Blood in the Marsh (35 page)

“I had some calls to make.”

“To who?”

“Just some calls.”

She nodded and let it drop. “Nick, about this plan of yours. I’m not sure about it. Leo isn’t a fool and he’s sure to have some scheme cooked up to try and double cross you. I’m afraid we’re the ones who’ll be walking into a trap.”

“Don’t worry.” He pulled her over to him. “I have it all taken care of. We’re going to nail that bastard.”

She felt her body tense, and unfortunately so did he. “What’s wrong? Lyra, what you told Chelsey about you and Michael…that was a lie, right?

Lyra was silent for a few moments. So he was suspicious. That wasn’t good. She needed him to believe that she was still infatuated with him. She pulled away and looked seriously at him. “I think there’s something you should know, Nick. Just in case.”

“What?”

She looked away from him and sighed. “When I first saw you that night in the restaurant I thought you were the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I didn’t dare dream that you would even look twice at me. When you did, I felt like someone who’d just been granted a wish. It was like the wind catching in the sails of a boat and whisking it away across the water. You captured my heart and I didn’t have any control over it. But there are things about you that make me uncomfortable; the way you change when there’s danger. You become someone else—someone dangerous and mysterious and very compelling, but also very frightening.”

“And you don’t know if you can handle it?”

“I’m not sure. Part of me is excited about it—fascinated and intoxicated. But another part of me is terrified that one day you’ll look at me and I’ll see that annihilating look on your face and it’ll be directed at me. I just don’t know how to come to grips with what you do. I mean, you kill people and that’s something I have a very hard time with.”

Nick looked away and she could see his jaw clench. He moved away from her, crossing to the other side of the room.

“Lyra, I can’t possibly explain all that to you. I don’t fully understand it all myself. All I can tell you is that I’d never do anything to hurt you. You mean everything to me—everything.”

She followed him across the room and stepped in front of him. “What does that mean—everything?”

“It means that everything I want depends on you,” he said.

She looked up into his eyes. And that could be interpreted so many ways, she thought. It could mean that he really does love me or that getting what he wants depends on his being successful in turning me over to Leo.

He put his hands on either side of her face. “You do believe me, don’t you?”

She nodded slowly. Sure, one way or the other I guess I do. The question is, which way is it?

He leaned down to kiss her and just then the phone rang. Nick grabbed it up. “Yeah?… Michael?… Where?… Yeah, I’ll be there. Don’t worry, friend, we’ll get through this. You just hang in there.”

He hung the phone up and looked at Lyra. “Looks like the rules of the game have been changed. Someone snatched Chelsey and called Michael at the station. He went after her and they got him too. I’m going to meet them and talk terms.”

Lyra grabbed his arm as he started out of the room. When he looked at her, his face wore that hard–as-stone expression she had learned to recognize so well. “Nick, what if this is just another trap?”

“Then they’re going to be disappointed,” he said flatly. “Stay here and lock the doors. I’ll be back as soon as I take care of this.”

“Alone?” She ran after him as he started down the hall. “Nick, at least call your CIA friends and get them to help you. You can’t do this by yourself! They could kill you!”

“I’ll be fine,” he said as he walked through the kitchen to the back door. “Don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry?” She grabbed his arm and hung on. “Nick, please!”

He pried her fingers from his arm and squeezed her tightly. “I’ll be fine, I promise. Now I have to go.”

Lyra stepped back and wrapped her arms around herself. “Okay, go.”

“I will be back,” he said as he kissed her on the cheek.

She nodded and watched him walk out the door. She watched from the door as he backed his Jeep up and pulled off down the driveway. For a few minutes, she stood staring vacantly out the door. The she locked it and turned to go upstairs.

She had just reached the top landing when she heard a noise behind her. Looking she saw a man dressed in black coming up the stairs after her. She ran as fast as she could to her room and locked the door then bolted into the bathroom and locked it as well.

She heard pounding from the bedroom then the sound of wood cracking. Jerking open the cabinet door she reached for the hidden bottle under the sink. She hesitated for a moment then opened it and downed the contents. The liquid burned like fire in her throat and made her gag, but after a moment she caught her breath. Then the bathroom door burst open. Whirling around she saw the man in black. He didn’t make a move toward her but instead backed away. She watched as he turned and left the bedroom. After a few moments she crept out of the bathroom. If she could make it to the secret passageway she would be safe.

No one knew about the passageway. She had discovered it by accident one day when she was looking through the books in the case in her room. She had taken out a volume on Aristotle and suddenly the entire case had swung out from the wall. Behind it was an opening.

The passageway ran all through the house, with many exits. If she could get to it, she could get out of the house. Running across the room, she opened the entrance and dashed into the passageway. And ran right into someone. Gasping she looked up. Leo smiled down at her and took her by the arms.

“Hello, my darling.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked in a choked voice. “How did you get in?”

Leo smiled and looked over her head and nodded. She jerked her head around to see who he was looking at and a cloth covered her face. Leo held onto her as she struggled to break free. Her exertion made the chloroform take effect more quickly.

She slumped and Leo caught her, lifting her up in his arms.

Lyra awoke in strange surroundings. She was in a small dark room. There was one window but it was shuttered. She tried to sit up and found that she couldn’t move. Her arms were lashed firmly to the headboard of the bed she was lying on.

She raised her head as high as she could to get a better look and saw someone standing on the opposite side of the room beside the closed door. She couldn’t see his features, but from the shape, she could tell it was a man.

