Mortal Sin (46 page)

She glanced at Phineas as he finished pulling together the supplies they would need. Phineas looked a lot like Rafe, but he wasn’t Rafe. He wasn’t the man she loved. Rafe was pure of heart, and Phineas… his aura was gray. For a man who believed he had a moral imperative granted by the Big Guy Himself, his moral compass was—if not broken—seriously askew.

Nikolas came into the room. “I secured those who are ill. They’re getting better; I gave them weapons and holy water to defend themselves. I want to help. I need to.”

Phineas stared critically at Nikolas. “It was you who gave Moira her knife.”

“Yes, Phineas,” Nikolas said, looking him in the eye. “I am truly sorry because I will follow you to the ends of the Earth. You saved my life, and I love you forever, brother. But I have seen Adrienne do things I couldn’t explain away. Yet I did because you trusted her. And Moira—well, her reputation,” he finished as if that was answer in itself.

“I forgive you,” Phineas said. “But when this is over, you must make a choice: Gabriel’s Sword or St. Michael’s Order. You can not serve both.”

Nikolas was troubled; Moira felt it rolling off him in waves. She turned to Phineas and said, “Now’s not the time to play demon hunter politics. Really, neither of us have enough people to engage in these ridiculous games. For tonight, we’re working together. And you have to take my orders. We won’t survive if you don’t trust me.”

“Tonight,” Phineas said, “I trust you.”

It was the five of them; Phineas, Jonah, Nikolas, Savannah and Moira. She didn’t know what to expect, but the house had shaken multiple times. The three who were too sick to fight were in a secure room, but Moira had instructed them to leave if they were in immediate danger. She wouldn’t put it past her mother to destroy the house. She’d done things like that before. And worse.

“We don’t know what happened to your sentries,” Moira said, “but they could very well be possessed. Be wary of anyone, even if you think you know them. Test with holy water for possession, salt for spirits, and trust your instincts.” She checked her own supplies, particular for devil’s cuffs—if one of their own was possessed, they didn’t want to kill them, but they wouldn’t have time for an exorcism.

Though Moira wondered if Rafe’s little Latin phrase was an exorcism short cut. It had worked with Jonah. Still, she couldn’t risk trying it without a back-up plan.

“Phineas and I will go around the house to the south, toward the clearing where Jonah identified the coven’s circle. We’re going to confront them. But in order for us to be successful, you three need to set the trap.”

“In the barn,” Nikolas said.

“Yes. Fiona is powerful, but she can’t break iron bars.” She glanced at Phineas. “Why am I not surprised you have a prison?”

He ignored her and said to his people, “May the Lord be with you.”

They all bowed their heads and prayed.

Moira bowed her head and thought,
God, if you’re listening, watch our asses, okay? We’re trying to do the right thing here. And while you’re at it, make Phineas see that he’s a self-righteous prick who needs to clean up his act or he’s going to be spending the rest of his life in an Olivet dungeon.

“Let’s do this,” she said.

She opened the back door and immediately saw light from the circle the coven cast through tall, thin pine trees, about a hundred and fifty yards behind the house. Bold and brash. Based on when Adrienne had started the ball rolling and now, ninety minutes or so had passed. Enough time for any spell to be working. So she hesitated. Listened. Dropped her inner shields and felt the air around her, the spells, the emotions running high and powerful from all around her…

An odd heat swept over her skin, followed by icy cold. She looked down at the ground beyond the porch and saw a fiery pit, claw-like hands reaching up, through the Earth. The pit surrounded them, demons ready to claim them as soon as they ran out.

“Mine, mine.”
A claw reached out for her.
“Andra Moira, you’re mine… ”

And then she heard the voice. Rafe, from deep in the pit.

I died for you,
Rafe said.
I died for nothing.

She slammed the door shut and backed into Phineas.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded.

“They’ve already surrounded us with demons.” She was shaking. Rafe. Was he dead? Was he really dead?

He looked out the window. “I don’t see anything.”

She frowned. Was she losing it? Was she seeing things that weren’t there? The pit was like that at the cliffs in Santa Louisa; she knew it was there, but in another realm or dimension, nothing she could fall through.

But she felt the heat. That she couldn’t discount.

