Hell Is Coming (The Watcher's Series Book 1) (18 page)

“You’re up.”

I spun round in alarm and saw Frank standing in the doorway in just his boxer shorts. “What the fuck, Frank,” I snapped. “You scared the shit out of me.”

Frank held both his hands out. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. What are you doing up anyway?”

“Nothing. I was just going back to bed.”

“Everything alright?” He was frowning at me.

“Fine.” I pushed past him, made my way back to my room again, refusing to look through the open bedroom door where Eva was, probably sprawled naked on the bed in post coital bliss. I slammed the door when I got into my room.

Inside, I paced around for a moment, the glass of water still in my hand. My breathing was heavy and my limbs shook as my pacing got even more frantic. I stopped suddenly and threw the glass at the wall with a loud scream. Tears streamed from my eyes as I looked around the room for my clothes. I couldn’t find them anywhere so I screamed again in frustration.

Just then the door opened and Frank walked in, now dressed in jeans and a T-shit. “What’s going on, Leia?” he said as he tried to come over and offer comfort.

“Stay back, Frank!” I said. “Don’t fucking touch me!”

Frank flinched like I’d hit him and he took a step back. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s you, Frank.” I glowered at him, my face tight with anger. “I can’t trust you. I don’t why I ever thought I could. I can’t trust
anyone
.”

Frank looked confused. “Does this have anything to do with the photos you where looking at in the kitchen? Because if it does I can—”

“Stop, Frank!” I cut him off. “Just stop! I don’t want to hear any more of your
lies
! I just want to get out of here. I can find my brother on my own. I don’t need you or anyone else.” I was snapping my head around the room. “Where are my clothes?”

Eva appeared in the doorway dressed only in a white Led Zeppelin T-shirt, her face still flushed from her recent bedroom antics. “I had to throw your clothes out. They were full of blood.” She took a step towards me, concern on her face now. “What’s wrong, Leia?”

“I need clothes. I need to get out of here!” I was back to pacing around the room, one hand pressed over my stab wound.

“Leia, you aren’t well enough to be leaving just yet,” Eva said in an infuriatingly calm voice.

“I don’t care! Just get me something to wear and I’m gone. You two can go back to fucking each other.” I threw Frank a look. “It’s what you’re good at it, isn’t it?”

Frank said nothing, just stared at me with a harrowed look on his face. He knew exactly what I was talking about.

“You’re not even trying to deny it.”

“Deny what?” Eva  looked at Frank.

“Tell her, Frank. Tell Eva how you fucked my mom behind my dad’s back.” I shot Eva a look. “You probably knew that already.”

Frank was shaking his head, staring hard at the floor. “You don’t understand,” he said. “That was a long time ago and—”

“She had her wedding ring on in that picture! I saw the way she was looking at you, Frank. Is that what she was doing all those times she wasn’t around? Was she out seeing
you
, Frank?” I paced around the room, furious, spitting venom. “It all makes sense now. That’s why you seem so guilty all the time, why you never want to talk about why my dad fell out with you. He hated you because you fucked his wife!” I was pointing my finger at him, shaking with rage. “That’s why she brought you back, because…she loved
you
! And not my dad!” I was crying, hardly able to see through the bitter tears in my eyes.

Frank looked at Eva for help. “It was a long time ago,” Eva said in the same patronisingly calm voice as she moved towards me. “It can all be explained…” Just then she stuck a needle in my leg and I pushed her back.

“What the hell did you just give me?” I screamed.

Eva backed away. “Just a sedative to calm you down.”

“I don’t need to fucking calming down!” I shook my head and backed up onto the bed away from them. I felt the drug working already. “I just need to get out of here, I need to see my friend…I need to see Kasey… my brother…I have to find Josh…”

Eva caught me just as I slumped back on to the bed. That was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out.

Chapter 14

Physically speaking, I felt much better when I woke again to find I was still in the same makeshift medical room in Eva’s house. I sat up and pulled away the sheets, lifted up the hospital gown to examine my wound. A scar about six inches across was etched into the left side of my belly. No stitches. I hardly believed the wound had healed so quickly.

