On Tenterhooks (43 page)

“You already lowered them, didn’t you?” asked Abby. “That’s how
he .
.
. got
to me.”

Biker closed his eyes for a moment
.
There was a look of shame on his face.
“
I did,
d
arlin’.”

He took Abby’s tiny hand in his. “Please forgive me for that
.
I was trying to draw him in our direction, but
I underestimated how close he was behind you
.
By the time I figured it out, he was already onto you.”

Abby gave him a tired smile
.

“It’s okay.
I just wish I had known what to expect
.
I might have been better able to fight him
. . .
”

“Yes, I know.
It was a mistake that I won’t let happen again
.
I won’t drop
the shields
again
until
you
are
good to go.”

“So
,
after all this time
you’re going to drop
these shields,” said Martin. “
And then all of the sudden we show up as easy prey?”

“Yup,
i
n a manner of speaking.”

“But won’t he be suspicious?” asked Martin
.
“It seems like such an obvious trap.”

“Well, it
doesn’t
work like that with them
,
Martin
.
To him, it’s just blood in the water. It doesn’t matter
‘
why
’
something happens to change the situation
—
only
that it
did
change
.
He
will
see that he
has an advantage. And I’ll bet my
badass hand-stitched
boots th
at he’s gonna take it.”

Biker slapped the side of his boot.
“
See, he’
s like a machine
.
Satan put him on this earth for one purpose
—
to keep y
ou from reaching your Goodness
.
Satan programmed him to do whatever is necessary to accomplish that goal
.
But don’t get me wrong
—
he’s not like some dumb animal driven by instinct
.
He’s conscious,
very aware and very adaptable,
with
a
single-track mind
focused
on the job he’s been put here to do
.
And believe me, that is one employer you do
not
want to get a
bad
performance review from.”

S
tabb
ing
the air with a pointing finger
, he emphasized:
“Not to mention that this isn’t really a trap. What this does is force him out in the open
.
But
,
like I said, you can’t shoot him, you can’t burn him,
you can’t even poison the sonuvabitch,
so you’re gonna have to be very creative and think on your feet
.
Oh yeah, and he might not be alone.”

“What does that mean?” asked
Veronica
.

“It mean
s
” said Biker, sighi
ng, “h
e m
ight bring
some
back-up. Some minions or something
to help ensure things go his way.
But don’t worry
—
they won’t be near as tough as
he is
.
”

“Biker,” said
Veronica
,
“
you
suck at pep talks.”

“Guilty.
Look
,
t
his ain’t no
G-rated
movie.
I ain’t promising y
ou cashmere and creamsic
les here.
You are
stuck in the middle o
f something that very few people on earth have ever had to grapple with
.
It
won’t
be pretty
,
and it
ain’t
gonna be easy
.
But the way I see it, you
ain’t got much of an
option
,
neither
.
No normal means are gonna protect you forever
.
I ain’t always gonna be around
—
I got a whole flock to look after
.
You can
’t
call the cops on him
. He’ll
just
disappear and
pop
up
later and strike out at you from the dark
.
If you want to live your lives
and ensure that nothing happens to the rest of your loved ones
, you
gotta
do this
dust-up
,
and you
gotta
do it now.”

Steve had been silent until now
, but
a question had been burning ever since they had
accepted B
iker at his word.
“Biker, e
very time we ran into him, Preacher told me to ‘let it go.’ What did that mean?”

Biker grunted with a slow nod
,
“My guess is he was trying to get you to let go of your faith
, your optimism
. That’s what he wants. If you do that, it’s
victory lap time
for him. He can head back downstairs for a breather
,
knowing that your positive spark is snuffed out.”

Then he asked all of them,
“When you saw him, did you feel sick or lightheaded, anything like that?”

“Hell
,
yes,” said Martin
.
“I got a massive pain in my stomach.”

“And I have
a panic attack every time,” said
Veronica
.

“I only saw him once,” said Abby
.
“But right before he grabbed me, my eyes started burning
.”

“Yeah.
Those are typical effects. These
demons
have an ability to bend people to their will.
Not mind control
, more like the ability to plant sugges
tions, influence you and stuff.”

“Why didn’t it bother me like the others?” asked Steve.

“You didn’t have any pain or anything like that?” asked Biker.

“No.
I mean, I was scared, but not queasy or anything.”

Biker
smiled, “That’s
good, man
—
flat
cold
good.”

Before Steve could follow
up,
Veronica
interrupted.
“
Does tha
t mean he was scared of Steve?”

Biker chuckled again
,
“No, sorry.
Look, he doesn’t get scared
.
He doesn’t stray too far from the plan at all
.
He’s only got enough creativity
in that shell of his
to enable him to evolve to the situation at hand
.
You guys show up like bright spots on his radar
.
So
,
when he sees a chance to cast that influence, he takes it.
”

“Can he do that? Control us like that?” Steve asked.

“No.
Not while I am around and got your shields up.
He
can physically get close to you, muck with your guts maybe
,
and he can talk at you, but that’s about it.
”

Veronica
looked at Abby with a concerned frown on her face.
“But
the
shields weren’t up when he got to Abby
.”

“No, they weren’t.
But Abby’s got shields of her own
.
He was trying to get in there and stir it up, but she fought him
.
He didn’t succeed.”

T
he
whole
group gave Abby an appraising look
.
She blushed under the scrutiny
, and then
smiled
shyly
.
Her
smile brought an unconscious sigh out of Steve
.
He felt at least one knot inside him loosen
, if only slightly
.

“So
,
if he made me sick as a dog, and the others too,”
asked
Martin. “
why
not Steve?”

“Steve’s got his own defenses
also
,” replied Biker, staring at Steve. “
Hone them
,
man. T
ake care of them
,
and they’ll serve you well.”

They spent the next
hour
listening to
his
advice on how to prepare for the imminent conflict
.
Abby took copious not
es, but
there weren’t
any
real instructions in Biker’s words
.
To Steve
,
they sounded more like a full-hearted pep ta
lk to an underdog team facing long odds.

So be it. We
’ve got to trust that he’s gonna tell us anything he can to help, otherwise, w
hat’s the point of even trying?

As the sun went down, their waiter lit the nearby chiminea
and the torches that lined the patio. The heat from the fire felt good on their bare arms. Steve
took stock of his companions at the table
.
They all seemed rapt with Biker’s words, even
Veronica
.
They watched as
their mentor
recounted possibilities of what to expect, but nothing was concrete
.

“
Ultimately
,
folks, t
he thing you have going for you is each
other
.
Use that tool
,
and it’ll save your bacon.”

D
espite just
having met
Biker, and
it’s happening
under dire circumstances, each of them already trusted
him
.
Maybe it was because none of them could explain the
events
that had led them to this point. There
were too many unfounded fears and coincidences
. T
here had to be something larger at work. Biker’s explanation of their small
,
but crucial
,
role
in a grander design seemed to sit well with
each
of them
.

Maybe it’s just the knowing itself.

They had all been living with a grief
that had gnawed at them from the inside
.

Biker was
not
sugarcoating
the situation
, but Steve sensed that he was holding back about how bad their chances were.
In the current surroundings, it
was hard to believe
that they
would soon deploy
as if
they
were some
sort of
s
pecial
f
orces
unit. Steve surveyed his
“
troops
”
:
Martin, with his oversized bifocals
and graying temples;
Abby
with her notebook
and
music player
;
and
Veronica
with her short
,
spiky hair and even shorter fuse.
But he knew that there was more to each of them
—
Martin’s faith,
Veronica
’s strength
, Abby’s casual confidence. How much could they rely on these reserves in the days ahead?