Blood Debt (The Blood Sisters Book 2) (12 page)

“Let it
out, child!” The nun bent over and screamed right into her face. “Don’t hold
onto it. Let it go so your soul can find its way back home.”

Amanda
groaned and fell forward onto the podium. Duncan pulled her hair off her neck
in an effort to sooth her and saw her neck too was blackened. Soon, she’d just
be a pile of ash. “Do it, Amanda!” Duncan gritted his teeth. “Prove to it
you’re the stronger one.”

“You saw
it in the underworld, didn’t you? You saw its eyes, girl, and since then it’s
been holding parts of you hostage. Now you have to let it out. The only way out
is through. You must ride through the evil, through the pain. Own it,” the nun
gritted her teeth, “own it or you’ll smolder to dust!”

“I…do
n’t
…” Amanda struggled to
breathe
. She was dying. Dying and Duncan was
privy to it.

“This is
over!” Duncan pushed the
nun
back. Her
body slammed into the wall with a gasp.

Mike’s
eyes widened. “Jasper! No!”

His hands
fished for the keys, but a blast came out of Amanda that threw Duncan across
the room. He never felt such a surge of power, a torrent of wind like a
hurricane. Like a rag doll, his body bounced against the bricks and Duncan fell
to the floor. He saw stars when his head collided with the stone.

The area
was clear. Mike was tossed to the side, but in the center of the room was a
demon. A giant hulking demon, from the belly of torment, from the underworld.
Like a giant troll, with a naked green abdomen with rows of fat rolls.
Its
pig nose snorting
its marble eyes
rolling red then black. Its claws outstretched for
Amanda.

It had
touched her in the underworld and now it wanted a piece of her. Needed a piece
of her.

But
Amanda…. she stood on her own two feet. The kneeling pad was gone and from one
wrist the manacles still dangled. Half her face was still burnt, but like time
lapse photography, her flesh was putting itself back together.
Duncan never saw her look so determined, nor so put
together.

Amanda
raised one hand, standing in the colored prism from the window. It didn’t seem
to affect her now that this demon was free. Now she stood like a holy warrior
with her hand outstretched, face resolute. A ball of swirling light grew
between her fingers. The faster it rolled, the larger it grew; its light was so
bright, Duncan shielded his eyes.

Like
staring into the sun, Duncan was unable to see what happened next.

H
er body
evicted the demon as if it was a plague.

 
Amanda experienced clarity for the first time since
being kidnapped by Vaughn. With quick fingers, she unlocked her handcuffs and
stood upon the abyss to stare down the demon who claimed parts of her soul.

Fractured
and reeling, but now Amanda knew what to do.

The
battlefield was clear; her friends were far enough way that Amanda could
navigate and fend off the demon beast. Destroy it and reclaim the parts of her
soul that it had captured. In a lot of ways, this was a battle she had been
building toward all her life. Amanda Blood didn’t battle, she couldn’t take the
pain, the suffering it caused her body. So she relied on Jessica.

Jessica
lived
in
torture and pain. She used her
own pain to soldier through. Amanda always thought that was Jessica’s power,
but Amanda now realized it wasn’t just Jessica’s. It could be hers too, if she
was brave enough. Strong enough.

Was she?

To free
Jessica, she just might be.

Amanda
held up her hand, allowing her power to grow. The demon stumbled toward her
with outstretched limbs, its claws ready to snatch her up, but when it saw the
power manifesting between her fingers, it paused. Hesitation. Bewilderment,
Amanda could even feel the beast’s confusion, but it was its lust for humanity,
its hunger for blood that Amanda couldn’t stomach.

“Stand
back,” Amanda ordered and held her open palm higher. The glow of power had
rolled itself like a giant snowball, larger than she had ever commanded before.
It strained her concentration and her heart, just to keep it building, just to
keep it under control. When she aimed it, Amanda had to hit her target.

She
didn’t know if she was strong enough to do it again without rest.

Sweat on
her brow, Amanda cemented her legs wide and aimed her hand at the beast. The
light was too bright for such a creature of darkness and already it was covering
its eyes with its arms. It stumbled back and forth, trying to figure out where
she was, then Amanda twitched her fingers. A simple little
twitch
was all it took.

The light
shot out like a
cannonball
in a wait
never had before. It circled around the beast, spinning as if on its axis, but
continuing in an outward orbit until the demon was covered in a golden glow.

Pain,
coming in waves. Amanda teetered, feeling the beast’s pain. It’s confusion. The
death of the beast, despite the evil of
its
ways, would hit her hard. Amanda gritted her jaw and flicked her hand over,
driving the beast back against the wall. She glanced at the cage with the demon
trap, and with a snort of air, the cage unlocked.

The door
opened.

Amanda’s
eyes widened as her strength
depleted,
with
the power of her mind, both hands up high in the air, she drove the beast into
the small cage. It shouldn’t have fit, but the ball of light had shrunk it.
Sending it against the metal bars, the door closed and Amanda latched the lock
shut with her mind.

Crashing
down to her knees, Amanda crawled over to the cage to finish her work. The
beast howled, its claws rattled the cage, a look of fear on its face. Amanda’s
head hurt so badly, she wanted to hide from it. The thumping behind her eyes,
the sour feeling spreading up from her stomach, but Amanda grit her teeth and
grabbed the edge of the cage.

She had
to embrace it. Fall in love with the pain.

Her open
palm slammed against the cage and just as she would have exorcised a demon from
a host, this demon began to fade. Its skin tearing apart from its body, turning
into withering,
wispy
pieces of smoke.

The demon
cried in pain, its features shrinking into
  
itself; tears fell from Amanda’s eyes, as she felt what it felt. To see
what it saw. To know it would never be any better than a stinking hulking demon
who craved nothing but destruction. Its hate was in her heart, in a way Amanda
had never felt before.

