Monster in My Closet (24 page)

“Psst.”

I jumped. Maybe I was still tenser than I thought. I was alone in the foyer. I had to have been hearing things.

“Psst. Zoey!” The whisper was not my imagination. I made a circle, looking around the empty room. Nobody was there.

From a dark cloakroom, a familiar, chalk-white hand fluttered at me. “In here!”

“Maurice?” I went into the cloakroom and flipped on the light.

Maurice was pressed up against the back wall, his eyes larger than usual, peering over my shoulder in agitation.

“What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in here?”

“Technically, it’s a closet.” He said this as if it explained everything.

“Kind of busy here. What’s wrong?”

His hands were splayed out and gesturing like an Italian on six cups of espresso. “She’s gone. Nobody’s seen her since this morning. I don’t know what to do, Zoey. I know you’re busy, but she could be hurt or worse, and the longer she’s gone the more scared the kids are, and I’m just not equipped for this kind of problem. I don’t know what to do.”

“Hold on, deep breath. Who’s missing? Molly?”

“Yes, Molly, who else would I be talking about?” He sounded exasperated. “She went out this morning saying she had errands to run and she’d be back in a little while. That was seven hours ago. I’ve looked everywhere.”

“Who’s watching the kids?”

“Iris is keeping an eye on them. I told him not to let them out of his sight, in case, you know, their dad tries to come for them, too.”

“You think he has Molly?”

“Where else could she be?”

For a moment, I worried that Sebastian had planted the idea of his appearance at this wedding as a decoy so he could get to Molly. But no. I had to trust the Demon Handbook that my house was outside his territory. Sausalito was as far as he could go. Molly might be dealing with her jerk of a husband, but she was safe from the incubus.

This was so not part of my plan for the day. “I can’t leave here right now, Maurice. I’m worried, too, but I have to see this through first. I’ll come home as soon as I can, but it’s going to be several hours. Keep looking for her. She can’t be far. Tell Aggie. Maybe she’s got a way to track her.”

Maurice looked disappointed, as if he thought I could fix this. I’d grown to depend on him so much, I hadn’t realized how much he depended on me, as well.

I felt terrible. Guilt seemed to be my most often-used emotion these days. “Listen,” I said, “keep the kids inside. Get everyone searching. We’ll find her, and she
will
be fine. I need a few more hours, and I’ll come home and help.”

Maurice looked doubtful. “She’s part of our family, Zo.”

“I know she is.” I wanted to cry. I was as worried as he was, but I couldn’t show it or we’d both fall apart. “We’ll find her.”

“What are you doing in the coat closet?” Andrew’s appearance made both of us jump. “Hey, Maurice. What’s up?”

The closet monster looked cornered, as if he were fighting off a panic attack. “Molly’s missing.”

“Well, shit,” Andrew said. He looked from Maurice to me, his face serious. “Sara’s missing, too.”

I groaned and smacked my forehead with my palm. It hurt.
Deep breaths, Zoey. You can handle this. Delegate. Breathe and delegate.

“Maurice, you have to find Molly. I’m sorry I can’t help right now. And I swear, it’s killing me. But I have to find Sara and see this reception through till it’s running on its own steam. I’m trusting you to handle this. You can do it. You’re the one with all the resources. If she’s in trouble, you’re the one who can get her out of it.”

Maurice nodded his head, his face solemn. “I’ve got it, Zoey.”

I was looking right at him, but my eyes refused to focus. It was the oddest sensation. He was there, and then he wasn’t. I was staring at shadows and blemishes on the wall that looked like him. It was as if his presence had been in my imagination, a trick of the light. If I hadn’t talked to him, I might have believed he’d never existed.

“Weird,” Andrew said, reaching forward and patting the wall.

“Wish I had that skill right now,” I said. “Where did you see Sara last?”

“Last I saw her, she was lighting candles.”

“You let her play with fire?”

“I didn’t ‘let’ her do anything. She was wandering around humming and fussing with things. I figured it was best to leave her be so she didn’t get into any trouble.”

We sprinted to the reception area. Frankie and Adrianne were standing aside chatting while the caterers busied themselves with their setup. To my surprise, Brad was working hard, moving chairs around and adjusting place settings. Sara was nowhere. The girls didn’t remember seeing her in the last half hour. Andrew and I split up to cover more ground.

