All questions for which he had no answers.
But perhaps the girl or her father, if that's who he was, could shed some light on the situation.
The thought made him decide to go check on the old man again. When he bent over him, the old man started, curling up and raising his arms to protect himself.
"Easy now," Cade said, backing off and holding up his hands to show that he meant no harm. "You're safe."
The old man pushed himself to a sitting position and looked about frantically. "My son?" he asked, clearly more concerned with the condition of his traveling companion than himself.
Cade’s respect for the man, whoever he was, went up a notch. He'd just regained consciousness and he'd still managed to protect the teen's cover story. That took focus and more than one's fair share of wits.
He's a wily old coot, he thought. Better watch this one.
Aloud he said, "You mean your daughter? She's fine. She's over there with my wife," reassuring him that his daughter was fine but at the same time letting him know the gig was up as well.
The old man's gaze fell on his daughter, sitting with Gabrielle a few yards away, talking, and Cade watched the man visibly relax at the sight when he discovered that she was all right. Then and only then did he turn his attention to his surroundings. He gave Cade a once-over without saying anything and then looked beyond him, taking in the line of dirt bikes parked by the side of the road and the bodies lying unmoving in the dirt just beyond.
A look of horror crossed the man's face at the sight.
"Good god in heaven," he whispered beneath his breath. "You've killed us all."
11
The man's name turned out to be Jacob. And while he was grateful for Cade and Gabrielle's efforts in rescuing him and his daughter, he was absolutely terrified at the way the rescue had been executed.
He rose to his feet, staggered, and would have fallen if Cade hadn't reached out to steady him. As Cade caught him, the old man turned and stared at him with incredulity.
"You killed them!" he said.
Cade nodded "Didn't particularly have a choice," he said. "If I hadn't, they would have raped your daughter and left both your corpses behind for the animals to find, I suspect."
But as reasonable as Cade's explanation was, it only served to upset the old man even further.
"No, no, you don't understand. There will be repercussions. If they found out that we had anything to do with this..."
He trailed off, the contorted expression on his face enough to convince Cade of the horrors the old man expected to endure should they – whoever they were – found out they had anything to do with what had happened here.
"What kind of repercussions?" Cade started to ask, but Jacob whirled on him, filled with apprehension and nervous energy.
"We've got to get out of here!" the old man said. "Quickly! You'll find a ditch just beyond that boulder there." He pointed at a large glacial stone about thirty feet away, on the far side of the road. "Drag the bodies over there and dump the bikes in the woods just beyond! We don't have much time!"
Jacob surely knew more about the present situation and the dangers it represented than Cade did, so he was willing to go along with the man's assessment of what needed to be done for the time being. Later, when they were out of immediate danger, he could get the other man to tell him what he knew.
"Gabrielle! Some help!" Cade called, as he raced over to the bodies. He grabbed one of the men by the arms and began dragging him over to the boulder that Jacob had pointed out.
"What's going on?" Gabbi asked as she caught up, took one of the man's arms from him, and helped him pull the body along.
He filled Gabrielle in on what Jacob had said and why he was going along with it. She, in turn, let him know the girl's name was Stephanie, not Stephen, and that she was Jacob's only daughter, confirming his earlier guess. Unfortunately, the girl had been too torn up by her recent experience to tell Gabrielle much more.
They reached the boulder and discovered that the ground sloped downward just beyond it, as Jacob had said, creating a natural ravine that should do a good job of hiding the corpses for the immediate future. Between the two of them, they lifted the body up and then tossed it over the edge, watching as it tumbled down into the cleft and out of sight.
One down, three to go, Cade thought.
As he turned away from the ravine, he saw Stephanie run over to her father and bury herself in his arms. For a split second, he worried that Jacob was going to desert them now that he'd been reunited with the girl, but the concern passed as quickly as it had come. For some reason, he trusted the old man and didn't believe that he would lead them astray.
Having decided to throw their hat in with the pair, Cade and Gabrielle worked quickly to carry out Jacob's instructions. Ten minutes later, the bodies had all been tossed in the ravine and the bikes dragged into the woods and hidden beneath a pile of loose tree limbs that the recent storm had torn free.
When they returned to the cart, they found that Jacob and his daughter had lifted up the bed of the truck body, revealing a space beneath just large enough for Cade and Gabrielle to lie prone beneath.
Cade glanced at the truck bed and then over at Jacob.
"Seriously?" he asked.
The old man nodded. "We can't take the chance of you being seen by anyone, especially not additional members of the Red Fist. Don't worry, there's a quick release hatch on the bottom that will let you out swiftly if we run into further problems." Jacob's mouth turned up in a wry smile. "Who knows, maybe the ride's actually better down there? Either way, it won't take us long to reach the homestead."
As Gabrielle had already hopped up on the tailgate and was lowering herself into the opening beneath the false truck bed, Cade saw no point in not following suit. With one last look at his new partners-in-crime, so to speak, he slipped down into the truck well beside his wife.
