Evil (24 page)

“You look better,” I noted, sitting up from Kellan’s side.

“I should be fully healed.” She looked at him beside me. “What’s the plan?”

“Shay and I go inside. That’s it.”

“But—” she argued.

Kellan shot back, “That’s the plan. You stay. He stays. We go.” He jerked on my arm and I only had a second to glance at Damien, expecting an argument from him. There was none. As he sat back in his seat, I realized that he never had any intention of going inside with us. He wasn’t going to help at all. And for some reason, that pissed me off.

“What—huh? Why isn’t he helping?”

Kellan hissed under his breath, “Because this is our fight, not theirs. Come on.”

He murmured as we started toward the house, “He needs to be on watch. If your father comes, I want to know.”

“Oh.” That made a lot more sense, and then I looked up. The house looked like a typical two-story home, built in the suburbs. There were shrubs neatly trimmed in front of the patio and two wicker chairs on top. The sidewalk had been swept clean with a line of flowers beside it, free of weeds. It might’ve been a home I could’ve grown up in as a normal human child.

But when he opened the door, I was assaulted by the evil. It was dark inside, and I smelled sex, desire, fear, torture, sweat. So much more. I felt like I was being choked, burdened down by it all before Kellan touched my arm. Then it was all gone. Looking up, I was able to see inside the room.

“Your messenger side is too much now. It’s like a muzzle around you. You won’t go berserk.”

Shuddering, I glanced around and heard moans from a back room. Kellan stepped forward, and the same cloak from before came over him. He put it on me, too, and we were able to walk around without being felt or seen. And as we went into the back room first, I stopped in disgust. Leah and Matt were tangled together, naked, on a bed with no sheets or pillows. He was thrusting into her, hard. As we watched, she tipped her head back and screamed. Matt thrust harder, banging her head into the wall behind them.

I felt like I should’ve thrown up, but there were no more emotions. The disgust was short-lived, and now I was unemotional, just there to gather information. Glancing at Kellan, I wondered if he had done that, too, taken away my emotions. I wasn’t sure if I should’ve been grateful or angry. It didn’t matter. We turned and went upstairs. When we approached another room at the top of the stairs, I knew I was clearheaded this way. Nothing was going to filter my judgment.

Then we saw Gus. She was naked, strapped to a bed, and bleeding all over. Her head jerked up, but it fell back down in pain with a rag between her lips.

Dylan was shirtless, and he turned with one hand on a fire poker. “What? Did you sense something?”

He clambered off the bed and snapped his pants shut in the same motion, going to the opened door. “Leah? Matt? You two still fucking?”

Leah screamed in response. Her voice was thick with desire.

Dylan looked back and perused Gus for a moment. “What’s that mean? You haven’t done that since…” Then he turned again, slower this time, and searched the room. His eyes passed over us and kept moving without pausing. I felt Kellan’s anger beside me and wondered if I could turn his emotions off, too.

Gus moaned and turned her head to the side, away from us.

“Out there? Who’s out there?” Dylan walked to the window and lifted up a corner of the curtain. As he continued to inspect outside, Kellan touched my wrist again before he was moving once more.

The remaining three bedrooms were bare upstairs. Only one had furniture with an empty bed mattress thrown in a corner. All the rooms remained dark from drawn curtains.

Of course, they wouldn’t want anyone looking inside. They’d see…
My thought trailed off, not wanting to envision the torture of people I once considered my brother and sister.

“Shay,”
Kellan called to me, and I hurried, finding him on the main floor again. We moved past as Matt let out a guttural groan, arching above Leah. She moaned, satisfied. We were at the stairs to the basement, and when we went down, the floors creaked beneath us.

I felt Vespar’s alertness like I’d been whipped in the backside. It was quick, alarmed, and vicious.

“Who’s there? You want to go again?” he growled from a corner.

As we stepped onto the cold pavement and turned toward his corner, all the lights snapped on. He was crouched in the corner, held in place by chains, but still able to stand and move an inch. The links were nailed into the walls and I wondered what magic held them intact. Vespar’s fury was Goliath-like strong, but he was still a captive.

“Who are you?” he roared this time, surging forward. The chains snapped in place, and he flew backward, hitting the wall. “Who?”

“What the—” Feet sped across the floor above us, and the door was thrown open soon after. Leah and Matt hurried down, pulling on clothes. They stopped, seeing no one, and gazed in confusion.

“What?” Leah’s hand dropped from her shirt’s strap, and it fell back down to her elbow. “Are you going crazy now?”

Matt grunted, fastening his pants. “He was saying a bunch of crazy shit last night, too.”

“What’s going on?” Dylan came down the stairs at a slower pace, still shirtless and barefoot.

“Nothing. Demon boy is just trying to make us antsy.” Matt shouldered past him, headed upstairs.

“I don’t know…” Dylan gazed around, peering into every corner how he had upstairs. “She sensed something, too. Then she tried to hide it, like nothing was there.”

Leah sucked in her breath. “You think someone’s here?”

“Someone or somethings?” Matt stopped on the stairs.

“I dunno.” Dylan narrowed his eyes and started to chant under his breath. He kept looking around, as the words got louder and clearer. Leah joined in, her voice raised with each passing word until she was shouting, stretched upward on her toes.

“It’s not working. It’s not them.”

Dylan stopped and then started a different chant.

Leah looked at the stairs. “I don’t know that one.”

“It’s not them!” Matt was disgusted as he walked down again. “And even if it was, they’re strong, Dylan. You’re not hearing me on this. They’re stronger than you think.”

