Sam Harlan (Book 3): Damned Cold (24 page)

Meriwether frowned. When he spoke, his voice was higher and not quite as confident. “I gave her the chance to do the right thing. She refused to offer herself.”

“You thought she’d kill herself?” I asked.

“And why not?” Meriwether asked. He pointed to Dorothy’s dead body. “
She’s
to blame for this. Now I have to take stronger measures.”

Callie watched our exchange with widened eyes. She grunted and moaned, but there was nothing I could do. I felt the shame from not saving Dorothy’s life burning in my gut. “What kind of stronger measures?”

Meriwether rocked back on his heels. His face went blank and his voice deepened. “Go back to Jodie’s coven and do as I ordered.”

I shook my head. “I can’t—”

“You
will
do it because you have no choice.” He put the medallion in my coat pocket and patted it. “You’re out of
options
, Mr. Harlan, and out of
time
. You tried. You did your best. There’s no shame in that.”

“You want me to hand over Dawn so you can sacrifice her like you did her mother.” I resisted the urge to spit at him. “Killing Dorothy wasn’t enough?”

Meriwether shook his head and said simply, “No. It wasn’t. Blood magic is difficult, even for someone with my knowledge.”

“Dawn’s just a … a thing to use to get what you want.”

“Of course,” Meriwether said. He raised an eyebrow in bafflement. “What else would she be?”

“How do you know it will work?” I asked. “You couldn’t do it this time.”

He blinked. “There’s a way around every obstacle.”

“How can you make Nicky
do that? How could you make your own son—”

“These sacrifices will do for Nicky what I never could,” he said loudly. “It is a
small
price to pay.”

“Why don’t you tell that to Dorothy?” I asked. “Oh, wait, you just slaughtered her like a sacrificial lamb.”

Meriwether’s eyes widened and I barely had time to register his fist as it connected with my jaw. There was an explosion of pain, and I would have collapsed if Barlow hadn’t held me upright.

“No more arguments,” Meriwether said. “You will do as you’re told or I’ll kill your friend.” He must have seen the look on my face, because he continued, “You have twenty minutes. If you haven’t removed the coven’s defenses, I won’t bother raping your little friend. I’ll have the vampire rip her heart from her chest.”

Callie moaned, shaking her head, trying to signal me. I knew she would rather die than have me follow Meriwether’s orders.

I wanted to tell him to go to Hell, but in that moment which seemed to last forever, I realized that Callie was the thing I loved most in the world.

She was all I had left.

My eyes burned and I felt tears roll down my face. “Fine,” I whispered.

There was a murmuring among Meriwether’s coven. He smiled and leaned close to my face. “What did you say?”

Callie went wild, shaking and yanking against the rope, stomping her bare feet against the concrete. She shook her head, whipping it back and forth, pleading with her eyes.

I bit my tongue hard enough to draw blood and said, “I’ll do it.”

Meriwether laughed, a deep belly laugh like the world was his joke and he’d just heard the punchline. “Oh, Mr. Harlan, I like you
very
much. Do as you’ve been told, and I promise I won’t lay a finger on you. When this is all over, you can comfort yourself knowing that you restored my son’s life. You are giving him the opportunity to achieve his true potential.”

There was a deep sense of shame burning in my belly. “I doubt it,” I said, watching Callie glare at me.

* * *

Barlow led me to my truck. “They removed your supplies while you were unconscious,” he said. “Don’t even think of resisting.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “He’s controlling you, isn’t he?”

Barlow opened the truck door and shoved me inside. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah,” I said, “there’s a lot of that going around.”

Barlow shook his head. “I can’t—”

“What’s really going on?”

“I’m…” He paused and stared at me with hooded eyes. The muscles in his jaws worked. “I’m … unable … to say more.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I
know
,” the vampire hissed. “Go now. Do as you’ve been told.” He turned and headed back into Meriwether’s house.

I was left alone in the cold. There
had
to be a way to rescue Callie and save Jodie’s coven, but my brain felt like it was full of cotton. I didn’t have any weapons and I was still woozy from being knocked out.

What am I supposed to do? There’s no way I can take Barlow. Not without weapons.

I’d staked my first vampire, completely by accident, with a broken chair leg. If I could sharpen the end of a piece of wood and fashion it into a stake, I could kill Barlow.