_______________________
Jacob was right; the trip didn't take long at all. Roughly half an hour after climbing inside the well of the cart, Cade felt it come to a halt. A few moments later the false bottom of the truck bed was raised up by Jacob and his daughter, allowing their two passengers to climb out.
The cart was parked in the middle of an old barn, not unlike the one that Cade had converted to a workshop on his own property. There were stalls on either side and behind them was a set of double doors that were open, letting in the afternoon sunlight.
Cade helped Jacob unhook the horses from the cart and lead them to their stalls. Once the animals were squared away, the four of them left the barn and headed for the house on the other side of the yard.
It was a one-level solidly built affair that resembled something Cade would expect to see on the midwestern prairie circa the eighteen fifties than here in the heart of New England. It was made from rough, dark planed wood rather than commercial materials, with a stone and mortar chimney rising from the left side of the house.
As Cade followed the line of the chimney skyward, he noticed the camouflage netting strung overhead, just beneath the real forest canopy. Based on his past experience with such material, he knew that it would make the house and barn almost impossible to see with the naked eye from the air.
The presence of the netting caused Cade to look around with a more critical eye. Details he'd missed at first glance now jumped out at him; the way the front door was reinforced with a thick steel band running diagonally across its surface, the heavy wooden shutters ready to be pulled over the windows, the firing platform high in the fork of the tree standing between the house and the barn allowing the position to cover both locations.
Cade turned and found Jacob watching him take it all in.
"Expecting an invasion?" he asked.
"Every minute of every day," Jacob replied, without batting an eye.
The time and energy he'd put into his preparations said that he wasn't joking, either, Cade knew. These weren't haphazard defenses thrown up in a hurry. Jacob had
clearly considered a number of factors and planned for a variety of eventualities. The false-bottom in the cart should have been Cade's first giveaway, but he'd been too caught up in what was happening to give it much thought. Now he saw that it was just another piece in a larger plan.
Cade frowned. He didn't like where his thoughts were taking him.
"Is it really that bad?" he asked.
Jacob eyed him curiously. "Let me guess. You're not from around here, are you?"
"What makes you say that?" Cade asked.
"Well, for starters, if you were, you would know that interfering with the Regent's troops while they are officially conducting their duties is a crime punishable by death."
"You call what they were doing 'official business'?"
Jacob laughed, but there was no humor in his tone. "Doesn't matter what I call it. They consider it official business and so it is."
"Perhaps I disagree with the Regents' policies then," Cade replied.
The old man snorted in disgust. "Everyone disagrees with the Regent's policies. Well, except for those who directly benefit from them, I guess. But they're traitors to the human race, in my view, so they don't count. But it's more than just your lack of knowledge about the Preceptor. You've got that deer in the headlights look about you, like you've just stepped off the boat in a foreign country and can't seem to make sense of what's staring you right in the face. So, before I invite you into my home, perhaps its best if you tell me who you really are, eh?"
Cade was trying to come up with a reasonable way to answer that question when Gabrielle cut in.
"We are from this area, actually, or, rather, we were. We've been away for some time and just returned a few days ago."
Jacob turned to face her. "Away, huh? Where?"
"Canada."
"Walked across the border, did you?"
Gabrielle nodded.
The old man grunted. "Things any better up there?"
"Would we be here if they were?"
It was one of those answers that wasn't really any kind of answer at all, but Jacob seemed to accept it at face value and didn't push any further.
Cade saw an opening and stepped into it. "Obviously things have changed while we've been gone and what we don't know can hurt us. Can you tell me about this Regent?"
Jacob glanced about, as if suddenly afraid someone might overhear. "Not out here. The world has gotten much smaller and there are ears everywhere. Let Stephanie and I fix you supper – the least we can do for your assistance, smart of you to get involved or not – and then we'll talk."
_______________________
Dinner turned out to be rabbit stew, thick with home grown carrots and potatoes. Perhaps it was the fact that she'd been living off canned food for the last couple of days, but to Gabrielle it was one of the best meals she'd tasted in a long while.
She said as much to Stephanie, who'd done most of the cooking, and the girl smiled in response before unconsciously running a hand over her newly shaven scalp. Gabrielle approved; it would be much easier to pass for a boy without her long locks and she wondered why Jacob hadn't insisted on his daughter making the necessary sacrifice long ago. Then again, she'd never had children, least of all a teenage daughter, and she knew there was most likely far more to the situation than she could imagine.
When they were finished eating, they retired to the living room. Jacob stoked a fire in the fireplace and then settled into a worn armchair, indicating with an outstretched hand that they should join him on the couch nearby.
Jacob was silent a moment, and then began his tale.
"I don't know how it was up there in the Great White North, but down here, when the war was over and the demons had won, civilization just kind of ceased to exist.
"Most of the major cities were gone by then, never mind the federal government, and with them all the trappings of comfort, things like, oh, I don't know, electricity, clean drinking water and modern medicine. You know, the non-essentials? Add to that the fact that we'd just become the cuisine of choice for the thousands of demons that now roamed the countryside and it was a miracle that any of us survived."
