The Eighth Day (20 page)

“House fire,” Jax gasped. “But I think it's a distraction, to get Riley out of the way. It was one of his vassals—and her kids are in danger. He had to go—”

“Of course he did,” she said. A vassal came first
.

“He said to give you this and for me to get you out of here.” Jax thrust a leather sheath into her hands, the belt still attached
.

Her heart thudded when she realized she was holding Riley's honor blade. Things must be serious for him to send her this. “All right, let's go.”

“I know it's close to midnight,” Jax said, “but my friend Billy's house is on the next block. You'll be safe there.”

They made it as far as the sidewalk when Evangeline saw the vehicles converging on them from two different directions, driving with
their lights off. Jax spotted them, too. He grabbed her hand, yanked her around the corner of the house, and stopped dead. Dark shapes swarmed over the fence behind the houses
.

“Back in the house,” Evangeline said. “It's protected.”

“Protected how?” But he let her pull him up the front steps. The vehicles screeched to a stop outside the house. Evangeline slammed the door shut and darted into the hallway next to the stairs, where she could see the front and back doors simultaneously. Jax pressed himself against the wall beside her
.

The back door was the first one they tried. Evangeline heard the roar of pain as someone burned his hand on the doorknob. The windows proved a similar barrier. Dark shapes appeared outside the glass frames, one by one, then backed off
.

“What's doing that?” Jax asked
.

“My spell,” she said. “No harm shall enter that way.” Nevertheless, her heart pounded. The intruders couldn't come in, but they could force her out
.

They knew it, too. The assault on windows and doors stopped, but through the front door sidelight, Evangeline saw someone walk up the steps. She heard the ominous sound of a metal can hitting the concrete stoop outside
.

“Daughter of the Kin!” A man's voice boomed. “We have not come to harm you.”

A lie. Otherwise her spell would not have repelled them
.

“We require you to come out and identify yourself. If you are who I believe you are, we have a great honor to bestow on you. If we are mistaken, we shall leave you in peace.”

But they weren't mistaken
.

“Refusing is not an option.” Evangeline heard the rattle of the metal can again and the sloshing of liquid as the man picked it up and shook it. She didn't need a glimpse of it through the sidelight to know it was a container of gasoline
.

No harm could enter through the windows or doors, but flames could consume the house, burning Jax alive along with Mrs. Unger, who'd reappear in her bed a few minutes from now. And Evangeline might not be around long enough to feel the flames, but she'd end up dead just the same
.

“You have one minute to come out,” the man called
.

Jax stared at Evangeline. “What'll we do?”

She searched his face. He was as scared as she was. She could feel him shaking. But his eyes were flinty and his mouth set with anger
.

“We're going to cooperate until we see a chance to get away from them,” she said. “Turn around.” When he just blinked at her, she made a twirly motion with her finger, and he turned. Then she pulled her arms out of the sleeves of her blouse. Throwing the belt for Riley's sheath over her right shoulder and under her left arm, she buckled it into place. It was uncomfortable, but the dagger lay near her heart, and she could reach down the neck of her blouse to grab it. Then she put her arms into her sleeves again and surveyed her reflection in the hall mirror. Finally, a useful purpose for her nineteen-eighties clothes! The blouse was loose and boxy with sleeves that draped from wrist to shoulder. Its diagonal stripes hid any bulges
.

“Girl, show yourself!” the voice bellowed from outside
.

Any second now, they'd torch the house. Evangeline looked at
Jax and realized they'd kill him as soon as they had her in their grasp. He was superfluous. Her heart lurched. Her brother and sister had been depending on her, and she'd failed them long ago. She'd allowed them to be taken from her
.

That wasn't going to happen to Jax
.

She grabbed his arm. “Swear to me. If you're my vassal, they'll honor my right to protect you.”

His brows knitted together, but he didn't argue. “Tell me how.”

“On your knees with your dagger. Swear on your bloodline. The words don't matter. Just mean them.”