Amanda
faltered; but her hand was firm against the bars of the cage, until the light
was all that was left. The demon was gone, its dust faded from the room until
the only thing in the cage were the pieces of golden, shining light. They flew
into Amanda and she gasped, hands up in the
air,
she fell
backward
onto the floor.

Pieces of
her lost, now they stitched themselves together. Her soul mended itself and
Amanda thought maybe now she’d be ready. Maybe she’d be stronger than ever, and
maybe all of this was happening just in the nick of time.

Someone
scooped her up into his arms and from his scent, Amanda knew it was Duncan. He
held her close. “
Damn it
, wake up,
Amanda. Wake up.”

“She’ll
be okay, boy.” The nun said.
  
“Her soul
has a lot of work to do, but did you see what she did?” The nun laughed. “Never
in all my years did I think I would witness this with my own eyes.”

“She
embraced her power more than I thought she ever could,” Mike said. “I knew what
she could do, heal. Feel. But that? That’s a true warrior. Jessica would be
proud.”

Duncan
didn’t care about any of that right now. Amanda felt his worry, how responsible
he felt, but all the voices sounded so far away. Gingerly, he held her limp
body and she fought back to the surface. She needed to see him, show him she’d
be all right. Her strength would return in time, Amanda knew that, so she
smiled as if in a deep slumber and fought to open her eyes.

His mouth
fell open as she saw him for the first time. “Mandy? You know how to give a guy
a scare, you know that?”

Amanda
licked her dry lips. “You promised me cobbler?”

Duncan
shook his head with a laugh and Mike joined in, his hands resting on his hips.
“I think,” Mike said, “we can arrange some cobbler. You need to regain your
strength, young lady.”

Didn’t
she know it? The nun and Mike left the room, so it was Duncan who carried
Amanda to the stairs. Along the way, Amanda stared at the colored prism, cast
along the rug that led to the towering window.

This
place. All of it. It was what was going to save Jessica. Amanda was sure of it.

Duncan
studied the worry lines on her face. “What is it?”

Amanda
sighed. “It’s almost time.” She closed her eyes and saw a menacing scowl.
“She’s getting closer. And she’s bringing friends.”

*****

Blueberry cobbler
was eaten and Amanda washed it down with
milk. The warm sweetness mingled just perfectly with the crispy sweet crust.
Reminded her of childhood swims at the cabin, sitting on her mother’s lap.

For a
brief moment, Amanda thought of the long braids she once wore. How lovingly Mom
had spun them together. She had forgotten, but eating with the cobbler,
reminded her. Food was a powerful reminder, a force of magic all its own.

She felt
stronger than she had felt in a long time. She washed her dirty plate and cup
in the kitchen off of the rectory. It was
small
but functional. Homey wasn’t how she’d describe it either, but Amanda was
grateful to have somewhere to setup. Being a Blood, at least for now, meant
living on the road, but with Jessica gone everything felt strange. Weird.

Amanda
needed Jessica in order to feel at home. It didn’t matter where they were, but
Amanda needed her, corny as it was.

Sighing,
Amanda trudged through the halls of the church until she was in the back
office. Mike wasn’t there, but Duncan had his shotguns and pistols laid out on
Father Thomas’s desk. He turned his head at the sound of
Amanda,
but didn’t stop loading
shot
gun shells into a gun. “All cleaned up?”

Amanda
nodded as she stood beside him. Her fingers traced the edge of the desk. Thanks
for the cobbler seemed a hollow thing to say. “It’s going to happen soon.
She’ll be here and it’ll be time for me…” Amanda searched his face for
inspiration—desperate to find her own courage. The softness of his eyes gave
her the will to go on. “What if I can’t do what’s necessary to stop her? What
if I can’t get her downstairs?”

Duncan
lay his shotgun down and rested his hands on her shoulders. “We do what we have
to, right? Get her inside the cage so you can save her; take that mark off of
her soul for good. Get us our girl back. Move on from this awful place.”

His words
made her feel better, but still, Amanda felt a deep churning anxiety. “If I
can’t? Even if we get her down there, what if I can’t save her? What if I can’t
take that kind of pain? What if I simply don’t have that kind of power?”

Duncan
smirked. “Darling, after what you just did, I wouldn’t be surprised if you
could exorcise the whole planet. Believe in yourself. You can do it; I know you
can.”

Amanda
wished she could be so sure. She needed rest to gather strength. Time to get
that underway so when it was time for the show to start, she’d be ready.
“Where’s Mike?”

“Checking
out the perimeter. If Jessica doesn’t come alone, we have to be ready to stand
our ground. We won’t leave Jessica, or you, behind. We stay here until this
thing is done. One way or another.”

A final
stand. Amanda licked her lips with anxiety, her own fear blocking out Duncan’s
emotions. “But what comes next? If—when we save Jessica, what do we do then?”

Duncan took
Amanda’s hand, his eyes dark, but his heart was even darker. Like a howling
cavern, part of his soul grew cold. “We figure this thing out for good. Free
you and Jess from Lourdes, once and for all.”

And if it
wasn’t possible? If this was just their
life
forever? Amanda would never wish her life away, but as she crept off to find a
quiet place to nap, the hollowness of her life hung over her head like a rain
cloud.

Outside,
thunder snapped and lightening illuminated the parish through the windows. A storm
was brewing.

She
settled against a pillow and a thinning plaid afghan. It didn’t bring her
comfort, but half way to sleep, her inner eye saw the smiling face of Mom and
felt the light kisses she once planted against her cheeks. “She’s going to need
your kindness, more than most.”

Could
Amanda still use her kindness even if
pain
was the answer to free Jessica’s soul?