In the parking lot, I found her car still locked and empty. I felt like an idiot poking my head around bushes, inside closets, under tables. I dialed her number. There was no response.

No one I talked to had seen her recently. I checked at the front desk to see if Sara had checked herself into a room for a nap. Nope.

I was in the hotel lobby and decided to check the parking lot one more time. I spun around toward the door and smacked into a man walking in.

Riley grabbed me to keep me upright.

My heart leaped at seeing him again. And then it sank. His beautiful gray eyes were filled with sadness.

When your best friend has gone missing and the Grim Reaper shows up, it doesn’t much matter how long his eyelashes are.

Sara was in serious trouble.

Chapter Twenty-Five

I had to take a breath and assess the situation. The bridal party was due to come out of the chapel and head for the reception area any second, with no one from my office there to direct them. Molly was missing, possibly bleeding somewhere at the hands of her abusive husband. Sara was on her last legs, now missing and maybe dying in a back room somewhere. I was afraid my new squeeze had come to collect her soul.

That about summed it up, and my brain was shutting down.

Riley was holding me up by the elbows while I stood in place, trying to sort it all out. I needed a minute, that was all. Sure. If I could have a moment to reorganize, I could get back into action.

I didn’t have a minute.

Brad came barreling into the lobby like Paul Revere announcing the arrival of the British. In this case, it was the bridal party and guests he was heralding.

“Zoey, I don’t know what to do. They’re flooding out of the chapel and milling around. I’ve never done this part before. I’m lifting and carrying, not hosting and directing.”

Ah, but what I’ve always wanted to do is direct! Shut up, Zoey.

As if a light switch had been thrown, I snapped out of my dazed confusion. “It’s like herding cattle. Tell the wedding party I had an emergency and direct everyone to the reception area. As long as they think someone is in charge, they should be fine.”

He flicked his eyes to Riley and back to me. “Zoey, what are you doing out here? You have to come do this. I’m not capable.”

“Brad, trust me. You’re capable. I need you to do this for me. Schmoozing is your thing. Sara’s sick and I have to find her.”

Brad did not look happy. Truthfully, he looked a little shaken up. If I’d had time to ponder it, I might have enjoyed his lack of self-confidence. It was a rare sight.

“Please, Brad,” I said. I knew my voice sounded desperate. “You wanted to prove to me you were reliable. I’m relying on you now. I’m trusting you with my business and my reputation. Please tell me I can count on you.”

He straightened his shoulders and his face firmed with resolve. He nodded once, looked at Riley with narrowed eyes, then trotted off.

I was so going to owe him after this.

I returned my attention to Riley. His fingers were digging into the flesh in my arms—or maybe that was my imagination, since I was distracted by the physical contact between us.

“Where is she?” I said.

He didn’t answer me right away. I could see he was worried, but I could also see the resolve on his face. “I can’t interfere, Zoey.”

I jerked away from his grasp. “So don’t. But you got a text with my best friend’s name and location, correct? You’re here to make a pickup.”

His head moved up and down once.

“Then go find her. I’ll follow. But you are not taking her, I guarantee that.”

His hand rose to touch my face and I took a step back. “You have to stay here,” he said.

“No.”

“You can’t follow me. I can’t have you there.”

“The hell you can’t. I’m the only one who has a chance of saving her, and you can’t stop me.” I was yelling now, right in the middle of a posh hotel lobby. People were beginning to stare.

Riley grabbed my shoulders before I could step out of reach again. His face was inches from mine. “You are staying here.”

I twisted free. “No. I’m not.”

He reached for me again and I pulled away. His exasperation was palpable, even with my walls sealed up tight. “Dammit, Zoey, stay out of the way. Sara’s wasn’t the only name in the text.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “He’s really here then.”

“I don’t have those details.”

“Take me there. Now.” I know I sounded bossy, but I felt more like a death-row inmate about to take the long walk. “I’m not arguing, and I’m not asking, Riley. Let’s get this over with.”

Riley’s face sank, his head drooping in defeat. He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “I hate this job,” he said. He reached out and stroked my cheek, then turned away.

I followed him to the reception area. I could see the guests outside talking, locating tables, admiring the breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge below. I loved that view. Shame I might never see it again.

