Darkness Rising (The East Salem Trilogy) (25 page)

Carl eyed the guns on the countertop. “What’s with the arsenal?”

“They’re my aunt’s,” Tommy said. “She’s a lot more dangerous than she looks.”

“Apparently. What’s that?”

“Strawberry-rhubarb pie.”

To Tommy’s surprise, Carl wrinkled his nose. Had he only been acting polite when he’d said he liked it?

“If the landline rings, would you pick it up? It might be Dani. If it is, please tell her to throw some clothes in a bag, because I’m on my way to get her.”

“Will do,” Carl said.

Tommy was worried. Dani hadn’t called. When he reached her house, he rapped on the back door and was greeted by the barking of a dog that, viewed through the window, appeared to be the size of a water buffalo. Dani had inherited the house after losing her parents in a plane crash, but after being attacked by Amos Kasden in her own kitchen, and watching him die there when Tommy saved her, she was leaning toward selling it. Her memories of her parents were intact, but the house no longer contained them. Tommy saw a For Sale by Owner sign on her back porch, leaning against the railing, but it was still on the porch and not in the front yard.

He turned to see Dani’s car pull into the driveway. She climbed out of her car and smiled to see him. When she reached the back steps, he took her in his arms and kissed her. She had a bag over her shoulder and shopping bags dangling from her arms, making it hard for her to reciprocate.

“Better,” he said.

“Much better. I’ve been meaning to tell you I think we need to kiss more.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I
was
saying it by batting my eyelashes.”

“Is that what that was?” he said. “I thought you had allergies.”

“There’s a fifty-pound bag of dog food in the trunk, Romeo,” she said. “Otto’s probably hungry. Would you mind?”

“Maybe you should leave it in the car,” Tommy said. “You didn’t get my message? I think you should stay at my house for a while. Otto and Arlo too.”

He quickly told her what had happened at his aunt’s house, and when he’d finished she agreed that they needed to stay close together and be on constant alert.

“So Ruth knows?” Dani said.

“I couldn’t exactly pretend it was just my imagination after blowing a giant hole in her house. She’s on board. Not thrilled about having a demon on her trail, but she’s in.”

“Why was she attacked? Because Abbie mentioned her?”

“That’s all I can think of.”

“How do they know what Abbie said?”

“I don’t know. Where’s Quinn?”

“Good question,” Dani said. “He seems to have disappeared. Okay, ‘disappeared’ makes it sound ominous. He’s still checked in at the inn, but he asked the young woman at the front desk for a cab to the station in Katonah. I assume he’s gone back to the city.”

“Is he coming back?” Tommy said. Otto barked again.

“He’d better. I can’t afford to feed that eating machine much longer.”

“Grab everything you need,” Tommy said, taking the keys from her hand and opening the door for her, “but make it quick. I don’t like leaving Carl alone with my aunt for too long.”

“Do you think they can’t protect themselves?”

“I’m worried we’re going to catch them making out when we get back.”

“Speaking of which . . .” She grabbed him by the head and kissed him with all the passion she felt inside of her. “Who knows when we’re going to get another chance?” she said when she finally pulled her lips from his.

“Yeah, who knows?” he said, throwing his arms around her. “Oh, look— here’s another chance now.” They kissed again and he lifted her off her feet for a long minute. Then he set her down. “I’ll put the food back in the car, and then I’ll help you pack. Tell me what to get. And don’t forget your computer.”

His friends had told him when he’d closed on the mansion—with its ten bedrooms, high-tech security system, exterior walls built from stone and solid as those of a castle; the land marking the highest elevation in Westchester County, surrounded by a stone wall topped with a deer fence rising ten feet, with a hedgerow between the wall and the road that completely blocked any view of his house from the street—that he’d bought himself a fortress of solitude. He agreed with them completely.

Tommy had decorated the house according to his taste, which gave it a distinctly masculine feel, but he had a pair of guestrooms decorated with female guests in mind, with bedspreads and curtains more floral and pastel, and bathrooms stocked with shampoos and skin-care products that, he had to admit, he’d hired a female personal shopper to pick out for him. He put Dani in what he referred to as Chick Room 1.

Over a late dinner, Tommy, Dani, and Carl gave Ruth a more thorough debriefing. Dani broke down for her what Quinn had learned about the drug they’d been given at Starbucks, and his explanation for Amos Kasden’s psychotic break. When Carl referred to Quinn as Dani’s ex-fiancé, Dani awkwardly corrected him, saying he was just a friend.

