Dweller on the Threshold

by Rinda Elliott

  “Then why don’t you summon one of them yourself then?”

  “I am not a necromancer.”

  Dooby crossed his arms. “Exactly. There aren’t that many of us, you know. Better back off and stop playing the intimidation thing because I won’t do it and I’ll make sure none of the others will, either.”

  It was Nikolos’s turn to grin and I caught my breath at the absolute ruthless twist that turned his features dark. He didn’t have to say anything. As I watched, the black mass around him—the one I’d finally managed to somewhat ignore—began swelling and writhing as if it responded to his anger. Or maybe Nikolos was using it as a threat.

  “Hey, dude, back down.” Dooby wiggled in his chair before peeking around Nikolos to look at me. “Call off your man, will you? Damn,” he murmured, rubbing his arms. “Something is really wrong with you. You have the feel of things I’ve pulled from the ground. I’ll listen, okay?”

  I didn’t say anything, just glared at him. He felt those spirits trapped about Nikolos. Felt them yet didn’t recognize them. I would have thought a necromancer would recognize a soul eater. But then, I didn’t know for sure that Nikolos was one. For all I knew he could be Blythe’s big, special warrior. Which left me off the hook. I watched Nikolos move back to his chair and sit, never taking his gaze off Dooby.

  I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. “We’re going into the Big Cypress Swamp and we may need your help summoning something Nikolos calls the Dweller on the Threshold. It’s not a usual demon but a being that has been gathering power for hundreds of years. You’ve heard of the people falling into comas?”

  He nodded. “The Somatic Slumber. I saw it on the news.”

  “This Dweller has stolen their souls and is using them to gain strength. When he gathers enough, he will rip a hole between our dimension and his.”

  “Uh.” Dooby got up and stood behind his chair, gripped the back with his hands. “How do you know this? And are you sure because that would be a really, really bad thing.”

  Phro snorted.

  I didn’t blame her. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, this one. “No shit. Not only will he physically manifest here, but he will leave this opening there for other things to cross over.”

  Some of the kid’s color went away. He might have been twenty-two but he acted like a child.

  I nodded. “You of all people should understand that we want to keep the baddies on the bad side. There are enough of them here already.”

  He frowned. “There are specific rituals for each kind of demon. There are rituals for dead humans, dead werewolves, et cetera… I don’t remember ever reading anything about a Dweller on the Threshold. Did it ever go by another name?”

  Nikolos cleared his throat. “In my time, we called it the Abalam.”

  I didn’t think that flawless, pale skin could get any whiter. The greenish tinge that followed wasn’t much better. Dooby began pacing around the room. Passed the useless zombie that still stood obediently with no expression on its dead face.

  Dooby suddenly stopped. His gaze swept from Nikolos to me and back. “Give me a couple of minutes to think.”

  Phro chuckled, grabbing my attention. She moved to sit by Blythe. “So, did you find sex with him to be a little otherworldly?” she whispered. Loud enough for everyone but Dooby to hear. At least I thought he couldn’t.

  Blythe turned redder than the stripes in the ugly chair I sat in.

  Phro continued, “In my day, all who practiced goetia were the most alluring, the most sensual and beautiful among us. It was once believed that their very beauty summoned the dead back to life.” She leaned close to Blythe. “It was also said that when one truly seduced, their prey had little chance of refusing.”

  Blythe’s throat moved in a heavy swallow and she looked at the ceiling, the floor… anything but us.

  I looked at Dooby. He’d started pacing again and he moved around the perimeter of the room with this sort of slinky, sinuous grace. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was floating. He waved his hands about in the air as if conducting some sort of inner symphony and he passed the motionless zombie several times.

  The name Abalam meant nothing to me, but it obviously did to him since his skin was the color of paste. And when I squinted, I could see a fine tremor in his hands.

  I turned to Nikolos. “I don’t recognize the name.”

  Dooby stopped. “That’s because there isn’t anything written about him other than he was a king of Hell. Nothing of him exists today. Anything written about his summoning is long gone. All necromancers want to know, they all search. We believe he was the original one of us.”

