Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (13 page)

Take that, you sick fuck,
Roy thought.

Michael’s face, still right in front of Roy’s, turned from
confusion to anger, and Roy knew he had only a second more before his shot was
over. He summoned all of the energy he had and ordered his arm to press upward
as hard as he possibly could.

He felt the knife slide the rest of the way into Michael, all
the way to the hilt. He could feel Michael’s clothing next to his hand where he
held the knife’s handle. He kept pressing.

Michael pulled away. Roy released his hold on the knife. As
he stepped back, Roy could see the knife was placed squarely in Michael’s
chest. Michael looked down at the knife, a look of shock washing over him. He
reached for the knife, and grabbed it.

Shit!
Roy thought.
He’ll pull it out and use it on me!

Michael’s hand wrapped around the knife’s handle, and he
tried to pull it out. It wouldn’t come. He raised his other hand, adding it to
the one already there. With both hands he pulled, but it was stuck.

I must have landed the serrated edge under a rib,
Roy thought.

Michael tried again. He looked at Roy, shock and horror on
his face as he began to realize he wasn’t going to remove the knife.

Die, motherfucker!
Roy thought.
Go straight to hell!

Michael’s eyes began to glaze over as his thoughts left the
idea of removing the knife and shifted to something else. He dropped to his
knees next to the bed, still grasping the knife, but no longer trying to pull
it. Roy could see he was close to passing out. After another agonizing moment,
he fell forward and hit the floor, out of Roy’s sight.

Roy let himself return to the basement cell at the hotel in
St. Thomas. The others were sitting still around him.

He’s dead,
Roy thought.
I killed him.

Steven was looking at the floor of the cell. He didn’t look
up, but Roy saw a smile spread across his face.

You stabbed him?
Deem asked.

Yes,
Roy thought.
In the chest. He just fell to the floor beside me.

Thank god,
Winn thought.
At least we’ll have bodies to go back to.

He was about to rape you, Deem,
Roy thought.
I stopped him. You’ll
find your clothes a little disheveled when you get back.

Thank you,
Deem thought, shivering.

Your brand,
Roy thought, looking at Winn.
It’s much lighter than when
I went back to the motel room.

Yours are getting lighter, too,
Winn thought.

What will happen when it’s no longer glowing?
Deem asked.
Will we be able end
our trances?

I’m guessing yes,
Winn thought.
It’ll happen to me first, so we’ll find
out.

Michael isn’t going to be showing up with bodies,
Deem said.
I presume they’ll keep
waiting for him to arrive before they decide to remove us.

If we’re lucky,
Winn thought,
these brands will be gone before they
realize Michael isn’t coming.

That,
Roy thought,
or they remember to re-brand us.

Let’s all be ready to slip out of here the second the brands
are gone,
Winn
thought.
We’ll rendezvous at the motel room but then we’ll have to leave
quickly.

Thank you,
Steven thought.
Thank you for killing him.

You’re welcome,
Roy thought to Steven.
And I’m sorry we didn’t do it
before, back when we should have.

Steven looked up at Roy, and their eyes met. Steven nodded at
Roy, and Roy nodded back. Steven smiled briefly. Roy could tell how upset he
was, he knew Steven wanted to cry. But he knew Steven wasn’t going to break
down in front of Winn and Deem.

What are you going to do about Jason?
Deem asked.

I don’t know,
Steven thought.
I really don’t.

He’s obviously too far gone,
Winn thought.
He’s on their side
now.

You may be right,
Steven thought.
I may have lost him.

We’ll have to see how this plays out,
Roy thought.
Things might change.

They waited. Deem kept an eye on Winn’s brand, and after a
while she noticed it was beginning to fade rapidly.

Michael should have been back with the bodies by now,
Winn thought.
Someone upstairs is
going to start wondering soon.

It’s Jason,
Roy thought.
He’s back in the motel.

What’s he doing?
Deem asked. Steven turned his head to listen to Roy’s
answers.

He’s walked into our room from where he was sleeping,
Roy thought, dictating to the group
what he was seeing in the other trance.

Roy shifted back to the motel room fully. Jason was looking
at Deem, Steven, and himself all lying on the beds. Then he noticed Michael
behind Roy’s bed. A look of anguish appeared on Jason’s face, and he dropped to
Michael’s body. Roy watched as Jason examined the knife in Michael’s chest, and
he looked up, figuring out what had happened. Jason looked at Roy, at the
washcloth still stuck in his mouth. Roy wasn’t sure if Jason was sad, angry, or
both. He was afraid Jason might do something drastic.

Instead, Jason knelt by Michael’s body and began talking.
“I’ll take you there,” Jason said, “like you wanted, to The Throat. I’ll do
it.” Jason slowly picked Michael up, the knife still embedded in his chest.
Blood came from the wound, but the knife was blocking most of the blood from
escaping. With Michael in his arms, he opened the door to the motel room and
carried him out. After a few moments, Roy heard the sound of Michael’s Mercedes
coming to life, and then the sound of the car leaving the motel parking lot.

Roy returned to St. Thomas and the others.

Jason took Michael,
he thought to the others.
He drove off with him. He said
he was taking him somewhere. To the throat.

