Otherworld Nights (16 page)

Karl peered down the hall. “Isn’t that …?”

“Uh-huh.”

I’d told him the story after Tara tried luring
him
into a back room at a New Year’s ball.

“Perhaps allowing a sacrifice or two isn’t such a bad thing,” he said. “Seeing that I can’t open the soul box, this might be our only way to get that demon back to hell.”

“Tempting,” I muttered as I began walking toward them. “Very tempting.”

“Oh, oh!” Tara chirped. “Someone’s coming. It’s—” She leaned around the security guard and saw me. “Oh.”

The guard turned my way, Rick still dangling from his arm. The guard’s eyes flashed yellow. “You are early, my princess. The sacrifice is not yet complete.”

“Princess?” Tara said.

“Sacrifice?”
Rick yelped.

“Is this a friend of yours, Hope?” Tara said. “Figures. Bet you met a lot of them in the loony bin. Is that where you met him, too?” She gestured at Karl. “I heard it was a dating service. Gold-Diggers-R-Us.”

“Last chance,” Karl whispered to me.

“There will be no sacrifices,” I said, walking over to Nybbas. “I thought I made that clear.”

“No, princess. You asked that no sacrifices be made on your behalf. That means you do not wish the deaths to weigh on your conscience. A human failing, but I understand. I will make the sacrifices for you and—”

“And no.” I stepped so close I could smell the guard’s cheap cologne. “I do
not
want the sacrifices. I command—”

The guard’s body collapsed at my feet.

“We need to get that box open,” I said as we strode down the hall, having ensured the guard was only unconscious and left Tara and Rick making a beeline for the back exit. “Are you sure you don’t remember how you did it?”

“Yes, I remember. I’m just pretending otherwise to liven up a dull evening.”

“Okay. Sorry. We need a backup plan, then. Paige and Lucas have a dispossession spell that might work, but we’d have to get them here from Portland. Meanwhile, this bastard has free run of a building filled with potential victims. We need to get everyone out so we can—”

The vision flashed again. I pushed it aside faster now, recovering after only a split-second blackout. When I came to, though, I found myself staring at a red box on the wall.

I glanced over at Karl. He plucked a glove from his pocket and pulled the fire alarm.

As plans went, it was far from foolproof. For one thing, as the partygoers streamed toward the exits, their chaos washed over me … and washed away any chaos being caused by Nybbas himself. Then someone shouted, “Where’s the tour group? Has anyone seen them yet?” and I looked over to see the closed doors to the new exhibit.

I yanked on the door. It didn’t budge. Karl grabbed it and heaved, tendons in his neck bulging. Then, with a crack, the door flew open and we raced through.

Inside, it was pitch-black and silent. Chaos thrummed through
the room. Then a whimper, followed by a harsh whisper, someone urging silence.

“I can smell you,” a woman’s voice sang. “I don’t need lights to find dirty, stinking humans.”

When the fire alarm sounded, the lights must have gone off. Now they were trapped as Nybbas hunted them.

“I’ll stop him,” Karl whispered. “You stay here.” He pressed the box into my hands. “Work on this.”

“I can’t—” I began, but he was gone.

I held the box, my fingers running over the jewels. He was right—opening it had been a fluke the first time. All we could do was catch whatever body he’d jumped into and get these people to safety before he grabbed a new one. With a room filled with fresh bodies to possess, though …

Shit.

I turned the box over in my hands, touching the jewels randomly, frantically, as I strained to hear Karl.

“Is that a wolf I smell?” the singsong voice said.

A grunt, then the thud of a body hitting the floor. A woman started to scream. Karl apologized and laughter rang out—in a man’s voice now.

“You may be a fast wolf,” Nybbas said from his new body. “But you aren’t nearly fast enough.”

A scream made me jump, and I nearly dropped the box before I realized it was just the vision again. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced it away.

Then a woman shrieked, “Get him off me. Get him off me!” and footsteps thundered across the room. A thump, as Karl grabbed the demon off his new victim. A laugh as the demon jumped bodies. Only this time I recognized that deep chuckle. Recognized it very well. Nybbas had leapt into Karl.

