Nameless: The Darkness Comes (11 page)

I’m sure my eyes were absolutely starry.
They began to feel strange and prickly, and I realized they were filling with tears. Finally, my brother believed me. It was about time.

“Hey
.” Seth’s voice brought me out of my happy little reverie. Seriously, I was lost in a land of bunnies and rainbows, where Reed Taylor and Seth and I held hands and danced around together. It was beautiful.

“Wait, what?” I blinked.
“What were you saying?”

Seth’s eyes were harder t
han I had ever seen. “I just handed my baby girl over to Sparkles.”

“Right.”

His eyes were fairly glowing with their intensity. It was like he had his own little touch of demon. It was absolutely delightful and a little bit terrifying.

“They won’t let me out of here.
That means you have to go get her.”

I stood up.
“I’m on it.”

Chapter
Nineteen

“Reed Taylor, I need to talk to you.” I was nothing if not polite and gracious on the phone. A thing of beauty. An absolute queen of decorum.

“Uh, not right now, Luna.
I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

I felt my eyebrows rise. “Really? But Seth believes me and needs our help.”

“Not now. This is important.”

“What could be more important than helping me get Lydia back?”

He made a sound, and I could tell he was getting exasperated. Was I really being that forceful? Well yes, yes I was. But I needed him, and he knew it. At least, I thought he knew it.

“Reed Taylor?” I asked.

His voice was definitely strained. “Nothing is more important than getting your niece back. That’s precisely what I’m trying to do, but I need to deal with this right now, all right? Later, bye.” And he hung up.

He hung up, just like that.

I stared at the phone in shock. It looked properly apologetic. “I have no idea why he would possibly act in such a dastardly manner.” It seemed like it was trying to say, “I am really most appalled. Please accept my sincere apologies.”

A scaly demon shambled in front of me.
It stared at me for just a second, licked its lips, and then ambled on. I was extremely relieved. I didn’t have the strength to fight all of these little demons, especially if I was going to take on the big one. Besides, I wasn’t even sure exactly how to find Sparkles. Nobody knew where she had run off to. She was still listed as living with Seth.

As if.

Truth was, I needed Reed Taylor. I’m a strong, independent woman, but even we strong, independent women need a friend when the going starts getting as rough as this was. Seth couldn’t help me. Reed Taylor would have to.

I hopped onto the bike and started for his house.
I had been there once, and it was a tiny little thing, more like a box than a house. But he kept it neat and had put stainless steel kick plates on all of the doors so he didn’t scratch them when he exuberantly kicked them open with his big boots. It’s things like this that made me dig this man.

A large demon zipped in front of my bike.
His robes swirled around him like black ink, strangely beautiful yet vomit-inducing. Another demon with big, leathery wings temporarily blotted out the sky. They were both heading in the direction of Reed Taylor’s house.

What was up with
that? I nervously chewed on my bottom lip and kicked up the speed. I’ve been seeing an awful lot of demons. Couldn’t this just be a coincidence?

It could, but it wasn’t.
Reed Taylor’s immaculate yard was full to bursting with demons. Tall demons, small demons, human-shaped demons, and some that most decidedly weren’t. I think I even I saw Cthulhu, but that could just be my inner fan girl coming out to play.

I
was pretty sure I’d seen Mouth out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned, he was gone. It was probably just wishful thinking. One demon looks an awful lot like another for the most part. Dark. Bleak. Evil.

My stomach lurched, and I felt the
Tracing start to prick between my shoulder blades. If I didn’t hurry, this whole thing would launch into full swing, and I’d be in a world of hurt. I remembered the agonizing feel of the Mark tearing my skin apart at my house, and I practically ran up to Reed Taylor’s door. I banged on it with both of my fists.

“Reed Taylor, open up this instant!
Something is wrong with your house, do you understand me? It’s a demonic Mardi Gras.”

“Luna,” something chanted behind me.
Its voice was whispery and mocking. “Luna, Luna, Luna, Luuuuuuna.”

I banged again, a bit hysterically.
“Let me in! Let me in, let me in!”

Som
ething touched me on the arm, slid its featureless fingers down my back and then up between my shoulders. It pressed gently until it found what it was looking for. “Mmm, the Tracing,” it moaned. “The Mark.”

Bang
, bang, bang!
“Reed Taylor!”

The sound of the lock
, and then the deadbolt. The door opened and I burst inside, throwing myself into Reed Taylor’s arms.

“Something is wrong,” I said.
I was nearly wild with panic. I could still feel the demon’s searching fingers caressing the wound in my back, and I shuddered. “We have to get out of here. We need to find Lydia and see if we can fix this.”

I looked into Reed Taylor’s face.
I stepped back, confused. He looked angry. His green eyes flashed.

“I told you now wasn’t a good time, Luna.
You shouldn’t have come.”

“
Wh-what do you—“ I was interrupted by a voice.

“Luna
Masterson? Well, this certainly is a surprise.”

I blinked.
It was a woman’s voice, dripping with sultry charm and disdain. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t get my brain to work properly. Why would Reed Taylor have a woman at his house? And what did he mean, this wasn’t a good time?

Reed Taylor started, and his arms fell from around me.
He turned toward the woman, who was entering from the other room. What was back there? The kitchen. The bedroom. She was most certainly entering from the kitchen. She had to be. Right?

“You know her
?” Reed Taylor sounded surprised.

The woman laughed heartily.
There was meanness in it. The voice had slid by me, but I knew that laughter. My fists clenched by my side, and I gritted my teeth before looking up.

Sparkles.

Chapter Twenty

“What are you doing here?” I demanded. I was so angry that I was shaking.

Sparkles laughed
. “Oh, darling, you never cease to amuse me. You’re always so quick to lose your temper. You realize that’s why you’re always alone, don’t you? Nobody can take your attitude.”

