chest. Amanda answered for Ron because he couldn’t. “He remembers all of it.” She contemplated. “He saw her. Jessica.”
“She killed them all.” Ron’s voice shook. “Killed them all and then she knocked me unconscious. Dragged me around. Placed the knife in my hand and then…” his voice wavered, “and then…”
He couldn’t finish or wouldn’t. Amanda didn’t know which it was, but she was desperate to know where Jessica was. Where she was going. They needed to find her, free her. Amanda gripped Ron’s hand.
“Please…” Amanda begged. She wasn’t above begging. She had no pride when it came to things such as this. “I have to find her.”
“Return to the town where you moved to with your would-be adoptive parents. Do you remember the place?”
How could Amanda forget? It was there that she turned her back on a normal life forever and embraced the Blood life. She had been only a teenager, but that decision had been so powerful. So life changing. How could Amanda forget? And why would Jessica want her to return there…why?
“Three states away, it’ll be a long drive.”
“There’s something there. Jessica…she needs you there and fast. She’ll be able to sense where you are. Where you go. It has to be there where she finds you.”
“Why?” Amanda asked, so desperate to know.
Ron shook his head, tears in his eyes. “I don’t know, she…” Ron closed his eyes and his body convulsed as he remembered something. “She was called away after that. Disappeared into the ground. What the hell is going on?”
“Long story, man,” Duncan said. “Lourdes got Jessica and they’ve framed you, but we’ll find a way to free you, one way or another.”
“Free her damn soul, or whatever, but you just make sure to drag her back here and have her take my place.” Ron’s jaw clamped down. “You got me? She owes me.”
The air in the room thickened. Amanda slid up from the bed and distanced herself from Ron as Duncan sat closer. Mike followed her first with his eyes but then stepped close as Amanda fumbled with her shoes. “He’s been through a lot.”
She knew that. She did, but it wasn’t Jessica’s fault any more than it was Ron’s. Amanda tilted her head with a labored sigh. “Father Mike…”
He held up his hand. “Just Mike’s fine. No reason to be so formal.” For once he smiled and Amanda found it didn’t just reach his eyes. Almost nothing did. How many battles had he fought and lost to harden him so thoroughly?
She thought to ask, but acid roiled inside her stomach. Amanda grunted and cradled her abdomen as if she had been shot. Something deep inside clamped and she nearly capsized, the smell of green coming from all corners of the room. Floating and growing, rolling and spreading.
It was here, surrounding them like a mighty claw.
Mike grabbed Amanda’s shoulders and called for Duncan as overhead the fluorescent lights began to flicker like a dispatched Morse code message.
They had come. They were here.
Demons.
7: Duncan Jasper
Demons.
By the look on Amanda’s face, it was bad. Her brow was creased and she could barely catch her breath.
With no weapons to speak of, how were they going to get her to safety while doing their jobs. Protect the weak? This place crawled with the weak and the demented. Easy targets for demons to do their worst.
Take hosts. Grab Amanda and kill anything that got in their way.
She’d be safe. If it was the last thing he did. “Take cover,” Duncan lay a hand on Mike’s shoulder. Moving to the door, He peered out the small window at the top. The cop was stationary which meant mayhem hadn’t broken out yet.
Good sign, but yet it was coming.
Glancing back, he saw that Amanda was seated beside the bed. Just the top of her head was visible, but she was rocking back and forth. There were a mumble and a small cry. “Something’s…wrong…” Amanda groaned and everything in Duncan lit up on full alert. He needed to get her out of there.
He had never seen Amanda this bad before. Was it the drugs messing with her system? Whatever it was, they needed to move her.
Now.
Ron jumped down beside Amanda on the floor and put his hand to her forehead. “She’s burning up, to holy hell Duncan. We gotta move.”
We? That was a discussion Duncan wasn’t ready for. If they took Ron with them, they’d be fugitives and they needed that almost less than the demons. It was hard enough to move freely, but if they left Ron behind, he sure as hell wouldn’t be safe. Not unless they found a way to kill every demon in the place.