“Then what are we going to do when they do come?” Dylan shouted back. “That’s all I got.”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t your grandmother have other tricks or something? The stuff you dipped his chains in, what was that?”

“Saint’s blood? It doesn’t come cheap. What do you think we’d do with it? Throw it at ’em?”

“I don’t know. Put it in squirt guns?”

“What?” Leah laughed. “Are you stupid?”

“I’m trying here! All I know is that Kellan and Shay won’t be harmed by some stupid words. They’re stronger than that, stronger than these two.”

I was starting to be amused by their conversation before Kellan touched my wrist and indicated the stairs. Nodding, I moved to follow, but he took hold of my elbow instead and whisked upstairs. We never touched one step. I opened my eyes, and we were in Gus’ room again. Her face was turned toward us, straining against the rags around her mouth and neck.

“You can untie her.” Kellan moved to the door, watching out. “I can’t.”

Gus’ eyes popped out, straining even more. I felt her desperation and a flare of hope when she heard his voice. Then, as I knelt and untied all of her restraints, Gus flew upward and wrapped both of her arms around me. She gurgled into my neck, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m so sorry, Shay. I didn’t know—” She gasped and fell limp in my arms.

“Wha—” I looked at Kellan, whose hand was outstretched toward us.

He rolled his eyes. “She would’ve alerted them if she hadn’t shut up. Take her out; get her in the car with Aumae. They’ll watch over her.”

“And how I’m supposed to do that? They can see me now.”

The window flew open behind me, and Kellan smirked. “Fly, Shay. Fly.”

I rolled my eyes, but bundled Gus in my arms and climbed onto the window’s frame. Perched there, I glanced back once and then jumped. I landed, smooth on my feet, and was across to the car in a hurry. The back door flung open, and Aumae held open her arms, a cloak over her and I placed Gus in her arms. As soon as she wrapped them around her, both of them were invisible to the human eye. I looked at Damien who still sat in the front seat. He stared back, unaffected. It was like we had gone to get groceries, and it irked me for some reason. It should’ve meant something to him.

“He’s going to need your help soon,” Damian spoke in a flat voice, watching over my shoulder.

I swallowed a harsh retort and hurried back. Instead of the front door, how we’d gone before, I circled back to Gus’ bedroom window. No light shone out of it, so I sucked in my breath and jumped back up. When I cleared the frame and landed on my feet beside the bed, I saw that Kellan wasn’t there.

In fact, he wasn’t anywhere. I left the room and searched the remaining ones on the floor, but nothing. Then, as I stood at the top of the stairs, Dylan, Leah, and Matt all stood at the bottom, conversing with each other.

“I don’t care what you guys think, something’s going on. Someone’s here.”

Dylan cursed under his breath.

“It can’t be Kellan and Shay, can it? We did the chanty thing and nothing happened. How can we not see them?” Leah’s voice went from excited to confused and ended with disappointment.

Dylan had been watching her as she spoke and then rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re excited to see the demon? That’s pathetic.”

“It’s not pathetic,” she cried out. “I used to have a relationship with him, and I can’t help that I still…”

Matt shuffled to the side, looking disgusted. “Still? You still have a thing for him?”

“But I want Shay dead. Isn’t that enough?”

Both guys snorted and looked away.

“What?”

“I’m going to check on Gus,” Dylan started to say as he turned to the stairs and then he looked up. His hand had been reaching for the hand rail and then he froze. His hand froze in mid-air as his eyes were locked on mine. “Holy—” As he cursed, he went pale.

I’d forgotten they could see me now. “Hi…”

Dylan threw something at me, and I sidestepped it as it soared over my shoulder and shattered behind me.

“Get down!” he yelled, turning away and throwing an arm over his eyes.

Matt and Leah did the same, but I stood, confused. And then a light exploded in the house, from behind me, and I turned in curiosity. What could produce such blinding light? It didn’t bother me, not at all. My eyes were able to see clearer and I bent to scoop up the broken pieces. It looked like a Christmas ornament, one that sparkled and illuminated. It was beautiful.

“What the…”

I turned, holding the ornament in my hands and saw Dylan’s mouth fell open.

The light started to fade, and he gaped at me, speechless.

“But…you’re…”

Matt growled, grabbing Leah’s hand, “I told you. Your stupid tricks won’t work on them. They’re too strong. Come on!”

He dragged Leah behind him to the back of the house. Dylan remained as I soared down the stairs toward him. He couldn’t seem to move, and he lifted a hand to me, pointing. “What are you? That should’ve—all demons are affected by that. That was some of the Holy Fire. It’s supposed to sear the skin off any demon, but you…you picked it up like it’s a toy.”

I balanced the broken ornament in my hand, rolling it around my opened palm.

“It’s very pretty. White mosaic?”

A gurgle left Dylan’s mouth as he stood, as white as the ornament in my hand.

Then my eyes snapped to his, cold. “What else does your grandmother have up her sleeve?”

Dylan didn’t answer. He turned and fled. Everything shifted in me when he took flight. A burst of pure energy rushed through me, spreading throughout my body from fingertip to my hair follicles, and I lifted off the ground in one movement. Soaring over him, I landed in front, stopping him and staring straight into his eyes.

He gasped, reeling backward. “Your eyes—they’re black, just black…”

“I know.” My voice was different, stronger. It sounded like it was coming from a well, an ancient well that was so deep and water was surging upward at an alarming speed. I didn’t know what it was, why my voice was like this, but I felt connected to every messenger that had died before me. They were with me in that moment.