Touched by Darkness (44 page)

the .38, so he won't bleed as much. Killing him too

quickly would take the fun out of it."

But he could easily bleed to death from that

shoulder wound. Kara watched the blood spread

down his sweater. He had to be in pain, but he

didn't show it. Instead, his focus was on the Belian,

his expression feral.

Turning the gun on Kara, the Belian reached down

and picked up the canister. "And what is this?

Pepper spray? How quaint. As if that could stop

me. But it might stop you. Let's see, shall we?" It

shoved it toward Kara's face, pressed the discharge.

Kara tried to turn away, but the wind blew the

spray on her. Fire raced over her skin and into her

lungs. It seared her eyes. She'd never felt such

agony. She staggered back, gasping and coughing,

tears streaming from her burning eyes. She couldn't

catch her breath. Felt like she was suffocating, as

her chest heaved in a desperate attempt to draw in

oxygen. Her efforts left her throat raw and feeling

on fire. She couldn't see, either, her vision distorted

and blurred through the tearing.

"Oh, I like this," the Belian crooned. "Here,

Sentinel. You try it."

Kara heard Damien gasping and coughing, and

cursed herself for her clumsy attempt to spray the

Belian. She should have known better. Still in pain,

panic rising faster than she could control it, she

squinted at the Belian, saw its attention was on

Damien.
Nothing to lose,
she thought, whirling and

running for the road. Maybe she'd draw it away

from Damien. She'd always heard it was difficult to

shoot a moving target with a pistol.

The excruciating pain shooting through her leg

proved that theory wrong. She went down in the

dirt, rolling and grabbing her left thigh. Felt the

slick flow of blood covering her hands. Her right

wrist screamed at the contact.

"Kara!" Damien yelled.

She felt like a turtle on its back, helpless and

terrified, as she stared up at the Belian.

"If you move even one inch in this direction,

Sentinal," it hissed, pointing the gun at Kara's head,

"if you try to use energy to jerk my arm again, like

you just did, I'll kill her. I can always find another

body."

"Kara, are you okay?" Damien asked.

"Yes. It's just a flesh wound." Even so, her thigh

was bleeding heavily and hurt like hell. Her eyes

were still burning, but her vision had cleared

enough that she could see him. He was sitting up

again. His face and watering eyes were red. Blood

flowed from the shoulder wound.

"What a perfect scene." The Belian smiled again.

"The two of you on the ground, injured, bleeding.

Beautiful, beautiful blood. All for Belial. But it's

time to get on with it." It stepped back, shifted the

gun toward Damien. "Guess what, Dr. Bitch? You

get to see your Sentinel lover die, just like before."

Like before? How could it know?
"What are you

talking about?"

"Oh, I checked you out. Once I realized you must

be the conductor, I researched you. The Internet is

an amazing resource, don't you think? I know all

about your precious Richard Wayman. I know you

watched him die."

Kara closed her eyes to block out the monster's

sneering face.
Richard. His body jerking as the

knife sank into him.
Tremors surged through her

body.

"You remember. That's good. The shock of seeing

Morgan killed will be a nice addition to your

memories. He won't try to stop me, or I'll kill you,

too. Your foolish guilt and grief will make it child's

play to cast your puny soul from your body."

This was too close to the nightmare in

Birmingham. Kara felt herself going numb with

horror, with hopelessness. She looked at Damien.

He was much paler, his face sweating. But he was

still straining against the cuffs. And he was inching

closer. He met her gaze, his eyes like silver flares.

She wished she'd had a chance to tell him she loved

him.

"How about a matching wound on the other side,

Sentinel?" The Belian aimed the gun toward him.

"Police! Drop your weapon!"

Tom Greer stepped around the south side of the

house with Steven Smith behind him. Both men

had guns trained on the Belian.

"Drop the gun," Greer said quietly. "You don't want

to shoot him."

"All right. I'll drop it." The Belian acted like it was

lowering the gun. A sudden energy surge sent both

officers' arms jerking upwards. It shot Steven, spun

toward Tom.

But Kara had already hurled herself forward, using

her good leg to kick the Belian's legs from beneath

it. The second shot going wild, it went down with a

roar of rage, becoming entangled with Kara. Its arm

holding the gun was rigid, as if being held in place

by an invisible force. Probably Damien's doing.

Screeching again, it struck Kara in the face with its

free hand.

But Kara was beyond pain. Fury and grief drove

her; adrenaline gave her super strength. Like a wild

woman, she clawed at the Belian. She felt the

smooth butt of the pistol tucked inside its jeans,

closed her fingers over it like a lifeline. Yanked it

free.

It was hard to hold it steady with just her left hand,

but she dug deep. Angled it toward the Belian and

pulled the trigger. Pulled it again. And again.

The Belian's eyes opened wide in shock. "I'll kill

you," it hissed. It tried to say more, but a gurgling

sound came from its throat; blood oozed from its

mouth. The body went into spasms.

Blood was everywhere.

Just like Birmingham.

The Belian stepped over Richard's body, his

malevolent gaze on Kara. "And the woman

becomes mine." He stalked toward her, the crystal

pendant dangling from his fist, reflecting the

flashing lights and the blood. The knife that had

claimed Richard's life was in his other hand.

