On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3

by Yolanda Sfetsos

  “Who told you that?”

  “Little old ladies can be very forthcoming when they’re finding it hard to breathe.” She purred into the line.

  My stomach dropped. She had to be talking about Jonathan’s neighbor. The old lady might have come across a little too strong, but she didn’t deserve to die. “You killed her?”

  “I did her a favor. She was already dying from a crippling disease.” Maya paused. “Besides, if you’d let me hit and grab you, or waited for me to get to Jonathan’s, maybe she wouldn’t have had to die prematurely.”

  I wouldn’t react to her bait. “Where’s my sister?” My pulse sped up. “Why did you take her?”

  “She’s safe, for now. And just so you know, I didn’t take her. She came home willingly.”

  I refused to believe her. Why would Willow do something so stupid? “If you hurt her, I’m going to make you pay!”

  Maya laughed again. “I admire someone who’s willing to throw around threats and will no doubt try to carry them out. But I’m not like my fellow brotherhood and haven’t underestimated you for a second.” She paused. “Troy and Mauricio were fools to think you wouldn’t retaliate.”

  “Let her go,” I said.

  “I don’t think so. I need her as much as I need you, but feel free to try,” Maya said. “I can do something that’ll make this easier for both of us. I’m going to tell you exactly where I am.” She rattled off the address that would forever be engraved inside my brain. “Feel free to drop in as soon as you can. We’ll be waiting.”

  The undeniable sound of the doorbell echoed from her end.

  “Oh, I’ve got a visitor,” she said, and it sounded like she was moving. “It’s the handsome but very nosey police officer. I have to go. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

  “No! Don’t do anything to him!” But she wasn’t on the line anymore. My hands were shaky, but I managed to dial Gareth’s number. The call went straight to voice mail. “Answer the damn phone!” I tried another three times but still no response.

  “Fox, your coffee’s getting cold,” Papan called from the kitchen.

  I couldn’t speak or move. All I could think about was the two brief conversations I’d just had and how they’d interconnected in the worst possible way. If I hadn’t told Gareth anything he wouldn’t have rushed over to the Moss household. Yet by the sound of it, he must have already been parked outside waiting. There was no way he could’ve gotten there so fast otherwise.

  “Fox, what the hell’s going on?” Papan appeared in the hallway and his face darkened when he found me with phone still in hand.

  “She just called.”

  “Willow?”

  I shook my head. “Maya just called and told me where she is.”

  “What the hell? That sounds like a trap to me.”

  “It’s more of a dare,” I whispered, clearing my throat. “She knows we’re looking for her and even killed Jonathan’s neighbor.”

  “She killed the old lady?”

  I nodded.

  His frown deepened. “We need to think about this before making any rash decisions—”

  “No Papan, I need to head over there right now.”

  “Think this through. We can’t do anything stupid.”

  I looked into his beautiful green eyes as mine blurred with tears. “I can’t let her kill Willow, and she’s also got Gareth.”

  “How the hell did he get involved in this?”

  I sighed. “He called before she did to remind me today was the day he had to file his report about Willow, and said he was going to try and question Eli Moss again. I told him not to go but he got there just as I was hanging up with Maya.” I conveniently left out the fact Maya told me my sister had willingly handed herself over. “They’re both in trouble and it’s my fault.”

  Papan cupped my face in his big hands. “Fox, think about what you want to do. You’re going into her territory and we both know this is a trap. She’ll have the upper hand and ambush you.”

  “I know, but there’s nothing else I can do. I have to risk walking into her trap in order to stop her from killing any more girls, stealing their souls, and doing whatever the hell it is she wants to do to Willow.” I exhaled, leaning my cheek closer into his hand. “I have to do this.”

  He didn’t say anything for a while, just stared at me until he dropped his hands to my waist and pressed his forehead against mine. “This is a really, really bad idea, but I’m going with you.”

