Soultaker (32 page)

No.

He was willing to believe a lot. She was a demon. Okay. She had powers. The ability to bend people to her will by reaching into their minds. She was strong. Powerful. Almost inconceivably ancient. But even a demon would not have the power to alter the rules of time and space. He had to calm down and concentrate on the reality of the situation. Focus on what he knew and what he could do. A surrender to irrational panic would only serve to further Lamia’s goals.

He made another hairpin turn and checked the rearview mirror. The kids looked as if they were nearly as afraid of his daredevil driving as they were of the demon. Their faces were ashen, their eyes wide. Jordan sat between the boys. Her hands clutched the edge of the seat between her legs. She was holding on for dear life. And she looked not at all like a person
capable of levitating a human being merely by concentrating.

“Kelsey!”

The taller of the two boys flinched at the sound of his name. He looked at Jake’s reflected eyes. “Yeah?”

“Tell me again about your idea.”

“I’m not sure it’ll work. It was just something I read in a book on ancient mythology. Could be just a lot of ancient bullshit.”

They were out of Washington Heights now and headed down a wider avenue. Traffic heading into town was thicker than he would have imagined for this time of day and so he was forced to slow down. He resisted the almost overpowering temptation to weave recklessly through the tiny gaps in traffic. With his luck, they’d sideswipe an SUV or Hummer and crash, go down in an inglorious blaze. Or worse, a cop would try to pull them over. He shuddered at the possibility. There were so many ways an encounter with the police could lead to unmitigated disaster. He had two armed fugitives in his car. He could be arrested as an accomplice or accessory. Or the cop might turn out to be loyal to Lamia. Guns would be drawn. There would be shooting. Death. Maybe even his own.

Shit
.

He glanced at the rearview mirror again. “That might be true, Kelsey. But we’re gonna have to roll the dice here. We’re damn near out of time and options. So tell us again what the book said.”

Kelsey shifted in his seat and shot an uncertain glance at Will. “The book says you can’t kill a demon. They’re immortal. There’s nothing we can do about that.” He paused as he glanced at Will again. The other boy nodded and Kelsey continued: “The only way to get rid of the bitch is a banishment spell. It would expel her from the mortal realm. Maybe send her to hell or some other dimension, fuck, I don’t know. The book wasn’t real clear on that part.”

Will said, “Somewhere
else
anyway.”

Jake waited for a Mazda to ease past him and did a quick lane change; then his eyes went back to the mirror. “Sounds good. I don’t care where she goes, so long as she’s gone from here.”

Kelsey cleared his throat. “Um…there is a bit of a catch.”

Jake tensed. He’d figured there would be a catch. He’d hoped he was wrong about that. Hell. He was always right about things on the negative side of the scale. “Spill it.”

Kelsey’s jaw tightened. He didn’t want to say it, but forced the words out anyway: “It would require a…blood sacrifice.”

Kristen’s head snapped toward Jake. He looked at her and was startled by the change in her. She’d said nothing since leaving the house, had just sat there staring straight ahead, looking numb and zoned out. But now she looked alert and anxious. She still didn’t say anything, but her eyes conveyed a warning of some kind. A silent rebuke. But why? It was strange but he couldn’t worry about it right now.

He glanced over his shoulder at Kelsey. “A blood sacrifice? Would that be like a voodoo thing, with an animal?”

Kelsey grimaced. “No. It has to be a human sacrifice.”

Jake laughed and shook his head. “Well, of fucking course it does. We wouldn’t get off that easy. Any other insane requirements for this barbaric ancient ritual? I understand those long-ago jackasses were big on sacrificing virgins. Usually young female virgins.” He laughed again as he made another lane change, sliding in behind an old but immaculate Lincoln Continental with a single, incongruous sticker on its bumper:
LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY
! “Because I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think we’re gonna have a problem locating one of those within an hour.”

“Book didn’t say anything about virgins or the sex of the victim, just that it has to be human.”

“Great. Chalk up one for our side, I guess.” Jake drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He was feeling more anxious by the moment. There was so much they didn’t know. So many things they were probably overlooking. The drumming rhythm intensified as he tried to kick his mind into
gear. Then he thought of something. “Say…where is that book now?”

“Um…”

“Spit it out.”