“Well, either way,” Carl said, “he seems to be a genius. We’re lucky he’s working for the good guys.”

When everyone started yawning, Carl agreed to stay up for the first watch. His job was to watch the security monitors, both the night-vision cameras and the FLIR monitors, and wake everybody if he saw anything. “As I understand it,” Tommy said, “they might scare us, but they can’t physically harm us unless they take material form. And when they do that, they’re vulnerable. I don’t know if that thing we saw at Ruth’s house is still out there, but when we shot at it, it definitely didn’t like the attention. They feel pain when they’re corporeal. And I, for one, intend to cause as much of that as I can.”

Dani got ready for bed, then went down to the kitchen in her flannel pajamas because she’d forgotten to fill Otto’s water dish. She didn’t ask Carl to do it because for some reason Otto had growled at Carl. Until then Otto seemed to like everybody he met.

They’d decided that since the property was walled in, it was safe to let the dog sleep on the back porch where he’d be sheltered from the wind and cold by an old denim duvet cover Tommy found in the garage and stuffed with straw from the chicken coop. Otto seemed content with the plan.

Dani set down his dish of water, which he’d nearly finished by the time she was done rubbing his ears and wishing him good night.

In the kitchen she told Carl she felt ever so slightly safer with the dog on the porch.

“I’m not sure it will mean much if push comes to shove,” Carl said. “Though he is a big one.”

“Carl,” Dani said, “if you don’t mind, please don’t tell Tommy I was asking about Cassandra. It’s none of my business and I know it’s over— there was really no point in my bringing it up. Just forget I said anything.”

“You have my word,” Carl said. “But it’s tough to be around someone else’s ex, knowing that somewhere in the past they loved the other person
as much as they love you now. Has Tommy said anything to you about Quinn?”

“No,” Dani said. She found it hard to believe Tommy would be jealous of Quinn. “Has he said anything to you?”

“No,” Carl said. “Though I imagine he wouldn’t mind getting your friend in an arm-wrestling contest or something similarly macho.”

“Really? He said that?”

“No,” Carl said. “He didn’t say that. Actually, I think he learned his lesson on jealousy with Cassandra. I couldn’t count the number of times he got upset when she’d have her picture in one of the tabloids and the headline said she was cheating on him. I told him they were just trying to get readers, but it was hard for him not to take it seriously. He was heartbroken when she finally left him.”

“That’s not the way he told it to me,” Dani said.

“Well, I’m sure that with twenty-twenty hindsight he can see it more clearly,” Carl said. “Time and perspective and all that.”

“Good night, Carl,” Dani said.

“He loves you very much, you know.”

“I know,” she said. But inwardly she thought,
If he loved Cassandra but played it down when I asked about it, what’s he saying now that we’re involved? Does he even know what being in love means?
“You going to be okay down here?”

“All good,” he said. “Can’t fall asleep on my first watch.”

“No, but when you’re done, warm milk really can do the trick. It’s not just an old wives’ tale.”

“I’m good,” he said. “You go to bed. Otto and I will be fine.”

Alone in the kitchen, Carl fought back tears. He’d thought there was no hell greater than the one he’d been in, but now that he was leading the
people he loved down a path toward destruction, he wished only to die. He felt beyond redemption, and yet he knew if he could just ask for it . . . He tried to bring his hands together in prayer, but it was as if he were holding powerful magnets with opposing poles, his hands repelling each other, no matter how hard he pressed.

His hands gripped the armrests of his chair and he leaned forward, gritting his teeth, squeezing his eyes closed as he fought to say the words.

“Our Father . . . who . . . art . . . in heaven!”

He heard himself growling, his throat constricting to cut off the flow of air. He grunted and pushed harder to make his mouth obey his will, but his will was failing.

“Hallowed . . . ,” he managed to say, but he could go no further. The harder he struggled, the more he was trapped, like in one of those straw finger puzzles he’d loved as a child.

“Help me, Jesus,” he mumbled. “Please . . .”

He was crying, weeping tears of anguish and profound regret. He wanted to die and he wanted to kill simultaneously. If only he could kill himself, he thought, but when he tried to move his arm to pick up the Colt automatic sitting on the counter not five feet away, he couldn’t do it.