Except I don’t have any wood and the clock is ticking. It will take me at least fifteen minutes just to get back to the farm.

“Damn it,” I said to myself, smacking the steering wheel.

There was nothing else left to do. I was out of ideas and out of time.

I gunned the Chevy, roaring through Monticello, and was halfway to Bement when I remembered that Callie kept a spare cell phone in the glove compartment.

Assuming they didn’t take that, too.

Fate was with me. I rummaged through the glove compartment with my right hand while steering with my left, until my fingers touched the heavy plastic of the burner phone under a stack of old-fashioned maps that had belonged to Jack. I yanked it out and called the only person I thought could help.

There was a ringing on the other end and then Henry asked, “You have good news?”

“I’m … in trouble,” I said. “A witch is forcing me to hand over a girl or he’ll kill Callie.”

There was a low whistle on the other end. “You got problems, boy.”

I was nearing the side road that led to the Korman farm. “The witch sacrificed a woman to heal his son. He’s the one who’s controlling Milford.”

“A blood sacrifice,” Henry said, “
and
controlling a vampire? Get the hell out of there, Sam. Blast your way through them, get the Sister, and get the hell out. Don’t look back.”

I turned on the side road and headed west. “What? What is it?”

He sounds scared.

That, more than anything, scared
me
. Henry was the most powerful vampire I’d ever met. If he was scared, then I was in
serious
trouble.

“You’re dealing with something you got no experience with,” Henry said. “I can be there in a day. Don’t do anything until I get there.”

The Korman farm was quickly approaching and I hit the brakes, making the turn into the Kormans’ gravel driveway. “I can’t, Henry. They’ll
kill
her.”

“Listen to me, boy,” he said, his voice low and guttural. “Your life is in danger.
Serious
danger. Worse than anything my kind can inflict.”

The door to the Korman farm opened and Jameson stepped out, looking at me quizzically.

“I have to go,” I said.

“Wait! You—”

“Sorry, Henry. I’ll call you later.”

“Don’t—”

I clicked the button to end the call, wondering what new terror I faced.

It didn’t really matter. It had been almost thirteen minutes since I’d left Meriwether’s house and I figured it was a few minutes for Barlow to put me in the truck…

I was almost out of time.

Jameson opened the truck door. “Sam? Did you find anything at Meriwether’s house?”

“I need to speak to Jodie,” I said, jumping out of the truck and heading for the kitchen door. “Now!”

Jameson frowned but followed me into the farmhouse.

Jodie was sitting at the kitchen table with her niece. She saw the look on my face and grabbed Dawn’s hand. “What happened?”

“You were right,” I said. “Meriwether was behind
all
of it. He’s controlling the vampire. He took your sister. He’s got Callie and is threatening to kill her.”

Jodie’s mouth dropped. “How do you know?”

“Because,” I said, “I found him. I
saw
Dorothy.”

“You saw Mom?” Dawn asked. “Where is she?”

Jodie’s face fell before I could stammer out a response and she said, “He killed her, didn’t he?”

Dawn shook her head. “No. That can’t be.”

“He sacrificed her to cure Nicky.”

“Nicky who?” Dawn asked.

“You didn’t tell her?” I asked Jodie.

She bit her lip. “I … hadn’t gotten to it yet.”

“
Who
is Nicky?” Dawn asked.

“He’s your half-brother,” Jodie said. “He’s Carlton’s son.”

“I don’t
have
a half-brother,” Dawn insisted.

“Sam,” Jameson said, “what
aren’t
you telling us?”

They all turned to stare at me. I removed the bone medallion from my pocket. “I have to use this in the next few minutes or he kills Callie.”

“You
can’t
,” Jodie said. “He’ll just kill her anyway.”

Jameson took the medallion from my shaking hands, as carefully as one would hold a bomb. “What does he really want?”

My eyes found Dawn and I blurted out, “He wants her. Nicky’s half-sister.”

Jodie covered her mouth with her hand. “You can’t do this.”

I shook my head, fighting back tears. “I don’t have a choice.”

“You’re going to trade Dawn’s life for your friend’s life?” Jodie asked. “How could you live with yourself?”

I wanted to tell her that I didn’t know, but Jameson spoke first. “It’s not your fault, son. You’ve done all you can.”