The memory of the last time I was awake hit me. My stomach tightened and my face hardened as I remembered screaming at Frank. Lying back in the bed, I gave myself a minute or two to consider things. Frank had all but admitted he had an affair with my mother while she was married to my father. While I hated him for what he had done, I hated my mom even more.

How could she do that to my father?

I never exactly held her up as being mother of the century before, but now she had slipped so far down in my esteem that any love I had for her was buried under so much resentment.

How could she do that to her children?

How could Frank do that to his own brother?

That would explain why Frank’s name had never been mentioned. Clearly my dad despised him for what he had done. Yet my parents had stayed together.

But why? Why didn’t my dad just throw her out? She was barely around anyway, what difference would it have made?

I could only assume that he couldn’t stop loving her. What a chump.

I got out of bed. There was a fresh set of clothes placed neatly on a chair by the side of the bed. It was the exact same outfit I had been wearing when I got stabbed, but these clothes were new.

Did Eva actually go out and buy me new clothes? Or was it Frank? Maybe his woefully inadequate way of trying to make amends.

Whatever.

I  knew I couldn’t  trust Frank again. Nothing he could do or say would make me feel any differently. The trouble was—and as much as I hated to admit it—I still needed him. Despite what I said, I couldn’t possibly find my brother all by myself. I still needed his help and that made me feel like I was over a barrel as far as Frank was concerned. I was trapped in that situation with him and that was all there was to it.

I dressed and took a moment to compose myself before leaving the room, made my way down the hallway, a sense of dread coming over me at the thought of even seeing Eva and Frank again. Eva sat alone in the kitchen at the scuffed wooden table, drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. There was no sign of Frank, for which I was grateful. I stood in the doorway, arms folded across my stomach as I scratched absently at one arm.

“Hello,” Eva said rising from her chair as if nothing had happened. “Sit. I’ll make you some coffee. Are you hungry yet?”

“No,” I said taking a seat at the table. “What time is it?”

“Midday.” She poured the coffee and placed the cup down in front of me, then sat back down in her chair.

“So where’s Frank?”

“Out. Running down leads on your brother’s disappearance.”

“That’s good of him.” I sipped the coffee and sat with my legs crossed, holding the cup into my chest.

“I know how you must feel. Try not to think too badly of Frank.”

“Why? Because you’re fucking him?”

Eva maintained her steady composure and fixed her large eyes on me, her pupils huge. “No. Because it happened a long time ago. He suffered enough back then; he doesn’t need to go through it all again.”

I was silent for a moment. “Did he love her?”

“Yes, he did.” Eva dropped her gaze to the floor. I could tell she carried her own resentment around with her. “That’s what made it so hard at the time. I don’t think Rachel felt quite the same way. She loved your father.”

“Well, that’s bullshit! If she loved my father, she wouldn’t have gone behind his back with his brother. Neither would she have sold her fucking soul to save him.” Anger rose in me again and I made a concerted effort to keep it under control this time.

“That’s a fair point, but these things can be complicated. You’re a little young to be trying to understand them.”

“Please don’t patronize me, I understand perfectly well. What they did was wrong. ”

“Of course. But these things happen. You should be concentrating on getting your brother back, not things of the past.”

“I’m trying. Am I supposed to just forget everything that I’ve learned, just let it all go?”

“Yes, let it go. At least for now. Your brother needs you strong, he needs you capable.”

I thought about what she said. Josh needed me. I was the only lifeline he had. “What do you know about this whole thing? These kidnappings?”

“I’ve only heard rumors so far, nothing solid yet.”

“What rumors?”

“That a demon has been taking Nephilim children from all over the world. I don’t know why yet. That’s where Frank is, he’s out talking to sources, trying to find a lead.”

I allowed myself to relax a bit. “I’m sorry.”

“What for, dear girl?”

“You fixed me up, saved my life and all I’ve done is give you shit.”

Eva smiled and took my hand in hers. “You don’t have to apologize. I know what you are going through. I went through the exact same process when I was your age. It gets easier, believe me, you just have to learn to trust your instincts, they’ll help you.”