A quick glance at Mike’s stoic face told Duncan they were thinking along the same lines.
Duncan wiped the palm of his hands on his pants and knocked a rat-tat-tat on the door.
When the officer pulled it open, suspicion filling his eyes. Duncan forced a nervous smile. “Thanks for giving us so much time, officer. I believe we know the way out.”
The officer’s eyes flicked from Duncan to inside the small room. Duncan sidestepped to keep him from seeing too much. If he saw Amanda collapsed on the ground…well, he’d be suspicious as all get out. “Sure, you get what you need in there?”
“Nah, afraid not,” Duncan offered his hand in gratitude, “but you still have to try, right?”
The officer nodded and the corners of his lips turned up. Maybe he did understand. He shook Duncan’s hand with a firm grip. “Better luck next time. You better move on out, before the doctors arrive with Wax’s medicine. They won’t think too kindly of me if they find you in there.”
He had no intention of sticking around.
Just past the officer’s head was a ventilation shaft. Green smoke drifted down and it set Duncan’s upper lip wet with perspiration—the demons were getting ready to make their move. It was time for Duncan to make his.
Overhead the lights flickered on and off. The officer turned slightly and craned his head back to see the hanging lights. “That’s been happening off and on for the last ten minutes.”
“Must be a short circuit,” Duncan said, “sorry.”
“Sorry?” The officer asked with a whip of his head, but already Duncan held the pistol taken from the cop’s hip. He aimed it at the charging demons streaming from the elevator. Six or seven all with guns drawn. Downstairs must have been a blood bath, but Duncan couldn’t think about that.
“Hey!” The cop’s eyes narrowed and Duncan pushed him down to the ground, taking cover to fire off defensive rounds. The demon he hit center mass struggled back to his feet and advanced like nothing happened. The bullets were too small. He needed a head shot.
Nothing else would slow these bastards down.
“What the hell is going on!” The officer struggled to stand, but Duncan kept a firm hand on his shoulder and his boot firm against the cop’s thigh.
“Stay down and maybe you’ll survive.” Duncan edged his eyes forward and heard the elevator door ding.
Duncan was too late. Hadn’t moved fast enough. Damn it all, straight to hell. He moved back into Ron’s room and slammed the door shut.
From the inside there was no handle or locking mechanism. What the hell did they do now?
“I’m okay…” Amanda’s words drifted off, but her skin was pasty white. She wasn’t okay, no matter what she said.
“Mike, get that small window open. Ron,” Duncan pressed against the door as someone pushed it open, “help me with this.”
Everyone hurried to their assignments while Amanda clung to the wall just to stay upright.
Ron pushed his shoulder against the door. “You know there’s no way we can get out the window and old this thing shut at the
same time.”
“What are you suggesting?”
Ron glanced at the gun in his hand. “Demons are in the building. Who knows how many they killed on the lower levels as they made their way in. Time to even the score, don’t you think?”
Give Ron the gun so he could provide cover? Nothing about that set right with Duncan. He started to shake his head.
“How then is going to do it?” Ron’s lip snarled. “You? I think your place is at her side.” He tossed his head at Amanda.
Banging on the door echoed loud through the chamber. Duncan gritted his teeth as he leaned in against it. Shots rang out and dinted the metal door. They were running out of serious time.
“I got it. I got it!” Mike said. “Someone help me get Amanda up here.
Duncan handed the gun over to Ron. “Good luck, brother.”
Ron gripped it tight. “On three and I’ll show those sons of bitches that no one messes with Ronald Wax.”
Friends to the end, they were all that was left of the Black Scorpions. Duncan was in no rush to be the last surviving member. “One…two…three.”
He pulled the door open and Ron assaulted the area with bullets. Duncan ran for Amanda and gave her a boost up to the window. She moaned, but was able to pull herself up high enough so Mike could pull her through into the fire escape.