Jax pulled out his blade and dropped to his knees. He held the dagger up like he was ordering a cavalry charge, but there was no time to correct him on his form. “I swear, on the Aubrey bloodline, my loyalty and service to you, Evangeline Emrys.”

“I accept you,” she said. Grabbing his face in both her hands, she kissed his forehead, then strode down the hall to open the front door. The man outside towered over her by a foot and a half and was three of her in width. He wore a dark suit, and his sand-colored hair was cropped very close to his scalp
.

Evangeline recognized him, even though he'd been no older than twenty when she met him thirty-five years ago. His eyes lit in recognition, too. She had only aged five years
.

John Balin
.

Balin was a Transitioner, vassal to the Kin lord Myrddin Wylit. Evangeline's father had distrusted all Transitioners and had protested strongly over including Balin in their plans. But Wylit had insisted, and apparently he'd been too important an ally to cross
.

At the age of eleven, Evangeline had dimly understood that. But she'd also recognized insanity when she saw it. Every time Wylit came to the house with his Transitioner vassal, she'd taken Addie and Elliot and gotten out of his way. Quickly
.

“Lady Emrys,” Balin said, “Lord Wylit will be very pleased we've found you at last.”

“Call off your men and back away,” she said, trying to summon the arrogance of a high-ranking Kin lady. Because that's what I am. “I'm coming out, but if you touch me or my vassal, your lord will hear of it.”

He honored tradition and her right to defend a vassal, just as she'd hoped he would. “I give you my word. You and your vassal have safe passage.”

Evangeline kept her head high and opened the screen door. Three vehicles were parked in the street. One of them was strangely long and boxy. Six or seven men waited on the sidewalk, all dressed in dark clothes
.

Jax left the house behind her, his hands held up in a gesture of surrender. But that didn't stop someone from leaping off the roof overhanging Mrs. Unger's stoop to knock him down. They tumbled off the steps together on the side that had no railing, and before Evangeline could protest, Jax was in the hands of a man with carroty hair and a boy of similar coloring. They thrust him to his knees when he tried to stand, twisting his arms behind his back. A second boy—no, a girl—darted forward, snatched a phone from Jax's back pocket, and tossed it aside
.

“Get off me!” Jax shouted
.

“Now, Jax,” said the man cheerfully. “We're gettin' you out of harm's way.”

Evangeline clenched her fists. She was outnumbered and bluffing, but she turned a gaze of fury on Balin. “I see your word is worthless.”

“He won't be harmed,” Balin assured her. “I'll bring him with us.”

“We weren't paid for Jax,” the girl said, and the carroty-haired man called out, “That wasn't part of the deal. He stays here.”

“Don't do me any favors,” snarled Jax
.

“Lady Emrys, come.” Balin motioned her forward, ignoring the outraged exchanges between Jax and the people holding him. Then Evangeline saw the object being lifted out of the back of the long vehicle
.

Her heart flopped over. “No.”

“This is how it's done,” he said. “For you, it will last no more than a minute.”

Every pretense of calm and coolness deserted her. “No!” She fumbled at the neck of her blouse for the dagger
.

Two men came at her from either side, catching her hands and feet and lifting her off the ground. She shrieked and thrashed, but their hands were like iron
.

Behind her, Jax yelled, “What're you doing? No! Don't put her in there!”

A man standing at the back of the hearse opened the lid of the casket. “Jax!” Evangeline screamed, knowing he couldn't help her and calling for him anyway. Her captors swung her over the yawning coffin and let go. She hit the silk-lined interior hard enough to knock the breath out of her
.

Then the coffin lid dropped closed
.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

JAX DIDN'T KNOW
what was worse: hearing Evangeline scream his name as they dumped her into the coffin, or knowing he was failing his oath within seconds of making it. “Let her out of there!” he shouted.

“They aren't hurtin' her.” Donovan leaned down to say this in his ear, and Jax pushed off his knees with all his strength. The top of his head smashed Donovan in the nose. Jax hurled his body sideways, knocking Thomas off balance, and broke away.