“That’s what Frank said.”

“Let him be your teacher in all this. He wants to help you, and not just because of the reasons you think. He has a soft spot for you. He’s been alone for most of his life. As grumpy as he comes across, he enjoys having you around. Don’t be so hard on him.”

I looked into Eva’s blue eyes and saw a reflection of myself nodding in her large dark pupils. “I’ll try, but I’m still seriously pissed at him.”

“That’s understandable.” Eva smiled. “I’ll also be here anytime you need something. Just come see me.”

I managed a half smile back. “I’ll try to remember that.”

About an hour later, having just said goodbye to Eva, I sat in the car with Frank as he drove through the rain soaked city streets. I liked Eva, despite her sometimes patronizing manner. She was kind and pretty cool in her own way. I decided I would get to know her better, but under different circumstances

Frank was taking us to see a source of his, a demon who would hopefully shed some light on my brother’s kidnapping. I sat in the car for ten minutes, having scarcely spoken a word to Frank. The tense silence became unbearable, so I turned on the radio and seventies rock music replaced the quietness but not the tension between us. A moment later, Frank turned the radio off. “If we are going to work together, we need to get this out of the way first,” he said.

“Get what out of the way?”

“This.” He nodded his head emphatically as if to draw attention to what he was talking about. “The tension, you know what I mean.” He was struggling, clearly not comfortable with talking about anything other than Watcher-related issues.

“I can’t help being mad at you, Frank. I don’t feel like I can trust you anymore.” I let that hang in the air for a second. “But at the same time I want to get my brother back and you’re the only person who can help me with that, so I’ll try to set your wrong doings aside for the time being.”

“My wrong doings?” He shook his head as if I was talking nonsense.

I was going to check him on his attitude but then I thought,
Just forget it. Focus on what matters. Focus on getting Josh back
. “So who is this guy, this demon?”

Frank didn’t answer straight away. He kept driving until he could bring himself to speak. “He’s a high-level demon who owes me a favour. If anyone knows what’s going on it’s him.”

“You think he knows where my brother is?”

“We won’t know that until we talk to him.”

Neither of us spoke again until he drove us into the Perv District as it was known by some—three square miles of sex clubs, porn shops and an array of other seedy establishments all geared towards the sexual gratification of their customers. It was mid afternoon so the place was subdued, especially as it was still raining. The clientele who tended to frequent this part of the city liked to come out at night, like rats from their holes, the darkness cloaking them. Despite this, there were still a few hookers roaming the streets and the sex clubs where all open, as they were twenty-four-seven.

“The Perv District?” I said with raised eyebrows as Frank pulled the car up outside a club called Demon Ecstasy. “Why am I not surprised.”

“What do you want me to say?” He turned of the ignition. “The guy’s a demon. He’s hardly going to be hanging out at the Disney store, now is he?”

“Disney movies are full of evil characters.”

Frank shook his head at me but neither of us could manage a smile as we got out of the car and walked towards the front doors of the club. “Let me do most of the talking. I’ll get what we need.”

“Suits me.”

We stepped inside the dark interior of the club. I was expecting something a bit more demonically themed—maybe gargoyles on the walls, some kind of Hell motif—but the club turned out to be not much different from any other I’d been in. Three stages sat directly ahead, a large main one and two smaller ones to either side. A dancer swung around a pole on the center stage, wearing only a thong, wrapping herself around the metal pole like an anaconda enwrapping its prey. The club was surprisingly crowded for this time of day. About half the booths where occupied, by men mostly, drinking and watching the girl on stage as Alice Cooper’s “Poison” played over the PA system.

Frank led us down to the bar, to the left of the smaller stage. He called the bar man over and said something to him that I didn’t catch because of the loud music. The bar man nodded and pointed to the back of the club, to a booth in the far corner. A man sat there alone. Frank nodded to the bar man and motioned for me to follow him. We made our way up to the booth where the man was sitting, which I assumed was Frank’s demon contact.