  As he spoke, Blythe pulled the cover off the magic book. When Dooby saw it, he gasped and hurried around the couch to sit next to her. He held his hand over the book and slowly lowered it to the cover. He closed his eyes. We all watched as he swayed and hummed.

  When he opened his eyes, his gaze went immediately to me. “I think this is the original Key of Solomon. Supposed to be burned to ash. Holy shit. It’s fantastic.” He rubbed his hands over it and hummed some more. When he moaned, I stood, ready to put a stop to this. I was afraid he was about to start making out with the book.

  Nikolos moved to stand beside me. “I don’t believe this Dweller is Abalam. I believe the gods got it wrong in the past. Like you, I found nothing on that demon and I’ve had a longer time to search. When it rose before, we dispatched it by killing the host it was attached to. It’s not a true demon, but a kind of karmic gathering of the many evil lifetimes of one soul. We want to know if this book says anything about summoning the spirit before killing the host.”

  “It could take a while for me to find it. It’s a big book.”

  I sighed. “Can’t you just hum and moan at it again?”

  He primly folded his fingers and placed them on his lap this time. “No, and I wasn’t moaning at it. I was acquainting myself with its magic. I can sense the old spells.”

  Nikolos nodded toward Blythe. “She will be able to help. But you must work on it in the car on the way.”

  “So this host you spoke of—it’s in the Big Cypress?”

  “We believe so.”

  I let them talk. I’d put off thoughts of the swamp since I still didn’t want to consider the reasons that place was the last one I’d like to visit. I’d walked more swampland than anyone else I knew and yet this one place made me feel as if I were being turned inside out. I’d never wanted to return, but I’d always known I would. There were too many unanswered questions there.

  Agitated, I stood and spoke in Nikolos’s general direction. “I’m going to check on my sister.”

  He merely nodded and went back to the conversation. I stepped outside. Blinking into the sunlight—which was pretty damned harsh after that frigid, cave-like living room—I walked far out enough to catch the breeze on my face. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Jed.

  “Detective Barnes speaking.”

  The voice was young. “Isn’t this Jed’s phone?”

  “Who’s speaking?”

  “My name is Beri O’Dell and Jed is my sister’s partner. I’m calling to check on Elsa Remington.”

  It took him a moment to answer. “I remember you. There has been no change in Elsa Remington’s condition. I’m guarding her room myself.”

  “And why are you answering Jed’s phone?” I had to pull the words from my throat. I didn’t want to ask. I knew the answer before his long pause gave it away.

  “Detective Jed Grant has fallen victim to the Somatic Slumber. He’s in a coma.”

  I shut the phone and leaned against the brick wall of Dooby’s home. While I wasn’t close enough to Jed to consider him a friend, he certainly meant a lot to Elsa. He was her friend as well as her partner. I allowed myself a couple of minutes to feel the heavy weight of the task I’d taken on, a couple of minutes to worry that I was on the wrong path—and yeah—a couple of minutes to panic. Then I straightened and turned to fin
d Nikolos standing several feet away, his brows lifted in question. I stared at him—at his long, long body and wide shoulders and considered letting some of the weight rest on them. They looked strong.

  But the faint cry of a trapped spirit around him begged for release. I turned my face away, sucked in a deep breath before looking back. “We have to steal my sister from the hospital before we go to Cypress.”

  He didn’t even question why. Just nodded. “Have the pretty boy raise a couple of harmless zombies to distract them. Might be fun.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The zombie idea turned out to be an excellent one. We were able to snatch my sister while Dooby got creative with the dead. I’d just made him promise not to raise anyone who’d recently died in that hospital.

  Yeah, I felt a twinge of guilt over terrorizing people already stressed by the Somatic Slumber, but my hesitation was short. What was a little stress when the world was about to end?