Rafe’s voice. She’d heard his voice.

You feel the heat on the cliffs as well. You hear the screams. The anguish. What’s different here?

“We need a plan B,” she said.

“Plan A is good,” Phineas countered.

“Something is different here. I don’t know what. I need room, dammit!”

The other stared at her. She was cracking up in front of the one group she had to hold firm. She took a deep breath. “I can feel your emotions. It’s messing with my senses. Like radio interference or something.”

They still looked at her, skeptical, but she stood firm. “I’m telling you the truth—whatever that coven is doing, they’ve already started. What you did last night, those demons out there want retribution.”

“They can’t have it,” Phineas said. “They’re demons.”

“Yeah, they are, they’re all bad asses. They sure as hell aren’t going to listen to reason. I don’t know what Fiona’s done, but there are a lot of them. I sense them. They’re going to—”

The house began to shake, as if they were in the middle of an earthquake. Then it stopped.

“We don’t have a choice now!” Phineas said. “I’d rather die in battle than cower in fear.”

He opened the door. He stepped out, then stopped.

“No,” he said.

“What do you see?” Moira asked.

“They’re all dead.” He fell to his knees. “It’s my fault!”

Something very odd was going on. She saw nothing now—no fiery pit, no demons, no claws grabbing at her… but Phineas saw something.

She looked up and saw an odd symbol etched above them, with the familiar mark of her mother’s coven. It was faint, but clearly part of a larger spell.

She looked down. Phineas stood on a mat, the same mat she’d stepped on a few minutes ago. She pushed him aside and he stumbled down the stairs, his will to fight draining as he pounded the Earth.

Moira picked up the mat; it burned her. Underneath was another symbol, but the mat itself was infused with oils and reeked of sulfur. As she touched it, she knew exactly what spell had been cast—their worst fears brought to life. At least in their minds. No one could see what she saw except her; no one could see what Phineas saw except him.

She ran through the shaking house to the fireplace in the living room. She tossed the mat into the hearth and lit a match. Added paper and fuel and suddenly, the mat exploded, knocking her on her ass.

Nikolas was in the doorway. “Moira, what happened?”

A scream came from the kitchen. Moira and Nikolas ran back there. She had her dagger out, ready to kill whatever was attacking them, demon or human.

The scream came from Savannah as she and Jonah pulled Phineas back through the door. His chest was bloodied from what looked like claw marks.

“We’re surrounded!” he said in a loud gasp.

Moira stripped his shirt off. Four claw marks burned into his skin. They weren’t deep, but they reeked of death. A demon’s claw could kill after the fact for they had the poison of Hell under their filthy nails.

She pulled out one of her bottles of holy water and poured it over Phineas’s chest. He cried out in pain as steam rose from his chest. But the cuts bubbled and cauterized themselves.

“Take that,” Moira said. “Score one for the Big Guy.”

“What?” Nikolas said.

“Ignore that,” she mumbled. “I talk when I’m nervous.”

“Get him up.”

The house shook again, then stopped.

“What are they doing?”

“They’re breaking apart your protections.”

“I thought Adrienne already did that.”

“To some degree—but you would have noticed if she’d destroyed them. She basically loosened them a bit, now they’re shaking them out.” She paused.

We’re surrounded.

They’re fighting to come in. A trap.

“Oh shit.”

“What?” Phineas said. He groaned as he sat up.

“Everyone, to the living room. It’s easiest to defend.”

While they went to the living room, she ran through the foyer and opened the front door. Fifty yards away there were more lights. She found a second mat, grabbed it, and burned it with the first. That nightmare spell was to distract them; it wasn’t what was going to kill them.

She knew exactly what was going on.

She went back to the living room and shut the doors. “They cast a circle around the house,” she said. “We’re in the fucking center of the ritual.”

“How do we get out?” Nikolas asked.

“I don’t know. Fiona wants me, but if I leave, she’ll sacrifice you all as part of the promise she made to the demons when she summoned them. If I don’t leave, she’ll wait us out. And she can. She knows all the tricks. But I know a few tricks.”

“You can’t—” Phineas said. “I know what it means if you go back to magic.”

