Mortal Sin (61 page)

Think. They didn’t have the time or equipment to dig a grave. They would want something easy, something secure to trap Moira.

The mausoleums.

They were built like prisons with thick stones and locked doors. They were old and smelled it, musty and damp and foul, like the dungeon Fiona had kept Moira in as punishment.

Serena would get a sick pleasure out of tormenting her half-sister in just that way.

Rafe went to the first door, pounded on it. “Moira! Moira, it’s Rafe!”

Silence.

He went to the next. “Moira! Moira!”

Silence.

There were dozens of the small buildings, and Rafe continued, panic rising that he was wrong, that Moira wasn’t here. That Serena had already killed her or had taken her to the ritual as a peace offering to Fiona. That Moira was already dead or dying, and he was too late.

Rafe stopped for a moment, put his hands on his knees, and took a deep breath. He needed to get it together. He couldn’t save Moira if he panicked like this. He had to be smart about it.

What would Serena do?

She would make it impossible to get to Moira. Which meant she would create a double demon trap. A sentry. Similar to what Fiona had done to him months ago, when she’d tortured him for information about Moira. But the difference was that Serena knew that Moira could kill any demon she put in the double trap. Moira would be in the building, but the demon would be outside. Roaming. Ready to attack as soon as Rafe approached. They were good at camouflage, and the mausoleums were decorated with statues of saints, angels, animals, urns. The creature could be hiding in one of the large vases. Or blending in with the stone.

Rafe pulled out his flashlight and, keeping several feet from each building, shined the light at the ground surrounding the buildings. If a demon had been summoned, the Earth would be dead. It was harder to discern because many of the mausoleums were falling apart. But the Earth would be darker, almost scorched.

Going slower than he wanted, his heart still racing, he walked until he reached a particularly gothic structure. The plaque next to the door read:

GRAVES

Brianne Graves. Rafe remembered Skye saying something about how her parents had been killed in a car accident just before Brianne’s eighteenth birthday, and she inherited everything. She was one of the triad. If she was from a long-time Santa Louisa family, they would likely have been buried here. It would have been easy for Serena to access, and likely well-prepared for any witchcraft.

He scanned his light all around. Foxglove, not native to the area, grew from the base of the mausoleum, but the rest of the ground five feet around was black.

He circled the structure. There were faint symbols carved into the stone that may have been seen as graffiti by a caretaker, but Rafe recognized that they were part of the demon trap.

This was it.

“Moira!” he called. “It’s Rafe. I’m getting you out.”

There was no answer, but Rafe was positive this was the place. He pictured the Cerberus that had kept him captive and that Moira had unwittingly killed when it bit her. Rafe wouldn’t be so lucky; he had one shot to stab the creature.

He took out his dagger and poured the vial of Moira’s blood that Gideon had returned to him. He said a quick prayer, then crossed onto the black soil.

Immediately, a bat-like demon flew from under the eaves and screeched. It wasn’t large, but its teeth and claws were vicious, and it had an unusually long tail with a sharp tip. Rafe reached up to stab it, but it was fast. It clawed his arm and flew back up. Rafe ran up the four steps to the door, then put his back to the building and waited.

He didn’t have to wait long. The demon flew around the building twice, then lunged at him from an angle. Rafe held out his knife at the last minute and the demon impaled itself. He cried out in pain as the creature clawed him, but held on with all his strength and flung the demon off his knife. Its tail whipped around and sliced his cheek. The pain brought Rafe to his knees. Tears stung his eyes, but he shook it off as best he could and faced the lock. He picked it with ease and opened the doors. He shined his light all around. Moira wasn’t there.

“No. No!”

A muffled pounding drew his attention to the doors in the stone crypt. There were twelve, stacked three high like a morgue. All had name plates except one, in the lower right corner.

He wrestled with the door and pulled the heavy tray out.

Moira was bound and gagged. Rafe immediately pulled took out the gag and started working on the ropes.

“Thank God,” Rafe said, tears streaming down his face. “I thought I’d lost you forever.”

“You’re stuck with me,” she said, her voice raspy.

He helped her out of the crypt and hugged her.

