Demon Ex Machina: Tales of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom (35 page)

“She is among the first of the demons,” Eric said, his voice holding a soft, almost sensual reverence that had me looking at him sharply. “She is strong.”

Quite the understatement, I thought, in light of what she was doing to the house. And the truth was, I’d never run across anything like this. Never met a corporeal demon with the power to destroy. In true form, yes. But as a human, never.

Lilith was a rare creature. Rare and terrifying and as she walked into view, the floor popping and churning and bursting apart as if blazing her path, I squared my shoulders and forced myself not to show my fear.

“Eric?” I whispered, desperate to know that it was still the man I knew beside me, and not the demon I despised. Because if Odayne had returned—if our plan was over before it had even begun—then I really would be afraid.

“It’s me,” he said, and I exhaled in relief. “He’s trying, but I’m winning. For the moment. But, Kate,” he added, “if—if this is the end—I want you to know—”

But he never got to say it. Because suddenly she was there. Right there, larger than life and filling the doorway.

And with a single hand extended in invitation, she called to him.

“No,” I said, stepping in front.

Her eyes barely even cut in my direction, and she surely never touched me, but it didn’t matter. I was thrown backward, landing so hard against the back wall of the safe room that the impact cracked the plaster.

“Mom!”

“Kate!” Stuart was at my side in an instant, but I was already struggling to my feet.

“Now!” I cried to Eric. “Now, before it’s too late!”

And as I held my breath, he stepped out of the room and then, as her lips curled up in a victorious smile, he thrust his finger up and fast, going straight for her eye.

I held my breath, as I knew everyone around me was doing. It was going to work. It
had
to work.

And as we watched, the ring shattered, shards from the stone suddenly flying everywhere, the dust of the destroyed gemstone seeming to sparkle in the light.

I heard screaming, someone calling out, “No!” at the top of their lungs. And it was only when my throat hurt that I realized it was me.

Our chance to stop her had failed, the ring destroyed and useless. And as she smiled at me—as the bitch moved to the very edge of the safe room and actually
smiled
at me—I couldn’t suppress the wave of revulsion that swept through me.

Odayne stood beside her now, the light inside that I knew was Eric slowly dying. He turned his head to look at her with such adoration it made my heart break, and when he turned to me, I could barely see through the tears. “It’s there,” he said, the words coming out in a croak as if he was having to fight to force them past his lips. “With the hidden. Like a secret. Find it. Use it.”

And then the light faded, and he turned dead eyes on Allie. “Come with me.”

She took a step back, fear and revulsion and utter sadness on her face.

I moved to stand in front of her. All of us moved to stand in front of her. “We’re okay. They can’t come in the room.” I looked at Eric. “Even he can’t come in the room anymore.”

“Well said, Kate darling,” Lilith said, her voice seemingly amplified in the small room. “And so true. Fortunately, entering won’t be necessary.” She held out her hand. “Come, child.”

“Never,” Allie said, the strength in her voice making me proud.

“Come, child,” she repeated, and this time, Allie took a step toward her.

“Mom? Mom, what’s happening?” The panic was unmistakable, as was the fact that she was moving forward, with slow, deliberate steps.

“No,” I said. “No, no, no.” I held on to her arms even as Stuart and Cutter and Laura grabbed on to her legs and Eddie held her around her waist.

“Pitiful,” Lilith said, and with one violent jerk, Allie was ripped from us.

Her screams seemed to sear my brain as she flew through the air to Lilith’s waiting arms. I raced forward, but was thrown back again, as was everyone else. And by the time I’d climbed once again to my feet and raced out of the safe room, they were gone.

Just like that, they’d gone.

My knees went weak, my legs collapsing beneath me, and suddenly I was on the floor, Stuart’s arms around me, his voice telling me we’d find her, we’d find her, that we were going to find her.

“How?” I forced the word out past the despair I felt. Allie and Eric. I couldn’t bear it.

“The tracking dot,” Eddie said, crouching down beside me. “That’s what you bought it for, right? Don’t tell me you forgot to use it.”

 

 

“Got it,” Eddie said
, doing something to a tiny computer screen that he swore was tuned in to the microdot I’d placed on Allie’s necklace. “They’re heading for the national forest.”

“On our way,” Stuart said, steering the car into a sharp U-turn. It was the three of us alone in the car, chasing an electronic beep, desperate to find my daughter. At first I’d told Stuart not to come, but he’d refused, then casually reminded me that we’d be wasting precious time by arguing. “She’s my daughter, too,” he said, and there was no way—no way in hell—I was arguing with a statement like that.

We’d left the rest behind, Cutter and Laura and Mindy and Rita in the safe room with Timmy. It was an illusion at best. If Lilith wanted my son, we’d just learned well enough that we couldn’t stop her. But I couldn’t think about that now. All I could think about right now was getting Allie back.

I’d get her back, or I’d die trying.

And if I could take Lilith down with me, so much the better.

Not that I could see any way of that happening. The bitch was powerful. Too powerful. The most I could hope for was to get my daughter back and to escape. And to hope that once Lilith had her lover, that she would go off on some sort of demonic honeymoon and leave the rest of my family alone.

I’d lose Eric—dear God, I could hardly bear to think of it—but if my kids were safe . . .

I knew, of course, why they wanted Allie. I’d realized the moment Lilith had taken her. Eric had told me, though I don’t think he’d ever realized that his daughter was in danger.
They needed his blood for the ceremony to bind him and Odayne.
But Eric’s blood was no more, because Eric’s body was dead and buried. David’s blood would never suffice, not for that kind of magic.

And the only remaining blood of Eric Crowe flowed in the veins of his daughter.