“Have faith, Cooper,” she said. “I’m not going all dark side on you.”

“Then how do we fight?”

She took out her dagger. “First, protect everyone from possession.” She began to cut into her arm.

“Stop,” Phineas said.

“It’s the only way. It’s a stop gap, but it’ll be much harder to battle these bastards if they start getting into your soul, like Jonah.”

“I still have the half pint I took earlier.” He nodded to Savannah. She and Jonah left the room. “You’ll be too weak to do anything if you keep cutting yourself like that.”

“Well, I don’t do it for fun,” she snapped. “We have to wait them out. But we’re at the center of the circle. If we try to leave, we’ll be battling a swarm of demons. We need to figure out a way to get rid of them so we can break the circle.”

“But that will enable them to escape.”

“Not if I can draw them all to one spot.”

“How?”

“If I knew that, we’d already be doing it.”

Savannah and Jonah returned. Savannah said, “The blood is gone, Phineas.”

He slammed his fist against the wall. “Adrienne.”

“That fucking bitch,” Moira said. “I hope she rots in Hell.”

The house shook a third time. This time, two pictures fell from the walls and the front window cracked.

“Phineas,” Moira said, “we have to act now. I’m the only one who can go out there and battle these things.”

“I have far more experience than you,” he said.

“This is different.”

“You’re not going out there alone.”

“We have another real urgent matter. We need to find the center of the circle. It’s some place in this house. The center has to be destroyed, the ground consecrated. We have to weaken their spell. I can’t do both.”

“I’ll find the center,” Nikolas said.

“Not alone,” Phineas said. “You and Savannah together. Jonah, stay with the others.”

Moira said, “It’s not going to be big; otherwise, you would have noticed. There’ll be a pentagram drawn or carved. Follow the points of the pentagram to the closest object. Again, it might not be large—it could be a chalice or a plant or a coin. Something that doesn’t fit where it is. Remove them—do you have a lead box? Anything to put them in?”

“My room,” Phineas said. “The safe.”

“We’ll do it,” Nikolas said.

“Be careful,” Moira added. She turned to Phineas. “Are you really ready for this?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Don’t know if Rico will feel the same,” she added. Before he could stop her, she cut her forearm. What was one more scar?

“Don’t—” he said, but it was too late.

“I know, it’s gross, but we need all the help we can get.” She lifted up his shirt and frowned. His stomach was covered in scars. “You’ll have to tell me about these when we get out of this mess.”

She smeared her blood on his skin, then pressed his shirt against it. She pulled a piece of gauze from her bag, and taped it on the wound. “Fortunately, I heal real quick,” she said.

The house shook again, and Moira was thrown to the floor. Books toppled off the shelves as everyone tried to grab something to hold onto. A deafening roar came from outside, what some might have thought was a violent, howling wind but Moira knew better.

“A demon in pain,” she said. “Why would Fiona hurt her own creatures?” The house stopped moving, but there was noise outside, angry cries of inhuman monsters, followed by thunder.

“Now, Phineas.”

Phineas motioned for the others to do their jobs, and he and Moira went to the front door.

She opened it.

Rafe stumbled inside, dragging Rico behind him.

As soon as Rafe saw Moira, he grabbed her and held her close. He kissed her because he had to, to prove to himself that she was okay. He soaked in everything, that she was alive and breathing first and foremost. She was whole. That she was shaking out of pure love for him. Deep in his bones, down to his soul, he was more than a man when he was with Moira. He was more everything.

“Thank God you’re okay.” He touched her everywhere. The bandages. The cuts. The blood. “Tell me you’re okay.” Dead God, he loved her. He feared for her. “Moira, tell me you’re okay.”

“I am.” Her voice cracked and she squeezed him, her brilliant blue eyes full of emotion. “You’re bleeding. What happened?”

“It’s nothing. It’s Rico who’s in trouble. He shouldn’t have come with me.”

Rico grunted. “I’m fine.”

“Hardly,” Rafe said.

He slowly rose to his feet, bringing Moira with him, his arm around her. He stared at his brother Phineas who watched them from the center of the foyer. There were others in the house, Rafe could hear them moving around, but now in this foyer was only the four of them, and a young man Rafe didn’t know.