Page 45

45. Going to Get Ugly

Gemma

I watched Kerry’s night-light flicker and thanked God I’d managed to hang on to it. I didn’t want to die in the dark.

It was bad enough I was going to die alone.

He’s nearby, I tried to encourage myself. He won’t let me die. Not my Kerry.

I closed my eyes for a moment to picture his face and had to smile. I wondered if he’d remembered to shave recently, or thought to comb his hair. He’d probably been a terror these last few days and I almost pitied Gigi and the others. I could only hope he hadn’t killed Rome.

Don’t give up on me, Kerry! I want the chance to apologize. Then, if you’ll let me, I want to spend centuries making up for all the years you went unloved and thought you were unlovable.

When the bell dropped, the wooden supports had exploded in a shower of splinters that cut through my clothes like razor blades and a cloud of sawdust did its best to choke me. To make everything a thousand times worse, the heavy clapper, which was what had brained me, struck the bell and my eardrums had ruptured instantly.

I’d tried to scream for help, but knew they couldn’t hear me. Even after I healed my ears, I hadn’t been able to hear anything outside of my brass cell. And there was nothing they could do, anyway. Who could lift three thousand pounds?

Now, after tending to all my injuries, I was close to drained, which made me helpless and useless. Hysteria rose up in my throat. If someone didn’t get me out of here soon—

A rim of light formed around the bottom of the bell and I dodged the clapper to scoot back. Was someone setting up a circle? I didn’t want to go through another portal!

An inch at a time, the bell lifted until I could see a pair of red, laced-up boots on the other side.

“Gemma Shepherd?” The female voice sounded strained. “Can you crawl out on your own while I hold this thing up?”

I didn’t care if she was the foulest demoness of the Pit, I was leaving that space.

“Yes, I can do it.” My throat was so raw, I sounded like a frog.

I got to my knees and dragged myself forward as fast as I could, clutching my night-light in one hand. It seemed to take an eternity before I clunked my head on the underside of a pew and I realized I’d made it. Panting, I collapsed on the floor and rolled onto my back.

The red boots came back into my line of sight, then a girl a little older than me hunkered down nearby. She was tall and well-built and had the golden eyes of a cat.

“I’m Mira. I’m here with Rome and Kerry.”

“Kerry? I want to see him. Where is he? Where’s my boy?”

“Can’t you hear him?” Grinning as an explosion rattled the wooden beams overhead, she looped an arm around me and helped me stand.

“Is he okay? Is Kerry okay?” I tried to get my eyes focused and shuffled my feet faster. “And the others?”

“Yeah. Everyone’s okay. They’re together and fighting some demons that musta followed you down from City of the Future.”

“Anne.” My thinker decided it was going to work for a bit as we staggered toward the door. “Did you rescue Anne, too?”

“Anne? I dunno about an Anne, but there was a girl who Spin called Monkey.”

“Yes. Castle said … rescue her, too. She’s … a muse. Tell Spin. She’s—”

A wave of dizziness made everything whirl. I sagged against her.

“Castle? Samuel Castle? That’s not good.” Mira practically dragged me along now. “Did you know he’s the one who tortured Kerry’s mother? Rome said he did it to make Kerry invite the demon in and that’s how he got possessed. And he was just a little kid at the time.”

Thank God Mira was a big, strong girl. Otherwise, in my shock, I would have taken us both down.

“If he was your captor, why did he ask you to rescue Anne?” She adjusted her hold on me and got us moving again. “That doesn’t make sense. Maybe you’re confused?”

“He let me escape … to rescue her.”

“You can tell the story later. Listen, I’m gonna carry you. We can go faster that way.”

“I just … want to see … Kerry.”

My sweet Kerry. My fierce tiger.

As she slung me up into a fireman’s carry, I fumbled the worn and blood-stained index car. It flitted from my fingers and wafted away.

“Wait! My light!”

“Can’t stop. Sorry.” Her voice shook a little. “I’m carrying some taint and it burns to be in here. Lemme get you out and Rome or someone can come back for it. I promise we won’t just leave it here.”

She carried me out the front door right as the sun rose and bathed us in pale gold. Everything was fading for me, though. In an effort to stay conscious, I hung across her shoulders and recited all the things I wanted to say to Kerry.

“Tell him I love him. Sorry … I hurt him. Don’t give up … on me. Always be my one … and … only—” My vision tunneled into darkness.

“You can tell him yourself,” said a faraway voice. “You’ll see him in a minute.”

I smiled.

#

Rome

It wasn’t going exactly according to our plan.

I’d met up with the others and directed them to meet John as planned, but Chance had fought against leaving. Thinking fast, I’d sent Gigi along to wait until John was healed, then teleport Chance and herself back. She’d also given John my message to hold off on fetching Chessie for now, but to get the rest out.

“What are those?”

I followed Chance’s pointing finger to see what had rattled him.

“Djinn.” I turned and spat over one shoulder, the word like poison in my mouth. “This is going to get ugly.”

“Explain,” Jax said.

“Have you heard of the Ring of Solomon? Or some call it the Seal of Solomon? Reilly Argaud told Kerry that Hubler has it.” Of course , none of them had heard of it. “Okay. Quick history lesson. In the ancient days, a Hebrew king named Solomon had a ring he used to call up and control a specific clan of djinn. They’re bound to a vessel when they operate on this plane. It’s usually a bottle or a lamp, but this clan was shackled to a ring.”