He knew he was going to be in trouble once he got to the brutes who'd thrown Evangeline into the casket, although that didn't stop him from hurtling toward them. At the last second, the man with the gasoline can whistled sharply, and the men stepped out of Jax's path.

He thudded against the side of the casket and heaved the lid up.

The coffin was empty.

The pit bull started barking.

“Hey!” The dog's owner shoved his screen door open and started down his front steps wearing only a T-shirt and boxer shorts. “What's going on? Did something happen to Mrs. Unger?”

A hand grabbed Jax by the scruff of the neck and hauled him around the side of the hearse. Any thought of calling for help was squelched by the muzzle of a gun pressed against his ear and the cold, dark gaze of Gasoline Guy. Jax swallowed hard and stood very still.

One of the men left the casket to cross the street and distract the neighbor. “No need for alarm, sir. We have the wrong address. But what do you think
that
is?” He pointed at the red glow in the sky, and as if on cue, the fire station siren wailed across town.

Meanwhile, the coffin was lifted into the rear compartment of the hearse. Understanding hit Jax like a smack across the face. The coffin was a means to transport Evangeline. These people were using it the way Donovan had used the pet carrier—except Jax was sure there'd never been a cat in that carrier and Evangeline was definitely in the coffin. He could
feel
her there, as if the oath he'd made not two minutes ago bound them like a thread. She was in that casket, but there was no way to get her out until next Grunsday.

Somebody loomed on Jax's left side. “You want me to take this boy out back, John?”
Out back
sounded like a bad
place to be, perhaps the last place he'd ever be.

“No. I gave my word I'd bring her vassal along. And look who he is.” The first man grabbed Jax's left wrist and yanked it into the air.

“Aubrey. Now that's interesting.”

“Get his blade.”

Jax didn't fight as they unbuckled his sheath and pushed him into the passenger section of the hearse. If he wanted to stay close to Evangeline, he had to cooperate. And with every fiber of his being, he wanted—
needed
—to go where that casket went.

“We're taking the other kids as well,” Gasoline Guy said to the other one.

“You sure you want them?”

“They found the Emrys heir when no one else could. I want them.” While the sirens roared and neighbors gathered across the street to look at the glow in the sky, the leader of these thugs walked away from the hearse and approached Michael Donovan.

“Well, Balin, are you satisfied?” Michael asked. He had the same amused lilt in his voice as when he'd called out Terrance at the bank. “You said there'd be a bonus if the Kin girl was the one you were looking for.”

“Yes, I did.” The man picked up his gasoline can again. “Your family has a valuable talent, Donovan. I'll be recruiting your children for the service of my lord.” Then he bashed Michael in the head with the can. Michael went
down like a felled tree, and the twins bolted. Thomas shot toward the rear of the house, and Tegan made a dash for Mrs. Unger's open front door.

One of the men reached through the bars of Mrs. Unger's railing and caught Tegan's ankle. She fell face first across the threshold. He dragged her backward and scooped her under his arm like a football. With a hand over her mouth, he carried her to the hearse and chucked her in the open door at Jax's feet.

Two others cornered Thomas and herded him toward the hearse. The boy held his arms out to either side in apparent submission. But when he got to the door, Thomas grabbed the frame, thrust himself upward, and scrambled over the top of the vehicle. Gasoline Guy—Balin—reached for him and missed. Jax heard Thomas's footsteps pound across the roof and saw him leap off the other side.

“Go, Tommy, go,” shouted Tegan.

The man Balin waved a hand at the driver. “Go—before we have to shoot the bystanders.” He slammed the door shut and stalked toward one of the black Land Rovers parked behind the hearse.

As the vehicles pulled away, Jax saw Billy Ramirez running down the street from his house in bare feet, wearing
Lord of the Ring
pajamas. He was looking at the glow in the sky until he spotted the crumpled form in front of Mrs. Unger's, then he diverted to cross the street, cutting in
front of the hearse. The driver cursed, turning the wheel and barely missing him.