“Hurry!” Amanda called down to him as Mike pulled her away. “Duncan!”
Why was she so…. Duncan’s train of thought was cut off as someone yanked on his shoulder and pulled him back. He hit the rear wall and fell onto the bed.
It was Vain. Her hands on her curvy hips she sneered at him. “I bet you thought you’d never see me again. Bet you thought I died in that house.”
“I never thought I was that lucky,” Duncan said.
Anger rose on her face and as she swung her fist at him, Duncan’s legs shot out and slammed her into the chest.
Gun shots were tapering off in the hall. He had to move.
Vain staggered back and Duncan shot out and pinned her against the wall. She pushed against him, but she smiled. “I knew the foreplay would be good, Jasper. You never could keep your hands off of me.”
“It made me sick.” Duncan forced his forearm into her throat. “To be with you, just to look at you. What you do to those girls…they’re kids, Vain. Or whatever the hell your name really is.”
Duncan wasn’t one to punch a lady, but Vain wasn’t one. Hell, she barely counted as human.
“Let’s go!” Mike screamed from above and threw something into the window.
A smoke bomb. It filled the room. Duncan turned to leave Vain behind and felt her fingers grasping at his clothing. “No, Jasper! No!”
Her scream was raw and guttural. She didn’t want to kill him, at least not yet. Vain’s plan had more to do with revenge and Duncan, for now, was going to use that to his advantage.
Springing up, he caught the window and pulled himself out. On the balcony, Duncan rejoined Mike and a droopy looking Amanda. She was braced on the railing, but at least she was upright.
Down below, their car waited. Duncan slid his arm around Amanda. “I’ve got you, girl,” he whispered as her head rested against his chest.
“Let’s move this party,” Mike said as he left everyone down the fire escape.
*****
Outside, Ron met up with them at the car. “Well, that was brisk.” He slid into the car beside Mike in the back. Amanda was at least awake, even if she wasn’t chatty.
Duncan tore open the driver side and wasted no time and getting her started. He peeled away from the curb before Ron had finished shutting the back door.
“Hang on!” Duncan screamed as he floored it, only to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting an old lady crossing the street in her walker.
She glared at him and Duncan raised his hand in an apology as beside him, Amanda moaned. Her head rolled to the side and her arm fell to the armrest. It was covered in black, splotchy bruises that made Duncan want to hurt Vain. Hurt her in the worst possible way. It was his fault, she was after them and that meant Amanda’s pain, an indirect consequence of his crappy life choices.
With the old lady gone, Duncan slammed his foot on the gas, but not before he saw the cop charging for his car. With luck, he was just a regular guy looking to get back an escaped mental patient. With luck…
“No,” Amanda was hoarse as she shook her head, her eyes still welded shut. “He’s one of them now. He’s a demon.”
Duncan’s stomach sank with despair.
“And he’s coming for us.”
Great. Then with a sudden belly flop, Duncan realized Amanda had done something she had never done before. Sure, she could always infer by using emotions, but that wasn’t what just happened.
Amanda had read his mind. Pure and simple. A mind reading empath? That could be a real asset to their side, but what would it do to her?
Duncan allowed himself one glance at the frail, pixie-like woman collapsed on the seat beside him. He was afraid of the answer. Afraid for Amanda.
Was there any hope for her at all?
“Get me some water,” Duncan barked the order as he lay Amanda down on the bed in the cheap hotel room they rented just off the highway. Was it far enough away that the demons wouldn’t be able to track them?
Probably not, but they didn’t have a choice, Amanda…so much grief in his mouth just to look at her.
Her face thick with sweat, Amanda was seizing. Her head rocked back, he arms buckled, and her knees locked. Rigid like a stone, Duncan felt powerless to do anything, except to hold her shoulders firm. To try to keep Amanda steady, so she wouldn’t hurt herself, but it was like watching a woman die right in front of him.
Powerless. Again he was powerless.