“Well…” Kelsey sighed. “It’s back there.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “In the Oldsmobile. We left in such a hurry…”

Jake groaned. “Right. Of course.” He’d insisted on leaving the Olds behind. The police were looking for it, after all. See? Here was one of those overlooked things. A potentially fatal miscalculation. “And I suppose the book has info we need to do this thing up right?”

Kelsey shifted in his seat again. “The book lays out the whole ritual for performing a banishment spell. How to perform the sacrifice. With a knife, by the way. There are chants the person performing the sacrifice has to, uh, chant.”

“The chants are in the book?”

“Yeah.”

Jake ceased drumming the steering wheel and wrapped his fingers tight around the hard plastic. “We need that fucking book.”

Jordan leaned forward, poked her head between the seats. “We don’t have time to go back. We do that, the Harvest will begin without us. We’ll be too late.”

Jake glanced at the clock.

Almost 1:00.

Kelsey had risked sending a text message to one of his friends, a fellow student at Rockville High he was sure he could trust. The friend verified that a special assembly had been called for two
P.M
. If Will’s mother had told him the truth—and there was no reason to doubt she had—this would be when Lamia would initiate her Harvest of Souls. Jordan was right. Going back for the book at this point was out of the question.

Now Kelsey leaned forward and Jordan retreated. “She’s right. But there’s a Barnes & Noble on the way, at a strip mall right off the street. It’s a long shot, but they might have another copy there.”

Kristen said, “We are not performing any goddamned blood sacrifice.”

Jake ignored the comment. He knew she was on edge. Brittle. She might fall apart any moment. Getting into an argument with her would be counterproductive. To understate.

He looked at Kelsey. “Right. We make a pit stop at Barnes & Noble. Think. Is there anything else we need before we get to the school?”

“Just a knife.”

“I’ve got an old switchblade in the glove box. Will that do?”

“I guess it’ll have to.”

“Did you hear what I fucking said?” Kristen’s eyes flashed as she leaned toward Jake. Her nostrils flared. There was a harsher, more emphatic edge in her voice now. A tone indicating no tolerance for disagreement. “We’re not doing this. Are you stupid? Who are you thinking of sacrificing anyway?”

Jake looked at her. He hesitated. He knew what he needed to say would only incense her further. But there was just no way around it. He’d intuited the only solution the moment Kelsey told him the victim only needed to be human. And it sucked. It really did. He didn’t particularly want to die. He made his expression as sober as he could and said, “It has to be me.”

“What!?”

Kristen’s scream reverberated in the car.

Jake cringed and looked away from her. “It’s the only way.”

“Bullshit it is!” Kristen leaned closer and grabbed a handful of his shirt. “You’re all I’ve got left. I won’t let you do this.”

Jake peeled her hand away and smoothed his shirt. “What do you propose we do, then? Just let all those kids die?”

“Fuck them.”

Jake gaped at her. “Kristen—”

“I mean it. They’re nothing to me.” She glanced at the kids in the back. “Them, too. I don’t care what happens to them. We should just drop them off and skip town. You said you’d take me back to Minnesota with you, remember?”

Jake put a hand to his temple. Her ranting was making his
head hurt. He’d known his impulsive offer to take her with him when he left might come back to haunt him, but he hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. “We can’t do that. Think about what you’re saying, Kristen. One of those kids you don’t give a shit about is Trey. I understand that you’re upset. This on the heels of what happened to your brother has to be almost too much to bear. But—”

“ALMOST!?”

Her voice rose to screech level now, felt like a knife going through his skull.

She went on: “And as for
your
precious brother, he didn’t seem too interested in your help this morning. He hit you, remember? So, yeah, fuck him, too.”

Jordan made a sound of disgust. “Could you please shut the fuck up? And by the way, I don’t care what happens to you either, bitch.”

Jake’s stomach began to knot up. He could feel the situation spinning out of control, and didn’t have the first clue what to do about it.

Kristen twisted in her seat and aimed Stu’s .38 at Jordan’s midsection. “Talk to me like that again and I’ll shoot you. You do not want to fuck with me.”

Jordan sneered. “Right. I’m half demon, remember? What could your bullets do to me?”

“I don’t know, bitch. Maybe I should pumps six rounds straight into your face and find out.”