I thought he would take us out there, but before we hit the glass doors, he made a left into a side room I hadn’t noticed. Andrew came around the corner, saw where I was headed and fell into step without a word.

I didn’t make it through the door before my amulet shot ice down my shirt and nearly freezer-burned my chest with a permanent mark. I yanked it out and tucked it over my collar while it bit at my fingers. Any last hope I had that Sebastian wasn’t in the next room was gone. The metal was so cold it gave off wisps of condensation from the front of my blouse.

The scene inside the little room made me want to vomit. It was probably a good thing I hadn’t had time to eat since breakfast.

Sara was pressed up against the wall in the far corner, her legs wrapped around Sebastian’s waist. Her once-perfect hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to the sides of her face. She was ashen and her blue eyes were unfocused, staring off at some vague point on the opposite wall. One shoe lay on the floor, forgotten, and the other hung from a bobbing foot. Tears burned my eyes, and my breath caught in my chest.

Somehow, I’d come to the mistaken conclusion he didn’t have physical intercourse with his victims. I’d assumed wrong. What was going on in that small, stuffy room was not what I’d witnessed in my dreams. He wasn’t relegating himself to stroking her thigh or kissing her neck, though there was plenty of that going on as well.

His prissy, ironed jeans were down around his ankles. I wanted to avert my eyes, but I couldn’t look away. It wasn’t any kind of sex I’d ever had, that was for sure.

He was lit up like a road flare, and she was gray and barely moving. Her eyelids fluttered, and if he hadn’t been holding her legs around him, I doubt she would have had the strength to keep them there.

Fortunately, we were spared the sight of his scrawny ass pumping into my friend. He hadn’t bothered to remove his coat and it hung down to his thighs.

Andrew put his hand on my shoulder. “She doesn’t have long, Zoey. There’s barely a spark left in her aura. It’s so close to her body there isn’t much left of it.”

Riley glanced at his watch and stepped aside. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t help.”

There was no sign that Sebastian had noticed he had company.

“Hey, asshat,” I said.

His rhythmic hip movements stopped. He looked over his shoulder at me and grinned. “Dream Girl, how wonderful! I was just finishing up here.”

“You’re finished now. Get off her.”

“I do hate to leave food on my plate when there are starving orphans all over the world. This will only take a second. I tried to make her last longer, but it seems I’m a bit of a glutton. I’ve enjoyed her so much over the last few weeks. She has so much of you in her, I can’t help myself.” He made an attempt at looking contrite before resuming his motions.

So he was the reason she was so exhausted. She wasn’t sick at all. He’d been killing her a little at a time for weeks. My fists clenched at my sides.

Sara’s eyes flashed open and a weak moan escaped from her lips.

Come on, Zoey. Pull your head out. You’ve learned things. You have tools. Use them, and use them quick.

A picture of Molly’s irate husband danced across my vision. That was something I could use.

In my mind, I formed a solid glass bell and dropped it over Sara. I sealed it tight, cutting her off from all external contact. It wasn’t an easy thing to create with him touching her. Determined, I focused on separating them with my barrier. I shoved the glass between them and willed it to conform around her, pushing him away.

Sara needed me. I had to be stronger than Sebastian. The glass bell was my construct, and I held my concentration to keep it from shattering at his touch. He’d have to come after me first to reach her again.

“Oh, now that’s just unfair,” Sebastian said. His hips twitched a few last times for good measure, perhaps testing the strength of the barrier I’d put up. He gave a dramatic sigh and bent over, pulling up his pants. I looked away as he did it. His dangly bits were not a memory I wanted seared into my consciousness.

He turned to face me. His jeans were buttoned up, but his fancy pirate shirt flapped in the breeze. The lyrics to “Blowin’ in the Wind” ran through my mind and I had to squelch them.

Fear often sends my mind to babbling.

For the first time, Sebastian noticed I wasn’t the only intruder in the room. He dropped his head to Riley in an archaic show of respect. “Grave digger. Glad to see you’re on the job. I trust you won’t be interfering again today.”

Riley said nothing. He looked at his watch and waited.

The demon turned his attention to Andrew. His brows rose in surprise. “Oh my. You brought me someone new to play with. How thoughtful. Normally, I prefer women, but at the end of the day, they all taste the same. They taste like you, Dream Girl.”