“Shut up,” I bit out.
“Tell me where she is.”

She smiled.
It was reptilian. I saw demonic appendages waving in her hair and hatred emanating from her skin. She and the demon had become one, all right. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to hit her. I wanted to hit Reed Taylor, who was standing there looking more angry than I had thought possible.

“Whatever are you talking about?
Everybody knows you’re touched in the head, talking to things that aren’t there. Do you really think you see them? Or do you simply lie? Nobody would blame you if you do. What a tragic childhood. What a horrid, difficult girl.”

A dark tentacle slid
out of her mouth and went up through her nose. Her eyes looked like they were leaking oil.

“Tell me where she i
s,” I said. “I’m not going to ask again.”

She
ignored me and ran her hand down Reed Taylor’s arm. “Reed said he was seeing somebody new. Who could ever have guessed it would be
you?
My goodness, darling,” she said to Reed Taylor, “You do have a little mean streak, don’t you?” She laughed again, and my fingernails cut into the palms of my hands.

“Cecilia, knock it off,
” Reed Taylor said. He stepped away.

Sparkles’
eyes shone. “He does have charm, though, doesn’t he? I never regretted him. Not for one minute. In fact, I thanked him for taking me away from my humdrum little life. Some women weren’t made to be married, I’m afraid. Or mothers.”

My eyes were so wide that they hurt.

“No, he couldn’t have been the guy who—“

“
Luna, meet Reed. Reed, I see you know Luna. How unfortunate.”

“How could you?”
I spit at Reed Taylor. He turned back to me with his eyes on fire. I matched their flame with my own. “You’re disgusting! What, your angel never said anything about the demon wrapped around this woman? Or you just ignored it?”

Sp
arkles covered her mouth. “His angel? Oh,” she said, her face collapsing in mock sympathy, “did Reed tell you he sees things, too? He always does know what to say to put a woman at ease.”

“E
nough,” Reed Taylor said. He was tired and stressed and obviously at his limit. Well, so was I.

My hand snaked for the small knife I always kept on me.
I used it for opening packages sealed with too much tape and digging small rocks out of the grooves of my shoe, but suddenly it felt good in my hand. Too good.

Re
ed cursed, knocked the knife from my grip and kicked it away. “What’s gotten into you? Are you insane?”

I snarled and elbowed Reed Taylor in the gut.
The sound he made was satisfying. I was already heading for Sparkles.

One g
ood punch landed on her sneering face before Reed tackled and pinned me to the ground. I fought to throw him off.

“Get off me!”

“Luna!” He looked dangerous.

Sparkles
whimpered in the background. I struggled, but Reed was using all of his strength to keep me down.

“Why are
you defending her?” I demanded. “How could you do this to me? To my brother?”

“Calm down
. “

“I’ll kill you!
” I screamed at Sparkles. “I’ll kill you right now if you don’t tell me! Where is my—”

Reed Taylor pulled me to my feet and
slapped me. He slapped me right across the face. The sound of it ricocheted through the room like gunfire. I went silent and touched my hand to my cheek.

“Get out,” he said.
His chest was heaving and the muscles in his arms were bunched. “You won’t behave this way. Not in my house. Not ever.”

I thought I’d cry.
I thought I’d rant and rave. I thought I’d give Reed Taylor the tongue-lashing of his life for sleeping with Sparkles and defending her. I didn’t do any of these things. I scooped up my knife and tossed my hair back from my eyes. I glared at the monstrosity that was my sister-in-law.

“I will find
Lydia, Demon. You’ll regret taking her. You’ll regret what you did to my brother.”

I turned my gaze to Reed Taylor.
“And as for you. You’re nowhere near the man I thought you were. Having an affair with Sparkles? She left her husband and child for you, and then you start showing up, following me around. Why, so you could report back? I hate you, Reed Taylor. I expected so much more.”

He looked stricken, but I didn’t care.
He reached out for me, but I jerked out of his grasp. I gathered my dignity about me as much as I could, turned on my heel, and walked away.

The demons sniffed and bit and clawed after me.

“Screw you guys,” I said and walked on by.

I saw Mouth standing by my motorcycle.

“You knew,” I accused him. I threw my leg over the bike.

“I did.
I tried to warn you.”

“Whatever.”

He sighed and leaned on my handlebars. His eyes were glittering beneath his hood. “Listen, Luna—”

“Not now,” I said.
I revved the bike.

He stepped away and pulled his hand back.
“I cleared out your house. You can go home.”

I gave a curt nod and accelerated.
My tires flipped dirt and gravel all over him and the demons, but I didn’t care. I had just lost everything. Everything.

~

That night the phone rang. I glanced at it and saw it was Reed Taylor. I took it off the hook. My cell phone rang a few minutes later. I turned it off. I thought about having a hot bath but immediately thought about my brother and the way that his clothes floated around him as I tried to pull him out of the tub. My stomach turned. I walked around the house, made dinner, and then didn’t eat it. I went and lay down on the floor of Lydia’s room.

Where was she?
Was somebody holding her? Was she locked in a closet somewhere? She must be so scared without Daddy and Mama Luna. The poor girl had such a bad go of it, and it was all our fault. She was born into a family of dysfunction. There wasn’t anything the girl could do about it.

“My sweet girl,” I said.
I thought of her pigtails like banners, the sweet way her chubby arms wrapped around my neck. She loved me when nobody else did. She was the only one who didn’t think of me as a screw-up.

I got up. I paced. I slammed my fists into the walls and screamed. I cursed Sparkles as vehemently as I knew how. I curled up and sobbed. I raged. Just a disturbed girl going crazy
in an empty house. Alone.

As I learned young, the darkness comes when you’re alone.