“Get out of him!” I said. “I commanded you—”

“—not to kill your wolf.” Nybbas giggled. “I won’t. I promise.”

“I command you—”

“I can’t hear you!” Nybbas said. “Can’t hear anything. I will find my sacrifices and then I will return to my master and tell him what I have done, and he will be pleased.”

I tried ordering him again, but he just kept getting louder, drowning me out.

The vision threatened again. I pushed it back.

Nybbas inhaled deeply. “Better sense of smell. Better night vision. Better hearing. This makes it almost too easy.”

I turned the box over. I just had to hold this damned chaos vision at bay long enough to concentrate—

I stopped. Chaos vision. Of Nybbas’s incarceration.

“There you are,” Nybbas said. “Come here, human. Let me taste—”

An
oomph
and a hiss as whoever Nybbas caught escaped. Then a clatter and a howl of rage as he tripped over something.

I squeezed my eyes shut, wrapped my hands around the box, and cleared my mind. The vision hit like a left hook to the temple. I struck the floor, and everything went dark.

I heard the demon’s screams. Then chanting. Then a man’s voice reciting the incantation. I blinked hard, and the vision came clear.

I stood in a temple. At the altar, a bearded man held the soul box aloft. Women in red robes ringed him, chanting. At his feet, a bound man struggled.

The sorcerer pressed the jewels on the box. The lid flew open.

One of the women took a knife from her robe, raised it, and stabbed the bound man while the sorcerer continued the incantation. As the last word left his mouth, the demon was ripped—shrieking—from his still-living host, a yellow pulsing light being dragged toward the box. When it disappeared inside, the sorcerer smacked it shut.

I snapped from the vision, but the screams continued. A woman’s screams now, her nails scratching the floor as Nybbas dragged her. I quickly hit the jewels in sequence as I recited the incantation.

As I hit the last jewel, the box popped open. I squeezed my eyes shut, and finished the last words.

“No!” Nybbas shrieked. “Mistress, no! I will obey you. I will—” Yellow light flashed, then a glowing ball streaked toward me. When it disappeared inside the box, I slapped it shut. The box rocked and jumped. Then it went still.

I won’t say Karl was shaken up by the demonic possession. More like pissed off, mostly at himself, as if getting possessed were a personal failure of will. We’d discuss it later. For now, we didn’t trust that Nybbas was gone. After escorting everyone out of the exhibit, I assured my mother and grandmother that we were fine. Then, as the fire trucks arrived, we snuck back inside and canvassed the museum. It was empty. No humans. No demons. Just us, staying two steps ahead of the fire crews.

We replaced the soul box in the display. Keeping it would only alert the museum to the theft. Better to return later with magical help to seal the box forever.

We were heading for the exit when Karl whisked me into a closet.

“Someone’s coming,” he whispered.

“I don’t hear anything.”

He lifted me onto a crate. As he pressed against me, I felt a bulge … in his tux jacket. I slid my hands inside the coat.

“You did steal something!” I yanked out a box from the hidden pocket. “Damn you, Karl—”

“Shhh. You don’t want us to get caught roaming the museum. Particularly if I did steal something.”

“Bastard,” I hissed.

I pushed him away. It was a jewelry box, one he must have brought so if he got caught, he might convince a naive guard it held only a gift for his girlfriend.

I opened the box to see … a diamond solitaire ring.

“
Not
stolen,” Karl said.

On each side of the diamond, there was an engraved symbol for eternity, matching the charm Karl had bought for me last year. The writing inside matched my charm, too. Three words.
No matter what
.

“I haven’t gotten any more poetic. No more romantic, either.” He gestured around the closet. “In my defense, I did try. It seemed perfect—returning to the place we first met. It didn’t quite work out the way I planned, though.”

I lifted the ring. “So is this …? I mean, is it what it looks like?”

“Ah, sorry. I’m making a mess of this, aren’t I? Let’s try that again.” He took the ring and the box from me. “I know this isn’t what you want right now. That’s fine. I’ll wait. But someday, when you’re ready …” He held out the box, the ring back in place. “Will you marry me?”