“Oh, genies .” Gigi bobbed her head, thinking she understood. “Like Aladdin .”

“No, not like that genie.” I shook my head slowly. “These are not tricksters and comedians. They are bound to whoever wears the ring, hard to banish, and able to use their own Divine power. They can shift, too, but are limited to animal forms.”

“How many?” Chance narrowed his eyes at me.

“Forty.”

“ Forty ?” Jax looked like he was starting to get how much more dangerous this battle had become.

“Forty. And Holy ground is fair game to this clan. In fact, they helped King Solomon build the First Temple.”

“Uh, I think it’s time to grab the others and skedaddle.” Gigi took Jax’s hand and backed up.

Kerry had jumped on a giant stump and was slinging fists full of power faster than my eye could track. The majority of the djinn were focused on him, and I figured he would entertain them long enough for me to get to the church and back again.

“Okay, here’s the plan.” I turned to the others. “I’ll go get Mira and Gemma. The rest of you, support Kerry if you can, but stay together and stay safe until I get back.”

“What about her?” Gigi nodded toward Spin’s barefoot tagalong. “Monkey stays with me.” Spin wasn’t joking around for once, which surprised me. “I’ll be firing arrows. I don’t need to be in the thick of things to do that.”

“ Monkey ?” I asked.

“She doesn’t talk, so we don’t know her name.” Jax shrugged. “But she clings to Spin like one, so Monkey it is.”

“Whatever.” Shaking my head, I took off.

#

As I sped toward the church, motion to the right caught my eye. Mira had somehow strayed beyond the limits of Holy ground and was now locked in combat with a fetter wretch. Behind her, Gemma lay on the grass, silent and still, and I hauled heinie over there.

I needn’t have bothered. A demon shackled in metal against an artificer? That fight ended before it began. With a flash of gray, she tore it apart with its own chains.

I pounded my way over there and must have startled her because the woman turned as fast as a rattlesnake striking, a stiletto in each hand and ferocity in her eyes.

My Amazon doesn’t play .

“Just me.” I grinned. “We need to get out of here.”

“You think?” She motioned to Gemma. “You wanna carry her or should I?”

“Why isn’t she healing herself?”

“She’s unconscious. Judging by all the blood on her clothes, she musta healed some serious injuries. Plus, she was trapped under a huge brass bell. That had to be terrifying. Maybe her brain said enough.”

“Okay, on to Plan B. Most of the djinn are concentrated around Kerry. If you carry her south toward the highway, we can call the others, then head for the car. I’ll cover your six.”

“And who’s covering your six?” said an accented voice from over my shoulder.

Mira’s eyes widened and she glanced at her stilettos, then at the djinni behind me. I frowned, not liking what she was suggesting, but it would cause enough of a distraction for me to maneuver.

Giving her a look that said she better not get hurt, I dropped straight down and swung in a half circle, one long leg smacking into something solid. Whirling to my feet, blades in hand, I found the djinni on the ground with Mira’s knives protruding from his chest. Suspicious, I prowled around the downed body and came to a stop on its far side.

“Huh. Whatever that thing is, it went down easier than I thought.” She walked over to stand next to me, then nudged the djinni’s shoulder with the toe of her boot.

“It’s a djinni, and don’t do th—”

A burning blast erupted from the djinni and caught us both in a concussive wave that threw us some thirty feet back.

The djinni was on me before I got to my feet and survival mode kicked in. I could fight on my back, but it wasn’t smart and I wouldn’t be able to do it for long. My swords were short, but not that short, so I let them go and used my fists. It wouldn’t do more than hurt the djinni, but if I gained the time and space to stand, I could call up my blades again.

As we wrestled, the stilettos glowed gray and were sucked into his chest. He roared in pain and arched his spine, and the knives exploded out of his back.

I wouldn’t get a better opportunity. Manifesting my blades, I scissored off his head and that was the end of him.

Climbing to my feet, I coughed on the dissipating fume, which reminded me of campfire smoke, then met Mira’s eyes.

“Thanks for the assist.”

“Any time.” Her lips quirked up. “Let’s get our little healer and get out of here.”

“Agreed.”

Turning, we headed back to where we’d left Gemma and got a shock to find she was gone.

“Where did she go?” Mira put her hands on her hips. “Did she wake up and wander off? She really wanted to find Kerry. Do you think she went looking for him?”

Squinting against the rising sun, I scanned the area and saw a different djinni racing through the graveyard on the east side of the church.

He had Gemma tossed over his shoulder.

Not good. Not good. Not good!

I took off after him, ignoring Mira’s surprised shout. I could move fast when I had to, especially when I fueled my legs with power, and made it to within a few yards of the djinni before he glanced over his shoulder and made eye contact with me.

Between one heartbeat and the next, he ’ported away with Gemma, and I slid to a stop on the dewy grass with a curse.

“Did … Kerry … see … that?” Mira panted as she caught up to me.

I swung my head around and—

“ GEMMA! ”

Oh, yeah. The kid had seen it.

“Plan C.” I folded my hand around hers. “Run!”

“No, we can’t. Look at him. Look at his face. We can’t leave—”

“I promised, Mira! Now move!”

Yanking her along, I overpowered her attempts to pull away. After a few seconds, she gave in and ran with me. My instincts screamed to go faster, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up if I did.

Then a keening howl assaulted my ears and I looked over my shoulder. Mira did, too, and what we saw brought us to a stunned halt.