  “I don’t want you to—”

  “Just like you don’t think you have a choice, neither do I. There’s no way I’m letting you walk into this trap without backup.”

  I managed a small smile. “You’re right. We need backup, and I know just who to call.”

  “So do I.” Papan stepped away and I grabbed his hand, squeezing it.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “You don’t have to thank me, Foxy. All you need to do is get out of this alive.”

  I could promise him a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I still can’t believe you know Saul,” Lavie called from the backseat.

  “We go way back,” Papan said beside me.

  “So do we, but he must trust you a lot to lend you one of his vans. He’s very possessive about them, especially this one.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  The three of us had been sitting inside the black minivan Papan had borrowed from a friend. His friend turned out to be the demon Lavie had mentioned several times. After hearing so much about this Saul guy, I was getting really curious. So far, I’d only crossed paths with dark, selfish demons so this one sounded like a nice change of pace.

  I looked at the Moss house again. Aside from Gareth’s police car in the driveway, nothing else looked out of the ordinary. Well, except for the haphazardly parked car behind the constable’s. Just like Papan mentioned the night before, it was some generic small vehicle with most of its license plate blocked by mud.

  “No, seriously, after I helped him exorcise a pesky but harmless demon possessing it, he hardly lets anyone near this van. Let alone borrow it.”

  “This van was possessed?” I asked, suddenly feeling strange about sitting inside.

  “A long time ago,” Lavie said. “Um, are you sure we shouldn’t call Oren?”

  Lavie had asked the same question about a hundred times and I was sick of answering it. “I don’t want him involved in this.”

  “Why not?” she challenged, sitting forward and hugging the backrest so hard it shook my seat. “We should have asked Conrad to come along too. You can never have too much backup, right?”

  My ponytail whipped my chin when I turned to glare at her. “Conrad needs to be with Ebony, and Oren needs to be with both of them.” I’d called him before leaving the house and he’d claimed that while Ebony still wasn’t awake, she was mumbling and stirring in her sleep a lot. And this was apparently a good thing. “If you’re having second thoughts, we can drive you home—”

  “No!” Her eyes widened as she shook her head vigorously, sending her red choppy hair all over her face. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

  “Then what are you saying?” I didn’t want to get aggravated with her, especially since she’d agreed to come with us on such short notice and without hesitation, but we were only meters away from the house where my sister was being kept by a madwoman.

  “Nothing, I just don’t want us to get killed. That’s all. There’s a funky vibe coming from that house.”

  Papan turned enough to look her way. “Unfortunately, Lavie, that’s a chance we’re all taking. It’s a huge risk but Fox is right—you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. She just figured your demonic expertise would help since at least two of the Obscurus are inside.”

  He hit the nail on the head, except he vocalized it a lot better than I had. If Maya was inside the square-edged house, so was Jonathan. I just hoped there weren’t any o
ther Obscurus freaks hiding in the shadows.

  I sighed. “Lavie, let’s get you home.” I shouldn’t have called her. It wasn’t fair to drag her into this mess.

  “I don’t want to go home. I want to help stop these jerks once and for all.”

  And I didn’t want to burst her bubble, because even if I made it out of this alive I doubted this would be their final attempt at getting their hands on me.

  “Thanks.” I sucked in a quick breath. Looks like we’re going in. “Are you guys ready?”

  Papan took my left hand and lightly touched the backs of my bandaged knuckles with his full lips. His intimate gesture not only reminded me of everything we’d done since discovering we wanted to be more than friends, but also about what I would miss if this was the end of the road.

  “I’m ready to kick some ass,” he said.

  “Me too!” Lavie ducked her head in between us and flashed a toothy smile. “Let’s kick some demonic ass.”

  I chuckled, but it felt so dry it hurt my throat.

  Once out of the van, I stretched my cramped legs and awkwardly checked my jeans pockets—the silver spikes were in the front, two small holy water bottles in the back, and my dagger was strapped to my boot. I could also now recite the self-protection incantation in my sleep.