"Come here, sweet thing. Treat me real nice, and I

might let you live."

She'd gotten the Belian's gun after Richard sent it

spinning from his reach. But by then, he and the

Belian had been locked together and rolling on the

ground. She'd been unable to shoot, afraid she'd hit

Richard. Now it was too late.

The Belian was almost to her. Somehow, she

retained enough presence of mind to realize the

element of surprise was her only chance. She didn't

pull the gun from behind her back until the last

moment. Then she emptied the magazine into it...

"Kara! I need you."

Damien.
She shoved Seraflna's body away. He was

pushing himself toward her, bending his bound legs

at the knees and digging into the ground with his

feet, and with his hands behind him. She tried to

scrabble to him, difficult with a bad leg and wrist,

and the slick blood that was everywhere. He looked

pasty white, and the shoulder wound was still

bleeding.

"Lie down," she ordered, trying to yank her shirt

open with one hand. She needed something to press

against his wound, and fast. She was weak and

dizzy from her own blood loss, didn't know how

much longer she'd be functional.

Looking over, she saw Greer working on Steven.

He was talking on his hand radio, so she knew help

was coming. He glanced her way, and she called,

"I'll take care of Damien." He nodded and leaned

back over Steven.

"Stop," Damien rasped. "Reach behind me and take

my hand."

"What?"

He jerked his head toward Serafina's body. "The

body is still dying. The Belian hasn't left yet. I'm

too injured to dispatch it without your help."

It took her a moment to realize what he wanted.

"Forget it. It will weaken you too much. Lie down

and let me stop the bleeding."

"Not until I send the cursed thing to Saturn."

"It's not worth it. Nothing is worth your life. I need

to stop your bleeding, now." She managed to slide

the shirt off, balled it up.

"Kara, this
is
my life. It's what I am, what I do."

She stared into his eyes, saw his resolve. "I don't

want to lose you," she whispered. "I... I love you."

His gaze softened. "Then let me do what I have to."

She stretched up, pressed her lips to his for a brief,

sweet moment. She heaved out a sigh. "All right.

But if you die on me, I'll never forgive you."

"I'm not going anywhere. Take my hand."

"In a minute." She lifted his sweater, pushed her

shirt up inside and pressed it to his shoulder. He

winced. Leaning against him to maintain the

pressure, she reached behind him, took his right

hand in her left. Closing her eyes, she slipped into

that other consciousness inside her. The link with

Damien's third eye clicked into place.

She heard his deep voice, intoning in a beautiful,

ancient language. She knew he was psychically

restraining the Belian, while at the same time

summoning the High Sanctioned, basically the high

priests of the Sanctioned. They would exorcise the

Belian from the Earth plane, exiling it to Saturn for

spiritual rehabilitation—not a pleasant process.

She felt the tremendous drain on Damien, felt his

body shaking from the effort. She sent him as much

of her rapidly dwindling energy as she could,

praying it would be enough.

A growling moan rose from Serafina's body as a

near-blinding light encircled it. Four brilliant

starbursts erupted into the light circle. The Belian

screamed its defiance. It burst from the body, a

black, shapeless form that slithered and twisted to

evade the High Sanctioned, its shrieks growing

more frantic. But it was no match for the four

luminous beings that surrounded and pinned it, as

Damien continued the chant.

Richard had told her the basic translation of the

final incantation:
Be thou removed from this plane

of existence. Be thou restricted to Saturn, to be

purified by the flame of the Karmic Initiator, Be

thou to remain there until thou recognizes The

Light, The Truth, The One. Then shalt thou return

to do penance.

As if suddenly sucked into a vacuum, the black

form disappeared with a howl, and the light beings

along with it. Then there was nothing left but poor

Serafina's shell.

Kara had been present one time when Richard

performed a BE, the Sentinel term for a Belian

expulsion, but she hadn't been a participant like

this. Her third-eye link with Damien allowed her to

see what was actually happening; Tom Greer

wouldn't have seen anything but their strange

behavior.

She felt utterly drained, yet a dark residual energy

lingered within her, the destructive after effects of

the Belian. Then she felt Damien's touch inside her,

clean and bright. He disintegrated all remaining

traces of the Belian, replacing it with warmth and

light.

That done, he leaned his forehead against hers,

heaving an exhausted sigh. She released his hand,

placed her palm against his clammy face. He eased

back to meet her gaze, his eyes glazed with pain.

He tried to say something, but his eyes rolled back

in his head. He passed out in her arms.

They were flown to Brackenridge Hospital in

Austin. Sheer will keeping her conscious, Kara

managed to slip Damien's crystal into her pocket

before he was loaded into the helicopter. No way

would she risk a Belian seeing that necklace while

he was weak and helpless. Then it was her turn to

collapse onto a stretcher, and she finally

surrendered to the exhaustion and pain, barely

aware of the flight to Austin.

At the Brackenridge level II trauma facility, they

received immediate care. Damien was whisked off

to surgery. Kara's thigh was stitched up and her

right arm set and encased in a temporary cast. She

spent the night in the hospital and was released the

next morning.

Steven Smith, Sara Thornton, and Serafina Perez

had all been pronounced dead at the scene. Tom