Emmett said something about a throat, too,
Steven thought.
What does it
mean?

Devil’s Throat,
Deem thought.
It’s a cave system near here.

Do you know it very well?
Steven asked.

Some of it,
Deem said.
Not my favorite place to be.

Snakes?
Roy thought.

No,
Deem thought.
It’s a place that likes death. I think the reason Emmett said
he wanted to bleed us there was to feed a creature that lives in the stone of
that cave. It might be where they’ve been taking the tourists and the others
who go missing.

It’s gone,
Roy thought, pointing to Winn’s brand.
See if you can end
your trance.

If I can,
Winn thought,
you all be ready to leave the second your brands fade.
I’ll wait at the motel for you.

Winn closed his eyes, and in a matter of seconds he faded and
was gone.

It worked,
Deem thought.
That’s a relief. Now he can keep an eye on
our bodies until we can go back. Not that I relish the idea of Winn being left
alone with my body, mind you.

They’ve got to be figuring out that Michael isn’t coming,
Roy thought.
This is going to be
close.

Steven looked at his brand. It still had a faint glow.
Deem,
when we get back, we’ll need to go to Devil’s Throat. I have to find Jason.

He betrayed you,
Deem thought.
He betrayed all of us.

He’s still my son,
Steven thought.
I can’t just leave him. Will you take us
there?

Deem looked at Roy, and he seemed to nod in agreement with
Steven.
Alright,
she thought.
I’ll take you there.

They all returned to watching their brands.

◊

Steven saw Deem fade and disappear from the basement cell. He
checked his own brand – it was still glowing.

How did she…?
Steven wondered.

Winn,
Roy thought.
He must have found a way to bring her back, something
more powerful than the brand.

Either one of us might be next,
Steven thought.

I hope he doesn’t try it on me,
Roy thought.

Why not?
Steven thought.
The sooner we get out of here the better!

Because I’m split-trancing,
Roy thought.
And I can’t end just one of the
trances, I have to end them both at the same time. If he pulls me back it’ll
fuck me up. If he pulls you back first, tell him not to do it to me.

They heard the sound of footsteps overhead.
They must be
coming to take us out,
Steven thought, but before he could communicate
anything more to Roy he found himself back in the motel room, with Winn on one
side and Deem on the other.

“Welcome back!” Winn said, removing the matchbox from his
wrist. He held it up for Steven to see. “Tracks and brings back!”

“You can’t do it to Roy,” Steven said.

“Why not?” Winn asked.

“He’s split-trancing,” Steven said. “He said it would fuck
him up if you do. And just as you pulled me back, I heard footsteps overhead.
They might have been coming back to take us out, to re-brand us.”

“Shit,” Winn said. “I think we should try it anyway. If they
re-brand him, we may never get him back.”

“The brands were almost gone,” Steven said. “A couple of
minutes more and he’d be able to come back on his own.”

They heard Roy moan.

“He’s watching and listening to us!” Deem said.

Roy raised an arm and moved his hand as though he was holding
a pen.

“He wants to write something,” Steven said. “Anyone got a
pen? Pencil? Anything?”

Deem went to her backpack and rummaged through it. She found
a black marker and took it to Roy.

“Here,” Winn said, handing Steven a piece of notepaper he’d
found next to the telephone.

Steven uncapped the marker and placed it in Roy’s hands, then
he held the paper under the marker for Roy to write.

Roy scratched at the paper for a moment.

“He wrote ‘wait’,” Steven said to Winn and Deem. He turned
back to Roy. “We’ll wait, Dad.”

Steven sat next to Roy, trying to be patient. Winn walked
back into the adjoining room and began packing up some of his items. He returned
with his backpack.

“Do you think they’ll come after us?” Deem asked.

“Don’t know,” Winn said. “They’ve got Jason, that’s what they
wanted most. And they can get more blood by nabbing tourists. But I expect
they’re pissed at me.”

Roy’s eyes began to flutter.

“Dad!” Steven called. “Dad! Can you hear me?”

Roy opened his eyes and smiled. “That was close!” he said.
“They had just realized I was the only one left. One of them had jumped down
into the cell with the branding iron and was coming at me. Two more seconds and
I would have been trapped there.”

“We should get out of here,” Winn said.

“We’re going to Devil’s Throat,” Steven said. “Deem is going
to take us.”

“Enjoy,” Winn said. “I hate caves.”

“Winn,” Deem said, “just come along. We need the manpower.”

“This wasn’t the plan,” Winn said. “Jason was supposed to
come with us and we’d be done, not this double-cross shit. I didn’t sign up for
going into caves. I’m no good in them, you know that.”

“We could use your help,” Roy said, getting off the bed and
noticing that there was blood on his hands. He checked the bed. There was blood
on the bedspread. He removed it, wadding it up. “We’ll have to take this, it’s
stained,” he said. Then he checked the floor beside the bed. “Shit!” There was
a small bloodstain in the carpet.

“They’ll never figure out whose blood that is,” Winn said.
“The motel might assume it was yours.”

“Maybe,” Roy said.

“Listen, all of you,” Steven said. “I need your help. We’re
not done. The next step is getting Jason, but I know that might not happen. He
might not come with me. But whether or not he will come, I’m taking this place
down.”