Ron ran to the bathroom and along the way he knocked over the telephone and the door slammed. He might have been a callous SOB charged with a crime he didn’t commit, but even the most hardened person cared about Amanda. She was falling apart, sick with something that made no sense to him.
What if she couldn’t be saved?
Mike blessed her forehead with his thumb and mumbled a prayer Duncan couldn’t make out. He didn’t want to hear it anyway. Prayers were private and he wasn’t exactly the praying type, but Duncan would try anything to get Amanda better.
“The demons are gone. So why is she still like that?” Duncan asked.
Mike was quiet and contemplative. “Has she ever been this bad before?”
Duncan had never seen it like this before. So the answer was, “No. It’s never been like this before. Not even when…” Duncan sighed and shook his head to keep the memories of the past at bay. “We’ve seen some awful shit, but she’s never had a seizure.”
Amanda took shallow breaths, but her body lay still. Her eyes were slotted as her chest moved up erratically. Duncan’s heart might as well have been torn out of his chest and stomped on to see her like that. Of all people, and all the things they had done, Amanda deserved hell the least of all.
Ron handed Duncan a cup full of water. “What the hell is wrong with her?”
Duncan said a silent thanks and dotted some of the water along Amanda’s forehead. He’d take care of her. He’d get her better, but the demons…what if the demons didn’t give them any peace? If they came at them right then, Duncan wasn’t sure if Amanda would survive.
“Vaughn shot her up full of drugs. We’re not sure how much or what type of doses he was giving her,” Mike said.
Ron’s eyes opened. “Shit, Amanda? When? How long’s it been since her last hit?”
“Your guess is as good as ours. Forty-eight hours at the longest. Thirty-six at the shortest.”
“Shouldn’t she be through the worse of it by now?” Ron asked and his question fell on deaf ears. The air in the room thickened and Duncan thought she should be, so whatever was happening to her now, was it permanent? Was it the piecing together of her soul that caused her so much pain?
“I wish I could say
you can stay, Ron,” Duncan took a deep breath, “but I think it would be best if right now, we went our separate ways.”
Ron snorted. “You guys practically have targets painted on your backs. What makes you think I want to stay? Thanks, though, for getting me out. And I hope Amanda here…well, I hope she’ll be all right.” Ron headed for the front door. After opening it he turned around. “You will clear my name, won’t you?”
Duncan nodded even though he wasn’t sure. Right then he couldn’t think of anything, but Amanda’s well-being. The door shut gently behind Ron as Duncan gathered up the blanket at the foot of the bed. He lay it against Amanda’s legs and unfolded it so it would reach her chest. Even after that, he couldn’t leave her. Couldn’t take his eyes off her.
He made a promise to Jessica to care for Amanda. And now he was failing badly.
“Sit with her.” Mike put a hand on Duncan’s shoulder with gentle kindness. “I’ll keep a watch out front. My bedside manner has always needed work. When she wakes up, she’s going to need a friendly face.”
“She read my mind in the car, Mike.” Duncan words hit the air like an icy frost.
Mike’s didn’t react right away. “Whatever is happening to her, it can’t be stopped. We can’t fix it. We just have to hope in the end, she’ll survive.”
His words weren’t the words of comfort, but, at least, they were honest.
“As much as I hate to say it, we can use all the help we can get right now. So let’s hope she can hold it together. Learn to control whatever is happening to her so it doesn’t destroy her.”
“Sometimes your honesty hurts.”
Mike laughed. “Don’t I know it, Jasper.”
Duncan pulled a chair up to the bed and took Amanda’s hot, frail hand in his. “I know you have people to get back to. I’m sorry about this, Mike.”
Mike smirked kindly. “Somethings can’t be helped. It is when we make plans that God laughs the hardest. Even when your plans are to save the world.”
Duncan smirked despite everything going on. “Think we’ll make it?”
Mike opened the front door to step outside. “Only one can answer a question like that Jasper. And it isn’t me.”