  Thankfully, Elsa didn’t need a ventilator. We drove to the town with the most Somatic Slumber victims on the pandemic map. Dooby and Blythe argued word and symbol conversion the entre way. After making sure Elsa was comfortable in the hotel room we rented, Nikolos and I left them to work on the translations while the others watched over my sister.

  I hadn’t wanted to leave her, but the only thing we knew to do was walk the town and see if we could spot something out of place. Stray spirits…a messiah. Whatever the hell a messiah was supposed to look like.

  Alligator Flag was barely on the map and I could see why. Nikolos and I strode down the one main street that ran from the beginning of the town to the end. It resembled a ghost town right now—not surprising since nearly half the population was in a coma.

  “I kind of expected reporters to have picked up on this place by now.” I squinted into the sun, lifting a hand to shield my eyes. The humidity sat on my skin like I’d been rubbed down in butter. But I was still glad for the jeans because the mosquitoes were thick here on the edge of the swamp—even in the daytime. “You’d think media people would be crawling all over a town with so many people sick.”

  “They might be afraid to catch it.” Nikolos leaned into a window, cupping his palms on either side of his face to look inside. “This place is closed, too.” It was a bait shop—Roy’s, to be specific. We’d already passed three other bait shops. This town was nothing more than a small tourist stop for those going into the swamp to hunt or fish. The hotel had been a surprise. Surprisingly clean despite its shabby, dated décor.

  Fred wandered ahead of us, peering nosily into windows. Phro was being unnaturally quiet. I’d lifted my eyebrows at her several times, silently asking for an explanation, but she merely ignored me. I gave up and turned back to the town.

  There were still a few people out and about, running shops or buying groceries. An intermittent stream of cars moved through. I’d had a feeling Nikolos and I would stand out, but when traffic started to slow, I’d stopped and pulled my hat from my pocket to stuff my hair into it.

  Yeah, it didn’t help much—not when I was walking next to a gorgeous, raven-haired giant who would never put his hair up for anyone. But then, his didn’t glow in the sun…

  He watched me quietly as I messed with my hair. He didn’t question my motives—didn’t give me a hard time for hiding, as Elsa would have. For that, I offered him a smile. A real one.

  His gaze went hot and before I had a chance to blink, he stepped close and stared down at me with a look that curled my toes. The heat in the air around us had nothing on the warmth emanating from that big body. I bit my lip and stared back. For an instant, I let my fear for Elsa take a backseat. I lost myself in the wonder of a man who wanted me with the kind of passion I’d thought never to experience.

  Before I could let nerves get in the way, I placed one palm on his chest. He pressed his lips to mine. I had to tilt my head so the floppy hat didn’t hit him. He slid his hand around the side of my neck, his thumb still on my chin. He smelled faintly of sweat and the sage incense Blythe had burned to cleanse the hotel room. I breathed deeply to take that scent as far in as possible. Slight whiskers rasped my cheek. I thought about how they’d feel against other parts of my body.

  He was smiling when he pulled away. I didn’t know which got to me more. The kiss, the very flattering smile, or the pornographic direction my imagination had gone.

  “You’re blushing. It was just a kiss.”

  “It was nice.”

  “Yes,” he said slowly, touching my cheek. “It was. Though I think the blush comes from something else. Tell me.”

  “Never in your wildest dreams.”

  He grinned. “I think I’m going to have to take a chance after all. I’ve been considering the fact that maybe—just maybe—you are here to be a part of my wildest dreams.”

  I nearly swallowed my tongue. I’d never flirted in my life. He stepped close again and I had to stop my eyes from rolling back in my head with the stunning pleasure I felt up against him like this. Before I realized what he was planning, he’d backed me into a small opening by the side of a shop.

  “Go,” I said to my guides just as my back was gently placed against a wall. Never before had I liked or even allowed a man to push me against anything and now I’d let him do this twice. With him, I had the feeling I could push him back and he’d be cool with it.