  I looked up and down the street, finding none of the surrounding driveways had cars parked in them. Even though it was still very early on a work and school day, this area felt a little too desolate. Almost as if no one had been here for a while.

  A shiver raced down my spine.

  My body felt tight and cramped in all the wrong places, tense but ready for this showdown.

  I turned to look at Lavie—she was wearing a pair of baggy red overalls with a fitting black long-sleeved T-shirt underneath. If I looked long—and close—enough, the demonic seeds moving beneath her skin puckered the fabric. I had no idea what she was carrying in the way of weapons but she wore a blue rosary around her neck, a voodoo gris-gris talisman, and a Star of David pendant. Her pockets were also stuffed with things—some which I thought might be charms. She’d left her backpack in the backseat of the van.

  “Are we going to knock on the front door?” she asked nervously.

  I nodded. “You and I will go in the front, but Papan’s going in the back.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “She’s probably seen us already and knows you’re not alone.”

  “Personally, I don’t care what she thinks. She might expect a man by my side, but Papan won’t be going into the house as one.”

  “How do you know the back door will be open?”

  I shrugged. “We don’t, but he’s got other ways of getting in. Don’t you, Papan?”

  “I sure do.” When he came around the car wearing nothing but his unbuttoned jeans, I thought Lavie’s eyes might pop out of their sockets.

  “Yikes! What’re you doing half naked?” she asked.

  “You’ll see,” I said.

  He closed the distance between us, grabbed me with one arm and smacked his lips against mine for an open-mouthed kiss that left me breathless. “I don’t want this to be our last kiss.” His brow was furrowed. He turned and walked away, calling, “Be careful, you two, and don’t forget our plan.”

  Our plan was simple—don’t get killed—and didn’t exactly fill me with much confidence. But that kiss had my skin burning up and wishing for so much more.

  Lavie leaned closer. “Was that what I was supposed to see?”

  “No, keep watching.”

  Papan jogged onto the edge of the front yard and pushed the metal gate open. He stripped off his jeans and not long after became a wolf. Papan’s animal form appeared in front of the gate, glanced our way with his snout in the air, and turned to rush towards the back of the house.

  “Ah! Wow, he’s a pretty wolf,” Lavie said.

  “You can stop drooling now.” I had to laugh at her.

  “Oh, sorry, I’m not checking him out. Really, I’m not.” She seemed to be babbling. “At least I shouldn’t be. He’s your boyfriend and all.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You’re not the first woman to check him out, or the last.” I could deal with all the attention he would no doubt always attract. “Come on, let’s knock on the door and see what happens.”

  As we walked onto the property, I noticed the lawn wasn’t as well kept as the houses on either side. It wasn’t anything drastic but small details like the grass being a little too long and the shrubs too high.

  The house itself looked more like a mini-mansion—a two story, charcoal rendered block with large front windows and a flat roof. A wide cobblestone path led straight to the door. The front door looked to be tall—maybe over two meters high.

  The door knocker was an ugly gargoyle but I figured it was just for decoration because a doorbell was situated to the side. I pressed it and the same singsong noise I’d heard while on the phone with Maya chimed inside.

  “This house doesn’t feel as creepy as Carleen’s did, but there’s definitely something demonic nearby,” Lavie whispered. “The place is buzzing with it.”

  I was glad for her instincts and couldn’t help but get a little nervous every time I glanced at Gareth’s empty vehicle. He had to be inside the house too, but what had Maya done to him?

  When the door opened and Jonathan appeared, I wasn’t surprised.

  “I was wondering where you were staying,” I said. “You’re a hard man to find.”

  “It’s nice to see you again, Sierra.” He licked his lips and the black gleam in his eyes confirmed this wasn’t the same Jonathan who stumbled into my office the day before to warn me about his accomplice. “Why don’t you come in?”