Jake’s hands were shaking on the steering wheel. He’d sensed before that Kristen harbored a fearsome temper. That it could be so…overwhelming, though, came as a revelation. He recalled what she’d said about her boyfriend kicking her out for unspecified transgressions and knew he should have headed off any sort of relationship with her in that moment.

Hindsight, as always, was a motherfucker.

He braced a hand on Kristen’s shoulder and shoved her back into her seat. She gasped in surprise and glared at him.

Jordan laughed. “Oooh. Boyfriend lays the smack down.”

Kristen screamed again and lunged toward the gap between the seats.

Jake shoved her back again and said, “STOP!” He glanced at the rearview mirror, sought Jordan’s eyes and found them. “That goes for both of you. Knock it the fuck off.”

There was a lull in the battle then. Kristen sat panting in the front seat. That and the thrum of traffic around them were the only sounds for more than a minute.

Then Jake relaxed his grip on the steering wheel and exhaled a long breath. “I’ve made up my mind, Kristen. This has to be done. There’s no one else. I’m sure as hell not asking one of these kids to take my place. I told you before to stay home, but you didn’t listen. If you want, I can drop you off at the bookstore. You could call a taxi to take you home.”

Kristen looked at him. She was outwardly calmer now, her expression smooth and unreadable. But a glint in her eyes hinted a still-raging storm within. “No. You’re stuck with me.”

“Even if it means watching me die?”

Kristen didn’t say anything, just stared at him.

Kelsey said, “Hey, there’s that mall.”

Jake saw the strip mall coming up on the right. The Barnes & Noble looked to be the main attraction here, dominating the center of the retail space. He flicked on the blinker, switched lanes, and slowed down as they neared the parking lot. The lot was crowded, so he pulled to a stop outside the store’s entrance and fished his wallet out of his back pocket. He extracted a fifty-dollar bill and passed it back to Kelsey.

“That should cover it. Get on in there and find that book or something similar. I’ll cruise the lot and circle back.”

Kristen said, “You’re forgetting something.”

Jake braced himself for another argument, but made himself look at her anyway. “Yeah?”

Kristen’s expression remained placid, her tone even. “The police are looking for him. He shouldn’t be showing his face in public.”

Jake cursed himself for overlooking something so obvious. “Oh. Right.”

Kristen twisted in her seat again and extended a hand to ward Kelsey. “Give me the money. I’ll go get the book.”

Jordan snorted. “Yeah, right. And pretend not to find it.”

She snatched the fifty from Kelsey’s fingertips and climbed over him. She pushed against the back of the seat with an unnecessary level of force, jostling Kristen as she reached for the door handle. Then the door was open and she was standing outside.

She leaned down and peered through the open window. “What’s the name of that book?”

Kelsey told her.

She shot a distinctly unfriendly smile at Kristen and said, “I’ll be right back.”

Then she turned away from them and headed into the store.

Kristen seethed. “I could strangle her. I swear.”

Jake didn’t reply.

He put the Camry in gear again and drove away from the curb.

The auditorium was abuzz with excitement as the students of Rockville High began to file in. Some hurried to claim the premium seats up front, while the usual mix of stoners and burnouts went immediately to the seats at the very back. The reason for the special assembly still had not been announced, but rumors were flying about a special performance by a local rock band that had just been signed to a major record label. The rumor was spread by Lamia’s small contingent of student followers, who would die alongside their classmates today. These students believed their sacrifices would be rewarded in the afterlife. Of all the many lies Lamia had told them, this had been the most compelling. She had convinced them they would rule as kings and queens in a vague ethereal kingdom.

Lamia found it amusing.

They were in for quite the surprise on the other side of the veil.

Eternal misery instead of eternal bliss.

It gave her great pleasure to think of the eons of pain awaiting them. However, she did feel a grudging appreciation for how effectively they had spread the rumor. Although they were not actually here, the band rumored to play was real enough. Their fliers were up all over town. And most of the students now seemed convinced the closed curtain at the front of the stage would soon part to reveal musical instruments and stacks of amplifiers. This was good. It kept the
students interested and happy and diverted speculation about other reasons for the special assembly. And it eliminated the need to spend too many minutes waiting for stragglers. The auditorium was filling quickly.