Gabrielle couldn't believe what she was hearing. She'd known things were bad; she couldn't have gone through the events of the last few days without admitting that to herself, but she hadn't realized just how bad they truly were.
War? Demons? The end of civilization as they knew it?
"Nature, of course, abhors a vacuum, especially when it comes to the distribution of power, and so it wasn't long before something rose from the ashes. But even as we struggled to put things back together, even as groups of survivors began to cooperate, to pool their resources and try to rebuild, the enemy was using that very cooperation to their advantage.
"Groups of people gathered in one place simply became all-you-can-eat buffets for hungry demons. If you wanted protection, you had to live in the demon-ruled towns and play by their rules. There were plenty who did, too; they'd sell out their own mothers if it meant they could get a step ahead of the next guy down the line.
"Those of us who chose not to fall into line were, and still are, fair game in the eyes of those in power."
"You're talking about the Regent?" Cade asked.
Jacob shrugged. "Yes and no. Or, rather, not just the Regent. Some say the demon princes from the Old Testament now rule the world. I don't know if that's true or not. But I do know that the Regent isn't the top of the food chain. He's more like a local crime boss reporting to an unseen godfather, if that makes sense?"
Cade nodded and gestured for him to continue.
"So, with the demon godfather's help, this Regent sets up shop in what's left of New York City and starts acting like the big man on campus. He's got his own personal army – the Knights of the Red Fist – to enforce his rules and he's got the backing of whoever is above him in the food chain. Before long he's running all of the territory from Maine to New York City, or what's left of it, that is. Step out of line and the knights convince you of the errors of your ways and then make sure you never step out of line again."
"Sounds like a swell guy," Gabrielle said.
Jacob laughed bitterly. "Sure, if being a traitor to your own kind fits your definition of swell. In exchange for his power, the Regent is responsible for providing both sustenance for the demons occupying New York and women for them to breed with."
He inclined his head toward the other room, where Stephanie was cleaning up after dinner. "I was supposed to register her for the breeding program several years ago but I'll be damned if I subject my own flesh and blood to that kind of horror." He lowered his voice, so Stephanie couldn't overhear him. "Better dead than forced to breed with one of those hideous things, never mind carrying its offspring to term. More than half the women don't survive their pregnancies!"
Gabrielle was horrified and had no doubt that her expression said as much. What it didn't reveal, however, was exactly what had generated that feeling.
Did he say years?
Jacob was still talking, but Gabrielle couldn't contain herself and had to cut in.
"What's today's date?" she asked.
Jacob shook his head. "Don't have a clue. But Stephanie's been tracking it for our crops." He turned toward the kitchen. "Hey, Steph!"
The teenager appeared in the doorway too quickly not to have been standing just beyond it, listening in the whole time.
"Yes?" she asked, all innocence.
Jacob rolled his eyes and repeated the question.
Stephanie thought about it for a second. "May 17th," she finally said.
But that wasn't enough for Gabrielle.
"And the year? What year is it?!"
Jacob looked at her, surprised by the vehemence of her question, but Stephanie answered readily enough.
"2022."
The girl kept speaking but Gabrielle barely heard what she was saying. A loud buzzing filled her ears as her mind grappled with what she'd just heard.
2022.
Five years.
Five fucking years!
Uriel's voice echoed in her mind. "Time passes differently in the Beyond. Find him and return as quickly as you can!"
Five years.
Good God, they were too late!
12
The rest of the evening passed in a kind of blur for Gabrielle. Cade and Jacob kept talking, but she excused herself and retired to the bedroom that Stephanie had given up so they'd have a private place to sleep for the night. Now it served as a quiet refuge for her to try and hold it together, for she just couldn't seem to wrap her head around what Jacob had told them.
The Adversary had won?
The demons ruled the world now? Civilization was...gone?
After all they'd been through, everything they had sacrificed to prevent that very thing from happening, if felt like the universe had just reared up and delivered a giant slap to her face.
Five years!
It was so unfair. She'd braved the Beyond, had fought her way to Cade's side, and brought him back as quickly as she could. And it didn't matter a damn bit.
She'd suspected something was wrong when they'd stepped outside the house in the first few minutes after returning from the Beyond and that feeling had only grown stronger in the two days since. But the idea that her efforts to find Cade and bring him back in time to do some good had entirely been in vain was not something that had occurred to her despite her growing feelings of unease. Now she was having difficulty adjusting to that fact.
Cade's failure to banish the Adversary back to the infernal planes had started an avalanche of events that anyone would have been hard-pressed to prevent, even with the full might of the Templar Order working in concert with them, Gabbi knew. She'd seen the ragtag state of Riley's group of "renegade" Templars before she'd accepted the mission to find Cade in the Beyond; she'd known that they were behind the eight ball right from the start.
Darkness Reigns Page 9