  Lavie cringed and stepped closer, taking my hand.

  “Why did you bring her?” He made a face and the horrible gaunt features I noticed whenever I looked at him too closely consumed his boyish charm. He was also wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

  “She’s my friend,” I said, squeezing her hand. “You didn’t expect me to come alone, did you? I want to get my sister away from you people, but I’m not stupid.”

  “Wasn’t your dog in the van with you?” His eyes glistened.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He stepped closer and whispered near my ear, “I saw him kiss you.”

  “Back off, Jonathan.”

  He shrugged. “The more the merrier, I suppose. Now, stop letting the cold inside and come meet Maya. She’s been waiting for you.”

  We took our time stepping into the house and when he closed the door, it felt as if he was sealing us into a crypt.

  Jonathan stepped past me and I could smell his body odor. On some level, I felt sorry for him. Personal hygiene was something the real Jonathan never had a problem with. Yet now, he didn’t seem to care about anything. His dark hair had grown uneven and he hadn’t shaved for days.

  The predatory gleam in his eye made me uneasy.

  “Personally,” he said, lowering his voice. “I think she’s too eager to meet you, and maybe even premature. You’re not ready for this yet.” He ran his fingers over my arm and I shook him off. “You’re not as ripe as we need you to be.”

  “What are you whispering about, Jon?” a female with a British accent called. This had to be Maya.

  He jumped but collected himself instantly. “Nothing, I was just bringing her to you.” This subordinate act was something I hadn’t expected. What lowly demon possessed him and allowed this woman to order it around? Did this mean there were ranks within Legion? It might even be why Jonathan had been able to hide what was going on when we were together. It wasn’t until recently that he started acting like Jekyll and Hyde.

  “Good.” Maya stepped into the terracotta-tiled foyer, her heels clacking against them. She was a beautiful slender woman of average height, with high cheekbones, a narrow nose, and caramel-colored eyes. She wore makeup that highlighted all her best features. She had curves in all the right places
and long legs. The fitting blue dress clung to her, ending just above her knees, and her hair—a black glossy curtain—framed her back and shimmered like oil every time she moved. “Come along, we’ve got some business to attend to and I don’t want to waste any more time than we already have.”

  This is the killer from the last crime scene.

  “Where’s Willow?” I asked, stepping forward and taking Lavie with me.

  “She’s waiting for you.”

  I narrowed my eyes, not believing this bullshit hostess. Why did she bother? I already knew what she was capable of. She’d viciously killed innocent girls, and even admitted trying to run me over. So why pretend now?

  “My, who’s your little friend?”

  “She’s a demon hunter,” Jonathan answered. “And not a very good one, from what I hear.”

  Maya threw her head back as her laughter echoed around us. “Ah, you are a clever one. Bringing a demon hunter into a house that will soon be the hub for an entire demonic Legion is truly adorable.” She looked me up and down with harsh, assessing eyes. “I really wish I could keep you.” She pouted. “But without you, there is no Legion. So, come on. Let’s get started.”

  “Not until I make sure Willow’s all right.”

  “If you want to see her, you have to follow me.” Maya didn’t wait for a response, instead disappeared into the next room. The clacking of her heels echoed behind her.

  Jonathan pushed his way between me and Lavie, throwing an arm over each of our shoulders and encouraging us to move. “She doesn’t like to be kept waiting, which is why you’re here in the first place. So, let’s go and see what she wants to show you.”

  Lavie and I had no choice but to keep moving past the foyer and into an open plan kitchen with shiny chrome finishes. I noticed a puddle of blood congealing under the dead body of a middle-aged woman near the sink seconds before the stench hit me. Her neck sat at an awkward angle, but there was no denying the bite marks on her throat or that she’d been dead for a while.

  Jonathan urged us forward and didn’t stop until we reached a glass sliding door spanning across an entire wall. He motioned for us to step into the dark entryway adjacent to it.