I prayed that they needed only a drop. If they needed a sacrifice . . . Well, I couldn’t even bear to think of it.

“Have we got any chance at all?” Stuart asked. “Any chance of stopping her?”

“Car’s stocked,” Eddie said. “Made sure it was before we left for the party. Trunk’s full of holy water super shooters and a few more Tasers. Got a selection of knives and crossbows. And I got a few handguns, too. Won’t stop the bitch, but she’ll look a damn sight less pretty with a chunk of her face missing. And we got one other thing, too. If you kill Odayne, you’re gonna hurt her. Gonna hurt her bad.”

“Except to do that,” Stuart said, as he sped along the Coast Highway toward the cutoff to the canyon, “we need that dagger. And we’ve never found it.”

“Don’t even really know it existed,” Eddie said, his eyes on the tracking device. “If it did, you’d think Odayne woulda found it. Found it and hidden it away just in case Eric was tempted to pass it on in one of his lucid moments.”

“Eric looked,” I said, twisting around to speak to Eddie, who was in the backseat. “He would have told me if he—”

“What?” Eddie said, his eyes narrowed as he peered at my face.

“Here!” I shouted, grabbing Stuart’s arm. “Turn here.”

“You can’t get to the national forest through here,” Stuart said.

“Do it!” I shouted, with such force that he complied, apparently without thinking. “I know where the dagger is.”

“You sure?” Eddie asked. “’Cause our girl’s in trouble, and if we take too long . . .”

“I’m sure,” I said, hoping, praying that I was right. Hoping that Eric’s cryptic words about the hidden and the secret had been a message and not mere ramblings.

I pointed the turns out to Stuart, and when he slammed on the brakes in front of the house I’d once shared with Eric, I had the door open before the car had completely halted. I raced toward the house, burst through the broken doorway, and threw myself down in front of the window seat. I pried it open and found nothing, then broke my fingernails as I clawed open the loose board.

And there it was. The dagger. Odayne must have forced Eric not to tell me. But Eric had fought. And though he couldn’t speak it directly, he’d managed to hide it for me. And he’d managed to give me a clue.

It was a magnificent weapon. An ornate hilt in the middle from which a curved blade extended on either side. As a whole, it formed a deadly crescent, but I also realized that the blades could slide apart at the hilt and it could be used as two daggers.

They’re bound,
I thought as I raced with my prize back to the car. Eric had explained how Lilith and Odayne were essentially one and the same.

So that should mean that if this dagger was capable of killing Odayne, then it should also be capable of killing Lilith as well.

The trick, of course, would be getting close enough to her to do it.

That, however, I’d worry about when we got there.

“We still have a chance,” I said, climbing back into the car. “We still have a chance to rescue Allie and destroy Lilith, too. Hurry,” I said, but it wasn’t necessary.

Stuart had already pulled away from the curb, and we were speeding back the way we came, heading toward the forest.

Heading for my daughter and the battle still to come.

As we hit the
main entrance to the national forest, I realized that we didn’t need the GPS tracker anymore. I knew where we were going. “The Stone Table,” I said. Discovered by botanists who had been investigating plant life, the table was in a near-inaccessible part of the forest, well off the beaten path, and experts assumed it had been used in ancient times by native tribes performing various rituals.

“You can’t be sure—” Stuart said.

I gave him a wry look. “I can. Nadia’s used it before. She’s the one who broke it,” I added, referring to the way the table had broken clean down the center in the midst of a demonic ritual not too long ago. The result—though not the cause—had made the local papers, with historical experts speculating all sorts of reasons for the table’s destruction, most arguing that a small earthquake had rendered the table unstable.

“Right,” he said, making a hard left onto a walking trail as I gasped. He pushed the Infiniti as hard as he could for as long as he could, but soon it became clear that the car would go no farther. “Out,” he said. “We run the rest of the way.”

“Eddie?” I glanced quickly down at the tracking device. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Looks like,” he confirmed, already half out of the car.

We grabbed gear from the trunk and started hauling ass toward the table, using our blades to cut through the growth where necessary. In fact, though, the path was clear. Lilith had come before us, and as she’d blown a path through the mansion, she’d cut a path through the forest.

Apparently, she wasn’t terribly worried about being followed. Considering what I’d seen her do, I couldn’t say I blamed her.

I held up a finger to my lips, signaling the others to be quiet as we approached. A group of trees stood off the path at the edge of the clearing where the Stone Table stood. We eased that way, using the cover of the trees to remain hidden as we assessed the situation. And the situation really wasn’t good.

Lilith moved in front of the remains of the Stone Table, her palm split open, and she marked the table with her blood, readying it for the ritual.

Odayne leaned against one broken half, his expression as he looked at her one of utter adoration. My baby lay on the other slab, bound there, her shirt ripped to form a V over her chest. The necklace had been ripped away, probably tossed to the ground somewhere, and I said a silent thank-you that they’d kept it on her neck long enough for us to find her.

Tears streamed down her face, but she was quiet, her jaw set in a firm line, and her eyes hard. She was terrified, yet she was holding. Dear God, my baby was holding.

I only hoped I could do the same.

Beside me, Stuart silently squeezed my hand, and when he looked at me, a thousand words passed between us. Words of comfort and hope and love. But it wasn’t until he whispered, “We will get her, and that bitch will die,” that the sob broke free. I pressed my hand over my mouth, determined to be silent. Determined to be strong. Because I couldn’t save Allie if I broke down.

Right then, she needed a Hunter, not her mother, and that’s just what I intended to be.

Eddie pressed a hand to my forehead, his voice barely audible. “You steady?”