“You’re bleeding,” she said.

“I’m fine.” He kissed her. Touched her all over, made sure she was whole.

“We have to get to the school. There’re going to sacrifice the third pure soul tonight.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Jezebel picks the souls.”

Rafe frowned. “I left Gideon alone with Lily. He said he knew what to do. Would she pick him?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. But that kid has an eerie calm about him. Eerie good calm. Like he has a halo over his head and nothing phases him.”

“I shouldn’t have left him, but I had to find you.”

She kissed him and they sprinted toward Rafe’s car. They climbed in and Moira kissed him again “Serena had me set aside as Plan B. If Fiona showed up, Serena would tell her that she had me trapped as a peace offering to Fiona.”

Rafe touched her. “I will always come for Moira.” He started the car and drove back towards town.

Moira said, “Serena’s ultimate goal is to kill you.”

“Me?”

“If it weren’t for you, this would have been over six months ago at the mission. Jeremiah Hatch was the original
arca.
He was supposed to control the Seven Deadly Sins. You destroyed their plans, not only then, but later when you interrupted the ritual on the cliffs.”

“I think I knew that.”

“What do you mean? You knew what?”

Rafe thought for a long minute. Moira retrieved a water bottle under the seat. She drank greedily, then handed it to Rafe. He sipped.

“When I woke up from the coma, I had no clear thoughts, except I was propelled to the cliffs. I had this terror about the ritual, as if I knew exactly what it was and what it would do. That knowledge must have come from Hatch’s memories. I just didn’t know I’d accessed it. If only I could have stopped it then, I would have saved so many people from suffering.”

“And if only I had killed my mother years ago. Or yesterday. Or arrived in Santa Louisa sooner than six months ago. We can’t continue to blame ourselves for things out of our control. God knows it took me years to accept that.”

Moira cleaned and bandaged Rafe’s arm. Then she inspected the cut on his face. “This is deep.”

“It got me in its death throes. I’m fine.”

“Hardly,” Moira muttered. She wiped down the wound and sprayed it with antiseptic. He winced. “I don’t have enough bandages to cover it. You should get stitches, it’s going to scar.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’ll give you character,” she said. “And I have plenty of scars to match. So, what’s the plan?”

“I have no idea. Go back to the rectory, regroup with the others. It’s getting close to midnight—our only real option is to hope we’re right and the coven is at the high school, they have the
Conoscenza
with them, and we can get to it long enough for you to destroy it.”

Moira grabbed Rafe’s phone and started calling their team. Skye—no answer. Anthony—no answer. Rico—no answer. “Where is everyone?”

“They must have gone to the school already.” Rafe frowned. They weren’t supposed to go without him and Moira. It was too dangerous.

Moira called Hank and put it on speaker. He picked up on the second ring. “Now is not a good time,” he said.

“What happened?”

“There’s a dead body at the cliffs. Brianne Graves. No signs of violence, just like what happened to Abby Weatherby. Doc Fielding is here, says the same thing. Collins called me and there’s another dead body at Rittenhouse. It was Brianne’s friend, Kimberly.”

“Where is Rico? Nikolas? They were supposed to stop any sacrifice or spell.”

“Skye asked me to check on everyone and I found Rico unconscious. Woke him up. He was out for hours. So were David and that kid he’s with. I have to assume Anthony as well.”

Moira and Rafe exchanged a troubled glance.”

“Where are you?”

“Heading to the morgue with the doc and the two bodies.” He paused. “Do I need to go to the mission as well? Is there a third?”

“Yes.” She hung up. “The coven already did it. I’d felt a spell, but it was dormant, I couldn’t distinguish it. I’d hoped that our people would be able to stop whoever came to activate the spell, but that wasn’t enough. The spell was too simple—it put everyone to sleep. And now the triad is dead.”

“Did they willingly die?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they thought something else would happen. But for the triad to all be dead, either it was as punishment or was part of the plan. But whatever reason, Anthony’s theory about those three points was accurate. We have to get to the school now, Rafe.”

Rafe pushed down the gas as far as it could go.

#

Rico rushed into the rectory. “Jared!” he called. Silence.