“Father,” Jodie said, her voice rising in panic, “you can’t condone this. Carlton will kill Dawn and then kill us. He’ll kill the Sister, too. He won’t honor any agreement.”

There was an ice-cold ball in the pit of my stomach, and I couldn’t seem to get enough air in my lungs. “Father,” I said, “I can’t wait any longer. What should I do? It’s like I’m trapped in Hell.”

“When you’re going through Hell,” Jameson said as he snapped the medallion in half, showering the floor with bone dust, “keep going.”

My mouth dropped. There was a whooshing sensation in the room, then my ears popped and a high-pitched whine filled the room, then the air went unnaturally still.

The blood drained from Jodie’s face as the bone dust settled to the floor. She stared at the priest and asked, “
What
have you
done
?”

* * *

“We only have a moment,” Jameson said, handing me the Ingram.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, still in shock.

“Do you really think this is all a coincidence?” Jameson asked.

Jodie stared at the priest in horror. “You’ve killed us.”

“Perhaps,” Jameson said. “Perhaps not.”

My hands, the only part of me that was working correctly, methodically checked the Ingram. “I don’t understand.”

The priest grabbed me by the shoulders, a sad smile on his face. “Free will, Sam. It’s the one thing humans possess that defines us among all of creation. You will understand when the time is right, the Lord willing.”

Jamison’s crucifix began to glow a pure white that filled the room like the heart of the sun. There was a crash from the living room, and then screaming. I turned and raised the Ingram, another crash sounded behind me as Barlow burst through the kitchen door, splintering the wood and shattering the glass.

I heard the sounds of engines outside and car doors slamming. I spun, ready to pull the Ingram’s trigger, but Barlow yanked it from my hands with inhuman speed.

There was an explosion of pain as his fist struck my nose. I dropped to the floor, stunned. It blinded me, filling my eyes with tears and making me see stars. The room filled with sound and movement, and Jodie’s screams mixed with Dawn’s as I heard Jameson shout, “Get back! In the name of the Lord—”

The room fell silent. I frantically wiped the tears from my eyes, propping myself up on my knees.

Barlow held Dawn and Jodie by their throats. Jameson stood, arms spread wide, his crucifix glowing fiercely. Barlow’s skin smoked under the harsh light, blackening where the power of the Lord beat against the vampire’s unprotected skin.

Barlow appeared unfazed.

He continued holding the women, seemingly unaware of the damage Jameson’s faith inflicted.

The screams from the living room had turned into gurgling shrieks, and I could only imagine what was occurring. “Damn it, Barlow,” I pleaded. “You can’t do this.”

“He will do as he is told,” a familiar voice said from the doorway. Carlton Meriwether stepped over the remains of the door, glancing around the room with a smile on his face. “Thank you, Mr. Harlan. I had my doubts about you. I was terribly afraid I was going to have to kill your friend.”

I stood there, helplessly watching as Meriwether strode around the room, inspecting the Kormans’ kitchen as if he were doing a victory lap. He smiled as he passed Dawn McKie, then came to a stop in front of Father Jameson.

He carefully plucked the crucifix from the priest’s neck before casually tossing it out the front door and sending it spinning into the night. “Hello, Patrick.”

Jameson shifted uncomfortably. “I know who I’m talking to. I know who you
really
are.”

Meriwether rocked back on his heels, his smile fading. “You do, do you?”

“Yes,” Jameson said. “It all makes sense.”

“Say it,” Meriwether demanded. “Who am I?”

Jameson sighed heavily. “I’ve never forgotten you, Haagenti.”

* * *

Haagenti?

Meriwether laughed. “Oh, how surprised I was when I saw you through the little vampire’s eyes,” he said, his voice deepening and becoming more melodious. “I almost lost sight of my goal. I’ve waited a
long
time for this, Patrick.”

“Time has no meaning to a demon,” Jameson said. “It’s been but the blink of an eye for you.”

“It’s true that we don’t register time the way humans do,” Meriwether said. “But we
do
notice its passing.”

“He’s a demon?” I asked Jameson. “A real demon?”

Meriwether held up his hands. “Guilty as charged. Carlton was nice enough to offer me his body if I could give him what he wanted.”

“That’s what you do, isn’t it?” Jameson asked. “You offer people what they want.”