“Who are you?” she asked in a cracked voice. He didn’t answer, but left the room. She let her head fall back down and started pulling at the ropes that held her. The bedroom door opened and she looked up. Closing the door behind him, Leo walked over and sat down on the side of the bed.

“You are awake at last, my dear.”

“Untie me!” she demanded.

“In time,” he replied, reaching out to unbutton her shirt.

“Stop!” She curled her knees up to her chest and started kicking at him. “Leave me alone!”

He laughed and left the room but was gone only a moment. Three people in white robes with their hoods drawn over their heads followed him back in. While two of them held her down, the third cut her clothes off with a slim, sharp knife. Once she was naked, they tied her ankles to the bedposts at the foot of the bed and left the room. Leo sat down again and ran his hand down her face to her neck and then to her breast.

Lyra screamed and thrashed around. “Get your hands off me, you pig!”

Leo laughed and squeezed her breast in his hand. “You are much more beautiful than I imagined, my darling. I am very pleased.”

“Well I’m not!” she shouted. “Leave me alone!”

“I’m afraid that is not possible,” he said in a soft, intimate tone. “You see, you are mine, Lyra. I have waited so very long for this and now at last the time has come.”

“You’re crazy!” she whispered.

“On the contrary,” he said with a smile and moved his hand lower down her body. “I am quite sane and, I might add, quite excited.”

Lyra shuddered with fear and revulsion. “Leo, please! Please, untie me.”

“Soon,” he whispered and leaned over close to her face. “Quite soon.”

She closed her eyes and turned her head as he tried to kiss her. He chuckled and grabbed her face. “I hate you!” she hissed.

“But not for long, my beloved,” he crooned. “Soon you will see me as your savior.”

“Like hell!”

He laughed and stood up. Giving her one last look, he left the room. Lyra screamed and tugged at her ropes until at she was exhausted. After what seemed like hours, the door opened and five white-robed figures walked in. One of them lifted her head while another sat down and held out an elaborate chalice to her.

“Drink,” he said in a deep voice.

“I don’t think so,” she refused.

The person holding her head clamped her nostrils shut and covered her mouth. She struggled and jerked her head around but could not get free. At last, she could not hold her breath any longer and she gasped for air. The man with the chalice poured the liquid into her mouth then covered her mouth with his hand.

Lyra knew they would suffocate her if she didn’t swallow. The liquid was thick and sickly sweet, tasting slightly coppery. Hoping that whatever was in the liquid she had drank earlier would counteract what they were giving her, she swallowed.

The man removed his hand from her mouth and nodded. “She will be ready soon.”

She looked around and realized that all five of the people were apparently waiting for her to have some sort of reaction. She thought about all she had learned and knew that they expected her to become compliant and submissive as if she didn’t know what was happening.

After a few minutes, she blinked a couple of times then let her head fall back limply to the pillow. One of the white robed men walked over and sat down beside her. “Lyra? How do you feel?”

She turned her head slowly and looked at him, keeping her eyes half closed. “I feel funny—like I could float.”

He snapped his fingers and the others cut her free. They pulled her up and dressed her in a thin white robe with a hood. One of them left and a moment later Leo walked in. Like everyone else, he was dressed in white, but his robe was decorated with intricate red stitching and embroidery.

He walked over and tilted Lyra’s chin up, looking into her eyes. She forced herself to remain still and keep her eyes partially closed. He smiled and stroked her face. “Lyra, my darling, I want you to listen to me. Tonight you and I will fulfill our destinies. What began long ago will climax on this night.”

She didn’t reply and he ran his hand down her body, caressing her breast. “Tell me you will obey me, Lyra.”

She licked her lips and whispered softly. “I will obey.”

Leo smiled and pulled her to him, holding her close for a moment. Then he released her. “She is ready. It is time.”

Two people moved beside Lyra and took her arms. They led her out of the bedroom and through the house. She looked around, trying to determine where she was. The house she had been led out of was a small, weathered wooden house with a barren yard and boards nailed over the windows.

The men holding her pulled her along. They left the yard and wandered through a dense copse of trees, emerging in a marshy area. Lyra looked up and saw the dim outline of the new moon. Stars twinkled overhead and the air was still and warm.

She wasn’t sure how long they walked. She saw a glow in the distance as they walked into another stand of trees. At last they stopped and she saw the people gathered in a clearing that had been cut in the grove.

She was led into the center of the clearing. A circle had been inscribed on the ground in white, a pentagram in red drawn in its center. Symbols decorated the perimeter of the circle and large torches were planted into the ground at equidistant intervals just inside the circle.

Two stout wooden posts were planted in the earth in the center of the pentagram. Ropes were tied to each post with thick straps fastened to the loose ends. Oh no! She panicked. I can’t let them tie me! God, I have to get away!

She jerked one arm free and tried to pull her other arm from the man’s grasp. But he was too strong and she couldn’t fight both men with one hand. She screamed, kicked, and thrashed around, but they held on and dragged her into the circle.

She was still screaming and fighting when they led her between the two posts. Two others helped them secure her by fastening the straps around her wrists. Her arms felt as if they were being stretched and her muscles ached. The men took their place with the others around the outside of the circle. They all joined hands and began to chant and sway from side to side. Lyra looked around in fear, her heart pounding in her ears so loud it almost drowned out the sound of the voices.

Suddenly she was overwhelmed. Lucius, this isn’t how it’s supposed to be! I’m trapped and I don’t know what to do. Oh god! I don’t want to die!

A man stepped into the circle—the Seneschal. His robe was edged in red and he wore a red sash around his waist. He stopped in front of Lyra and lowered his hood. Her eyes widened as she looked at him.