He searched the office where the kid had been working. There was a note from Phineas.

Jared and I are going to try and stop this ritual before it goes any further. They have Skye. Serena took Moira, Rafe is trying to find her, but I haven’t heard from him in two hours, but the cell phones aren’t working. ~PC, 10:55 pm.

Rico went down to the basement and stocked up on supplies. He noticed that several gallons of holy water were missing. Had Phineas taken them? He refilled his smaller bottles and added another to his pocket. Took a back-up knife as well.

He was angry with himself for succumbing to the spell. He’d been trained to be more vigilant. How could he have been less than a hundred yards from that girl? How had she died? Why had he not seen or heard anything?

The front door opened and Rico took out his dagger. He ran up the basement stairs ready to attack if necessary.

It was Anthony.

“One of the triad was killed at the cliffs,” Rico said. “They cast a sleeping spell.”

“Moira warned us there was a dormant spell,” Anthony said. “I thought I’d see or hear something before it was brought forth.”

“Phineas and Jared went to the high school.” He paused and handed Anthony the note. The paper crumpled in his hand.

Anthony looked at his watch. “It’s eleven-thirty.” He pulled out his phone. The signal was still dead. “They’ve found a way to block communication.”

“Leave a note. Rafe will be back with Moira. We need to get into position. No one will die tonight.”

#

Phineas watched the gym floor from the catwalk above the stage along the eastern wall of the auditorium. He itched to act, but if he acted too soon, he’d fail.

Patience, Phineas, patience.

He was not very patient, which was one of the reasons he’d left the Order for Gabriel’s Sword. He needed action. A purpose. A goal. He wanted to do good, not just stop the bad.

But tonight, he would hold out as long as he could, or others would die.

Thirty minutes ago, he’d left Jared in the high school to hack the fire security system. He gave him a walkie-talkie, which was the only thing that seemed to work right now with the cells and radios being down. They agreed to a signal, but Phineas told Jared that if he didn’t hear from him, to set off the sprinklers at exactly midnight.

There had been two witches guarding the outside of the gym, which told Phineas that either they didn’t have a large coven, or everyone was inside. But bypassing two was easy enough. He’d climbed onto the roof and saw the empty jugs that had once held holy water. He didn’t know if it would work, but it should cause enough of a distraction. He found a roof access door, picked the lock, and snuck inside. The stage, which took up one side of the gym, seemed the best place to both view the coven’s activities and stay hidden. He climbed up to the lighting system and observed.

The coven had cast a circle in the middle of the gym using some sort of black paint, but it wasn’t from any store. They’d likely mixed it themselves. There were a half-dozen people, including Serena O’Donnell and Matthew Walker. Certainly not a large coven, but it was their power that concerned him.

Skye was handcuffed to the bleachers. Kyle was restrained in the center of the circle, sweating, his face red. As Phineas watched, he determined that Walker was calling up spirits, and Kyle was kept telling him no.

“No,” Kyle said. “That’s not him.”

Phineas couldn’t see any of the spirits, but each time a new one appeared, the lights flickered. Each presence drained Kyle.

“If you would cooperate, we would have been done already!” Walker screamed.

“I am cooperating!”

Serena walked over to Walker and whispered in his ear. He nodded and stepped away from Kyle.

“We’ll do this the hard way,” Walker said.

Serena began a séance.

“Oh spirits that roam, trapped or free, hear me now! I have a vessel prepared for the one, of which is named Jeremiah, here is his blood, find him for me!”

She held up a chalice. The lights flickered and swayed in the gym ceiling.

In the center of the circle, Kyle began to pray in earnest.

Walker slapped him. “It was you all along keeping him out. It won’t work anymore.”

He took the chalice from Serena and dipped his finger into the blood. He marked a symbol on Kyle’s forehead. Kyle stared straight ahead, as if in a trance, then slumped over in the chair, half-conscious.

“Serena,” Walker whispered. “Did it work?”

“He’s coming,” she said.

A wind whipped up inside the gym, though no doors opened or closed. Phineas had to grab hold of a pillar to keep from falling to the stage below.