I was confused. I looked from Sebastian to Andrew and my breath caught in my throat. I’d forgotten that Andrew was gay. His eyes were already glassy as Sebastian approached him.

“Oh, hell no,” I said, stepping in front of my friend. I heard the breath whoosh out of Andrew from behind me. Apparently, I’d broken the connection for the moment.

That was the last straw. I was small and weak. I felt so terrified in that moment I was afraid my bladder would let go, and I’d pee all over the floor. But more importantly, I was furious.

I threw open my mental shutters and opened myself up to Sebastian’s emotions.

Hunger.

Need.

Hunger.

He moved toward me. I focused a beam of his own emotions at him with all the mental force I could muster. He took a step backward, confusion lining his face.

“That’s a new trick,” he said. “A little disconcerting, actually.” He stepped forward. “What else do you have?”

I gathered my fear and worry, and most of all, my anger, and hurled it into the beam, willing it to punch him in his smarmy face.

He stopped moving and closed his eyes. His body shuddered, as if in ecstasy. “Oh, Dream Girl, that was incredible.” He ran his fingers down his chest and to his stomach. “I had no idea you could do that. Do it again.” His eyes opened and the green had turned crimson. “I’m starving.”

It wasn’t enough. No matter how emotional I was at that moment, all I was doing was feeding him. I reached out to Andrew and grasped for any emotions he could give me. Andrew, unlike the rest of the world, kept himself sealed. There was nothing in him I could reach.

I stretched my mind toward Riley. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he had, and honestly, as detached as he had to be, I wasn’t sure there’d be any emotion there at all. I was wrong. Underneath the cold veneer of Death, he was as big a wreck as I was.

Fear. Hatred. Worry.

I gathered them up, added them to mine and let them fly. Sebastian jerked and smiled. I kept the stream connecting me to Riley open.

Fury. Love.
Love? I did not want to know about that right now.

Everything I collected channeled through me and out at Sebastian. But his smile widened, and his hands skimmed over his chest. He was enjoying it. All I was doing was keeping him distracted.

Andrew’s hand was on my shoulder again. “I’m open,” he said. “Take what you need.”

Andrew’s emotions were much the same as mine and Riley’s. I opened up a line connecting Andrew to the flow, and it knocked Sebastian back another step.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

Sara was out cold on the floor underneath my protective barrier. Besides, she had nothing to offer that wouldn’t kill her. I turned my head toward Andrew without taking my eyes off Sebastian. “Open the doors,” I said in a low voice. “The ones outside, too.”

I heard the door open behind me and he was gone. In his absence, I lost my concentration and my stream of Andrew-energy.

Sebastian regained momentum and came for me, his hand outstretched. My skin crawled at the idea of his flesh touching me. I stepped away, but I was too slow. His fingers brushed my arm.

I moaned and fell to my knees. Watching him touch those women, seeing with my eyes the effect he had on them, in no way prepared me for what really happened when he was serious about feeding. When he’d touched me under the pier, he’d been toying with me.

There was heat and moisture between my legs before my brain had time to process it. The orgasm that slammed into me was nothing like anything anyone should ever experience. There was no lead-up, and it was not as pleasurable as one might expect. It burned—not like acid, but more like an acetylene torch had been ignited inside of me. This, while every nerve ending in my body fired, and every muscle contracted. The orgasm was there, but so was the pain. God help me, I liked it. And I craved more.

There was a part of my brain whispering, frantic to be heard through the blood pumping in my ears. The chill of my amulet seared through my blouse, yet it was so far removed from my attention, it might have been the sound of the ocean in the distance. I couldn’t imagine why I’d been fighting this for so long. I should have let him have me the day I met him. Sebastian loved me. At that moment, I would have given him every ounce of myself.

It stopped as quickly as it had started.

I was on the floor and I didn’t remember how I got there. Sebastian was holding my arm and looking irritated.

Riley held my other arm.

“Come on, Reaper ,” Sebastian said, pulling his hand away. “You know better than to interfere. I’ll have you up on charges. I cry foul!”

Riley ignored him and pulled me to my feet. His eyes clouded with worry, and he pulled me closer, his arm around my waist.

It was a nice place to be. If only I could have a chance to enjoy it.

Andrew reappeared on my other side. “It’s all open out to the gardens,” he said. He noted the possessive way Riley held on to me. “Glad you decided to join the game,” he said.