“Um, you saw what you’d be getting yourself into, right?”

“Let’s see … High-society in-laws on one side. The Prince of Darkness on the other. A demon princess for a wife. A lifetime of chaos and general anarchy. Is that what I want?” He met my gaze. “Absolutely.”

He lifted the box. I took the ring, looked up at him, and put it on my finger.

“T
here’s a wolf in the forest.”

Peyton’s big sister, Piper, looked up from her homework.

“What?”

Peyton pointed at the window. “A wolf. Out there. He was watching me.” She tugged one pigtail. “He watches me a lot. I think he’s lonely.”

Piper scrambled off her chair, put her hand to the glass, and cupped it to peer into the darkness.

“He’s kinda hard to see,” Peyton said. “Because he’s black. But he has blue eyes. I can always see his eyes.”

Their brother, Pearce, walked in, sneering. “Yeah, a blue-eyed black wolf. She saw a dog, Pipe.”

“No, I saw a wolf. He’s right—” Peyton pressed her nose to the glass. “He’s gone. But it was a wolf. He was really big.”

“How big?” Piper asked.

Peyton lifted her hand to the top of her head.

“Uh-huh.” Pearce turned to Piper. “Dog. Wolves are smaller than Mrs. Lee’s German shepherd. And they’re gray with brown eyes. She’s a baby, Pipe. She imagines things.”

“I’m not a baby! I’m almost five and I go to school.”

Piper headed for the door. “I’m going out to take a look.”

Piper hadn’t found any sign of what her sister had seen outside, but it still worried her. Mom didn’t pay nearly enough attention to Peyton these days, and she was liable to let her wander into the forest looking for her “wolf.” They lived near Algonquin Park. There
were
wolves in their woods—plus bears, porcupines, and lynx. Piper tried to watch her little sister, but she was in high school now and couldn’t be with her all the time.

She went in to tell Mom what Peyton had seen, but Mom was on the phone with Roy, Peyton’s dad. They’d split up six months ago. Things had been better with Roy around. A lot better. Kids always whined about their stepdads, but Roy had been great. Now he was gone, and Mom was on the phone with him, fighting as usual. He wanted custody of Peyton; Mom wouldn’t even let him see her.

Piper had overheard Aunt Nancy saying Mom was doing it to punish Roy. Piper hoped her mom would wake up soon and decide he’d been punished enough. That she’d realize a four-year-old was more than she could handle when she had two jobs and friends and boyfriends. Piper hated being disloyal to her mother, but she secretly hoped that someday Roy would just come and take Peyton. It would be better for everyone. Especially Peyton.

That night, after everyone was asleep, Peyton stood at her bedroom window and watched the wolf. She had asked her teacher yesterday if wolves could be black, and they’d looked it up on the computer and found pictures of black ones. Pearce wasn’t so smart, even if he was almost twelve.

After that, Peyton dug out the camera Daddy had given her for Christmas. Mommy had gotten mad, saying Peyton was too young for one, but Daddy said he got a good deal on it, and Peyton loved taking pictures. Or she used to, when they’d go into the forest together and find butterflies and hummingbirds. But then Daddy
left and Peyton put the camera away. Now she was going to use it to get a photo of the wolf and show Pearce.

She couldn’t take pictures through the window. Daddy had taught her that. So she tiptoed past Piper’s room and slipped into the back hall. Then she put on her coat and boots and went outside.

The wolf was still at the edge of the forest. When she came out, he didn’t move, just looked at her. She lifted the camera. The wolf backed into the darkness.

Peyton took a few careful steps, until she saw the glow of his blue eyes. She lifted the camera. The wolf moved back. She moved forward. He moved back.

“I just want to take your picture,” she said.

He tilted his head, as if listening to her. She raised the camera. He stretched out his front paws and lowered his head, tail wagging. Then he let out a little yelp, like Mrs. Lee’s dog, Baxter, when he wanted to play. As she pushed the shutter button, he raced off.