  When he lifted me just far enough to reach his lips, I sighed. I’m strong, yes. I’ve fought monsters and demons and won, yes. But I’m still a woman and it still made my toes curl to have a man stronger than me lift me up. It wasn’t something I ever thought would happen. I couldn’t stop myself from unraveling the bottom of his braid so I could slide that slick, silky hair through my fingers.

  “You make me crazy,” I whispered against his lips. “I haven’t reacted to anyone like this before.”

  “Me neither.”

  I pulled back. “But you’ve been married.”

  He stared at my mouth for the longest second before raising those dark eyes to meet mine. He nodded slowly. “I was. I loved both of my wives. Deeply. But they were different. Softer. Even my first wife, who was considered a warrior on our island was smaller.”

  That didn’t sound so good to me. He went for small and delicate. I couldn’t get much further from that. “So, I’m something different to try?”

  He grinned. “You are tall, strong, and it’s quite possible you could kick my ass in a fair fight. It’s hot. Very hot.”

  “You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

  “Yet you are still a woman with a woman’s insecurities. What confuses me is why your insecurities seem so much stronger.” He set me back on my feet and cupped my face, knocking the hat far back on my head. “I look at you and see incredible beauty, intelligence and a deeply felt compassion—something that seems to be missing in this world. I also see a woman who dries up my throat, twists up my tongue and makes my body get hard at inappropriate times.” He dropped a kiss on my mouth. “I see a stunning woman who is strong enough to handle my own strength and that knowledge has me breaking into a sweat. Often.”

  “Oh.” All words fled my mind. I swallowed and stared at him and felt everything in me go soft and ready. I suddenly didn’t care that we were barely hidden where someone could come along at any moment. I just wanted to know more of his touch—wanted to know what it would feel like to let myself go with him and know I couldn’t hurt him. I speared my fingers into his hair and watched lust spill into his eyes, watched his nostrils flare. I felt a primitive heat uncurling inside me—something dark and exciting and all… very… much… his.

  When I kissed him, I spoke with my mouth, my lips, my tongue. I told him things I wasn’t yet ready to say aloud and I knew he heard them because his hands tightened on me and his breathing picked up pace.

  We kissed until I heard a child’s laughter from not so far away. Nikolos pulled back with the most blatant look of regret I’d ever seen on a man. He stepped away just as a couple of kid
s ran past our hidey hole. They didn’t stop, but the spell had been broken. Nikolos braced on hand on the wall as he worked to catch his breath.

  “Well, hmm…” I wrestled my own libido back under control. “This is probably not the best place for um…that, anyway.”

  “No. But we’re going to find a better one. Soon.”

  I barely stopped the unladylike gulp I nearly let loose. Instead, I nodded quickly and reached up to pull my hat forward again. Stunning. He’d said I was stunning. I was smart enough to realize he was excited by the prospect of me not being easily hurt because of his big hands and big—I stopped thinking right there. Heat filled my cheeks. I had no idea what was big on the man.

  Seems I was going to find out.

  Nervous anticipation had me skirting around him to get back to the street. It took me a couple of minutes to pull myself out of that sensual fog, so I started back down the sidewalk. “We need to focus on finding this host. What did the first one look like?”

  Nikolos fell into step beside me. “That information won’t help us. Each incarnation of the Dweller has been different. I showed you that it’s been inside women as well.”

  “Right. So, how did you find the host the first time around again?”

  “The majority of sleeping people were there on my island. It wasn’t that large of a place so it was easy to figure out who it was. He stood out, radiated something that made people want to do things for him. He was a fire mage—our healer and heavily protected.”

  “So it was hard for you to get to him.”

  He shook his head. “No, I was trusted in that household.”

  There was something very, very bad in the tone of his voice. A memory he didn’t yet want to revisit.

  I was waiting for him to elaborate when there was a loud gasp behind me. I turned to find an elderly woman staring up at me like she’d seen a ghost. She couldn’t have reached five feet and she carried a humongous, crocheted bag in purple and green. She had a purple orchid on the front of her white cap and her straight, iron-gray hair fell to her shoulders. She took a step back, her red lipstick-lined mouth still open.